Not all catastrophes produce a Renaissance. It is striking how big the problems for the private sector already are. The middle class, the backbone of the economy, is in danger of collapsing under the pressure of political measures related to COVID-19. The forced closure of shops and businesses provide health benefits in the short term, but will promote poverty, hunger and crime on the island. Just like that, dozens of Front Street vendors have lost their jobs. The day after it was announced that cruise passengers would no longer come ashore, numerous sales assistants were told by their employer that…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG – De behandeling van een groot aantal rechtszaken is uitgesteld omwille van COVID-19. Strafzaken die de komende week wel doorgang vinden, zijn niet langer openbaar. “De behandeling vindt plaats achter gesloten deuren, zonder publiek,” zegt strafrechter Jorgen Snitker. Snitker is een van vijf rechters op St. Maarten, hij behandelt strafzaken in eerste aanleg. De eerstvolgende zitting is volgende week woensdag. Op de rol staan urgente zaken, aldus de rechter, die aangeeft dat alleen die zaken worden behandeld waarbij een eventuele straf ten uitvoer kan worden gebracht. Indien de maatregelen rondom COVID-19 dit beletten, wordt de zaak uitgesteld. De 37…
PHILIPSBURG — The handling of a large number of lawsuits has been postponed due to COVID-19. Criminal cases that will continue in the coming week are no longer public. “The treatment takes place behind closed doors, without an audience,” said criminal judge Jorgen Snitker. Snitker is one of five judges on St. Maarten. The Court of First Instance will hear criminal cases next Wednesday. The judge explains that only those cases where a possible sentence can be executed are being handled. If the measures surrounding COVID-19 prevent this, the case will be postponed. The 37 prisoners in Point Blanche who…
PHILIPSBURG – Less than a year after Canadian tourist Sylvain Valade (see photo) died during an armed robbery near the Drift Wood Bar on Beacon Hill Road, the Court in First Instance sentenced his killer, 19-year old Guy Mathurin Samedi to 18 years in prison. Of his two accomplices, Keeano Hastin Shandon Richardson (20) received the heaviest punishment: a 4-year prison sentence. The other one, identified because of his age only as J.S.E., was just sixteen at the time of the fatal robbery. The court sentenced him to 24 months of youth detention of which 14 months are suspended. The…
A Norwegian family which sailed from St. Maarten to Curaçao last Sunday and arrived there last night, is refused by the Curaçao authorities due to COVID-19 lockdown. The Coast Guard threatens to tow the ship to the open sea. The couple and their five-year-old son left St. Maarten aboard the Escape West on March 15 when the sea borders in the Caribbean were still open. A berth was reserved for the sailing yacht Escape West in the marina of Seru Boca in the eastern part of Curaçao. The harbor master informed the skipper that the crossing could be made. This…
By Hilbert Haar We are all in the same boat and it is now a matter of rowing in the same direction. That’s the conclusion of an analysis published in the Antilliaans Dagblad (AD). The analysis is – like everything else these days – about the devastating effect of the corona-virus on the global economy and about the role the Kingdom of the Netherlands has to play (or should play) towards its overseas brethren in the Caribbean. The AD writes that it expects the Netherlands to agree with supporting the Caribbean islands based on the calamity regulation because of damages…
The corona-virus in Kuala Lumpur: Nobody seemed familiar with the term social distancing By Hilbert Haar I briefly wondered whether it was wise to travel abroad towards the end of January. We wanted to escape the extreme heat in Siem Reap, Cambodia, for the months of March and April when the mercury can shoot straight through the 40-mark. Would that damn corona-virus get in our way? By then, I knew that the situation in China was bad, but Cambodia had not reported a single case of infection yet. Nobody was dying and Siem Reap’s watering holes along its Pub Street…
PHILIPSBURG – Bedrijven en winkels in Philipsburg zijn gesloten, scholen in Front Street en Back Street zijn dicht. De stilte in de stad wordt slechts verbroken door sporadisch verkeer en het gekraai van hanen. Behalve Downtown, daar klinkt gehamer en gedril van boren. Het Rode Kruis timmert er aan daken van woningen. De teams werken tot het einde van de week door, in afwachting van verdere instructies in verband met het coronavirus. Het Rode Kruis op St. Maarten heeft de beschikking over 3 miljoen dollar van de Wereldbank, via het St. Maarten Recovery Trust Fund, voor herstel van 200 daken…
PHILIPSBURG – Businesses and shops in Philipsburg are closed, schools in Front Street and Back Street are closed. The silence in the city is broken only by sporadic traffic and the crowing of roosters. Except for Downtown, where hammering and drilling is heard. The Red Cross is building roofs of houses. The teams will continue to work until the end of the week, pending further instructions regarding the coronavirus. The Red Cross on St. Maarten has access to $3 million from the World Bank, through the St. Maarten Recovery Trust Fund, for the repair of 200 residential roofs. This repair…
PHILIPSBURG – “Wie in de molen terecht komt, kan erdoor vermalen worden.” Dat stelt advocaat Robbert de Bree, die erop wijst dat zijn client JanHendrik Boekaar, ontslagen directeur van Windward Roads wel betrokken is bij omkoping, maar hier niet mee is begonnen. Windward Roads huurde, met medeweten van moederbedrijf Janssen de Jong, al van begin jaren negentig Ronald Maasdam, hoofdverdachte in de Larimar zaak, in als ‘lobbyist’. Betalingen aan de politiek vonden vermoedelijk al plaats lang voordat Boekaar in 2005 directeur werd. Hoofdverdachte Ronald Maasdam heeft, in ruil voor vijftig procent strafvermindering en een 3.1 miljoen dollar in compensatie,…
