Aruba: Killing A Brand

...it's rough to stay on board, but it sure does give you thick skin. The infighting is a sign of how much intensity there is, still. The downward spiral brings no joy for anyone. Would you have done something different given the chance Aruba?

The quiet in Aruba a kind of perfect justice. Can't you see Julia, Arlene, Croes, Oduber and the Van der sloots huddled in a room trying to guess if they should peek out the door and see if "they" are still out there?

Yes they are, and don't let the quiet fool you. New York or not, nobody is going anywhere. The guilty are just as easy to pursue in Australia as they are in Aruba.

Now "the poor and innocent" are taking to the street. And still, too much pride to ask for help. What other entity started with so much good will, a customer, the U.S. willing to help, and were turned away. Not only turned away but hated, attacked. One of our own, slandered in damage control techniques so outdated. So ineffective.

With the rock painting and Paulus talking with Natalee videos going unanswered for, it looks like "no answer, is the answer."

Anonymous people in anonymous places doing better work than high priced New York lawyers. And they are winning.

I hope it keeps Aruba up at night realizing that their own corruption was not of interest, the media had no market for it before Natalee. And if Aruba had done even a basic investigation and prosecuted this crime, the perceived "secrets" being used as leverage would have had no value, nobody would have cared.

Justice for Natalee would have meant resolution and prosecution, not what it has now become, a complete country under scrutiny and people who have become permanent fixtures in our mind and on our fingers. We didn't want Aruba to say "uncle" we wanted them to say "help." But they just couldn't bring themselves to do it, not for Natalee or for themselves.

Dave and Robin were told by the FBI that the information they had seen showed Natalee was dead. I believe that occurred on the 8th or 10th of June.

This appears to be the final and most definative statement made to the family. Several things about this are disturbing. Van der Stratten was still in charge. Marianne Croes was the spokesman for the ALE. The FBI only saw what van der Stratten wanted them to see. Three weeks later Janssen made her statement that she knew of no information that would indicate that Natalee was dead.

Recent charges against Guido Wever and GVC fell apart because they included a charge of murder and no such charge can be supported. Wever said as much in his cryptic comments.

The attention on Aruba is unprecedented. So if you think interest is waning, because something isn't on television or a cable news show, you'd be underestimating the shift that has taken place. The traditional media has never looked so old or slow.

Aruba is overwhelmed, surrounded. Just 5 years ago, this would never have happened. Ironic for an island that has a relationship with the internet. While they may lash out at a media, or the media that they can't control, there is no doubt, Aruba and the Van der sloots are surrounded.

The corrupt and the complicit in Aruba are acting like crewman on a submarine not wanting to breathe so as not to tip off the enemy of their location. They are waiting for the sound of a pin to drop before the explosion.

It's way beyond Natalee now.

By anyone's measure, especially anyone reading this, Beth and Dave have moved mountains. No longer must we question whether Aruba is incompetent or corrupt.

The Aruba Brand is already ruined. What remains is how to take as much flesh from the bone as is left. Sharks like Joe Tacopina got his chunk, just in time. What better way to get money out of Aruba than overpay a dated legal bully.? One who's comfortable dealing with criminals. But even that old school approach seems kind of ridiculous. Who was that guy? Wasn't he going to sue someone, maybe even Beth? Or was that Steve Croes that was going to sue Beth? Steve Croes, the guy who came forward on his own to corroborate the Van der sloot story that Natalee was dropped at the hotel. Now what innocent person would go to the police on his own and lie about a lie?

Why is there no difference between fact and fiction in Aruba? Aruba lost control of the story because even in a world of "misinformation" they're fiction didn't add up, laughable stories that may have worked in the past to fool locals. Just mountains of lies and there is that point where you can't keep track of lies and it all falls apart. You know, the point when the guilty get angry and blame the accuser for pointing it out? Think teenagers. The internet ate up and spit out information with speed some people still don't get.

Paul Van der sloot ain't Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

An expensive attorney was no match for a grannytoad, Pearl or a tamikosmom and not especially for an ordinary and ferocious mother.

A trailblazer, Beth Twitty, not taking the bullying from Aruba or New York. The parental rage to fight the testosterone and misogny of the Van der sloots and their attorney. Beth's rage is beautiful as is the rage of other women taking up her fight and raging furiously with her.

Still at it, over a year later.

Beth and Dave are an inspiration. As is Grannytoad, Tamikosmom, Pearl and others. They can castrate Tacopina faster and with more clarity than Greta can say "Tito Lacle." They're parenting is what keeps the connection strong, especially to other parents. If we can't support them, who can we support? What kind of mind can endorse the Van der sloot's behaviour, for what reason?

I can guarantee you that Grannytoad and others would accept no amount of money to come on television and try to sell us that when Joran walks around Aruba people come up and hug him. That visual still provokes a smirk. And the thought of Paul Van der sloot sending ideas to his attorney Joe Tacopina. "Consensual, community service, Hitler, Natalee was the agressor, the media, sweet kid"... and on and on. That must have been quite a blamestorming session.

I support Beth and Dave. Joran Van der sloot never had parents qualified to take on that role. It took Natalee Holloway to say no. But she never had a chance. The Van der sloots continue to endanger those around them. The arrogance alone needs a response.

Like Natalee, Aruba never really had a chance. They acted like you do when a police car gets behind you on the highway, you think they're after you for something, anything, even though you can't remember exactly what for, but you feel guilty. They over-reacted, over-reached in the sterility of the cover up. No evidence? Really? Did Natalee exist after Carlos n' Charlies?

The Gottenbos didn't run from Aruba because they just happened to be "ready for a change."

How fitting that the noose is tightening around "nobody is above the law" Nelson Oduber? He, desperately trying to get off Aruba. Or "how much money do you have" Dennis Jacobs having to look over his shoulder. I assume you realize you are the prime scapegoat target, don't you?

Or like Dompig, were you doing what your "superiors wanted?"

But some things, upon reflection, look different. "It's Beth's fault" for instance. Seems epic to me, like a compliment. Paul Revere wasn't raised to be a hero either, he just was.

But we are suffering. Janssen throws around "heavy battery, premeditated murder, rape" all over this case and leaves it at that.

Are you kidding? Deepak Kalpoe admits he had sex with Natalee and he doesn't deny leaving the last place she was seen alive with her and he's walking free?

The experience of moral suffering tells us something important about ourselves. It tells us we have a soul. Suffering is one of those points in which man is in a certain sense 'destined to go beyond himself.'

There's no joy whatsoever in this situation. There's no satisfaction watching Aruba disintegrate. Nobody cared about corruption and favors. We just wanted justice for Natalee Holloway.

It's not a local crime anymore. It never will be.

Natalee, not the U.S. or anyone one of us, deserves justice. She, herself, has sacrificed enough, the family has worked too hard and made the ultimate sacrifice.

If you can't stand behind that, what can you stand behind?