Is casino owner Francesco Corallo getting a fair treatment? That is the question we pose with the publication of our front page interview today. Extradition seems a fairly simple procedure – unless the request is groundless of course; there is no earthly reason to keep someone detained for more than a hundred days while everybody is waiting for a date for a court hearing. This is not just about Corallo – this could happen to any citizen. Tomorrow the court will deal behind closed doors with two requests: the suspension of Corallo’s detention and, if the court disapproves, a transfer…
Author: The Publisher
Dear Editor, Vamed (possibly a derivative of the word that describes the result of nausea?) got its their pound of flesh and now we, a tiny 16-square mile half-of-an-island country can move on and build a new hospital. Kudos to all involved who made this (hopefully last) hurdle go away. While I still can’t grasp the concept of a company who bids higher on a specific project taking the principle of that project to court for awarding it to another company whose bid was lower (duhhh!), even more baffling is the fact that the presiding judge ruled in favor of…
The theme for this year’s World Autism Awareness Day is Toward Autonomy and Self-Determination. The day was on the UN-calendar yesterday. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognizes the right of persons with disabilities to independence of person and to individual autonomy. This Convention also highlights the right of persons with disabilities to legal capacity on an equal basis with others and in all aspects of life. Legal capacity is instrumental to the recognition of a person as a human being of full personhood, with the right to take decisions and enter into contracts.…
The debate about the hospital the UP faction requested will today most likely unfold along familiar patters. The UP will make a big deal of the out of court settlement between SZV and Vamed, the Austrian company that contested the outcome of the bidding process. Obviously, Vamed was more after recovering its costs after a complete reversal of the bidding process. After all, Inso finished first, BAM/Philips second and Vamed third. The rumored, yet unconfirmed pay off for Vamed of €1 million sounds like a lot of money – and for many people it is – but it represents just…
President of Parliament Wescot-Williams would like the government to deal in a different way with motions the Parliament approves. We agree, though this is a two-way street. Parliament ought to deal with them in a different way as well. More often than not, motions are not more than a wish list, in fact, a question asking the government to do something. But seldom do these motions indicate where the money has to come from to execute such a request. Parliamentarians have always taken the position that the government has to figure that out. That perception is dead wrong: if you…
GREAT BAY – The development of the new general hospital is back on schedule as Vamed and SZV have settled all disputes out of court. The appeal procedures on the injunction ruling of November 26, 2016 in the case initiated by Vamed against SZV will be dismissed by both parties. Today was the first to report about the imminent settlement last Tuesday. United People’s party leader Theo Heyliger claimed in a media report that the settlement is for €1 million, but SZV-director Glen Carty declined to confirm this. “I cannot comment on this because the settlement contains a non-disclosure article.…
The government has now until the end of this year to complete its pension and healthcare reform plans. Financial supervisor Cft did not seem too concerned yesterday about what comes down to a one-year delay, even though the clock is ticking for the sustainability of both systems. Especially pension reform promises to be an interesting issue, because the advice is now to increase the retirement age to 65. Love it or oath it, that will have to happen to keep the system sustainable. The question is whether the government will go for an abrupt increase from 60 to 65, or…
GREAT BAY – Financial supervisor Cft is cautiously optimistic about the way things are going with the country’s finances, it appeared from a press conference the Cft hosted yesterday afternoon at the Convent Building on Front Street. There are however still a few major hurdles the government has to take before the kingdom government is fully satisfied with the measures it has taken after the 2015 instruction. They concern the reform of the pension and healthcare system. For both topics, the Cft has advised the kingdom government to grant St. Maarten a new deadline – until the end of this…
ROTARY CLUB OF SINT MAARTEN CELEBRATES ITS 45TH ANNIVERSARY PHILIPSBURG, SINT MAARTEN – March 29, 2017 – The Rotary Club of Sint Maarten celebrated its 45th anniversary with a special dinner celebration at Moomba Restaurant in Maho on Thursday, March 29, 2017. To commemorate the occasion the Rotary Club awarded a Paul Harris Fellow to its only remaining charter member, Richard Gibson. Mr. Gibson accepted the award and recounted several of his memories from the early days of Rotary on Sint Maarten. Mr. Gibson went onto say, “It has been a pleasure to be a Rotarian for all of these…
Dear Editor, The long awaited governing program has finally been released under the name Solidarity for Prosperity. I commend the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), comprised of the NA, USP and DP factions, for producing such a colorful and comprehensive document. Comprehensive in the sense that it identifies practically all the issues and challenges that our society is faced with. Unfortunately though, this document does not meet the requirements of a program or a plan but can be considered an upgraded or glorified version of a manifesto. According to the dictionary, a manifesto is a written statement declaring publicly the intentions…
