PHILIPSBURG – Alarm bells ought to go off in the Council of Ministers after learning of the Dutch demand that Aruba gives the RST (Detective Cooperation Team) and the National Detective Agency the authority to operate independently of the police force. What happens in Aruba does not necessarily stay there. The Dutch demand is a condition for granting the third tranche of liquidity support to the Aruban government. The RST used to operate on the island under a cooperation-agreement but Aruba decided earlier this year that it no longer had a need for the RST. The Kingdom had other ideas…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG – All public and private schools have to remain closed for onsite education, Education Minister Rodolphe Samuel wrote in a letter to all school boards on August 11, but that message was apparently wasted on the management of Learning Unlimited. It welcomed its students back the following day, got closed down by the police, and later reopened again for business. “Students are to continue to receive education via distance learning,” Minister Samuel wrote to the school boards. The minister urges schools to comply with the decision, threatening those who don’t with “an instruction to seize operations.” Learning Unlimited’s director…
PHILIPSBURG – Monday, August 10th, marked six months since the sitting Parliament was sworn in. Among the returning and new faces are Party for Progress (PFP) Members of Parliament (MPs) Melissa Gumbs and Raeyhon Peterson. Six months into their new roles, the two MPs took a few moments to reflect on the time spent so far and offered their thoughts on some key topics facing the country. ~ PFP: Six Months In, A Brief Review ~ On Being in Parliament Having experienced St. Maarten’s political arena before being elected in their own ways, both MP Gumbs and MP Peterson were…
By Hilbert Haar How Minister Ludmila De Weever was able to reach an amicable settlement with Anthony Carty, the heavily overpaid director of the Bureau Telecommunication and Post (BTP) is a mystery to me. As the minister responsible for telecommunication, De Weever must be aware of a highly critical report about BTP from the General Audit Chamber in 2015. She must, therefore, know that Carty does not have a performance contract and that he hardly has any responsibilities. The annual salary Carty receives – reportedly around $214,000 – is also way beyond what can be considered reasonable. But so far…
PHILIPSBURG – Telecommunication Minister Ludmila De Weever brokered a settlement between telecom provider Telem and Bureau Telecommunication and Post (BTP), according to a press release issued by the ministry. Unfortunately, the press release was short on details so it remains unclear what this settlement exactly entails. Apparently, TelEm owed money to BTP and BTP owed money to the government. Minister De Weever settled the dispute in an amicable manner and now she is free to issue a concession agreement to TelEm, based on a positive advice from BTP. TelEm Chief Executive Officer Kendall Dupersoy said in an interview with…
Our feature interview article with Covidist and researcher, Dr. Leonard Richardson, MD, has so far been published in the Dutch and in the Spanish languages. The advice contained in that article urged governments to take evidence-based decisions. However, it seems we need to publish an article targeting the general public as well, with the urgent advice to heed the evidence that not practicing social distancing is not only detrimental to our health but to those of others as well. Cases are now almost 90 confirmed active. 89 to be exact, as of yesterday, Sunday, with a new death recorded on…
BALTIMORE / PHILIPSBURG — Landen hebben goed geïnformeerd leiderschap nodig en ze moeten op feiten gebaseerd medische beslissingen nemen. Dat is de boodschap van luitenant-kolonel Dr. Leonard (Lenny) Richardson, een COVID-19-onderzoeker uit Anguilla die momenteel werkt in het Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. “Het coronavirus is niet nieuw; COVID-19, ook wel bekend als SARS-CoV-2, is echter nieuw en nieuw voor de mens. We zijn niet COVID-vrij”, zegt Richardson. “Maar de vraag is: houden we de wereld buiten of stellen we ons open? Hoe zal onze economie anders overleven?” “Er is veel verkeerde informatie over dit virus. Sommigen zeggen dat het…
~ Curacao sticks to system that favors position on candidate-list ~ PHILIPSBURG – St. Maarten’s current electoral law – oft referred to as the Lynch-law after its architect – determines that candidates with the highest number of votes are elected over candidates with a higher position on a party-list. The system was introduced 21 years ago at the initiative of the late Edgar Lynch. Is it still a valid system?
PHILIPSBURG — The discussion about electoral reform will soon be in full swing, whereby the focus will be on the Lynch-law – actually, an article in the current electoral law that determines who gets elected: candidates with more votes or candidates with a higher position on a party-list. The arguments against the Lynch-law should be placed in their proper perspective. A reversal would mean that a candidate’s place on a party-list once more becomes the deciding factor. Ironically, this is the system currently in use in Curacao where Partido MAN in 2016 attempted to change it by introducing their own…
~ LU’s hygiene procedural handbook balance educational needs with safe environment ~ CAY HILL — In preparation of the opening of its 2020-2021 school year on August 12, Learning Unlimited (LU) has produced a 30-page Hygiene Procedural Handbook for students, teachers and parents with the goal of balancing students’ educational needs within a safe, supportive environment for learning while providing important services to limit the virus that causes COVID-19. The handbook was sent to all parents last week. In drafting this comprehensive handbook, LU utilized the recommendations of the Federal Institute for Health and Environment (Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu…
