CAY HILL — The St. Maarten Medical Center welcomed a new Internist-Nephrologist to their medical staff on October 30th, 2017. Dr. Laima Siddiqi-Nadery obtained her MD and PhD degree from the University Medical Center Utrecht. There she recently completed her specialty training in Internal Medicine and Nephrology. After completing her training, Dr. Siddiqi – Nadery chose St. Maarten as her ideal place of work. “Providing optimal care, despite practicing with limited facilities is a challenge that I always wanted to go for. I am here to give a hand, make the team of SMMC stronger and help those in need,…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — Detectives of the Police Juvenile department are presently investigating the serious ill-treatment of a 14 year old student. The incident took place on Monday November 6th in front of the former Sheik Supermarket on the L.B. Scot road. The victim according to witnesses was attacked by four other students attending three other secondary schools. During the fight one of the students involved in the fight was in the possession of an aluminum baseball bat and used it to strike the victim in his head. The victim was treated on the scene by paramedics and then transported to the…
Willemstad – On Thursday, November 30, 2017, there will be a bond issue on behalf of the country of Curacao. The bond will have a semi-annual coupon as follows: NAf 60,000,000 bond with duration of 30 years. Interest rate is based on the Dutch yield curve as of November 22, 2017. On Wednesday, November 22, 2017, the Dutch State Treasury Agency (DSTA) will be able to subscribe, and after that up to Thursday, November 23, 2017, 10:00A.M., the general public will be able to subscribe to this bond issue at all commercial banks on Curacao and Sint Maarten. Subscription will…
PHILIPSBURG – Prime Minister William Marlin says that there are simple solutions for all the concerns that have been vented about the January 8 elections. The government has freed up a budget of 661,000 guilders for the elections. “Democracy comes at a price,” Marlin noted drily on Wednesday. The prime minister acknowledged that the post office has been destroyed during Hurricane Irma. “That’s the building, but not the postal workers,” he pointed out. “A stack of voting cards will come back also this time because the people cannot be found. But the voting cards that cannot be delivered will be…
PHILIPSBURG – “How did we get there? Irma hit.” Prime Minister William Marlin is still reeling from the recent political developments that brought down his government, but he doesn’t think the hurricane had anything to do with it: “Something was already in the making to break up this government before the hurricane.” Marlin went over recent political history since 2014, when the first red-white and blue coalition of NA, DP and USp fell apart due to the defection of DP-MP Cornelius de Weever. “We could have had an 8-seat majority with the USp at the time,” Marlin said. But the…
PHILIPSBURG – “These are very strange days,” Minister Emil Lee (Public Health, Social Development and Labor) said at Wednesday’s council of Ministers press briefing. “It is sad that after you have worked together for two years, how people turn on you so quickly,” he added, while Prime Minister William Marlin, who has criticized Lee, sat a few meters away from him, listening stone-faced. “Right now I understand how this works,” Lee continued. “Let’s blame the guy who leaves the team. Since Irma I have worked, like many others, every day to serve the country. After reading some recent comments I…
Philipsburg — The Sint Maarten government received a cheque in the amount of USD$105,275 from representatives of The Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Willemstad late last week. Announcing the donation last week was the Vice Consul when making a courtesy visit to our Prime Minister. The funds are earmarked for the reconstruction of schools and homes following the devastation caused by Hurricane Irma. Prime Minister William Marlin, in his letter to the Chinese Consular General Zhang Weixin, thanked the Consulate for their continued support of Sint Maarten, its economy, and its people. Photo caption: The Vice…
PHILIPSBURG – The best option is to replace the Pointe Blanche prison,” Minister of Justice Rafael Boasman said at Wednesday’s Council of Ministers press briefing. “The final assessment is still being made but the costs to repair the facility will be so high that it does not make sense to do this.” Minister Boasman described the process of transferring 59 inmates to prisons in Curacao and the Netherlands, adding that this was not done because of staff shortage but as a security measure. “This was a tremendous operation; a job well done,” the minister said. You see, if we work…
PHILIPSBURG – Hurricane Irma has destroyed the points of departure that underpinned the 2017 budget,” Minister of Finance Richard Gibson Sr. said in a central committee meeting of Parliament on Wednesday afternoon. The minister referred to article 25 of the kingdom law financial supervision that allows for diverging from the budget rules in case of “damages caused by extraordinary events.” The minister did not say however, that such a divergence requires a decision from the Kingdom Council of Ministers. Minister Gibson came to Parliament to answer questions MPs had asked during a meeting that took place last Monday. Before he…
PHILIPSBURG – “The discussion is not about the right of the government to use article 59. No one is disputing that. But I have a serious problem when it is used at a time like this,” DP-leader MP Sarah Wescot-Williams said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. Governor Drs. Eugène Holiday has appointed UP-MP Franklin Meyers as informateur. His task is to explore the options for a broad-based government but also to execute the elections and to take steps to realize electoral reform. “I think that when the dust has settled, Parliament needs to have a serious discussion about…
