Dear Editor StMaartenNews.com, My wife and I have visited St. Maarten to vacation (at least once each year) for more than 23 years. We love the island and even visited in December 2017 to show our support and make a small contribution to the island’s post-hurricane recovery. Our last visits were in December 2019 and again earlier this month, February 2020. We have seen reasonably good recovery to restaurants and other facilities important to tourists on both the Dutch and French sides, but continue to be disappointed by the slow rebuilding of the island’s most critical infrastructure, the airport. Realizing…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — The Dutch Quarter road project which was stopped several months ago may restart next month. Presently, there are ongoing discussions between the representatives of VROMI, government and the contractor on the project. Minister responsible for VROMI, Christopher Wever, said that the project should start in early March as soon as they are able to “finalize certain details and sign off on the contract, which is also a positive situation,” said Wever. He noted that with the starting of the project, it could only be positive for the people because it is the local contractors who are doing the…
PHILIPSBURG — A former general manager of Curaçao’s Isla refinery asked 5 million dollars in bribes from a Dutch company that wanted to become the new operator of the state-owned plant. The money was never paid. Instead, Count Energy Trading from Rotterdam reported the bribe attempts. The judge has sentenced former Isla-director Roderick van Kwartel to three years in jail. Van Kwartel did not act alone. A company consultant and two employees of the refinery were also served jail sentences, 2.5 years each. The former general manager and accomplices argued at the hearing that they were innocent of bribery because…
PHILIPSBURG – The parliament seems to be getting ready for changes to the legislation that regulates the screening of candidate-ministers. Draft legislation prepared by the government is currently under legal in-house review and an initiative law tabled back in the day by former MP Leroy de Weever is waiting for handling by the legislators, though it seems likely that the two proposals will be merged into one. Parliament debated the issue on Friday, where Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs answered questions MPs had asked in a previous meeting. Jacobs said that prior to 1994 commissioners in the executive council of what…
~Law Enforcement Council sounds alarm ~ PHILIPSBURG – Despite the fact that all stakeholders agree on the necessity for adequate victim support, St. Maarten still has no victim support office or any structural form of support for crime victims. The Law Enforcement Council is sounding the alarm. Since 2012, the Council has, in multiple reports – including its initial report: ‘Victim support in St. Maarten’, the ‘State of law enforcement’ and in the meantime, two review inspections – tried to draw attention to the importance and urgency of setting up and arranging victim support. In that context, the Council has…
by Cdr. Bud Slabbaert Isn’t amazing that hardly anyone in a business or office environment really dares to say loudly and openly “Hey, what’s going on?” What does that have to do with business or an office? Nothing! What does it have to do with us? Everything! We may be servants, entrepreneurs, professionals or politicians, yet, we are also humans. We are dealing with customers or constituents who are also people, just like us. We all have feelings, don’t we? Or, am I missing something? It is important to express yourself openly. As I’m working at my laptop I have…
PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – On Friday, February 21, 2020 Members of Parliament participated in an informative meeting with SZV at the offices of SZV at Harbour View, as part of the Orientation for (new) Members of Parliament. The goal of this meeting was primarily to provide Members with information in an effort to better equip them in the execution of their duties. Furthermore, the meeting was aimed at gaining a better understanding of the structure, the relationship with Government and Parliament and the current plans of SZV. The meeting kicked off with a power point presentation by the Director of…
PHILIPSBURG – The Dutch government has sent a prisoner from St. Maarten who was put at the disposal of the government and was detained in the Netherlands back to St. Maarten without having received treatment under the measure of jeugd-TBR. ‘This is very bad for society,” says Chief Public Prosecutor Mirjam Mol. “He returns to society untreated, while there is a court ruling that says he needs to be treated.” Shimano Gumbs was a teenager when he fatally shot Etienne Le Blanc in his father’s DVD-store on Front Street on October 9, 2014. The 17-year old, who had fathered 5…
PHILIPSBURG – An urgent letter to the Prime Minister has resulted in the establishment of the Taskforce Forensic Care. In the letter, the Public Prosecution Service, Point Blanche Prison, Turning Point and the Mental Health Foundation raise the alarm: “The lack of forensic psychiatric expertise, treatment and housing of forensic patients has become a crisis situation. This presents serious threats to the safety of victims, family and the community at large.” Both Mental Health Foundation (MHF) and Turning Point Foundation cannot provide adequate treatment for mentally ill people who pose a danger to their environment and themselves – in many…
PHILIPSBURG – Chief Public Prosecutor Mirjam Mol intends to provide explanations on the Public Prosecutor’s website whenever a prisoner is allowed to leave Pointe Blanche prison early. “Why this prisoner and not another? I want to show the public how we come to a decision, what considerations are taken.” Early release is, in any case, undesirable according to the Chief Public Prosecutor. “If someone is convicted, you want him to serve his sentence. In many cases this is not possible on St. Maarten. The shortage of cells forces prisoners to be released earlier, to make way for newly convicted persons.…
