february 2 2008
Peter R. de Vries, he has finaly found his way right into his dream, right into the hearts of the american people.
I can't remember when it was, maybe three years ago, when he said he wanted to have an international career.
People here in The Netherlands were too down to earth to accept him, according to him.
Well, being above the crowds starts for some people by looking down on them.
Right now he's keeping Dutch and Americans alike waiting for what he has to tell the world about the death of Natalee Holloway.
Well, he can let me wait, because I've already heard in an interview with someone else what's in the program.
What worries me is that there is so much attention from the media for someone who is a journalist, a crimejournalist.
By not revealing the story he's pretending the story is most important, but the way he deals with this all makes clear it's just all about him. Peter R. de Vries, who could do what a complete team of investigators couldn't do.
What do I say. One team?
Police, private investigators, journalists, Peter R de Vries himself, and the FBI (searching for proof, protecting everyone else). They all did what they could to solve the disappearance of the girl in Aruba.
Even the people of the local community did what they could to solve the mystery, and none could find anything during more than 2 years.
And now Peter R de Vries knows it all.
Man, get a life!
ABC bought the program, like they bought all the stories of sensation. The argument: it concerns a place where many tourists go each year. What has happened is frightening.
Well, are people bothered too when people are killed in their own town? And how long?
Psychologists know how fast people pick up their daily life and move on. Only when the media keep giving their attention, and keep making money, terrible crimes can stay alive in the minds of those who are not directly involved.
This evening I was watching a program. The interviewer had a try and got the grandmother of Joran van der Sloot and beyond expectation they got Joran van der Sloot himself on the phone.
He told what will be in the program on sunday.
Natalee has died by chooking in her own vomit. Then they put her in a little boat and not much later she sank into the deep waters of the sea.
So now we all know the truth?
What is the truth? The real truth I mean?
The truth is that this journalist, who wants to reach the top, has used illegal means to get someone to talk, who has withstand the police, the worldpress, the FBI. Who wasn't blamed by the death of the young woman by her friends, not by his friends.
The journalist fell into his own trap, and no one cares, because sensation is needed and we rather belief a gruesome story than deal with the fact that we don't know what happened.
But back to the way this "new information" was gathered.
You have to stick to the laws of your country, don't you?
The same is expected from us.
But there are always people who don't mind the law, because they think they're more important.
The journalist got someone approach Joran van der Sloot and work himself into his life. It took him about half a year.
He started to ask friends of Joran about Natalee Holloway and their connection in such a way that it became clear he wanted a story.
He still was so stupid to think some people can't think and asked even more people and then he grasped the moment.
Carefully prepared with a hidden camera and microphone.
Joran already expected the guy would arrive with questions for him too and so he did.
Joran gave what he wanted: a juicy story.
With a good hint to the police and those who use their brains: he mentioned someone as a partner in the event. A person he first met a few weeks ago, and certainly didn't know at the night Natalee Holloway disappeared.
Completely against Dutch law Peter R. de Vries used someone to illegally tape a conversation, calling it "undercover work" to foreigners, and he's walking a fine line just beside what's legally accepted by suggesting Joran van der Sloot was part of a cover up.
The criminal investigation was closed, but is reopened.
None wants to have the international media writing that not everything is done to find Natalee Holloway and a murderer, if she's murdered.
I don't know if Joran is a killer. I just don't know.
I don't want to speculate. I don't have the facts.
But there's one thing that is very strange in my opinion.
Peter R de Vries has given the material to the police at Aruba.
Why would the police not inform the parents about what happened to the girl, but leave it to a journalist?
One way or another, people all over the world have vented their opinion on which might be described the largest public criminal case of the world.
It's interesting to see how many people are able to state he is guilty without knowing even the slightest bit of evidence.
That doesn't say anything about him, but all about them.
And the same goes for people who declare Natalee a saint or whatever.
She was very pretty, and that's just the outside.
And I don't want to go by appearances.
Some say Joran is guilty and he has proven that when he threw a glass of wine to the journalist.
OK, it was stupid.
But how would you react when you're declared guilty by people who don't know you nor Natalee? People who keep yelling to you that you're guilty even when the police, FBI and Peter R de Vries himself didn't find any reason to send you to court?
It's a pity the Dutch people are not often going to court when they're subject of slander, harassment or defamement. It would have brought this whole public court to silence right at the beginning.
We can say now that a boy, born in 1987, was choosen to be the subject of the judgment of people in the world who have to do nothing else than judge others.
They haven't choosen the friends who were with Joran that evening, they haven't choosen the people who were responsible on the island of Aruba for Natalee and the others of her group.
When I would have been the group leader of Natalies group, I would have done all to trace her before the night. And as a parent, I would have sued them for negligence.
There are so many missing aspects in this case.
But back to the journalist.
I'm fascinated by the fact that Americans fall for people who are too arrogant to fit as a normal person in Dutch society.
They all claim to be honest and thruthseeking persons, but in fact they don't care at all for the truth, but only want wrecklessly ...FAME.
They have egos that outsize their hearts.
Theo van Gogh, Hirshi Ali, Pim Fortuijn.
They all knew how to play with public opinion, they all knew how to make people belief they were stating facts when all they did was state something and refer to common opinion.
They all cornered people with a tremendous lack of respect for the truth, feelings of others, even the law.
Their fascination with negative aspects of people and ignoring people's good characteristics is, neutrally said, completely out of balance.
I won't disagree when someone states that self esteem is important,
but I do worry when people get such high self esteem that they're obsessively following their own chain of thought, and seek public opinion to feed on.
His wish, his dream, his goal was to get famous in America.
He is.
Not because he solved so many cases. It's about 50/50.
Not because he himself kept the law. He violated the law far too many times.
But because he's a cruisader, following what's set in his mind, because he's following his own truth.
Well, I can only hope the Americans will be critical, and they will use his obsession to find Natalee and to find all the thousands and millions of missing people.
Use him, like he uses public opinion to direct the theatre about the disappearance of Natalie Holloway and the tragedy of Joran van der Sloot.
