June 10, 2005
Paradise Lost
Clouds over Sea Mountain Resort, Mauna Loa in the distance, the humps that you see on the curve of the mountain are cinder cones where ash and lava have spewed out creating "Pu'u or "little hills"
Its been two weeks now that the world has been gripped by the horror of the disappearance of Natailee Holloway. I am shocked at a lot of things about this story not the least of which is that the young people were so ill served by the law the resorts or the "chaparones" the adults that went along to help keep these young people out of such trouble as this...
I cant begin to understand the anguish of the parents of both the young woman and the the young men being held.
Islands are often places where people go to do things that they wouldnt normally do. They are strangers there, no one knows them and they can let their hair down and get a little wild. I have seen this so much during my time on the Big Island. I have known people that have gone to islands to explore parts of themselves they feared to reveal to family on the mainland...some came out to the gay life, or a gender change others.... well I cant say, but I dont think that this was a positive experience for them. There is a lot of durg use , suicide, and domestic violence on islands, and because tourism fuels these economies, silence about these issues is the norm.
Because people are acting out phycologically in these places, where people think they wont be found out, islands are dangerous places. People go missing and not just women though they are most vonerable. Young men were murdered on the Big Islands by thugs while we were there...People disapere...
Islands are way stations for drugs, prostitutes and other human merchendise,...you dont get in the way of this, or you get moved out of the way...Crime is often a problem. Aruba has done a lot to abate the crime there but... In the Carribean there are dozens of women that have gone missing in the last 10 years, and we dont know where they are, or what happened to them.
Natailee may become the poster child for victims of island crimes. I am glad that this has been exposed. Though I didnt see it I know that there were some programs depicting Dog the bounty hunter over on the Kona side of Big Island exposing the sleeze over there.
People, People People... I have stated for the last nearly two years that Hawaii is not Disneyland and Aruba isnt either. It has a pretty dreamy side and a ugly nasty dirty side. I know that this girl was an adult, but we all need to exercise caution when we go to these places, and especially traveling in a foreign land, where we dont have the rights we enjoy in the USA. (You America bashers try getting justice anyplace else like you get here!) When you travel, even in Hawaii, you have to watch your back, and ladies traveling alone is getting more and more dangerous all the time. I have done it myslef and do not think I will do it in foreign lands again.
My prayers are with the family and with the other families of missing people that have come to light in these days... the day after day of not knowing what happened to your loved one must be the worst sort of never ending hell...
