Who isn’t in the room when decisions are being made?

As I watch the discussion about UTVs and ATVs unfold, I keep thinking about the people we don’t hear. Not because they don’t care. Not because they agree. And not because they aren’t affected. They simply aren’t organized. They aren’t demonstrating. They don’t have a convoy outside Bestuurskantoor or an association speaking on their behalf. They are just ordinary people living their lives in Aruba. And I find myself wanting to say to our Government and to our opposition: Please don’t forget

Listen to the guides. Their fear of losing their livelihoods is real. A job is more than a paycheck. There is a family behind it, bills to pay and children to raise. They deserve to be heard. But while you are listening to the people standing in front of you, please remember the many people who aren’t there. They are your constituents too. And the decisions you make today will be lived by them tomorrow. Who is speaking for the ordinary resident? The person who gets up every morning, goes to work, takes care of a family and simply wants to come home to some peace. The person who closes the windows when the dust comes. The family that stops talking while another convoy passes. The person trying to enjoy a quiet Sunday morning. The resident who complained before and eventually stopped because nothing seemed to change. And there is something thousands of ordinary drivers in Aruba will recognize. You are going to work. Picking up a child. Going to an appointment. Trying to get home after a long day. A large UTV/ATV tour reaches a roundabout or intersection and traffic is held so the convoy can stay together. One vehicle passes, then another, and another. Meanwhile, everyone else waits. Traffic backs up while ordinary people are expected to accommodate a commercial tourism activity. It may seem like a small inconvenience. But quality of life is often not lost through one enormous event.

It disappears little by little. The dust, the noise, the waiting, the loss of tranquility and eventually the feeling that because tourism is so important to Aruba, the people who actually live here should always be the ones expected to make room. Tourism is essential to Aruba. But residents should never begin to feel like guests in their own country. And none of these concerns suddenly appeared because of the current court case. GOA has known about them for years. GOA itself has acknowledged accidents and injuries, damage to nature, traffic problems and nuisance to residents from dust and noise. In 2023 Government stopped issuing new UTV/ATV permits and transfers. In 2024 Government announced a policy specifically aimed at the regulation and reduction of ATV and UTV use. Convoys were reduced to ten vehicles — and Government itself said even ten was not enough. Alternative routes were discussed. So what happened? How did a problem GOA itself recognized years ago become a fight between citizens today? The guides did not create this failure. Many are employees who went to work every morning in an industry GOA permitted to grow with no enforcement. They are now understandably frightened about what happens to their jobs. Residents didn’t create it either. They have been asking for relief for years. Nature certainly didn’t create it.

The failure was allowing the problem to grow without resolving it. And now guides, residents and environmental groups are being placed on opposite sides when all of them should have been protected by sensible regulation long ago. There is another reason our leaders should be careful about interpreting a quiet public as a satisfied public. Look at Aruba’s social media over the years. Look at Stop UTV Tours Aruba. Look at the reactions when people post videos of convoys, clouds of dust, traffic disruption or damage to our natural landscape. Social media is not a scientific poll. But neither is a demonstration. Being organized does not make a group the majority. And being quiet does not make someone part of the minority. Sometimes people are simply tired of fighting. Sometimes they don’t want their name on Facebook. Sometimes they don’t want the hostility that can follow expressing an opinion. And sometimes there are more serious reasons people become quiet. Five years ago, after residents in Malmok publicly complained about UTV nuisance, frightening incidents followed. Homes and property associated with people who had spoken out were shot at or damaged. I am not suggesting who was responsible. That isn’t the point. The point is what experiences like that do to people. They make someone ask: Do I really want to put my name out there? Do I want my family involved in this? Is speaking up worth what might come afterward? And sometimes that person decides to say nothing.

Silence does not always mean agreement. Sometimes silence is self-protection. If people with education, resources and connections can become hesitant to speak, imagine the ordinary citizen who doesn’t have those advantages. Someone who doesn’t know whom to call. Someone who cannot afford a lawyer. Someone who doesn’t belong to an organization. Someone who simply thinks: Nobody is going to listen to me anyway.

Who represents that person? Government is supposed to. And so does the opposition. Their responsibility is not only to respond to the people who can organize most effectively. It is also to look for the people who aren’t in the room. There is another human side to this discussion that deserves much more attention: safety. People have been seriously injured in UTV and ATV accidents. Lives have been lost. Medical professionals have raised concerns about the number and severity of injuries. Yet the public still does not appear to have easy access to regularly published official statistics showing how many UTV/ATV accidents, serious injuries, hospitalizations and fatalities are occurring. Why not? If we are going to protect an industry, shouldn’t we also understand its complete human cost? None of this means the industry has to disappear. It means Aruba should finally regulate it properly. Smaller convoys. Sensible designated routes. Rules preventing commercial tours from unnecessarily obstructing normal traffic. Speed and noise standards. Safe vehicles. Proper protective equipment and training. Protection of environmentally sensitive areas. Respect for residential communities. Transparent accident reporting. And real enforcement.

That isn’t anti-tourism. That is responsible tourism. There is room here for compromise. But compromise cannot mean that one organized group is heard while everybody else quietly absorbs the consequences. Our Prime Minister should listen to the guides. Our opposition should listen to the guides. GOA should help responsible businesses adapt and should care deeply about the people whose jobs may be affected. But please give that same attention to the people who aren’t demonstrating. The pensioner who wants some peace. The worker trying to get through a roundabout. The parent picking up a child. The resident sweeping dust from a porch who cannot sell their houses on some of the routes. The person worried about another accident. The person afraid to complain. The average Aruban looking at our coastline and wondering what will be left for the next generation. They all count. This should never become guides against residents. It should not become rich against poor. It should not become Arubans against expats. It should not become environmentalists against workers.

Those divisions only distract us from the real question: How do we build a tourism industry that provides good jobs without asking the people of Aruba to sacrifice their safety, their environment and their quality of life to sustain it? Tourism is our economic lifeline. We need it. We should value the people who work in it. But Aruba is not only a destination. Aruba is our home. So when our political leaders sit down with the people who are understandably fighting for their livelihoods, I hope they will look around that table and notice the empty chairs. And ask: Who isn’t in this room ?Because there are many people who will never demonstrate. They will never bring a convoy. They will never hold a sign. They may never speak into a microphone. Some won’t even leave a comment on Facebook. But they are here. They are waiting in the traffic. They are closing their windows. They are cleaning the dust. They are watching what is happening to the island they love. They are living with the consequences. And they deserve something very simple from the people elected to represent them: To be seen. To be heard. And to have a seat at the table too.

Please don’t forget about us!

Something highly unusual is happening at SETAR: the union is not fighting its director. It is fighting to keep him.

The Sindicato di Trahadornan den Telecomunicacion, STT, has asked SETAR’s Supervisory Board to extend the tenure of General Director Ir. Roland Croes for at least another two years and has threatened union action if no satisfactory solution is reached. According to 24ora, STT’s argument centers on continuity, stability and major strategic projects, particularly CELIA. The union says Croes has been involved with CELIA from the beginning and that losing his knowledge at this stage could create unnecessary risk. Its proposal is to retain him for two years while preparing an orderly succession.

That is an extraordinary vote of confidence. Unions normally confront management. When employees are prepared to take action to retain their general director, that deserves attention.

Croes has spent approximately 36 years at SETAR, including about 23 years as general director after previously serving as technical director. During that period, SETAR moved through major technological transformations, including mobile communications, broadband, fiber optics and increasingly sophisticated digital services.

But longevity is not what makes his record noteworthy.

What distinguishes Croes is the management approach behind that record.

He has demonstrated several qualities fundamental to strong executive management: strategic thinking, technological competence, visionary leadership, long-range planning and, perhaps most importantly, disciplined execution.

Vision by itself is not management. Many can identify future needs. Effective managers translate vision into objectives, investment decisions, action plans, and execution.

CELIA is perhaps the clearest example.

Most people in Aruba probably know very little about CELIA. In simple terms, it is a new submarine fiber-optic cable system that will strengthen Aruba’s international digital connectivity, with SETAR participating directly and the cable landing at Baby Beach. It will provide greater capacity, reliability, and opportunities for future regional digital services.

The managerial significance is more important than the technical details. Croes and SETAR did not wait for Aruba’s existing international connectivity to become inadequate before looking for a solution. They began preparing years ahead for what the island will require in the future.

That is strategic management: identifying future risks, understanding the industry’s technological direction, developing a response, securing partnerships, and driving implementation with urgency before a problem becomes a crisis.

Unfortunately, that kind of management is not consistently evident across Aruba’s public sector. Too often, public-sector management becomes reactive. Infrastructure deteriorates before it is addressed. Technology falls behind before modernization begins. Administrative backlogs grow until they become public problems. Decisions are made in response to circumstances rather than in anticipation.

Croes’ record at SETAR represents a very different management model: anticipate, plan, invest, and execute.

CELIA also demonstrates that Croes’ thinking went beyond simply maintaining SETAR as a telecommunications provider. The system is regional by design, planned to link Aruba with Martinique, Antigua, Puerto Rico and Florida, while extensions to Curaçao and Bonaire are already under agreement for 2027. Curaçao’s own budget documents place its CELIA investment at Cg 44.6 million, about US$25 million, payable in three tranches to SETAR for long-term usage rights. Bonaire has likewise signed an agreement with SETAR through the Dutch government-owned Saba Statia Cable System.

Such arrangements are not royalties in the strict accounting sense; they are commercial payments for long-term capacity and usage rights. But the financial significance is important: SETAR is positioning itself not only as a buyer of international connectivity, but as a seller of access to infrastructure it helped create. That is visionary thinking translated into an action plan.

For Aruba, that matters directly. SETAR is government-owned, so new regional revenue strengthens the company and the value of the public asset, while successful operations can support future dividends to government. Yet public recognition of the management that helped create and protect that value has been remarkably limited. Government has readily accepted the benefits of a successful SETAR; it should be equally willing to recognize the managerial competence behind them.

This is why the discussion surrounding Croes should never have been reduced simply to retirement age.

The proper question was whether Aruba would continue to benefit from Croes’ strategic competence, institutional knowledge and leadership during an important transition. STT clearly believed it would.

Since this article was prepared, Minister René Herdé has announced that Roland Croes will remain at the head of SETAR following discussions involving Croes, the Supervisory Board and STT. The precise duration and terms of that continuation have not yet been made clear publicly.

That decision does not diminish the significance of what happened. If anything, it reinforces the central point.

Allowing Croes to remain during this critical period gives CELIA an opportunity to reach an important stage, transfer decades of institutional knowledge, and properly prepare his successor. That is not postponing succession. It is responsible succession management, and it allows him to help finish work he foresaw and began.

Croes does not deserve recognition merely for longevity. He deserves it because he has demonstrated something Aruba needs much more of in its public institutions: strategic thinking, visionary leadership, technological competence and the execution discipline to turn foresight into concrete action before circumstances force government to react. CELIA may ultimately stand as one of the strongest examples of that legacy.

Perhaps the strongest judgment on his leadership, however, came before government’s decision: a labor union was prepared to take action not to remove its director, but to keep him. That was more than loyalty. It was a powerful endorsement from the people who had observed his leadership from inside SETAR for years.

The government’s decision to retain him now gives SETAR the opportunity to turn that continuity into something equally important: an orderly transition that protects both institutional knowledge and Aruba’s long-term interests.

(There might still be obstacles in the way: what is the board only grants him one year? And what about the LNT and the salary caps for his successor? Only monkeys work for peanuts!)

A small fire started in the forest many years ago. Because no one had the courage to put it out when it was still manageable, the entire forest is now burning. Good luck putting it out now.

The loudmouthed tour operators disrupted traffic and opened the previously closed routes behind the Alto Vista Chapel and behind the lighthouse.

What did they get for bad behavior?

A reward.

They were rewarded by the spineless minister of Housing, Infrastructure, Internal Services and Telecommunications, Rene Herdé. He stumbled on his words but clearly said that GOA followed the commitment to guide and operator of UTVs/ATVs to create more space for dialogue and seek a solution for the pending case, and that GOA formally requested the court to postpone the kort geding initiated by the Aruba Birdlife Conservation, ABC, scheduled for Thursday.

ABC stood firm. ABC knows what creating more space, balance, and dialogue mean. They mean go back to the way things are, don’t change a thing, ROP be damned.

While we saw zero leadership, we noticed opportunism and political posturing in honor of Back to Parliament, and the end of summer vacation.

Several personalities jumped into the melee to help their own agenda.

A parliamentarian, the former minister of finance, published an AI illustration of the victimized pueblo. Bisami, Ta Kico a Keda Pa E Arubiano Riba Aruba, she asked.  She pulled out the victim card, totally disregarding what the law says about zoning. She is working tirelessly to bring down the coalition. Our former minister of health & tourism is obsessing too, posting red tombstone ads predicting the end of the current gobierno!

The Prime Minister opted out of the Shoco Conference, he cancelled his appearance, to try improve his standing in the polls.

Former disgraced minister Otmar Oduber jumped in the fire, blaming GOA for inaction, praising the protestors, defending the rights of the workers. He is working tirelessly to remain relevant, as the Defensor di Pueblo.

(He is right about GOA’s inaction. This has been simmering since 2019.)

Self-styled marketing and business guru Omar Steve Lejuez could not resist the temptation to improve his ratings in the Y&Z demographics. He called for blackmailing ABC into dropping the lawsuit, by demanding that the organization’s sponsors withhold funding. That’s preposterous. ABC believes that GOA failed in environmental protection, and it has the right to access the court in the matter.

And talking about those sponsors: Iberostar, one of the companies supporting ABC’s Shoco conservation project, is a conscientious Spanish developer whose name should not be dragged into the mud by the cowboys of the north coast. Iberostar salvaged the Tierra del Sol golf course, investing millions, only to watch it get choked with dust every day.  This company rehabilitated all 18 greens, re-grassing, and refurbishing, for almost three years. That is a huge investment, which is adversely affected by the clouds rising from the coast. I am sure they would like to see the situation remedied, though they don’t say it. They support ABC in a way of supporting nature. Kudos to them.

(And they deserve to one day build a hotel on the property, according to a grandfathered permit, so they could make a little money too, not just invest endlessly.)

On the flip side: I totally agree that the closing of the roads was poorly handled by GOA, but it was overdue. The destruction of our North Coast is visible, no plants, no birds, no animals, just desert. The area will recover if allowed to rest. Instead of closing it overnight, it should have been planned with alternative routes, and limited caravans, speed etc.

Dear Minister: I was taught that a good way to start resolving an issue is taking inventory, see what you are dealing with.

How many licenses / permits exist for UTV/ATV currently?

What is the number of units legally allowed to operate in Aruba.

How many tour companies hold these permits?

How many machines are held by each company?

Has the minister seen information on this, I have not seen it published anywhere. All claims from tour operators about how many employees are going to be affected if they are shut down have ballooned recently from 500 to 800 to 1000, then yesterday to 2,000.

Those numbers are fake, but what is the true picture?

To refresh your memory:

Another reason our ROPV, our nature laws, and our Ramsar commitments matter.

Think about our green areas — the dunes and wetlands on the northwest point, behind the California Lighthouse. Every so often there is pressure to open areas like these up for commercial use, including motorized tours. Here is what people should know: what sits inside a Ramsar area is legally locked, and that lock protects both the nature and the government itself.

These areas are protected in layers. They are zoned as nature under the ROPV. They fall under our nature-conservation law. And since November 2023 they carry international Ramsar status as protected wetlands.

Ramsar is a treaty. By placing these wetlands on the list, Aruba made a promise to the world: to use them wisely and to keep their ecological character intact. That promise binds the country. It is not something a single permit or a quick decision can undo.

And that is the part that matters for good governance. Opening protected nature would take a full public procedure — and for our strictest nature zones, that door may not even be open.

In other words, the law does not only protect the land.

It gives our government the backbone to say no, and to mean it.

The Minister and DOW are bound by the treaty. So even if they wanted to open a pathway through this nature, they cannot. The pressure of a tour operator cannot outweigh a promise the whole country has made — and the operators will have to live with that.

That is what the ROPV, our nature law, and our Ramsar commitment are for: keeping the places that make Aruba, Aruba, beyond the reach of short-term pressure.

The resort’s Social Committee was tasked with organizing a week-long unforgettable sports week, targeting all associates, families, and supporters, who were invited to participate and cheer their loved ones along.

The week featured exciting competitions including Fishing, Kickball, Futsal, and Domino, with outstanding performances from teams across the resort. Congratulations to all champions, including Adriana Tromp, Fishing Champion, Pool & Beach’s Los Torturadores, Kickball Champions, and Housekeeping’s Los Galacticos, who became the Futsal Champions.

The resort is also proud to recognize Lynette DoNascimento, Assistant Front Office Manager, as its 2nd Quarter Leader, for her exceptional leadership capabilities and dedication to the workplace. Lynette was singled out during sports week events, for her exceptional service of the resort.

All competitions were friendly, unfolding to the soundtrack of Jerino Bass & Friends. The events demonstrated what makes La Cabana Beach Resort & Casino special, a spirit of camaraderie, family-feel, and lively engagement, in celebration of the associates, under the slogan: We Celebrate You.

Congratulations to all winners, thank you for making Sports Week 2026 a tremendous success!