Why you should avoid lotteries
By Hilbert Haar Let me begin with a confession. I have been a poker player for close to twenty years. But I am not a gambler. You see, there is a difference between playing games of chance – where the outcome depends on dumb luck – and games of skill (like poker) where the outcome depends for a large part on how you hold up against other More...
The future of banking
By Hilbert Haar Digital banking is the future. No question about it, but where will this leave banking clients in St. Maarten? And where will it leave the traditional banks that are currently serving them? Complaints More...
Hogwash
By Hilbert Haar The November 19, 2021, court ruling against Hushang Ansary, his daughter Nina and several others that orders them to repay insurance company ENNIA in excess of a billion guilders starts having an More...
Forgotten examples
By Hilbert Haar “A parliament is nothing less than a big meeting of more or less idle people,” the British journalist, businessman and essayist Walter Bagehot once wrote. True or false? When I look at the parliament More...
The Daily Invisible
By Hilbert Haar Julius Vischjager was, I am not exaggerating, a phenomenon. Between 1977 and 2009 he produced 528 editions of The Daily Invisible, the only handwritten newspaper in the world. Vischjager was its More...
Tricky business
By Hilbert Haar People in Curacao were surprised by the offer of Hushang Ansary’s attorney to abide by a ruling from the Court in First Instance from November 2021. I was not surprised. I was stunned, because More...
Slightly insane
By Hilbert Haar I have more than once expressed my amazement about the huge number of tax warrants our tax inspectorate issues on a regular basis. Hundreds of them and they all have one characteristic in common: More...
Crying over spilt milk
By Hilbert Haar Als het kalf verdronken is dempt men de put. That Dutch expression aptly describes the belated anger of parliamentarians about the destruction of the historical ruins at Diamond Estate. I am not More...
Unlawful spending
By Hilbert Haar The General Audit Chamber investigates the lawful and efficient spending of public funds, or so I read in the chamber’s report about St. Maarten’s 2021 financial statements. Related article: More...
Mixed reactions to removal of COHO-law
PHILIPSBURG — Local politicians have reacted with caution and at times enthusiasm to the news that the consensus kingdom law COHO (Caribbean Organization for Reform and Development) is now definitely history. More...
