ORANJESTAD — You are back and we would like to portrait you! By inviting you to send us your favorite vacation picture while enjoying our Happy Island. 

Complete the sentence: Aruba to me is ……. Send your picture with that text (including your name and where you are from) to: news@arubatoday.com and we will publish your vacation memory. Isn’t that a special way to keep your best moments alive? Please do note: By submitting photos, text or any other materials, you give permission to The Aruba Today Newspaper, Caribbean Speed Printers and any of its affiliated companies to use said materials, as well as names, likeness, etc. for promotional purposes without compensation.

Last but not least: check out our website, Instagram and Facebook page! Thank you for supporting our free newspaper, we strive to make you a happy reader every day again.

For today we received a lovely message from Gerald Schneider.

He wrote to us saying: “Aruba to me is returning home to familiarity, the sounds of the ocean and birds, the scent of suntan lotion and a cold piña colada…the locals greeting us by name. It is where we celebrate life’s special moments. Aruba to me is love”

Thank you for sending us this wonderful message sharing what Aruba means to you with us and our readers!

ORANJESTAD — You are back and we would like to portrait you! By inviting you to send us your favorite vacation picture while enjoying our Happy Island. 

Complete the sentence: Aruba to me is ……. Send your picture with that text (including your name and where you are from) to: news@arubatoday.com and we will publish your vacation memory. Isn’t that a special way to keep your best moments alive? Please do note: By submitting photos, text or any other materials, you give permission to The Aruba Today Newspaper, Caribbean Speed Printers and any of its affiliated companies to use said materials, as well as names, likeness, etc. for promotional purposes without compensation.

Last but not least: check out our website, Instagram and Facebook page! Thank you for supporting our free newspaper, we strive to make you a happy reader every day again.

For today we received a lovely message from Charles Sanchez from New York City.

He wrote to us saying: “Aruba to me is PARADISE. Visiting here since the 1970″s. Love the Happy Island and lovely people.”

Thank you for sending us this wonderful message sharing what Aruba means to you with us and our readers!

ORANJESTAD — Papiamento, Creole language of ABC (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) is from the Cape Verdean Creole family (Cape Verdean language) and was taken to the Caribbean in the 9th century by the Cape Verdeans of that time (linings and slaves), experts in cane culture and sugar production, and who were hired by Jewish entrepreneurs who went to invest in this business in the Caribbean. Cape Verdeans taught this pre-industrial revolution technology (planting cane and producing sugar, which they had learned from Madeirans) to slaves from other African regions, and did so in their language, Cape Verde Creole (Cape Verdean language) , hence the language implanted in Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

Unlike many interesting stories, wanting to link Papiamento directly to Portuguese, Galician or Castilian (see Papiamento, on Wikipedia – Portuguese version and Spanish version, where the Portuguese and Spanish, each claim the direct origin of Papiamento), in fact, this is not true. Papiamento is not direct from Portuguese, Galician or Castilian, it is from the Cape Verde Creole family (Cape Verdean language). You can see this best when it’s saying obscene words and offending someone, precisely as they say today in both ABC and Cape Verde islands. The obscene words kept the original, had no lexical influence either from Castilian or Dutch. Also the Papi Cristang of Malacca, the Patuá of Macau, and several creoles from the east (from Daman, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia) and Africa (Casamança, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, these last two releases to the English), all originated in the Creole of Cabo Verde (Cape Verdean language), which was the French language spoken in Portuguese feitories on the coast of Africa (from Senegal to Sierra Leone), and which was taken east by the thousands of cable – Verdeans (linings and slaves, already Christianized and speaking Creole) who served as sailors and “slaves of arms′′ in Portuguese caravels, demanding the east. I don’t know why the official history of Portugal usually omits this fact, which is in the chronicles of the quinrentist chroniclers, but which we never saw in the history of Portugal that we study from primary education to higher education. However, it has always been tried to deceive us, in colonial time, that we were descendants of Viriato (Iberian hero in the fight against the Romans) and the pastors of the Hermini Mountains, but not much speaking of our black-African ancestry.

We Cape Verdeans understand each other very well with these Antillans and Easterns, whose language is from the same Creole family of Cape Verde (Cape Verdean language), speaking their Creole and we ours. Therefore, Papiamento, Papi Cristang, Patuá Macaense and the creoles, said of Portuguese origin, Daman, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, some locations in the Philippines and some places in Indonesia, are creoles of the language family Cape Verde Creole (Cape Verdean language) and indirectly the Galaico-Duriense or Galaico-Portuguese, a language that the people spoke in Portugal in the 6th and 7th century.

Source: Dushi Aruba

By MEHMET GUZEL and ROBERT BADENDIECK

Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Over 2,000 Turkish citizens and some foreign nationals started boarding a Turkish military ship late Wednesday that brought in aid and will take them out of a country being hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah.

Zehra Cibbin, an ethnic Arab from the southeastern Turkish city of Mardin who lives in Beirut with her Lebanese husband, got off a bus packed with the other evacuees, her two children in tow and luggage in hand.

“It’s indescribable. They bombed the street below our house. From that moment on, it was over for me, I said I didn’t want to stay in Beirut anymore,” said Cibbin, 46.

Cibbin said they decided to leave Beirut out of fear for their lives, putting no thought into what will happen when they arrive in Turkey.

She spoke to The Associated Press before getting in line to board the TCG Bayraktar amphibious landing vessel, which along with the TCG Sancaktar will take on evacuees.

They are part of a six-ship convoy including escorts that set sail from the southern Turkish port of Mersin early Wednesday, transported 300 tons of humanitarian supplies, including food, hygiene kits, kitchenware, tents, beds and blankets.

Besides the Turkish citizens, people from Bulgaria, Romania and Kazakhstan were among those who applied to evacuate on the ships. Officials did not provide numbers.

The Associated Press was the only non-government media invited aboard the ships to cover the evacuation operation.

“Israel’s aggression has severely impacted Lebanon and our brothers here,” said Turkish Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Baris Ulusoy, standing in front of the Bayraktar.

“We are carrying out an operation today with two aims: to provide humanitarian aid to our Lebanese brothers and to ensure the safe return of our citizens who are in a difficult situation.” Ulusoy said.

Hundreds lined up before the Bayraktar as Turkish soldiers and sailors checked the evacuees’ passports and their luggage was examined by metal detectors and drug-sniffing dogs before they were allowed to board

Another Turkish citizen waiting with her family was Abir Gokcimen, who said she left her extended family and husband in Beirut and hopes the war that spread to Lebanon will end soon. She hopes to come back to Lebanon as soon as the danger passes.

The journey back to Mersin is expected to take about 10 hours.

Turkey’s government plans to organize more sea evacuations if necessary and is contemplating charter flights to repatriate citizens.

Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, the day after Hamas’ surprise attack into Israel ignited the war in Gaza. Hezbollah and Hamas are both allied with Iran, and Hezbollah says its attacks are aimed at aiding the Palestinians. Israel has carried out airstrikes in response and the conflict steadily escalated, erupting into a full-fledged war last month.

Israel has inflicted a punishing wave of blows against Hezbollah in recent weeks and says it will keep fighting until tens of thousands of displaced Israeli citizens can return to their homes in the north.

More than 1,300 people have been killed in Lebanon and over a million displaced since the fighting escalated in mid-September.

Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ramped up his rhetoric against Israel during his party’s first meeting of the new legislative year, declaring that Turkey “has more than enough power to thwart expansionist ambitions” of Israel and doubling down on his claims that Israel would target Turkey after Gaza and Lebanon.

By LORNE COOK

Associated Press

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO will hold a long-planned major nuclear exercise next week, the alliance’s chief said Thursday, a few weeks after President Vladimir Putin announced changes to Russia’s nuclear doctrine to discourage Ukraine’s Western allies from supporting attacks on his country.

The “Steadfast Noon” exercise starts on Monday and will run for about two weeks. It will be led by Belgium and the Netherlands, use eight military bases and involve 2,000 personnel and 60 aircraft from 13 nations. The exercise has been held at roughly the same time each year for over a decade.

Bomber aircraft and fighter jets that can carry nuclear warheads are taking part. No live munitions are used. The bulk of the exercise is being held around 900 kilometers (560 miles) from Russia in the North Sea. Moscow has been informed about the drills, NATO officials say.

“In an uncertain world, it is vital that we test our defence and that we strengthen our defence so that our adversaries know that NATO is ready and is able to respond to any threat,” new NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told reporters in London.

The United States and the U.K., with their strategic nuclear forces, are key to NATO’s security deterrence. France also has nuclear weapons but is not a part of the organization’s nuclear planning group.

Angus Lapsley, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defense Policy and Planning, said the exercise is aimed at proving that the alliance’s ability to counter any threat to its 32 member countries is credible and something that “any adversary would need to take extremely seriously indeed.”

Lapsley said that NATO has been monitoring the emergence of North Korea as a nuclear power, the rapid expansion of China’s nuclear capabilities and developments in Iran — “but obviously what worries us most is Russia.”

He said Moscow has been investing in its nuclear forces “with accelerating intensity” over the last two years, and that it is “introducing lots of novel systems and putting more emphasis on investment in short and intermediate range weapons systems.”

Lapsley noted that Moscow has recently been “talking an awful lot about their nuclear doctrine and how that may or not be evolving.” He said that it appears to be “a pretty clear attempt to influence us” when it comes to support for Ukraine.

Putin and other Kremlin voices have frequently threatened the West with Russia’s nuclear arsenal. In a strong, new warning late last month, Putin said that a conventional attack on Russia by any country with the support of a nuclear power will be considered a joint attack.

The threat was meant to dissuade the U.S. and its allies from allowing Ukraine to strike into Russian territory with longer-range weapons and appears to significantly lower the threshold for the possible use of Russia’s nuclear arsenal. But NATO has not seen any real change in Moscow’s nuclear posture.

Taking office on Oct. 1, Rutte stressed that while Putin’s nuclear rhetoric was “reckless and irresponsible,” there was no evidence of any imminent threat of nuclear weapons being used.

Rutte said it’s important to just leave Putin to “talk about his nuclear arsenal. He wants us also to discuss his nuclear arsenal, and I think we shouldn’t.”

At the same time, Rutte said, giving in to any threat “would set a precedent that using military force allows a country to get what it wants, and we cannot do that.”

Daniel Bunch, the Chief of Nuclear Operations at NATO’s military headquarters, said that while dozens of aircraft are involved, a lot of the drill is happening behind the scenes.

“Under Steadfast Noon we seek to stress the overall system; put people in tough positions, high operations tempos,” Bunch said. He said that the challenge of coordinating things “literally down to the minute of when we would put a weapon onto a target is a very complex activity.”