The court ruling against utilities company GEBE in favor of the Westin Hotel will probably raise a lot of questions, especially about the fuel clause on invoices for water. The Westin claimed in court that there is no contractual or otherwise lega
Graphic designers are in for the same fate as architects. Their creations will always become the topic of public debate. Some will hate their designs, others will love them, and most people couldn’t care less. We received an anonymous letter fro
Dear Editor, I'm writing this article because I am disappointed in the manner in which Henry Brookson and his associates are being treated regarding the Rockland Estate also known as the "Emilio Wilson Estate". They are being treated unfairly by g
Opposition leader William Marlin has a bone to grind with Patrick Illidge, the Independent Member of Parliament who took part in last year’s elections as the number 7 candidate on the list of the National Alliance. Or maybe this is not the case at
You’d think that in a neatly organized country like the Netherlands (neatly organizes as opposed to the more relaxed lifestyle we appreciate so much in the Caribbean) people always show up for work and for meetings, and that politicians lead by exa
Dear Editor, We are experiencing quite a grueling time in St. Maarten at the moment. How bad is the present situation? It’s so bad that government has not only infuriated the electorate, they have succeeded in angering tourists in the form of P
It’s now 72 days and counting since this newspaper revealed the scandal that led to the downfall of Public Health Minister Maria Buncamper-Molanus. From statements by Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams we learned this week that the government wa
Dear Editor, When I read the title of R. Brison’s letter to The Daily Herald’s editor on Tuesday entitled “Don’t blame Government; You get what you pay for” I was somewhat taken aback, in that from reading the title, I got the impressio
The airport has an interesting collection of abandoned cars impounded. Since the airport is more into handling airline passengers than into acting as a second hand car dealer, it published an ad calling on the owners of these vehicles to come and pic
We read somewhere that certain schools have a problem with their utility bills. They seem to be sky high and of course this is not the fault of the schools but of the utilities company that charge them commercial rates. We’re just wondering whether
Dear Editor, It is amazing that Minister of Education Rhoda Arrindell would demand that the spelling of St.Maarten to be in English. As an educator and an editor/member of the House of Nehesi (the best publishing house in the world) the Ministe
Dear Editor, I was so glad to find that your editor published another of my letters (Feb. 10, page 22). My first letter had been in Today on Feb. 5, page 18. Being published makes me so happy. I am 69 years old and here I find I have a new call
A top 25 for Minister Arrindell Education Minister Rhoda Arrindell has decided that her Ministry will refer to the Friendly Country in all written communication as St. Martin. It does not make sense to stick to the Dutch spelling St. Maarten, the Mi
Members of Parliament, at least some of them, seems to not have a handle on taking advice and seeing some of the things we print here as our contribution to raising the bar in this our friendly country. We have been told in no certain terms, by them
The Pelican Resort Club saga took a new turn yesterday when the management of what is now called the Simpson Bay Resort & Marina that it will close down on February 20th. It is a move in a high pressure game of chess that plays with the livelihood of
It was of course inevitable but finally the moment has arrived. The Pointe Blanche prison is full – really full. With 140 inmates the facility is five inmates over its official capacity. Suspects spend incredibly long times in a police cell and the
Dear Editor, It was nice seeing the Pelican Workers achieving victory. Good for them, they deserve it after a hard, determine fight for their rights. You have taught the St. Maarten people persistence and perseverance will pay off. What I admire
The man in the hot seat in the courtroom was a senior citizen, nearing eighty. His problem: he was caught driving around with expired plates and, even more interesting, an expired inspection sticker. The story about the number plates is a good one.
Member of Parliament Jules James is now part of a scheme that has been qualified by a judge in summary proceedings as “abuse of identity-difference.” James is swimming in murky waters with this court ruling. Anyone who wants to make sense of the
Two police officers and a VKS officer sold their vote for the September 17 elections to the United People’s Party for $300 apiece. True or false? The story came out in early November, and the police force started with its own investigation. That
Dear Friends, I am a senior citizen tourist who has been coming here for several years. I love your island and have come to love many of you. When we arrived this year for our annual vacation, I quickly became aware of the difficult political sit
Veteran columnist Marcel van Dam made an apt observation in the Volkskrant about the trend among parents to get the highest possible level of education for their children. If you don’t make it to university these days, you’re a bit of a loser. B
The actual date has already passed – February 2 – but tomorrow local environmental groups and volunteers will make their contribution to the protection of local wetlands. The St. Maarten Pride Foundation. Environmental Protection in the Caribbea
For some reason we don’t quite understand, a somewhat heated discussion between the acting secretary general at the Ministry of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Traffic and Telecommunication Miguel de Weever and Daily Herald journalist Michael Granger en
Some parliamentarians made quite a fuss yesterday when the parliament decided by majority to limit the speaking time on the Brooks Tower Accord agenda point to twenty minutes in the first round and ten minutes in the second round. As the meeting prog
Dear Editor, I am the managing editor of the Today Newspaper. On December 8 of last year, I published an article under the headline Minister Buncamper sold leased land on Pond Island for $3 million. More than fifty articles about this self-enrichme
Dear Editor, The real truth is we get what we deserve when it comes to politicians when the system lets them off for fraudulent misuse of public funds, yet pounces on a single mom doing a couple of hours to try and keep her children in decent clothe
That there is still a lot of work to be done in the Friendly Country became once again clear during a presentation by law professor Hans de Doelder in a meeting of the central committee yesterday. The subject of De Doelder’s presentation was the d
The temptation to speculate about what went down at the Immigration building on Illidge Road yesterday morning is almost too strong. We know that acting Chief Prosecutor Mr. Mos was on the scene together with police officers. They took Evelyn H., t
Our office had the limited pleasure of receiving Judith Roumou yesterday afternoon. Roumou was upset because she claims we had called her an Internet-terrorist in an opinion piece that appeared on Saturday January 8. Well, not so fast. Upon closer i
We are busy finding out the details, but it appears that the former business partners Henri Brookson and Emilio Wilson B.V. have had a fall-out. From a public notice that appeared in print yesterday we learned that Emilio Wilson B.V. has been summone
We read somewhere that gambling addiction is a serious problem in St. Maarten. We immediately wondered if this is really so and who is to blame for it. First of all we note that there are no reliable local figures about gambling addiction – if the
While the big storm surrounding the antics of former Public Health Minister Maria Buncamper-Molanus is over, the anger among ordinary citizens is still palpable. Certainly, there is a vacancy now in the UP/DP-cabinet, so there ought to be at least a
There are no witnesses, as far as we know, so nobody but the victim and the defendant know what happened on October 18 in a home at Christiansted Drive in Dutch Quarter. Two things are certain: the defendant, a 42-year-old security guard stabbed the
The President of our parliament, Drs. Gracita Arrindell was quoted in our newspaper yesterday saying, “It does not state anywhere that being an MP is a fulltime job.” We won’t go as far as calling this a little white lie – that would be too
