A WELL STATED SOLILOQUY BY JOSSY MANSUR

Provided by a SM post from Easy--Thanks

I live on an island, but have not visited the beaches in over 20 years. I go there once in a while, but no longer enjoy the warm salty ocean breeze I used to love so many years ago. I realize that things change, but I don't like what has happened to Aruba in the past 10 years.


We have an insurmountably problem with illegal workers that come from the Venezuela coast and swim ashore from a certain distance. It's a hodgepodge of Venezuelans, Colombians, Dominicans, Peruvians and Haitians with very little education and quite a few of them with criminal records we are unaware of. In a former population of 60,000, an influx of 45,000 illegal foreigners in less than 5 years makes a big impact, not only on the economy, but also on the traditional culture of the island. I can imagine what the U.S. is going through with the latest turmoil of illegal people that pretend to be immigrants.

The Natalee Holloway case has added to Aruba's woes, because the government hasn't done its duty and has looked the other way in the almost one year since she disappeared. No one in office has come out to face the public outcries; none of them has cared enough (about the island and about her family) to demand a closure. That has given Aruba a negative image in the eyes of the world.

Furthermore, no one can understand how come with so many inconsistencies on the table, so many accusations and counter-accusations amongst the three main suspects, Joran is still in Holland free to move as he pleases, and the Kalpoe brothers remain free to travel or do as they please. After all, they remain the three characters in whose company Natalee disappeared.

You say that you plan to move inland after this year and that you no longer enjoy the ocean like you used to. As far as I'm concerned, the ocean doesn't only seem dangerous, it is dangerous. I have always looked at it with awe. Reason why I refuse invitations to go on a yacht to fish or to distance myself too much from dry land.