I’m going to say what’s on my mind, and people won’t like it, but when Grisha Marten married Theo Heyliger everybody called her a ‘Gold Digger’, nobody is cool with that. Then she ran her mouth, TWO DAYS later Holland is dropping an additional 15.2 Million Euros. At the suggestion of State Secretary Knops of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the Dutch cabinet is allocating an additional 15.2 million euros for the food aid program in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The inhabitants of the three islands have faced major challenges since the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent loss of tourism. The poverty problem on the islands has increased sharply. State Secretary Knops: “The government’s starting point has always been that the Netherlands should not leave the most vulnerable people in the cold. During my last working visit I experienced how dire the situation is in some places within our Kingdom. It is very important that the food aid program is continued in the coming period. Since May 2020, the Dutch cabinet has made money available for food aid in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. At the moment, a total of about 80,000 people are helped with food aid made possible by the Netherlands.
March 12 marks one-year since last commercial cruise call Optimism is starting to grow as vaccines are rolled out across the world bringing closer the resumption of cruise. File photo of seven ships in port prior to the pandemic. (file photo) Optimism is starting to grow as vaccines are rolled out across the world bringing closer the resumption of cruise. File photo of seven ships in port prior to the pandemic. (file photo) PORT ST. MAARTEN – The Caribbean region as the largest cruise destination of the industry is still waiting for the resumption of cruise, and this would also include Port St. Maarten as one of the primary ports of call in the north eastern Caribbean.
Friday, March 12 marks one-year since the last commercial cruise call to Port St. Maarten due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“No one initially thought that the cruise business would have been interrupted beyond a year. We have taken the time during the pandemic to further strengthen our internal compliance protocols and procedures and business resumption planning, thereby becoming more resilient, and proactive while remaining connected with our local and international stakeholders as we look forward to rebounding stronger when the resumption of cruise tourism sets sail,” Port St. Maarten Management said on Thursday.
Port Management: “The Port is very thankful to the staff for their contributions and commitment through the pandemic. This has been a difficult period for everyone, and staff well-being were our number one priority. Last September a number of staff took part in a mental health workshop titled, ‘Surviving the Pandemic.’ The program provided tools to assist staff to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic challenges.”
The general consensus is that things are looking positive especially coming out of the United States, where the pace of COVID-19 vaccine inoculations are on the increase and the infection curve has been dropping leading to less hospitalizations and deaths.
The cruise industry continues to await guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), one of the major operating components of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services protecting Americans from health and safety threats, both foreign and domestic.
The cruise industry is currently waiting on the technical details that would allow for the first conditional sail order and trial sailings to begin.
Discussions within the United States Government have been taking place on a broader level that encompasses travel in general – plane and cruise.
In the meantime, Port St. Maarten attended on March 3 a meeting with the Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) under the banner of, “Americas Cruise Tourism Task Force.” The Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) was also a key partner that attended the virtual sessions.
The Caribbean remains the number one cruise region which will be critical to cruising’s recovery as it is the largest cruise line deployment region out of the global market, capturing 32 per cent of the cruise business.
American market consumer research reveals that as it relates to cruise, are the most optimistic about the future since the beginning of the pandemic, and believe that the worst is behind us, and are looking forward to traveling.
Destinations within the region including Sint Maarten, are wondering how the restart of cruises will look like. Port St. Maarten has been paying very close attention to trends and developments in order to be ready for the restart of cruising. The port will be launching a cruise return campaign sharing key business intelligence with its stakeholders.
Some cruise brands have announced ‘vaccine-only’ cruises, as an example.
There has also been mention of a cruise bubble within the region, maintaining current COVID-19 health preventative protocols and testing to the gradual reopening of destinations and post-vaccine plans.
Due to the pandemic, the cruise industry has approximately 60 ships in the region with around 6,000 crew onboard. Port St. Maarten during the past 12-months has been providing a number of services to the cruise vessels that have made port calls for food and fuel provisioning as well as assisting with the crew transfers (in and out) to other countries via the Princess Juliana International Airport regularly.
The aforementioned provisioning services have benefited the island economically within the past 12-months as we continue to look at alternative avenues to generate revenues from commercial and non-commercial
MP Duncan Proposes Roundtable Discussion on Kingdom Charter SINT MAARTEN The Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Decolonization (CCAD) held its first committee meeting on Wednesday 10th March 2021. Chairperson of the Committee MP Ludmila Duncan requested that the first meeting be closed-door in order to discuss the working methods of the committee.
“In my capacity as Chairperson, I presented a proposal on the contextual framework for the committee as well as a proposal to host a roundtable discussion of experts to discuss the democratic deficits in the Kingdom Charter and possible ways forward,” stated the MP. Local experts will be invited to present position papers and present their views in Parliament. This would be the first roundtable discussion held in Parliament.
“No matter what everyone thinks about decolonization, whether we are fully decolonized or not, the committee was established unanimously to deliberate and work on the issues that do exist because of our status as a so-called country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is also about how we are treated.”
Another agenda points in the meeting included the 2020 Dutch NGOs contribution pertaining the Twenty-second to Twenty-fourth Periodic Report on the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination report by the Dutch Section of the International Commission of Jurists (NJCM) which stated that “Kingdom interference in the autonomous matters of the Caribbean countries are in fact interference by the Netherlands” and that “this historically grown constitutional imbalance upholds racialized discourses and practices.” MP Duncan noted that we often do not debate discrimination in the Kingdom when it exists systematically.
“In 2020 legal experts all around the Dutch Caribbean agreed that the conditions for liquidity support and the imposing of a Caribbean Reform Entity in its original state, trampled on our autonomy and in some cases human rights. We cannot forget that this was and will continue to be the case as long as major democratic deficits exist in the Kingdom, added the MP.
MP Duncan during her presentation in the meeting also called on her colleagues to deliberate on matters at three levels; international, kingdom and local. “A majority in Parliament supported the international trajectory towards fixing our democratic deficits with the submission of a petition at the UN. Some are against and they have a right to be however there has also been debate and a lack of action taken at the Kingdom level with the Kingdom Charter being the key instrument in need of reform. For some Members, this is the only trajectory that we should on. This is why I proposed the hosting of a roundtable discussion in Parliament with local experts to deliberate possible actions,” added the MP.
“Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten have been waiting for a dispute regulation to handle matters of conflict within the Kingdom for 10 years. Why hasn’t it been finalized as yet? This is why there are different trajectories and I believe that all are valid at this crucial time in our history.”
The MP looks forward to chairing public meetings of the CCAD and aims to have the Committee publish reports within short for public consumption.
In case you’re wondering… In this corner we have Dutch Sint Maarten, weighing in at 34 Kilos… She started this fight.
And in this corner we have Dutch Europe a.k.a. The Netherlands, Also known as ‘The Oppressors’ in certain seas….They weigh in at a staggering 41.543 Kilos. They appear to be shocked and mad as hell right now. RIGHT before their Elections, right after their unstable government fell, and people are rioting in the streets protesting lock down and curfew, right now the Netherlands looking like a TRUE Banana Republic…..How DARE the Dutch Sint Maarten government take from Holland’s playbook and humiliate their crooked politicians, in a sneak attack world wide? IT’s funny how Holland always complains that we don’t act Dutch enough, until we go in on them ‘Makamba style’🤷🏿♀️
Let’s be clear… I despise everyone involved, but in this pandemic, I will take what little entertainment my government gives me. They blew all that Irma Funding we don’t even have streaming.
Exactly one week, March 10th, before the Netherland General Elections, The Dutch Sint Maarten government dropped a bomb on them. In one of the largest newspapers in the Western Hemisphere, one with over 100 MILLION visits per month, The Washington Post.
Coincidence?
I have no problem with the Dutch Holland and Dutch St Maarten governments savaging each other in the International press.
In fact, I quite enjoy it…. as should you. A bunch of overweight, overpaid kleptocrats duking it out. I heard Minister Knops is sending us food packages…
Tell him we enjoy popcorn and tea. Lots of it.
Knops figures if our mouths are filled, with food, we can’t complain too much when they start the wholesale scraping up our lovely government.
Since September 2017 The Sint Maarten government been begging for assistance and food from the Netherlands. Little did we know, all we had to do was send some irate women to complain to the very WOKE Washington Post.
Holland cannot top that, and they were caught unexpected. Pants down, ass out, that is how Silveria, Grisha and Solange caught them.
Dingaling Dollocks Blowing in the wind.
Is it a coincidence that André Bosman, the Sint Maarten government’s biggest antagonist in de Tweede Kamer, QUIETLY RETIRED the day they TRIPLE MARKLED him?
EVERY time Sint Maarten holds an election, Holland WAITS until the week before we vote to start arresting party leaders, fck up the whole elections.
Sniped them. Guerrilla style.
This time, it was The SXM Government who turned the tables on them and tried to eff with THEIR elections.
I have a lot of deep political contacts in Holland from when I lived there. Let me get back to editing VIDEOS because ayu een guh seh I seh🤫
Video: So BOTH André Bosman AND Roland Van Raak Are Leaving Dutch Parliament? André Bosman from Middelburg will soon be leaving as Member of Parliament for the VVD. He will miss his work as a representative of the people, but is happy that he is no longer dependent on the agenda of the House of Representatives.
I believe that Grisha and Rolando are in trouble. They threw Silveria’s name out there just to muddle things a little bit, but good sources tell me, this is NOT Silveria… But Silveria is in a bind.
The Washington Post article was A Grisha Marten/Mrs. Theo Heyliger production.
Holland spent a FULL day digesting that popcorn yesterday… THEY weren’t being quiet, they were seething.
Why did His Royal Idleness Dutch King, Willem Alexander call his ‘darkest’ islands yesterday?…. Saba and Statia? JUST calling to see if his negroes there were okay? He just called them last week… Remember? When he intentionally snubbed Sint Maarten?🤫
BOTH THE DUTCH KING AND HIS GOVERNMENT WERE ‘MARKLED’. You noticed that Queen Elizabeth suddenly reached out to Harry? Well that is what his Royal Dutch Such n Such, is doing right now. Does NOT mean he’s happy…. He is tired of being called a Racist. You think Queen Elizabeth is happy right now?
Here is what will happen. André will be the first to open his yap…he got nothing else going on in his life. André and his little SXM Hard on. He is obsessed. Shortly after, his little submissive Ronald Van Raak will pipe up, saying whatever André, his dominant tells him to say.
Then Minister Knops will come with food packages just not to be called racist. So Knops just magically pulled food aid out his ass??? No… Grisha and Mamzelle Duncan had them up all night. Gotta go, so MUCH info from Holland cannot keep up. Enjoy your free food… Holland offering US food, because they are coming after our government. I do not care how tough life is. I would NOT want to be a St Maarten politician right now.
News release | 12-03-2021 | 2:30 PM At the suggestion of State Secretary Knops of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the Dutch cabinet is allocating an additional 15.2 million euros for the food aid program in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The inhabitants of the three islands have faced major challenges since the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent loss of tourism. The poverty problem has increased sharply on the islands.
State Secretary Knops: “The cabinet has always been based on the principle that the Netherlands should not leave the most vulnerable people out in the cold. During my last working visit I experienced how dire the situation is in some places within our Kingdom. It is very important that the food aid program is continued in the coming period. ”
Since May 2020, the Dutch cabinet has made money available for food aid in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. At the moment, a total of about 80,000 people are helped with food aid made possible by the Netherlands.
The Red Cross coordinates the food aid program. But a transition to a more structural form of the program is underway, under the responsibility of the three countries. With these funds, food aid is guaranteed until July 1, 2021.
Documents Letter to Parliament about the follow-up food aid program Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten State Secretary Knops informs the House of Representatives about the extension of the food aid program in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint:
Return address PO Box 20011 2500 EA The Hague
To the President of the House of Representatives of the States General PO Box 20018 2500 EA THE HAGUE Ministry of The Interior and Kingdom Relations Turfmarkt 147 The Hague Box 20011 2500 EA The Hague Characteristic 2021-0000136947 Date March 12, 2021 Subject Continuation of food aid program Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten The residents of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten have faced major challenges since COVID-19 and the consequent loss of tourism. The poverty problem has increased sharply on the islands. At the moment, a total of about 80,000 people are helped with food aid made possible by the Netherlands.
The government’s starting point has always been that the Netherlands should not leave the most vulnerable people out in the cold. For this reason, funding has been made available for food aid since May 2020: € 16.5 million for the period May to mid-September 2020 and € 25.2 million for the period from mid-September to December 2020. This turned out to be sufficient to implement the program on Curaçao until May 1, 2021 and on Aruba and St. Maarten until February 1. An additional € 14.9 million was made available for Aruba and St. Maarten for the period February to May 2021.
It is very important that the food aid program is continued in the coming period. The cabinet has therefore decided to make € 15.2 million available to continue the food aid program in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten until June 2021.
The Red Cross is currently coordinating the food aid program. A lot of hard work is being done on the transition of food aid to a more long-term embedding of the program in the local authorities. This applies to both food aid to residents and food aid to undocumented migrants. The countries intend to deploy an NGO for the latter target group. The aim is to have realized the transition by May 1, 2021 on Curaçao and Sint Maarten and by July 1, 2021 on Aruba. After the first transition in May, more will soon become clear about the continuation of the food aid program. Your House will be informed about this at that time.
Your feature Normally, new policy is implemented after the States General has authorized the Budget Act. Since postponement of the implementation of this urgent measure, which is in the interest of central government, cannot wait for formal authorization from both Houses of the States General, the cabinet will start the implementation of the measure. This acts in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 2.27 of the Government Accounts Act 2016.
The State Secretary for the Interior and Kingdom Relations,
drs. R.W. Knops Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Characteristic 2021-0000136947 Page 2 of 2
PHILIPSBURG Ronald van Raak of the SP wants to stop financial support to Sint Maarten for the time being. The Member of Parliament is afraid that Dutch support will not go well if the politicians on the island do not support it.
The States of St. Maarten filed suit with the United Nations. Financial support for the island’s inhabitants is said to be a form of oppression, racism and colonialism. In that case, Sint Maarten could become more independent, according to Van Raak.
The Hague Member of Parliament André Bosman (VVD) has put written questions to State Secretary Knops (BZK) about the indictment that was submitted on Wednesday on behalf of the States of Sint Maarten to the special rapporteur of the United Nations. The Netherlands is accused of violating Sint Maarten’s right to self-government and of favoring white residents in the Kingdom over those with African roots. Bosman wants to know whether the petition was also submitted on behalf of the five other islands and whether the accusations against the Netherlands have been brought forward by Sint Maarten in the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom or other consultations. One of those accusations is that the democratically elected government of Sint Maarten is being supplanted by a neo-colonial fiscal authority. The wish of Sint Maarten to complete the decolonization process, Bosman sees as a call for independence, witness his questions: If Sint Maarten wanted to become independent, there are objections from the Kingdom or the countries within the kingdom? When could talks take place regarding the independence of Sint Maarten? In response to the widely supported petition of the States of Sint Maarten, are you willing to take the lead for such a conversation? Are you familiar with “PETITION PRESENTED TO: THE SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF RACISM, RACIAL DISCRIMINATION, XENOPHOBIA AND RELATED INTOLERANCE AND THE WORKING GROUP OF EXPERTS ON PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT ON EXCEPT OF THE PARLIAMENT AND CITIZENS OF SINT MAARTEN ”of March 9, 2021? Is this petition also on behalf of Bonaire Saba and Sint Eustatius? Is this petition also on behalf of Aruba and Curaçao? Has the accusation that “the Netherlands failed in its obligation to promote self-government” also been discussed in the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom? If so, when? Have the above allegations been discussed in other consultations? If so, where? Has the government of Sint Maarten expressed support for this petition? If so, when? If not, why not? The petition speaks of “ousting a democratically elected government by a neo-colonial fiscal authority. Is that displacement taking place? If so, can you indicate where this displacement takes place? The petition states that: “Although precise statistics on race are not readily available for the islands and the Netherlands, it is clear that on the aggregate level , the Kingdom’s treatment of the overwhelmingly white population of the Netherlands is far superior than its treatment of the people of African descent and other racial and ethnic minorities that comprise the considerable majority of the three Caribbean islands ”. Do you recognize yourself in this statement? Which decisions by the Kingdom would show that the treatment would be different? Is it true that the country of Sint Maarten voluntarily agreed in 10-10-10 to accept external financial supervision when accepting the autonomy? for Sint Maarten? The financial problems of Sint Maarten are mainly attributed by the petitioners to the hurricanes of 2017 and the corona pandemic. Is that the case or have the financial problems been there for much longer? If those problems have existed for some time, what does this show? What about tax collection in Sint Maarten? How many hotels, businesses and wealthy residents receive a tax cut, or pay no tax at all, on Sint Maarten? What is the cause of the slow disbursement of the 550 Million euros made available by the Netherlands under the framework of the reconstruction of Sint Maarten after hurricane Irma? The petitioners blame the Kingdom for not being able to take out a loan with an external financier and now blame the Kingdom for becoming more heavily indebted through funding from the Dutch government. Is that correct? Who is responsible for poverty reduction and social affairs in Sint Maarten? What can the Netherlands be blamed for with regard to the differences in support in the social domain in relation to Sint Maarten? The petitioners accuse the Netherlands and the Kingdom of not doing anything about the prison of Sint Maarten? Under whose responsibility does the prison of Sint Maarten fall? What do you think about the accusations of racism, colonialism and discrimination that run throughout the play towards the Netherlands and the Kingdom? In accordance with your answers to my questions of 21 August 2019, the countries already had full self-government in accordance with Article 73 of the UN Charter when they adopted the Statute. What other form of complete self. https://dossierkoninkrijksrelaties.nl/2021/03/11/kamerlid-bosman-gesprek-aangaan-met-sint-maarten-over-onafhankelijkheid/
It is one thing to wholeheartedly disagree on the principle of whether a donor (the Netherlands) may attach conditions to the large-scale interest-free provision of liquidity support to an island (Sint Maarten) in need. It is even possible to argue that the decolonization process has or has not been completed – even if it is very late, after all, the Statute is already 66 years old and in 2010 Sint Maarten voluntarily agreed to the status of autonomous country within the Kingdom. But politics in Philipsburg, at least the majority, is going a step too far by accusing the Netherlands at the United Nations (UN) for neo-colonialism, racism and xenophobia. Crosses borders. Moreover, Kingdom partner the Netherlands is affected where it is most sensitive, namely by harming its reputation internationally by stating in the authoritative American newspaper The Washington Post that there is a “racial settlement”. This is because the government of Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs requested a life preserver in connection with the corona crisis and received a bag of money-linked-to-conditions for this. It does not concern the entire States, because there are also two factions that expressly distance themselves from this action and rightly warn that a handful of politicians are putting the fate of the Sint Maarten population at risk. Last year, the Netherlands provided 175 million guilders in liquidity support (in addition to gifts for food parcels and other emergency aid; matters that are actually the primary responsibility of an autonomous government). The amount of 175 million may not seem like much – compared, for example, to the 668 million that Curaçao received (not including the 170 million for the solution to the Giro Bank problem) and the 414 million for Aruba – but it is almost two-thirds of what Sint Maarten residents generated tax revenues in 2020 (only 288 million). Of course, they are loans, free of charge (= without interest), and it would be nice to the Netherlands if they could be canceled at some point, because according to the Central Bank CBCS it is already clear that the countries cannot pay them off for the time being. But the fact that the money is being conditioned is because much of the homework by the (islands) countries has not been done in recent decades. Almost all measures in the Coho Landspacks (Caribbean Body for Reform and Development) are matters for which the political administrators themselves should have been responsible for much earlier. Setting conditions, however, does not come close to racism. There is (also) something else at play. The allegations from Philipsburg seem mainly due to frustration and revenge from the corner of Heyliger and Corallo, who are ‘represented’ in parliament by States members Grisha Heyliger-Marten (yes, wife of Theo Heyliger, who was sentenced to prison) and her party colleague Rolando Brison. ; as “puppets on a string”. There is therefore talk of the “Cupecoy Shadow Government”. They not only take the majority in parliament in tow, but also put Prime Minister Jacobs in a difficult position. Is this really what the population wants? Nota bene in a crisis of unprecedented magnitude. Because there is more to it: financially it is a drama and in the judicial area is being demolished what has recently been built on. The right-minded on Sint Maarten, including the business community, are rightly very concerned. But much more than in Curaçao and Aruba, they are concerned from the wings. They don’t step forward. That is above all the moral duty of the Sint Maarten elite: step forward, to prevent worse, and mark the boundaries. Before it’s too late and the baby is thrown out with the bathwater. Sint Maarten is not far from there. https://antilliaansdagblad.com/nieuws-menu/commentaar-ad/23275-politiek-sint-maarten-overschrijdt-grenzen
