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Dp Pushes Again Membership Of Open Government Partnership

DP policy advisor Emil Lee at the summit in Mexico City. Photo contributed

St. Maarten – The Democratic Party is once more pushing the country’s membership of the Open Government Partnership (OGP), an issue it made a core element of its election campaign last year Read more

Retired Politician Dave Levenstone: Saba, Statia And St. Maarten Have To Strengthen Their Ties

Dave Levenstone. Photo Caribisch Netwerk

THE BOTTOM, SABA – The Saban political veteran Dave Levenstone says that his fellow-Sabans do not speak up enough, because the evaluation report about constitutional reform states that Saba does better than the other islands, Hazel Durand reports on Caribisch Netwerk.

“But I do not think that we have to see this as a setback,” he says. “The Island Council must establish an independent committee to study the evaluation and to arrive that way at solutions that are in the best interest of the island.” Levenstone is the former leader of the Saba Democratic Party and the presenter of the poplar political radio program Good Day Saba Read more

Cpa Leader Advocating One St. Maarten/ St. Martin Parliament

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Leader of the Concordia Political Alliance (CPA), Jeffery Richardson is advocating that St. Maarten/St. Martin is represented in one Parliament.

Speaking on the “Lady Grace Morning Show” on Tuesday he also stated that he is busy talking to politicians on the French side of the island in his effort.

More now via PodCast.

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Citiva And Uwi Join Forces To Lead Global Charge In Marijuana Research

KINGSTON, Jamaica - CITIVA Jamaica (CITIVA) has made another major step in their ongoing relationship with the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus (UWI).  The medical research company held its first Continuing Medical Education (CME) Seminar on October 15, 2015, during which CITIVA's Chief Medical Officer, Jack D'Angelo MD, MBA, delivered a lecture on Cannabinoids and the Management of Multiple Disease States. CITIVA is focused on advancing the study of marijuana and its efficacy in the field of medicine Read more

Mp Leona Marlin-Romeo Commends Bes Islands For Including Neonatal Screening In Health Care Prevention

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten  – Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Leona Marlin-Romeo, says on October 21st 2015, a letter was sent by her to the president of Parliament requesting information from the Minister of Health on the inclusion of Neonatal Screening or Heel Prick Screening for babies born on Sint Maarten. 

The meeting to discuss the draft Public Health Law was adjourned and still needs to be reconvened, however, Neonatal Screening was not included at that time as a preventative measure. 

“Congratulations goes out to Saba and St Read more

Emil Lee Attends Open Government Partnership Summit On Behalf Of Dp

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The DP was represented at the recent OGP Summit by Emil Lee.   Unfortunately, due to the current political crisis, DP Party Leader and Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot Williams had to cancel her planned attendance. According to MP Sarah Wescot Williams, “The DP supports having St Maarten apply for membership to the OGP.  In order for St Maarten to become a member, there are a number of requirement with which St Maarten would need to comply.  Although St Maarten doesn’t currently qualify for membership, this provides the country with an excellent road map to follow in our path towards becoming more open.  There is an undeniable connection between the degree of openness and the level of prosperity of any country.  The more open and transparent the government, the more the people participate in and benefit from the economy.  We felt that this conference was such a valuable learning experience that Emil and I funded the trip at our personal expense.”According to Emil Lee, “the amazing thing for St Maarten is that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.  Many countries have similar problems to St Maarten.  Many have issues with how to make the budgeting process more transparent and inclusive.  How to make procurement and government contracts less susceptible to corruption?  By participating in OGP, St Maarten can benefit from all of the experiences and work of other countries.”Use of Confidentiality Clauses: A great exampleAccording to Lee, “In St Maarten, there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the use of confidentiality clauses in contracts with government and government owned companies.  There are countries where the contracts are not even legally binding until they have been placed on line for anyone to review.  Additionally, there are clear guidelines for what items are able to be covered by confidentiality clauses.  Pricing and financial information typically does not quality as items that would be able to be shrouded by confidentiality clauses.  This clause is usually reserved for proprietary processes and trade secrets.”OGP SummitThe OGP or Open Government Partnership hosts the OGP Global Summit every two years in the Country of the current Chair, this year in Mexico City.  Representatives from government, academic institutions, civil society and multilateral organizations come together to exchange experiences and share best practices and major developments in open government.OGP Mission:“OGP’s vision is that more governments become sustainably more transparent, more accountable, and more responsive to their own citizens, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of governance, as well as the quality of services that citizens receive Read more

Safe Haven Marks Domestic Violence Awareness Month

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The Safe Haven Foundation would hereby like to Officially open and mark the Month of November in St. Maarten as Domestic Violence Awareness month.

The Safe Haven Foundation which offers services and shelter for abused women and their children was started in 1998, however in 1999 the shelter was opened and it is exactly in 1999 the UN General Assembly designated November 25th as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

The Safe haven Foundation has observed this day in St Read more

Reduced Ticket-Tax Boosts Revenue And Employment

St. Maarten – Robin Hayes, President & CEO of JetBlue Airways and keynote speaker at the Caribbean Tourism Organization’s (CTO) State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC), held last week in Curacao, stunned his audience with a message to which few had paid much attention before. Hayes stated: “At JetBlue, we are very much thinking about the relative tax burden on our customers as we allocate capacity.”

For countries that rely heavily on the air transportation of visitors for up to 70% of their GDP, few tourism planners in the Caribbean have ever considered examining their relative position within the region concerning taxes on airline tickets Read more

Winners And Losers: Who Will Survive The Polls In February?

St. Maarten / By Hilbert Haar – February 9, 2016 is crunch day for politicians and those who aspire to become one. The parliamentary elections – for some mysterious reason perceived by some as ‘snap elections’, whatever that may be – will give voters the opportunity to speak their mind about the constitutional drama that concluded on Wednesday when the ministers of the Marcel Gumbs cabinet tendered their resignation and Governor Drs Read more

President Of Parliament Visits The "Lady Grace Morning Show" Friday

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Leader of the Democratic Party and Chairperson of the Parliament of St. Maarten, the Honorable Sarah Wescot-Williams stated on Friday that the matter of election has been used by the outgoing Prime Minister, Marcel Gumbs as a trump card Read more

Port St. Maarten Congratulates Incoming Nation’s Top Cop on Appointment

>POINTE BLANCHE:----  Port St. Maarten Supervisory Board and Management would like to congratulate Carl John who has been appointed the nation’s top cop to become Chief of Police of the Sint Maarten National Police Force.
Port St. Maarten has a very good working relationship with the Police Force and with Carl John in particular. John was part of a delegation a few months ago that participate in a Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL) security conference where a strategic security alliance had been formed.
RCCL allowed a team of security and law enforcement professionals from country St Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:----  By virtue of Article 22 of the National Ordinance on Registration and Finances of Political Parties, the Electoral Council is required to delete the registered reference to be placed above the list of candidates of a political party if the party failed to submit a list of candidates for the last parliamentary election.
Both the Citizens for Positive Change and the Concordia Political Alliance Association, which have been registered with the Electoral Council, did not participate in the 2014 parliamentary elections.
Consequently, by Decision No Read more

Mixed growth in the monetary union

>WILLEMSTAD/PHILIPSBURG:--- The government of Curaçao has embarked on a path of reducing the costs of the government apparatus and the social insurances while stimulating economic growth, that contributed to a real GDP growth of 0.4% during the second quarter of 2015.” the president of the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten, Dr. Emsley Tromp, said in the Bank’s Quarterly Bulletin Read more

>MARIGOT/GREAT BAY:---- Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs will be the guest on Talking Point radio program on Friday, October 30, said Jacques “Billy D” Hamlet host and producer of the program.
According to Hamlet “The prime minister confirmed late Wednesday evening he will be my guest on the program Friday at 9am.”
Gumbs will be appearing on SOS Radio for the first since been nominated prime minister of St Read more

>THE CARIBBEAN (Oct. 29, 2015) - Robin Hayes, President & CEO of JetBlue Airways and keynote speaker at the Caribbean Tourism Organization's (CTO) State of the Industry Conference (SOTIC), held last week in Curacao, stunned his audience with a message to which few had paid much attention before. Hayes stated: "At JetBlue, we are very much thinking about the relative tax burden on our customers as we allocate capacity."
For countries that rely heavily on the air transportation of visitors for up to 70% of their GDP, few tourism planners in the Caribbean have ever considered examining their relative position within the region concerning taxes on airline tickets Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Aristotle said: "the only way to avoid criticism is to say nothing, do nothing and be nothing." When some members of the DP criticize the counterpart law and policy without reviewing the implementation guidelines then they are too quick to criticize and assume that it "is a sure recipe for massive lay-offs. " This once again proves that they were not in support of my vision to provide the much needed opportunity of our youth to take on top positions in our community Read more

Mp Lake Says People Relieved With Gumbs Cabinet’S Resignation

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - Independent Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Lake says he welcomes the resignation of the Marcel Gumbs Cabinet and the making of the way for the new cabinet to be installed.
“It is good they have finally tendered their resignations on Wednesday and will stop embarrassing themselves by not following the rules and making mockery of our Constitution Read more

Deletion References Of Two Political Parties

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - By virtue of Article 22 of the National Ordinance on Registration and Finances of Political Parties, the Electoral Council is required to delete the registered reference to be placed above the list of candidates of a political party if the party failed to submit a list of candidates for the last parliamentary election.

Both the Citizens for Positive Change and the Concordia Political Alliance Association, which have been registered with the Electoral Council, did not participate in the 2014 parliamentary elections.

Consequently, by Decision No Read more

Port St. Maarten Congratulates Nation’S Top Cop On Appointment

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – Port St. Maarten Supervisory Board and Management would like to congratulate Carl John who has been appointed the nation’s top cop to become Chief of Police of the Sint Maarten National Police Force.

Port St. Maarten has a very good working relationship with the Police Force and with Carl John in particular.  John was part of a delegation a few months ago that participate in a Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL) security conference where a strategic security alliance had been formed.

RCCL allowed a team of security and law enforcement professionals from country St Read more

Prime Minister Gumbs Invites Public To Fire Dept. Open House On Sunday

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs, who is also Minister of General Affairs and responsible for the Fire Department, invites the general public to the departments Open House on Sunday, November 1 at the Fire Station in Cay Hill.

The Open House is part of the departments Fire Prevention Month of activities that k Read more

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs On Sos Radio Friday

Marigot/Great Bay - Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs will be the guest on Talking Point radio program on Friday, October 30, said Jacques “Billy D” Hamlet host and producer of the program.

According to Hamlet “The prime minister confirmed late Wednesday evening he will be my guest on the program Friday at 9am.”

Gumbs will be appearing on SOS Radio for the first since been nominated prime minister of St Read more

“Saying That Elections Will Stop Ship Jumping Is Lying To Voters”

St. Maarten – Parliamentarians bitched and moaned about rules and regulations yesterday all the way until the final vote on the two motions the new majority presented yesterday morning. It was a losing battle for the opposition UP and its faithful independents and in the end, it did not change anything at all.

Independent MP Cornelius de Weever started with an attack on the new president of parliament, Sarah Wescot-Williams Read more

Dp Criticizes Mp De Weever: “Counterpart Policy Is A Sure Recipe For Massive Lay-Offs”

St. Maarten – “As much as he tries, MP and former Minister OF Public health, Social Development and Labor Cornelius de Weever will never be able to convince anyone that the reason for his defection from the Red-White-Blue coalition in 2014 had something to do with opposition he encountered back then to “his” counterpart law,” Democratic Party MP Sarah Wescot-Williams states in a press release Read more

Motion adopted in Parliament to annul the LB to dissolve the Parliament of St. Maarten. PM Refused to attend meeting of Parliament and to submit documents.

style="text-align: center;">Motion to instruct Council of Ministers not to make decision that will affect the country passed.

PHILIPSBURG:--- After some severe resistance from the now minority in Parliament the new majority managed to pass two motions that they presented on Wednesday.
MP William Marlin tabled a motion to annul the Landsbesluit sent by Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs to the Governor of St Read more