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Up Elects New Board Members For 2016-2018

St. Maarten News —The United People’s Party (UP) Congress elected a new board for the party board period 2016-2018 on June 25 at the Belair Community Center.

The persons who have been appointed to the board positions are: President Silvia Meyers-Olivacee; Vice President Tatiana Arrindell; Treasurer Earl Wyatt; Assistance Treasurer Armand Meda; Secretary General Kenneth Serrant; Secretary Gina Illidge; and Assistant Secretary Solange Apon.

“We had a very good turnout at the party congress and everybody in attendance was upbeat and ready for the September 2016 parliamentary polls.  I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the Leader of the UP Party Member of Parliament Theodore Heyliger to thank all members and new members who came out to this very important congress,” UP President Silvia Meyers-Olivacee said on Sunday.

“The UP Party Board has a lot of planning and preparations to carry out in the coming weeks with parliamentary elections a little over three months away.  Thanks once again for everybody’s support,” The UP Party in a press release said it will continue to be the visionary party, placing special emphasis on the social and economic development of the country.

“The objective is to ensure that all people in our society feel a part of our community where there are ample opportunities to sustain our families and live comfortably and happily Read more

Dp Condemns ‘Racial Antics’ In Parliament

St. Maarten News – Leader of the Democratic Party (DP) Sarah Wescot-Williams has condoned racial comments in parliament and is calling for leaders of political parties to speak out. “Call it whatever you want, but I cringe every time I hear Members of Parliament (MPs), who think it’s the popular thing to do, in parliament express the kind of exclusionary language we are hearing from these MPs more and more,” Wescot-Williams said in a press statement issued Sunday Read more

Recolonization

High emotions filled 10-10-10-autonomy expectations. “Freedom at last, delivered from slavery, liberation from colonial oppression.” Political leader Helmin Wiels —as Moses, divinely anointed—” was leading his People to the Promised Land.” Finally after centuries of sufferings, there would be social, racial and economic justice. All secret and open meddling by The Hague in all matters of life would come to an end, once and for all, Jacob Gelt Dekker writes in his column on curacaochronicle.com

“Autonomy was not enough for many, and a loud clamoring for independence of a sovereign island people was heard Read more

Thesis About Fraud And Corruption In The Netherlands: “No Major Interest In Fighting Corruption”

St. Maarten /By Hilbert Haar – “Dutch citizens consider themselves as the inhabitants of the least corrupt country in the world, while the many scandals show that this impression is not consistent with reality,” Jacqueline Bos writes in her doctoral thesis ‘Corruption in the Netherlands and Germany: Incidental or Embedded?’

Bos graduated at the Open University in Maastricht on Friday. Her thesis reads like a John Grisham novel and makes clear that the Netherlands is anything but free from corruption Read more

Emotional Pm Marcel Gumbs: “Don’T Destroy Our Country”: “If You’Re Suicidal Do It; Jump Off A Plane Or Something”

The Council of Ministers during yesterday’s press briefing. From left Ministers Connor, Gumbs, Richardson, Hassink and Bourne-Gumbs. Photo Today / Hilbert Haar

St. Maarten – It was supposed to be a solemn press briefing by the Council of Ministers yesterday morning but in the end, Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs turned up the heat and let all his frustrations fly Read more

Erna Mae Francis Contributes To “Amazing” Book: Success From The Heart Comes With Stunning Bonus Offer

Erna Mae Francis co-authored Success from the Heart. Photo contributed

St. Maarten – Success from the Heart is a book published by a company called New Peaks. It contains a chapter written by Erna Mae Francis-Cotton of the Victorious Living Foundation. In many ways this is, as the email we received about the publication described it, an “amazing book,” if only because the authors give away bonuses they claim to be worth a stunning $15,078. The book itself is for sale at amazon.com for just $18.95 Read more

Julius Garvey Speaks At Tribute To His Father

St. Maarten – The Freedom Fighters Foundation welcomes Julius Garvey, son of Marcus Garvey as one if its prominent guests on August 16 at its 16th annual tribute to Marcus Garvey. The Jamaican attorney Michael Lorne and French-side historian Daniela Jeffrey are also part of the lineup.

Marcus Garvey is considered the pioneer of Black Nationalism. He founded the United Negro Improvement Association (Unia) in 1914 Read more

Pm Gumbs: “Your Island Needs You” Tearful Goodbyes To 27 Students At The Airport

St. Maarten -The ceremony to mark the departure of 27 students who left St Maarten yesterday to further their studies in the Netherlands is a timely reminder of what must be done to encourage them to come back and take up responsible positions in the public and private sector.

For the fourth straight year, it was a time for parents, guardians, siblings and close friends bid Bon Voyage, something that is not easy to do under the circumstances. It was a time for emotions that were in some cases uncontrollable Read more

Schoelcher Commemoration In Grand Case: Chance-Duzant Wants “Support For The Little Things We Ask”

Attorney Patricia Chance-Duzant is on a roll during her address. Photo Today / Leo Brown

GRAND CASE, St. Martin – Victor Schoelcher, the 19th-century abolitionist writer who had a large influence on the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, leaves his mark every year in Grand Case when a celebration is held to honor his legacy. Also this year there was the traditional church service, the cultural parade and the speeches on the field next to the village’s cultural center. However, by inviting the chair of Grand Case’s community council Patricia Chance-Duzant to speak, the Collectivité called a lot of criticism upon itself, because the speaker did not mince her words.

“We have a lot of work to do in Grand Case,” Chance-Duzant said Read more

Dutch Police Now Include Internet In Phone Taps

Whatsapp-messages are protected by privacy rules

St. Maarten – Dutch police now automatically intercept internet traffic when setting up a telephone tap, online magazine Computerworld reported yesterday. The news was buried in the justice ministry’s annual report which was published in May and has only now been made public, the website states.

In St. Maarten tapping IP-addresses, for instance to intercept email traffic, is technically possible, press prosecutor Karola van Nie told this newspaper yesterday Read more

Public Notice For Sunday April 12 (Cycling Race)

In connection with the upcoming cycling race which is organized by Soualiga Riders and scheduled to take place on Sunday April 12th the police department is announcing the following:

The race will start at 01 p.m. on the Welfare road in the vicinity of Willy’s Restaurant and Mini Mart and head towards the Kruythoff round about and turning right on to A.J.C. Brouwers road, round about on the top of the hill, A.J.C. Brouwers road, Church hill round about, Bush road, Zagergut road, The Cottage round about, A Read more

Freedom Salsa Delivered To 18 Primary Schools

St. Maarten – The book delivering festivities at the Sint Maarten primary schools has come to an end. Between January and the first week of March the Beyond Writing Foundation has visited eighteen primary schools to present and delivered boxes containing 25 copies of the book Freedom Salsa.

The festivity was organized by school representatives together with the project manager of BWF, Ingrid Holaman.  Each school put another accent to the program Read more

President Of Parliament Condemns Charlie Hebdo Attack

St. Maarten – President of parliament Dr. Lloyd Richardson has expressed deepest sympathy to the Republic of France, its people and Government during these trying times on behalf of the people and the members of the Parliament of St. Maarten.

“The event in the French Republic hits very close to our hearts as part of our island, the Northern half is part of France.  We express our sympathies to the President of the Collectivite, the Territorial and Executive Councils and to the people of St Read more

Dp:  “A Dark Day For All Of Us” (Charlie Hebdo)

St. Maarten – The Democratic Party is the first political party to react to the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in Paris. In a brief statement, party-leader Sarah Wescot-Williams offers its condolences as well as sympathy to our country’s French neighbors.

“The Democratic Party of St Read more

Other Parties Stay Away From Protest Against Kingdom And Plasterk – Green March Against Instruction

St. Maarten– Between 300 and 400 people took part in the march People United for True Democracy organized yesterday afternoon in protest against the instruction from the Kingdom Council of Ministers to Governor Holiday for a stricter screening of candidate ministers – a handsome turnout with one flaw: only supporters of the United People’s party showed up.

UP party leader Theo Heyliger was there, as were his faction leader Franklin Meyers, MP Tamara Leonard and MP Lloyd Richardson Read more

Tamara Leonard Condemns Instruction From Dutch

St. Maarten —“ The recent instruction from the Dutch Government to Governor Eugene Holiday to carry out an invasive screening of candidate ministers in addition to the mandated security screening has put the governor yet again in a very awkward position where he has to choose between truly representing the people of St. Maarten and the one-sided interest of the Dutch Government,” says United People’s (UP) party Member of Parliament Tamara Leonard.

“This instruction goes against a number of fundamental rights and freedom guaranteed to the people of St Read more

Dutch Send Supervisor Integrity And Reinforcements To The Island

Debate about Kingdom Relations-budget in The Hague

THE HAGUE  – Assistance for the Public Prosecutor’s Office to fight white collar criminality,  border control under the supervision of the Netherlands and the appointment of a Supervisor Integrity. These are the three pillars of an action plan Minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Ronald Plasterk announced yesterday in the debate about the budget for Kingdom Relations in the Second Chamber in The Hague.

Plasterk said during the debate that the situation in St Read more

Reaction To Pwc Integrity Report: Dutch Want Criminal Investigation (Into The Government Of St. Maarten)

THE HAGUE – Justice has to initiate a large-scale criminal investigation into the “utterly corrupt” government of Sint Maarten. “The Second Chamber demands this, now that the controversial politician Theo Heyliger is grabbing the absolute power on the island,” the Telegraaf reported yesterday.

A majority of VVD, Socialist Party, CDA and PVV wants action according to the newspaper, after it appears from an investigation by consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers that the complete government apparatus is rife with cronyism Read more

Local Poem Selected For Choral Music Performance In The Netherlands

St. Maarten – Newly created music to Drisana Deborah Jack’s poetry will be performed at the 55th anniversary concert of the Delft Ars Vocalis Chamber Choir in the Netherlands, according to Jack’s publisher HNP.

Dutch composers Rita Hijmans and Anke Brouwer selected Jack’s poem “I dare you” and its Dutch translation from a long list of verse proposed by Ars Vocalis to four composers that it commissioned to create “new musical composition” for its anniversary concert.

“I am very intrigued by the notion of interpreting the poetry into music for a choir,” said Jack, a leading local poet and artist Read more

Usm And Vlf Offer Eft Classes To General Public

St. Maarten – The University of St. Martin in its efforts to meet the growing needs of the community of St. Maarten, is now embarking upon an adult education class, Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) in collaboration with Victorious Living Foundation.

“The EFT course provides the participant with the history, science and practical application of EFT so that he/she may utilize these techniques to overcome physical, emotional, or psychological pain, trauma, or other challenges in his or her life Read more

Ronald Plasterk: “Buying Votes Undermines St. Maarten’S Democratic Character”

THE HAGUE – Socialist Party parliamentarian Ronald van Raak received predictable answers from Minister Ronald Plasterk to his questions about the election fraud trial in St. Maarten. “It is not up to the minister of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations to comment on court rulings,” the minister wrote, though he also noted that buying and selling votes undermines St. Maarten’s democratic character.

Van Raak posed questions to Plasterk on August 27, two days before the parliamentary elections in St Read more

Prosecutor: “This Is Absolutely Not A Witch Hunt” Attorneys Want Acquittal For All Election Fraud Defendants

St. Maarten – The attorneys for the four defendants in the 2010 election fraud case all zeroed in on the fact that the prosecution had exceeded the reasonable term for bringing the case to court, and they all asked the court to declare the prosecution inadmissible.

A hot item surfaced late in the day when attorney Eldon Sulvaran spoke up for his client Roy H. It started quietly with remarks that it is “impossible to prove that the freedom to vote has been affected,” that the initiative for the bribes had not come from his client and that nobody told the other defendants that they had to vote for the UP.

“Should non-elected judges intervene in this?” Sulvaran wondered, before quoting a witness who had said “that the investigation targets the Wathey and Heyliger families.” From there on, Sulvaran spoke of “secret trajectories” and of “wrong conclusions before the investigation even started.” In the end, he told the court: “There is a threat of political administration of justice.”

The attorney added, “That any ruling in this case will affect the outcome of the elections and that is a dangerous development.” He also suggested postponing the court ruling until after the elections – a request the court did not honor because the law prescribes that rulings are pronounced two or three weeks after a trial.

“It is not correct to handle political cases before the elections,” Sulvaran said Read more