I realize that many people have been discussing some mysterious postings alleged to have some connection to Aruba and recent events. To be frank, I haven't read much of the material, nor do I anticipate doing so.
However, a reader has apparently done a great deal of research and writing on the topic. As some seem to be discussing it in great detail, I am posting the bulk of her materials sent to me in email. She has requested that I do not identify her and I am honoring that request.
Frankly, if someone were talking to me in some mysterious code purported to be revealing "secrets" to me - I'd sooner grab them by the neck and make them give it up, than ponder endlessly over what appears to me as incomprehensible, at best.
However, I do respect other viewpoints ... so, here goes.
Have followed with particular interest the riddles analyzed on SM and RWV. Some alternate interpretations may be useful, based on Internet research.
So much in the riddle messages points to raves and club drugs. Reference to "maze" is interesting: "Maze" is a drug invented by a character named Rave in a certain Marvel comic book, it seems. ((Will send a separate e-mail w. extracts and link.) Douf may mean pigeon in Dutch but it also could refer to a certain type of rave party that I read about on an Australian Web site. Very loud music DOOF DOOF DOOF.
The Australian site is an ABC radio interview w. ravers. Talks about aspects of rave culture and experience that seem relevant to NH case. For instance, talks about waiting around in a bar to hear where the party is, then heading out to it. This sounds to me very much like what NH, JVDS, and the two "shivas" were doing at C&Cs.
Australians also talk about danger of the drugs and overdose of young girl. (Will supply link and extracts via separate e-mail.) Other thoughts: the Arawak king need not be someone high in government. Could refer to drug kingpin--even Medellin or Cali cartel type. Could refer to the local head of the underground rave scene. Could refer to the DJ controlling the party by controlling the speed of the beats. Could refer to the yacht "King Arawak" which cruises in the Caribbean Sea but is based in Trieste.
If I were the Aruban authorities or the Holloways, I'd be very interested in knowing where that yacht is now and has been recently. I'd also like to know who is on it. Again, will supply links, extracts, via separate e-mail. Another thought based on Australian radio interview: raves are noisy. A noise complaint often ends the party.
If I were investigating, I'd check the police records for noise complaints that evening. I offer these bits of research and opinions for what they are worth. Please use them as you see fit. do not identify me in any way or post my name or e-mail address on the blog, unless you wish to add me to the list of those who wish the family well.
P.S. The "folly" line is interesting. To me, it means: "Go for the head of the beast. It is foolish to waste your time on the flanks, or sides, of the beast (jvds et al.) and their cover story." My personal opinion is that the vds cover-up is quite separate from the central crime, except the vds are scared to rat on someone and don't think they have to--e.g. "no body, no crime." I do think they know more than they are saying, but I don't think jvds killed NH.
If she died a drug-related death, as I believe, then whoever supplied the drugs or organized the party may be the person jvds doesn't want to implicate. I wish I had thoughts on Dirty Hand, but I don't, except that a DJ is very crucial to a rave. I'm surprised they let Croes go.
This is apparently from the Dutch newspaper Telegraaf
More willing to talk are some of Escobars men whom we contacted in Medellin. One of them knows a lot about the contacts between the Medellin cartel and Dutch drugs criminals.
This Ricardo tells us how members of the Medellin cartel have pretty much unchecked passage to Holland. "In Aruba we got great contacts with high level people." "An immigration guy who is able to provide us with legit Dutch passports, so we can travel the world free without any worries." The man tells us in wich bar in Oranjestad (Aruba) he meets the corrupt Aruban official and how much a passport costs: $50.000.
"Several of my friends traveled to Europe with an Aruban passport, such a passport is the ultimate cover for Colombians that have to go to Europe for business." Nobody tells us any names, if they do the Colombian cartel will surely kill them.
Our guy keeps his mouth closed when we ask what the Arubans officials name is. However Roberto Escobar does tell us that Vladimoro Montesinos - who recently has been arrested in Venezuela and delivered to Peru - has had close ties to the Medellin cartel when he was chief of the Peruan secret service. According to Escobar Montesinos took money from the cartel to finance the campagne to get Alberto Fujimori into the presidents seat of Peru.
"We gave Montesinos at his request 1 million dollars to finance the presidential campagne of Fujimori and I got proof." Montesinos would supposedly have met Pablo Escobar on a secret trip to Pablo's huge estate, Hacienda Los Napoles about 120 kilometres east of Medellin. Los Napoles was Pablo's most spectaculair villa, with 6 swimming pools and a zoo with hundreds of exotic animals.
There were enough bedrooms for 100 guests and Pablo even had lakes placed on his estate so he could water ski. Whenever he had guests he would show them his masterpiece: an American oldtimer from the 30ies, filled with bullet holes. According to Pablo it was the car once owned by Bonny and Clyde.
Russians and Cali cartel in Aruba
Maze was a psychotropic drug invented by Rave. . Detective Nick worked on the case for a long time and knew everything about it and the inventor.
He knew that most of the chemicals used for the drug were not illegal on their own, but when they were mixed they became a dangerous drug. The son of Detective Nick became insane through an overdose of Maze. --Marvel Comics Presents #141/4
House of Rave The House of Rave was the HQ of Rave. It was the place where the drug Maze was produced and distributed all over the city. It was also a lively disco with a huge dance floor and scaffolds. Cameras and sensors oversaw the whole place and traps normally finished off intruders.
Traps like the stairs that could be turned into a chute. There was also a room with holographic pictures that should distract intruders from the holes everywhere in the room from which spikes came out. Holographic pictures were also used in other rooms. The place was also a big bomb for the case that everything against an intruder failed. The explosive power of the House of Rave could've levelled a whole block. --Marvel Comics Presents #141/4
The dancefloor can be anywhere, a million dollar nightclub, a stadium, a warehouse, a car park, even a forest. The soundtrack will be strictly electronic, the atmosphere frenetic and affectionate.
Last year we had the Fantasy scare, or the GHB scare, on the Gold Coast, where ten people were hospitalised after using the drug. The year prior to that we had a poison ecstasy scare where it was one of the first times where PMA, paramethamphetamine, was identified as being sold as Ecstasy, which is a particularly toxic form of the drug.
We also had, very close to the weekend, the death of teenage school girl, Anna Wood, who died after taking an Ecstasy tablet. So, it tends to be the time of year where mini-disasters sort of like hit, and all of a sudden the whole of the media crashes down on dance parties, clubs and illicit drug taking as the source of all evil.
****************
Tell me about the music - what is it about the music? Same party-goer: Gets into your heart, you can feel it in your heart. Everywhere all around, because everybody is so happy, everyone gets along the same wavelength.
Because we're all here for the same reason, doof, doof, dance, dance, dance your heart out. Trance, psychedelic trance, hard core, yeah. Hard core, which is really doofy, you can dance to really well; and trance you can just lay down and trip out to.
Chris Bullock: Are you tripping?
Same party-goer: No, E-ing.
Chris Bullock: There'd be many people on E here?
Same party-goer: Yeah. I'd say so. I think it's a good thing, maybe other people don't. But I do.
Chris Bullock: What do you mean it's a good thing?
Same party-goer: Yeah, well it makes everybody happy, and they like it. It makes people like other people heaps, more than people would normally.
Chris Bullock: Are you having a good time?
Second party-goer: Yeah, having a wonderful time.
Chris Bullock: Why?
Second party-goer: Because I'm tripping.
*******
The third type [of party], the "doof", was coined more recently in Australia.
Doof party-goer: It's the sound, doof, doof, doof, doof ... the sound of the bass speakers going hard core outside, because you have no walls and things for it to bounce back and echo badly.... The music varies in speed, from 120 beats per minute, to 200 beats per minute. And although high b.p.m.'s, and repetitive beats are common characteristics, it's the feel, what's going on under the beat that differentiates. Electronic music styles have sprouted like shoots off the main stems of house, trance, hard core, techno and drum and bass. So you have happy house, hard house, and funky house, deep trance, acid trance, and goa trance, happy hardcore, industrial hardcore and killcore, garage, jungle and hardstep - to name a fraction. And each subgroup has a substantial following.
The master manipulators of the music are the DJs, John Ferris has worked as a DJ for more than ten years.
John Ferris: One of the things about the raves is that generally speaking because they weren't licensed, it was any age, and so you did have a lot of kids going there; which I didn't think was necessarily a bad thing at all. And the kids were generally the ones in Sydney that drove the music to particular styles as well, to the happy hardcore and the faster styles, 160, 170, 180 beats per minute.
Chris Bullock: What's the maximum you can go to until it just becomes a wall of noise?
John Ferris: About 210 beats a minute. I mean I've been to a couple of things where it's been that fast, and it's just like, what is the point! Nobody dances to that, they try and dance, y'know it makes it difficult. At about 170, 180 you can do a half time dance to it.
Chris Bullock: That's sort of taking it to it's limit is it?
John Ferris: Yeah, you do a reggae kind of feel to it you know. So you divide it in half. Happy hardcore uses as lot of samples, of other popular songs, whether they be TV themes, or a whole range of things like that, and speed them up. The emphasis is fully on the sound, and the overwhelmingness of the sound, and it completely takes control of people. That's the whole point of it. Physically you feel the entire bass and kick drum takes over your whole body, it pounds your body into submission I guess, is one way of looking at it. That's what it always felt like. And interestingly enough a lot of people who did take Ecstasy at these events would stand right next to the speaker box, with their head into the speaker box.
Chris Bullock: And do you know any of these people, and what they're hearing's like now?
John Ferris: Shocking, it's shocking, of course it is, yes. I mean they were crazy, you know. Most DJs are sensible and wear earphones, but the punters don't care.
*************
Chris Bullock: The excitement of a rave is not just in the music, it's in the journey, getting ready, getting there, being there, and getting back.
Alex: We used to get nervous, everybody says that we used to get nervous before we'd go and we'd all trek there on the train, and it would just be massive, and we would never know what to expect. Half the time we didn't even know where we were going.
***************
doofers met at a nearby pub and waited for word of the location. ... The crowd gathered around a portable beat box, from 10pm on a chilly spring night waiting for the sound system to arrive. Aleex explained why she was there ...
Aleex: Creating a publicity stunt, because like often when you try and have a doof outside somewhere the police soon enough turn it off, or tell us to turn it down because it's too loud, disturbing the peace apparently. It just takes one neighbour to complain about the noise, and we have to stop it, even though there could be 500 people enjoying it, one person can stop it.
********
Chris Bullock: So this was a secret location, was there a reason for that?
Aleex: A secret location, oh no, this one in particular is not so secret. But you know no-one really knows the site until the last minute really, to throw off the scent like.
Chris Bullock: Who are you trying to throw off the scent?
Aleex: The authorities.
*******.
Chris Bullock: Party drugs are the basis for a good night for many people. And Ecstasy is the most popular. Some of those E'ing or tripping, are very young, 14, 15, 16 years old; powerful chemicals in developing bodies. It's not hard to understand why Ecstasy is so popular with ravers. The drug works by releasing large amounts of a neurotransmitter called serotonin, from the base of the brain. This extra serotonin makes a person feel euphoric, and energetic. In Britain, lab tests on rats have shown the drug not only produces hyperactivity but hyperactivity of a repetitive kind, a perfect match for the energy and repetitive beats of a rave.
***********
Chris Bullock: Describe some of them [places where raves have been held pe]. On beaches in the sand, in dunes, inland in dunes beside a creek, I've done it up in mountains, in high altitudes, I've done it in the Himalayas.
Chris Bullock: You've doofed in the Himalayas?
Aleex: Yeah, Menali Valley mainly.
Chris Bullock: Did you go to the Himalayas to doof?
Aleex: No. But I certainly indulged in it while I was there. I mean part of a good doof is the trip getting there.
Chris Bullock: And how long might that trip take?
Aleex: Oh, it's taken hours sometimes. But you do it at all hours, I've done ones that have started at three in the morning, or at six, or at sunset, sunrise.
Chris Bullock: And this one's starting fairly early at about ten, or it hasn't started yet.
Aleex: Yeah, it's really early. See most people usually come fashionably late.
Chris Bullock: The sound system arrived fashionably late, at 2am, after being held up by a flat battery on the truck. Then there was a scramble to get sound happening for the shivering crowd, who by that stage built a fire on the hill. The fruit bats in the fig trees didn't know what was about to hit them.
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I believe one other clarification may be useful. Various posters speak of "Babylon" in riddle e-mails with reference to the ancient city. I believe that the references to Babylon in those e-mails have to do w. Rasta. The usage is based on the ancient city but refer sin the more contemporary sense to corruption, politics, police, law, oppression, etc.
Extracts:
The term Babylon is used in Rasta terms with much negative connotations. It is something that they are radically opposed to. Corruption, politics, police, laws, and cities are often reffered to as"Babylon". Although it is possible to see these mechanisms as having qualities that are detrimental to the well-being of any society, there are elements of oppresion that take shape through these various creations of civilization. These mechanisms were created out of neccesity, else civilization would fall apart. (Note: It is quite possible that there are benefits of living in more natural, smaller bands of people, but we will assume that in the Mesopotamian era,
people valued the security and various facilities of city life.)
There are oppressive aspects of police, politics and laws that cause them to be labeled as Babylon, although it is not true to say that these insitutions where created with the intent of harm. The harm that is brought about stems from the institution's ignorance or insesitivity to the suffering that is created. Ignorance and insensivity are not always syncronous with evil and malice- many times they are the necessary first steps to wisdom and higher intuition. However, it is not my intention to defend these mechanisms of civilization, because it can be argued that these institutions are still oppressive, 4000 years later.
The materialistic nature of Ancient Babylon provides us with sharp
contrasting element to the Rastafarian Ideology. Rastafarian religion
places high value on the natural world as something that should be lived in harmony with, but not controlled. The Rastafarians believe that they should live their life as Jah intends is to be lived. The emphasis here is on the personal, subjective understanding of one's purpose in life. The ancient Babylon mentality that is prevalent today, has many contrary elements to Rastafarian ideology. For example, modern society values its members according to their wealth, and ability to work in a"professional"setting.
The Babylon mentality sees daily life as serving a utility, but does not place importance on the experiential and mystical elements of living.
A lot of info is really being played down.
The DNA on the toothbrush could mean that Natalee had another friend before Joran. Who wants to bet it's not Joran's DNA.
The witness at the beach.
The early morning phonecalls. No one wants to talk about them, but I'll bet the time gets Joran or the Kalpoes off the hook. They must know the time. I've seen reports of 4:00 , but I don't know if that was reliable.
There were some posters asking Natalee to call home? Strange.
Posted by: letsbefair | Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 06:28 PM
Remember the post by Dan with the story from an unidentified source? I bet that's Shango.
May I join you three? Feel like a voyeur . . .
Why do you think Dan's source is Shango?
Posted by: deep breath | Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 06:28 PM
I have to take off for a while. BBL. Let's try to get the people that want to talk about Shango over here.
Posted by: just_lurking | Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 06:29 PM
Get the email from JL. That's one of Dan's sources (I think. Maybe?)
Posted by: letsbefair | Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 06:29 PM
Deep Breath,
Join in! :)
Just a feeling. Not many people do things without getting some kind of credit (human nature). Both Dan's unidentified source and Shange have that in common.
K BBL.
Posted by: just_lurking | Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 06:31 PM
Well . . . the longer they go without evidence, the more I think that some really knowledgable people are involved. People knowledgable in disposing of bodies and evidence.
Posted by: just_lurking | July 30, 2005 06:26 PM
I don't see how the 3 boys could have pulled this off. Not with the timeline. And then we have the early morning phonecalls. There must be other people involved in her disappearance. It's frustrating, cuz most people can't see that.
Posted by: letsbefair | Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 06:33 PM
I Gotta go now. Bye.
Posted by: letsbefair | Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 06:37 PM
Freedom,
Did Joren actually say he was afraid for his life?
And I think everyone is just frustrated that there is nothing new about the case, everything that might have been a clue has been disproven.
I think the Shango is worth looking at. Anything is worth looking at at this point.
Posted by: just_lurking | July 30, 2005 06:08 PM
Just_lurking - sorry, I am on and off this today. No, Joran never said he fears for his life, but think back to when you were 17. Remember how LONG summer seemed? Joran has been in jail for that long. He must be afraid to talk. I doubt he killed her and hid her. There would be some evidence somewhere. Now, perhaps the LE blew it, but I just have to think that he is scared to talk.
Posted by: letfreedomring | Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 06:44 PM
JL - I think I may already have the email. Can we take this offline? You have my email address.
Posted by: letfreedomring | Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 06:46 PM
Hey everyone, I too am interested in pursing this Shango riddle so count me in. JL I am back if you want to update me in email.
Posted by: annie | Saturday, July 30, 2005 at 07:29 PM
Shango says follow the music. I'm finally listening.
Posted by: markmywords | Friday, August 05, 2005 at 06:29 PM