Advertisement
ORANJESTAD – While Sint Maarten considers itself a beginner in the field of being an autonomous country, Aruba marked the fortieth anniversary since it obtained status aparte back in 1986. King Willem-Alexander received the memorial book Resilient People/ 40 years of Country Aruba during his visit to the island from Prime Minister Mike Eman.
The book is a bundle of observations written by local stakeholder and scientists. They write about the benefits of the status aparte but also about what can still be improved. Fifteen guest writers share their personal memories about their cooperation with the country’s first Prime Minister, the late Henny Eman. Dutch Prime Minister and chairman of the Kingdom government Rob Jetten wrote the introduction to the 208-page book.
The book presented to King Willem-Alexander is the only copy with an orange reading-marker.
The bundle was composed by René Zwart, the founder of Antilliaans Dagblad and the website dossierkoninkrijksrelaties.nl and Luc Alofs, a cultural anthropologist and historian at the University of Aruba.
Readers will experience the book’s content entertaining and at times surprising, due to the different backgrounds of the guest writers, their varying angles and the variety of conclusions and recommendations. In a way, the book is as colorful as Country Aruba and its population.
Zwart and Alofs consciously opted not to invite contributions from active politicians, with the exception of the introduction and an introductory article.
The book is meant for people who contribute to the Aruban society and it is not for sale.
###
ADVERTISEMENT
