By Hilbert Haar A salary cut for members of parliament is part of the debate about the draft 2019 budget. It is obviously an inevitable measure though it is more meaningful as a symbolical gesture than it is in terms of cost cutting. A ten percent cut will save the country just 370,000 guilders per year. Two parliamentarians have so far said something about this issue. MP Luc Mercelina said that he has “no problem contributing” thereby suggesting that he would vote in favor of a salary cut. However, he said almost in the same sentence that he does have…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG –Minister of Finance Perry Geerlings painted a dramatic picture of the country’s financial position during the handling of the draft 2019 budget on Monday. “An example of the way of thinking in St. Maarten is that we like to spend money we don’t have,” he said. But we have a budget with a 71 million guilders deficit and we are dependent on loans from the Netherlands for liquidity support that enable us to execute the budget and to keep the government functioning.” Geerlings pointed out that 85 percent of the country’s expenditures are fixed obligations. The collective sector will…
PHILIPSBURG – MP Luc Mercelina (United Democrats) repeated his objections against the introduction of a National Health Insurance (NHI) plan during the handling of the draft 2019 budget in parliament on Monday. “This will become the nightmare of our country,” he said. Mercelina said that St. Maarten should meet ten requirements to make national health insurance a success – and that the country does not meet any of them. The MP listed ten conditions he came up with: the country has to be rich (St. Maarten isn’t), it has to be well-organized, have a low percentage of illegals and a…
PHILIPSBURG — President of Parliament, Sarah Wescot-Williams, during the opening of the budget presentation on Monday morning, June 24, 2019, as a notification, informed Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin that Parliament will be sending her a letter regarding the issue of the passport of suspended member of Parliament, Theodore Heyliger. The Prime Minister was present for the budget presentation in Parliament as she waited to take the word to give her elucidation on the budget of the ministry of General Affairs. “I wish to use this opportunity, considering in my opinion the urgency of the matter, to inform the Prime Minister…
CUPECOY — Prime Minister Leona Romeo-Marlin and Governor Eugene Holiday addressed the challenges and opportunities on shaping sustainable economic recovery in St. Maarten at the 8th Governor’s Symposium on Friday, June 21, 2019. During his opening speech, Governor Holiday discussed the impacts of hurricanes Irma and Maria on the economy of St. Maarten. From a per capita income of 26,163 USD, it dropped to 23,663 USD between 2017 and 2018. Hurricanes Irma and Maria resulted to damages and losses on St. Maarten, costing 2.7 million USD which is over 250% of GDP. The debt-to-GDP ration also increased by almost 10…
CUPECOY — His Excellency the Governor Drs. Eugene Holiday adequately set the tone for the 2019 Governor’s Symposium which was held at the American University of the Caribbean campus in Cupecoy on Friday. In his opening remarks he said that the impact of the hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 has set the policies that shaped the economic recovery. “In the 2017 CARICOM conference which was supported by the UNDP it was estimated that the recovery cost surpassed some US$5 billion and in some countries it surpassed some 3.5 times it’s GDP,” said Holiday. He quoted the CARICOM Secretary General…
Modern Day Slavery Dear community of Sint Maarten, Certain things have been going on lately that need to shared, my article is based on people who are experiencing these real life matters at the moment. Our justice system is being continuously tampered with, prosecutors are undermining and situations in our correctional facility are unhealthy. Sinta Duro ( Sit Tight) Sometimes we use the word but we rarely take time to understand what the word means therefore I took the time to look up the word ” Justice”. I found that Justice means Fairness; which means: A just behavior or treatment.…
By Hilbert Haar When you publish a story about a rather sensitive subject – like plans to sell the port of St. Maarten to a third party, combined with whispers about the formation of a broad coalition – it tends to spread like wildfire. Is it true? Is it melee? And who on earth leaked that information? It is all understandable because this is human nature: we like to know things and if we don’t know them we make them up. So it went with the story I wrote under the headline ‘Global Ports Holding eyeballs the cruise port in…
By Hilbert Haar PHILIPSBURG – Global Ports Holding is the world’s largest operator of cruise ports. Soon it could be operating the port in Philipsburg as well, if a loosely defined group of makers and shakers gets its way. Something is brewing behind the scenes that fits with the coalition’s request for Minister Miklos Giterson (VROMI) and Cornelius de Weever (Justice) to resign. On a usually sunny terrace somewhere in Cupecoy a group of men comes together on a regular basis – not just for drinks, but for discussions about the future of St. Maarten. From a diverse group of…
Published June 19, 2019, in The Daily Herald: Dear editor, In April I wrote an article under the headline ‘Heyliger’s bribery allegations have a long (family) history.’ It appeared on the independent news website stmaartennews.com on April 9 or 10 of this year. More than two months later one Adrian Lista – a grandson of Claude Wathey, or so I’ve been told – showed in a letter to the editor of the Daily Herald how upset he was about this piece. In itself, I find it rather weird to react to an article that appeared on one platform – stmaartennews.com…
