Posted on 06/05/2005 5:22:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
Some folks have never been anywhere it appears.
Aruba is more civilized than your average US city....way more.
In my day, I found that kind of boring actually.
There is a red light district in San Nicholas though.
You were safer in Orangestaad than here.
Exponentially so.
That is what has folks reeling down there.
1. Alcohol clouded judgment.
2. Spiked drink.
3. Naive judgment. Thinking she's safe with friends, but going away with someone strange anyway. I just saw a picture of one of the suspects on FOX NEWS. He was a black male. Years ago I read of a black convict who would attend parties and he and his buddies would hit on a white girl and try to convince her to ride with them when they went for some more liquor. If she hesitated they would work on her conscience with hints that she is racist. When she gave in and went with them they would rape and sodomize her.
However, (and I know I received lots of criticism about this before when my daughter was in school) I never let my daughter travel out of the country with any group. Nor, go to the Florida beaches at "Spring break" with friends. It was a tough battle sometimes. But her life was more precious to me than allowing her to do those things.
Experiences are wonderful, but I felt that when kids are far from home, without their families, they are more vunerable. Especially young girls who are always prey - at home or away. However, at least I tried to eliminate any extra possibilities of harm coming to her because she was out of the country without family. I know millions of kids do this without mishap and had wonderful experiences and supervision. And thousands study at colleges, etc. overseas. A friend of mine is a teacher who accompanied teens to Europe for many summers with a very well-recognized and respected travel group. I know of no mishaps, and she did an excellent job supervising them. I just never felt comfortable about allowing my daughter to travel in a group, even with chaperones, to distances far away on lengthy trips. If I could not take her to places to expand her knowledge of the world, then she didn't go. She had an opportunity to be a "nanny" for a family who was traveling, and I still objected. She resented my stubborness often, but understands it now that she is a mother.
The case of Jessica Lundsford does come to mind - the little Florida girl abducted by that animal who lived across the street from her. So I realize it can happen anywhere because the world is full of creeps. But, I just could not imagine allowing my teenage daughter being in a group that was/is, obviously, going to be recognized (and perhaps watched/targeted) as a bunch of kids without their parents. To me that just added another element of danger, and introduced the possibility of so many complications that come when children are of the country.
My Senior Class trip went to 4 years in the Navy.
I was the only one that went on it.
Never made it to Armpit Aruba.
Years ago, while I was vacationing in Martinique, I met a family from Long Island who were staying in the same hotel. They had two teenage daughters, about 15-17 years old. One day they girls disappeared and were gone for over 24 hours. They returned on their own. It turns out that a local man, who seemed to spend all of his time hanging around the pool at this resort hotel, had befriended the girls and offered them drugs. This guy had offered to smoke marijuana with me the first day that I arrived. The girls took the drugs of their own volition. I spoke with the girls after the incident and they said that the drugs made them hallucinate and eventually pass out. They said that they did not believe they were sexually assaulted when passed out. But, IMHO, the girls wore bikinis when this took place so it would have been easy for them to be assaulted without much of a struggle ensuing. Nothing was done to the man but he did not come back to the hotel after the incident. The girls parents were livid about the incident but could not get anything done to the guy.
It seems that characters like this hang around resort areas looking for victims. It may be with sexually violent intent or it may be just to find someone to mooch off of or it may be to sell drugs.
She is probably not a working prostitute as of yet - maybe still in Prosititute Training School - Pimp and buddies getting her used to the idea of Mattress Wrestling for money.
I can't begin to know the absolute agony her parents are going through. I hope for their sake it is resolved soon.
Aruba's per capita GDP is the same as Japan's.
BTW, my mother would have no more allowed me to go to Aruba on a senior trip, chaperoned or not, than she would have allowed me to fly to the moon. What's with these people? And the chaperons on this trip have to be rethinking their rules.
There is NO WAY in hell that I could have gone on that when younger. The "everyone else is going" wouldn't cut either. Stupid parents make stupid kids. Chaperons? LOL! WHERE WERE THEY when this girl needed them? Drinking too?
I'm sure this will put a crimp in the local senior trips for a while, resurrecting the local destinations. What's wrong with New Orleans and Orlando anyway?
***
I was wondering how these young kids and their parents could even afford a trip to Aruba. Even at a group rate, Aruba is not a cheap vacation spot. I suppose the parents and the others in this school are quite affluent.
Heck, I don't mind that they could go on "senior" trips. We didn't have that in my day and at my rather low income school district. On occasion we had field trips to some local (usually historic) attractions, but my parents usually couldn't afford even the nominal fee, so I didn't go on most of them.
And to be fair, something like this could have happened anywhere, even in the U.S. In fact, from the statistics I've read, Aruba has had maybe only a handful of murders and rapes within the last year. Compare those stats with any major U.S. city.
We went to the exotic locale of Disneyland. On a bus. : )
As to why people persist in going to third-world armpits...I simply cannot understand it.
***
Most definitely Aruba is not a third world armpit. This is one beautiful country...and it is surrounded by some of the most pristine, blue/green waters you have ever seen. The island itself is very clean too. Someone said you could perform brain surgery on the streets in Aruba...that's how clean it is. Is there poverty? Yes. But nothing like what you see in parts of Africa, for example. Heck, some neighborhoods around where I live look more third world than any poor section of Aruba. Most people in Aruba do their best, even in poverty, to keep their homes and streets looking good.
The country has done very well economically with the tourist trade. And according to statistics, while there is a thriving drug trade, violent crime against tourists is very low. I would rather vacation in Aruba than in Jamaica or Mexico.
Been to Orlando and New Orleans. Downtown in either town is not a good place to be after midnight. Or before midnight, for that matter.
My high school did not have spring break (or senior) trips but I grew up on Okoboji and going to Arnolds Park was a big deal. LOL!
You're safer in Aruba than you are in any city in the US.
Quite affluent doesn't do the Brookies justice.
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