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…
Author: The Publisher
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…
PHILIPSBURG — The Prosecutor’s Office on St. Maarten finally released the passport of Theo Heyliger to his wife, Grisha Heyliger-Marten, on the afternoon of Monday, June 17, 2019. This was necessary in order for Heyliger to be able to travel to Boston, Massachusetts, in the USA for urgent medical treatment of his stage one kidney cancer. Heyliger had to surrender his passport as one of the conditions for release from prison where he was awaiting trial on charges brought against him by the Prosecutor’s Officer in February of this year. The Prosecutor’s Office initially said it had not received all…
In an effort to bring awareness to the many ways you can make a little extra money here on St. Maarten as a side hustle besides your regular paying job, StMaartenNews.com decided to post a topic on this subject matter on its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/StMaartenNewsDotCom. The post itself reached 4,600 people directly and generated 135 engagements with 56 people reacting to the post with Likes, Loves and Wows. The post generated 13 shares which boosted the total reach to 5,331 people with a total of 328 engagements. Fair to say, there are a lot of people interested in knowing…
PHILIPSBURG — Member of Parliament Rolando Brison on Sunday said regrettably that his first initiative law is falling behind due to waiting on answers from the government of St. Maarten. The legislation MP Brison referred to was the law aimed at authorizing government to undertake the sale proper sale of St. Maarten’s shares in United Telecommunication Services (UTS). “A total of just 12 questions were posed by Members of Parliament that need to be answered by the Ministers of Finance and Justice. These questions were posed in the Central Committee handling of the draft initiative law, which is aimed at…
by Seth Miller Can cooperation and market liberalization beat out protectionist interests in the Caribbean? The 2019 Caribavia conference wasted little time in bringing that question to the forefront. With representatives from airlines, tourism boards, regulators and governments gathered together in St. Maarten the scene was set for a lively debate. Core to the discussion was the question of whether external growth factors could benefit the islands in a way that offsets the risk of potential damage to their local operators. Few countries want to see their home airlines pushed out of business, but the business case for small, single…
WILLEMSTAD/PHILIPSBURG — Effective June 13, 2019, Bob Traa has been temporarily appointed by the Supervisory Board (SB) of the Central Bank of Curaçao and St. Maarten (CBCS) as President of the CBCS in anticipation of the finalization of his definite appointment. The position of president was temporarily filled by Leila Matroos-Lasten since November 17, 2017. On March 11, 2019, the Supervisory Board made a recommendation to the Minister of Finance of Curaçao and the Minister of Finance of St. Maarten to appoint Bob Traa as President of the CBCS. In the meantime, three months have passed since the Supervisory Board’s…
By Hilbert Haar Technology is wonderful. I can be anywhere in the world, watch what is happening anywhere else and write about it. Organizations – like the parliament and the government of St. Maarten – use these wonders of technology to communicate with their citizens. At least – I figure that was the idea when they spent money on web sites. But web sites are like roads: if you do not maintain them they are soon full of potholes. I realized this recently when I used the contact button on the website of the parliament. My question was simple: could…
Learn the keywords that give you insights into the insurance business in our series of short stories from a client who learned how to avoid under-insurance after hurricane Irma. ~ Application Form ~ Part 1. I went down to NAGICO Insurances offices on the Cannegieter Street. Finding parking close by is always a challenge. I figured I would use The Secret to attract a parking spot right in front of the NAGICO building. I imagined that the security guy would be holding a spot for me as I pulled up in my red Ford Escape jeep. Indeed. That is exactly…
SIMPSON BAY — The fiscal investigative unit of the Dutch tax office, the FIOD, is conducting an investigation into the tender process for the construction of the Causeway bridge on St. Maarten. Investigation is carried out into two subsidiaries of Volker Wessels Stevin, VCI (Volker Construction International) and VSC (Volker Stevin Caribbean). These subsidiaries have since ceased operations. This report was published on May 29, 2018, on a Dutch tender news website called AanbestedingsNieuws.nl. The Public Prosecuter’s Office in The Netherlands has confirmed that there is an ongoing investigation whether bribes have been paid for obtaining and executing construction projects…
