GREAT BAY – Prime Minister William Marlin has requested the Chairman of Parliament MP Claret Connor to convene an urgent meeting of parliament to discuss the ongoing problems at the Captain Oliver’s Marina in Oyster Pond. Marlin said that up to Sunday evening no response was received from the Préfète Déléguée of St. Barths and St. Martin Anne Laubies. The PM said that he will be calling on the President of the Collectivité Aline Hanson to ensure that the French authorities adhere to agreements made at the quadripartite about the border at Oyster Pond. Marlin said that it had been…
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GREAT BAY – Members of the new parliament participated in an orientation week last week. After the oath taking ceremony on Monday, October 31, Members of Parliament delved immediately on Tuesday in the orientation week organized by the secretariat of parliament. It started with a brief presentation by Secretary General Nancy Guishard-Joubert on some practical matters followed by a master class about the role of parliament in the constitutional framework as well as its competencies and responsibilities. This master class was provided by Luciano Milliard, the vice-rector for governance and policy affairs of the University of Aruba. Milliard has many…
GREAT BAY – Winair promoted First Officers Achmed Gomez, Martin Derrick, Thomas Dubern and Alexander Spencer to Captain last Friday. “A great achievement for these young aspiring pilots. They are a testament of our motto: Winair does not hire first officers, we only hire future Captains.” Winair also welcomed seven new First Officers to its team: Danielson Antoin, Neshomar de Jesus Anthony, Ryan Spencer, Malika Moiso, Kirk Fraser, Richard Johnson and Timothy Vaseur. “This was the largest group of captaincy upgrades as well as the largest number of first officers hired in the history of Winair. Winair continues to grow…
GREAT BAY – Jacinth Hunkins, a 15-year-old student of the St. Maarten Academy School, won the senior division of the annual Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) essay contest. This year’s essay competition theme was, “If you were a cruise passenger, what would you like to see and do in your destination.” As the winner in her age group, Jacinth was invited to accept her prize of a cash scholarship of $3,000 and a plaque from FCCA, at the FCCA Caribbean Cruise Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico with all travel expenses paid. The St. Maarten Academy School also received a monetary…
Is Prime Minister Marlin following the right path by asking for a meeting of parliament to discuss the border row with the French over Captain Oliver’s? That seems a fair question. What is the parliament supposed to do? Listen to something it has already learned via the media? And then what? The facts are simple: the water in Oyster pond is Dutch territory, Captain Oliver’s is a tax payer on the Dutch side and the French have no business meddling in its affairs. The thing is, they did. It is a matter for the Dutch and French ministries of foreign…
Dr. Natasha Gittens about her departure from Scell: ”I weep quietly inside” By Terrance Rey GREAT BAY – The business community in St. Maarten was set alight on Friday with the announcement that Dr. Natasha Gittens had resigned as Director of the University of St. Martin’s Scell program. In a press release published on Friday, the university’s board thanked Dr. Gittens for her contribution. This newspaper sought out Dr. Gittens for an interview as it is yet another departure of yet another director at university over the past few years in a row and a personal insight into the motivations…
GREAT BAY – The Progress Committee St. Maarten was in St. Maarten last week for the usual quarterly meetings with the director of the Pointe Blanche prison Edward Rohan and with the management of the police force to discuss the status of the plans of approach and the progress reports these entities are required by Kingdom law to submit. On Monday, the committee met with the Dutch representative in Philipsburg, Chris Johnson. After that the committee met with Prime Minister, William Marlin, in his new office. The committee took the opportunity to remind the Prime Minister that the committee is…
It’s a good thing that teachers and kids at the Leonald Conner School experienced hindrance from something in the air. Not that we wish this on anyone, but the nuisance has forced the government to take immediate action. This is interesting in the context of the troubles we are experiencing with the fires on the dump. As we all know, or at least should know, these fires emit toxic dioxins. The stuff has the potential to cause cancer. Here is the thing: those darn dioxins are odorless. In other words, the poison is in the air every time the dump…
After last week’s report that women on the French side are not too eager to submit themselves to a breast examination, data from the Dutch side seem to indicate a similar sentiment. During breast cancer awareness month 342 women took a clinical breast examination. That looks like a nice number until you compare it with the population statistics that show that there are 9,876 women on the Dutch side between the ages of 30 and 70 (later data are not available). This means that just 3.5 percent of these women took the test. Whether this is based on a conscious…
GREAT BAY – In early August, the Progress Committee sounded the alarm over the lack of progress with the plans of approach in the justice chain. This week, the committee is back on the island for talks with law enforcement stakeholders; they also met with Dutch Representative Christ Johnson at his office on Front Street. On Wednesday, Minister Ronald Plasterk (Kingdom Relations) sent the latest reports from the Progress Committee to the Dutch parliament. In the accompanying letter he basically reiterates the concerns committee-chairman Nico Schoof expressed at a press conference in St. Maarten in August. Plasterk confirms that the…
