The Dana Pretzer Show – Sunday, June 3rd, 2007 – 9 PM ET – Special Guests: Dr. Andrew Hodges & Stephanie Good

Please join us for The Dana Pretzer Show tonight, June 3rd, 2007 at 9 PM Eastern.
Special Guests:

• Dr Andrew Hodges,  “What is a Forensic Thought Prints”
• Stephanie Good

 Standard Podcast [69:52m]:  Download

Kimberly Guilfoyle, The Line Up, 6-2-07 … Natalee Holloway, Interview with Jossy Mansur & Linda Allison

Kimberly Guilfoyle … The Line Up, 6–2–07

 (Hat Tip: Carpe-Vision)

Aruba to Put Moratorium on Hotel Building …”the hotel market is collapsing due to too many hotel rooms”

Once again the theory of if you build it they will come is disproved. Also, just because Aruba is building hotels presently  does not mean tourism is growing. Just the contrary; all it means is that the new accommodations are cannibalizing the older ones.

It is also important to lay down the reasons for the moratorium.   Is it because of the labour market; no more locations to build more hotels; the population is growing; or because the hotel market is collapsing due to too many hotel rooms?”    

“There is no way the labour market can deliver the number of workers to fill the applications.     Not in the tourist sector, nor in other economic sectors that grow along.”    

Of course there is that other little issue of an missing and unsolved teen from Alabama named Natalee Holloway that is putting a dent into tourism as well.

Amigoe, June 1, 2007: Build of tourist accommodations postponed    

ORANJESTAD — In a letter, the Chamber of Commerce asks the council of ministers to establish a moratorium – temporary stop – on the build of tourist accommodation.   The KvK is concerned about the number of hotel rooms, timeshares units, and apartments that are complete till 2010.   “In stead of the planned 8000 accommodations, 12.000 will already be added.”    

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Criminal Investigation in Aruba against 3 Suspects Still On … “there are circumstances that may prolong criminal cases”

It has been two years since Natalee Holloway went missing in Aruba. So many of the media outlets have been misreporting the 2 year rule in Aruba that deals with suspects and crimes. If Joran, Deepak and Satish thought they had run out the clock … NOT SO FAST.

The OM indicated that the basic principle of criminal cases in First Instance is that the trial and verdict indeed take place within two years after the ‘reasonable term’ has started.  

It all depends on how one defines reasonable and in Aruba nothing has been reasonable when it came to the investigation, search and prosecution of Joran Van der Sloot, Deepak Kalpoe or Satish Kalpoe.

That reasonable term starts the moment a suspect can reasonably assume that he will be prosecuted.       This is not laid down in a specific rule, but the beginning of the reasonable term can be when the suspect is taken into custody, or when an inquest is opened against the suspect.    

The investigation and the hearing against him would have basically been concluded on this date.   But according to the OM , there are circumstances that may prolong criminal cases with more than two years, ‘without being able to say that the duration is unreasonably long”.   Circumstances are the complexity of the case, the influence of the suspect and/or his lawyer on the progress of the process and the way the case is handled by the authorized authorities.      

If the three suspects think they are out of the woods, they best think again. This time there will be no cover up and being able to run to daddy. After 2 years of a botched investigation and 2 years of a failing tourism, Aruba needs to get their man or continue to suffer the consequences.

Amigoe, June 1, 2007: Criminal investigation still on    

Police and volunteers are ready for a big search operation for the disappeared teenager in June of 2005.

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Aruba, Too Many Hotels … endangering nature and a Disappointment for the tourists that come to Aruba to rest and expect good service.

Hey Aruba … Its not easy being green.

Well here is a completely different take on Aruba and how the developers are in the process of ruining the once, “One Happy Island”. Sometimes its not about how many hotels, restaurants or condos one can build in a vacation spot that makes it a viable location. Sometimes its about the ambiance and the purpose as to what brings people to a particular location over another. With Aruba struggling with “post-Natalee Holloway” syndrome otherwise known as “cover up a crime,” Aruba looks to the answer as being … if you build it they will forget and come. They could not bee more wrong, in so many ways.

Stimaruba says that the unspoiled nature of Aruba is going to be endangered by the construction plans for a hotel near Arashi.

Stimaruba, the organization that devotes herself to nature conservation and nature protection, reacted very concerned on the reports about the plans for the build of a hotel near Arashi.   The organization points out a publication in February 2006 of Coastal Zone Management, in which is clearly indicated that the area is reserved for recreation.   Stimaruba is of the opinion that there are too many hotels in Aruba already.    

From the plans it appears that there is no end to the build of hotels and condominiums and that is according to Stimaruba, a disappointment for the tourists that come to Aruba to rest and expect good service.   That’s what they pay for.   “They are our guests and they have to feel welcome here.”  

Just because one builds more does not necessarily correlate into more tourism. Especially when Aruba does not address the number one PR nightmare they they have in not properly investigating or prosecuting the crimes against Natalee Holloway. Beyond the PR issue, Aruba faces another tourism problem. Many people cane to Aruba and purchased time sharing and return vacations because of its quaint culture and hospitable people. Much of that is all gone and continues to erode as more hotels are built, more workers are imported and Aruba grows farther and farther away from the island in the Caribbean that everyone once wanted to vacation on.

Amigoe, May 30, 2007: Stimaruba is up in arms against hotel construction    

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