GREAT BAY – The United People’s (UP) party submitted yesterday its full slate of candidate financials related to September 26 elections to the Electoral Council. Treasurer Earl Wyatt submitted the financials to the Electoral Council at 2 p.m. The Electoral Council recently appealed to 118 out of 125 candidates (seven candidates had already done so) who had participated in the elections to submit their donation registration list before the October 26 deadline. Candidates who don’t comply accordingly are subject to sanctions for non-compliance of the National Ordinance, which includes the publication of their names in all mass media. Elected Members…
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GREAT BAY – Finance Minister Richard Gibson disagrees with the opinion of financial supervisor Cft that the 2016 budget no longer meets the requirements of the kingdom law financial supervision. The Cft informed the kingdom government that St. Maarten does not qualify for new loans because of the budget-situation. “They do not take into consideration information we have provided,” Minister Gibson said, adding that this information included an expected dividend payment from the Central Bank. The government has in the meantime received this payment of 9.2 million guilders. “Not only that,” Minister Gibson said yesterday. “There is also another windfall…
The governor of Curacao has sent the controversial 80-20 labor law back to the cabinet because she considers it discriminatory – and rightly so. There is however more to this archaic law that deserves our attention. It is a form of far-reaching government-interference in the private sector, where companies ought to be free to hire the people they need. With the right people in the right place, companies will flourish and when they do, other jobs become available. Again, and this is also true for St. Maarten, when there are two candidates for a job and a local is equally…
Hmmm, a discussion on Facebook about the election results shows that not everybody is happy. What else is new? Interestingly, the discussion is based on knowledge we don’t have: that five of the seven ministers in the new cabinet won a seat in parliament. Based on the list, that shows the fifteen parliamentarians, the following politicians will presumably be part of the next Council of Ministers: Theo Heyliger, Franklin Meyers, Jules James, William Marlin, and Silveria Jacobs. Actually there are six, if you count Christophe Emmanuel in. The seventh minister is of course Richard “gibson who will stay on as…
We don’t like anonymous letters; especially those that accuse someone of wrongdoing. We’d say: if you’re man enough to accuse somebody, then be man enough to show your face. Otherwise, get lost. Unfortunately, we have websites that pretend to be in the news business that have a different opinion. They publish such letters with gusto, without asking themselves why somebody comes up with certain accusations. There is always an ulterior motive and none are stronger than those of the anonymous letter-writer. Maybe you say: wait a minute. Is the message not more important than the messenger? Well, that depends. The…
Hospitals are dangerous places and after reading the results of a study that was published in the journal Plos Medicine you may want to think twice about going there. The study found that 91,000 people die every year in European hospitals from infections they caught in those hospitals. The number of patients that gets infected is estimated to be 2, 6 million. Maybe that makes the death rate acceptable (3.5 percent), but the absolute number remains rather stunning. Most of the infections are pneumonia, blood poisoning, and infections to the urinal tract or to wounds. Petra Gastmeier, an expert from…
THE HAGUE – Alfonso Boekhoudt’s appointment as the new governor of Aruba per January 1 stands, Pieter Hofmann reports on Caribisch Netwerk. Aruba gave in because the appointment is official and in the interest of the relationships within the Kingdom. This appears from a joint statement of the Netherlands and Aruba, published yesterday after a meeting between Prime Minister Mike Eman and Kingdom Relations Minister Ronald Plasterk. Aruba was furious about Boekhoudt’s appointment; Eman said it was unlawful and demanded that the Kingdom reverse it. In the end he gave in. Minister Plasterk reportedly ignored several Aruban candidates, among them…
By Milton Pieters GREAT BAY- Just when everyone thought that the most spectacular landing, the largest cruise ship facility and the oddest national borders were the only things that made St Maarten stand out as a country, here comes the zip line at the Emilio Wilson Estate. The zip line that is currently being installed will be the steepest in the world, with an almost 42 degree incline and that is something all residents of this friendly island have to be proud of when it’s completed. St Maarten will now top the ranking ahead of the Zip Flyer in Nepal…
The case of a detective who accused the head of the National Detective Agency of all kinds of things without merit should be a lesson for others. At the heart of the matter is a labor dispute, whereby the detective drew the short straw: he was suspended. His accusations at the address of his employer have been thoroughly investigated and the conclusion is clear. The complaints are baseless. Without any doubt this will put a further dent in the career path of a 29-year-old who was not too long ago hailed by the United St. Maarten party as a rising…
MARIGOT (soualigapost.com) – The Collectivité has extended the Semsamar concession for Marina Fort Louis for another two years. This decision was justified by the designation of the future concessionnaire for the development of Marigot Bay in two years. Since June 2000, Marina Fort Louis has been managed in the context of a public service delegation by the Semsamar, more specifically by one of its subsidiaries, the Samagest, according to an agreement between the two parties. Initially, this agreement was supposed to end on December 31, 2015. According to a contract amendment in December 2015, it was extended until the end…
