PHILIPSBURG — “St Maarten’s Government Crazy Phone Bills” is the headline heading up an article on the website of our colleague in the media business, Mervin Hanley of THG News Today. That one certainly caught our attention. The St. Maarten government’s crazy phone bills also caught the attention of Achken R. Richardson, an engineer with years of experience dealing with government. But first some background information to led to this report. During the Council of Ministers’ weekly press briefing on Wednesday, September 23rd, 2020, Minister of Finance, Ardwell Irion, informed the media that for the last couple of months the…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — The government, led by Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs, wants a St. Maarten version of the Dutch Individual Health Care Professions Act (Wet BIG). This is stated in the NA-UP Governing Program 2020-2024(*) that was published on September 12th. The BIG ordinance regulates medical liability and determines which actions are reserved exclusively for qualified doctors with specific titles. In the Netherlands, all healthcare providers – doctors, physician assistants, nurses, therapists, midwives, dentists, pharmacists, dieticians – can submit an application to be registered in the BIG register to be able to hold their title. The register is public; anyone can…
PHILIPSBURG – The Court in First Instance has dissolved the labor contract of Mark Mingo with the St. Maarten Harbour Holding Company. The company does not have to pay its former director any compensation. The court decision reveals the salary the harbor paid Mingo: 47,969 guilders ($26,798) gross per month – an annual salary of 575,628 guilders ($321,580). Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs earns 21,925 guilders ($12,249) gross per month, or 263,100 guilders ($146,983) per year. After the 25 percent salary cut the Kingdom wants to impose, her income goes down to $110,237 gross per year. Mingo’s salary was therefore almost…
CAY HILL — Nobody knows what happened that night. The next morning, August 25, 2020, Caulette Julien was found dead in the isolation cell of the Mental Health Foundation. She was 43 years old. The responsible physician, Dr. Kitty Pelswijk, was quarantined at home for a fortnight because of COVID-19. The tragedy took place under the watch of interim director Eileen Healy. The former student of the MAC School and St. Maarten Academy was found lying on the floor of the isolation cell. How long she lay there in the small, bare space is not known. According to the BIG…
Dear Publishers, On behalf of the foundation, our interim director Eileen Healy would like to rectify allegations stated in an article titled “Medical recognition divisive issue at Mental Health Foundation” published by StMaartenNews.com on September 22nd as follows: It is not my custom to react to articles in the media that are attempting to damage our local institutions and specifically healthcare facilities. These articles not only threaten the extremely hard work of our St. Maarten locals, but jeopardizes the care so urgently needed at this time. The Mental Health Foundation is a government established foundation founded by the Ministry of…
CAY HILL — The board of the Mental Health Foundation has elected a new interim director whose name does not appear in the BIG register. Dr. Kitty Pelswijk, who also acts as medical coordinator, is not officially allowed to use the title of doctor in the Netherlands and, if it is up to Minister of VSA Richard Panneflek, soon not in St. Maarten either. The Ministry of VSA announces that the finalization of the legal trajectory for the mandatory registration of medical professionals is a priority for minister Richard Panneflek. The so-called BIG ordinance (National Ordinance on Individual Medical Professionals)…
PHILIPSBURG – “If this ship sinks we all sink together,” is the conclusion of an opinion HBN Law attorney Michelle Wever wrote about the potential consequences of measures the Central Bank of Aruba took back in March to limit the flight of capital to foreign countries. The Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten took similar measures around the same time, so what Wever wrote about Aruba also applies to St. Maarten. The central bank measure aims to protect the peg of the Aruban florin (and the Antillean guilder) to the American dollar. Wever assumes that the measure to prevent…
PHILIPSBURG / AMSTERDAM – Economist Arjen Alberts obtained his PhD at the University of Amsterdam on Monday. In a ceremonial setting in the Agnietenkapel he defended his thesis entitled “Small Island Tourism Economies and the Tourism Area Lifecycle; Why Aruba and Sint Maarten have exceeded their carrying capacity.” The study ought to sound the alarm at the government building among those responsible for kicking the island’s devastated tourism industry back in shape. With the author’s permission, StMaartenNews.com published in July already part of the contents of the thesis. (see: Thesis: “Tourism industry exceeds carrying capacity”). Watch online here: thesis presentation…
POND ISLAND — The Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment & Infrastructure (VROMI), the Honorable Egbert J. Doran, announces that an island-wide cleanup of the car wrecks will begin on Monday, September 21, 2020. Car wrecks are an eyesore and negatively effects the Country’s environmental well-being. Since taking office, Minister Doran embarked on a project along with the Department of Infrastructure Management to continue with the cleanup of the car wrecks. Minister Doran stated that the project is in collaboration with the Community Police Officers and the designated contractors. Some of the abandoned wrecks have been tagged and this…
Dear Publisher, As interim director I would like to inform the general public of St. Maarten that the reason for my resignation is the fact that per September 30th, 2020, my contract ends. After hurricane Irma I was asked to return for a year because the post of Director had become vacant and management support was urgently needed. It has been 3 years now and the contract by law can no longer be extended. In accordance with the procedures of the foundation I tendered my resignation. Dr. Pelswijk so far has done and enormous job during COVID19, within one-week MHF…
