SXMElections.com

Winners And Losers: Who Will Survive The Polls In February?

St. Maarten / By Hilbert Haar – February 9, 2016 is crunch day for politicians and those who aspire to become one. The parliamentary elections – for some mysterious reason perceived by some as ‘snap elections’, whatever that may be – will give voters the opportunity to speak their mind about the constitutional drama that concluded on Wednesday when the ministers of the Marcel Gumbs cabinet tendered their resignation and Governor Drs Read more

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Entrepreneurs Get Ready For Entrepreneurship Week 721, International Speakers To Empower Students And Entrepreneurs In November

Great Bay, St. Maarten – Inspired by the Global Entrepreneurship Week, INFOBIZZ is hosting its very first Entrepreneurship Week 721 from November 16-21, 2015.

This week is aimed at helping entrepreneurs to reach new levels of success in their businesses and lives. International entrepreneurs from the US, Canada, and The Netherlands will be on St. Maarten sharing dynamic cutting-edge information to transform businesses alongside local experts.

INFOBIZZ is specifically designed at developing successful entrepreneurs and has reached approximately 700 entrepreneurs in the past 2 years predominantly through it premier networking activity, the POWER HOUR Read more

Editorial - Anybody’s guess

Governor Eugene Holiday has decided to seek legal clarity on the current constitutional impasse. That’s the gist of a press release from his cabinet at Harbour View on Friday evening.

He did so rather than either signing into law the Marcel Gumbs cabinet’s national decree to dissolve Parliament and call early elections, or sending it up to the Kingdom Council of Ministers for annulment, allowing the recently established NA/DP/USP/Matser/Lake coalition to form a new Government Read more

PHILIPSBURG:--- Heavy equipment’s were used early Wednesday morning to block the entrance of the Government Administration Building. The drivers of three heavy equipment arrived in the area of the Government Administration Building shortly before 5am where they parked their vehicles blocking the entrance towards the Government Administration Building and left.
Around 6:30 am the night watch- commander Officer Gomes along with some police officers walked towards the Government Administration and began questioning bystanders and the security guards as to who parked the heavy equipment’s that were blocking the streets Read more

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Tourism public relations firm’s contract in limbo

PHILIPSBURG--A tourism public relations (PR) company employed by St. Maarten Tourist Bureau has been caught in technical limbo during the ongoing political uncertainty.

However, despite the unwelcome news, its President Richard Kahn said it was still “actively representing the tourism interests of St. Maarten” and doing its “best to promote the destination.” This is despite also being owed money.

Kahn Travel Communications, or KTCpr, has not had its contract officially signed by Government and was told last week not to spend any money on behalf of the destination Read more

Editorial - Deadlocked for now

Anybody expecting that the Parliament session on Tuesday to elect a new President and two Vice-Presidents might lead to some breakthrough in the current constitutional impasse between the new majority and the Gumbs cabinet was disappointed. Although both President Dr. Lloyd Richardson and First Vice-President Leona Marlin-Romeo had publicly made their positions available, they were not present and Second Vice-President Cornelius de Weever, part of the same former UP-led coalition, closed the proceedings as soon as they had begun, saying he needed legal clarification due to the Council of Ministers having passed a national decree to dissolve the legislature and hold snap elections.

The incoming NA/DP/UPS/Matser/Lake coalition did not appreciate this and called for an urgent new meeting about De Weever’s “illegal act” and its impact on the country’s democratic representation Read more

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Brazil's new middle class struggles as economy plunges

SAO BERNARDO DO CAMPO, Brazil--Until recently, Lucinelia de Jesus Souza's future seemed bright, running a small coffee shop that caters to factory workers and other blue-collar customers in this industrial suburb of São Paulo. But the faded pink counters of her shoebox-sized business, which opened a decade ago and blossomed as Brazil's economy grew quickly, now see fewer customers stopping in for coffee or deep-fried pastries.
  Her income has fallen by half since 2012, forcing the 43-year-old to cut the sort of spending that once heralded an emerging new consumer class in Latin America's biggest country Read more

Parties disagree on course of action for Isla refinery

THE HAGUE--Curaçao’s Isla refinery makes people sick and is very bad for the environment. No disagreement on that during the handling of the draft 2016 Kingdom Relations budget earlier this week. However, parties in the Second Chamber of the Dutch Parliament differ in opinion on the follow-up action.

The Democratic Party D66, the Socialist Party (SP) and the ChristianUnion pressed for quick, decisive action, and on Thursday presented two joint motions for a sustainable solution for the refinery Read more

Who will be paying for Minister Connor trip to the Dominican Republic? Minister got motion of no confidence he has no right spending tax payers monies.

PHILIPSBURG:--- The Minister of VROMI who is also responsible for Government owned company GEBE Claret Connor is expected to travel to the Dominican Republic this weekend with a delegation from GEBE. According to information provided to SMN News GEBE was invited by Watsilla to travel to the Dominican Republic on a fact-finding mission on the waste to energy plant Read more

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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

Kraft Foods Group Voluntarily Recalls Select Code Dates And Manufacturing Codes Of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Boxed Dinners Due To Possible Metal Pieces

NORTHFIELD, Ill – Kraft Foods Group is voluntarily recalling approximately 242,000 cases of select code dates and manufacturing codes of the Original flavor of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Dinner – due to the possibility that some boxes may contain small pieces of metal.

The recalled product is limited to the 7.25-oz. size of the Original flavor of boxed dinner with the "Best When Used By" dates of September 18, 2015 through October 11, 2015, with the code "C2" directly below the date on each individual box Read more

Romny and Catalan win Cycling Club’s Night Race

PHILIPSBURG—Seven Romny won the Junior Division and Steve Catalan took top honours in the seniors at the St. Maarten St. Martin Cycling Club evening race Saturday.

The race had been schooled to be a 100 lap relay consisting of five rider teams.

"Several of the teams pulled out at the last minute." said Jean Paul Rousseau from the Cycling Club.

"We did not want to disappoint the riders that did show so we ran two races." The young riders did five laps of the one kilometre course and the seniors completed 30 laps.

The lap starts on Pond Island by the University, goes to the Salt Pickers Roundabout back to the landfill entrance and finishes back at the University.

Second in the juniors was Noel Kianny Read more

Israel undermines US peace effort, Abbas tells UN

UNITED NATIONS--Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday accused Israel of sabotaging U.S. efforts to broker peace and said Israeli security operations at the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem could lead to a religious war.
  In an address to the United Nations General Assembly before a ceremony for the raising of the Palestinian flag at U.N. headquarters in New York, Abbas said the Palestinian Authority no longer considered itself bound by the accords signed with Israel in the mid-1990s.
  Reiterating what the Palestinian Authority has been saying for at least half a decade, Abbas said the agreements would not apply as long as Israel supports settlements of Israelis in the West Bank and refuses to release Palestinian prisoners.
  "You are all aware that Israel undermined the efforts made by the administration of President Barack Obama in past years, most recently the efforts of Secretary of State John Kerry aimed at reaching a peace agreement through negotiations," Abbas told the 193-nation General Assembly.
  A senior U.S Read more