The most important sector to dominate daily life in the Caribbean is tourism. Many islands depend heavily on the income generated by the flow of visitors received from all over the world. For many islanders tourism doesn't only mean tourists traveling from all over the world and visit, it means much more.
All the information provided we add, where possible, a local's perspective. This means specifically that we try to address the topics which has an impact on future developments and additionally what some locals might think.
Having said that, in reality it's difficult to voice opinion for all locals, actually it is an impossible task. Fur sure, as the years passed by, many islanders changed and became more critical towards life in general. The "island innocence" might have been lost by many. Media, new media in particular, is heavily present in daily life, which lets people gather information limitlessly.
Two important changes Aruba went through during the last 100 years are its culture and education.
The smaller the island, the bigger the influence from abroad. Aruba in particular has been dominated by American influence for almost 100 years now. The nature of the Aruban islander is to accommodate the visitor as much as possible. This happened with the first pioneers in tourism back in the 50's and it's happening in present times.
When tourists request a specific service or custom, without hesitating, people comply to make sure that service is available to make the stay of visitors more enjoyable. In retrospect, perhaps people should have been more critical and less susceptible to requests in order to preserve more of Aruba's uniqueness.
Some entrepreneurs, together with officials, might have crossed the line with what some call over-development. Sustainable and controlled development seems to be what people, islanders and visitors alike, are requesting.
In the early days the Dutch took care of the education in Aruba by sending ministers and sisters. These educators were extremely strict. They made sure that people could read and write.
For further education there were no options locally, people needed to get off the island and travel to the Netherlands. This wasn't a reachable option for many. Education and financing became readily available only in the 90's.
In the 20's an oil refinery opened its doors and soon afterwards education kicked in a higher gear. New skilled workers were needed, naturally the refinery pitched in.
As the years passed by the population grew and education professionalized. From the 50's on forward the island needed a different type of worker. People that didn't stay with the refinery needed to receive a hospitality education instead of engineering.
In the present islanders have a variety of choices for higher education locally, clearly this will not suffice. For this reason many Arubans still choose to seek a higher education in the Netherlands.
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