Who is the victim and who is the victimizer? Who’s playtoy in who’s playpen on whose plantation? Country ST.Maarten has been developed as the CARBON COPY of ST.Maarten back in the days of slavery. The roles of the slave masters have been taken over by their descendants. Whereas the slave descendants are chiefly the working class in today’s society. Today’s era is called: modern economic slavery. The “wealth” oops wicked and worthless division is best identified and summarized as: The FORTUNATE FAVOURITE FEW owns practically everything and while predominantly the slave descendants actually fuel the booming, blooming and bustling economy…
Author: The Publisher
By Hilbert Haar If I understand the letter from Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte correctly she prefers to have discussions with her “colleague” Rutte or with the Minister of Home Affairs, Kajsa Ollongren. This, after a meeting with the State Secretary for Kingdom Relations, Drs. Raymond Knops, did not go according to Jacobs’ wishes. Jacobs did not mention the term respect in her letter to Rutte but it was bubbling under the surface due to the use of expressions like an “unpleasant tone that we do not appreciate.” Apparently Knops was rather blunt and Jacobs…
By Hilbert Haar There is something to be said in favor of the approach the labor unions have chosen to put up a fight against the inevitable cuts in labor conditions the kingdom demands in exchange for continued liquidity support. Rather than setting Philipsburg on fire or looting stores as is happening in Curacao, the Windward Islands Chamber of Labor Unions has opted to address its concerns with the office of the Attorney General. Whether such a complaint stands any chance of success is another matter. Personally, I don’t see how the Prosecutor’s Office can make a case against what…
PHILIPSBURG – The Windward Islands Chamber of Labor Unions (WICLU) has filed a complaint with the Attorney General about what it labels as “punishable acts of racial discrimination, embezzlement and theft.” The complaint targets financial supervisor Cft chairman Prof. dr. Raymond Gradus, State Secretary Drs. Raymond Knops, the Kingdom Council of Ministers and St. Maarten’s Council of Ministers. The WICLU addressed its complaint erroneously to Attorney General Guus Schram who returned to the Netherlands in September 2017 and was succeeded by Roger Bos. The letter was delivered via email to the Prosecutor’s Office in St. Maarten where Chief Prosecutor Mirjam…
~ Knops gets it right for once, says MP Heyliger-Marten ~ PHILIPSBURG — Faction Leader for the United People’s UP Party in Parliament on St. Maarten Grisha Heyliger-Marten says Dutch MP Chris van Dam’s motion to intervene and run the St. Maarten prison at the island’s expense is precisely the type of unlawful interference with budgetary processes by the Committee for Financial Supervision (Cft), that has prevented the local Government from structurally addressing urgent local matters. On June 22, Van Dam submitted a motion to the Dutch Second Chamber requesting that the Dutch Government, at the expense of the Government…
PHILIPSBURG – Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs complaints about the (alleged) behavior of State Secretary Drs. Raymond Knops in a video conference on June 16 have fallen on deaf ears with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. He made clear that the matter falls under Knops’ responsibility. “That has not changed because of your letter and I have forwarded it to him for further handling.” Jacobs’ complaints are about a video conference she held together with Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion with Knops on June 16. The topic of the meeting was the conditions for liquidity support. According to Jacobs, Knops treated…
UD Board: “In order to appease the part of the St. Maarten governing coalition that wants to say “thanks, but no thanks” to the Netherlands, the government finds itself between a rock and a hard place.” When Prime Minister Jacobs took over from PM Leona Marlin, she knowingly accepted and continued with the State Secretary as her counterpart. Everything that the Leona Marlin cabinet was criticized so heavily for, was still accepted by the current government without as much as a whimper, to mention a few: hospital, airport, pension law, liquidity assistance, border control, etc. AND the negotiations with State…
Dear Editor, A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically it has sometimes been synonymous with ‘republic’. The noun ‘commonwealth’, meaning ‘public welfare general good or advantage’, dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth or the common wealth – echoed in the modern synonym ‘public wealth’) it comes from the old meaning of ‘wealth’, which is ‘well-being’, and is itself a loose translation of the Latin res publica (republic). The term literally meant ‘common well-being’. In the 17th century, the definition of ‘commonwealth’ expanded from its original sense…
By Hilbert Haar When any government announces the “restructuring” of a board or of any organization that is supposed to be independent from the political decision makers, I always become a bit suspicious. The questions that come to mind are always the same: why and why now? When Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs recently announced a restructuring of the Social Economic Council (SER) my alarm bells went off – and they seldom fail me. What is it exactly that bothers our Prime Minister whose department of General Affairs is responsible for the SER? An evaluation – really, the PM needed one…
CAY HILL — Wednesday night, Windward Islands Health Care Union leader, Brunilda Illidge, informed StMaartenNews.com that the St. Maarten Medical Center’s Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Marco Meulenman, has submitted his resignation. “Victory is ours!” Illidge wrote. In an interview Thursday morning, Illidge explained StMaartenNews.com that she was informed yesterday by SMMC’s management that the CFO had submitted his resignation. Management told Illdge that the CFO stated that he had decided to resign because someone threatened him. According to the CFO, he had received a letter threatening him and his family. Illidge said she advised management to ask the CFO for…
