Joran is a delightful youth
Interviews by Floor Ligtvoet, published in newspaper BN DeStem, translated to English by iquitos.
Thursday 30 March 2006 - For many Americans, Joran Van der Sloot is guilty without a doubt. He was the last to see Natalee Holloway in Aruba before she disappeared without a trace and is thus considered to have murdered her. He is big news for the American television broadcasters, but who is Joran really? From what kind of nest does he come?
Portrait of a rebellious adolescent who plays fast and loose with the truth.
"Wanna have a good time?" a small, bloated Aruban with a yellow cap roars into the microphone. Around him on the dance floor, five hundred slightly high young people let it all hang out. Most come from America. It is ten at night and the peak amusement time in the popular bar Carlos ¿n Charlie's in Oranjestad that is synonymous with drink games. Super fast, five girls in summery skirts and very thin shirts are lifted up on the stage. They get tequila shots and mugs of beer handed to them. Then they must wiggle their behinds twice to get the next beer and tequila shot. Soon the first girl starts to totter. The public crows with pleasure. Out of this bar the previous year Joran led the Alabama blonde Natalee Holloway. Now the American is already missed almost a year. Joran is the last person known to see her. It is for this reason the police consider him as the main suspect in her disappearance. Joran did not improve matters for himself by lying to the police.
After some flirting at Carlos 'n Charlie's and necking in the car, he explained, he brought Natalee back to her to hotel. Instead, he later admitted, he left the girl alone on the beach. The American media jumped on an all out hunt for Joran. Every week, photographs and old video of the Dutchman fill the American news shows. He is called a liar, a rapist, and a murderer. Joran's possible involvement in Natalee's disappearance proves to be a ratings bonanza. In one go the seventeen-year-old adolescent is world-famous.
Who he is and from what kind of a nest he comes, is well known. Already before Anita van der Sloot, Joran's mother, opens the gate to the family house in the rural district of Noord, the dog smells the visitor. "Quiet", Anita quiets the loudly barking dog. "It is OK now." The small blonde woman enters to a large dining table to sit. She is really not in the mood to talk. The family has already had so much crap poured out about them. But the flow of rumors concerning Joran does not stop. A day earlier a high-level police source whispered anonymously, that Joran had been treated for lying. Nonsense, asserts Anita firmly. Her son has undergone only counseling to improve his study habits. Joran's father, former judge in training Paul van der sloot arrives after a long workday. Tired, he gives a deep sigh: "Joran lies no more than every other adolescent." Paul wants rest at home. The family has over the last year stood under enormous pressure, he complains. Their oldest, Joran, is surely not an angel. Every detail from his personal life is entirely taken out of context. "We must refer to the disappearance not the murder." He talks gently and in a controlled way concerning his child, but Anita excites herself concerning the bad tales that circulate on the island. Joran gambling - and sex-addicted?
He is simply a delightful youth! A splendid adolescent, who lives for friends, sport, and family. Oké, he has adolescent traits. He does not always stick to his appointments. If he is supposed to be home at one at night he turns off his cell so his parents can't call him. If he gets in trouble later, he gives his concerned mother three thick kisses. They don't have to worry, he is home now. Anita is enraged that her son is accused of rape. "He was in fact very loving with his girlfriends." Joran always had many girls around him but the contact was frequently only friendly, she says. "They went with each other as a brother and sister". Paul wants to show Joran's room. However, friends, both girls and boys, could always spend the night he says as he crosses the garden to the outbuilding. Since he was 15 Joran had here, beside the swimming pool and at a reasonable distance of the parental house, his own bedroom and bathroom. Paul opens the door carefully. "Look, here four or five slept during the sleepovers. It was always completely normal. On Aruba it is normal to sleep over at someone else's place. Minors are on the island entirely dependent on parents or friends with a drivers license to pick up and bring them.
During a conversation in Arnhem Joran says he was always super glad to have his own room. "The privacy was very fine, especially if there were friends." Of course he had also ordinary friendships with girls, he says he as he hears his parents reaction. "One girlfriend slept ten times in my bed without anything ever happening between us." If it happens he finds attraction must come, however, from two sides. If that is the case, however, he does not see, honestly said, the problem. Joran was already having sex with girls from age 14. Also Americans. "On the island there lives a little the feeling that they are easy. There are guys who go to the beach to hook up with them. He has done that himself "but", he emphasizes, "I have always treated them with respect." So if the girl does not want sex, then OK, its back to the hotel." It should have been that way with Natalee, he says, but she wanted to stay on the beach. Thus he left her behind. Joran has always affirmed he did not have sex that fatal night with Natalee because that evening he had no condoms on him.
Typical Joran, says Aruban Melody Granadillo (19). The girl with long dark brown rolling curls is his ex-girlfriend. In their eight month long relationship they always used condoms. "He is completely clear on this." The Dutchman was her first love. For months on end they spent every day with each other. Taking a mouthful of ice, she gestures to the green Wilhelminapark bordering the sea. There they could sit interminably and talk. I know him better than he knows himself. Joran is playful, in his heart a child. A possible murderer? No, that never. Joran is often misunderstood, she observes. Take his openness: "people take it as flirting." His friends also found him arrogant. That is not him according to her. He is only self-assured. Walks straight up, head high. Eventually Melody broke the relationship because Joran was unfaithful. Magda, administrator of the Aruba Racquet club, shrugs her shoulders. That is the mentality here. If it clicks with someone, it happens simply, even if you already have a girlfriend. Aruba seems like a village where, via-via, everyone knows everyone. Every week a new cargo of anonymous tourists arrives at Reina Beatrix field that want only to celebrate. For numerous young, sexy, American girls Aruba is the party island where they forget their sorrows. As long as the holiday lasts, the world of drink games and flirts is the reality. Local boys, such as Joran, have this party culture available seven days per week. Seduction always lies in wait. On the gravel fields of the Raquet club boys hit their tennis balls hard over the net. For Joran, the tennis club, where mainly Dutch come, was a second home. After school he spent much of his time playing soccer, tennis and swimming. He was a spontaneous, nice kid, says Magda. "Although he could be quite obstinate and tenacious." She is reminded what Jordan's friend thought. They restrained themselves with Joran when they were tired of arguments. Joran is a good talker, dominates nearly nearly everyone, ' but he is also slick', laughs Melody.
That is his strength, Joran knows. Talking, "I frequently get what I want done." Convincing debate is what I learned at the International School, according to my mother. Joran applied that art at home too and with impact. Once he wanted to go to the casino, but his father was opposed. There arose a strong argument, after which Paulus accompanied his son to the casino and eventually brought him weekly to free poker tournaments (a game which is not played with money) in several casinos.
At all hours of the day Arubans in the casino run money through the many fruit machines (slots). Tourists especially play blackjack or poker tables. Joran¿s father thinks initially that his son does not participate in the poker tournaments for the gambling but for the pizza they served during the breaks. You can eat all you want for free. Joran started staying and coming home with a friend. Then he would stay away longer, and really gamble. His father later realizes this and is bewildered. "I had no idea that Joran gambled in the real casino too." His parents try constantly to find a balance in raising their children, they say. "I am perhaps something stricter than Paul", says Anita, "but when Paul and I both say 'no' and the children come with good arguments, then they know that we are open for a solution." Joran is proud of that. "My parents try to see everything from our side too. I have always found that good of them."