Your favorite columnist is back

Did time-off clear my head? No. The clutter is still there, but I am happy to be back on Dushi tera.

What did I miss?

I still have to peruse the online news websites in order to catch up completely, but the first order of the day was a morning walk along the beach, then chasing Sunday bike riders off the Malmok walkway, asking them to use the road, for fear of hitting a walker – me.

There’s a sign in place, at the head of the walkway, no bikes, why do some people think it doesn’t apply to them?

Then off to the supermarket. Aruba is expensive. How do we make it? Perhaps many don’t.

My afternoon delight presented more than 1,000 e-mails, such a flood of info — it was nice to ignore it for a while.

What did I learn on my travels?

That the post-pandemic is sweet.

On my visit to Israel, living among vaccinated people I was reminded how relatively uncomplicated life was. We went to the concert hall – at 50% capacity, with spread-out crowds, to the museum, and the sidewalk and beach cafes, the open fruit and vegetable markets. Everyone dutifully presented their phone, and the so called Green Passport, no protest, no arguments, you’re cleared to walk in with a mask, providing you are vaccinated.

No Green Passport? Stay away. And if you are an anti-vac teacher of government employee, you are obliged to test every three days, and self-testing kits are being made available.

I am sure this whole issue of the Green Passport is being fought in court, in the name of civil rights, but on the surface life is fully functioning, and fantastic. No masks outside, inside, still obligatory.

You know, I am pro-vac. And it works. And life can get back to normal, fast, with the jab of a needle. And it pleased me to know that Aruba’s share of people who received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, as of April 25th, 2021, was 49.8%, second in the world to Israel at 62.2%.

Upon my return, KLM was packed. Our tourism is delivering, and we will soon raise restrictions even further, to allow more visitors to come, help restore our economy.

Israel’s economy hardly suffered. Yes, there is unemployment and on the individual level hardship exists but the High Tech Industry wasn’t hampered by the pandemic and continued to crank out innovative products unaffected, contributing to the county’s gross domestic product, as if nothing is happening.

We also must seriously attempt to diversify our economy, so we are not struck as hard by natural disasters.

How are we going to achieve that if we are governed from a place of fear? Fear of the voter.

Even before I left, I heard the boticas here will be carrying self-test kits, and that DVG was opposed to their distribution.

It’s funny, that they are against the sale. This is something so good for the consumer.

In Europe/US/Israel/Curacao you may buy self-test kits in supermarket and corner gas station. Our boticas brought their self-test kits from Roche, a global pharmaceutical leader, yet, three Inspectie officials, confiscating them, and threatened to call the police if the boticas did not surrender, their stock.

On one hand Aruba wants to be a frontrunner, with health passports, and vaccinations, yet on the other we are paralyzed by fear, from a simple self-test kit, introduced everywhere except Aruba.

The government in the Netherlands is giving them away by the millions!

And it’s great for schools, and kids.

This doesn’t replace the test for those who are sick, this is just an aid, for those in doubt.

And ironically, the first interested in the self-test kits were the KIA and Warda nos Costa members, wondering when will those be available.

It will be an excellent move to APPROVE those before the elections, so we don’t repeat the Curacao election disaster.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/testing/self-testing.html

 

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May 03, 2021
Rona Coster