PHILIPSBURG – Sint Maarten made headlines in the Volkskrant on Tuesday and the news was not good. “An attractive island for tourists – and for criminal gangs that launder money,” correspondent Kees Broere reports. “The doors are open and the security guard makes a very relaxed impression. In Casino Royale, the largest gambling palace in St. Maarten, every adult visitor is welcome – from ladies in prom dress to unshaven tourists in vacation shorts. After all, only the dollar banknotes matter,” Broere wrote. He notes, correctly, that there is no registration or identification requirement to enter a casino. In the…
Author: The Publisher
Yesterday we received an email with the headline “The coming retirement crisis will be UGLY”. According to the email, recent studies confirm that most Americans are not prepared for retirement. Depending on the assessment, the percentage of people who will not be ready to retire is between 66% and 80%. This is scary, considering what it will do to the quality of life in people’s golden years. It was argued that much of this problem comes from changing policies with corporations (that no longer give adequate pension plans or job security), as well as shifting government policies that favor wealth…
Public Service Announcement provided by the Central Bank of Curacao & St. Maarten. If you have renovated or purchased big-ticket items for your home, then you need to get an appraisal and adjust your insurance accordingly.
PHILIPSBURG — On Monday, April 8th, 2019, NAGICO Life Insurance N.V. and NAGICO Insurances issued a press statement wherein they announced that they had taken over the portfolio of Sagicor Life Inc. The press statement made clear that it was business as usual for the policyholders of Sagicor. Following is the integral content of the press statement: Effective 8 April 2019, NAGICO LIFE INSURANCE N.V. AND NATIONAL GENERAL INSURANCE CO. N. V. (“NAGICO INSURANCES”) assumed a portfolio of business from Sagicor Life Inc. The transition from Sagicor Life Inc. to NAGICO Insurances will be a smooth one for customers as…
MADAME ESTATE — During the afternoon of Easter Monday, April 22, 2019, news reaching our news desk indicated that a daring broad day robbery took place at the Cost Pro Supermarket in Madame Estate whereby all cash registers were ripped out and stolen while the supermarket was open for normal business operation. StMaartenNews.com contacted the management of the supermarket for further information on this high day robbery. According to General Manager, Peter J. GIttens, there were at least 4 robbers of which 3 were armed with guns and a getaway car (driver) on the outside. The armed robbery took place…
~ St. Maarten removed from IASA List ~ PHILIPSBURG — St. Maarten was recently removed from the International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) list on which it was previously listed as a Category 2 (CAT 2) Country. St. Maarten’s removal is based on there being no current St. Maarten airline servicing any United States destination, neither has there been a codeshare agreement with any US carrier and a St. Maarten airline for 4 years. It is standard under such conditions for the International Program and Policy division of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States Department of Transportation (DOT)…
~ advises on alternatives ~ PHILIPSBURG—“In my opinion pensioners should not be paying wage taxes or income taxes,” said President of WIFOL Theophilus Thompson. According to him they have already contributed to social economic development and what they are receiving is solidarity social returns because of the contributions that they have made, he said. “What they have done is an investment in the earlier years and as a result they are getting back some returns,” said Thompson. He feels that the seniors should not be at that stage paying any levies on the benefit that they are receiving. However, if…
PHILIPSBURG — Government needs to be proactive instead of reactive to stem the high cost of services, goods and labor since the passage of the hurricanes of 2017. “We have seen the house rents, food commodities and cost of housing skyrocket to astronomical prices,” said the president of WIFOL Theophilus Thompson. He mentioned that the cost of living has risen to at least 200% while income/wages remain the same and in some cases it has declined. He explained that in a capitalist system it is designed in such a way that advantage is taken, opportunities are looked at where there…
By Hilbert Haar The expression caught between a rock and a hard place does not begin to describe the situation St. Maarten finds itself in now that the Kingdom Council of Ministers has put conditions in place for the provision of liquidity support. I can already hear members of Parliament moan about abuse of power by the Netherlands, but the conditions the Kingdom put on the table on Friday are mostly self-inflicted injuries. Some of them can be cured easily and doing this quickly would at least show the Kingdom a sign of good will. It would buy the country…
THE HAGUE — St. Maarten will only get liquidity support from the Netherlands in 2019 if it complies with several conditions the Kingdom Council of Ministers has put in place. “These conditions see – among other things – to the detention capacity, the remuneration and fringe benefits for members of parliament, the deployment of the National Police and pension reform,” State Secretary Raymond Knops (Kingdom Relations) wrote in a letter dated April 5 to the Second Chamber. While the letter does not mention further details, the Kingdom Council of Ministers apparently demands that the country increases the detention capacity at…
