Arthur Conan Doyle

Aruba is an island of the Caribbean Sea, belonging to the Lesser Antilles and located off the coasts of the Venezuela. Aruba forms a State of the Kingdom of the Netherlands with whole share since the island separated from the Dutch West Indies in 1986.

History

The island of Aruba is initially populated Amerindians Caiquetios, a tribe Arawak come from current the Venezuela about the year 1000. In 1499, the Spanish explorer Alonso de Ojeda accosts on the island. This one becomes a refuge of pirates and buccaneers Spanish, then an immense ranch where the Spaniards introduce horses, sheep, goats, pigs. Contrary to their practices of the time, the Spaniards do not decimate Arawaks completely but allow them to raise cattle. Still today, much of Arubais have Amerindian ancètres. Aruba remains under Spanish control until in 1636, date on which the Kingdom of the Netherlands in fact a colony.

After the transfer of the island by the Spaniards, from the Juifs Marrane S fleeing persecutions in their countries (Spain and Portugal) come to settle in the island. Aruba changes statut  on several occasions;: property of the Company Dutchwoman of the Western Indies, colony attached to the Dutch Guyana and even, twice, the Dutchmen must cohabit with the Britanniques (1799 - 1802 and 1805 - 1816) without it appearing clearly which held the effective capacity with Aruba. To note that the Dutch governor between 1642 and 1646 was called Peter Stuyvesant  : he will become later on the governor of the Dutch province of Nieuw Amsterdam until the annexation by the English in 1664 under the name of New York.

At the time of the Second world war, the Netherlands are occupied by the Germany Nazi starting from the May 10th 1940 and the 11, the British place the island under their protection before leaving it with the the United States of America January 16th 1942 until the release of the Netherlands in 1945.

The March 18th 1948, the Crown Dutchwoman accepts the principle of self-determination for Aruba. The Dutch West Indies take their autonomy the December 29th 1954 and Aruba belongs to this unit made up of “Leeward Islands” (Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao located close to the coast of Venezuela) and of “Windward Islands” (Sint-Maarten, Sheba and Saint-Eustace located at the East of Puerto Rico). A Constitution is established in April 1955. From now on, the Kingdom of the Netherlands consists of two entities of right égal : Netherlands and the Dutch West Indies.

To commemorate the agreement of 1948, dated March 18th is selected as celebrates island (one cannot say national festival, since it is not a question of a nation), it is the “Day of the flag”, Drapeau adopted the March 18th 1976 at the same time as the Hymne “Aruba Dushi Tera” (which means Aruba, invaluable ground ).

The March 12th 1983, of the representatives of the Crown Dutchwoman, each island of the Dutch West Indies and the Netherlands accept the principle of the autonomy of the island of Aruba, autonomy with respect to the Dutch West Indies and not of the Kingdom. Autonomy is effective on January 1st 1986. The Kingdom then consists of three entities. The agreement of 1983 envisaged independence in ten years (either for 1996) but the government arubais preferred to ask for the suspension of this clause.

Since the accession with autonomy, the constitution of Aruba defined the structure of the apparatus of État :

  • the sovereign in exercise (since the April 30th 1980, the Queen Beatrix II) is President (E) of the île  ;
  • of the legislative election S takes place every four years to provide the 21 members of the single room of the pays : the Staten   ;
  • the Staten in its turn names the seven members of the Council of Ministers   ;
  • the Council of Ministers proposes a governor with the sovereign, governor whose mandate is six years and who represents the Crown in the island of Aruba.


Geography

Located in the the Antilles, with a few kilometers of the coasts venezuéliennes, in the North of the State de Falcón, the island of Aruba has little tropical vegetation and the sand beaches white which make its fame near the tourists. Like the metropolis, Aruba is a flat country whose culminating point is the Jamanota mount with 188 meters.

The tropical Climat is refreshed by winds coming from the Atlantic Ocean. The temperatures are quasi-constants, around 27 °C. Very dry, it comprises only one small share of the tropical flora which one can find elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Aruba is located at 12°30' Northern Latitude and 69°58' of Longitude Western.

The principal cities are Oranjestad (the capital), Sint Nicolaas, Santa Cruz and Noord.

Population

Policy

The governor in exercise since May 11th, 2004 is Fredis Refunjol:

Since autonomy, two Prime Ministers shared the pouvoir :

The Prime Minister in exercise is thus Nelson Oduber, assisted by his faithful Deputy Prime Minister, Fredis Refunjol.

With the last elections of the September 28th 2001, the state of the forces était : MEP 52.4%, AVP 26.7%, PPP 9.6%, OLA 5.7%, Aliansa 3.5%, others 2.1% is in siège : MEP twelve, AVP six, PPP two and OLA one.

AVP means Arubaanse Volkspartij   /  Partido di Pueblo Arubano ( Parti the people arubais )  : the acronym is in Dutch, it is not a chance because it is a traditional party Christian Democrat.

MEP means Movimiento Electoral di Pueblo ( electoral Mouvement of the people )  : the acronym is in Papiamento, the creole local. It is a social democrat party.

The other parties sont :

  • FARMHOUSE (interdependent Movement arubais)
  • Aliansa (democratic Alliance arubaise)
  • PDA (Democratic party arubais), chef : Leo BERLINSKI
  • OLA (Liberal party arubais), chef : Glenbert CROES
  • PPP (Left patriotic arubais), chef : Benny NISBET
  • CLA (Concentration for the release of Aruba)
  • PARA (For Aruba renewed now), chef : Urbana LOPEZ
  • DNA (national democratic Action), chef : Pedro Charro KELLY

Economy

Before the arrival of the Spaniards, Aruba cultivated primarily the Aloès but one does not know large thing of the saving in this time.

In 1825, the Netherlanders discover Or. It is the first age of prosperity of the island with the opening of mines and the surge of gold diggers.

In 1924, Aruba benefits from its position to leaving the oil gulf Venezuela and of the Lac Maracaibo to open a Raffinerie Pétrole, it is the second age of abundance for Aruba. (Which are the reasons which bring the withdrawal of Exxon?). In 1985, the Lago refinery (how much refineries on the island?) who belongs to a subsidiary company of Exxon ferme : the government loses 30% of its receipts and returns in recession the following year. In 1990, the refinery is renovated then bought and reopened by another oil consortium states-unien, El Paso, but in 2003 this last indicates its intention to sell the refinery which transforms 170  000 barrels per day.

Third age of or : the Tourism. Aruba with its stable political regime, its climate quasi-ideal and its beaches offers to the tourists states-uniens, to Venezuelans and Dutch a destination which corresponds to the request for the interpretation of a “paradisiac” island. Tourism represents in 2001, 35% of employment and 38% of GDP of the island.

But the government seeks other resources for an island which exports only its refined oil. It throws its reserved on the very profitable “finance departments offshore oil rig” which one can translate into current language by Tax shelter .

Many West-Indian neighbors of Aruba (Grenade, the Cayman Islands, Antigua-and-Barbuda, etc) already found their account in this exercise. But the metropolis and the European Union require a greater transparency on the banking transactions (in particular via GAFI). Starting from April 1st 2003, travellers with more 20  000 guilders arubais in cash (the rate of the guilder arubais is fixed compared to the dollar states-unien at 1,79 guilder per dollar) must declare this sum with the Douane S arubaise. Aruba has its own central bank, which offers a certain latitude in its economic policies to him, but has to promise with OECD to align its banking system from here 2006. Aruba always tries to develop this sector, knowing that the field is immense and vague.

After the September 11th 2001, the frequentation of the states-uniens falls and finances of the country feel some. The country enters in recession, its GDP contracting of 1,2% in 2001 and 3,8% in 2002 whereas at the time of the boom of tourism (with the beginning of the year 1990), the annual growth was about 5%.

The budget of the State must face a large deficit and with a trade balance négative : on a side the tourists come less, which creates an important shortfall, other Arubais, during this period of strong growth (until 2001), obtained strong wage revalorizations that the employers can only with difficulty ensure.

The Chômage remains still non-existent (0,6%) but for how long? The the IMF envisages for 2003 an economic recovery arubaise and a growth rate of 4% but always a problem of national debt which at the end of 2002 was estimated at 37% of the GDP.

Aruba tries to develop other sectors of service : to start again the refineries, but then tourism is likely to suffer from the pollution of this industry. One of the prospects proposed by the government are telecommunications and the development of free zones.

  • Exports in 2001 : HAVE 26,9%, Venezuela 20,9%, Dutch West Indies 19,5%, Netherlands 14,2%.

  • Imports in????  : HAVE 61,8%, Netherlands 11,7%, Venezuela 3,1%, Japan 2,6%.

Statistical data

Capital: Oranjestad
Population: 102  695 inhabitants (in 2006). 0-14 ans : 20,7%  ; 15-64 ans : 68,3%  ; + 65 ans : 11%
Surface: 193 km ²
Density: 532 hab./km²
Land borders: 0 km
Littoral: 69 km
Ends of altitude: 0 m > + 188 m
Life expectancy of the men: 75,48 years (in 2003)
Life expectancy of the women: 82,34 years (in 2003)
Growth rate of the population: 0,55% (in 2003)
Birth rate: 12,64 ‰ (in 2001)
Death rate: 6,21 ‰ (in 2001)
infantile Death rate: 6,14 ‰ (in 2003)
Rate of migration: near to 0
Fertility rate: children/woman (in)
Independence: Belongs to the Kingdom of the Netherlands
Telephone lines: 33  000 (in 1997)
Cellphones: 3  400 (in 1997)
Radios: 50  000 (in 1997)
Television stations: 20  000 (in 1997)
Users of Internet: 4  000 (in 1997)
Many suppliers of access Internet: 3
Roads: 800 km (including 513 tarred km) (in 1995)
Railways: aucune
inland Waterways: aucune
Many airports: 1 (with tarred tracks) (in 2000)

Codes

Aruba has as codes:
  • P4, according to the List of prefixes ICAO of registration of the aircraft,
  • TN, according to the List of the prefixes of codes ICAO of the airports,
  • AW, according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (code list country), code alpha-2,
  • ABW, according to the standard ISO 3166-1 (code list country), code alpha-3,
  • ARU, according to the Code list country of the CIO,

See too

Related articles

External bonds

  • Official site of the government of Aruba

Beats-smg: Aruba Be-X-old: Аруба Simple: Aruba Zh-min-nan: Aruba

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