Dear Editor, “Some people never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity”, a statement well said by George Bernard Shaw so long ago but still rings true. Especially true concerning the event that took place in St. Maarten last Friday October 28, 2016, when the last KLM flight made its final landing our runways at Princess Juliana Airport. The very runway in which it accredits its fame to this big blue bird. It is undoubtedly a shame on our part for knowing of this potentially major event and taking no action to aid it into something greater than it was.…
Author: The Publisher
The oath of office administered to the fifteen members of the new parliament represents a solemn promise; time will tell how much that oath is really worth, because the first rumblings about discord in the so-called broad-based coalition of ten have already reached our office. The oath put the responsibility for a stable government squarely on the shoulders of the elected Members of Parliament. The past six years have shown that those shoulders are not strong enough to carry that responsibility. Will it be different this time around? We all know the saying, if you always do what you always…
GREAT BAY- Watching a plane carrying a family member or close friend depart from up close or even from a distance can have that emotional roller coaster effect. But what happened when KLM’s Boeing 747-400 lifted off from the Princess Juliana International Airport last Friday for the last time is not easy to describe. It was as if it was the end of a love affair, only this time, it was not an affair involving two people. It was one that involved the trademark blue and white aircraft with the hump and those that had the pleasure of experiencing the…
GREAT BAY – Last Friday the contract for the company’s new chief executives were signed. The appointment come weeks after the Supervisory Board’s proposal to appoint the three to the Executive Managing Board. “Kenrick Chittick the new Chief Executive Officer is a widely respected leader who has built a positive track record while serving as the Head of Power Plant earlier this year,” Gebe stated in a press release. “His background will enable him to play a key role in driving the company’s strategy and reinforcing Gebe’s position as a leading utility company in the Caribbean, while continuing to build…
GREAT BAY – Governor Drs. Eugène Holiday met last Thursday with formateur William Marlin and received a progress report. During the meeting the formateur provided the Governor with a copy of the governing program and an update on the progress of matters related to the formation. This included a review of the status of the screening of the candidates for the posts of Prime Minister, Ministers, Minister Plenipotentiary and acting Minister Plenipotentiary. The screening covers a background review of (a) the personal and professional credentials, (b) the financial position, (c) the fiscal (i.e. tax and social security premiums) compliance, (d)…
GREAT BAY – The last meeting of the outgoing parliament began – for a change – exactly at 10 a.m. last Friday morning, though two members were missing in action at the beginning of the meeting. Governor Holiday will administer the oath of office to the fifteen newly elected Members of Parliament this Monday, after the outgoing parliament approved their credentials in a public meeting on Friday morning. The ceremony will be broadcast live on St. Maarten Cable TV channel 120, starting at 9.55 a.m. afterwards, the new parliament will be presented with the governor on the steps of the…
The initial announcement that the members of the new Council of Ministers would be sworn in tomorrow has proven to be too optimistic, as formateur Marlin is now expected to deliver his final report to the governor this upcoming Friday. It’s a delay of just a couple of days but it makes us wonder about the reason for it. Since it behooves the formateur not to speak with the media about possible problems in the formation we are left guessing – and our best guess is that there is somehow a problem with the screening of one of the candidate-ministers.…
Dear editor, After our new parliamentarians are sworn in they will be faced at some point during their tenure with having to vote their conscience. A careful look at Sint Maarten’s State Regulation, commonly called the Constitution, reveals that there is no such article or phrase in our law that charges parliamentarians to vote their conscience. In the State Regulation of the former Netherlands Antilles however, voting one’s conscience was regulated in article 61 which read: “the members of Parliament will vote in good conscience, without interference by or consultation with those who elected them.” This article was taken from…
GREAT BAY – From October 23 to 25, the Hillside Christian School and the adjoining NIPA were the scene of an array of lectures and workshops on applying twenty-first century technology in education, constituting the second annual C-TEC conference. Driven by the motto “Connecting Caribbean Classrooms and Communities” the Foresee Foundation organized its second annual conference with an audience including each and every educator in Sint Maarten. At the closing of the conference on Tuesday afternoon, the total number of participants stood at 1,004 persons; over 400 of them attended the Monday program when the secondary school educators were invited,…
GREAT BAY – TelEm Group management and personnel were well represented in the audience and also on the panels of a major international tech conference that kicked off at the Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort Casino & Spa, Monday. The event was organized by Caribbean Network Operators Group (CaribNOG), the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry (LACNIC) and the Internet Society (ISOC) with the theme – St. Maarten on the Move. It also involved a week of events coordinated by the local Bureau of Telecommunications and Post (BTP) entitled: “Internet Week St. Maarten.” Monday’s opening session was quickly followed…
