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Local Items: Is the Natalee Holloway case affecting tourism?
Bonaire Talk: Local Items: Archives: Archives 2005 - 2006: Archives - 2005-06-01 to 2005-07-14: Is the Natalee Holloway case affecting tourism?
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By gail stich (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #8) on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 3:42 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Hi all, we're returning to wonderful Bonaire next Saturday for our seventh trip. Can't wait! We're curious if there have been many cancellations by folks that are afraid or angry about the situation in Aruba?

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #13856) on Sunday, June 26, 2005 - 11:18 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Gail, I seriously doubt it. Have a great vacation!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tish (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #210) on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 4:02 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

No way could anybody fear Bonaire because of an isolated incident on Aruba.
Vacations on Aruba, however, are another matter. The hotels there are suffering.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By gail stich (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #9) on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 5:27 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Having been to Bonaire many times, I agree, we never have felt unsafe or threatened there ever.
But, people who are not familiar with Bonaire might just assume that since the island is part of the ABC's and a Dutch protectorite, there is reason to feel uneasy about going there. People are just so crazy sometimes, I mean, since this incident there are people who through the use of the media are actively trying to discourage people from going to Aruba. I think it's just a shame. It's like they trying to ruin the reputation of the island and make their economy suffer because of this one very unfortunate (very isolated event).

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole B. (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5040) on Monday, June 27, 2005 - 6:33 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I had heard the hotels are booked and so are the airlines....Aruba, that is. Now is the "slower" season, anyway, for Aruba. I doubt there have been many cancellations for folks going to Aruba....it is an isolated incident and folks who are going to Aruba are intent on going and having a fun/party time.

It should not affect folks going to Bonaire by any means....the two islands are nothing alike except for the climate.

Just my opinion for what it's worth. Carole

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Susan (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1395) on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 2:03 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

For most people, you say you're going to Bonaire and they say "huh?" You say it's one of the ABC's, they say "huh?" If you then explain Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, there's a good chance that Aruba is the only one of the three recognized.

Given that, I don't think troubles in Aruba are likely to reflect down to Bonaire... :-)

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #13859) on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 9:24 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Susan...that's the EXACT response I get when I tell people about Bonaire...your're right, they MAY recognize Aruba...and if so, they still don't really get it...LOL! Then I say it's about 50 miles off the coast of Venezuala...that sometimes turns the light on a bit...LOL!

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tish (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #211) on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 9:13 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Carole B.,
Here's what I meant.
The Bonaire Reporter cites the Caribbean Diver's News Network as the source of the following information:
"Travel agents in America, Canada and Europe told CDNN that thousands of tourists and scuba diving travelers are canceling planned holidays to Aruba." p. 2, June 24-July 1, Bonaire Reporter.
Tish

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Carole B. (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #5049) on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 10:24 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Thanks, Tish...interesting, as the cable news reporters are all saying they are being pushed out of their accommodations due to full bookings of "regular" guests. I guess the "lull" was temporary.

They can have Aruba...watched them destroy that place back in the eighties...no way I would ever return. I could barely hear the reporters/journalists doing their updates due to the very loud background "party" music/noise.

Bless Bonaire and her lack of "theme" nights and continuous blasting of music and people yelling into microphones on the beach at each resort!

Thanks, again, Tish> Ayo. Carole

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tish (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #212) on Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 2:47 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Amen to your Bonaire blessing, Carole!!
Tish

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Brigitte Kley - Coco Palm Garden (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #304) on Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 7:42 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

I find this comment quite to the point

By Steve Yuhas
Published in the Daily Herald (Vol 15 # 38)

Michael Jackson was found not guilty, Scott Peterson is on death row, there is no “missing” bride to be and Nancy Grace doesn’t have much to talk (or cry) about so it was wonderful when the story of a missing American in Aruba fell right into cable news show laps.
The problem with the coverage that 18-year-old Natalee Holloway’s “disappearance” is generating is not that it is being covered, after all it is a story when a person goes missing, but it has been at the top of virtually every newscast for almost a month and even I (normally not a sceptical race carder) am wondering if Natalee was named Lateefah (African for gentle or pleasant) if the cable news world would be fixated on her disappearance.
Holloway went missing on May 30. It is now almost the end of June and still her disappearance is leading the news as if … there is something particularly special about Natalee Holloway.
In what should have been a one or two day story where nothing new has been learned, except that the black men taken into custody initially have been released and no charges were conferred against them, the media is fixated on Natalee Holloway and Joran van der Sloot – a 17-year-old being held along with three others in Aruba.
Van der Sloot is the son of an Arubian judge so a judge from a neighbouring island, Curaçao, was assigned to a case that is quickly growing out of control. Justice officials in Aruba say it is not unusual that in high profile cases judges come from neighbouring islands to assist local judges and keeping Van der Sloot in custody will give police time to either rule him out or create a case against him.
Holloway, from Alabama, went to Aruba, a safe island that boasted only one murder in all of 2004, to celebrate her graduation from high school with 124 classmates and 7 chaperones (where were they during all this?).
News appearances by her family suggest that Holloway is the epitome of virtue and that whatever befell her had to be the work of sinister forces, but one has to wonder – why Aruba? …
Questions concerning what Holloway was doing the night she presumably vanished have to be asked.

… This is what we know:
Natalee Holloway was visiting Aruba, she was staying at the Holiday Inn and on the night before she was to return to the United States she went to a Boyz II Men concert at Surfside beach, stayed until closing time (1:00am) at a bar called Carlos ’N Charlie’s and was wearing a blue-and-green striped, low-cut blouse, denim miniskirt and sandals.
That’s it – that is all we know, yet every cable network has not only followed the story, but updates us every hour on the hour with no news to report and reporters are now making the peaceful and safe island of Aruba out to be something akin to visiting Mexico without sufficient bribe money for police officers.
Holloway is consistently described by news outlets as a “teenager” as if she was not of legal age or she had just received her driver’s permit.
It is true that she is 18, but in Aruba that is old enough to get into bars and clubs and drink the night away (witnesses say that Holloway was drinking the night she disappeared and throughout her stay); Holloway is a missing person, a grown woman, and the idea that this case has become so blown out of proportion baffles me.
There is nothing significant about it insofar as a grown woman is missing, there are tons of them all over the United States and the world, but for some reason the blonde hair and consistent statements of her family that she was a “good girl” and her disappearing is “out of character” for her continue to get air play.
Now her parents want to sue because they’re not getting everything they want from the Arubian authorities – well crimes happen! Arubans should be commended for being one of the safest places in the world – donuts to dollars crime is lower in Aruba than in Holloway’s hometown or closest large city. …
Something has to explain what it is about Holloway that makes her disappearance so special and the disappearance of so many people that are just normal everyday people that they make the headlines so often.
There is no other explanation for the coverage of Natalee Holloway’s disappearance from Aruba and the continuous coverage of it other than the fact that she is a pretty white girl who presumably went missing in Aruba at the hands of the son of a judge. Had Natalee been black and had she gone missing in Jamaica, I hardly think that Nancy or Greta would be crying (well, Nancy would cry because that is what makes Nancy Grace who she is) or taking up residence there.
We’ve seen this story play out too many times for me not to believe that there is something about how a presumed victim looks that drives the coverage and that is a sad admission for me to make.
Holloway is a grown woman who went to Aruba because she wanted to have a good time. Yes there were chaperones, but where were they when she was in a bar drinking with folks she may have known only for a few days or a week? Where were the chaperones when night fell and the bars closed, knowing that she had a plane to catch the next morning to check on her to make sure she was okay? The chaperone to student ratio during her trip was better than the guest to staff rate at a five star hotel – surely someone should have noticed that she was not there.
More importantly though:
why did Holloway leave, as witnesses have accounted many times, in a car with people if she was the virtuous girl that she was, when the bar closed when she should have gone to bed? Outside of the question of race: how come when the Holloways talk or supporters talk about the Alabama contingent and the “children” they were and their inability to control themselves and how vulnerable they were they use words like “child,” “children,” or “kids”; meanwhile, the accused, who is 17, is a “man” or “young man”?
Either Holloway was a child at 18 and therefore it follows that the accused is as well since he was a year her junior, or she is an adult. Since the Holloways have made it clear that the “man” who is accused of doing the unthinkable is a mature adult, then so too is their daughter and she is at least partly responsible for whatever happened to her.
A hard pill to swallow, but the Holloways cannot have it both ways and the media should not allow it.
If Van der Sloot is a man, a mature adult accused of complicity in the disappearance of Holloway, then she is a woman and this colossal over-reaction that will kill the tourist industry of one of the safest places on earth and cost many people their jobs is a sham. Not to mention the fact that stories coming out of Aruba talk about the Alabama contingent as less than being as pure as the driven snow.
These are questions that the news simply won’t ask a grieving family looking for their loved one, but someone has to start asking why this story is getting so much attention.
Holloway is a grown woman who may have left Aruba on her own accord or may have been the victim of foul play – either way the story is old and tiresome …
I’m not a race baiter and not someone who typically looks for trends concerning race, beauty or victim-hood, but in this case there is no other explanation for the amount of coverage Natalee Holloway received for not making her plane back to Alabama from Aruba. I hate to say it, but there may be something to the notion that it pays to have white skin when it comes to disappearing because I don’t know the face of a single missing black or brown person, but I know plenty of white ones and the one I have seen for nearly every day for a full month has been Natalee Holloway.
I hope they find out what happened to her, if anything, and that she returns home safely, but if that is not the case I find myself hoping that one day I’ll recognize a missing black woman when she disappears and hear her mother’s pleas for a safe return in the same volume as I’ve heard for a grown woman from Alabama.
I realize this column is going to anger some – I’ve already received the emails and believe me I feel for the family, but the criticism is about behaviour of the family (threatening to sue one of the safest places on earth), the missing woman’s friends (for waving good-bye as she got into the car of men she did not know) and the media for focusing on this woman as if she is the only person missing on earth. …
I am a conservative and hardly a player of the race card, but I call a spade a spade and when every person on television who is a victim is white and the victims who are not have no coverage or a mere blip, some people notice.
I did and wrote about it – it is what I do as an opinion writer and radio host. If you don’t like the opinion – you should have stopped reading before you got here.

Steve Yuhas is a columnist and radio talk show host on KOGO
AM 600 out of San Diego.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Cynde (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #13866) on Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 11:37 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Brigitte, thank you for posting this...I could not have put it into better words myself...

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By J Rushman (BonaireTalker - Post #97) on Friday, July 1, 2005 - 4:03 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

"...wearing a blue-and-green striped, low-cut blouse, denim miniskirt..."

"I’m not a race baiter and not someone who typically looks for trends concerning race, beauty or victim-hood, but in this case ... I hate to say it, but there may be something to the notion that it pays to have white skin..."

"I am a conservative and hardly a player of the race card, but I call a spade a spade..."

I don't know who Steve Yuhas is but he sounds like a sexist, racist pandering to his specific audience. Although I find Nancy Grace insulting, I don't find Steve Yuhas any more helpful. Let the officials in Aruba/Curacao do their work.

Juancho

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Joe Urso (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #1) on Friday, July 1, 2005 - 2:28 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Looking at this I can tell this board is filled with nothing more than scuba intellectuals.
First of all, regardless of whether this lady made some questionable decisions during her last night of vacation, and regardless of her skin color; the fact remains that she is an AMERICAN CITIZEN.PERIOD.It is also a fact that the FBI and US govt. are strongly suggesting that there is a coverup going on in relation to the case. Whether or not the ABC'S are beautiful or not, in the end we have a botched investigation into a missing person at best, and at worst, a murder that is being covered up at the highest levels. For that reason alone, there may be only one way to punish the islands, and that would be economically, with a boycott of tourism there..

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Jeanine Clark (BonaireTalker - Post #15) on Sunday, July 3, 2005 - 3:54 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Greetings All!

Not sure what "scuba intellectuals" equates to, but uneasily I admit I teach history and political science at the university level. I have been conversing via email with several students who have studied Latin America and they are miraculously making the connection between the blonde/white/female and the illegal sex trade in Latin America. (They do know where the ABCs are - amazing isn't it?) Is that what is meant by a cover up? Wouldn't this be the worse case scenario?

As for Bonaire, I hope all of you are correct in that it is still the sleepy quiet dive haven I have come to love. I will be there shortly and am looking forward to getting away from the continual glaring headlines of all you have mentioned above.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Martin de Weger (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4049) on Sunday, July 3, 2005 - 4:06 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Joe, would it have been different if she was a Dutch citizen, or maybe even from Venezuela? IMHO it's a bad thing if some one gets missing during a trip, or even when just at home. It doesn't matter if it's an American or from another country, she's a human. For now there is nothing for sure, no-one knows anything (or maybe you have some great and unmentioned sources), so let's follow Juancho's advice and let the local authorities so their job. With the help of the Dutch marines and the FBI, I'm sure they don't need people who don't have a clue about what's going on (except the fact a girl is missing) to step up and make comments like you are making now.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By William Tweed (BonaireTalker - Post #47) on Sunday, July 3, 2005 - 6:30 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Joe, what are you saying exactly? That Americans must be protected wherever they are by the long arm of the Empire? Because you are living in a fairy tale if you think that, it is not the case. Are you saying that being intellectual is bad? That stupid and uninformed people are better than people who try to better themselves and stay informed?
If you are going to present something as a fact, cite your source. This is not talk radio for the boobswahzee.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By janet white (BonaireTalker - Post #18) on Sunday, July 3, 2005 - 9:16 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Joe - I am an American Citizen but I agree with the other posts - we can't police the entire world! You and others like you should stay in America if you think it is any safer here. I am planning a trip to Bonaire in 3 weeks and plan to spend two nights in Aruba too. I think Aruba and Bonaire are for the most part safer than the USA. Consider the crime rate in both countries. I feel horrible for the parents and hope she is found safe and sound but the USA especially the current administration needs to be respectful of other countries borders. No one wonder American's are hated by so many people around the world.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By jos van osnabrugge (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1784) on Monday, July 4, 2005 - 7:32 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

peoples peoples , relax, there is no harm in what Joe is Ranting , :-)

Hey Joe, as long as you call me an "scuba intellectual" you can say what ever you like.

sincere intellektuall greetinks , sjossssss

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By ceestoosmiekesuizanne (BonaireTalker - Post #40) on Monday, July 4, 2005 - 5:02 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

A girl is missing, likely to be murdered. I don't know who she was, or what she was like. I don't know what happened. Did she take the boys with her, and then felt sorry? Did she feel like having fun that night, but it didn't turn out that way? Did she say "no, that's where it stops" but the boys did not agree?
When a girl says "stop" it is ment to be "stop", you know. It's got nothing to do with grown up, or not. Maybe the boys didn't understand....
It has nothing to do with age or race.

Still, it is possible that she just left. Leaving us all in the assumption that she got murdered. Still, it is an horrible story.
Toos

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Brian Williams (BonaireTalker - Post #31) on Monday, July 4, 2005 - 5:54 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I think the problem is that with some exposure in the media to the 'Dutch legal system' and how it differs from the U.S. may make many people uncomfortable about taking a trip to Bonaire because they will associate it with this system if they know Bonaire is part of the Netherlands Antilles. I have been to Bonaire before myself and would like to return. But I am afraid there many be many potential first timers who might be hesitant now given all the media coverge which has occurred. This story is pretty big news in my hometown - everyone is talking about it and pretty upset.

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Tish (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #225) on Monday, July 4, 2005 - 9:49 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

Brian,
I am puzzled at your message.
Aruba is NOT part of the Netherlands Antilles.
In some ways the Dutch system is more likely to result in a conviction. There is no trial by jury under this system. And suspects can be held for a very long time without formal charges.
The crime rate in the US is much higher than here.
The Bonaire court sent several burglars to jail in late March, and I have not heard of any crime at all on the island since then. Certainly our crime rate is miniscule compared to anywhere US tourists come from
The people in your town should not assume that because one person has disappeared on Aruba (another place where the crime rate is low) they will have problems on Bonaire. Or if they do assume that, they are not thinking logically.
Tish

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By jos van osnabrugge (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1785) on Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - 4:41 am:     Edit PostPrint Post

Brian ,

wanna talk about dutch law???
Dutch news papers have been crying outrage about US law system. Dutch People accused on drugs charges based on one unreliable source were send to the States where they were told that the only way to be sure of a lower sentence for a crime they didn't commit was to plead guilty and make a deal to prevent the case from getting to court!!!
That would make me think twice about going to the States!

Your remarks and questions tickled me :
San Diego , according to "Megan's Law" houses 1142 registered "sex offenders" , feel safer now????

Greetings , be safe and feel safe and don't let the media hype your anxieties to much .:-)

Jos

 

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message  By Judy R (BonaireTalker - Post #15) on Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - 4:42 pm:     Edit PostPrint Post

I am arriving in Bonaire for the first time this September and am looking forward to it. I have been to Aruba several times over the last few years and never felt unsafe. I will be staying in Aruba again this September for a few days before and after Bonaire and I can't wait. I am a bit curious of the effects this Holloway incident will create but I belive it is an isolated incident that media decided to feed on. It will not deter my trips to the island.

 


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