aSymmetrics

"Mrs. Holloway, we have made breakthrough in our investigation." That's what our beloved Peter R. de Vries said in a staged phone call to Natalee Holloway's mother after taping the confession by Joran van der Sloot. But this could hardly be called an ordinary 'breakthrough in the investigation', but rather solely the media breakthrough for De Vries. ABC will broadcast the report tonight (the show even included music from the Lost score), currently it's broadcasted for the second time on Dutch television. And what would a hit report be without the crying of a mother who now knows for sure that her child is gone forever. Ironically, the woman never shed a single tear and was only repeating herself to get some more minutes on tape. A horribly staged performance of a woman of whom one should think she would have a bit more respect towards her child than to cooperate in such a media climax. A girl has died, and the only thing the entire show emphasized on was the personal vendetta of De Vries towards Van der Sloot.

De Vries will be credited for his research, while forgetting that the man gone undercover fell into his lap without any action from his side. All he had to do was to coordinate it, which means gathering some experts and putting some money into it. The result of the investigation is a report that is so juicy and populistic that it surpasses the artificiality of CSI, including reconstructions that look more like video clips than the presentation of evidence.

As for the damaged image of Aruba, if they proceed in the same way De Vries has made this into a juicy story without the signs of any decency, the island will do just fine. Tours to all the places Joran and Natalee went, the specific drinks they had, a quick peek at the place where they got their drugs, a ride from the Carlos'n Charlie's to the beach in a black Honda Civic, concluding with a free boat trip and your last dive into the ocean. Oh yeah, and while your not gonna need them anymore, can we take your kidneys first?

Of course everyone has seen, or will see it. Of course it'll be a huge hit in the U.S. tonight. Of course Van der Sloot is a stupid and insensitive moron who would possibly have been in no trouble at all if he had called for an ambulance right away. I must say, on the other hand, that I shared his intrigue on how to mislead the authorities. But of course the boy should pay. But has everyone, even the mother herself, forgotten that a girl has died and that there should therefore be some discretion, even from the side of the media? We've seen this before in the U.S., nothing new in that corner of the world, but for The Netherlands this surely feels like the next step in deterioration of morals. A huge one. I am more shocked about that than about what the boy did. In effect, the disgusting way of reporting even provoked sympathy towards Joran from my side, however twisted the logic in that might be.