SXMElections.com

Mit Professor & Known Haitian Creole Advocate Join Forces To Create First Ever Kreyol Alphabet Songs And Videos

TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. - The first ever Kreyòl (Haitian Creole) alphabet songs as educational videos have been created and made available online, it was announced today.

The groundbreaking project is the result of collaboration between Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Linguistics Professor Michel DeGraff and recognized Kreyòl advocate Mandaly Louis-Charles.

The videos' creation holds both historical and political significance to the country of Haiti Read more

Notices June 27

Teachers, Volunteers Needed

I Too Can Learn (ITCL) Foundation is seeking teachers (Special Ed) and volunteers for their Center. For more information call 547 0890 or 524 6067. Your resume can be sent to: \n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots Read more

CFT may call for ‘targeted instruction’ if no settlement

PHILIPSBURG--The Committee for Financial Supervision CFT “in all likelihood will ask for a targeted instruction” to be handed down by the Dutch Kingdom Council of Ministers if government does not settle its arrears with Social and Health Insurance SZV and the General Pension Fund APS.

Government has missed the May 30 deadline set by CFT to settle its arrears with SZV and APS. The targeted instruction will focus on dealing with the payment arrears amounting to some NAf Read more

Notices June 26

Teachers, Volunteers Needed

I Too Can Learn (ITCL) Foundation is seeking teachers (Special Ed) and volunteers for their Center. For more information call 547 0890 or 524 6067. Your resume can be sent to: \n This e-mail address is being protected from spambots Read more

Notices June 25

Saturday, June 27

FREE HIV TESTS

Organised by St. Maarten AIDS Foundation and Scotiabank

Place: Scotiabank Philipsburg (Next to KFC)

Time: 10:00am to 4:00pm

Free and confidential results in 15 minutes

Saturday, June 27

PET FOOD DRIVE

Organised by PAWSITIVE SXM

Place: Le Grand Marche

Time: 11:00am to 6:00pm

For dogs in shelter and for free cat colonies

NOTICES

Teachers, Volunteers Needed

I Too Can Learn (ITCL) Foundation is seeking teachers (Special Ed) and volunteers for their Center Read more

Parliament committees to look into French/Dutch joint issues

Representatives of the French side Territorial Council with Members of Parliament in Parliament House on Tuesday.

PHILIPSBURG--A meeting between the French side Territorial Council and Members of Parliament (MPs) in Parliament House on Tuesday resulted in various topics discussed being sent to Parliament’s permanent committees for further deliberation and solution seeking.

Among the topics discussed was pensioners living on the French side, but who have contributed to the Dutch side’s General Pension Fund by working on the southern side of the island accessing their benefits Read more

Bourne-Gumbs outlines plans for current governing period

PHILIPSBURG--Transforming an existing English public primary school into a Dutch one; creating incentives for teachers to obtain "favourable" mortgage rates and expanding public school hours were amongst the plans Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Affairs Minister Rita Bourne-Gumbs outlined to Members of Parliament (MPs) on Wednesday.

The plans cover the current four-year governing period. Bourne-Gumbs said when she took office as Minister the various department heads had already established a plan and parties had to see how to incorporate her ideas and "not take their entire plan and dismiss it."

The ministry's plans include putting in place a "strong" foundation for Dutch as a foreign language for all schools in the country Read more

Police, Ambulance launch joint NAf. 5.5 million Dispatch Centre

PHILIPSBURG--“A very important undertaking” and “an example of good cooperation,” were some of the terms used to describe the St. Maarten Police Force and Ambulance Department’s Joint Dispatch Centre, which was officially launched on Tuesday.

The state-of-the-art centre was constructed at a cost of NAf. 5.5 million, which was partly funded by Dutch Funding Agency USONA and partners in the project Read more

Russia to help Jamaica agriculture and possibly import meat and crops

KINGSTON, Jamaica--Russia has promised to help Jamaica restore its mined-out bauxite lands to full agricultural production. It also plans to share its technology to boost the island's agriculture and help address its environmental issues.

Minister of Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, Phillip Paulwell made the disclosure as he attended the 19th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Moscow, where he met with representatives from the Russian government to strengthen cooperation in specialised areas.

"I held discussions with the Agriculture Minister [Alexander Tkachov – Ed.] Read more

>PHILIPSBURG:---- St. Maarten was not surprised at all when the UP party told their coalition partner the US party of MP Frans Richardson to take a hike but Dennis stays. The US party should have drawn their conclusion from the statement made by the honorable Prime Minister that Minister Richardson isn’t going anywhere Read more

Take It Or Leave, Dennis Stays But You The Us Party May Go!

PHILIPSBURG, St. Maarten – St. Maarten was not surprised at all when the UP party told their coalition partner the US party of MP Frans Richardson to take a hike but Dennis stays.

The US party should have drawn their conclusion from the statement made by the honorable Prime Minister that Minister Richardson isn't going anywhere.

According to the Prime Minister if Minister Richardson goes, then the entire cabinet is going and the Prime Minister would then have no choice but to dissolve the parliament of St Read more

Insulted daughter-in-law

Dear Queenie,

My father-in-law is always making remarks about how one of our children doesn’t look anything like my husband. He seems to think that means the boy isn’t really my husband’s son.

The fact of the matter is that the boy looks a lot like my husband’s mother, but my father-in-law hasn’t noticed that, or if he has he never says anything about it. Instead he keeps saying things that imply that I cheated on my husband, which never happened.

Queenie, how can I shut him up?—Insulted daughter-in-law

Dear Insulted,

It is nearly impossible to shut up someone like that, but if your mother-in-law is ever around when Mr 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

Dispute regulation top priority for St. Maarten

WILLEMSTAD--Establishing a dispute regulation (geschillenregeling) for the Kingdom will be the number one topic for the St. Maarten delegation today, Tuesday, at the Kingdom Conference in Curaçao, said St. Maarten Prime Minister Marcel Gumbs on Monday.

"We think that the agreement that the Parliaments of the Kingdom reached on the dispute regulation during the Inter-Parliamentary Kingdom Consultations IPKO in The Hague last month was a good agreement and we hope that all parties at the Kingdom Conference will be ready and willing to reach a final settlement," Gumbs told The Daily Herald.

According to Gumbs, it was time for the Netherlands to show the willingness to work with the three other countries in the Kingdom, Aruba, Curaçao and St Read more

style="text-align: center;">Is it really the signing of the Integrity protocol why Minister Richardson must go!
I can imagine all of those voters of last election holding their head and bawling with shame knowing that they put this government in place. Don’t blame the politicians, blame yourself. You knew that if you put the same leaders back in office you could not have expected different results than what we are getting today.

Philipsburg:--- Many persons have not being paying much attention to the back and forth discussion regarding the establishment of an Integrity Chamber, especially not those ordinary citizens who are unemployed and those others who can’t make ends meet because of the high cost of living Read more

Lorenzo cuts Rossi's MotoGP lead to one

BARCELONA-- Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo slashed team mate Valentino Rossi's championship lead to a single point on Sunday with his fourth win in a row at an eventful Catalan Grand Prix.
  The victory on a scorching afternoon also handed the Spaniard a MotoGP record with 103 successive laps led, breaking Australian Casey Stoner's previous benchmark of 88.
  Rossi completed a one-two finish for Yamaha, the team's second of the season, while Honda's Dani Pedrosa was third.
  "The conditions were difficult as it was very hot," Lorenzo told reporters Read more

India's economic data bring cheer

NEW DELHI--India's industrial production output grew more than expected in April, reaching a two-month high, and retail inflation edged up in May, easing concern over an economy facing the worst drought since 2009.
  Output at factories, mines and utilities grew at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in April, the fastest pace since February. That was higher than March's 2.5 percent growth and the 1.6 percent economists forecast in a Reuters poll.
  Consumer inflation in May rose to 5.01 percent from 4.87 percent in the previous month on higher energy costs Read more

‘Excusez-moi?’ – Muppet time for Astrid on Statia

Dear Editor,

"Statia needs me and I am now heading home!" With these words, Statia Commissioner of Finance Astrid McKenzie-Tatem stormed out of her meeting with the Dutch Government because of the imposition of higher financial supervision. It was all rather reminiscent of a Miss Piggy fight with Kermit the frog!

However, whereas the Muppets are puppets and we expect them to behave like puppets, politicians are not. But they do have a political stage. How you say something and how you do something is just as important as what you say and what you do.

In the case of our new Commissioner of Finance, she has done very little Read more

Saba wants to host summit for Caribbean Netherlands

THE HAGUE--Saba has offered to host a political summit of the Caribbean Netherlands and the Netherlands in January 2016 to discuss the future of the islands, their relation with the Netherlands and how to achieve more self-reliance.

Saba Commissioner of Constitutional Affairs Chris Johnson launched his proposal for a summit which might be held in January 2016 after the completion of the evaluation during a meeting of the Executive Councils of Bonaire and St. Eustatius with the Second Chamber’s Permanent Committee for Kingdom Relations on Thursday.

Saba, but also Bonaire, wants to become more self-reliant and be more in charge of its own affairs Read more

>Since the beginning of this week, military personnel has arrived on the islands of Sint Maarten, Saba and Statia. They are preparing for the annual hurricane relief exercise. Yesterday, the Commander Netherlands Forces in the Caribbean, commodore Hans Lodder, visited the support ship HNLMS Pelikaan and the operations room in the Asha Stevens Hillside Christian School.

Cooperation
“The military troops are here to support local authority in case of a hurricane passage or another disaster Read more

New NAPB President pledges to do utmost to represent members

~ New board, congress sworn in ~

PHILIPSBURG--Newly elected President of the Nationale Algemene Politie Bond (NAPB) St. Maarten police union Jeanine Peterson pledged to do her utmost to tackle the many issues affecting members.

Peterson made the statements shortly after being sworn in during a ceremony at the John Larmonie Center on Wednesday. Also sworn in were members of the union’s Board and Congress Read more

The International Floralies of Martinique, «Caribbean Bouquet »: the first Caribbean project with a promising future.

>Martinique:--- From June 17th to 21st 2015, Martinique will host the fourth edition of the International Floralies in Trois- Ilets, as part of an innovative concept called «Caribbean Bouquet».

Twenty (20) Caribbean countries including Barbados, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Trinidad & Tobago, French Guiana, Suriname, Brazil, St. Martin, St. Vincent, Guyana, St. Kitts, Grenada, Montserrat and Haiti, will take part in the «grand eco-cultural flourishing garden» to be presented to the Martinican public at the site of the historical La Pagerie Floral Park.

The Floralies Park of Trois-Ilets, dedicated to this vocation since 1979, is spread over three hectares and is located on a portion of the former «Domaine de la Pagerie», property of the family of Empress Joséphine Read more

Cuba Inc. open to foreign capitalists, but within limits

HAVANA--Communist Cuba's newfound interest in foreign capital has its limits, as Philippe Pouletty found out.
  A French doctor, venture capitalist and founder of biotech company Abivax, Pouletty is working with Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology to develop a therapeutic vaccine to treat chronic Hepatitis B that could be on the Asian market in two years and in Europe after that Read more

Former model wrestles personal demons to the mat in yoga book

NEW YORK--A former model uses tales of sex, drugs and rock and roll in a book hitting stores on Monday to introduce the healing power of yoga sequences and demonstrate how the ancient practice of breath and meditation can fortify the mind as well as the body.
  In "Yoga for Life: A Journey to Peace and Freedom," Colleen Saidman Yee, a former fashion model turned yoga teacher, recounts how yoga helped her battle a heroin habit, epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after she was injured in a car accident when she was 15 years old Read more