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Editorial - Not unthinkable

That outgoing Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure VROMI Maurice Lake wants the Council of Ministers to get on with approving the much-discussed purchase of the Vorst land in Cay Hill (see Friday paper) is to a certain extent understandable. After all, the family has been waiting since the days of former Minister Roland Duncan and his plans for a Justice Park on that location.

Not only that, but they have agreed to lower the price at least twice Read more

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Notices November 29

Saturday, November 29

FREE HIV TEST

Organised by St. Maarten AIDS Foundation for World AIDS Day

Place: Scotiabank in Philipsburg (next to KFC)

Time: 10am to 3:30pm

Results in 15 minutes.

Saturday, November 29

MOVIE NIGHT

Organised by 1st St. Maarten Boys' Brigade & the 2nd St. Maarten Girls' Brigade

Time: 7:00pm

Place: Louisann Augusta Illidge Hall

Admission: Adults - NAf 8 or US$4/ Children - NAf 4 or US$2

Drinks and snacks will be on sale Read more

Caravanserai timeshare owners lose injunction against Alegria

BEACON HILL--Timeshare owners at Caravanserai Beach Resort have lost the injunction they had filed against the property's new owner, Alegria Real Estate BV, concerning ownership rights.

The Court of First Instance ruled in the injunction on Friday, and stated that Timeshare Owners at Caravanserai Association (TOCA) had no case against Alegria, because association members had not closed timeshare agreements with Alegria or with the former resort owner, but with Endless Vacation NV.

As a result, TOCA was ordered to pay Alegria's legal fees, which were estimated at NAf Read more

Heyliger to now present final formation report on Dec. 16

HARBOUR VIEW--The process of searching through the lives of the minister candidates for the new Cabinet with a fine-tooth comb is in “its final stage,” but has not yet been completed. This has led Governor Eugene Holiday to grant formateur of the new Cabinet United People’s (UP) party leader Theo Heyliger a new deadline of December 16 to present his final report.

The screening of minister candidates covers a background review of personal and professional credentials, their financial position, fiscal compliance (tax and social security premiums), a judicial check for possible suspicious transactions, the security background and, if necessary, the health condition of the candidates.

The purpose of the screening is to assess the integrity, independence and solvency of the candidates, as well as the stability of the new government, according to a statement from the Governor’s Cabinet.

Member of Parliament Heyliger met with Holiday on Friday, ahead of his November 23 deadline for his final report, to give his progress report on the screening of the candidates for the posts of prime minister, ministers, minister plenipotentiary and acting minister plenipotentiary.

The current Wescot-Williams III Cabinet has remained in office as a caretaker government since the August 29 Parliamentary Elections.

This is the first time in St Read more

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Maria to stand trial for ‘tax fraud’ and participation in criminal organisation

~ Pre-trial set for Jan. 7 ~

PHILIPSBURG--United People's (UP) party member Maria Buncamper-Molanus will stand trial for tax fraud, fraud and participation in a criminal organisation.

The pro forma/pre-trial hearing in this case is scheduled for January 7, 2014, Prosecutor Tineke Kamps announced in a press statement on Friday.

Kamps said the Prosecution Service stuck to its word to take a decision about the prosecution in the Buncamper-Molanus investigation before December 1 Read more

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Notices November 27

Saturday, November 29

FREE HIV TEST

Organised by St. Maarten AIDS Foundation for World AIDS Day

Place: Scotiabank in Philipsburg (next to KFC)

Time: 10am to 3:30pm

Results in 15 minutes.

Saturday, November 29

MOVIE NIGHT

Organised by 1st St. Maarten Boys' Brigade & the 2nd St. Maarten Girls' Brigade

Time: 7:00pm

Place: Louisann Augusta Illidge Hall

Admission: Adults - NAf 8 or US$4/ Children - NAf 4 or US$2

Drinks and snacks will be on sale Read more

Minister Lake wants ministers to vote on Vorst land purchase

PHILIPSBURG--Outgoing Minister of Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure VROMI Maurice Lake wants the Council of Ministers to vote in its upcoming meeting on the pending purchase of the Vorst land in Cay Hill.

He is preparing an advice on the land purchase to take up in the Council of Ministers' meeting. The decision on whether or not the land should be bought for US $4.5 million "should be a council decision," instead of outgoing Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams "deciding for the entire council."

Wescot-Williams told the press on Wednesday of the offer to government of a reduced purchase price for the land from the property heirs Read more

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Sarah withdraws her support from coalition

PHILIPSBURG--Just over a month after gaining the support of ten Members of Parliament (MPs), the United People's (UP) coalition has lost the support of one partner: Democratic Party (DP) leader MP Sarah Wescot-Williams.

The withdrawal of support for the coalition has been considered a foregone conclusion since earlier this month, after Wescot-Williams announced that her party's minister candidates had been passed over in favour of those submitted by DP parliamentarian Cornelius de Weever to formateur of the new cabinet UP leader Theo Heyliger Read more

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DP moves to ‘expel’ De Weever from ranks

PHILIPSBURG--The Democratic Party (DP) has moved to expel Member of Parliament (MP) Cornelius de Weever from its ranks. The party has given De Weever until 5:00pm today, Friday, to appeal his expulsion if he so wishes.

De Weever, who is off-island, has not responded to requests for a comment on what he intends to do in the face of his pending expulsion.

De Weever was informed of his pending expulsion from St Read more

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Editorial - Despite the turmoil

People worried about the delay in installing a new cabinet and its consequences for the budgetary process should be reassured at least somewhat after statements this week from outgoing Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams and Finance Minister Martin Hassink (see Thursday paper).

The intention is to ratify the draft budget in the Council of Ministers on Tuesday coming, after which the Advisory Council is to review such Read more

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Broadway finds a new stage in an old venue: Cuba

HAVANA--In Bob Nederlander Jr.'s mission to export Broadway to new markets around the world, he found an old one where the American art form lay dormant for a least 50 years - communist Cuba.

After testing the Cuban appetite with a 2011 concert of Broadway show tunes, Nederlander Worldwide Entertainment decided to stage a three-month run of "Rent," the first Broadway musical exported to Cuba in decades.

"We were all blown away by the reaction," Nederlander said of the 2011 show Read more

Murder suspect acquitted, still on trial for robberies

PHILIPSBURG--The Joint Court of Justice acquitted a 32-year-old man Wednesday of involvement in the killing of well-known Indian businessman Haresh "Danny" Dayalani on May 26, 2009, at his Cole Bay home. However, Robertson Peter of Dominica remains a suspect of involvement in two armed robberies at Pelican Marina's administrative offices May 13-14, 2009, the Court added.

In acquitting the defendant, the Joint Court followed the Court of First Instance, which had also acquitted him of murder and manslaughter in its decision of April 15.

The defendant and the Prosecutor's Office had both appealed the original sentence Read more

Plasterk wants ‘sit down’ on integrity recommendations

PHILIPSBURG--Dutch Minister of Interior Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk wants a "sit down" with the St. Maarten Government to talk about the execution of recommendations from the Integrity Reports, particularly the one compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Caretaker Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams said Plasterk's letter stated that he would make "no decision" on government's approach to the recommendations until such a meeting takes place Read more

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Vorst heirs offer a reduced land price

PHILIPSBURG--Government has been offered the Vorst land in Cay Hill for US $1 million less by the heirs to the property. This now puts the purchase price at US $4.5 million.

Caretaker Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams said the Council of Ministers has not taken a decision on whether to accept the offer. Her preference is to leave the offer for the incoming cabinet to make a decision.

Outgoing Public Housing, Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure VROMI Minister Maurice Lake had come under much fire for opting to purchase the land, instead of following an earlier proposal with the heirs for government to lease land.

The purchase price was higher than the lease price Read more

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Hassink: Govt seeks more tax compliance to generate income

PHILIPSBURG--Generating income through more tax compliance, rather than increasing taxes continues to be the aim of government. Reducing expenditures is also an integral part making government financially stable, says outgoing Finance Minister Martin Hassink.

Both of those approaches were employed in drafting the 2015 country budget. The budget is deemed "far too late already" to meet all the required deadlines. "This year it was very challenging to handle budget as all the ministries had plans and wish lists that far exceeded the available ceilings," Hassink said.

Some final steps need to be taken before budget is presented to Parliament for ratification Read more

Please provide more options for higher education in St. Maarten

Dear Editor,

As a student studying abroad I think it’s really difficult to cope with so much. I really wish that St. Maarten can invest in their Education System. This implementation would highly benefit government in its expenditures, to save much more. If the USM can just expand their study options, most students would not have to go away. This will highly increase the flow of income prior to not only depending on tourism, but also the GDP, the island will produce for itself Read more

Editorial - Immediate and direct

For the second time in three months a worker fell from a height while doing his job in St. Maarten (see related article). This time there was no serious injury, so the victim could be treated on the spot by ambulance personnel and didn't require hospitalisation.

It was different story on August 27, however, when Haitian mason Diuecel Bosse (54) of S&R Construction toppled into an empty elevator shaft at the former Ocean Terrace building in Maho then under renovation and died. There were rumours that he had been fleeing from an immigration raid held there that day, but this never was confirmed.

In general, one regularly can see people working at heights on the island without any safety line or even a helmet Read more

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India central bank under pressure to cut interest rates as growth slips

NEW DELHI--India's economic growth probably slowed to around 5 percent in the three months to September, slipping from 5.7 percent in the previous quarter, two senior finance ministry sources said, putting pressure on the central bank to cut interest rates.

The sources said Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would press Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan to lower borrowing costs when the two meet ahead of a decision on interest rates next Tuesday.

Six months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power with a promise that "better days are coming", growth of 5 percent would mark a serious setback from the previous quarter and fall far short of the 8 percent that Asia's third-largest economy needs to create enough jobs for its growing workforce Read more

Delta's breakaway union struggles to win support

NEW YORK--A group of Delta Air Lines pilots seeking to replace the current pilots' union at the U.S. carrier are struggling to win enough support.

The Delta Pilots Association (DPA) claims that nearly half of the airline's 12,000 pilots have at some time in the past four years signed cards backing it to be their union for collective bargaining with management. But under U.S. labour law, many of the cards - a third or more - are invalid because they weren't signed in the past 12 months, DPA said.

The group is trying to oust the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which has represented pilots at the carrier since 1940 Read more

St. Maarten shows support for Key to Freedom rehab

ST. PETERS--Recovering addict Jacob Alexander and his family joined friends, supporters, staff and clients of the Key to Freedom Christian Rehabilitation Centre at a fundraising event held at Benny’s in St. Peters recently.

The event was held to raise funds for the rehabilitation centre. Claudette Alexander, Jacob’s sister, was one of the organisers of the fun day, which provided fun for the whole family.

Fundraising Event

The event, which received a donation of drinks from Antillean Liquors and Caribbean Liquors, a bouncy castle from Kidsworld, and flyers and posters from Print Services, also saw many other sponsors contributing to help out the rehabilitation centre.

In the afternoon of November 11, more than 200 people attended to join in the fun, which included a barbecue, a children’s fun area, flea market, tombola, dominoes tournament and an open jam session Read more

Airco worker falls through roof into minister’s office

PHILIPSBURG--An air-conditioning technician working on an air-conditioning unit at the Government Administration Building took a wrong step and fell through the roof into Minister of Health, Labour and Social Affairs Cornelius de Weever's office early Tuesday afternoon.

The man did not sustain any serious injuries as a result of the fall Read more

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Nearly-expelled pupil now at sister Hillside campus

ST. PETERS--A nine-year-old child has returned to school after an attempt to expel him from Hillside Christian Schools Asha Stevens Campus.

After a line-up of warnings by the school on the child and his brother, and a meeting with Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs (ECSY) Inspection Division Truancy Officers, a Court of Guardianship (CoG) representative and the child’s parents, the Hillside Christian Schools board arranged for the child to be enrolled in its Helmich Snijders Campus.

Switching the child to a school with Dutch as the language of instruction was not a preferred solution, but the school board made the decision after the meeting on the urgent case and a subsequent notification that the board would be solely responsible for enrolling him in another school Read more

Teens unite to end violence to women

PHILIPSBURG--November 25th was International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women and Girls. In observance of the day, Women's Desk with the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour, together with Community Development, Family and Humanitarian Affairs, organised an awareness event for teenagers in the Philipsburg Cultural Centre.

Some 60 youths, both male and female, attended the event, which was part of a month of awareness activities in five high schools on both sides of the island Read more

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Pantophlet wants updates on short-term contract changes

PHILIPSBURG--National Alliance (NA) Member of Parliament (MP) George Pantophlet is calling on Ministers to give a long-overdue update on the amendment to the Civil Code to end the abuse of short-term labour contracts, the establishment of the Casino Gaming Board, the Dividend Policy and the Consumer Protection Agency.

Pantophlet said in a press statement Monday that they had had enough time to present to Parliament the changes or legislation for establishment of the various entities.

NA submitted draft amendments to Book VII of the Civil Code to correct the abuse of short-term labour contracts some 42 months ago.

Caretaker Labour Minister Cornelius de Weever has made "several changes" still in draft form to the relevant parts of the Civil Code and presented them to the Council of Ministers Read more

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