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Lack of transparency disguises working of checks and balances

PHILIPSBURG--The lack of transparency in government “disguises how checks and balances are working in a country,” said Director Professor Trevor Monroe, Jamaica’s National Integrity Action Executive Director and keynote speaker at the fourth annual Governor’s Symposium, themed “Governance: The Value of Checks and Balances,” held in The Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort and Spa on Friday.

The symposium was hosted by Governor Eugene Holiday.

Munroe highlighted for the gathering of government, corporate and civil society leaders a number of remedial actions to bring about transparency and effective checks and balances Read more

Families of South Carolina church massacre victims offer forgiveness

CHARLESTON, South Carolina--As the young white man charged with murdering nine people inside an historic black church in South Carolina stood blankly silent during a court hearing on Friday, relatives of slain worshippers addressed him one by one, offering tearful words of grief and forgiveness.

Dylann Roof, 21, who authorities say spent an hour in Bible study with parishioners at the nearly 200-year-old Emanuel African Methodist Church before opening fire on them, stood quietly, stoically, as he appeared via video feed for an initial bond hearing before a magistrate judge.

Dressed in a black-and-white prison uniform and flanked by two guards in body armour, Roof showed no reaction as the judge ordered him held without bail Read more

Governors Symposium 2015 Held At Westin Resort

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - The 2015 Governors Symposium was held Friday morning at the Westin Resort Conference Center.

The symposium was held under the theme; Governance: The value of checks and balances and sought to give a perspective on the role it plays with the community overall, government and civil society.

His Excellency Governor Eugene Holiday gave the first address in which he brought attention to the role of the governor in fostering checks and balances within the government of St Read more

St. Martin ‘5th Most Attractive Island’ at TripAdvisor awards

MARIGOT--St. Martin/St. Maarten was voted fifth Most Attractive Island of the Caribbean for "its duality of culture and landscape" at the Traveller's Choice Best Islands for 2015 awards ceremony on June 4, St. Martin Tourism Office announced.

The awards ceremony was hosted by TripAdvisor during New York's Caribbean Week organised by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and held June 1 to 7.

The island won two more awards, one for Orient Bay for its "paradise setting and range of activities" and Grand Case as "third best place to hang out for gastronomy lovers, diving, and West Indian rhythm of life."

The Caribbean Week trade show was attended by President of the St Read more

UP does not support call for minister’s resignation

PHILIPSBURG--The United People's (UP) party does not support the call of coalition partner United St. Maarten Party (USP) for Justice Minister Dennis Richardson's resignation.

UP's stance is said to have been communicated to USP leader Member of Parliament Frans Richardson in a coalition meeting on Monday and was followed on Thursday evening with an official letter signed by UP fraction leader MP Franklin Meyers.

USP was informed that UP could not support the removal of the Justice Minister because this would only create turmoil for government and possibly have far-reaching consequences for the country.

St Read more

What’s is in it for me? Gearing up to a new era of colonialism and nepotism

Dear Editor,

Lately, our representatives seem to worry a lot, and sometimes rightly so, about the Dutch (post) colonial powers. Some of our MP's are calling for independence while presenting themselves as the last of the Mohicans. So far, the apogee of this independence rhetoric came to light when an MP was quoted as saying that he rather "die on his feet than live on his knees." The MP was quick to forget that Dutch PM Rutte already indicated that independence is just a phone call away (i).

So why so much noise? It is nothing more than putting up smokescreens in order to dr0ive the attention from the real problem, namely the new era of (corporate) colonialism and nepotism which is upon us Read more

Editorial - A word to the wise

It may seem like "the same old story," but a warning by the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT (see Thursday paper) against taking up too much debt should not go unheeded. After the Antillean debt relief by the Netherlands that accompanied the constitutional reforms per 10-10-10 Curaçao's debt again has reached 40 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP), the norm internationally considered acceptable.

St Read more

> PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament George Pantophlet is still waiting on answers to questions posed to Ministers Marcel Gumbs and Marten Hassink respectively. These questions were submitted through the President of Parliament in his letter of May 19, 2015 Read more

GEBE Supervisory Board of Directors met with Council of Ministers on Thursday.

>PHILIPSBURG:--- The Supervisory Board of Directors of GEBE met with the Council of Ministers on Thursday to provide information government requested from the government owned company.
SMN News learnt that the board met with government mostly to give full explanation as to why they took the decision not to renew the contract for the Chief Operations Officer Romelio Maduro and also why they sought legal representation.
The Prime Minister of St. Maarten indicated earlier that he will be ordering a forensic investigation at GEBE Read more

Dutch delegation suggests temporary dispute provision

By Suzanne Koelega

WILLEMSTAD--The Dutch delegation at Tuesday's Kingdom Conference in Curaçao proposed to create a temporary provision for a dispute regulation via the Council of State until the Kingdom Law has materialised, said Dutch Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations. However, the islands didn't agree with that proposal.

Plasterk said in an interview with The Daily Herald the day after the Kingdom Conference that he checked with the delegations of Aruba, Curaçao and St Read more

Warner unravels

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad--Hard on the heels of his bizarre voluntary admission that he conspired to conceal the discovery of a quantity of marijuana in 2013, former Trinidad and Tobago national security minister Jack Warner, who is currently charged with multiple counts of racketeering, corruption and money-laundering in the United States, held a news conference on Tuesday afternoon to "reveal all the details" – this is according to a report from the Caribbean News Now.

However, many of those "details" appear to have no basis in fact or have been denied by the other individuals implicated by Warner in his admission of perverting the course of justice Read more

Airport celebrates progress, remodelled departure lounge

AIRPORT--Princess Juliana International Airport SXM celebrated the official opening of its remodelled departure lounge on Wednesday night amongst top airport officials, government dignitaries of St. Maarten/St. Martin and a host of distinguished guests.

Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs and Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunication Claret Connor cut the ribbon alongside top airport officials Regina LaBega and Michel Hodge.

The who's who of the local tourism and business world heard addresses by Prime Minister Gumbs, Tourism Minister Connor, airport Managing Director Regina LaBega, Supervisory Board of Directors Chairman Gary Matser and Special Projects Coordinator Robert Brown, and a pre-recorded address by Dr Read more

Fire at eco-landfill site brought under control

MARIGOT--An extensive fire that started in the interior of the eco-landfill site in Grand Cayes, Cul-de-Sac, on Tuesday at 9:00pm was finally contained late Wednesday afternoon after reinforcements were brought in, the Préfecture disclosed.

Fanned by a strong easterly wind the fire began to spread towards the residential areas of Cul-de-Sac and Anse Marcel. Despite the efforts of the French side firemen during the night the fire could not be extinguished and focus was put on protecting houses closest to the fire Read more

>Airport:--- Dignitaries from both sides of the island including Anguilla attended the opening ceremony of the renovated departure lounge at the Princess Juliana International Airport on Wednesday evening. Special Projects Coordinator Robert Brown gave an outline to the large gathering how management of PJIAE decided to upgrade the airport beginning with the departure lounge Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:--- Leader of the Democratic Party and Member of Parliament Sarah Wescot Williams expressed her concerns on several issues that are playing out in the media and the community at press conference on Wednesday. The most disturbing for Wescot Williams is the ongoing saga at NIPA and the dismissal of the director Vernon Richards Read more

Kirk Kerkorian, casino tycoon, movie mogul, auto investor dies

LOS ANGELES--Kirk Kerkorian, the son of poor Armenian immigrants who used his gambler's instincts to become a multibillionaire Las Vegas casino tycoon, Hollywood mogul, airline owner and auto industry investor, died at age 98.

Kerkorian, who founded MGM Resorts International and was its largest shareholder, died in Los Angeles on Monday night, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. He passed away after a brief illness, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

Kerkorian had little formal education and dropped out of school at age 16 Read more

Only the People can save the people!

Dear Editor,

Region's Corruption - the idea for this paper was born in my heart, when I read an article by Prof. Trevor Munroe about donor agencies investing corruption in the region. Dr. Munroe is a former politician and is also Director of National Integrity Action in his country Jamaica.

At present there is a lot of talk taking place on the Island of St. Maarten (now Country St. Maarten) regarding transparency and integrity. I am not too sure how the population, in particular the grass-roots, will be involved in all of this Read more

Kingdom Conference fails to agree on dispute regulation

WILLEMSTAD--The Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten were able to reach an agreement on a number of returning issues such as the rights of the child, cohesion in the Kingdom, health care and economic cooperation at the 2015 Kingdom Conference in Curaçao on Tuesday. However there was no final accord on the greatest challenge of the conference: the dispute regulation.

After more than 12 hours of deliberation, the four countries signed a declaration at Santa Barbara Resort on Tuesday night in the presence of members of the media, close to four hours after the scheduled press conference was supposed to have taken place Read more

Betaille: ‘Outlook bleak for solving juvenile delinquency in St. Martin’

MARIGOT--Commandant of the Gendarmerie in St. Martin and St. Barths Paul Betaille said Tuesday that French St. Martin is blighted by delinquency despite a number of Collectivité training programmes and incentive schemes aimed at the youth. He noted the situation could only improve with dedicated political will and deep analysis of the situation.

Speaking at a gathering and cocktail party in La Savane to mark his departure in August for a new posting, Betaille remarked that "delinquency is ingrained in the local culture," adding young St Read more

Gumbs calls for improved political climate in Kingdom

WILLEMSTAD--St. Maarten Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs called on the countries in the Dutch Kingdom to create a better political climate to make a true contribution to improved relations in the Kingdom, during the opening of the 2015 Kingdom Conference at Curaçao's Santa Barbara Resort on Tuesday.

According to Gumbs, a dispute regulation, which was one of the major topics at Tuesday's conference, would not even be necessary if there were a correct and just political climate in the Kingdom Read more

EXCLUSIVE:GEBE Supervisory Board Refuses to Resign.

>PHILPSBURG: ---- The Prime Minister of St. Maarten Marcel Gumbs and the leader of the UPP Theodore Heyliger seems to have more problems on their hands now that the Supervisory Board of GEBE made it clear that they will not vacate their positions.
SMN News learnt that the leader of the UPP contacted the board members and asked them to make their positions available, the contact it is understood was made on Thursday last week, by evening that same day the chairman of the supervisory board Rene Richardson sought legal representation and basically sent out a press release stating that the company’s COO Romelio Maduro does not have any contract with GEBE and is currently on non-active duty.
The supervisory board of directors sent out a four-page memo to the staff and other stakeholders of GEBE informing them that they sent a report to the shareholder representative informing them why they took the decision not to renew Maduro’s contract.
The memo basically states that the internal auditor found a number of irregularities when an internal investigation was conducted on the COO Read more

Amendments To Tobacco Ordinance At Advisory Council

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten - MP the honorable Cornelius de Weever is looking forward to the support of Parliament when it comes time to vote on the draft ordinance amending the Ordinance limiting tobacco use.

The former Minister now MP stated that this is the result of work that he started as a minister of health.

He is lo Read more

Dp And Plp Not Willing To Work Together

ORANJESTAD, St. Eustatius - Based on the financial higher supervision as has been imposed on the government of St. Eustatius by the Kingdom government, Councilman of the opposition Democratic Party, Nicholas Sneak recently told our news department that he is willing to work with the government in an effort to find a solution to the island's financial woes pointing that they have the interest of the island and its people at heart.

However, according to him, as long as the ruling party does not allow them to work with them on finding a solution, there is nothing that they can do.

Meanwhile, speaking to our news department, leader of government on St Read more

Caribbean Netherlands Week: Still A Good Result

BES Islands - From June 8th to 12th, the Netherlands Caribbean week (CN-week) took place in The Hague.

Priorities during this week were as stated before: poverty alleviation, children's rights and promoting the economic development.

Multi-annual Programme (MAP) and development plans for each island
Since taking office as Kingdom Representative, Gilbert Isabella travels regularly between the islands and to The Hague to share his findings and experiences from the Caribbean Netherlands and to bring the views of the island governments to the attention.

He speaks regularly with various Ministers, State Secretaries and civil servants, with special attention to the problems which arise on the islands Read more