I saw in Awemainta yesterday a photo of three sitting ministers and a former one, making “an acto di presencia,” at the Summer Festival enjoying themselves, obviously in the VIP diamond section.
What does an acto di presencia mean? They got tickets, since they are all together, they must have received tickets, because if they had paid for their own tickets, they would have been standing in different areas, not together.
Who paid for the tickets? Elmar? Setar? Web? Utilities? The former Valero Marketing & Fuels Supply Aruba (VMSA), whatever its new name is??
It is normal for companies to buy tables at events, but give them to government ministers?
They should have rewarded their top line employees with concert tickets.
Why are ministers getting free concert tickets? What it is about their job description that entitles them to that privilege?
(I am not sure about the MinFin, he is a tax man, he knows better, not to receive free gifts.)
Question: Will the ministers declare the gift of free tickets, $500, on their taxes, and pay the belasting on them just like their fellow-Arubans, threatened to be stopped at the airport this summer for failure to pay fines and taxes?
Anyway, according to me, this was a missed opportunity to campaign among the peasants at the back of the arena. The ministers should have spent some time with voters standing in the boonies, and not upfront as VIPs.
This reminds me of yesterday’s news story about New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who was photographed sunning himself and enjoying the New Jersey beach that he had closed to the public over the July 4 weekend because of a government shutdown.
He had a false sense of entitlement too.
Where did the leaders who are trusted-servants go?
Why are they now accepting free concert tickets, paid for with our money?
They are supposed to be role models, humble, men of the people.
What happened to that concept?
While the music was great, everything else about the concerts was a logistical nightmare. Shame on organizers for falling to organize, three years in a row.
