The news surrounding this woman’s disappearance is a painful reminder that we as American adults need to be more involved in children’s lives (yes, they may be 17 & 18 but they are still just kids) and we need to be ‘hip’ to what is going on at all times.
I cannot even believe that (even though Aruba has a reputation of being a ’safe’ and ‘friendly’ and ‘low key’) it is ANOTHER COUNTRY! I am a 32-year old woman and I once went on a working convention where all staff were grouped into team, each team having a leader. All the team leaders had to know where each of his/her team members were at any given moment, and leader was given a cell phone. And we were in the US, and all working, responsible adults! To think that these chaperones attending this high school class trip were in their hotel rooms sleeping while these kids were out galavanting in night clubs (on foreign soil no less), is beyond my mental grasp. I can’t understand why there was not at least 1 adult with them that stayed til the ‘last call’ hour at that bar, where Natalee was seen leaving with a non-member of the group.
It is high time parents stop ‘respecting’ teens privacy and holding onto the whole ‘treat me like an adult’ nonsense in such situations. If I was one of those chaperones and saw her trying to walk out the door with a strange boy (who’s not part of the group and is a local, no less), I’d march right up to her and demand to know who this person was and where did they think they were going? Back to the hotel, that’s where. Say goodnight!
I’m sorry to sound so harsh but when you go to these tropical islands and beaches, places like Mexico and such, they may be relatively laid back and low key but come on, any person who has traveled these areas (or has watched MTV spring break in Cancun on TV) will tell you that the beaches and clubs in these places are full of shady characters, all crooked as a barrel of snakes! And who leech on–like flies to manure–to our blonde (and otherwise) American girls.
It has been widely held here in the states that Aruba has not been handling the case as well as we might here in the U.S. But there is a key here that people in Aruba are not telling, but rather showing, every day. They say it’s safe there, that the crime is relatively low. Well, perhaps it’s not! Maybe it’s just relatively unenforced and maybe the dingbats that run the communities down there just have a tendancy to turn the other cheek when it comes to many things. I personally have a hard time believing that anyone who upholds the law (Law. That’s reaching…what law?) down there knows what they are doing or even really cares! And the fact that the Aruban officials & news media ‘cannot comment on’ this or that, just pisses me off.
I’m also of the opinion that it makes no sense that they arrested people a week AFTER suspicions were raised, giving all these idiots a fair amount of time to get rid of evidence, straigten out stories amongst each other, and whatnot. At this point, I highly doubt that this woman is even alive (God forbid) and it pains me to know that once there is a recovery (if ever) that the case may never be solved insofar as linking any crime to a person.
I also do not understnd for the life of me, why they let the boat DJ go? I guess I just had this theory that perhaps someone used the party boat guy as a connection to do something awful like get rid of a body. And of the people who have been let go? They all say “Yes, I’m free now and it’s because I’m innocent.” Why haven’t any of them said, “Yes, I’m free now and it’s because I’m innocent. And I’m going to go now and offer myself to the family to help in the search.” And Van Der Sloots parents? Why–the whole time he has been in jail–have they not offered to help at all? And the locals? What are they doing to help? Even if they can’t. I don’t seem to be hearing any word of any offers at the very least. It makes no sense. Something is fishy and not right.
Then where there is help, the Dutch and Netherland officals don’t want it! These bastards come fly in to the island just to preside over the prosecution of these suspects and boss around the U.S. Marines and others that come in from our country to help do searches with high tech equipment. Now we have leagues of America’s finest, just sitting around on their asses with boatloads of sonar and other high tech tools that could possibly recover the Titanic and nothing can be done about it.
I’m just really disappointed.
Same day, different year..
Other posts on this day:
- Weird Searches of the Week – 2005