INVESTING IN DEVELOPING HERITAGE TOURISM, Opportunity and Responsibility Remarks delivered by H.E. drs. Eugene B. Holiday Governor of Sint Maarten on the occasion of the Grand Opening of the Rockland Estate Sint Maarten April 11, 2018 Ladies and Gentlemen, Good Afternoon. Today’s Grand opening of the Rockland Estate by Rainforest Adventure represents a new chapter in the evolution of this area from former plantation to eco-park for visitors and residents. An evolution that interconnects Sint Maarten’s former plantation economy with Sint Maarten’s current tourism economy. An evolution which because of this unique site has the potential to interconnect our culture,…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG – While the French side of the island already saw an influx of refugees from Venezuela back in 2016, Minister of Justice Cornelius de Weever said on Wednesday that no requests for asylum had come across his desk from that corner so far. De Weever reflected on his meeting with Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok and the Prime Ministers of Aruba and Curacao to discuss the situation in Venezuela. “The situation is a lot different for them than it is for St. Maarten,” he said, before referring to Prime Minister Marlin-Romeo for further elucidation. “We do not…
PHILIPSBURG – A fire on the post-Irma dumpsite on Pond Island ignited on Tuesday night and continued to be a nuisance throughout the day on Wednesday. Low-hanging smoke wafted over Soualiga Boulevard and on social media citizens complained about yet another dump fire. Prime Minister Leona Marlin-Romeo said at Wednesday’s Council of Ministers press briefing that the people from the fire department and the ministry of VROMI were at the location on Tuesday night. “As I speak they are doing their utmost to extinguish this fire.” The government will continue to monitor the effects of the smoke, the Prime Minister…
PHILIPSBURG – The Council of Ministers approved the draft 2018 budget on Wednesday morning and its now on its way to the Council of Advice, the Board financial supervision (Cft) and the General Audit Chamber for scrutiny and comment. Minster Mike Ferrier (Finance) expects a speedy advice process that will enable the Parliament to approve the budget by May 1. Ferrier said that the adjusted budget has brought down the deficit from 257 to 250 million guilders. “That is still a huge amount and I ask everybody to do his fair share to reduce our costs.” Personnel costs for 2018…
PHILIPSBURG – The Receiver’s Office will be open on Saturday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. to accommodate companies that have to come in to pay their turnover tax and other duties, Minister Mike Ferrier (Finance) announced at Wednesday’s Council of Ministers press briefing. The fifteenth of the month is the standard deadline for companies to bring in their turnover taxes. Because that date falls on a Sunday this month, the deadline has been extended by one day until next Monday. Minister Ferrier said that the opening of the Receiver’s Office on Saturday is designed to accommodate tax payers. To…
PHILIPSBURG – The Court in First Instance postponed the trial against the former station manager for Insel Air in St. Maarten and a sales ticket sales agent to an unspecified future date because there is no clarity about the amount of money the two defendants allegedly embezzled from the company. The court wants to see bank statements to find out how much money the defendants deposited in the account of their now former employer. In August 2016, Insel Air filed a complaint against station manager Alonzo Alfred H. (now 51) and sales agent Stephanie B.B. (now 28) after discovering that…
PHILIPSBURG – The Ministry of General Affairs hereby provides an update regarding the resumption of the following services. The Civil Registry Department in Philipsburg at the Government Administration Building will be open for all services -except for Drivers License & Identification Cards, on Wednesday, April 11, 2018. The Civil Registry Department has made the following arrangements in order to serve their customers as optimally as possible. Please refer to the information below. Persons with an old appointment date of: New date to visit Civil Registry in Philipsburg April 3rd / April 4th / April 11th April 11th April 5th /…
PHILIPSBURG — NV GEBE in a press release indicated that the (RO) Reverse Osmosis Water Tank located on Soualiga Boulevard in front of the Festival Village will be out of use as of April 16 for approximately 3 weeks. The closure of this tank is based on the amount of traffic in that location as St. Maarten prepares for the upcoming Carnival season. Users who frequent the tanks on Soualiga Blvd are advised to make use of the storage tank located in Dutch Quarter on the McDonalds parking lot and the other located on the parking lot of AbuGhazi in…
MARIGOT – The deteriorating situation in Venezuela started having its effect already in 2016 on the French side of the island. According to data released by the prefecture, there were 345 requests for asylum in 2016, 300 more than in 2015. More than 78 percent of these requests – 270 – were asylum seekers from Venezuela. The prefecture estimates the number of foreigners living in Saint Martin at around 14,000; that’s roughly 40 percent of the population. The number of foreigners living in the territory without a residence permit is around 8,000. In 2016 the PAF (French border patrol) caught…
Last Saturday morning, looking in my book case for a legal hand book in connection with a complicated case I was working on, I saw this book by the cardiologist Pim van Bommel “Eindeloos Bewustzijn” (Dutch for “Infinite Consciousness”) wickedly smiling at me. In that 400 page book the author makes a strong academic point for the theorem that consciousness continues after the end of one’s physical life. That indeed threw me back to the wake that was held for Dexter Kalla, the prior Friday evening at the Rupert Maynard Community Center in St. Peters. The Center was filled with…
