I will make a suggestion, I am an optimist, regarding the concert last weekend.
One of the first lessons I learned in hospitality, which became the opening statement to most complaint letter responses, goes the following:
We apologize, but we cannot be everything for everybody.
It is almost always impossible to mix demographics. Honeymoons and Family Vacations can conflict.
That said, you know that last weekend’s concert aspired to become everything for everybody, mixing GenX, GenY/Millennials and GenZ music genres on one stage.
Consequently, a handful of brave Baby-Boomers and a great number of GenXers were forced to stay up way past their bedtime. Many left even before the first UB40 note was struck.
The Millennials, bored by the UB40 sound, headed out the door to after-parties, as soon as the band came on stage.
My suggestion: Start the program at 7:30pm with the GenXers’ favorites, then lineup the Millennial and GenZ music stars to the end. The kids have no problem staying up late!
In other word: Turn the Program upside down!!
#AITO2019 #IslandTakeOver #Concert #UB40 #Lunay #Sech #AlexSensation #DimeloFlow #Jeon
Armand Hessels and an historical overview
A press release by the Foundation for Good Governance, www.deugdelijkbestuuraruba.org, was circulated yesterday with an interesting topic. It protested the naming of our new boulevard. It said it was politically motivated and undeserving, and that the new road should simply be called BonBini Boulevard, BBB, instead of WVB, Watty Vos Boulevard.
Vos, 1937 – 2001, was The Ministry of Justice and Public Works, in the late 80s and remained posthumously in the pantheon of the AVP’s party greats.
As such, as soon as that government decided to overspend, and sink us into the red for generations to come, the ambitious boulevard was named after the late minister, but according to Hessel, he is no role model, and undeserving of the honor.
Hessel attached documentation to his claim:
The 1st document outlines that Vos, as Minister in 1994, acted against the then Head of Aruba’s Veiligheidsdienst – Security Service – and obstructed inter-governmental investigations. Which led to the very first Koninklijk Besluit for Aruba, a royal decree, where the then Dutch Queen Beatrix ordered to appoint a new interim Head of Aruba’s Veiligheidsdienst, in order to restore trust and balance to the department.
The 2nd document is the actual signed Koninklijk Besluit, with the queen’s signature dated October 22, 1994. She was at the time at her vacation home in Italy, and she empowered the Gouverneur of Aruba, yes, the Governor, to see to it that Aruba’s Veiligheidsdienst, our security service, falls immediately under the direction and responsibility of the Minister of General Affairs and Minister of Nederlands/Antilliaanse and Arubaanse Affairs. She instructed them to agree on the actions of Veiligheidsdienst Aruba and the appointment of a new interim Head of Security Service Aruba.
Hessels brings this old story back to life, where the queen had to go above a politician’s head, as an example of the phenomenon whereby local officials, at some point in time through their actions, damaged the reputation of Aruba and its citizens, and he proposes to stay away from naming landmarks, bridges and roads in Aruba after ambiguous politicians, and keep those more tourist-friendly. Example: BonBini Boulevard.
I did not follow politics on the island at the time, I was at Happy Hour, but I am pleased to see that someone paid attention, and helps us gain historical perspective.
