BOYCOTT ARUBA: WE WON'T TOLERATE IT!

One American's Perspective On The Boycott Of Aruba

By Meri, Aruban Boycott Contributor

We as a people are forgiving. We forgive our elected officials when they sin and we create heroes out of those who were once out of favor. Bill Clinton is a good example of our forgiveness and so is Richard Nixon. Bill had his Monica (and God knows who else), but we chalked it up to a private affair and only remembered his brilliance and his affability. When Bill spoke to you, you were the only person in the room...the world, who mattered. He could be forgiven.


Nixon was a bad guy who used our top investigative agencies to spy on and destroy his enemies who were determined by an actual list (the shit list, as it was called back then by his enemies). We forgave him because he forged a bridge between us and China and was a good Statesman when all was said and done.


The list goes on and on and the only time we fail to forgive is when the CEO of a company like Enron steals from the little people and shows no remorse. This type of person cannot be forgiven....at least not yet.


We also cringe at the very thought of taking food out of the mouths of people who work hard for very little and that's why some of us had a problem with starting a boycott on Aruba. There are a lot of people who are innocent there and who depend on the dollars that tourism brings to their small Country. They were hard to shunt aside when we first thought about a boycott.



There is another aspect of the American consciousness that is a part of our National mindset...our children. They are important and we don't take kindly to those who make them disappear and then lie about what happened to them. We expect those who are in charge to at least make a real effort to find them and to do everything in their power to return them to their families.


We can't tolerate it when they turn their backs on one of our children and it is compounded tenfold when we suspect (with good reason), that some of them actually know what happened to our child and choose to lie about it and cover it up.


We do not look kindly upon people like this and that's what has happened concerning Natalee Holloway on the Island of Aruba. None of us knows what really happened to her and one of the reasons for that is because of their lack of candidness and their ineptitude.



Many of us believe that they never took her disappearance seriously and tried to play it off as just another teenager who wanted to run away from home...someone who was just as guilty of her inevitable fate as the people who took her away from her family.


When they painted her as a girl of loose morals and a typical American teen (in their minds eye), who would subject her family to the suffering that has befallen them in her absence, we rose up and protested. We had no choice. Our children are our future and this girl was OUR child. They took her away from ALL of us and they acted like it didn't really matter and that she was replaceable and that we would forget about her and move on.


They were wrong and we have proven that. Natalee Holloway became a symbol to many of the corruption that became apparent on the Island Aruba in short order. The comments to Natalee's father Dave..."Go have a beer, she'll show up". "How much money do you have?", all rubbed us the wrong way. The endless non-productive searches (mostly funded and conducted by one of our own citizens and done without pay), the stories that grew more ridiculous by the day leaked and created by certain members of the Aruban police force and media angered us further. The difference in our laws and how so many were arrested and released, yet still considered suspects confused us and angered us and eventually proved to many of us that they had no intention of solving this case and no intention of telling what they knew about the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.


I as an American, can NOT forgive them...so I became involved in the boycott even though in the beginning it bothered me and the faces of those innocent workers on Aruba floated in front of me, I knew that this was the only way that I could express my outrage and punish that place for what they failed to do and how they went about doing it.

The boycott is working. The tourism is slowly diminishing on Aruba and the Island has acquired a bad reputation as a result of the behavior of those placed in positions of authority. Who wants to send their kids to an Island that won't protect them? Who wants to visit that place knowing that a child went missing and no one knew how to find her or even worse, didn't want to find her.


This site is an important place for those of us who want to see the boycott continue and grow. It is necessary that we help it's owner by donating or at least paying a minimal amount for materials that will advertise the intent to continue the boycott.


I have been accused of owning this site and that is an out and out lie. I am merely a blogger who writes articles for the owner. The owner is Michelle and she is the ONLY person who controls this site. I have written things that she has not published and I have written articles that she has published willingly. That is her choice, as it should be. My only contribution here is to express myself in the best way that I know how and I try to do that from time to time.


Not everything that I write is popular and many have disagreed with me but it is my way of telling people how I feel about Natalee Holloway and the Island of Aruba. It is also my desire to see this site stay strong because our goal has not been fully accomplished and more work is needed.


That's why I am asking everyone who does agree with me and what I write about to contact Michelle and become a part of this movement. She isn't asking for a lot; not nearly as much as she personally contributes herself. We need to help if we believe in this cause and in what she is doing. Our work is far from finished and I urge you to contact Michelle if you'd like to help her accomplish what must be done in order to let our voices be heard and our outrage be known.

As one Amercan this is all that I can do and I hope that you will join me.