Once upon a time there was a small island with blue skies, white beaches and good people. The people looked around and thought: "Hey! We should invite people from other countries to enjoy our beautiful beaches." The people from other countries came and liked what they found on the island. They returned year after year.
And the island prospered.
People were happy because they had good food on their table, money to go on vacation to visit other countries, and roofs over their heads.
But their leader wanted more money from the people. Even though he and his government had introduced economic measures that gave them 450 million dollars more than any previous government, they thought "We should double our import tax on luxury goods to get even more money. Let's check the list of what is considered a luxury item".
They looked at the list and found it lacking in size. So they added more things.
Like soap. And deodorant. And clothes. And paper. And bricks. And fishing nets. All those things are now luxury goods in Aruba
When the people found out, they were mad. They dared to ask "Why do you need to make life so expensive for us?" They were told that it was the fault of the previous government. They asked what happened with the extra 450 million dollars, and they were ignored. Instead they were told to not buy as many clothes as they were used to.The people asked why the national debt doubled under the management of this government. They only got silence from their leaders. So the people got even more furious and made plans to organize demonstrations.
And their leader called them dwarves and said that his government were like elephants and were going to stomp them. The government called for its supporters to await the demonstrators.
But nobody came to shout for their leader. Apparantly the elephants couldn't muster the force to stomp 1000 'dwarves'. They could only insult them in radio addresses, saying they were 'rabble rousers'. But the dwarves know that their day will come when the elephants will be hearded out of office.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Hmm ... reminds me of some other elephants.
Posted by: Elspeth | June 02, 2006 at 12:50 PM