Island of Aruba - Essay Example

God must have loved Aruba so much.  He not only blessed Aruba with near-perfect, impeccable weather that is beyond compare with white, sandy beaches to boot, and ds yet enjoying the mantle of protection, specifically in defense and foreign affairs from the Dutch Government (Brushaber 2).  Aruba’s tourism has leapfrogged beyond everyone’s imagination that it has dwarfed its oil refining and offshore banking concerns.  Statistics show that 1.5 million tourists visit Aruba annually 75% of whom come from the USA.  Likewise, hotel occupancy in 2004 averaged 80% whereas the rest of the Caribbean nations only managed 68%.  Its GDP has risen astronomically to $2.4 billion and its GDP per capita to $23,831 which ranks it as 32nd in the whole world (CIA, The World Factbook).

But before Arubans could pat themselves on their backs, grim reality dawned on

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them and the rest of humanity:  that Aruba has been identified as a jump-off point for US and Europe-bound narcotics such as cocaine, heroin, and marijuana and that many of its denizens are drowning in drug addiction (Hanson 13). Likewise, it has entrenched itself as a hub for money laundering and human trafficking activities.

It had been unearthed that drugs from Colombia are dumped to Aruba, Curacao and the island of Margarita to be transshipped to USA and Europe.  Thus, the bombshell has been dropped i.e. ‘the tourist-driven economy” of Aruba is a lie.  Its economy is “literally floating on the proceeds of the drug trade” (Figueira 20,50).  It had also been ascertained that today Aruba stands in the forefront for human trafficking trade ‘for the purpose of sexual and labor exploitation” (International Labour Office 259).

All these problems had never been more emphasized than in the Natalee Holloway case where the 18-year-old Alabama high school graduate vanished without a trace on May 30, 2005, after last seen with Arubans Joran van der Sloot and brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe (Spence 112).  All 3 were released from detention despite van der Sloot’s confession that he was under the influence of marihuana on that fateful night.  Van der Sloot also confessed in On The Record show that he sold Holloway into white slavery and earned from it. Geoffrey von Cromvoirt was also arrested for being a drug dealer.  The case closed without being solved but not after it was revealed that drugs are aplenty and drug deals are but a natural occurrence in that island (Holloway 1-15).  The case shattered Aruba’s ‘safe haven’ image and calls to boycott it proliferated as it underscored the drug and human trafficking problem in Aruba (Porter & Prince 107).

Conclusion

To many tourists Aruba is God’s gift to humanity, a paradise where the sun, seas, beaches charm and are feasts to tired eyes.  But for people who linger closely, something evil lurks and

deeper investigation reveals that under its mantle are illicit drug-dealings, addiction to drugs by hapless citizens, money laundering and human trafficking activities and even a tight Mafia control, revealing the two faces of paradise.  The people seems to be happy and in a state of nirvana but on analysis, they may be compelled to hide the bones and the rotting stench and keep up an illusion of harmony to keep the tourists coming.  But the truth is, there’s trouble in paradise.