COMMENTARY: ARUBA CAUSED THEIR OWN DEMISE

By Richard, Aruban Boycott Contributor

It's a good time to think about what Aruba was three years ago, and what it is today.


Before Natalee Holloway vanished on the island of Aruba, who gave the place much thought? It was just another Caribbean island that prospered off tourists.

Now the place has become the image of a putrid cesspool, fit only for scorn and contempt.

Who made the change? Aruba itself. Not us, not its average citizen, not its beaches.

Its government and law enforcement have shown themselves to be corrupt, inept, incompetent, liars, deceitful, and worthy of being spit upon, if that.


Quite an accomplishment, Aruba. No wonder that even your Dutch overlords, or some of them, have denounced their Caribbean "jewel." The ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) are indeed "A Bottomless Cesspool."


And all this because, in three years, the only thing you have shown that you will NOT do is to take effective action in the case of Natalee Holloway. (I won't mention Amy Bradley other than to say that there is reason to believe that she remains alive after her kidnapping from a cruise ship ten years ago. Of course, you do nothing on that case as well.)


We Americans have reason to be outraged that our own government is evidently unwilling to use its leverage to seek justice in this part of the world. Those of us who have followed events over the last three years, however, remain determined to keep possible American visitors to Aruba aware of what has been done ... and what has not.

"No justice for Natalee ... no tourists for Aruba."

Here's a kind of ballad for Natalee that I wrote around Memorial Day last year. The spirit behind it remains unquenched. My thoughts are with Natalee's family on this day ... and my determination is to continue working for justice in this case.

The tune is a kind of hybrid of “John Brown’s Body”
and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Her precious life was taken by those filthy three;
The devil chuckled at the torments they will see.
The angels sobbed with grief … but then joined hands in glee
To welcome Natalee!


(chorus:) Glory, glory Hallelujah!
Glory, glory Hallelujah!
Glory, glory Hallelujah …
HER truth is marching on!


Now our boycott makes Arubans all afraid –
Wretched curs, to cry to those who you betrayed!
Let this message leave you trembling and dismayed;
We’ll fight for Natalee!


(chorus) Fellow Americans, it’s up to me and you.
Sing this message loud to Oduber and crew –
To save your island, this we demand of you,
Justice for Natalee!


(chorus) We’ll stand side by side with Beth forevermore,
Urging people to avoid Aruba’s shore.
Let them whine and moan — on them we’ll slam the door
For love of Natalee!

1,095 DAYS LATER--NATALEE NOT FORGOTTEN

ARUBA'S FINAL ELIMINATION-BUH BYE FROM AMERICAN AIRLINES

So, it may be because of the cost of fuel, but Aruba is now feeling another BITE. Karma comes in forms of many ways. Too bad...so sad. "Bye, bye birdie..."

Eagle will eliminate destinations:
Samana, Dominican Republic, and Aruba

American Airlines' parent AMR Corp. unveiled the first details of its plan to slash its schedule by up to 12 percent this year, cutting flights from Chicago, Boston and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The airline will also move some of its ATR-72 turboprop planes from San Juan to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport and retire its fleet of Saab 340 turboprops, which are less fuel efficient, company officials said.


Fort Worth-based AMR, which owns American and American Eagle, said last week that it would cut its schedule, park up to 80 planes and eliminate thousands of jobs as it grapples with crushing fuel prices.


"Fuel prices have risen so quickly and show no signs of falling, the economy is far from strong, and airline industry losses are mounting," Peter Bowler, Eagle's chief executive, told employees in a memo. "I believe the crisis in the airline business is real, and the steps American is taking to reduce its schedule and the schedule it is asking us to fly on its behalf are necessary."


Flight cuts planned Changes include: Ending service from Chicago to Buenos Aires, Argentina, effective Sept. 3. Discontinuing Chicago-to-Honolulu flights, effective Jan. 5. Between Sept. 3 and Jan. 5, the flight will only be operated on peak demand days. Eliminating Boston-to-San Diego service Sept. 3. American is also making reductions in San Juan, where Eagle operates a hub. The regional airline will cut its daily San Juan departures to 35 from a planned 55, effective Sept. 3.


http://www.star-telegram.com/business/story/667251.html

ARUBA JUST CAN'T ACCEPT IT--STILL BLAMING THE VICTIM 3 YEARS LATER

So, Amigoe...you want to talk about lies? Ok, so let's talk about lies.


It's been three years since Natalee has been gone, now coming up on the the 3rd anniversary and this is the crap that is posted in your paper? What in the hell does it have to do with the fact that Natalee was last seen with Joran? What does it have to do with the fact that Natalee was most likely drugged and according to Joran, was cast into the ocean after he thought she overdosed? What does this story have to do with ANYTHING? Does it shed light on the vast lies told by not only all the perpetrators, but the police, the "witnesses", the government, the Aruban Tourism Agency? NO. It does nothing but make them look like asses by trying to discredit Beth Holloway...a woman who has no reason to lie.


This isn't a smoke screen. It's a pathetic excuse to fill up that white space in that pathetic Aruban paper.

‘New’ evidence reinforces Beth Twitty’s lie

The computer print-out showing that Beth had lied about her arrival time in Aruba.

WILLEMSTAD/ORANJESTAD – From a print-out of Natalee Holloway’s telephone it appears that the private jet of her mother Beth had already landed in Aruba at 17:15 on May 30. At least, that’s what TV-producer from Curacao, Renée Gielen says. She has the telephone print-out of Natalee’s cellular telephone. This is very striking, says Gielen, because according to her, it means that Beth Holloway wanted to come to Aruba before Natalee was missing. “The print-out shows that Beth had called Natalee’s cell at 17:15. She did that from her own cell and she could not have done that while being in the air.”


She emphasizes that it also means that the call was not done with a satellite telephone and it is also not probable that Beth’s private jet had made an intermediate landing from the United States. “That is not usual on these short flights. For that matter, she must have left even earlier.” The print-out doesn’t show that it was a missed call, but that Beth had really talked to someone.


Gielen assumes that she had talked to Paul Lilly, one of the chaperones of Natalee during her vacation in Aruba. Besides, when Beth arrived in Aruba, she was carrying a stack of posters asking Natalee to call her. “This suggests that Beth must have known that there were problems, before Natalee disappeared”, says Gielen, who from the beginning of the disappearance case three years ago, is investigating the case.


Gielen and her team are now in the process of rounding off the documentary ‘‘Natalee, The Unrevealed Time Lines’ that is expected to be presented on June 2.

MISTAKEN

Gielen considers the print-out as new evidence that Beth had lied about the exact time of her arrival in Aruba. She has been declaring all along that she arrived in Aruba ‘around 23:00’. She also wrote this in her book ‘Loving Natalee’ that was published late last year. A former employee of the airport, Alberto G, said before the cameras of Gielen that the private-jet of Beth had landed at 19:45. He retracted his declaration, because, as he said, he was mistaken. He did this after the Americans Dan Young and Kelly Castillo that claim to be detectives, showed a computer print-out indicating that Beth had arrived earlier. G. confirmed the authenticity of that print-out.


The motive of Beth lying about her arrival time is still not clear. Despite many telephone calls and e-mails, Gielen didn’t manage to reach Beth. Also the police don’t know anything. “The police say that there are no telephone data available from the radio tower equipment for that day, which is very coincidentally” says Gielen. Former chief of police, Gerald Dompig told this newspaper earlier that at that time, the police had investigated the time line, the flight data, and also the flight movements.

http://www.amigoe.com/english/

NEED A JOB? THE ARUBA TOURISM ASSOCIATION NEEDS BRAINLESS IDIOTS

Ahata: ‘1000 openings in tourism’

ORANJESTAD – There are more than 1000 openings in the tourist sector, said Rob Smith, director of Aruba Hotel and Tourism Association (Ahata) yesterday during a press conference about the big career-fair of this Saturday. This is also one of the reasons why this fair is being organized, said Smith.



Ahata wants to get an idea of how many potential candidates are on the local market. The organization also wants to get more insight on the number of qualified people that can work but have no job or are overqualified for their current function. Ahata wants to make the community and especially the youth aware of the fact that the hospitality industry has a lot to offer.




According to Smith, there are sufficient possibilities to move on financially as well as professionally. The most important message of Ahata is that Arubans distinguish themselves by their hospitality and that the passion to be helpful must be stirred again. “Helpfulness doesn’t mean that you must take up a submissive position”, emphasized Smith. The career-fair takes place this Saturday, May 17 in the YMCA in San Nicolas from 10:00 till 18:00. The next ones will take place in Santa Cruz and Oranjestad.


May 15, 2008, http://www.amigoe.com/english/

TRANSLATION: ARUBA "SPIN-SPEAK" TO ENGLISH

This post was written by Aruban Boycott Member, Dan from TX. Great response to previous post regarding Ed Briesen's gutless interview regarding the effects of the Boycott against Aruba.

Let's translate this from Aruban 'spinspeak' to English:

Aruban : "I don't know about the family problems they have, which seem to be the reason behind this case"

English: "We're going to keep bringing up slanderous and unproven rumors about the victim and her family in an attempt to rob them of public sympathy"



Please note slandering the victim is a common defense behavior in cases of murder, sexual assault, and domestic violence.



Aruban: "We've had the FBI, the Aruban special task force, F16's and special recovery vessels searching the island"

English: "Nothing we tried worked. Sorry, not our fault"


Please note that the FBI has never been allowed access to evidence, access to suspects during questioning, or anything remotely meaningful. They have never been allowed to do anything but 'observe' (and nothing in Dutch or Aruban law prevents more involvement- that is left to Aruban Justice ministry to decide.)


Let's make this clear: the Aruban government is 100% responsible for keeping the FBI out of the investigation). The F-16s were Dutch, sent by the Netherlands; they didn't cost Aruba one penny. The search vessel was unable to search even half the areas of interest due to lack of funds; Aruba ok'ed the search, but again provided no money toward this effort (it was all paid for by American donations).



Aruban: "I would not want Aruba to be known in the same way Iraq is known"

English: "We're reminding Americans of their own issues, which in fact have nothing to do with the Holloway investigation, nor have any similarities, in order to distract you from the issue at hand"



Please note this is a classical fallacy of logic called the Irrelevant Conclusion.



Aruban: "The island is so small, social ties are strong. Everybody knows everybody in Aruba"

English: "If anyone knew anything, surely they'd stick their necks out and possibly betray family, friends, and business associates who may be involved even though nothing is forcing them to. Us Arubans are just that angelic"



Please note that when the FBI first went to Aruba the week after Natalee disappeared, they were allowed to do NOTHING. They complained that the Aruba legal circles were 'incestuous' and that the very condition Mr. Briesen crows about is in fact preventing any honest, meaningful investigation!



Aruban: "What happened in Aruba...has become for us and everybody a model for crisis management on the islands"

English: "We don't care about the real issue (justice) and the real victims (Natalee Holloway and her family). We care about damage control and what is good for us"


Aruban: "But we'd like to forget and move on."

English: "But we'd like to forget and move on."

ARUBA CAUGHT IN A LIE BY "BOYCOTT WATCH"!

BOYCOTT WATCH BUSTS ARUBA!

(Source)--Summary: New statements by Aruban Tourism officials proves Boycott Watch caught Aruba in a lie, and that Aruba wanted to cash in on the disappearance of Natalee Holloway

Boycott Watch was first to break the story that Aruba lied about its tourism numbers, claiming tourism was up despite the boycott of Aruba called after the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. An article in eTurboNews dated January 16, 2008 was just brought to our attention in which an Aruba official clearly indicates Boycott Watch was right all along.


In the article by Hazel Heyer, Aruba's minister of tourism and transportation, Edison Briesen was quotes saying "We were strongly hit by this incident ... In the Caribbean, this is the first time an island has been pounded this long by a single event. It's been over a year and a half now and the publicity has not ended."




This is the first time that Aruba has openly admitted their economy was hit hard by the boycott against them. Aruba originally claimed the boycott did nothing but draw attention to Aruba thus increase tourism, but Boycott Watch uncovered the numbers to prove Aruba was severely hurt by the boycott early on in the boycott.


While Aruba now says they expect an increase in tourism revenue because the Natalee Holloway disappearance is out of the news, Boycott Watch stated the Aruba economy hit its low point in a previous article, so the islands economy can only go up anyhow. In the mean time, considering the fact that the Natalee Holloway case is still open and no prosecution has been made despite the Joran Van der Sloot confession, Boycott Watch believes Aruba tourism will not fully recover for a long time. While many college students want to go to Aruba for spring break to take advantage of the lax underage drinking and drug law enforcement there, many parents are still objecting to their kids going to Aruba out of concerns for safety, and many parents won't go either.

The consumer boycott against Aruba was started and driven by blogger Michelle Simonsen at the Boycott Aruba--Justice For Natalee (http://arubanboycott.blogspot.com), and was picked up by the Governor of Alabama among many others. The boycott took on a life of its own, as Americans were upset at Aruba for seemingly doing nothing in the case. Now, many Americans are still upset because even after a passenger-seat confession of Joran Van der Sloot, Aruba has failed to take any action to prosecute anyone in the case.

Briesen appeared arrogant in the interview. When asked about the Holloway family, Briesen stated "We've been very cooperative," something Natalee Holloway's mother, Beth Holloway-Twitty, surely disagrees with, as demonstrated by the number of times she has been on TV stating her disappointment with the way Aruba has been handling the case and treating her personally.


In the interview, Briesen also echoed a claim by Aruban Tourism officials early in the boycott by saying "more people now know about Aruba." In both cases, these words were used to claim tourism was up because of free publicity. The only problem with that original claim is that it was a complete lie as evidenced by the fact that Briesen admitted Aruba tourism was hit hard by the boycott. There is, therefore, no reason to believe Briesen now either.


Boycott Watch believes Briesen was attempting to once again bask in self-glorification by taking pride in the media attention garnered by the disappearance of Natalee Holloway. Simply stated, Boycott Watch finds these statements feeding off the probable murder of Natalee Holloway to be repulsive at best.


The most interesting statement by Briesen in the interview was when he stated "…I would not want Aruba to be known in the same way Iraq is known. One reason why we think it has been a hard blow to us." This is another de facto admission that Aruba feels it was deeply hit by the boycott. Briesen continued: "We are the safest island in the entire western hemisphere. Things like this don't happen in Aruba." But it did.


Boycott Watch President Fred Taub responded by saying "If Aruba is the safest island in the entire western hemisphere as Briesen believes, perhaps his own Iraq comparison has merit."


http://www.boycottwatch.org/misc/aruba13.htm