THE HAGUE – The chairman of the Humanitas Foundation, Gijsbert van Herk, apologized last week in an email for his statements about Antillean employees of the Rotterdam-based nursing home De Leeuwenhoek, Natasja Gibbs reports on Caribisch Netwerk. Things went wrong when Van Herk made an attempt to repair the nursing home’s negative image last week in an interview with Trouw by emphasizing the multicultural character of the institution. “If we look at De Leeuwenhoek from the point of view of a Dutch nurse from Maastricht you conclude that the things that are happening there are not allowed. But if you…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG – MP Theo Heyliger, leader of the United Democrats, was right when he observed in a meeting of Parliament in February that the government gets what it is paying for with the management contract for the landfill. “There were two bids,” Heyliger said at the time. “One for 5 million and one for half that amount. The lowest bid won.” The draft budget 2018 that will be handled in Parliament on Thursday confirms Heyliger’s observation in the chapter about the Ministry of Public Housing, Urban Planning, Environment and Infrastructure (VROMI): “The current contract-amount is insufficient to guarantee safe management…
By Hilbert Haar In June 2008 I wrote an article under the headline “Landfill remains until the end of 2010.” It appeared in the now defunct Today newspaper. In the meantime we know better. The landfill is not going anywhere for a very long time and residents and visitors will just have to put up with all the negative consequences. This is a brief review of the landfill’s recent history. These days, complaints about yet another fire at the dump usually erupt on Facebook, but in 2008 residents filed a civil lawsuit against the government, while Pride Foundation President Jadira…
PHILIPSBURG – The government organization currently employs 1,822 civil servants, but all departments struggle with staff shortages it appears from an overview in the draft 2018 budget. If all positions the civil service requires were filled, the government would have 2,525 people on the payroll. In other words, the civil service is formally 27.8 percent understaffed. It is not likely that all these positions are going to be filled any time soon because already the payroll takes up close to 40 percent of the country’s budget. The seven ministries and the high councils of state have budgeted 124 vacancies for…
PHILIPSBURG – As a follow-up to the digital letter of appreciation sent to Dutch Ministers Ingrid van Engelshoven of Education, Culture and Science and Arie Slob of Primary and Secondary Education and Media, Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Jorien Wuite paid a visit to the Dutch Representative of the Netherlands based in St. Maarten Chris Johnson on April 18th and presented him the official original copy of the letter as well as an overview of all donations received from the Dutch Ministry after hurricane Irma and a listing as to where those items were disseminated. Also presented to…
PHILIPSBURG – The accumulated deficits on the national budget increase to a total of 486.2 million guilders in 2020. The government projects that 2021 will be the first year when the budget shows a slim surplus again of 4.1 million guilders. This appears from the revised draft 2018 budget. Parliament will discuss the budget in a meeting on Thursday. The draft budget does not contain any new initiatives, nor does it specify new cost-cutting and revenue-generating measures. The government projects expenses for 2018 at 500,545,550 guilders; revenue falls short with 303,436,964 guilders. The investment budget for this year is 28.8…
By Hilbert Haar An alert reader pointed out to me that the price the waste-to-energy plant would charge GEBE for a Kilowatt of electricity is $0.26 and not 0.26 guilders. This is correct and I apologize for the oversight. But how does this change the equation? According to the National Energy Policy – published in 2013 – it costs GEBE $0.22 to produce a Kilowatt of electricity (and not 0.22 guilders as I wrote). Assuming that a waste-to-energy facility would produce at best 20 percent of the country’s energy needs, the numbers obviously change. On closer scrutiny, I discovered another…
by Terrance Rey Pointe-A-Pitre/Philipsburg – What was dubbed as the most important meeting of the region, a gathering of press, airline officials, travel agents and government officials came together in Pointe-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe, for the official launching of the CaribSKY alliance between WINAIR, AIR ANTILLES and LIAT. An ambitious project with the aim to ease air travel throughout the Caribbean, as described by Romain Hordel, the Sales and Marketing Manager for Air Antilles during his opening speech at the event. The question that immediately comes to mind is whether this CaribSKY alliance can save Caribbean regional travel. A partnership between Winair…
Recap articles published about the residency issue of MP Frans Richardson and the possible consequences regarding his status as a member of Parliament: MP-status Frans Richardson called into question Opinion by Hilbert Haar: “A hot potato” No action from Central Voting Bureau against MP Richardson Questions remain about MP-status Frans Richardson Opinion by Hilbert Haar: “Rules and regulations” Recap: The Dual Nationality Dilemma of MP Frans Richardson In the political arena of St. Maarten, the residency issue of Member of Parliament (MP) Frans Richardson has been a topic of intense scrutiny and debate. As the leader of the United St.…
By Hilbert Haar The dump remains a hot item and for good reason. For decades dump fires have affected the health of citizens and for decades the government had failed to do something about it. The construction of a waste-to-energy facility has for a long time been considered as the solution to our dump-issues, but that’s of course a fairy tale. A waste-to-energy facility does not make the problems we are experiencing with the fires go away. Like a real solution for the dump, the construction of that waste-to-energy facility has also been elusive; that situation is still true today.…
