Crisis in Aruba (cont’d)

Let me get the irrelevant arguments out of the way which seem to be popping up like weeds in a garden.
1. No, it was not “her fault” and she was not “asking for it”. One of the witnesses said that she was wearing “a denim mini-skirt” and a “low-cut blouse” that night which is not unusual today. She was definitely imprudent (as I said in my last post about this, her uncle said that she had ’something of a child-like quality” about her) She was not an experienced “party-girl”.
Imprudence is not reason enough in this case to be murdered.
2. It was the fault of the people who planned the trip, the chaperones and her parents. There may be a little something to think about here. Aruba is not Disneyland. I think it is unwise to cut loose a bunch of teen-agers who are just transitioning to adulthood and have little experience with night life into a situation where the rules are not what they are accustomed to.
3. Why pay all this attention to one girl’s disappearance when people disappear in this country everyday and when children are dying of starvation? What makes this a special case?
This argument usually comes from flip, glib, dumb young males.
Why did we pay so much attention to the murders of Daniel Perl and the Jewish American
construction worker who were killed by the Islamic terrorists?
Because they involved larger issues.
Several of the murderers of Daniel Perl are no longer on this earth, thanks to the US military and others are in jail. I am aware of the differences between the two cases but the common denominator is that Americans outside the country are under the protection of the United States. At some point, the US government is going to have to honor that committment.
If Miss Hollaway was abducted in the woman trafficking business, this is something that the international community needs to look at. (By the way where the hell are all those loud-mouthed feminists in this?)
On the other hand if she was murdered, which is more likely, why has it taken the Aruban police 69 days to come up with nothing? If nothing else, the frequent changing of the stories given by different people is very suspicious.
Why were the main suspects let free for 18 days after the disappearance to construct an alibi? The dodge about the difference between Dutch and American law (which my cousin, who is a talk-show host, tells me is based the fact that Dutch law insists on secrecy and not divulging any information about a case) is put under special strain when the murdered person is not Dutch, the chief suspect is and the father is a judge-candidate who makes statements like, “No body, no crime”.
The senior Mr van der Looten should be disqualified immediately for inappropriate conduct like that and the be given a kick in the a** for being a callous human being. (His son, by the way, according to my cousin, has 9 (!) attorneys.)
The issue here for Aruba is saving their economic hide which is based on tourism. Americans provide 50% of that revenue and the Aruban economy has been slipping over the past few years. Aruba is also desperately trying to preserve its undeserved reputation as a Carribean Paradise uncorrupted like Jamaica and Trinidad.
Phooey.
They are knee-deep in laundering money, hustling drugs, alcohol and cigarettes and possibly women.
Only an idiot could believe that no one on that island knows what happened to Natalee Hollaway.
It is time to expose that “Carribean Paradise” for what it is: a corrupt illusion.
(to be continued)

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