Mike Eman in Parliament
Of all speakers in parliament last week, the former-former prime minister of Aruba was the only one who made himself the center of discourse.
As a speaker, he is very good. He introduces a mantra at the beginning of his flow, and repeats it cyclically, so that we all walk away with that mantra playing in our heads. He has good cadence, and rhythm, he speaks in waves, organizing his thoughts in run-on sentences, that are repeated, with the mantra in between.
It’s a good technique.
His mantra this time was: Five Lost Years.
Meaning there was no progress in the alternative energy field. since his departure from power.
He went on to list his fantastic achievements, dropping BIG names:
Harvard
MIT
TNO
TESLA
Carbon War Room
Delft University
Rocky Mountain Institute
Rietveld
His so-called partners in progress, who abandoned Aruba, at the end of his term as premier.
What happened in Aruba, they ask him, he said, the island was a leader in the alternative energy field, what happened here, how did the much-admired small country loose its leadership position, he wondered.
Parliamentarian Miguel Mansur had a good answer.
All above so-called partners-in-progress were paid to make appearances in Aruba, staging photo opportunities with the great leader, endorsing his TOTAL VISION, that totally bankrupted the country.
All those conferences cost a lot of money and yielded ZERO benefits, besides self-congratulatory pats on the back.
At the end of his rhetoric flow two interesting truths: Aruba’s twenty-year contract with the LNG provider leaves no room for the pursuit of renewable energy – reminder, we never saw the contract.
And the cancelled ECOGAS contract, concluded our conversion of waste to energy. We were heading in the right direction, then WEB found fault with the quality of gas produced by ECOGAS from waste, and dissolved the relationship.
It is now in court, and I must check up on the story. I will.
