A.M. Digital
11/23/2005
The Aruba Trade & Industry Association (ATIA) was unpleasantly surprised by Alabama Governor Bob Riley’s call for a boycott against Aruba. Granted, the former real estate agent’s influence on the opinions of people beyond the state’s borders is negligible, but even a small negative impact on our island’s small and vulnerable economy would be most regrettable, especially if this might cause financial hardship on hard working Aruba families.
We understand that the mother of Natalee Holloway cannot help but be emotional. Any mother of a missing girl would be overcome by emotion. We consider this perfectly acceptable. What does disturb us is that a Governor of a state, whose decisions affect the lives of millions of people, allows himself to make decisions based on the emotions felt by a grieving mother.
People in positions of power and authority should hold themselves to higher standards and should base their decisions on facts and logic. Governor Riley should have made serious attempts to get complete and correct information before threatening the livelihood of 100,000 good and hard-working people.
The fact that Birmingham, Alabama was just ranked the 10th most dangerous city in the entire USA, underscores the fact that Governor Riley is trying to divert attention away from his obvious failures in serving his constituency.
ATIA strongly condemns Governor Riley’s irresponsible and unprofessional declarations. We feel that it is most regrettable that a person who is supposed to govern his passions and practice virtue would allow himself to use a small and vulnerable island as a pawn in his bid for reelection.
The call by Governor Riley was followed by another such call by Dr. Phillip C. McGraw, alias “Dr. Phil”. Dr. Phil’s show, which caters to the daytime TV audience, presented a flawed and biased picture of the events surrounding Natalee Holloway’s disappearance. The show also failed to make any efforts whatsoever to get the facts.
The former therapist quit his practice in 1989, shortly after being publicly reprimanded by the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists, a move not taken lightly by that supervisory body. The reprimand was a result of an accusation of sexual abuse by a former patient [ed. false: reprimand was for employing a former client], and as a result Mr. McGraw was placed under a year of supervision by a licensed psychologist. In addition he had to complete physical and psychological exams as well as an ethics class.
Lawsuits over unlawful imprisonment (by Laurie Bembenek) [ed. convicted killer Laurie Bembenek] and unpaid corporate jet bills (US$135,962 worth!) only serve to further undermine the credibility of this “holier-than-thou” individual.
While we do not hold “Dr’ Phil’s” opinions in high regard, we do recognize that his daytime talk show is watched by millions of people around the World, some of which might actually pay heed to his call for a boycott against our beautiful and safe island.
It should be obvious to any intelligent person that hurting the people of Aruba will not help in solving this case.
ATIA has complete confidence in our police department and our prosecution department in the handling of this case. We are proud of our justice system which, over the years, has proven itself to be second to none.
We are also proud of the Aruba people for continuing to support Natalee Holloway’s family in their efforts to find out what happened, and to see justice done in case a crime was indeed committed. We must all continue to be courteous and show the famous Aruba hospitality to all of our guests from abroad, especially to our American guests that choose to visit our island in spite of calls for a boycott.
[English language original text]
