On the surface it seems like the two girls who attempted to smuggle drugs into the Pointe Blanche prison yesterday are utterly dumb. Who puts a bunch of ecstasy pills in his pocket for a visit to the prison? That is asking for trouble, right? Ther
That the parliament does not want to run head over heels into passing legislation for the establishment of the Integrity Chamber is up to a point understandable. Hence the adjournment of yesterday’s meeting. The question is however what parliame
There is a new era around the corner in St. Maarten’s political arena. The announcement that Silveria Jacobs will be at the helm of the National Alliance come 2016 –given the approval of the party’s congress – indicates William Marlin’s imm
Editorial, St. Maarten News - Posted by admin on March 19, 2015
Members of Parliament love talking about creating jobs for the people. The latest cry is coming from MP Maurice Lake, the former Minister of Vromi, who urges the government to create work for local contractors. It sounds sympathetic – no questio
While the harbor-project St. Maarten Quarter gets a lot of attention these days, Dutch Quarter residents must be scratching their heads over all that has been promised to them for years. The upgrade of the district, for which the European Developm
The electoral system is what it is. Hardly any candidate wins enough votes for a seat, so most MPs get their job on the strength of their party list. Should they, as political scientist Julio Romney suggests, be placed under some sort of higher su
Former marketing director at the tourist bureau Edward Dest wondered not without reason where the other suspects were at his trial. The accusations of inappropriate use of funds from an American bank account that was to be used for the promotion
The risk of asking question to which one does not know the answer is getting an inconvenient response. This applies in all likelihood to the question the committee for Kingdom Affairs and Inter-parliamentary Relations submitted yesterday for revie
Editorial, St. Maarten News - Posted by admin on March 2, 2015
We obviously do not know all the details about the fatal accident on Bishop Hill, but what we do know is enough for a preliminary assessment. At best, this is a case of reckless driving with tragic consequences. At worst it is an accident caused b
Editorial, St. Maarten News - Posted by admin on February 24, 2015
Reports that employees at the airport may be involved in smuggling illegal drugs in the luggage of unsuspecting InselAir passengers is alarming and not just for the obvious reason. If such unscrupulous employees are able to get drugs in the airport a
The initiative of the Christian Hillside School under the guidance of the St. Maarten Nature Foundation to introduce a recycling program at the school is commendable and should be viewed as an example for businesses and schools on the island. At a re
The initiative by the St. Maarten’s Lion’s Club to have the powers that be increase the legal drinking age from 16 to 21 is a positive one. Their expressed willingness to compromise on this and accept at the very least 18 years as the legal drink
The Princess Heights boutique hotel is a classic example of how to do things right – one that goes far beyond the hospitality industry. Wasteful behavior is rampant in the civil service and while the cabinet wants to put a policy in place to cur
Not everything is well in Oyster Pond. The Oyster Bay Beach Resort seems to be acting like the big bad wolf, by claiming a part of the beach in front of the Great House next to Busby’s Beach Bar for the placement of beach chairs for its guests.
Editorial, St. Maarten News - Posted by admin on February 5, 2015
Prime Minister Gumbs and Justice Minister Richardson did not use the word but if one thing is clear it is this: St. Maarten and the Netherlands are at war. Never before was it so abundantly obvious that the kingdom is in dire need of a dispute regula
That the government’s telecommunication bill is getting completely out of control cannot be a surprise to anyone. Phone bills are sky high for the same reason it is always so cold in government offices: civil servants do as they please because they
The much anticipated debate about the 2015 draft budget followed a familiar pattern, similar to what emerged from last week’s meetings in the Central Committee. What else is new? We all know that the coalition will approve the budget without muc
Is it right to give young burglars who wreaked havoc in a supermarket in St. Peters a second chance? The court seemed to think so yesterday and the young burglars almost high-fived each other in front of the judge after it became clear that they woul
Labor conflicts like the one involving attorney Ellen Knoppel show how the inner workings of the government apparatus sometimes shortchange people who mistakenly think they have a steady job. Knoppel went on a rollercoaster ride whereby her one-ye
It appears from a letter to the editor that timeshare owners already submitted their proposals for legislation to Prime Minister Wescot-Williams in 2011. Those proposals were ignored, but now the former prime minister who is currently the lone DP-mem
MP Silvio Matser and the UP-leadership had it coming: a call from the opposition National Alliance for the convicted MP to vacate his seat in Parliament. Since integrity is so high on everybody’s agenda this year, it is impossible to shove the o
The inter-parliamentary consultation that took place this week in Aruba usually evolves along familiar lines. Gone are the days though when angry Caribbean MPs left the meeting – like Helmin Wiels did in St. Maarten once. There seems to be conse
A productive, competitive and robust economy. That is what Up-leader Heyliger envisions for the coming year. Unfortunately, the Gumbs-cabinet has made clear that it will implement the controversial counterpart policy. That will get in the way of that
Editorial, St. Maarten News - Posted by admin on December 10, 2014
The researchers of Transparency International – the last in a seemingly long line of organizations to test our country’s integrity levels – make a good point in today’s front-page story. Fighting corruption is not the exclusive task of the
The Parliament sent an invitation for a meeting at 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon. The email reached us at 10.18 a.m. The idea was to discuss three reports of the Progress Committee. At 1.35 p.m. we received another email, saying that the meeting had
The current situation on French St. Martin with regards to persons depleting the government’s coffers through what appears to be bogus financial claims from the social services brings to mind the words of Mahatma Gandhi: “There is a sufficiency i
The French threat to the Netherlands to do something about the inequality between the Dutch and the French side of the island – or else – is probably going to come to nothing, but still. The idea to cancel the Treaty of Concordia, followed by the
That Cornelius de Weever turned his back to the Democratic Party and the coalition with the National Alliance and the United St. Maarten party over the counterpart-policy is simply not believable. Yesterday we learned that the Council of Ministers ap
Today formateur William Marlin will deliver his report to Governor Holiday. There are no surprises expected, or it must be that the governor will also receive the governing program that the three coalition partners put together after the elections.
The dog and pony show about the abuse of short-term labor contracts has been a familiar guest in the former Island Council and in the Parliament. On Friday, the Social Economic Council published its advice about the changes to the civil code that oug
Guns, machetes and baseball bats. Armed robbery seems to have reached new heights with the recording of seven of such incidents during the last week. In all cases, supermarkets were the target. That the people working in these places are feeling i
The sentence a psychotic man received in court yesterday for attempted manslaughter on a 9-year old schoolgirl will leave many people with a bitter taste in their mouth. In tragic cases like this – little girl, seriously disturbed man – there nev
To take one incident at the Pointe Blanche prison as the measuring stick for the state of affairs on that hill is probably too easy. The events of the past couple of days have however demonstrated that not all is well under the relatively new directo
Something is terribly wrong in a judicial system when a prisoner gets shot inside another by another inside a prison. It is not unreasonable for most people to expect that once a felon is convicted and placed behind bars the last thing he can get his
Politicians have a tendency to take good care of themselves. Our front-page story about the political pensions for four soon to be ex-ministers and seven MPs that did not manage re-election depicts a worst-case scenario. These numbers are approximate
