Second day of the Queen’s visit to Aruba

The Queen mints the commemorative coin that is made on the occasion of 20-years Status Aparte and the 30-year existence of the national anthem and the flag.

ORANJESTAD – The second day of Queen Beatrix’s visit was in the sign of integrity. A presentation in the Central Bank of Aruba mentioned that the tourism can develop itself permanently especially by integrity. The Queen visited the Feria Aruba Multicultural at the Juliana School in the morning and the YMCA in San Nicolas in the afternoon.

CENTRALE BANK

Governor of the Central Bank Rob Henriquez, Prime Minister Nelson Oduber (MEP), the entire council of ministers, and the bank personnel welcomed the Queen inside the reception hall of the Central Bank of Aruba. Daughters of three employees presented the Queen with flowers. The ministers had an encounter with the Queen and talked about the financial developments of Aruba and the tourism. They didn’t mention the dispute between the Netherlands and Aruba about foreign loans.

After the encounter with the ministers, the Queen attended a presentation of Ryan Peterson, dean of the Faculty Hospitality & Tourism Management about permanent tourism. Peterson mentioned that tourism and also the future economic development of Aruba depends on the willingness of the island not to be an island, but to be open to integration and head for (cooperation)-relations. Aruba needs to behave as a nation.

After the presentation, Queen Beatrix minted the commemorative coin in honour of 20-years Status Aparte and 30-years National Anthem and Flag. This is the first time a commemorative coin is minted in Aruba. Afterwards, they toasted with champagne and shouted “Biba La Reina, Biba Aruba (long live the Queen and long live Aruba)”.

SCHOOLS

Queen Beatrix went to visit the Beatrix School, where the students have been waiting outside for one hour in the sun, but when the Queen arrived, they were so exited and waved with the little flags in their hands. Then they hurried inside the school grounds to sing for the Queen. They practiced 12 songs for the Queen, but she only listened to a few, because she had a one on one meeting with a former student, the 17-year old Bedoya Yangus from Colombia that told her about the education-project Prisma that helps foreign students integrate faster by teaching them Dutch.

FERIA MULTICUTURAL

A cake with the image of the Queen could be admired at the Feria Aruba Multicultural at the Juliana School.

The Juliana School organized a Feria Multicultural (multicultural festival), where the Queen met students from 17 cultures. The School has been organizing this since 1996 in order to promote integration between the students. The festival usually takes place on the Day of the National Anthem and Flag, but this year they planned it for today, especially for the Queen’s visit. There were 17 booths representing the 17 cultures at this school. Even Bonaire had a stand and the Queen had to taste the salt of Bonaire and she could take a small package with the salt with her. She spoke Papiamento to the 13-year old Marc Anthony Ranis, who was pleasantly surprised.

Stimulating the integration with a multicultural festival worked out also for minister Atzo Nicolai (VVD) who accompanies the Queen on this trip. Oduber, who supposedly was only going to meet the Queen at the airport when she arrived, decided to accompany the Queen everywhere she went in Aruba. He even sat in the same car with the minister of Kingdom Relations and the two had very productive conversations during the rides. They talked about last week’s commotion, when Oduber accused the Netherlands of re-colonization practices.

YMCA

They went to San Nicolas in the afternoon, where the Queen met with young people that performed exceptionally in sports last year, like the synchronized swimmers and the ladies softball team that won gold during the Kingdom games in Curacao. All this took place in the YMCA. But the Queen didn’t only meet with young sporters, she also met with elderly persons of the Senior Citizen Home. Some were in wheelchairs, other could still walk. Accompanied by three nurses, the elderly shook hands with the Queen. Some of them became emotional and shed some tears.