Boycott Watch has been at the
forefront of reporting about the boycott of Aruba sparked by the disappearance
of Natalee Holloway. Yesterday we reported that passengers on a cruise ship
mostly stayed on their ship while docked in Aruba, and today we report that
Aruba's newspaper, Amigoe, reports Aruba needs an emergency 100 million Florin
loan, which is just over $375 Million US to keep the country afloat.
Considering the U.S. government's most recent GDP estimate of Aruba being
$2.258 billion, Aruba needs to borrow 1/6th of their Gross Domestic Product,
which is the total of good and services in their economy, and in this case of a
good year. That deficit is completely outrageous for a 180 square mile country
which relies on its tourism trade industry which is in shambles.
The
Amigo.com
article speaks of a budget deficit growing from 47 to 146 million Florins.
While Aruba blames the added deficit on the world economy, our report
yesterday, the second about cruise ship passengers, the first of which
indicated that passengers who went ashore didn't buy much and preferred to eat
on the ship. Other recent Boycott Watch reports indicate some cruise lines have
dropped Aruba as a port of call because their consumers did not want to go to
Aruba. See Boycott
Watch's extended Aruba coverage for details.
Aruba is in an economic crisis, and it is not just because of the world
economy. Americans are not happy with the way Aruba handled the Natalee
Holloway case and they are expressing their disdain with dollars the way they
have for years. In 2008, the
U.S. State
Department issued a travel warning for U.S. travelers to Aruba shortly
after Boycott Watch President Fred Taub appeared on Your World with Neil Cavuto
on the Fox News Channel. Currently, the U.S. State Department has the following
warning on the Aruba travel page of their website: "Parents of young travelers
should be aware that the legal drinking age of 18 is not always rigorously
enforced in Aruba, so extra parental supervision may be appropriate." That was
a polite way of saying anyone can drink and nobody cares. The state Department
website continues: "Young female travelers in particular are urged to take the
same precautions they would when going out in the United States, e.g. to travel
in pairs or in groups if they choose frequenting Aruba's nightclubs and bars,
and if they opt to consume alcohol, to do so responsibly." That's diplomatic
speak for Aruba is not safe for young women, and as we reported girls as young
as 13 years old are approached for sex by local men who are "pimping" for
foreigners in bars and even hotel lobbies. The specific mention of "Aruba's
nightclubs and bars" is clearly a specific reminder about how Natalee Holloway
was either drugged, made drunk or otherwise taken without regard to her life or
safety. Boycott Watch also believes that the U.S. State Department's choice of
words when they wrote "Young female travelers in particular" is directly
related to when Fred Taub appeared on Fox News were he exclusively broke the
news about a thirteen year old girl being propositioned for sex by local men in
a hotel lobby, and how the hotel owners allowed, and may continue to allow such
activity to take place.
Aruba's desperate economy
puts foreign travelers at an increased risk in that island nation because local
desperate criminals will have in increased propensity to take advantage of
foreign travelers for extra money. To this day, nobody has been put on trial
for the disappearance and probably murder of Natalee Holloway despite two
separate confessions by Yoran Van Der Sloot, one in a car to Peter DeVries and
one to Greta Van Susteren of Fox News. That combined with lax drinking age
enforcement and the U.S. calling Aruba a "transit point for US- and
Europe-bound narcotics with some accompanying money-laundering activity;
relatively high percentage of population consumes cocaine" makes Aruba a less
than ideal country to visit. As Boycott Watch President Fred Taub asked Neil
Cavuto on Fox News, "would you send your kids to Aruba?" |
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