ARUBA--START CLIPPING THOSE COUPONS!

Hey Aruba! Start cutting coupons and saving those pennies...looks like you are going to have to depend on your tourism for money instead of loans from the Netherlands. Hmmm...guess that means you better get your asses moving in answers to what happened to Natalee Holloway, or you won't see many Americans, your bread and butter, on your stinky little island.

Budget standard for Aruban government

ARUBA – Aruba will soon establish a budget-standard via a National Ordinance; an Aruban act. That is one of the results of Monday’s conversation between premier Nelson Oduber and the Dutch minister of Kingdom Relations, Atzo Nicolaï. “It was a stiff conversation”, said Nicolaï, “but the relationship between both countries is restored.”

There will be an extra Federal Council of Ministers next week Friday to discuss the matter about the financial loans of Aruba. Oduber says that the Netherlands has understood that the local loans of Aruba are the island’s own responsibility and not that of the kingdom’s government. Oduber indicated being willing to see together about the financial situation of Aruba. “We were already planning a standard for the revenues and expenses of the government. This will be settled in the 2007-2008 budgets.”


The visit of Nicolaï to Aruba was kind of iffy last week, because Oduber was enraged at the conditions that the Netherlands stipulated for the financial loans. The premier threatened to stop all negotiations; also the ones on more collaboration between the kingdom islands after the Neth. Antilles disintegrate.


Thanks to the mediation of the Representation of the Netherlands in Aruba, the two ministers still met. The media was outside waiting for them after the meeting. They only told the media about the problem with the financial loans of Aruba. Whether Aruba will continue negotiating on the collaboration with the other islands, was not clear. Aruba will still be observer at next week’s meeting between Curacao and St. Maarten.