ARUBA RUBARB I can readily understand how it is that the citizens of the usually serene and beautiful isle called Aruba are disturbed. The media has spread the false set of ideas that give the impression that the small island is a haven for crime and everything that could possibly be wrong for a tourist site.
The perplexing Twitty-Holloway case has been given a background making it some sort of wild specimen which is being studied from various experimental angles. The media has been unfair with the established citizenry of the island as being far too aggressive and of setting forth that which can be shown to be untrue.
It seems to disturb outsiders, for instance, that Aruba is not exactly the tropical paradise they expected it to be. It is actually more desert-like than they had thought; arid in some areas, with tumbled, rocky coastlines, a great variety of low-lying, snarled vegetation and several varieties of cacti growing prominently everywhere. The rugged interior is sparingly occupied and you realize that much of it resembles its neighbor Trinidad to the south a few miles. Aruba seems more South American than Carri bean.
Too much attention has been brought to focus on the small island in the past month as he result of the disappearance of a young American student.
The colonial heritage of Aruba is Dutch and the prevailing law of the land is in accord with ownership. From the very start of the Natalee Holloway case the legal system of the island has caused great misunderstanding abroad. The American mind,in particular,has been thwarted in attempts to just comprehend what has been taking place. The case has been complicated by the fixed presence of the victim's mother, constantly demanding more investigations. Her odd comments have confused the matter even more so and many Americans can't see why we just don't just go in there and solve the case. The jurisdiction is not ours to claim. We have no rights to be there doing anything except to provide equipment and supplies and assist only when requested to do so. The strange case may well hinge on one an action which, as far as I know, has not been undertaken. Only quick, cursory and happenstance chit-chat has been exchanged thus far with the other girls who were with Natalee Holloway on the special trip. All of the other schoolgirls on the trip have been ought to be intensely interviewed. One woman investigator might talk with the girls and find out what they think they knew Natalee Holloway was doing the night she disappeared. You can't tell me a gaggle of young girls would not known pretty much what was thinking about boys and men and much of what she did with them. Whom had she been seeing? It's called "girl gossip". It is not infallible but it suggests paths to be taken.
The longer this case is allowed to drag along,especially with other girls omitted, Natalee's abrasive Mama on stage every moment heaping ridicule on police judicial officials or anyone who gets in her way - is going to get worse day-by-day. There are people wondering if she is the devoted Mother she claims to be. What are - or were - the actual mother-daughter relationships? Girl gossips would know about that sort of thing.
A.L.M. July 7, 2005 [c567wds]
