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…
Author: The Publisher
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…
By Cdr. Bud Slabbaert The older I get, the more I start asking why, and I start questioning all the answers. Maybe it’s a remnant of the child in me. When children are getting to the age of three, they start asking questions. It heralds a sudden upsurge in their intellectual development. The very youngest will simply accept that things are the way they are, like mother milk. Past a certain age the child with a greater degree of mental maturity will want to know why. You are an adult, where do you stand? Do you estimate that you have…
ST. MAARTEN/SABA—Children are vulnerable and need protection, at home, school and outside. As a community, we have to offer this protection. What are the risks that children run? How can we help them and which tools are available? And, how can we cooperate in this. The Task Force Intercountry Children’s Rights will offer tools for this during the three-day Our Children, Our Future Conference on St. Maarten and Saba which starts on Monday, May 20, with a reception. During the first two days of the conference on St. Maarten, on Tuesday May 21 and Wednesday May 22, youth care workers,…
For the past months we have had meetings in Parliament to try to address the laws pertaining to the FATF (Financial Action Task Force) guidelines. We even had members of the Caribbean FATF come to parliament and explain these guidelines as well the urgency of living up to these guidelines. Yet many times no quorum was achieved in order to handle such important legislation which at the end of the day is unfortunate and could have major consequences for our island. To me it has always been very clear that while some of these laws are clearly being pushed by…
PHILIPSBURG — Sint Maarten needs $2.3 billion for the next seven years to overcome the impact of Hurricane Irma. This estimate was already published last summer in the country’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), but it has now been adopted in the first interim report of the Sint Maarten Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience Trust Fund. While the World Bank trust fund has made an initial $35 million available to solve the problems at the landfill on Pond Island, the NRRP estimates that it actually requires $190.9 million – 8.23 percent of the estimated damages of $2.3 billion. Per November…
By Terrance Rey Crowdfunding has no legal basis here on St. Maarten. Generally, it boils down to making a donation. There is a maximum amount a private person can donate to another person for it to be considered tax-free; not be subject to income tax on the recipient’s part and for it to remain tax deductible on the donor’s part. But that is a good discussion to have with your tax adviser. Here I am going to talk about a format for Crowdfunding on St. Maarten that is completely legit according to the laws of Country Sint Maarten and that…
PHILIPSBURG — “Sint Maarten is a clean and sustainable island, based on the principles of a circular economy. The waste situation is fully under control with minimum impact to the environment and in line with international best practices.” This is part of the government’s vision of the situation it aims to achieve by 2022 – 32 to 44 months from now (from the beginning to the end of 2022). The Court in First Instance ordered the government in September 2018 to produce a roadmap explaining how it intends to prevent future fires and the emission of hazardous smoke at the…
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…
