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:
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.
