French Quarter:--- The Les Fruits de Mer association invites the public to the Endemic Animal Festival from 9am to noon this Saturday, April 27th at Amuseum Naturalis at The Old House. The festival will feature a book launch and giveaway, a craft activity, a plant giveaway and the chance to learn about the special animals that live only on St. Martin or only in our region. The festival and all of the activities are free.

“Endemic animals and plants are the most unique part of the nature of this island,” explained Les Fruits de Mer president Jenn Yerkes. “These are the species that live only on St. Martin or only on a few islands in our area. Many people don’t know that some plants and animals can only be found here and nowhere else on the planet! They’re such a special part of St. Martin’s natural heritage. We invite everyone to come have a great time celebrating them at this free, fun festival!”

Endemics Around Me, a new bilingual coloring book and nature journal, will be launched at the festival. Attendees can take home a free copy. The book features 40 plants and animals that are unique to St. Martin or our region.

“We are very excited to release this special book,” said author Mark Yokoyama. “It is a great introduction to animals and plants that live only here, like the Bearded Anole and the St. Martin Milk Pea. These are some of our most precious treasures.”

Kids and adults will enjoy the event’s craft station, where they can decorate canvas pouches with endemic animal designs to take home. There will also be a free giveaway of Thatch Palm seedlings. This beautiful palm is native to St. Martin. Visitors will have the chance to see some of St. Martin’s endemic animals and plants at the event. There will also be an oral history station, where people of all ages can share their stories about life on St. Martin.

The festival will be from 9am to noon on Saturday, April 27th at Amuseum Naturalis at The Old House on the hill above Coconut Grove in French Quarter. The free festival is sponsored by Delta Petroleum. Development and printing of Endemics Around Me was supported by the Collectivité de Saint-Martin.

NASSAU:---  RBC Financial (Caribbean) Limited, (“RBC”) has appointed Chris Duggan, a native of the Cayman Islands, as Senior Vice President and Head of RBC Caribbean Banking, effective April 1, 2024. He succeeds Chris Ronald, who has been leading the bank’s operations in the Caribbean for the last 2.5 years and has recently returned to Canada as Regional President of Atlantic Provinces at RBC.
Duggan, who is based in Nassau, The Bahamas, is taking on responsibilities as Head of RBC Caribbean Banking to carry out the bank’s strategic direction and manage the overall business strategy and vision across the Caribbean region. He has a career spanning more than two decades in the financial industry
across both the United States and the Caribbean.
Most recently, he was the Cayman Islands Government Representative to North America in Washington DC, primarily focussed on financial services. Before his tenure for the Cayman Islands Government, he served as a senior executive at DART Family Office and Butterfield Bank.
RBC’s Executive Vice President, Personal Financing Products, Erica Nielsen, said, “We’re delighted to welcome Chris to RBC. Born and raised in the Caribbean, Chris deeply understands the regional financial landscape and has a passion for representing the culture. He is highly driven, outcome-focused,
and passionate about building trusted relationships with clients, communities, and employees.
His appointment demonstrates our continued commitment to the region. I am confident that under Chris’ leadership, Caribbean Banking will continue to grow and serve our clients and communities.”
As an active member of the communities where he lives and works, he has held leadership roles on the boards of numerous charitable organizations over the years. Duggan was awarded the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour in recognition of his outstanding service to the Cayman Islands community during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
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PHILIPSBURG:--- It is that time of year when we celebrate one of the largest cultural festivals in our calendar of activities. Each year, we look forward to this celebration, which showcases our culture, creativity, diverse foods and drinks, and is one of the economic drivers within our community—all this amidst the usual “bacchanal” one associates with Carnival. It is a shared culture within our region; however, St. Maarten Carnival is always special.
As Prime Minister and elected member of Parliament of St. Maarten, I would like to address the people and visitors of Sweet St. Maarten.
Carnival is a time to come together to enjoy music, eating, drinking, socializing, and mostly creating. It is a time for our orange economy to shine. Our bands, musicians, songwriters, singers, calypsonians, and soca artists create new rhythms and catchy lyrics to make us jam, dance, chip, and sway. The double entendre and clever wit of the calypso, our traditional social commentary, make us laugh or even give us pause to ponder and reflect.
It is a time for costume and float designers to ply their craft, combining fabrics, beads, wire, colors, textures, and natural and recycled materials to create designs to depict what their imagination conjures and the revelers demand. Talent is displayed by young and old, whether in pageantry, calypso and soca competitions, road marches, or band clashes. Many look forward to the creativity of our cultural dishes and drinks, where the taste buds are tempted, and you can find whatever you desire during the weeks of fettin’.
Today, as this journey commences, let us pledge to be safe amid the festivities. Let us look out for one another and have good, clean fun. I implore parents to ensure the safety of their children throughout these proceedings by ensuring proper child care when they venture out and ensuring that their underage children are not unsupervised in public or attending adult-oriented shows. Our laws specifically mention 15 years and older, and as parents, you have to ensure they don’t attend. Promoters and event hosts are also encouraged to do their due diligence to safeguard the innocence of our youth for as long as possible (NO underage drinking) while ensuring proper security and safety protocols aimed at the prevention of any situation that could endanger the lives of others.

Let us ensure that our children looking on will want to emulate the behavior they see. Let us take responsibility for the types of shows we promote and move away from the exploitation of especially women, in how we write, produce, and create the music. Women are not sex objects, and several have complained about the types of artists/music that are being promoted. While many have been conditioned to think less is best, I hope creativity will be at its highest this year in ways that edify us as a community and ensure the longevity and sustainability of the development of our people. The key is the safeguarding of our culture and promoting and rewarding our creativity. The sneak peeks thus far scream culture, color, and splendor.
St. Maarten has a lot to offer, and it is only by working together as has been mentioned in various meetings that this can be achieved to ensure safety & security for all in a well-organized, well supported festivities where the spirit of Carnival as was envisioned by our forefathers will continue to thrive.
All stakeholders must come together to ensure that our main cultural festival maintains its unique nature while ensuring our cultural heritage is revered. This is not about any one person or entity but about St. Maarten Carnival, which belongs to the people of St. Maarten. Amidst all the complaints over the years, let us seriously come together to resolve the long-standing challenges and work towards a more symbiotic relationship in the interest of all concerned.
I wish all stakeholders, who have been working for months, weeks, and especially the last few days, to prepare for the start of our Carnival, much success in the execution of their goals. To the booth holders, promoters, musicians, artists, dancers, singers, stilt walkers, bands, sound and light technicians, photographers, videographers, media specialists, poets, chefs, cooks, bartenders, grillmen, and all others working behind the scenes to create the magic that is carnival, I wish you much success.
To the people of St. Maarten, go out and enjoy the festivities safely. Support the local entrepreneurs selling their specialty foods and drinks. Enjoy the many cultural and musical shows which have been planned to meet the needs of our very diverse community. Designate a driver to avoid unnecessary accidents. I trust our parades will continue showcasing our creative talents with class and style.
Thanks in advance to Government employees, civil servants who toil yearly to ensure that the St. Maarten Carnival is a success - our police officers, fire fighters, inspectors in various departments, public works who work diligently before, during and after all events to ensure the proper procedures are followed and that all are compliant with the countries laws and regulations.
A happy, safe, and incident-free carnival is wished to one and all!

Prime Minister Silveria E. Jacobs

PHILIPSBURG:--- The House of Parliament will sit in a Public meeting on April 19, 2024.

The Public meeting is scheduled for Friday at 10.00 hrs. in the Legislative Hall at Wilhelminastraat #1 in Philipsburg.

The agenda points are:

1. Incoming documents
2. Advice concerning the appointment of the 1st Acting Secretary General of Parliament

3. Proposal amendment to the Function Book of the Secretariat of Parliament
4. Proposal amendment of several articles and addition of several new articles to the Rules of Order for Parliament Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations. All persons visiting the House of Parliament must adhere to the house rules.

Members of the public are invited to the House of Parliament to attend parliamentary deliberations. All persons visiting the House of Parliament must adhere to the house rules.

The House of Parliament is located across from the Court House in Philipsburg.

The parliamentary sessions will be carried live on TV 15, Soualiga Headlines, via SXM GOV radio FM 107.9, via Pearl Radio FM 98.1, the audio via the internet www.sxmparliament.org, www.pearlfmradio.sx and www.youtube.com/c/SintMaartenParliament