Second Installment Isla

After yesterday’s preface, we continue to explore what the remaining GOA ministers regard as their accomplishment:

Isla, GOA’s transparent news vehicle, circulated a special-edition in honor of the 1-year celebration of Gabinete Wever-Croes II.

GOA praises itself extravagantly, and tells us it is transparent, right there on the front cover, how can we argue, if it is stated in black on white?

Each minister got two or three pages in the online publication to flaunt his accomplishments.

The list of projects is staggering: GOA has a lot of balls in the air, and listing them as accomplishments is a bit premature, like putting the cart in front of the horse.

It brought a biblical phrase to mind: Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips. Proverbs 27:2

But anyway, with GOA’s popularity in decline, in view of inflation, the rising cost of living, the threat of poverty on one hand and over-tourism on the other, the burden of health-care, environmental abuse, and the dark shadow of global developments, we are facing difficult times, with seemingly just one strategy in deployment, doubling the number of stay-over tourists.

I read Isla with great interest, it sounded like pure election propaganda, three-years prior to the next elections. I summarized some of the points for my readers, yesterday, and continue today.

You judge if we can consider them all accomplishments. Perhaps a slowpoke in the sometimes-right-direction, is more accurate.

The minister of Economic Affairs reports that our economic recovery as a sustainable business is significant. He says our GDP grew 9.2% in 2022, and is projected to grow an additional 4% in 2023. He talks about streamlining processes and reducing red tape in order to stimulate new business, which is always a recurring theme in Aruba. The promising sectors remain promising, and the need to stimulate economic activity in Oranjestad and in San Nicolas remains crucial. The minister would like to stimulate investment in order to develop our promising sectors, via practical economic strategies because, we cannot go on the way we have been operating for the last 30 to 50 years, he says, we have to do things differently, which will guarantee prosperity. And we must transition to alternative energy, promote food & water security and become more sustainable, overall. The Aruba Fair Trade Authority, a new service he created, will do wonders for us, plus we will be collecting more data via a National Statistics System.

He is right, Einstein had already said:  You cannot solve a problem from the same level of consciousness that created it, so yes, do things differently, but I would also like to see it happening on a timetable.

Where is the timetable?

The longest list belongs to the minister of Justice and Social Affairs. He outlines security and vigilance in the barrios, the creation of a Mental Health Foundation, a center for Family Justice, a plan to manage child sexual abuse cases, and the department of Social Affairs, then in Justice various departments to deal with anything from personnel, to the physical police headquarters. He lists some other developments within the force, such as a radar for Aruba, the upgrade of the Fire-Brigade, the fire-brigade personnel.

Certainly, a long laundry-list of issues on his plate, all in the pipeline, none accomplished, all in the works.

The minister of Education also reports on a number of ongoing projects, such as student swim lessons, issues pertaining our secondary schools,  the National Library, evening education, and the renovation of a number of district schools. He is working on a National Strategic Plan for education, special education, on the instruction of languages, on modernizing the laws governing education, plus financial and organizational reports, and efforts to sync the system and its application to the labor market; support for Papiamento teachers, besides individual improvements of a number of district schools here. Under his other hat, Sports, the minister lists the community pool in St Nicolas, various local sports organizations, the Palo Marga Raceway, the KLM Marathon, Lotto pa Deporte, performance excellence awards, the improvements made in various district fields, all in many color photos.

The minister of Labor, Energy and Integration states that he is committed to fulfilling the expectation of his people in their entirety. He is out to please everyone. He mentions a couple of issues within his complex portfolios. Putting people back to work, among them. He is reviewing unemployment figures, investing in education, creating jobs for those trained accordingly, and transitioning from heavy fuel oil to LNG.

With Eagle LNG he says, we will  soon bid farewell to HFO, reduce the price of utilities and protect the environment from excessive CO2 emissions . Big changes are coming to WEB within the next 30 months. He also speaks about the beginning of work at the refinery preparing to welcome LNG storage etc.

His goals regarding the Integration portfolio reflect his commitment to energizing Dimas, and the improved management of foreigners’ permits, which will be processed more efficiently, more accurately, in a transparent manner, in collaboration with the Labor Department and Dimas, improving mutual understanding, to fuel our economic recovery. Wow, that’s all I can say.

One can hardly list it all under accomplishments, they are challenges, long term plans, with no specific delivery timelines.

Another Bible quote comes to mind: The man who puts on his armor should not boast as much as the man who lives long enough to take it off.”

What did the book mean? The one heading out to war shouldn’t boast as much as the one returning from it at the end of the fighting. He is not done, he still has the battle ahead, it’s not over yet, so don’t boast.

 

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September 22, 2022
Rona Coster