Who sits on the throne? I don't give a damn.

It's amazing how it's not even a conspiracy theory that the government of the Netherlands handed a hefty secret document to our prime minister, asked the government to agree to the terms by friday, and is banning anyone from knowing the contents. Anyone including Parliament.

As I understood, this is well within their powers and it is legal.
What they have to agree to,  we have heard basically that there will be an 'entity' of NL who will take over Aruba's finances, education and justice.

It amazes me every time our PM says she was surprised by things, because we could've told her this was a long way coming.

I'm just a citizen and I have to say, I'm not even mad? NL is saying they're pissed because our money was so mismanaged that we were already drowning in debt before the pandemic.I'm also quite pissed about that. And because our legal system is a joke. Again, I agree, and seeing how there were protests last friday about this very issue, it seems most of us agree. I can't say all the rumors I've heard but when you hear the level of corruption on this island, my people...

Why do we have the director of finances saying that our country's state is 'espantoso' (dreadful)? Why do we have the specialists alerting us that there is no ICU rooms at the hospital? I can't be mad that NL is mad about these things. In fact, we should've kicked up a stink and taken over before we even gave them the chance.

But we didn't. And now we have to move on to the next stage. I've seen people on social media saying that we're gonna be sorry when it's hard for an Aruban to get a good job. It's already hard for every Aruban who is not a 'friend and family' to get the top level jobs and positions. What do I care which privileged group gets the benefits. It's still just a privileged group taking everything and leaching off the rest of us.

I get so mad when I hear how much money is spent in government contracts. I always wonder if people really don't realize that it's -our- money. Like these people are legit telling us they can't pay our own pensions and healthcare, with our own money, but they can afford to give themselves enormous salaries, benefits, businesses, bonuses. Legal fees.
We, the people of Aruba, should be the ones spending our hard earned money. Not them. And not their friends and family.
So why should we care about this supposed 'autonomy' that 'Aruba' would be losing? It's just the political dynasties, the corrupt 'bussinessmen', the mafia, who are losing their autonomy. For the rest of us nothing is going to change just because NL installs an entity. Our government might make decisions in our name but not in our interest.

We have to get rid of them all. But like my sister says, we can't go into this battle hurt and angry. We can't go with resentment, with fear, or ignorance. We have to go from a position of love.

Aruba in the grip of mafia

I was reading the article about the death threat on mr. Atan Lee, who is trying to bring a referendum to see if Arubans want to be a municipality of the Netherlands like our sister island Bonaire. And for that, apparently according to one person, he should die. 

In his declarations when he was denouncing the death threat to the police, he said that it seems that Aruba is controlled by a mafia.

Regardless of his current situation, let's explore the ways in which Aruba is being run like a mafia:

• 'Friends and Family'
  Yea we all know here about this. It's basically the case that the big political parties come into government and immediately begin hiring all their friends and family with ridiculous salaries and benefits. Which is one aspect of it, but the other side of this situation is the people who are not adjacent to either party. Those people get nothing. I realized rather quickly after coming back to Aruba that if you don't have connections, you can't get a job here. You just can't. It's better to have zero education and connections - that way you will be able to get a position of director of a state company; but if you are super capable and highly educated without connections, forget it. Nothing for you. This does seem like we are letting our country be run like a mafia - where you never put anyone before 'family'.
  
• 'Omerta'
  Aruba has infinite taboos that will quickly throw you to the wolves. It's the case with many, many things, that 'everybody knows' but no one ever talks. That's the case with pedophilia, domestic abuse, mental illness, corruption. Keeping appearances is more important than actually making our island a just and healthy place. Say the wrong thing, go against the current - be banished. We have high-profile cases like most recently with minister Marisol Lopez-Tromp; but what about the people we don't hear from in the news? We all know at least two or three people who lost their jobs over pointing out something wrong they saw. Denounce a criminal and you find yourself a pariah.
  
• 'Organised crime'
  We all know. We all know how corrupt everyone is. We all know those businesses who obviously are engaged in money laundering with impunity. We all know who has investments in the drug and human trafficking industry. The few brave ones who denounced these crimes are now outside of our society, while authorities are involved in organised crime and will not do anything.Corruption with labor, permits, constructions, land, anything. We keep voting for the same corrupt politicians because 'friends and family'. It's better to be -in- the circle; albeit a corrupt circle. But it's still better than losing your priviledge of connections. No one wants their party to lose power because everyone is hanging on the same thread. Why are our leaders corrupt? Because we, as a people, are corrupt. Everyone I can think of has a friend they call when they are in trouble with the law to try and get out of it. It seems that we don't believe in our own laws.

Since last year it was revealed that the Netherlands is #8 in the list of least corrupt countries, I can understand clearly why a lot of people on this island don't want more involvement with the macambas.