Topic : 09/15 The Disappearance of Natalee

Pff, you're making way too long text to read it all, so i'm just reacting on your last post.
Maybe you could try to put your texts in little pieces? That's much better to read and 

allows you to put forward your statement better. The trick for that is to make a text start and 

end with the thing you want to get across. In between you can put arguments to underline  

your statement. So you get: statement - arguments - statement. And then another little piece 

of text. Sorry, this is kind of a habit of mine: editing texts. So, i hope you won't feel offended. 

I only mean this as a little help :) 

Anyway, back on-topic.
What I'd like to say first, is that ìf Joran has done something wrong, he must be held responsable 

for that. But, and i've said so already in a previous message: do not convict him before there is any 

evidence. I think judges are quite capable of figuring out if he's guilty or not. That's why they have that job.
Second: the person quoted most in this article is Beth Holloway Twitty. With all respect for her 

grief, but you can hardly call her impartial in this case. I do fully understand her need to find out 

wath has happened to her daughter and who has done it, but she is playing judge here and i do 

not think that's right. 

Third: how old are the guys that are accused? 18,19? Something like that. I cannot remember right now. They are mere boys. I am not saying it's a good thing, but scared kids might resolve to lying. 

It's not okay, but it happens. 

Just one little question here: is the guy convected of anything yet??? 

Answer: no, he is not.   

See, you might very well be barking up the wrong tree, while the person 

who is responsible for the missing of Natalee is still running free. 

By the way: someone stated that hardly any efforts have been made 

to find Natalee. That is a silly thing to say, since it is not true. There have 

even been F16 planes searching the island to find the girl! And that is just 

one of many efforts. 

Just one little question here: is the guy convected of anything yet??? 

Answer: no, he is not.   

See, you might very well be barking up the wrong tree, while the person 

who is responsible for the missing of Natalee is still running free. 

By the way: someone stated that hardly any efforts have been made 

to find Natalee. That is a silly thing to say, since it is not true. There have 

even been F16 planes searching the island to find the girl! And that is just 

one of many efforts. 

Just one little question here: is the guy convected of anything yet??? 

Answer: no, he is not.   

See, you might very well be barking up the wrong tree, while the person 

who is responsible for the missing of Natalee is still running free. 

By the way: someone stated that hardly any efforts have been made 

to find Natalee. That is a silly thing to say, since it is not true. There have 

even been F16 planes searching the island to find the girl! And that is just 

one of many efforts. 

http://www.lostremote.com/archives/005685.html 

Aruba: Murder by numbers
As Coverage Mania of the Holloway story continues unabated, let's do some math. I know - we got into journalism precisely because we were told there would be no math. But let's do some anyway and answer empirically: Just how dangerous is that vicious, pirate-ridden, uncaring island of Aruba?

BY STEVE SAFRAN
LOST REMOTE MANAGING EDITOR

The population of Aruba is about 72,000 people. A conservative estimate of visitors in a given week is about 13,500. Total people on island at any given time? About 85,500.

Last year in Aruba there were two murders - possibly just one, depending on which stat you believe. We'll go with two anyway. No tourists were killed. That's a murder rate on Aruba of a little over 2 per 100,000, but we’ll call it an even 2. Or look at it this way: The Aruba murder rate is .0002.

Still, you can't go a minute without hearing about Natalee and you're worried. Maybe you're switching your vacation from Aruba to Jamaica. Bring some Kevlar. Murder rate: 32 per 100,000.

You'll be twice as safe in Puerto Rico as you would be in Jamaica. Still, it's eight times more dangerous than Aruba: 16 per 100,000 folks in Puerto Rico are going to meet an untimely end this year (with or without Greta Van Sustern caring).

If you're fine with 10 in 100,000 murders per capita, we can suggest Mexico, Estonia, Belize, the Dominican Republic and maybe Barbados during a bad year. Feel a little more secure in Costa Rica. Of your 100,000 friends, 99,994 won't get capped.

So, stick to the U.S. Virgin Islands. We run it. How bad could it be? Turns out you better leave behind a lot of clues if you're going there: 25 murders per 100,000. That's worse than ANY American city, save for New Orleans where shooting guns into the air is considered good, clean fun. The British Virgin Islands are more polite, but say “cheerio” to 11 per 100,000 chaps.

Screw it, you think, I'll just stay home. Now you're only three times as likely to be killed as if you went to Aruba, with the U.S. murder rate at about 6 per 100,000. The murder rate in New York City, from where Fox News constantly reminds us how dangerous Aruba is, was 7 per 100,000 people in 2002. And if your home is in, let's say, Alabama, up the murder rate to 7.5 per 100,000. Then wonder if one of your congressman will call for a boycott of your own state.

Obviously, there are safer places to vacation than Aruba. Go to Slovenia, Tunisia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia or Qatar and you're golden. Go to Canada, and you're as safe as you could be. Of course, it's colder than Aruba, but the murder rate is tiny. And it's much less likely your family will be pestered by Nancy Grace. She's from the south. She hates the cold.

I got a certain amount of hate mail regarding my last column on Aruba media insanity. (Ironically, Aruba Today's editor said she loved it.) One eloquent writer asked "Do you have a life?" I think it's pretty obvious the answer is "No, of course not. I work in news." One person asked, simply "What is your point?" Context. That's my point. I am not mocking this tragedy, nor the importance of it to the family. What I am so troubled by is a national media obsession that is making Aruba look as though it is run by the Sopranos. Before we ruin the Aruban economy, which is dependent on tourism, here is a little more context:

Natalee disappeared on May 30, 2005. Also on that date, five U.S. soldiers died in Iraq: Corp. Jeffrey B. Starr died in Ramadi, and SSGT. Casey Crate, Captain Derek Argel, Captain Jeremy Fresques and Major William Downes died in Jalawah.

There are currently 19 kids from Alabama listed as missing at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website. (2 are from before 1980, some are indeed "family abductions" or "runaways".)

In South Africa, two young tourists were murdered the day after Natalee went missing.

LaToyia Figueroa, a 24-year-old pregnant woman from South Philadelphia, has been missing since July. She is Black. There has been just about no media coverage (except for stories wondering why there's no media coverage). Contrast that with the non-stop madness surrounding Laci Peterson, a 27-year-old pregnant woman from Modesto, California, who was white.

35,000 children are forced to work as prostitutes just across the sea from Aruba, in Colombia.

It's unlikely you’ll be murdered in Aruba, and it’s even more unlikely the news will care. Of course, there are ways to skew the numbers. It turns out you can geometrically expand the odds of having your story covered if you’re a cute white girl with an articulate mother during a slow news cycle. This should generate a significant spike in ratings numbers; after all, that’s the only stat that really matters.

Sources:

Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), International Comparisons of Criminal Justice Statistics 2001-Home Office Bulletin 12/03 http://www.ascotadvisory.com/News_Bulletin/9961.html

Georgia State U. Department of Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Bureau: http://www.cjgsu.net/initiatives/HomRates-2004-05-14.htm
Iraq Casualties from Centcom.mil, via Iraq Coalition Casualty Count http://icasualties.org/oif/ Black America Web: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/figueroa808
Colombia Journal Online: http://www.colombiajournal.org/colombia111.htm

With assistance (and math help) from: Julia Renfro, Editor in Chief, Aruba Today; RD Sahl, Anchor, NECN: Jeff Gralnick, MSNBC; Tom Melville, Asst. ND, NECN Posted by Steve Safran on 08/16/05 Link Comments (15)