October 12, 2006

MOVIN' ON UP...BOYCOTT TAKES PRECEDENCE




Ok…there has been a significant amount of chatter on this blog that is negative; whether you agree with what is said or not.


I am sick and tired of all the weird incoming comments, and the disrespect between one another. I feel like I am in high school all over again.


I am not in drama class. One of my mottos is to stay away from unnecessary drama. This blog is for promoting the Grassroots Boycott of Aruba. My subjects will be related to Aruba and the Netherlands for this purpose only.



Anyone that posts in the comment section anything regarding what I mentioned above, I won’t post it. I admit that I like to read the legitimate debates between people; but it’s gotten completely out of control and I’m 'this close' to shutting down the comment sections. I don’t want to do that.


Please, let’s stay on target and concentrate on what is important. That is demanding answers and boycotting the island of Aruba. We can all agree to disagree, but let’s just focus on the pertinent subject at hand.



Hundreds of us will continue with THE BOYCOTT, our GOALS and STRATEGIES!

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aruban Boycott is a volunteer thing. The title is a hard subject. To get wider acceptance, to get the attention, Boycott Aruba needs to be dramatised a little bit to get the special effects. Facts are important, and also emotions are playing an important role. People don't like to be boycotted, we just have to make the Aruban Boycott more palatable, but the target is still focused on Aruba.

Anonymous said...

Make the Boycott Aruba a fun thing to do, otherwise you would get too many supporters. The Aruban Boycott will just fade away. Aruban Boycott needs to be run just like a business. You need the marketing and customer base.

Anonymous said...

The title "BOYCOTT ARUBA--JUSTICE FOR NATALEE" is a very valuable intellectual property. It is all up to the owner of that title. I don't know what to tell you. Aruba is evil and bad. However, Boycott can be fun and educational, and can become a life enrichment skill. Boycott sounds negative, or it can be made sound very positive. And that's the point. You need to market the good idea of boycotting. Boycotting could simply mean don't buy them, buy me.

Anonymous said...

Your Boycott Aruba is very unique thing, you don't have to compare your blog to anyone. But, however, you need an audience for it to be worth of something. So far you have many fans, they wish their ideas could be heard. They don't want to see such a good blog to get ignored or just fade away. Life goes on. OJ, Joran, and Aruba are paying for their sins, in many unspeakable revenged by people and events. We just don't know them all.

Anonymous said...

Your Boycott Aruba is very unique thing, you don't have to compare your blog to anyone. But, however, you need an audience for it to be worth of something. So far you have many fans, they wish their ideas could be heard. They don't want to see such a good blog to get ignored or just fade away. Life goes on. OJ, Joran, and Aruba are paying for their sins, in many unspeakable revenged by people and events. We just don't know them all.

Michelle Says So 2.0 said...

Believe me, we have hundreds of members and our marketing strategy kicks butt. Ask any member. We have members in 26 states and one from Canada. I am not going to disclose my additional ideas, but we will prevail, I can tell you that. The Netherlands and Aruba are going to be so sick of this grassroots movement by the time this is all said and done.

Anonymous said...

Start letting this blog to earn adverising dollars. Your blog has a lot of clicks, Michelle, just look at the stike meter. They are real. They are awesome. The advertsers love to boycott their competitions in an even field. If somebody can sell the Aruba Coconut Inn commercial, so you can, Michelle. It is just a principle of fairness and ethics. You make the call. You kind of take the economic pressure off you, then you can use your hard earned advertising dollars to invest in your sincere Aruban Boycott blog to help the Justice for Natalee. Your Boycott Aruba blog brand name has a very heart felt meaning. Boycott Aruba truely means Get rid of the Evil, Welcome the Good Luck. People like that. You can call Aruba names, you can call Aruba anything you want to! It is an open game. Let's call call Aruba "Stuck on Aruba Stupid!", OK. Then we can sell that commerical to help to pay bills.

Michelle Says So 2.0 said...

I wish it was that easy. This grassroots movement is NOT a non-for-profit organization, and I don't know how I would get the money if it wasn't my own. Beth told me NOT to spend any more money. I said, "Well, then how am I supposed to get it? Someone has to step up to the plate."

If you have suggestions on how you think this could be done (i.e. money), please let me know. I'm not rich, but I care...I actually don't mind spending the money to send out marketing materials...Deb P. has done the same thing.

My friend is a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company. While she was in Chicago, she saw a car with a "Boycott Aruba" bumper sticker. I thougth that was awesome. It wasn't one of my stickers, so it appears that others have been doing their own thing to support the boycott.

Anonymous said...

Exactly, Michelle, register your genuie original Boycott Aruba trade mark. It sure will make your sincere blog a lot of money for the noble cause for Natalee's recovery. Say Debbie P. can make comics about the "Sloots stole the Christmas", surely a lot of good companies will want to buy the commercials from your blog. The First Snow falls early, the Christmas season already takes over the Holloween in many shopping malls, isn't that something.

Michelle Says So 2.0 said...

I used to work at a Patent law firm for two years. It is very expensive to get a trademark. In order to do the things you suggested I would have to set up a non-for-profit organization. And guess what...it's really HARD. I did lots of research on starting on. Look it up...so many things need to be done , are complicated and I work full time. Plus, I'd need another lawyer to set it up. Lawyers aren't cheap. I've been in the business for 10 years now. It's not unusual for an attorney to charge $100 or more an hour.

I am going to contact Nancy Grace and see if she'll do a small segment on Natalee and the boycott. She is a serious victim's advocate, so hopefully she and her producers will be open to the idea.

Anonymous said...

I am sure they will. It's good marketing strategy. Aruba is just an generic name placeholder for somebody to trash your competitions. It's is good business. People love to spend on good causes, especially for the holidays season. Nancy Grace is also itself a good brand name which means genuine justisce. I thing the synergy will work well.

Anonymous said...

Yo guys,

Just so you know, some latest figures from Aruba:

July: Tourism down 8.8% compared with last year (but Cruise tourism up 21.6%)
August: Tourism down by (ONLY) 3.2% (same cruise numbers).

Now this has been my point for awhile now. Great that the movement has "hundreds of members", but it will not be enough. If this trend goes on, it will mean that by the end of this year, Aruba Tourism will have gone up, compared with Dec '05.
In anothe comment posted by someone, as an answer to another post of mine stating my concern as per the numbers of members, the person stated that even if one person doesn't spend his dollars in Aruba, it will be a victory for the movement. Sorry, but that bird obviously won't fly.
Great that somebody in Chicago has 1 "boycott Aruba' sticker on their bumper, a whole lot of good that did. The fall in tourism is slowing down, and slowing down faster that I would have thought. I thought that there was going to be a drop this whole year of 30-40%, slowing down to maybe 10-20% in 2007, and that Aruba maybe was going see a rise in tourism for the first time in 2009. But apparently I was WAY OFF, since I now predict a rise again in Dec '06.
Finally I hear that the movement has hundreds of members, and that there are members in 26 states, and even 1 in Canada. I would not brag about these numbers. First of all: This boycott movement has been going on for a year, and only hundreds of people have joined. that simply isn't enough, because A) on a total tourism of 1 million persons, hundreds (multiply that by ten as the 'inflluence factor) will not make a big and/or long lasting dent.
B) How many of these members were ever going to Aruba anyways? If out of these hundreds only a few were people who went to Aruba or were planning to go and now won't go anymore, that would mean that the dent is even smaller than in point A.
Secondly: great, 1 whole member in Canada?!? What about the approximately 20.000 to 30.000 who either have been or will be going later this year.
Thirdly: Which states do you have members in? Don't forget, about 70% of Aruba's tourism comes out of the North-East. How well are you represented there? I mean, if most of the members are form Alabama and neighbouring states, sorry, but those states have never had any impact at all on the toruism of Aruba.
While the movement is strapped for cash (my conclusion based on certain posts by Michelle) Aruba is putting millions into promoting the island. I hear of people seeing ads in New York, Orlando, Boston, Chicago, etc. TV Ads in some of these cities, etc.
Fine, those are all problems, what about solutions: Be creative (simple Sales & Marketing 101). Find creative, fun ways to get money from the members. This promotes two points for the movement: 1) it will gather hard needed cash for the movement, 2) it will show how many of the members are for real, not just along for the ride.
Hold raffles, find companies to join and who can sponsor prices. How about a yearly "boycott Aruba" slogan contest. $1 per slogan entered, and fun prizes for the winner (a NOT-Aruba vacation as first prize). Sell t-shirts. There are several t-shirt websites in the web, so find one, design a few nice shirt, etc, and start selling, whereby you state clearly that the proceeds will go directly into the 'boycott Aruba" fund.
And so on, and so on.
As per the rights to the slogan, it coul dbe that the government of Aruba has the copyright and trademark on the name, so it could be that you would not be allowed to use their name in the slogan. But he, that's what the slogan contest could come in handy.
Anyways, enough for now. Just one more thing, happy to see that you and Meri have patched things up, and that you are back on the fornt.
Again, I don't agree with most things that you state as per Aruba, The Netherlands, Natalee and the Holloways and the Twittys, but I have always thought that you did care about Natalee and that whatever you post and state is meant to help shed some light onto her whereabouts. Keep up the fight.

John C.

Michelle Says So 2.0 said...

You are a serious downer, dude. The boycott is working. You aren't a member, so you have no idea what kind of marketing materials I provide. You have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. Marketing 101? Marketing is the easiest job and major in the world. Anyone can figure that one out.

To each his own...you see the glass half empty. As yes, we have almost every northeast state...from Maine, Vermont, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama...shall I go on to the midwest, west coast and western pacific area?

Don't question and critize what you don't know. I could have deleted your comment, but I didn't. It's people like you who fire up others.

PS--I am doing this alone (along with help from Deb P.) This is not my job. I do this on my spare time when I'm not working over 40 hours a week and raising a 2 1/2 year old.

Anonymous said...

Aruba’s June Tourism Numbers Released - Trending Significantly Downward
The Central Bank of Aruba has released tourism numbers and they are looking bleak. For the month of June, 2006, overall tourists is down 8.8 percent. The numbers for overnight stays is even worse, falling a devastating 10.3 percent for the month. And we do not know how low room rates have come down to attract tourists to the island.

The rule of thumb is that the last 10 percent of the a hotels revenue is its profit. If this is the case, the hotel operators on the island are facing a very tight squeeze. My guess is that they are laying off many of the housekeepers, waiters, busboys, and bellhops these days. Add to that all of the off property businesses that have to be struggling and laying off employees, the job market in Aruba must be looking especially bleak.

Then Aruba gouges the tourist for their tax dollars to maintain the social fabric of the island. So the wonderful government is facing lower tax receipts (tourism down) and higher unemployment. And a group of powerful hotel operators that are insisting they increase the marketing dollars spent to get new tourists to come to the island.

Well, the poor citizens of Aruba are now seeing the price of an incompetant government. Are you happy now?

Central Bank: Less tourist stays, less overnight stays hotels

ORANJESTAD - the number of tourists continues decrease, that according to the Central Bank of Aruba (CBA). The most recent figures are of June. From that it appears that the number of tourists decreased by 8.8 percent. The number of overnight stays decreased by 10.3 percent.

One would need to be a true "cockeyed optimist" to see good in these figures.

Michelle Says So 2.0 said...

John C.--You got SERVED!

Anonymous said...

You are failing to get the message. If we work at this long enough and are patient we will make more people aware of what Aruba has done regarding Natalee. It won't happen over-night and none of us expect it too.

We have other plans that will enhance the boycott beyond a simple display of stickers and word of mouth. We are dedicated to seeing that Aruba is seen for what it is and what it failed to do regarding Natalee Holloway.
We have all the dedication and patience in the world to see that our goals are met.

John, for some reason you are missing the big picture and attempting to make the boycott seem trivial. What you fail to realize is the determination that many of us have and that we will NOT stop until their tourism falters so badly that they have to take another look at this investigation. They need to allow our FBI to take over this case and find answers for Natalee and her family and we pledge that we won't stop until those answers are forthcoming.

I don't care about the percentages or the naysayer's...they want this case to fade away and for things to return to what they considered normal. We want the opposite so there is a war going on here and the side with the most determination, patience and ideas will win it.

You are only seeing preliminary figures and some of those are provided by Aruba itself. Like with most things coming out of Aruba...they are not accurate and they are not honest. We know from experience that Aruba is a place that is VERY good at covering things up. We simply won't let them...Just watch us. You ain't seen nothing yet. This is just the beginning.

Anonymous said...

In the strict business sense, all the other Caribbean island governments, including the new Cuba, love to see Aruba going down to the bottom of the Venesuelan sea. Aruba's loss is their gain. The Aruban Boycott works well. Also the EU member countries hate Holland so much, they would like Aruba dragging down Holland altogether. Curacao and Bonnaire both have longed for complete independence from the Dutch Kingdom. Aruban Boycott is just helping their quest for freedom movement. All in all, all the Carribean states are supporting the Boycott Aruba. As soon as Aruba is destroyed, Carribean will become a true American tourists paradise.

Anonymous said...

1. The boycott has thousands of members - every American who conscientiously decides not to go to Aruba because of what happened to Natalee and her family is part of the boycott.

And most of those people don't write letters, they don't post on blogs, and they don't have a website - but they'll be going to Jamaica or the Bahamas instead.

I suggest this guy take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grassroots and educate him some.

2. Aruba (just like all Caribbean islands) is particularly vulnerable to a boycott because its economy is so narrow. Basic ECON 101 - the fewer industries a nation has to contribute to GDP, the more vulnerable it is to economic ruin.

Think of Aruba's situation like this: what would happen to Saudi Arabia's economy if someone invented an auto engine that burns tap water for fuel? An economic boycott doesn't work nearly as well on a nation with a varied economy.

3. Competition for tourism is fierce for Caribbean islands, and the boycott effort shows this. In the same time period that Aruba's tourism is sinking, all other Caribbean tourism increased - and Jamaica's jumped over 20%! Why is Aruba the only one that, at best by the ATA's admission, grew only 0.6%?

4. Why did the MEP decide to put Dutch investigators in full charge of the investigation after over a year? Why are the MEP's political opponents and the news media in Aruba increasingly on the attack? Why can't the Aruban government pay for airport improvements, police force overtime, and why did they raise sales taxes by 3%?! Why are the beaches so damn empty on the hotel beachcams?

Anonymous said...

I came across your blog while researching Aruba for my family's upcoming vacation. We will be going to Aruba...again. We've been many times and have found the island to be safe and friendly. Rather than penalize all of Aruba for the actions of a few that you disagree with, why not find another way to support the family? Aruba may suffer some economic downturn,but it will do nothing to force their law enforcement agencies to do anything different, and it will hurt the Arubans who depend on tourist dollars just to live.
I have as much sympathy as anyone regarding Natalee Holloway, but I don't think hurting other innocent people in the her name is the way to justice.
Just my two cents. I support your right to boycott, but I dont support the boycott.

Anonymous said...

It just looks right for you, Michelle. To begin with the personal international business consulting. You can advertise yourself on your own blog. You are a very good looking American blonde. Many world rich investors want to get to know you, to see if you really have the right stuff to be successful. They like your creativity, please tell them how tall you are. Your fan, sincerely.

Anonymous said...

Whoa, Guys, if my post came over as an attack to the movement, i do deeply apologize. It was more meant as an expression of my frustration. Maybe i am expecting too much too soon from the movement, and must be more patient. It's just that a year has passed nad nothing has happened as per Natalee. Michelle, you state that i got served by that one anonymous poster, but he (coveniently) forgot to mention that the number of visitors in August is down only 3.2 percent. My point is that it looks like the boycott seems to be slowing. Should i then maybe wait for the movement to grow in the next few years.
The other anonymous saying that Bonaire and Curacao have both longed for their independence fron Curacao, is totally wrong. The Dutch antilles have just had a referendum at the beginning of the year: Curacao and St. Maarten have opted for the Status Aparte (almost the same status that Aruba has), while Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius (not sure of spelling) have opted to become overseas PROVINCES of the Netherlands. So both Curacao and Bonaire will hold direct ties with the Netherlands, whith Bonaire being integrated into the Netherlands.
I agree with Dan as per the competition in the Caribbean for the tourist dollar, and Tourism is down, it's just that I thought it would be lower than it actually is. That's all.
As per Sales Tax: Aruba still doesn't have a sales tax, but the government is proposing to install a sales tax of 3% at the beginning of 2007, but apparently the law hasn't passed throughthe parlament yet, as it seems that their own puppets in the parlament are against this sales tax.
I also agree with him on the narrow economy, although tourism isn't as big a pillar as it used to be, but still big enough to do some seriuos damage to Aruba.
As per resorts laying off people on a massive scale, nothing has reached my ear yet, and I do have 'connections' on the island that keep me informed. For privacy reasons i won't be able to divulge their names, work, etc, obviously).
Again, if I came over as negative on the boycott, I do apologize. I think i am just not patient enough. Dan, thanks for the Wiki idea. It actually did help.
Lets wait and see. I will try to keep you guys posted as much as possible.

John C.

Anonymous said...

John C... States that while Aruban tourism is down, Cruise visits are up by a small percentage. Does this poster realize that "cruise visitors" stay or visit for a few hours and spend little or no money on the island? While, as shown in the Amy Bradley case, they are virtually at the same risk Natalee Holloway was. The Boycott, while first and foremost, has as its focus, a Boycott of Aruba, is not limited to ONLY that end. It provides a reinforcement, or backup, to Beth's warning, to be aware and be careful before you send your teen or you, yourself visit a foreign destination. It also, while asking motorists to Boycott Aruba, is a VERY important way of keeping Natalee visible, keeping her case alive in the hearts and minds of her fellow Americans, letting them know that she has not received the justice that she deserves and that there are many of us out there who are supporting and WILL support her mother, Beth, until Justice for Natalee is achieved!!! I, as well as many of my friends supporting this movement, live in the North East.

Anonymous said...

One you already know, the UN Secretary changed hands. Now is the Korea Foreign Minister in Charge. The new UN Secretary Mr. Ban is very well aware of the Aruban Boycott. So the Aruban Boycott Michelle is getting some attention, and the Aruban Boycott is getting stronger daily. Some other things you might not know, Holland is staging to sell Aruba to China on a 50 years lease sooner than you know. Holland knows Aruba's tourism and economy will fail miserably next year once the new Cuba welcome all the American tourists back to their fantasy island of Earnest Hemmingway Legend. Holland rather wants to get some good cold cash and get rid of their problematic Aruba.

Anonymous said...

Keep up the good work!

I'm happy to be a boycott contributor. I proudly use my stickers and bumper stickers.

chaindropz said...

I have little money and a lot of time. I travel the state of Alabama as anyone that visits my blog can see. I do want to help but some of the material sounds expensive. That makes me shy about any commitment. How is that for what I am thinking.

Michelle Says So 2.0 said...

Chaindropz--

It's not necessary to donate if you can't. We need all the exposure we can get.

Please join up!!!

chaindropz said...

OK.

chaindropz said...

I am still here and I need your P.O. box to send some money. If I over looked some information on this blog I am sorry. I ain't broke but just limited. I feel your pain and think some people have been mean spirited on this blog. That is to be expected concidering this is the world wide web. My heart and loyalty is in the U.S.A. You should take a break and enjoy your child. Mine are past 30 years old and I can't remember when it happened.

Michelle Says So 2.0 said...

Chaindropz--

Send me a personal email...michellesaysso@sbcglobal.net.

Michelle