Dear Editor, These are indeed exciting times in which we live. So many countries in the world are in economic and environmental crises, and one wonders where all the money is if all the countries are in such massive debt? Some experts are predicting
Pueblo Soberano has decided that shooting the messenger is more effective than focusing on the message as far as the Rosenmöller Committee report Do It Yourself is concerned. How, Pueblo Soberano is left wondering in Amigoe, can somebody who has f
The Freedom Party and the VVD want to make being illegal in the Netherlands a misdemeanor. Whether this will really happen is still an open question because the proposal needs support from other parties for a parliamentary majority. All the same, Im
It must be heaven to live on Bonaire. The local hotel association, Bonhata, has sounded the alarm over the alarming crime situation: in the past six weeks four cars were stolen, and in a time span of five weeks, one hotel became the target of no less
Maybe it’s just us, but when we saw that half-page ad on the government information page we thought for a split second that Education Minister Arrindell was congratulating people on World Cheaters Day. When we looked again, we realized that the con
Opinion, St. Maarten News - Posted by admin on October 6, 2011
Lol, we read with interest that the government is getting ready for an all out control that involves the department of Economic Affairs, Public Health authorities, the Labor Department and the Fire Department. We looked at the calendar to make sure,
People’s behavior is driven by incentives. At least that is the opinion of Steven D. Levitt, co author of Freakonomics and in his own words, a cold-blooded economist. If someone asked a hundred people to work sixty hours a week in a dirty factory
Dear Editor, Nationalism is often associated with an unwavering national pride, with a love of country, of the nation and unquestionable loyalty. Strong feelings of patriotism, which would be more accurately termed strong feelings of allegiance, are
Coffee shops in the Netherlands are very unlike a traditional Starbucks in the United States. Since Mellow Yellow opened its doors in 1972, the Dutch have embraced the concept of legalized soft drugs sales. But the times they are a’changin, mainly
The President of the Parliament in Curacao is not on the same page as the faction leader of coalition party MFK about the Rosenmöller Committee’s recommendations. Ivar Asjes turned to hysterical theatrics instead by accusing the Netherlands of an
The tragic accident that cost a three-year-old toddler her life has triggered a discussion about the status of flare guns. They are not firearms in the sense of the law, but as the accident proves, they are certainly capable of killing someone. Sh
Opinion, St. Maarten News - Posted by admin on October 4, 2011
We have been able to establish personally that most, if not all, motorists passing through Dutch Quarter these days are utterly and hopelessly color blind. Infrastructural upgrades have forced the contractor to install traffic light at a point near t
Dear Editor, Questions often arise as to what is a liberal? What is a conservative? What does it mean to support the left or the right? What does a certain political party stand for? Although some positions change over time and it’s never good t
Dear Editor, I am just back from vacation and updating myself with the current events. I notice that the Ministry of Finance has hired Ravi Daryanani. And I look on the blogs and see positive and negative comments. Some people are making comments
The other day we were driving behind this big truck and - to borrow a couple of lines from Napa’s Michael Ferrier - we saw beaucoup beaucoup de blue smoke coming out of the exhaust. In this case, the smoke was not blue, but pitch-black; it was stil
Curacao is moving towards interesting times now that the Rosenmöller Committee integrity report has split the coalition. Pueblo Soberano leader Helmin Wiels is screaming blue murder as usual, but MFK-faction leader Dean Rozier is showing a lot of co
Not surprisingly, the call for harsher punishments for crimes committed against tourists had opened a can of worms – and nobody knows where the lid is. In Curacao, eleven help organizations collected more than 12,000 signatures of citizens who s
The National Ombudsman in the Netherlands, Alex Brenninkmeijer, wants to ditch the law on public administration (Wet Openbaarheid van Bestuur, or WOB). St. Maarten has its own legislation in this respect, the landsverordening openbaarheid van bestuur
Helmin Wiels is on the war path and his target is called Emsley Tromp. The Pueblo Soberano leader has filed a complaint against Tromp with the public prosecutor’s office in Willemstad, repeating an allegation about him getting an unsecured loan and
Does it make sense to allow security guards to carry firearms? And if so, would this contribute to a safer St. Maarten? Justice Minister Roland Duncan tends towards allowing this but he put a big if on the table, and rightly so. Security guards cou
Under the lighthouse it is always dark. There are so many examples that prove this point that they make your head spin. The latest one comes straight from our own Tourism Minister Franklin Meyers. Yesterday, the minister announced that hotels could c
Is it a good idea to punish crimes against tourists harsher than crimes against others? Discrimination, several members of parliament said on Tuesday. Bad idea. Don’t do it. We’re not too sure about this proposed measure either, and even thoug
It was an interesting case, the trial of Neville Forde and his wife Joan Theresa. It is an example of how not to do things – yet we suspect that this is exactly what is happening on a large scale on our island. People fiddle to achieve what they co
Opinion, St. Maarten News - Posted by admin on September 28, 2011
Members of Parliament have expressed massive concern about whether the Justice Ministry will have sufficient funds in 2012 to hire more officers and to give them the tools to do their work. There is one way for them to ensure that this is the case
We know, we know. This is the umpteenth time we are bringing up this subject. But hey, enough is enough. We have wondered for a long time why it is so that the temperature in public buildings is always near freezing point. We experience this in th
We had it coming of course, with all the violent crimes that terrorize the island, but an increasing number of law-abiding citizens start thinking about tit for tat – and eye for an eye. That is a worrisome trend, but it is definitely there. Whe
Oh oh. Vice Prime Minister jokingly said this summer that Justice Minister Roland Duncan would come up with plans for same sex marriages next, after he had vented his opinion about euthanasia, abortion and prostitution. We’re not there yet, but
Forget smoking, drinking, sex and poker: there is another addiction on the up and coming. At least, if we believe what researchers in Germany found: half a million people in the country are addicted to the internet. Among 15-year-old girls, twenty pe
Lol, it cannot be fun to be a smoker these days. Banned from smoking in public places in quite some countries, smokers now also come under fire for the consequences of their habit. It’s a bit late, and it remains debatable, but still. Almost 55 per
St. Maarten has Hyacinth Richardson and Louie Laveist, and the Netherlands now has a name for politicians like them who hardly ever show up for public meetings: ghost politicians. The Netherlands has them as well. Home affairs Minister Piet Hein Donn
Since the United States re-introduced the death penalty in 1976, the country had executed 1,266 convicted murderers. Sixteen states do not have the death penalty and of the other 34, Texas is the absolute champ: it executed 473 convicts – 37 percen
Opinion, St. Maarten News - Posted by admin on September 26, 2011
The Netherlands is not happy with a plan by the European Commission to establish minimum standards for the presence of attorneys in criminal investigations. Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding wants to guarantee suspects in all 27 member states the r
Here is an interesting insight in what drinking alcohol will do to the economy, not to mention to our personal lives. The British research company Yorktest found in a survey that the average Briton spends four years of his (or her) life dealing with
With all the violence that is happening around us like murder and violent armed robberies with disastrous consequences it was disheartening to witness a defendant in the Court in First Instance yesterday who seems to be at the beginning of a troubled
Recently we read a remark by a hunter in a book: “If this is the tourist season, why can’t we shoot them?” This seems to be all the rage in St. Maarten these days, be it that not tourists, but locals are at the receiving end of what seems to b
