Dear Editor, Well. Just when you think you’ve seen it all in St. Maarten politics you learn something new every day. And every day there is somebody from the old guard getting exposed about how they built their wealth on the backs of the people of St. Maarten. Years and years of self-enrichment allowed by people who kept voting them back into office over and over again. The latest hypocrite is former Commissioner and Former Minister of Finance Michael Ferrier. Mr. Do No Wrong, Mr. Holier-Than-Thou, Mr. Clean…yea right. Michael Ferrier, if the reports are proven to be true, reportedly…
Author: The Publisher
WILLEMSTAD, CURACAO — Cable & Wireless Communications, part of the Liberty Latin America listed on NASDAQ Global Select Market, has acquired all shares in United Telecommunication Services held by the Country of Curaçao. The interest sold by the seller concerns 87.5% of the total number of outstanding shares in UTS. The remaining 12.5% is held by the Country of St. Maarten. It is one of the largest deals within the Caribbean part of the Kingdom in recent years. Tjarda Tazelaar, deal maker for VanEps Kunneman VanDoorne: “UTS has telecom activities in Curaçao, St. Maarten, St. Martin, Bonaire, St. Barths, St.…
PHILIPSBURG – The downfall of the Golden Boy cannot have come as a surprise to anybody. It cannot have been easy to go through life as Claude Wathey’s grandson, as the man who had to step into the ole’ man’s shoes and prove his worth every day for more than 25 years. Theo Heyliger has not been sentenced yet, but the accusations of bribery brought against him by the public prosecutor’s office are serious and – given the details in the indictment – they will probably stick.
PHILIPSBURG — During an urgent meeting of Parliament on Wednesday, May 29, 2019, regarding the management structure of the detention facilities on St. Maarten, minister Wycliffe Smith deputizing for the minister of Justice, Cornelius De Weever, gave a short presentation outlining the current formation at the prison. This urgent meeting of Parliament was requested by members of Parliament Tamara E. Leonard, Sidarth M. Bijlani and Jules C. James on May 24, 2019, and registered by incoming document IS/1059/2018-2019. The agenda points for this urgent meeting regarded two topics, namely the management structure of the detention facilities on St. Maarten and the…
AIRPORT — The 4th annual Caribbean Aviation Meetup conference will be held June 11-13 on St. Maarten/St. Martin The conference is hosted by St. Maarten/St. Martin and supported by a number of major local and international industry companies. Two years ago, the event was successfully held on St. Maarten before the island was hit by the hurricanes. The Caribbean Aviation Meetup conference, CARIBAVIA, is a results and solutions oriented communication platform for stakeholders of airlift which are the aviation and tourism industries. The topics of the 30 sessions will vary from “Friendly Skies; Liberalizing Airlift in the Caribbean” to “Regional…
PHILIPSBURG – Between 2004 and 2014 United Democrats politician Theo Heyliger allegedly accepted bribes worth more than $5.5 million (9.9 million guilders) from Windward Roads, dredging company Devcon and Volker Stevin – the company that built the causeway across the Simpson Bay Lagoon. This appears from the indictment against Heyliger that became public on Monday. In exchange for the bribes, Heyliger granted the companies lucrative government contracts. Between January 1, 2004 and March 31, 2014, Windward Roads gave Heyliger $1,847,625, plus $850,000 in cash, $40,000 via a bank transfer and a share in the sale of a piece of land…
by Cdr. Bud Slabbaert In about two weeks I’m chairing the 4th annual Caribbean Aviation Meetup conference on St.Maarten/St.Martin. I’m often asked for advice by speakers. Here we go…. Many conferences suffer from boring presentations. Killer presentations are absolutely rare. Higher standards should be set. Those higher standards may be quite different than what you think. Get back to basics, be straight forward and use simplicity! Leonardo da Vinci once said: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Include unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories. Make the audience look up to you by expressing what you have in your heart and mind…
PHILIPSBURG – While the parliamentary committee for Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI) debated last week the proposal for the construction of a waste-to-energy plant with the Canadian company Envirogreen Energy, the government is looking for a solution to waste management and the dump fires in a completely different direction – and it seems to be getting support from the Dutch Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations in the process.
GREAT BAY, Sint Maarten (DCOMM) – Member of Parliament (MP) L.F.E. Mercelina, during a private visit to the Netherlands to attend a medical symposium, made use of the opportunity to pay a visit to the Cabinet of the Minister Plenipotentiary on the Bezuidenhoutseweg in The Hague. After a brief tour of the premises, the MP sat with both the Minister and Deputy Minister where he was informed about the different plans, processes and the activities at the Cabinet in The Hague. After being informed of the above, the MP in an invited comment stated that he sees the added value…
Hilbert Haar is on point with his opinion piece about the question whether members of Parliament have a hidden agenda when it comes to solving the problem of our mounting garbage dump. The question we have is why aren’t other waste management solutions being considered, tested or tried? A SER advice focuses on waste minimization (reduce), re-use and recycling. This is in cooperation with the French side. Despite several proposals for test projects for recycling initiatives, the support for the Envirogreen’s proposed waste-to-energy facility seems to be as vicious as it is passionate. To some it seems a bit scary…
