PHILIPSBURG — St Maarten has achieved ‘beautiful results” Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs wrote in a reaction to the fourth progress report from the Temporary Work Organization (TWO) about the implementation of measures outlined in the country packages. But there are also setbacks: “Capacity issues will remain a returning issue in progress reports,” Jacobs noted. The report acknowledges that insufficient progress cannot always be attributed to the country. To bring short-term measures that serve long-term objectives into focus, the TWO introduced St. Maarten to the Theory of Change. The late Carol Weiss, an American sociologist who died in 2013 at the…
Author: The Publisher
PHILIPSBURG — Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs has labeled reports that the government plans to move the parliamentary elections from January 2024 to November 23, 2023, as “incorrect.” Jacobs said that discussions about the election-date are ongoing within the Council of Ministers. “Until there is a decision, the scheduled date for the elections remains January 2024,” she stated in a press release. The report about an early election did not escape the attention of parliamentarian Sarah Wescot-Williams (United Democrats). “Constitutionally, the parliament sits for four years,” she stated in a press release. Indeed, article 46 of St. Maarten’s constitution states: “The…
PHILIPSBURG — Financial supervisor CFT is not happy with St. Maarten’s draft 2023 budget. While the Kingdom Council of Ministers decided on September 30, that this budget has to be balanced, it shows instead a deficit of 72 million guilders ($40.2 million). “St. Maarten must balance its 2023 draft budget and its multi-annual budget to generate surpluses for the payments on loans and the compensation of deficits,” the Cft writes in its advice to finance Minister Ardwell Irion. In 2023, a loan of 73.5 million guilders ($41 million) from 20210 expires. “A surplus on the budgets of 2024 and 2025…
PHILIPSBURG – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte offered profound apologies for the role of the Netherlands in the history of slavery on December 19. Reactions to his speech remained however divided, at times cynical and mostly critical. An overview. Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema already offered last year apologies for the role her city played in the history of slavery. She labeled Rutte’s speech as “a beautiful moment,” appreciating that he had taken the time to explain how criminal the slavery-system had been. Christa Tache, a reader of the Algemeen Dagblad, wrote in a letter to the editor that the majority…
Door Hilbert Haar St. Maarten will “accept nor deny” apologies for the history of slavery from the Dutch government, according to Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs in a reaction to a speech by Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The Dutch apology is loud and clear: slavery was a crime against humanity. “We, living in the here and now, can only acknowledge and judge slavery in the clearest terms and disapprove of it as a crime against humanity.” Rutte had of course a lot more to say, but this is the meat of the matter. The Dutch government acknowledges its role in the…
PHILIPSBURG – The Appeals Council for Civil Servants Affairs has annulled the national decree that sealed the dismissal of Luis Brown as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Public Housing, Urban Planning, Infrastructure and Environment (VROMI) per June 28, 2021. Governor Holiday signed the decree based on two articles in the LMA, the rulebook for civil servants. The first article regulates disciplinary measures against civil servants for neglect of duty. The second article regulates these measures: they vary from the lightest punishment (a reprimand) to the heaviest sanction (dismissal). The decree also mentioned that Brown abused his position as (Acting) Head…
A begin, whether you would want to accept this or not. But IAM looking forward to the Next Steps. Of course, IAM, and I intend to making my very serious contributions in assisting to steer the coming future Steps in the direction that our Peoples of Suriname, Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, will not feel that our Ancestors suffered for Centuries and eventually died in vain, while sacrificing for us, that today we are living much better lives than they did. And so we must not allow our memories of them, and their legacies to have been in…
PHILIPSBURG – The Economic Bulletin of December 2022 of the Central Bank of Curacao and St. Maarten contains an article about the effect of inequality on economic growth. The bank writes that this topic warrants further research and that it can therefore not present a definitive conclusion. Inequality has effect on a political and an economic level. Politically, inequality creates pressure for the implementation of redistribution policies. Economically, it provides incentives for innovation and entrepreneurship. “Those at the upper end of income distribution have surplus resources to invest in new businesses,” the report states. ‘Those at the lower end may…
THE HAGUE – Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte offered his government’s apologies for the history of slavery on Monday December 19, in a speech at the National Archives in The Hague. We offer our readers hereby a verbatim translation of the speech which Rutte beforehand touted as “a meaningful moment.” “Here in the National Archives history speaks to us through millions of documents. And even though we do not hear the unwritten voices from the past, the story that emerges from all those archived documents is not only beautiful. It is often also ugly, painful and even plain shameful. This…
PHILIPSBURG — The National Institute of Arts (NIA) hosted a concert at the Divi Resort with the Family String Band with its lead vocalist Edsel Eusebius and NIA’s Youth Orchestra. “With this project we would like to continue the legacy of St. Maarten’s cultural heritage,” NIA-director Arlene Halley said. “This is about instilling a sense of national pride and identity in youngsters via the Youth Orchestra by exposing them first-hand to the ‘older heads’ with their cultural music and instruments. In turn the youth orchestra will share their skills and culture with visitors to the island and with the general…
