Dear Editor, Viren Vinod Kotai was born on Sint Maarten in 1995, right in between the two major hurricanes Luis and Marilyn. He attended the St. Dominic Primary School and then went on to complete the St. Dominic High School at the very young age of 16. His next educational stop was Canada where he completed the associate level in Accounting and Finance at St. Mary’s University in Halifax Canada. Due to his passion for sports, he transferred to Niagara College Canada where he graduated in 2017 with an Advanced Diploma in Sport Admin/MGMT. From a very young age Viren…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG – Angelo Brill has been elected President of the new board of the Oualichi Soccer Association (‘Oualichi SA’). Brill is replacing outgoing president, Dagmar Daal, who will remain at the club as an advisor. Brill is also joined by Richard Hazel as Treasurer, Whitney Walsh as the Boardmember overseeing the Women’s Team and Joel Wilson as the vice-president/secretary. Joel Wilson will be overseeing the men’s team. Since its inception in November 2012, followed by its official establishment on May 21, 2013, the Oualichi Soccer Association by its founders, the twin sisters Dagmar and Danaë, and Nancy Joubert, initially focused…
Dear Editor, My first order of business after being sworn in as a Member of Parliament was to send a letter, dated November 25th 2019, to the Chairman of Parliament, requesting him to reconvene the meeting concerning the Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIA) that was adjourned on November 4, 2019. Unfortunately, this meeting was adjourned due to the fact that members of the new coalition of 9 progressively walked out of the meeting prior to the handling of the motion submitted by former SMCP faction leader, MP Claude Peterson. The motion, submitted by Peterson, was to satisfy the bondholders, who…
PHILIPSBURG – The Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) issued a public statement against St. Maarten during its fiftieth plenary meeting in Antigua last week. This is due to the country’s failure to comply with legislative measures against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Finance Minister Egbert Doran played down the significance of the public statement, saying that it “did not urge other countries to impose counter measures on St. Maarten.” This is however standard procedure. CFATF executive director Dawne Spicer already told parliamentarians during a central committee meeting in February that a first public statement would point out…
By Dr. J Foundation November 28, 2019 We wish to provide clarification on the status of the Hurricane Irma Re-integration Temporary Shelter program (H.I.R.P.S) which was established by the then Ministry of VSA in collaboration with the Dr. J Foundation. The shelter is managed by the Dr. J Foundation The shelter program was established as a two years program in the beginning of 2018 and is fully financed by the Government. The aim of this program was to provide temporary living arrangements, support, the necessary assistance and guidance for the persons misplaced by Hurricane Irma that would have otherwise been…
By Hilbert Haar Let me make one thing clear before writing anything else. The real winners and losers will become apparent only after the January 9, 2020 elections. But I still think, quoting Greta Thunberg, that “change is coming whether you like it or not.” I already outlined the first indications of imminent change based on the strength of the lists of candidates the seven parties have presented. That analysis showed that the National Alliance list contains the strongest voting power. It leaves all other contenders far behind. The re-established United People’s party is at best a dark horse in…
By Hilbert Haar The interim government led by Silveria Jacobs currently consists of five ministers – one from the United St. Maarten party (USp) and the rest are all with the National Alliance (NA). Until the remaining two ministers – proposed by the USp – have been sworn in, the Council of Ministers is practically a one-party affair. Does that matter? Yes and no. For the decision-making process in the Council of Ministers it is irrelevant whether the two remaining ministers are there or not. This is because decisions in the council are taken by a majority of votes and…
PHILIPSBURG – The Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten (CBCS) is not happy with a letter Faroe Metry, president of the supervisory board of insurance company Ennia’s operating units, wrote. The Central Bank hardly gives any information to the supervisory board, Metry complained. He also wrote that the costs for restructuring Ennia have risen to 8 million guilders, while the court earlier had limited those expenditures to just 500,000. The Central Bank says that Metry’s letter contains many errors that damage the bank’s reputation. In 2018 the court placed Ennia under emergency measures at the Central Bank’s request. That…
PHILIPSBURG – Seven parties, 112 candidates and fifteen seats available in parliament: the theoretical odds of winning a seat are close to 1:7.5. The January elections promise an earthquake shift in the balance of power, due to the absence of two big names: Theo Heyliger and Frankin Meyers. In the 2018 elections, Heyliger won by far the most votes of any individual candidate: 1,299. Meyers was good for 402 votes. The merger of the United People’s party (UP) with the Democratic Party (DP) lasted just one election. The Heyliger-less UP will make an attempt to rise from its ashes under…
PHILIPSBURG — On Postulation Day, Thursday, November 21, 2019, the Sint Maarten Christian Party, SMCP, submitted a list of 13 candidates for the upcoming 2020 elections to be held on Thursday, January 9. The list of 13 candidates are as follows: #1 – Smith, Wycliffe Sylvester #2 – Peterson, Claude Alfred Hans #3 – Somersall, Michael Orlando #4 – Gittens, Keith Peter-John #5 – Gibbs, Beverley Denisse #6 – Bell, Benjamin Stephen #7 – Nunes geb. Burleson, Tswana #8 – Sam geb. Arrindell, Marva Rosalinda #9 – Kotai, Viren Vinod #10 – York, Linda Cherline #11 – Rattan geb. Poulo,…
