Kingdom Youth Parliament

10
Islands
THE DAILY HERALD, Wednesday, May 21, 2014
Kingdom Youth Parliament
Continued from page 1.
tion within the kingdom
and to put forward new
ideas.
“It is reassuring for people
of my generation to see
and meet so many young
people who feel a joint responsibility for our shared
future. Your enthusiasm is
infectious,” said Princess
Beatrix.
The importance of the
event, which is part of the
bicentenary of the Dutch
Kingdom, was illustrated by
the presence of governors,
prime ministers and presidents of the parliaments
of Aruba, Curaçao and St.
Maarten and the island
governors of Saba and St.
Eustatius.
Vice-President of the
Dutch
Parliament’s
First Chamber Marijke
Linthorst also was present.
She is coaching the Dutch
delegation to the Youth
Parliament.
President of the Kingdom
Bicentenary National Committee and former State
Secretary of Home Affairs
and Kingdom Relations
Ank
Bijleveld-Schouten
and USM President Annelies Oliver-van den As-
sem also were among the
audience.
Besides Trotman, St.
Maarten’s team of debaters
consists of Hailey Greaux,
Daniella Maccow, Iris Hakkens, Antoinette Joseph
Philips, Shanna Vasilda,
Mhakeda
Shillingforde,
Ember Samuel, Murielle
Jean-Michel and Dwayne
Grifﬁth. St. Maarten’s
team is coached by former
Lt. Governor and current
member of the Council for
Law Enforcement Franklyn
Richards.
The Caribbean Netherlands team is coached by
former state secretary and
former commissioner in
Statia Nora Sneek-Gibbs.
The joint team of the public
entities Bonaire, Saba and
Statia consists of team captain Carl Fielmich; Statia
representatives Czaigany
Woodley, Raymi Melendes
Reyes and Shaquana Parris;
Bonaireans
Yavis
Chirino, Dairon Mackay,
Cassidy van Arneman and
Julia Martinus; and Sabans
Nataly Linzey and Elsa Peterson.
The Curaçao team is
coached by former prime
minister and current member of the Constitutional
Court of St. Maarten Suzy
Römer. Aruba’s coach is
Minister of Economic Affairs, Social Affairs and
Culture Michelle Hooyboer-Winklaar.
The ofﬁcial opening of
the Kingdom Youth Parliament was followed by a
question-and-answer session between the ﬁve team
captains and members of
the audience on the current state of affairs and
future possibilities in the
kingdom. The discussion
was moderated by Dutch
Debate Institute Director
Roderik van Grieken.
The Youth Parliament will
be closed off at USM on
Thursday with the presentation of the ﬁnal results
and the closing statement.
Prizes will be awarded
by jury members Izaline
Calister, Albert Verlinde
and Erben Wennemars of
the Kingdom Bicentenary
National Committee and
USM Dean Francio Guadeloupe.
The sessions of the Kingdom Youth Parliament are
open to the public.
Princess Beatrix (right) hands over the gavel to Trumane Trotman. The 23-year-old St.
Maarten student is chairperson of the Kingdom Youth Parliament, which is in session at
University of St. Martin. (Edgardo Lynch photo)
Princess Beatrix (second right) with (from left) welcoming committee members University
of St Martin President Annelies Oliver-van den Assem, Kingdom Youth Parliament Chairperson Trumane Trotman and Kingdom Bicentenary National Committee President Ank
Bijleveld-Schouten. (John van Kerkhof photo)
The question-and-answer session at the packed USM conference room. (John van Kerkhof photo)
From left: Youth Parliament team captains Marifer Aguirre Broca (Aruba), Kennedy
Ogenio (Curaçao), Trumane Trotman (St. Maarten), Aster van Tilburg (the Netherlands)
and Carl Fielmich (Caribbean Netherlands). (John van Kerkhof photo)
THE
HAGUE--The
Dutch media is dedicating much attention to
the visit of Princess Beatrix to St. Maarten since
her arrival on the island
on Monday.
Several media reported that the former
Dutch Queen arrived
a few hours later in St.
Maarten than originally
scheduled because the
Air France ﬂight which
she was on suffered a
delay due to a defective
computer of the air trafﬁc control that is responsible for ﬂights crossing
the Atlantic Ocean.
As a result, the aircraft
didn’t receive permission to start the Atlantic
crossing and was forced
to ﬂy circles south of Ireland. Other aircraft had
to wait as well, the cap-
tain told the passengers
on board. The media reported that St. Maarten
Governor Eugene Holiday ofﬁcially received
Princess Beatrix at the
airport from where the
delegation was transported to the hotel by
bus.
The Dutch media, and
royalty reporters have
been following the Princess’ visit with keen interest since her arrival.
This is the ﬁrst time that
Princess Beatrix visits
one of the Dutch Caribbean countries after
her abdication in April
last year. She visited
St. Maarten for the last
time in 2011, together
with now King WillemAlexander and Queen
Máxima.
The Telegraaf news-
paper, several other
newspapers and news
websites, reported on
the opening of the Kingdom Youth Parliament
(KYP) by Princess Beatrix on Tuesday. It was
mentioned that this was
her ﬁrst speech since her
abdication. Various websites showed photos of
the former Queen.
Royalty journalist/
blogger Hans Jacobs
travelled to St. Maarten
as well and has been
reporting on the visit
of Princess Beatrix on
his website www.royalblog.nl. He stated that
the former Queen was
in optima forma during the opening of the
KYP. Jacobs also wrote
an elaborate article for
the Christian newspaper
Reformatorisch Dagblad.

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