Dear Dr. Phil:
I don’t know if I should say “dear� because the last thing you would be to me right now is “dear�. I will leave it anyway to show education and decency.

How are you feeling? Like a hero? Like a superman? Do you feel proud to have instigated Americans not to visit Aruba, because ONE American teenager disappeared here without a trace? Is this the first time that an American disappears without a trace in a foreign country?

Shame on you Dr. McGraw! How low can you go! I thought you were more intelligent than that. I used to look up to you. My wife and I have many of your books and have found them to be interesting, enlightening and educational reading. But now that we have learned to know the man behind the books, they have become good for the trash, because they were written just to make money, and not from the heart. You see, all these years you were pretending to be somebody you are not. Finally the real Self in you came out loud and clear last Thursday. I am sure that we are not the only Aruba citizens that feel that way.

Were you trying to improve your ratings by having a program with Beth Twitty? I cannot imagine that an intelligent man like you needed that.

By having Beth Twitty in you program, I think you permitted yourself to be dragged down by her to the same low level as Nancy Grace, Geraldo, Greta van Susteren, and others who tried to improve their ratings by bashing Aruba on an almost daily basis, but without any success. The words: crime, rape, kidnapped, sexually abused, etc., come easily to Beth Twitty’s vocabulary. But does she have proof to substantiate her opinion? The answer is a big NO.

In last Thursday’s program you recommended Americans not to set foot on Aruba again because precious Natalee disappeared here without a trace. You recommended them to do that in order to hurt us in our pockets, where it hurts the most. In other words, you are recommending Americans to in the process also hurt American companies such as Valero Refinery, Marriott Resorts, Radisson Resorts, Wyndham Resorts, Renaissance Resorts, Divi/Doral Resorts, Holiday Inn Resorts, American Airlines, Delta Airlines, US Airways and many others. You are also recommending for Americans to hurt the pockets of the thousands of American, European, South & Central American, Caribbean, Middle & Far Eastern, and African nationals that live here peacefully together to make a living for themselves and their families.

I think you should stay closer to home with such a recommendation. Perhaps you and your fellow citizens that have a similar opinion, should start learning how to glide because you are setting foot on the soil of a country where murder, rape and other sex crimes, extortion, bribery, drug trafficking, assault, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, kidnapping, corruption, discrimination, money laundering, burglary, prostitution, human trafficking, smuggling, are served at the breakfast table with your daily bread! You name the crime – its there. Do I hear you recommending us or other nations not to set foot in America again!?

In one of your books you are described as: “Dr. Phil, one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of human functioning�. I must put a BIG question mark here because in my opinion you have [intentionally?] failed to look through Beth Twitty’s functioning and through her obsession to find somebody to pay for the disappearance of her daughter, at all cost. Before you, she used Nancy Grace, she used Larry King, she used Geraldo and Greta van Susteren and God knows who else.

But sorry to say Dr. McGraw, what she wants does not happen in Aruba. Our laws are clear: “You are guilty or you are not; you are innocent until proven guilty� and we mean legally PROVEN, not with a confession of convenience. There is no middle way. You cannot be half guilty. We do not punish innocent people here. We do not force suspects to confess to a lesser crime (than charged) that they did not commit so that they can have a lower punishment, or walk free with a conditional sentence and a police record that will haunt them for the rest of their lives. This is only possible in America and that is why so many innocent people are behind bars there, or may even have been electrocuted or gassed to death. Just because the [family of the] victim, wants somebody to pay for whatever happened, at all cost, guilty or not, your judicial system does all it can to please them. They are charged and brought to trial before an elected Judge and/or a panel of court appointed jury members.

Our Judges are NOT elected Dr. McGraw, our judges are appointed for life by the Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Our Judges are impartial and do not depend on political votes to be in that position. They do not owe favors to anybody. To ensure their impartiality most of our Judges are not even natives of this island but come from other parts of the Kingdom. We do not know jury trials. I will leave it at that for what our judges are concerned. But if you wish to know more about our judicial system I recommend you go to www.aruba.com.

Now for the investigation: There was a lot of criticism on the manner in which the investigation was conducted. Most, if not all, of that criticism came from people that do not have any legal background, and that do not have any clue on how a criminal investigation is conducted; they where, and are, just “know-it-all� bystanders. On top of it people like the Nancy Grace’s and Geraldo’s of this world, and now also joined by Dr. McGraw, take these absurd speculations for granted and try to criticize a system that they do not know anything about, just for the sake of sensationalism. I have never expected that from you.

When Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba the entire Aruba population had sympathy for the Holloway and Twitty families and the ordeal that they were, and still are, going through. The Government of Aruba and the Police Force did all they could to solve the case. The best detectives were put on the job; FBI assistance was called in; Dutch detective assistance was called in; the families of the victim were given free lodging, free meals, free transportation for the time they were in Aruba. One of our banks donated 20 thousand dollars to the efforts of Texas Equusearch Team to search for the missed teen. The government gave one half day off to all its employees to help in the search for ms. Holloway; the Aruba Search and Rescue Foundation was constantly involved with search teams that kept coming to Aruba to help with the search; especially equipped F-16 jet fighters of the Dutch armed forces combed the island for four days, at least three different search teams came from the USA with sophisticated equipment, trained dogs, and were given free lodging, meals, transportation and assistance by the police, people and commercial sector of Aruba. No stone on this island or in the waters surrounding the island was left unturned; a whole pond was drained; the landfill was searched. Nothing was found Dr. McGraw, NOTHING. If you ask me, that girl left this island on May 30. That is my personal opinion.

And now we have to listen to people like Nancy Grace, Geraldo, Greta, Larry King, and now joined by Dr. McGraw, instigated by Beth Twitty, telling us that this island has not and is not doing anything to solve the case?Beth Twitty had my sympathy, and I’m sure of all Aruba citizens. In spite of her ongoing grieve that sympathy unfortunately has now turned into apathy.

Beth Twitty should learn to accept God’s will with resignation and faith. What she is doing now is to pour her anger towards God on an innocent nation, and I think you are helping her with that.

Do you believe in Karma, Dr. McGraw? Just to illustrate: Only a very short time – maybe a couple of weeks – after some senator from Alabama was about to propose a law in congress with the sole purpose to boycott and destroy Aruba, Katrina destroyed part of his state along the gulf coast (Coincidence or Karma?). Unfortunately many innocent people, also in Louisiana and Mississippi, lost their lives and/or their belongings in that terrible natural disaster. My prayers are with them. Maybe it’s good for you to know that we had a Katrina Relief fund raising event in Aruba last week. And also, do you know that Catarina is a very common name in Aruba? Again: Coincidence or Karma?

Now: about the three suspects. Rumors in the US media and by reporters like Nancy, Geraldo, Greta, and Larry, none of whom have access to any official documents, say that these boys changed their statement more than 20 times (pure speculation). This is nothing but a big lie.

Their statement was changed only once, and they apologized for not telling the truth before. There is no reason to believe that they are not telling the truth now.

The official statement is: JvdS was left by the K brothers with Natalee Holloway on the beach near the Holiday Inn. After spending some time on that beach JvdS asked NH if she wanted him to walk her to the hotel. She said: “No, I’ll walk there by myself�. JvdS left her there and went home. There is no reason to believe that this story is NOT true.

NOT JvdS or the K brothers but ONLY Natalee Holloway and God know what happened to her after that, and there is where Beth Twitty has to look for her answer – with GOD.

Now back to you Dr. Phillip C. McGraw, MD. How would you feel if I ask all my family and friends in Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, St. Maarten, Saba, St. Eustatius, Holland, Europe, USA and South America, not to buy or read your books anymore, and to throw whatever book of yours that they may have in the trash? Would you feel good about that? I guess not! It maybe would not hurt you in your pocket, as you wished for me and my country, but I guess it will give me the satisfaction to have defended and to have done something good for my country.

“Do not do onto others what you do not wish for others to do onto you�.
I suggest you to reconsider your position and stop your irresponsible instigation against Aruba. The law of Karma works for everybody, also for you. Although you are not amongst my favorite “professionals� any more, I would not wish any harm to come to you.

Why don’t you put your actions where your mouth is and start Creating Your Life from the Inside Out instead of letting an obsessed lady like Beth Twitty influence you from the Outside In.

Please take care of the trash in your own back yard and leave us alone. We have an island to run, and almost a million tourists to take care of, including the 400 something thousand Americans.