by Emsley D. Tromp I am writing this note risking stepping on toes. However, the only way to avoid stepping on toes is to stand still. Standing still will come at greater cost to the reputation and the credibility of the Central Bank of Curaçao and Sint Maarten (“CBCS”), our financial system, and ultimately the Monetary Union and the well-being of its citizens than speaking out. I write now because we need to consider the financial and reputational puzzle the new president of CBCS will have to solve. I write as well because the CBCS has strayed so far from…
Author: The Publisher
We recently interviewed a frontliner about what the consequences of COVID-19 infections among the staff entail for capacity issues in frontline organizations such as the medical center, the ambulance service and the fire department. Related: Fire department Chief addresses COVID-19 rumors We have not published this interview yet because we did not want to be seen as engaging in fear-mongering. However, since then, reports have been coming in daily of positive infection cases relating to frontliners in the police department, the Pointe Blanche Prison, and several government departments such as immigration and labor. Related: Two staff members at Prison with…
by Cdr. Bud Slabbaert Economic recession, pandemic, and potential natural disasters may lead to gloom, despair, agony, deep dark depression and excessive misery. When it sounds like a hammer and feels like a hammer, it may actually be a hammer. One single word describes the biggest hurdle for renewal and progress: ‘clinging’; trying to hold on to what once was, although the conditions are changing. In these difficult times, the Caribbean has to learn to develop and strengthen itself in new ways. What is a ‘new way’? Development from within the region! Not trying to do anything about finding new…
PHILIPSBURG – The PFP Faction submitted questions to the Minister of Finance, the Honorable Ardwell Irion, on Monday, 17 August 2020. The faction referenced the letter sent by State Secretary Raymond Knops to the Dutch Second Chamber on August 14, 2020. The State Secretary’s letter informed the Dutch Second Chamber that St. Maarten had not yet met all the conditions for the second tranche of liquidity support, which meant that no discussion could be held for a future third tranche of support. In their questions to the Minister, PFP queried the discrepancy between the State Secretary’s letter and the Minister’s…
~ No need for rules if common sense rules ~ PHILIPSBURG – The beginning of the new school year created a rather awkward situation, not only for the government, but also for schools and parents. While some schools want to open for business, others want to remain closed while parents threaten with legal action if they don’t open. StMaartenNews.com will attempt to make sense of all this by presenting an outline of the decisions and initiatives that were taken so far. Education Minister Drs. Rodolphe Samuel wrote a letter to parents and guardians on July 31, announcing the decision to begin…
In St. Maarten, the pandemic has made life very difficult for schools, teachers, and students. The choice is a familiar one by now. We must choose between safety for our children first and convenience. Or inconvenience, however you want to look at the options. Streaming live online classes into the homes of children until life is normalized will be a major challenge for parents of younger students. They are not old enough to go unsupervised. For the schools, the challenges are enormous. The Ministry of Education has produced an Education Continuity Plan, ECP, consisting of many pages outlining procedures for…
PHILIPSBURG – The bottom line of Education Minister Drs. Rodolphe Samuel to reopening the schools remains focused on three by now familiar issues: wearing facemasks, washing hands and social distancing. Nothing new there, but in the meantime the ministry as well as the schools are struggling with what is happening in the real world. Learning Unlimited preparatory school went to court to fight the closure of its business (and came out on top) and at the Caribbean International Academy CIA) the school wants to follow the guidelines of the ministry, but parents threaten to take it to court if it…
PHILIPSBURG – “It was never the intention of the Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport to close schools,” Education Minister Drs. Rodolphe Samuel writes in a letter dated August 16 to all subsidized schools and all private school boards. At the same time, Samuel urges schools to begin the new academic years with distance learning for a period of at least three weeks. On August 11, the minister instructed all private schools by letter to remain closed for onsite learning until further notice, but the court ruling Learning Unlimited obtained from the Court in First Instance shows that the…
PHILIPSBURG – Public Health Minister Richard Panneflek did not have the authority to close down the Learning Unlimited preparatory school as he did last week Wednesday, August 12. That is the essence of a ruling issued by the Court in First Instance on Friday, after the school took the country to court to contest the closure. “The large-scale deployment of police officers against small children is disproportionate and does not meet the requirement of subsidiarity,” judge Coen Luijks wrote in his ruling. Last week Wednesday the police prevented students from entering the school grounds at the instructions of Minister Panneflek.…
THE HAGUE – St. Maarten has so far failed to comply with the conditions attached to the third tranche of liquidity support from the Netherlands. State Secretary Drs. Raymond Knops stated in a letter to the Dutch Parliament that financial supervisor Cft once more had been unable to establish that St. Maarten had met these conditions. “This means that we will currently not initiate talks with St. Maarten about a third tranche of liquidity support. If St. Maarten still wants to have this conversation it will first have to prove to the Kingdom Council of Ministers via Cft that it…
