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Soualiga News Today (4837)

POLICE KEEP STREETS SAFE AND CONDUCT TRAFFIC CONTROLS. 150 FINES ISSUED

POINT BLANCHE - During the week of Sunday January 25th through January 29th 2015 the Port of Sint Maarten has been quite busy with the large amount of cruise ship arrivals totaling 24 thus far.

By the end of the week the amount of cruise vessel arrivals should surpass 30. The streets of Sint Maarten have been quite busy with the many cruise passengers visiting the island.

The Police Department has also been extremely busy providing the necessary safety and security for the visitors and the entire community.

During the day you could see the officers on patrols and keeping a keen eye out to what is going on.

Officers were seen controlling many vehicles and regulating the flow of traffic. During this period approximately 150 fines were given to drivers who were in violation of the traffic laws. (Police Force Sint Maarten)

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Nature Foundation Again Expresses Concern on Beach Access for Residents

DAWN BEACH - The Sint Maarten Nature Foundation has grave concerns regarding recent reports coming from Dawn Beach and other beaches which again highlights the need for clear legislation as to the use of beaches on St. Maarten.

Beaches are St. Maarten’s primary natural resources and the major natural asset for resident and visitor alike. The Nature Foundation urges decision makers to ratify and implement legislation where residents, regardless of background, can enjoy all of the country’s natural resources.

“There should be no situation where a resident is harassed or barred from using any of the beaches on the island, and clear legislation with associated penalties should be in place to ensure that those infringing on the rights of residents to use their natural resources are not trampled on,” stated Nature Foundation Manager Tadzio Bervoets.

The Nature Foundation would also like to see beaches managed, not only in ecological and environmental terms, but also for the beach-going public. Shade trees, such as the ones recently planted on Belair Beach, garbage bins and trash clean-up initiatives and seaweed removal schemes are essential for not only keeping the ecological balances of the beaches but also providing a pleasant beach-going environment for both residents and visitors.

The Nature Foundation will be appealing for the drafting and the implementation of a National Law for the Protection and Management of Beaches on St. Maarten. (Nature Foundation)

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Kids at Sea Foundation Students making Swift Progress with Boat Building Project

SOUTH REWARD - Kids at Sea Foundation is extremely proud to announce that swift progress is being made by the Milton Peters College 3rd and 4th Form Carpentry Students on their Didi 26, Sloop Design, the first such racing sloop in the Build Your Future Program.

On the day pupils returned to school following the winter break, supplies of specialty wood and materials were delivered.  The supplies weighed several tons and required many students and teachers to assist in the offloading.  The students then wasted no time in unpacking, taking an inventory and setting out the plans to begin. First the frame for the deck was made, followed by inlays for the bulk heads, as depicted by the photos included.

The carpentry students participating in this project have also been undergoing sail training since the beginning of the school year. Those who successfully complete the program will have sailing certification level 1, and all have a goal to race their completed vessel in the 2016 Heineken Regatta.

Currently, over 30 students have signed up for sailing instruction with Kids at Sea for the 2015 program which is the largest group to date!

Kids at Sea Foundation is a volunteer organization providing marine related learning opportunities to High School students.  We are participants in the Samenwerkende Fondsen Kansen Voor Jongeren Cariben since 2014.  We are also supported by members of the Marine Trades Association and generous members of the wider St. Maarten Community.  To get involved, to participate or make a contribution please contact us at via our website www.kidzatsea.com.

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Positive Response to IATA’s Presentation on Automated Passport Control at SXM Airport

SIMPSON BAY, SXM Airport - Minister of Tourism, Economic Affairs, Transport and Telecommunications, Hon. Claret Connor, is in full support of the initiative of the Princess Juliana International Airport, SXM, to introduce Automatic Passport Control (APC) at the facility and his colleague Minister of Justice, Dennis Richardson is cooperating very closely with the airport in this endeavor.         

This was revealed by Regina LaBega, SXM Managing Director, following the presentation made Tuesday to all stakeholders by Filipe Pereira dos Reis, of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and Anthony Henn of SITA.         

LaBega said the feedback from the presentations was “overwhelmingly positive” and singled out Udo Aaron, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice and Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service of St. Maarten for his “visionary outlook and support” of the project.

“We are very encouraged by all the understanding and cooperation we have been receiving from the authorities and all the stakeholders concerning this project and I believe together, we will be able to get it off the ground and transform SXM into the leader in Caribbean aviation and one of the best airports in our region,” LaBega said.

According to Pereira dos Reis, “SXM needs to be connected globally.” He said he had walked through the airport and “it looks like SXM can accommodate it with some infrastructural changes.”

Implementing the APC would be a “potential game changer if SXM wants to be a serious regional hub,” he continued, while he noted that “Not having interlink agreements between airlines is not necessarily an impediment.” The IATA official pointed to the fact that Schipol Airport in Amsterdam has made “huge investments” in this regard. “It’s a strategic decision for SXM to make,” he said. 

During his interactive presentation titled, “The Perfect Passenger Experience,” Pereira dos Reis revealed that “by 2020, eighty percent of global passengers will be offered secure fast travel experience.” The goal, he said, is to get departing passengers from the “curb to the duty free area in 10 minutes,” and from the moment of arrival to the taxi in 30 minutes.

IATA’s aim, therefore, is to “partner with SXM to take it to the next level,” he said. “We’re changing the process with technology.” This is becoming more available and affordable due to competition, he added.

The “perfect passenger experience” means “fast travel” through self-service options in a number of areas, “passenger facilitation,” that results in an “end-to-end passenger experience that is seamless, secure and efficient,” and “smart security” that allows passengers to move through security and immigration check points with “minimal need to divest.”

In his comments following the presentations, Udo Aaron said, “this is the way of the future; we cannot afford to lag behind.”

For his part, SITA’s Anthony Henn, stressed that “Security is a balancing act,” especially due to budget constraints, which affects everyone including rich oil producing countries who are now seeing the price of oil fall precipitously on the world market.

SITA, he said, offers a “complete set of capabilities to transform border security and facilitate the travel experience,” which it calls “iBorders.” This is achieved through “information, intelligence, optimised interactions with travelers and comprehensive insights to enhance every aspect of border operations.”

Among those in attendance at the presentations were top officials of SXM Airport, the Civil Aviation Authority, the Ministries of TEATT and Justice, as well as airline representatives. (SXM Airport)

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Timeshare Association Calls for Urgent Summit with Key Stakeholders of Law-making and Advice

PHILIPSBURG - “The time for decisive action is now,” says St. Maarten Timeshare Association (SMTA) Chairman Marcel Javois.

“The SMTA has taken keen note of the recent comments and statements surrounding the Timeshare Ordinance. We believe that it is now time for urgent action with this matter having been on the table for over 18 years.”   

The SMTA has just learned that the Council of Advice is unhappy with the Timeshare Ordinance and the Timeshare Authority Ordinance which will assist government and consumers in regulating the timeshare industry being in the English language.

According to a SMTA press release, “At the time the laws were drafted for Member of Parliament Hon. Leroy de Weever, the initiator of the laws, then Minister of Justice Hon. Roland Duncan and the supervising expert of the legislation, Judge Professor de Boer, believed that there was ample justification for the laws to be drafted in English as it is one of our two official languages.

“In April of last year the SMTA met with Minister of Justice Hon. Dennis Richardson, who said that many timeshare concepts were so English specific given that Holland has only one small timeshare property, that English should be used but the law should be as a separate National law rather than part of the Civil Code, which needs to be as uniform as possible throughout the Kingdom. We understand that the Council of Advice is also not satisfied with that as a solution.

“Given the late hour and the urgency of the issue as a national priority now that two large timeshare properties are having serious trouble and government has no tools to help, the SMTA hereby calls for an immediate summit to be convened with the current Parliamentary initiator of the law, the Ministers of TEATT and Justice, the Council of Advice, the Ombudsman, Legal Affairs and the SMTA in order to make a plan to get this legislation corrected and if necessary, translated properly to Dutch, and passed in the shortest time possible,” the SMTA concluded in its press release sent out on Wednesday. (SMTA)

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Nature conservation gets a huge boost from the Dutch Postcode Lottery. Sint Maarten Nature Foundation a recepient

COLE BAY/AMSTERDAM - On behalf of the parks and nature conservation organizations on Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten, DCNA was proud to receive an annual contribution of Euro 500,000 from the Lottery at their Goed Geld Gala event, which will be used to help create a sustainable funding future for parks throughout the region and to support regional conservation activities.

On Monday 26th January 2015 the annual Dutch Postcode Lottery Charity Gala (Goed Geld Gala) was held in Amsterdam.  During the charity gala, the lottery proudly announced that thanks to its 2.5 million participants, who bought more than 4 million lottery tickets collectively, a total of 312 million euros will be distributed to non-governmental organizations in 2015.

The Dutch Postcode Lottery has been raising funds since 1989 to support organizations working towards a fairer and greener world. Fifty percent of the lottery’s annual turnover goes to charity. The lottery has steadily grown to become the biggest charity lottery in the Netherlands and supports 92 non-governmental organizations. Since its founding, the lottery has dispensed over 4.4 billion euros to its beneficiaries.

Responding to a plea from local marine parks to “help us save our sharks”, the Dutch Postcode Lottery this year also approved a Special Project for Euro 1,662,550 for a three year project to work with local communities, fishermen and researchers on conservation for our threatened shark populations.

Tadzio Bervoets, Manager of the Man of War Shoals on St. Maarten commented, “All of us who work with these majestic creatures are unbelievably excited and appreciative of the Dutch Postcode Lottery for this significant and important contribution. Not only for shark conservation on our islands but also within the region, where much work is being done to understand these majestic and important creatures and the role that they play in the health of our oceans and the sustainability of the island communities that depend on the sea. All of the Marine Parks in the Dutch Caribbean have put shark conservation and educating the public on the importance of sharks as a top priority and with this significant boost we will be able to better understand these wonderful creatures and educate our communities on their beauty and their majesty.”

Shark conservation work is already firmly underway on St. Maarten, where the Government banned the killing of sharks in its waters for the coming decade and where the Nature Foundation is already running a shark tagging programme to collect valuable information on local sharks. Shark monitoring was kick started in 2014 on Saba, and the Saba Conservation Foundation is engaging a public awareness campaign to demystify sharks and explain the important role they have in our seas.

Worldwide over 100 million sharks are killed every year as a result of fishing and shark finning activities. Sharks are simply being driven to the brink of extinction by our ignorance and greed. With this funding from the Lottery, working closely with local communities, we want to be able to learn all we can about our sharks and create safe havens for them in the Dutch Caribbean.” said Kalli De Meyer, Executive Director of the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance.

Kai Wulf, Parks Director for the Saba Conservation Foundation said, “This support could not have come at a more opportune time, elevating our shark conservation efforts to the highest level. The excitement of now being able to really have an impact, besides preaching appreciation for these beautiful species as a keystone of a healthy Caribbean sea our livelihoods depend on, yet allowing us to learn more about them and to promote better protection measures, is quickly becoming very contagious.”

For the past decade, the Ministry of the Interior, the Dutch Postcode Lottery and the park management organizations on each island have been staunchly committed to the capitalization of a conservation Trust Fund, which aims to support basic management of one terrestrial and marine protected area on each island of the Dutch Caribbean. The idea of setting up conservation trust funds is not new and amongst others is now being promoted by The Nature Conservancy through their “Caribbean Challenge” initiative.

Despite daily difficulties many parks currently face due to a chronic shortage of funding, park management organizations have consistently opted to invest in a long term sustainable funding future for nature conservation on our islands rather than using funds to solve short term needs. (DCNA)

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POLICE SEARCH AT SECONDARY SCHOOL FINDS SOME DRUGS AND POTENTIAL WEAPON

SOUTH REWARD - On Tuesday at approximately 08.30 a.m. a special police team carried out a search the Sint Maarten Vocational School in Reward. The search was done on the request of the management of that school based on information that students of that school were either using drugs, dealing drugs or in the possession of weapons.

The search was carried out on the school premises where all schoolbags were searched. At the same time the school premises were checked by the Police K-9 team. During the search some firecrackers, a box cutter and a small amount of marihuana was found.

The goal of this search is to regain a drug free, weapons free school and also to regain a feeling of security at school. None of the students were arrested during the search; however one student was taken to the Philipsburg police station to be reprimanded about his conduct.

The 15 year old student in question, on Saturday January 24th pushed a female police officer, used profanity towards her and ran away. The mother of this student was called to the police station and she was informed about her son’s behavior.

The student was severely reprimanded by the Community Police Officer of the South Reward area, in the presence of his mother concerning his behavior and then released into her custody. (Police Force Sint Maarten)

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Children Rights Round Table Conference January 28th through 30th 2015

POND ISLAND - The Department of Youth Affairs will be hosting a round table conference on Children Rights on January 28th, 29th, and 30th 2015.  The conference will focus on five (5) priority areas which have been identified by the “Children Rights Kingdom Taskforce” and which were also highlights of the United Nations Children Funds (UNICEF) Report known as “The Situation of Children and Adolescents in Sint Maarten.”

The priority areas are Family as the Central, Child Abuse, Safety Net, Absent father in the upbringing of the child, and Pre-conditions/Infrastructures.

The purpose of this conference is to provide the opportunity to all community stakeholders to contribute their views on the various topics and come up with possible tangible solutions. It is also the intention that the conference will formalize ways and means of collaboration between the Kingdom partners on the outlined priority areas.

In an effort  to support the countries in the Dutch Caribbean, UNICEF Netherlands has decided to sponsor the services of an expert in the area of Children Rights and in particular Child Abuse to serve as a “Facilitator” at the round table sessions.  Mr. Nils Kastberg has already facilitated sessions in Saba and is presently in Statia conducting similar sessions and will arrive on St. Maarten on Tuesday January 27th 2015. 

The conclusions will also be forwarded to the Children Rights Kingdom Taskforce which includes representatives from the governments of the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao and St. Maarten. This Taskforce was able to meet the target date of November 20th 2014 to disseminate an initial “Action Plan Children Rights” (Plan van Aanpak Kinderrechten Eerste Aanzet) to the various governments. It is the intention that this Kingdom Taskforce will present a final document to the Kingdom Conference scheduled to take place in April 2015.

The conference will take place at the University of St. Martin from 8:00 am to 1:00 p.m. daily on January 28th, 29th and 30th 2015.

All invited stakeholders are requested to make a special effort to attend these sessions as their contribution will serve to contribute towards coming up with tangible solutions towards these challenges faced in this society. (Press Secretariat, Government of Sint Maarten Council of Ministers)

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TLC to send Reps to NBAA Conference to bring more Aviation Private Aircraft to St. Maarten

SIMPSON BAY - Two managers of TLC Aviation in St. Maarten will attend this year’s NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference in San Jose, California, February 3–6. The Conference is the private and corporate aviation industry’s premier event for schedulers, dispatchers, and aviation service providers and suppliers.

They are Steven Kong, Managing Director, and Sheldon Palm, Director of Flight Operations and Customer Services at TLC Aviation which is headquartered at Princess Juliana International Airport.  Steven and Sheldon are the best suited person to assist and advise aircraft operators and owners on issues regarding private and business aviation in our part of the Caribbean.

The conference provides the possibility to meet many of the 2,500 professionals who are directly responsible for the scheduling and dispatching of aircraft, as well as for procuring services for aircraft operations for flight departments and on-demand charter operations throughout the world.

“On our conference calendar this meeting may be the most important as it offers an excellent opportunity to get business arranged for the year ahead,” says Steven Kong. “I like the motto of this year’s conference: ‘Soar to New Heights’. We did have a great season so far this year at our airport. Yet, we always have to look ahead and secure that we will keep a leading position in our market segment. Not only do we aim for getting early bookings for next year, we also have to attract more aircraft in the off-season period which is quite a challenge. ”

An aircraft dispatcher or flight planner is a person responsible for planning and monitoring the progress of an aircraft journey. Depending on the type of certification the airline has, and depending on where it is based, both the pilot in command and the dispatcher are legally responsible for the safety of a flight.

A dispatcher may have the authority to delay, divert or cancel a flight at any time, and a flight might not be able to be released without the signature of both the pilot-in-command and the dispatcher, depending on the jurisdiction.

“From the perspective of trip planners and dispatchers, their best friend may be the partner that is located at the end destination; they rely on us at destination St. Maarten to simply get things done and get them done fast and smoothly,” comments Sheldon Palm. “At the conference we are available to respond to any question that attendees or exhibitors may have about our island or other airports in the region.

Their clients or passenger may be executives who come to do business here, they are outnumbered by high net worth individuals who look forward to relax on our island; others fly here to board their private yachts. It is a demanding clientele. The more important it is to have Caribbean partner like us at TLC Aviation who they can rely on for smooth and high quality services.”

TLC –The Logical Choice-, TLC Aviation N.V. is an upscale full end-to-end services provider from executive and private aviation Ground Handling to Yacht Support and Concierge Services. The company stands out for its ability and competence to combine landside, airside and seaside services into a seamless and convenient experience for passengers, crews, and those creating the trip plan.

Website: http://www.tlc-aviation.com/

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Plans of Approach for Integrity reports, Approval of Integrity Chamber Ordinance, nomination of “Kwartiermaker” are priorities for Prime Minister

PHILIPSBURG - Government on Monday, January 26th submitted to Parliament the plan of approach to implement the recommendations of the three integrity reports as instructed by Parliament in a motion that was unanimously passed by Parliament on October 22, 2014. 

The plan addresses the General Audit Chamber Report, the Wit-Samson “Doing Things Right” and the PwC report on Integrity

The Council of Ministers also informed Parliament on Monday that it has approved a draft ordinance to establish an Integrity Chamber for Sint Maarten as well as nominated a so called “Kwartiermaker” by resolution (landsbesluit) who will be charged with preparing the implementation of the aforementioned ordinance.

The ordinance has been forwarded to the Council of Advice in the regular trajectory to request advice.

The draft ordinance is of the utmost importance as it will establish an institution based on article 98 of our constitution to investigate breaches of integrity and will function as an advisory body for the Government in matters related to Integrity.

“This ordinance has been submitted today to the Advisory Council and we hope that within short the draft will reach Parliament for debate in order to be decided upon,” Prime Minister the Hon. Marcel Gumbs said.

Gumbs said that government is confident that the aforementioned steps puts Sint Maarten on a genuine trajectory, grounded in law, to embrace and ensure integrity in governing.

The Gumbs cabinet aims to strengthen the promotion of good governance which is seen as a necessary and vital requirement to foster economic and social development for the country.

In just over a month in office, the Gumbs cabinet has complied with the Ordinance on the Integrity of Ministers by submitting the stipulated declarations, signed to adhere to the Ordinance on the registration and financing of political parties and now approved a draft ordinance to establish an Integrity Chamber for Sint Maarten as well as nominated a so called “Kwartiermaker”. (Press Secretariat, Government of Sint Maarten Council of Ministers)

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