We were informed the deficit this year dropped by Awg 140M, that’s a positive way to spin the bad news, that we will be finishing the year with Awg 622M deficit instead of Awg 762M, calculated previously.
Our pretty Minister of Finance is smiling in the picture — she is satisfied with the financial results.
GOA collected a bit more income, by making us pay more land taxes, and they dropped some services, we got less health care, for example, which resulted in less deficit. GOA spent less on food aid, no Ombudsman this year. All cuts ended up on our backs, none on GOA’s.
I took out my calculator, if we decided to wipe out the deficit, and help the government balance its books, we would be personally liable for Awg 6,626, each.
Imagine, if the deficit is Awg 622M, how much money they spent.
How can they be smiling to the camera??
The world is in crisis, between supply-chain shortages, and ice melting, crazy weather, Carbon foot print, and the Bubali plas, how can they act so business-as-usual?
Not a word of alarm, not a cloud in the sky.
Back to Life
The Crisis Team and SMAC our Carnival authority, sanctioned the first dance, with a live band, as an experiment, in view of the opening of the Carnival season.
Locals have been living to go back to the dance floor for a long time, and in view of the 8% positivity rate and the relatively low number of active cases, 159, the Crisis Team and SMAC decided to let 250 vaccinated couples – with the option to show PCR tests – to congregate on November 13th, in a ballroom, with their dancing shoes on.
Let’s see how it goes.
In that spirit, the Casino at the Hilton announced it will be hosting the 2021 World Series of Poker, set to start here December 9th to 19th.
It was a big event in 2019, with players from around the globe, converging on the Hilton aruba Caribbean Resort & Casino, with the hope to win some of the $250.000 prize money.
For 2021, while prize money has not been divulged, and the full schedule of events, still in the planning stages, players have responded by saving the date, and making travel arrangements in time for the opening ceremony.
The tournament series, on the US Poker Circuit, will include a number of special events including a welcome reception and an awards evening, and will brings butts into beds in Aruba during a relatively low period of occupancy in Early December.
