· May, 2006

Stories about Aruba from May, 2006

Caribbean: What blogging is for

  30 May 2006

“Blogging … challenges the elitism that pervades the Caribbean and is a great experiment in the democratization of data,” says Geoffrey Philp in a thoughtful essay on the potential role of blogging in the region. “Blogging provides the kind of freedom that is anathema to many gatekeepers who want to...

Aruba: This week in politics

  26 May 2006

Aruba Girl summarises a busy week in Aruban politics: a member of parliament from the opposition AVP resigned, the justice minister said he would resign next year, and then the government announced that import duties on many goods would be doubled or tripled. “Now that … our national debt is...

Caribbean: Hurricane outlook

  22 May 2006

Over at the West Indies Cricket blog, Ryan Naraine cites the NOAA’s 2006 Atlantic hurricane season outlook, which says there is “an 80% chance of an above-normal hurricane season, a 15% chance of a near-normal season, and only a 5% chance of a below-normal season.”

Caribbean: The meaning of “excellent service”

  17 May 2006

Jamaican Francis Wade at Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle thinks about customer service in the Caribbean. “There is not a single island I have visited in which there is a local company giving excellent service to local people.” He tries to understand why, and congratulates the Sandals resort chain for...

Aruba: No equal pay

ArubaGirl attends a seminar and learns that women in Aruba, while better educated than their male counterparts, on average earn US$275 month less than the latter. She also learns that the country has no law that mandates equal pay for equal work, and that introducing one is not on the...

Caribbean: Regional Telecom Penetrates French DOMs

  2 May 2006

“For 155 million dollars, Denis O'Brien's Digicel Group just acquired Bouygues Telecom Caribbean, the second wireless network in the French Caribbean DOMs i.e. about 160,000 subscribers and 80 employees,” says (FR) Internetrapide.com. Digicel is now present in 20 Caribbean countries, explains the blogger.

Aruba: Political education

  2 May 2006

With a local foundation offering seminars on issues such as taxation and the functioning of the economy, ArubaGirl is optimistic that her compatriots will eventually be able to make more informed political decisions. She's still concerned, however, that the foundation's ties with a particular political party will cause suppporters of...