thepancollective

Sinterklaas

Children are walking around with slightly more anxious faces and parents are sighing about their offspring leaving grass all around the house for Sinterklaas' horse.

SinterWHO?, you ask I suppose. Well, Sinterklaas is the Dutch version of Santa Claus, and we celebrate this man who visits all the children on December 5th leaving presents in their shoe in exchange for a bit of foliage and water for his stalwart steed. In the Netherlands the good bishop comes through the chimney (sound familiar?), but since most Aruban houses do not have fireplaces, we just say he comes through the roof. No need for elaboraration.

There has been a lot of talk about colonialism and the like on the island, but it is obvious that it all flies out the window when this icon of Dutch culture comes by bearing candy and presents. We're very easily bribed.

family ties

I like paintings. Although I am not a collector in any sense of the word, I like visiting art galleries to see how somebody expressed themselves. It always gives me a sense of awe, because I can't draw or paint.

Last Friday there was an unusual sort of exposition. Unusual in the sense that it showed pieces done by one family, featuring two generations. There were some genuinely good pieces, and the children's whimiscal paintings were charming.

I admire the exposition also because it is an inventive way of bringing the family together, and to share parts of oneself that aren't always obvious. And let's face it: The family structure is rapidly changing if not falling apart and to have this kind of event, where extended family and friends get together is simply very rare nowadays.

It proves to me that it is not only in the olden days that people can come together. It can happen nowadays, too.

it is not that time of the year

If you'd ask Arubans what their favorite time of the year is, I'd bet money that most of the answers will be 'tempo di fin di anja' (end of the year}. It's not more than a logical choice, of course, what with the food, the lights, togetherness of friends and family, etc. etc. and so forth.

A great deal of preparation goes into this time of year, what with the house cleaning for visitors and the hanging up of the lights and just all around sprucing up of your home.

However, there is a bit of a disturbing trend going on, I think. The end of year is December. You could, possibly, stretch it back to November. Aruba has stretched it even further back to October, just because. But I'm drawing the line at September. It seems that others have no problem with blithely proclaiming that "the season is upon us already". Uhm, no, it isn't.

September, people. Christmas doesn't last 4 months. FOUR MONTHS!! I mean, I love this time of year just as much as the next person, but I do not see the advantages of stretching such a special time to cover a third of the year. It's ridiculous. It cheapens the entire season, which to the overwhelming majority of Arubans is a very solemn part of their religion.

I understand that the season is commercialized. But you might just have backfired when you start with the talk of holidays so early that I become sick and tired of it by the time that the season actually arrives.

role model

I do not know it goes elsewhere, but a favorite passtime in Aruba  of people over 50 is shaking their heads at various times and mutter: "Ai! E hubentud di awe'n dia".

(Oh! The youth of today.).

'Youth' referring to everybody under 35. You would think that it is not such a big age difference, and yet . . . These utterings cause a faint sense of irritation in me, sort of like trying to swat a fly that you will never ever kill anyway. I mean, yeah, some people who fall in the 35-or-younger category make some spectacularly bad decisions, but hey! Guess what? Some of us are actually productive members of society. Total shock, right?

I was reminded of this Sunday night, when I went to a concert of a former classmate of mine, Jonathan Vieira. He is at a fairly young age (24-ish) a gifted musician, and so the MC was extolling his virtues, accomplishment, etc. etc. etc. Of course she mentioned that he should be a role model for the youth of today.

Well, yeah, she's right, of course. Vieira can be considered a role model, but not because he plays the piano well. Okay, he plays the piano very well, but Lord knows that not everybody can be given that gift. Watching him entertain the crowd, telling anecdotes about writing a song for Queen Beatrix or an inquisitive girl with green eyes, he exuded such confidence that I have rarely seen in anybody at such an age or even ten years older than that.

And for that he should be a role model.

Image courtesy of Jonathan Vieira.com

leaving on a jetplane

A few weeks ago another crop of bright-eyed recent high school graduates of various levels boarded a plane and went to the Netherlands to continue their studies. A few dozen other students will choose another country as their place of study, for example the United States, Curaçao, or Costa Rica.

This has been happening for several decades now, spanning generations. Aruba simply doesn’t have all the higher educational facilities to take care of everyone's educational needs. In fact, we barely have any. If you do not want to study law, education (teacher), or tourism, you’ll need to look elsewhere to study.

These students (at least the ones leaving for the Netherlands) leave our island with a lot of speeches reminding them of the fact that they are Aruba’s future, that they will be the ones making the decisions in a few years.

I do wonder, however, how many of ‘Aruba’s future’ graduate? And of those who graduate, how many come back? And what do they come back to? The job market isn’t quite as receptive for university degrees as it used to be. I know of at least two people who finished their Bachelor’s degree who are now temping. So 4 years of hard work down the drain and you come back to what, exactly? To six dollars per hour? Not exactly inspiring to become ‘Aruba’s future’, is it?

It is my belief that the government should consider to go back to the old model of scholarships, where the state would pay for the study expenses, provided that the student comes back and works x amount of years. Not for all studies, of course. I think there are plenty of lawyers here, for examples. But we do need cardiologists and judges and journalists and computer engineers, etc, etc. and so forth.

I think the government paying for the studies would create a sense of duty, causing the best and the brightest of Aruba to vie for such a scholarship and at the same time ensuring that the best and the brightest return to Aruba to take their rightful place as Aruba’s future.

Image provided by this site!

Neighbors

  This article by the Miami Herald recently came to my attention. It touches the subject of Aruba's proximity to Venezuela and to Venezuela's ruler, Hugo Chavez.

The general opinion in Aruba is that Chavez is kind of crazy. We are also very much aware of the cold relations between Venezuela and the U.S. We also know that we are a base for the U.S. on several fronts.

The article says:

Tensions between the islands and Venezuela appear to have grown as a result of the increasingly combative rhetoric between Washington and Caracas, and Venezuela's increased relations with its Caribbean neighbors. In addition to expanding relations with Cuba, Venezuela also has reached out to the rest of the islands with offers of discounted oil and refinery upgrades.

I'm not sure that the relations between Aruba and Venezuela have worsened, but the entire populations is aware that we are heavily dependent on the U.S. for our economy, and if those two will pick a fight with each other .... Things can turn decidedly ugly.

According to an American official:

''This is very much the tempest in the teapot,'' Erikson said. ``There is an unsettled climate around Venezuela's regional ambitions. . . . But while there might be a nervousness there, I just don't see Venezuela having any serious designs on the Netherlands Antilles.''

Yes, honey, that's easy for you to say, but when you live in Aruba, which is ohsoclose to Venezuela, a nervous eye will always be cast to our very large neighbor to the south.

Image provided by this site

fire

There is smoke in the air tonight, together with flames of bright red and yellow contrasted against the dark starry sky.

No, Aruba didn't suddenly turn into a group of pyromaniacs, it's Saint John's Day, or Dia di San Juan as we say here. While that sounds very Catholic, our native ancestors left a mark on it by incoorperating a distinctive pagan ritual, burying the rooster (Dera Gai). Another tradition is to build bonfires. These can turn massive, and the fire department will have their hands full tonight.

Nowadays no roosters are harmed in the celebrating of this festival. Instead a fake rooster is put in the middle of a circle. This circle is formed by dancing men and women clad in bright red and yellows, the colors of fire. One person is blindfolded and tries to hit the "rooster". The people in the circle sing:

San Juan ta bin, San Juan ta bai/Ate cu e palo den su man (Saint John comes, Saint John goes/There he is with the stick in his hand)

It's a very simple song, but it is one of the few 19th century local songs that is still known.

I like this festival a lot because it celebrates how two cultures merged and produced something new.That's something that modern Aruba could learn a lot from.

less than great expectations

It is that time of year again when students' greatest hopes will have been fulfilled, or their most important dreams dashed. I’m referring to the results of the end-of-year exams for graduating high school students.

The Aruban system closely follows the Dutch system, and all the work you did before you reached the final year doesn’t matter, because only the results of the last year decide on whether you will leave the school with a diploma in your pocket or not.

This is also that time of year when there will be endless debates why the results are less than satisfactory. And make no mistake, this will happen again this year. There is endless blame to go around, the parents, the teachers and the students will all get their share by various pundits and experts.

The principal of the highest level of high school in Aruba and my alma mater (Colegio Arubano), Rector Kolfin, has posited that the level of Dutch (link in Papiamento) in the final exams (the language in which all final exams are taken) is to blame for a 50% graduation rate (this was better than last year, by the way). Colegio Arubano is also the primary school that feeds students in further university education.

Putting the mind-boggling fact aside that only half (HALF!) of the students are estimated to graduate, I’d like to explore this explanation further.

I find it pretty amazing that after at the very least ten years of having Dutch as a subject and/or teaching language a student can be caught by surprised by the Dutch language in his or her final year. Especially since students are provided with a Dutch dictionary at their exams. After ten years of studying this language students still get to say “Oops, damn, Dutch is hard?”. Well, wow. I’m sorry, but then I need to ask the teachers what in the hell are they doing in their classrooms, if this is a valid reason. I’m not saying that everybody has to get high grades for Dutch the subject. But it is surely in the teacher’s power, whatever subject he or she teaches, to prepare the student for what lies ahead in May. There are plenty of tools to use, such as exams from previous years to study at home, training sessions with the class, etc. And how can a student pass the previous grades of high school with Dutch as a subject (it is a mandatory subject) and then crash and burn in the final exam because of the language? I must also advice the school to look back at their entire curriculum and check if they’re not doing the students a disservice by making the language too easy in the non-exam years.

The fact is that legions of previous generations have gotten through these exams, so why is Dutch all of a sudden THE biggest issue?

I think that this downward spiral of exam results is not because the level of Dutch, or classrooms without air-conditioning, or boring teachers. I think it’s because the level what is demanded of a students keeps on lowering. We shouldn’t be explaining away a 50% graduation rate of Colegio Arubano, we should be asking ourselves why a 100% graduation rate is so impossible.

Image provided by Colegio Arubano's website.

another home

I am the president of an old social club on the island. The only reason why I am in charge is that no one wanted the job. I am sure, upon hearing that I took the position, there were a lot of mutterings on how crazy I was to do this.

Sometimes, I agree with them.

However, other times I know why I took this upon myself. Friday, for example, we had a little barbecue. The club provided the meat, and one member prepared the steaks, while another took a seat after the piano.

The little children were playing around, running after a ball and giggling with delight. The older people were debating the minute differences on pronunciations in English. Jokes were made, laughter abounded. It was quiet and safe.

People need places like these, I think. Just a good time with your acquaintances and friends. It's a place worth fighting for.

good connections

While surfing around in Global Voices, I noticed a link to Francis Wade's entry about customer service in the Caribbean. While Mr. Wade's entry primarily spoke about the tourism industry, I was reminded about the incredibly bad service that Arubans had to endure from its local telecommunications firm, Setar.

The customer service wasn't awful. It was simply non-existent.

Calling information? Ha! Even at 7am, all "the operators are currently busy. Please wait on the line or try again later". Phone bills were sent late or not at all, Internet was stuck in dial-up, and mobile phone rates (pre-paid or post-paid) were simply painful. And, during all that time it was the government's cash cow.

It did change, however. The reason? That great capitalistic invention of competition. After a long hard fight, Digicel (a growing Caribbean telecommunications operator) was allowed to set up shop in Aruba. Thank God it did, because suddenly Setar's workers actually picked up the phone, DSL was introduced, and phone rates went way down.

Sometimes the right incentives can work miracles on a company. So now that the phone business is settled,  I'm ready for another cable company establish itself in Aruba. Lord knows we have earned it.

Image provided by Setarnet