Author: The Publisher

We hate to write certain opinion pieces because they have a tendency to work like a self-fulfilling prophecy and we are not in the business of predicting the news but writing about it as it occurs or after it has happened. But we have asked our own in-house aviation specialist about the recent developments surrounding Insel Air and his opinion is that history is repeating itself. The present developments and the pattern seen are following an old playbook to the script. He has seen the same pattern with ALM, Air ALM, DCA, Dutch Caribbean Exel ( DCE), Dutch Antilles Express…

We have no idea why defendants lie in court. It is rare for someone to come up with a story that has the court so baffled that there is no other option than to give it at least the benefit of the doubt. It is obviously not our task to tell suspects in criminal cases what they should and should not do; it’s a free world and they can do whatever they want. In the end it comes down to taking responsibility – and that is not everybody’s forte. In this sense one could almost admire the young man who…

When you have to say goodbye for the last time to someone you have known for years – as was the case with the funeral of Today’s employee Lyndon Dusty’ Nelson yesterday – emotions tend to run high. Everybody processes the death if a loved one in a different way – and that’s okay, because these emotions are highly personal. You don’t make an appointment with death; it strikes far too often completely unexpectedly, as was the case with Dusty who became the victim of a traffic accident in French Quarter. Such events are disturbing, to say the least, but…

The sentencing of the woman who ordered the murder of her own father marked one of the more shocking crimes in our country’s history, but it was a heartfelt cry from a crime-victim that attracted even more of our attention. The case in which the victim is claiming damages (that are hardly ever collected, by the way) was postponed by the court after deliberating about a possible psychiatric evaluation of the suspect. That got the victim, who sustained severe injuries and had to deal with a damaged car, going. And while this victim expressed her misery, we are still waiting…

GREAT BAY – Following a meeting of its emergency committee on Zika, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) said that the infectious disease and its associated consequences no longer present a public health emergency of international concern, but stressed the need for sustained effort to address the disease, which has been linked to congenital and other neurological disorders. According to a news release issued on Friday by the UN health agency, many aspects of this disease and associated consequences still remain to be understood, but this can best be done through sustained research. The Emergency Committee also recommended that…

That some people took to the streets to express their frustration about the power outages is understandable. It is, actually, amazing, that some people showed up for the mini protest at all. Recent history shows that the good citizens of St. Maarten are not the protesting type at least not when they have to go out for it. They complain on social media and at times in letters to the editor, but that’s about it. So maybe the thirty-something protesters that showed up at the Gebe-offices yesterday morning represent the dawn of a new era. It was, with all due…

The case of Nadika Stephen that will be in court on Thursday is an interesting one because highlights the identity of the people living on the French side and the cultural differences with the forces – like the Gendarmerie and the Police Aux Frontieres – that control them. Islanders like Stephen – and many others with her – do not consider themselves French even though they carry a French passport. Before everything else, they consider themselves Martinois. While this is not the subject of the court case – the authorities accuse Stephen of using a racial slur during a protest…

GREAT BAY – Under supervision of Chief Commissioner Denise Jacobs the immigration department is again part of the police force. The department is fully operational. The aim is to further professionalise the immigration department. In several areas like information and service work is already underway. In collaboration with the Royal Marechaussee and VDSM (Veiligheidsdienst), the police department is now working on the so-called Advanced Passenger Analysis system. The police want to establish an automated system for analysing passenger information, and to implement this in cooperation with the airport. Willem Mudde from the Royal Marechaussee in the Netherlands gave a presentation…

GREAT BAY – The St. Maarten Hospitality & Trade Association (SHTA) took note of the recent arrest in the Immigration Department and applauds this step toward improved accountability. “As a young nation, we must find the way to uphold ethics and accountability in ourselves and our fellow citizens. Unfortunately, there are far too few shining examples of proper accountability. This month in particular we are overwhelmed with just the opposite,” the association says in a press statement. As a first example, the SHTA mentions “the soft opening of a parking lot that rumors to have cost an extraordinary amount of…

GREAT BAY – A small group of around thirty frustrated Gebe customers staged a protest at the utilities company’s main office on the Pondfill yesterday morning against the relentless load shedding of the past week. The protest was peaceful, though at a certain moment the police had to intervene when protesters blocked traffic on the Pondfill. A Gebe-manager invited a few of the protesters inside – among them the leader of the Christian Party Wycliffe Smith and Sjaoul Richardson. One man was wearing a tee shirt with a new explanation for the Gebe-acronym: Generating Everything But Electricity. The power of…