GREAT BAY- In the weeks running up to the 2017 Soca Rumble competition sponsored by Tel Cell, expectations were high in the lyrical battle in the Groovy as well as the Power category. Soca rumble competition But only one winner could emerge in each category. King Vers did it with ‘Yap Yap’ after scoring 454 points while Kenyo A Baly who scored 419 points walked away with the Grovy title, with ‘Who Yuh Fuh’ which has been making waves on the airwaves. That win for Baly and King Vers has made them $10,000 richer but only the 1st runner up…
Author: The Publisher
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The term ‘culture’ is often uses as an explanation for why things are happening in a certain way. It is a weak excuse of course; an attempt to talk something right that is, in fact, totally wrong. Such is the case with a man from, admittedly, another island, who had sex with a girl of 13, while he was 46. In the book of the court such a relationship violates social-ethical standards. In common language: that’s a big non-no. But look now: according to the court ruling the girl’s mother apparently encouraged the relationship. The girl, vulnerable due to alcohol…
Seldom do we hear a minister so outspoken – and also so angry – about an issue that touches the core of our community. Minister Silveria Jacobs went all out on Wednesday against the vulgarities that marred the Youth Extravaganza show in the Carnival Village on Monday evening – and rightly so. A show promoted as a youth event that is going to attract kids as young as six should be clean and stay far away from the sexually explicit and vulgar rap that has become the sad standard for a large part of a generation that has lost sight…
Carnival is the season of naughtiness, but one may well ask the question whether the Youth Extravaganza is the proper podium for it. We’d think that chanting Sexy Silveria is in itself harmless enough, but for the Carnival Development Foundation and the police it was one bridge too far, so they pulled the plug on a show that was designed to entertain in particular youngsters. More serious is the report that booth holders were selling alcohol to minors. That can obviously not be a reason to stop a show; it should be reason to kick such booth holders out of…
GREAT BAY- The police had the last say during the latter stages of the 2017 Youth Extravaganza, Black & White event organized by Laugh Out Loud Productions. Police officers came onto the stage after host Dutty Sham had uttered several times the words “Sexy Silveria” directed at the minister of education Laugh Out Loud organizer Andrew Dick, a reporter for the Daily Herald, said that the event was planned since last year and they wanted to do something different that involved about twenty performers. “It was made clear to all performers about vulgarity in their songs,” Dick added. Everything was…
The plight of Captain Dino has brought an issue to light that deserves the attention of our decision makers. One of the key questions in this affair, apart from the attempts to get a permit for the chicken wing shack on Kim Sha Beach, centers on the difficulties locals encounter when they want to get a little enterprise off the ground. The current policy for vending licenses stipulates that these permits are only for citizens who have no other income; the proceeds from the vending permit must be their main income. While this seems to have been inspired by a…
GREAT BAY – President of the Sint Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF), Alston Lourens has expressed the organisation’s dissatisfaction at the ‘unfortunate’ incidents which allegedly occured at the Youth Extravaganza on Monday night. “The children will get another chance to perform.” Lourens explained that there was enough warnings made to the organisers and MC’s of the show about explicit and disrespectful behavior on stage prior to the event and cautions should have been heeded. “Some of the acts had to perform youth-oriented music and lyrics. We spoke to the promoters and gave them a couple warnings at the beginning.” the…
GREAT BAY – Captain Dino Arrundell never had a vending license to operate his chicken shack on the parking lot at Kim Sha Beach, the ministry of tourism and economic affairs said in answer to questions from this newspaper about the closure of the popular hangout. “Mr. Arrundell used the vending license of another person who has not been residing in St. Maarten since 2015,” the ministry said. “The facts surrounding the license Mr. Arrundell is using became evident when he was asked to relocate from the location to allow the construction of the public parking lot. Arrangements were made…
Closed down, victim of a possibly outdated, easily circumvented government policy on vending licenses. That policy states (and I am paraphrasing) that vending licenses can only be issued to unemployed persons who have no other means of income. Captain Dino does have a day job. But I suggest we do not go down that road…. how many persons with a day job including Commissioners (when WE were the government) and now parliamentarians, civil servants and other holders of jobs in the public as well as private sectors did and do not also hold taxi, bus and/or other permits that are…
GREAT BAY – The government violated its pre-contractual obligations towards contractor Windward Roads when it unilaterally terminated negotiations on December 19, 2011 about the construction of a waste to energy facility on Pond Island. This appears from a ruling from the Court in First Instance. The waste-to-energy saga The court sentenced the country to pay Windward Roads 60,730 guilders for turnover taxes; earlier the country already paid the contractor a bit more than 1 million guilders in a partial settlement on August 7, 2013. Windward Roads demands compensation to the tune of 4.5 million guilders. The court allowed the company…
