Thoughts over the weekend

Random thought over the weekend

Like many others living on One Happy Island we now eat dinner together at 7pm, so we can listen to the press conference.

I always appreciate the words of the MinPres, I believe she and her cabinet are handling the illness portion of the crisis, well.

But that steady diet of boet, taskforce, sera tienda, police, mara faha, doesn’t have a SUFFICIENTLY STRONG effect on the locals, they still go to the beach, and guzzle beer in clusters.

CNN aired a program Sunday night about how New York hospitals are dealing with CoVid19, a realistic, shocking, emotional account of this lung-eating virus, and the chaos and heartbreak it brings. Perhaps TeleAruba should report from the front line in the hospital here, the ICU, and the over-burdened doctors and nurses, to move people here enough, to embrace TDK.

Manipulate their emotions, evoke empathy, the statistics do not move people. A single young man, a positive CoVid19 patient, standing in front of a camera shivering, with no means of going home, back to his family, scared me enough to never want to leave my home again, ever.

It also exposed a need in our community: Volunteer drivers, with the knowledge of how to protect themselves.

I welcomed the “Hunto Nos Solution” project launched by the Police in the barrios, a friendly, informative initiative designed to educate and build trust, BUT, wouldn’t it be best to entrust that job to teachers? Who are currently unemployed. Isn’t the Police busy enough, as is? It would be good to educate kids, who will then educate parents.   

And the volunteers GOA was looking for, to handle phone lines, checking on quarantine-violators, couldn’t they use some of GOA’s own employees currently at home, out of work?

As an employer GOA is amazing, fiercely fighting to protect its own. Calling for solidarity and sacrifice in the private sector, but making the public sector untouchable.

Why not use the same measures in both markets??

Wait, say the critics, a solution is coming, why are you so impatient, you and your green friends, all you do is criticize, nothing is good enough, shut up, allow greatness to be revealed.

A note to critics: This column lobbied hard for a change of government on the island and was relieved to see it happen. Criticism may seem “negative,” but this column reflects the feelings of many people. If these “negative” topics are not publicized and discussed, we run the risk of unwisely burying our heads in the sand. Every word written here, is written out of love, a deep love and appreciation for the island, and its people.

Don’t we all want a better Aruba?

We will recover… life would be different, we’ll clean and sanitize more, but I am sure recovery is coming, and with it MUST COME an accountable GOA, offering more value and creating less waste.

Our hard earned tax florins, deserve respect.

They were disrespected by past and present governments, who spent them like water, and it is OUR FAULT we let them. We had it good and let the fly fly. So we cannot even blame GOA for its sub-par performance BECAUSE we did not complain loudly enough.

We only have ourselves to blame for being up poop’s creek without a paddle. And we must learn from our errors. GOA needs to work very hard on eliminating waste and increasing the delivered value.

Every day that passes is wasted and it isn’t ok anymore.  

So, I always appreciate the words of the MinPres, I believe she and her cabinet are handling the illness portion of the crisis, well, but not the economic crisis. And you gotta do both.

 

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April 06, 2020
Rona Coster