Children, go to your room, you’re getting time out.
In a recent newspaper I noticed on page 8 & 9 a double spread, paid for by the MinTour countering all of the Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association concerns regarding the new law designed to change the way hotels are licensed.
On page 16 & 17 of that same newspaper, a double spread paid for by the Aruba Hotel & Tourism Association, proved the MinTour’s various assumptions as wishful thinking, and biased.
Yesterday, the newspaper was cluttered with one pro argument against every con argument, a total of six pages. Today? Same thing.
Really, is that how you’re going to talk to each other, off the pages of the newspapers, and via paid advertising?
I am suggesting a time out. A cooling off period. A hiatus.
During that hiatus, you’re all going to go back to work to make sure our summer season delivers a healthy number of tourists, because it has been super disappointing up till now, with the overall average daily rate down by 14.9%, from last year, and as a result of lower average occupancies and a lower average daily rate, the revenue per occupied room fell by 17.2% in April 2016.
“Going Back to Work” also means that the MinPres will refrain from travelling all over the globe, and instead show some long-overdue and much-needed interest in the work of his ministers, to curb some of their over-active agendas, and to encourage the formulation of sustainable solutions to all our environmental, educational and health care challenges.
I would like to see some progress in environmental protection, and in the upgrade of education. The improvement in health care, is urgent, there have been a number of serious screw-ups in health care in my close circle, which for privacy reasons cannot be discussed, and I would love to see some of the passion demonstrated in the back and forth between AHATA and the Government, poured into other areas of great need.
Of course, Customs Officers will give up striking, and promise to behave.
Locals will stop breeding their dogs for cash and/or dumped unwanted puppies to die in the wilderness.
The refinery will remain shut, and the dream of reopening it, dead!
The economy will enjoy great diversification, as the ministers liberated from the burden of CITGO/PDVSA, become super creative and actually come up with doable alternative industries, finding viable employment for all those twiddling their thumbs in government offices and great new jobs for the 44 former Aura casino employees who will never get hired back by whoever picks this now-much-smaller casino up!
