Stellar reputation
By Hilbert Haar You always have to pay attention when politicians start making statements that seem to be too good to be true – or realistic. I definitely got a bit of that vibe from statements the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte made on Monday during his visit to St. Maarten. First the positive news. Rutte repeated so often that he has confidence More...
The other side of the story
By Hilbert Haar It was a rather weird day in court on Wednesday when Brenda Brooks, an attorney I have known since she started working in St. Maarten in 2009, was sitting in the chair of the accused, rather than More...
Is automatic early release coming to an end?
By Hilbert Haar Imagine this: the court sentences a man for armed robbery to a prison sentence of nine years. He spent already eight months in pretrial custody, so he has one hundred months to go before he roams More...
Reconstruction priorities
By Hilbert Haar Roofs have to be repaired and businesses have to get back on their feet in the wake of Hurricane Irma. All that makes sense. But the real priorities for the country still lie elsewhere, as became More...
Dollars, not guilders
By Hilbert Haar An alert reader pointed out to me that the price the waste-to-energy plant would charge GEBE for a Kilowatt of electricity is $0.26 and not 0.26 guilders. This is correct and I apologize for the More...
The question nobody ever asked
By Hilbert Haar The dump remains a hot item and for good reason. For decades dump fires have affected the health of citizens and for decades the government had failed to do something about it. The construction of More...
To write or not to write…. about the dump fire again
Last week Saturday, Carnival Fascination cruise ship was informed about the smoke from the dump by the port authorities and advised not to make a call at the port of St. Maarten. Despite this the captain decided, More...
Friday the thirteenth
By Hilbert Haar It’s rather ironic that Prime Minister Leona Marlin-Romeo met on Friday the thirteenth with Moniek Bouland, the director of Governance & Integrity International. You could call it unfortunate More...
Rules and regulations
By Hilbert Haar We have no shortage of laws, national ordinances and rules and regulation in our little country. What we sorely miss is the will to apply those rules. This appears once more from the questions I More...
Sound levels
By Hilbert Haar It’s that time of the year again. Carnival. Come and enjoy life. But don’t forget your earplugs. The Collective Prevention Services (CPS) are on to it. Last week the department sent out a press More...
