Aruba Today (January 5, 2011)

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A1
Dutch footbal legend Coen Moulijn has died at the age of 73
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Moulijn suffered a brain haemorrhage on New Year’s Eve. He was admitted to hospital and died Tuesday morning.
Moulijn played for Feyenoord from the 1950s to 1970s. The legendary left-winger was capped 38 times. In 1970, he won
the European Cup and the Intercontinental Cup with the Rotterdam club. It was the first time a Dutch club had won
either competition.q
On Top Of The News Email: [email protected] Website:www.arubatoday.com Tel:[phone] Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Judgement Day is
Apparent suicide
coming
Son of the late shah of Iran found dead
The end of
the world FILE - In this Friday, April 15, 2005 file photo, Alireza Pahlavi is seen during Prince
Rainier III’s funeral procession, in Monaco. Pahlavi, son of thelate shah of Iran, has been
found dead of an apparent suicide at his home in Boston. Reza Pahlavi, Alireza’s brother,
will begin
announced the death on his website Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011.
(AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, Pool, File)
May 21, 2011. Read Page A13
By TOM BREEN Next
Associated Press
RALEIGH, N.C. – If there
had been time, Marie Exley
would have liked to start a
family. Instead, the 32-year- chapter
old Army veteran has less
than six months left, which
she’ll spend spreading a stark
warning: Judgment Day is
almost here.
Exley is part of a movement
of Christians loosely
organized by radio broadcasts
and websites, independent
of churches and convinced
by their reading of the Bible
that the end of the world will
begin May 21, 2011.
To get the word out, they’re
using billboards and bus stop
benches, traveling caravans
of RVs and volunteers
passing out pamphlets on
street corners. Cities from
Bridgeport, Conn., to Little
Rock, Ark., now have
billboards with the ominous
message, and mission groups
President Barack Obama, with first lady Michelle Obama and daughters Malia, 12, left, and Sasha, 9, right, returns to the White
are traveling through Latin
House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011, after a family vacation in Hawaii.
America and Africa to spread
Associated Press
the news outside the U.S.
“A lot of people might think, Change coming to White House
‘The end’s coming, let’s go
party,’” said Exley, a veteran
of two deployments in Iraq. By BEN FELLER, of big legislation is over, that a massive Those departures would significantly
“But we’re commanded by AP White House Correspondent campaign effort needs energy and people, alter the management of the White House
God to warn people. I wish I WASHINGTON – President Barack and that the White House is taking a toll and the way it explains itself to the world.
could just be like everybody Obama, looking ahead to his re-election on those who run it. Obama is also expected to have a new
else, but it’s so much better effort, is shaking up his senior leadership Obama’s press secretary, Robert Gibbs, is chief economic adviser, a new senior
to know that when the end team to deal with the new realities of his likely to leave, and the president’s interim political counselor, and two new deputy
comes, you’ll be safe.” term. chief of staff, Pete Rouse, may be on the chiefs of staff.q
Continued on Next Page Those realities include the fact that the era way out, too.
A2 UP FRONT
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
reactions to the message, return to earth and bring an “A lot of times these
which is plastered all over end to history has been a prophecies gain traction
her car. basic element of Christian when difficulties are
“It’s definitely against the belief since the first century. happening in society,” she
grain, I know that,” she The Book of Revelation, said. “Right now, there’s a
said. “We’re hoping people which comes last in the New lot of insecurity, and this is
won’t take our word for it, or Testament, describes this a promise that says it’s not
Harold Camping’s word for conclusion in vivid language all random, it’s part of God’s
it. We’re hoping that people that has inspired Christians plan.”
will search the scriptures for for centuries. Past predictions that failed
themselves.” But few churches are willing to come true don’t have
Camping, 89, believes the to set a date for the end of any bearing on the current
Bible essentially functions as the world, heeding Jesus’ calculation, believers
a cosmic calendar explaining words in the gospels of Mark maintain.
exactly when various and Matthew that no one “It would be like telling the
In this Dec. 17, 2010 photo in Raleigh, N.C., Allison Warden poses prophecies will be fulfilled. can know the day or hour it Wright brothers that every
with her car showing a message about the rapture. Warden, of
The retired civil engineer will happen. Predictions like other attempt to fly has
Raleigh, has been helping organize a campaign using billboards,
said all his calculations Camping’s, though, aren’t failed, so you shouldn’t even
post cards and other media in cities across the U.S. through a
come from close readings of new. One of the most famous try,” said Chris McCann,
website, We Can Know.
the Bible, but that external in history was by the Baptist who works with eBible
JUDGEMENT DAY Exley will shortly be gone: events like the foundation of leader William Miller, Fellowship, one of the groups
Continued from Front Page overseas, where she hopes the state of Israel in 1948 are who predicted the end for spreading the message.
In August, Exley left her to eventually make it back to signs confirming the date. Oct. 22, 1844, which came For believers like McCann,
home in Colorado Springs, Iraq. “Beyond the shadow of a to be known as the Great theirs is actually a message of
Colo., to work with Oakland, “I don’t really have plans to doubt, May 21 will be the Disappointment among his hope and compassion: God’s
Calif.-based Family Radio come back,” she said. “Time date of the Rapture and the followers, some of whom compassion for people, and
Worldwide, the independent is short.” day of judgment,” he said. subsequently founded the the hope that there’s still
Christian ministry whose Not everyone who’s heard The doctrine known as Seventh Day Adventist time to be saved.
leader, Harold Camping, has Camping’s message is the Rapture teaches that church. That, ultimately, is what
calculated the May 21 date taking such a dramatic step. believers will be taken up “In the U.S., there is still spurs on Exley, who said
based on his reading of the They’re remaining in their to heaven, while everyone a significant population, her beliefs have alienated
Bible. day-to-day lives, but helping else will remain on earth mostly Protestant, who her from most of her friends
She is organizing traveling publicize the prophecy in for a period of torment, look at the Bible as kind and family. Her hope is that
columns of RVs carrying other ways. Allison Warden, concluding with the end of of a puzzle, and the puzzle not everyone who hears her
the message from city to of Raleigh, has been helping time. Camping believes that is God’s word and it’s message will mock it, and
city, a logistics challenge organize a campaign using will happen in October. predicting when the end times that even people who dismiss
that her military experience billboards, post cards and “If May 21 passes and I’m will come,” said Catherine her now might still come to
has helped solve. The other media in cities across still here, that means I wasn’t Wessinger, a professor believe.
vehicles are scheduled to the U.S. through a website, saved. Does that mean God’s at Loyola University in “If you still want to say
be in five North Carolina We Can Know. word is inaccurate or untrue? New Orleans who studies we’re crazy, go ahead,” she
cities between now and the The 29-year-old payroll clerk Not at all,” Warden said. millennialism, the belief in said. “But it doesn’t hurt to
second week of January, but laughs when asked about The belief that Christ will pending apocalypse. look into it.”
U.S. NEWS A3
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Birds still falling from the sky
it’s not clear the bird deaths by an illness. Full test results about 4,000 water birds died
were related. In Beebe, New could take up to a month. between Sept. 6 and Nov. 26
Year’s revelers spent the The U.S. Geological Service’s from infestations of various
holiday weekend cleaning website lists about 90 mass parasites. Red-winged
up between 4,000 and 5,000 deaths of birds and other blackbirds are among North
dead red-winged blackbirds. wildlife from June through America’s most abundant
Some speculated that bad Dec. 12. Five list deaths birds, with somewhere
weather was to blame. Others of at least 1,000 birds and between 100 million and 200
said one confused bird could another 12 show at least 500 million nationwide, according
have led the group in a fatal dead birds. The largest was to the Cornell Lab of
plunge. A few spooked near Houston, Minn., where Ornithology in Ithaca, N.Y.q
schoolkids guessed the birds
committed mass suicide.
By JEANNIE NUSS of Beebe in central Arkansas, “There was probably some
Associated Press scientists said celebratory physical reason, but I doubt
BEEBE, Ark. – Blackbirds are fireworks on New Year’s anyone will ever know what
having hard time staying alive Eve likely sent thousands of it was,” said Thurman Booth,
in the Southeast. Just a few discombobulated blackbirds the state’s wildlife services
days after 3,000 blackbirds into such a tizzy that they director.
fell from the sky in Arkansas, crashed into homes, cars and The birds were the second
about 500 birds dropped each other before plummeting mass wildlife death in
to their death in Louisiana, to their deaths. Still, officials Arkansas in recent days. Last
littering a quarter-mile stretch acknowledged it’s unlikely week, about 83,000 dead and
of highway near Baton Rouge. they’ll ever pinpoint a cause dying drum fish washed up
It wasn’t clear if the deaths with certainty. along a 20-mile stretch of the
were linked, but such massive Wildlife officials in both Arkansas River, about 100
wildlife kills are far from Arkansas and Louisiana miles west of Beebe. Wildlife
uncommon. Biologists were were sending carcasses to officials say the fish deaths are
trying to figure out what killed researchers at the National not related to the dead birds,
the birds in rural Pointe Coupee Wildlife Health Center and that because mainly one
Parish, La. About 300 miles to in Madison, Wis. and the species of fish was affected,
the north, in the small town University of Georgia, but it is likely they were stricken
With travel app, no one knows you’re a tourist
By EMILY FREDRIX up highlights for my visit to Grand Central.
Associated Press For all anyone else knows, I might as well be
NEW YORK – Tourist in my own city? Ack. playing Scrabble.
I learned within days of moving to New York For me, that was the best part about having the
City earlier this year that a) Times Square application, compared to carting around the
must be avoided at all costs and b) you don’t guidebook on recent jaunts throughout the city.
want to look like a tourist. The telltale signs The content between the two was basically the
are — appearing lost, reading a guidebook, and same. While the application does have some
walking ... slowly. tech extras that the book can’t offer — such as
So it was with secret pleasure that I could using GPS to tell you what restaurants and sites
bounce around the city recently_ with are nearby — little else is different, beyond
knowledge of my surroundings — but still price and heft. At $20, the book costs more than
maintain the illusion that I knew what I was the $6 application on iTunes. And at 550 pages,
doing. plus maps, it’s a lot harder to carry around than
Indeed, the best part about the Fodor’s New your iPod. (And in a city like New York, where
York City 2011 iPod travel app is that it’s a shopping and walking are frequent pastimes,
secret. Fodor’s trademark orange cover, a not- you want your bags to be as light and empty
so-subtle hint to strangers that you are, indeed, as possible.)
a tourist, is delightfully absent when you pull But even with the lower price and extra space in
up the same guide on your smart phone. my bag, I’m not quite sold on the application.
Why yes, I can stand on the subway and look Continued on Page A6
A4 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Texan declared innocent after 30 years in prison
married his fiancee, Selma. talking to Dupree in the prison could receive $2.4 million in a
The couple met two decades recreation yard, and always lump sum that is not subject to
ago while he was in prison. believed his innocence. federal income tax.
His exoneration hearing was “I got a lot of flak from the The compensation law, the
delayed until Tuesday while guys on the block,” Shoemaker nation’s most generous, was
authorities retested the DNA said. “But I always believed passed in 2009 by the Texas
and made sure it was a match him. He has a quiet, peaceful Legislature after dozens
to the victim. Dallas County demeanor.” Under Texas of wrongly convicted men
District Attorney Craig compensation laws for the were released from prison.
Watkins supported Dupree’s wrongly imprisoned, Dupree Texas has freed 41 wrongly
innocence claim. is eligible for $80,000 for convicted inmates through
Looking fit and trim in a dark each year he was behind bars, DNA since 2001 — more than
suit, Dupree stood through plus a lifetime annuity. He any other state.q
most of the short hearing,
U.S. BRIEFS
until state district Judge Don
Adams told him, “You’re
Cornelius Dupree Jr., left, raises his hand to testify while attorney
Barry Scheck, right, looks on in Dallas on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011. free to go.” One of Dupree’s
Dupree served 30 years for rape and robbery before being lawyers, Innocence Project Commander loses carrier job over videos
exonerated by DNA evidence. Co-Director Barry Scheck,
NORFOLK, Va. – The Navy has permanently removed a
By JEFF CARLTON spent more time in prison, called it “a glorious day.”
senior Navy officer from command of an aircraft carrier
Associated Press according to the Innocence “It’s a joy to be free again,”
over raunchy comedy videos he made and showed to the
DALLAS – A Texas man Project, a New York legal Dupree said.
crew. The commander of U.S. Fleet Forces, Adm. John C.
declared innocent Tuesday center that specializes in This latest wait was nothing
Harvey Jr., said Capt. Owen Honors showed “extremely
after 30 years in prison could wrongful conviction cases and for Dupree, who was up for
poor judgment” in the videos that included anti-gay slurs and
have cut short his prison stint represented Dupree. James parole as recently as 2004.
sexual innuendo.
twice and made parole — if Bain was wrongly imprisoned He was set to be released and
Honors was reassigned to an administrative role. The admiral
only he would admit he was a for 35 years in Florida, and thought he was going home,
said the Navy continues to investigate the case of the videos
sex offender. Lawrence McKinney spent until he learned he first would
from 2006 and 2007 and will look into what other officers
But Cornelius Dupree Jr. more than 31 years in a have to attend a sex offender
aboard the USS Enterprise knew about them. Honors was
refused to do so, doggedly Tennessee prison. treatment program.
executive officer, or second in command, of the Enterprise
maintaining his innocence in Dupree was sentenced to 75 Those in the program had to
at the time and later became its commander.
a 1979 rape and robbery, in years in prison in 1980 for the go through what is known
The videos became public when they were released Sunday
the process serving more time rape and robbery of a 26-year- as the “four R’s.” They
by a newspaper in Norfolk.q
for a crime he didn’t commit old Dallas woman a year are recognition, remorse,
than any other Texas inmate earlier. He was released in July restitution and resolution, said
exonerated by DNA evidence. on mandatory supervision, Jim Shoemaker, who served Former Thomas girlfriend has book deal
“Whatever your truth is, you and lived under house arrest two years with Dupree in the NEW YORK – A former girlfriend of Supreme Court justice
have to stick with it,” Dupree, until October. About a week Boyd Unit south of Dallas. Clarence Thomas has a deal for a “sexually driven” memoir.
51, said Tuesday, minutes after after his release, DNA test “He couldn’t get past the first Lillian McEwen, who dated Thomas in the 1980s, has signed
a Dallas judge overturned his results came back proving part,” said Shoemaker, who with TitleTown Publishing, a Green Bay, Wis.-based publisher
conviction. his innocence in the sexual drove up from Houston to specializing in true crime and “inspirational” survivor
Nationally, only two others assault. attend Dupree’s hearing. stories. “D.C. Unmasked and Undressed” is scheduled to
exonerated by DNA evidence A day after his release, Dupree Shoemaker said he spent years come out in early February, TitleTown announced Tuesday,
adding that the book was “sexually driven.”
McEwen, a retired administrative law judge, broke a long
public silence last fall when she told The Washington Post
that Thomas often made inappropriate comments and was
“obsessed with porn,” allegations made by former Thomas
colleague Anita Hill during his 1991 confirmation hearings.
Thomas vehemently denied such behavior.q
Appeals court asks for gay marriage
guidance
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A appeals court mulling
California’s controversial gay marriage ban said on Tuesday
it needs more legal guidance before it can decide the
important constitutional issues at stake.
California voters banned gay marriage in 2008 by approving
so-called Proposition 8. But last year a federal district court
ruled the measure unconstitutional.
Supporters of the gay marriage ban appealed, but then-
Attorney General and now Governor Jerry Brown refused to
sign on to the appeal. Then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
also took the same stance.
In an order released on Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals asked the Supreme Court of California whether
initiative supporters have the authority to defend a ballot
measure when public officials refuse to do so.q
U.S. NEWS A5
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Pelosi has ‘no regrets’
By STEPHEN OHLE speaker — will be demoted to White House.
Associated Press minority leader. With unemployment stuck
WASHINGTON – Democrat “I don’t really look back, I look above 9 percent, Pelosi was
Nancy Pelosi said she had forward, and we look forward asked whether she regretted
no regrets on her last day as to, as I said before, being a not doing more to improve
House speaker Tuesday, a willing partner and solving the nation’s still-struggling
reign that lasted four years and the problems of the American economy while she was
is ending after the November people,” Pelosi said at a news speaker. Pelosi said the
elections. conference with other House nation’s economy was in a
Pelosi said Tuesday she looks Democrats. “When our “near-depression” two years
forward to leading a loyal but Republican colleagues have ago, when Obama first took
tenacious opposition in the positive solutions, again, they office. initiatives that we took were The Congressional Budget
House. She started by calling will have a willing partner in Since then, she said, the positive for the American Office has estimated that the
Republicans hypocrites for solving the problems of the House passed numerous bills people. It’s not enough to save massive law will slightly
trying to repeal President American people.” designed to create jobs that people from a depression, reduce the federal deficit over
Barack Obama’s health care Pelosi said House Democrats were ultimately blocked in the though. Nine-and-a-half the next 10 years. Repealing
overhaul, saying it would add will focus on creating jobs, Senate, usually because the percent unemployment is the law would therefore
to the federal budget deficit. improving the economy and two chambers couldn’t agree intolerable and as long as we increase the deficit, Pelosi
Republicans won the House shrinking the federal budget on how to pay for them. have that we have to continue said.
majority in the November deficit. The deficit hit $1.3 to fight for job creation.” Republicans say repealing the
elections and John Boehner of trillion in the budget year “We have no regrets,” Pelosi Pelosi chided House law is one of their top priorities,
Ohio will be sworn in as the that ended in September — said. “This administration Republicans for scheduling but they are sure to fail in the
new speaker on Wednesday. a year in which Democrats and this Congress inherited a a vote next week on a bill to Senate, where Democrats still
Pelosi — the first female controlled Congress and the near-depression. And so the repeal the new health care law. have a majority.
Mysterious Murder of Bush Official:
John P. Wheeler III Found Dead in Delaware Landfill
NEW YORK – The murder reads like a spy novel: behind the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Weidman, executive director for Policy and
An ex-Pentagon official is found dead in a landfill, On Sunday, the chief medical examiner’s office Government Affairs at the Vietnam Veterans of
three days after disappearing between Washington in Delaware ruled that Wheeler’s death was a America. “He was one of the core of people who
and Wilmington. Christine Pelisek and Pat Wingert homicide although the office refused to release the made it happen.”
on what happened. cause of death “pending further studies including Wheeler, who his close friends knew as Jack,
The murder could be taken from the pages of John toxicological analysis,” according to Deputy Director reportedly had earned TS/SCI (Top Secret / Special
le Carré. A former Pentagon official boards a train Hal G. Brown. Compartmentalized Information) clearance during
from Washington to his home in Delaware just after
“At this point we don’t have any answers as to how his most recent government job, special assistant
Christmas.
or why this happened,” said Farrall. “We don’t have to the Secretary of the Air Force during the
The man—a West Point cadet, a Yale and Harvard
any suspects or motives at this point. We just don’t administration of George W. Bush.
graduate and former general’s aide in Vietnam—
know.” “It’s the kind of clearance you have when you’re in
disappears without a trace, only to be found dead in
Police say they identified Wheeler by particular the inner ring (of the Pentagon),” said a source who
a landfill days later.
items they found on his body. didn’t want to be identified. “But that doesn’t mean
This is the story of John P. Wheeler III, an adviser
According to friends and associates, Wheeler was a anyone thinks there’s an espionage component to
to four different administrations, whose body was
skilled networker whose career was an unusual mix this murder.”
discovered on New Year’s Eve.
of military, government, charity, and private sector Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund Founder and
Beyond these sketchy details, police say, not much
work. President Jan Scruggs said Wheeler was a “religious
more is known about the apparent murder of the 66
and patriotic person.”
year old, whose resume read like that of a character
Wheeler is best known as one of the main forces “He liked reading the bible, theology and he liked
in a modern spy novel, and whose body was found
behind the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The decision military events,” he said, dismissing any conspiracy
dumped in a Wilmington landfill.
to use designer Maya Lin’s abstract design caused theories. Although he could be a fierce opponent
An employee at the landfill noticed Wheeler’s body
after it was dumped from a Waste Management truck controversy and significant pushback from Ross in verbal jostling, Wheeler “didn’t have the sorts
onto a pile of trash at the Cherry Island landfill— Perot and James Webb, now senator of Virginia, of enemies” who would want to see him dead, said
miles from his home in the historic district of New but Wheeler was one of Lin’s strongest defenders Scruggs.
Castle where he lived with his wife Katherine Klyce. and, as chairman of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial “The people who were his enemies were guys he
Fund, took a lot of the heat until the compromise to would argue philosophy or memorandums with,” he
Three days earlier, Wheeler had been scheduled to erect a statue of three soldiers nearby was worked said, adding that Wheeler’s death “is a mystery.”
take an Amtrak train from Washington to Wilmington out.
near his home when he disappeared without a trace. Wheeler, who served a tour in Vietnam as
Even this last journey is shrouded in mystery, police a general’s aide before retiring from the
say. “He was scheduled to take the train but we don’t military in 1971, fought hard to get the
know if he actually boarded the train,” said Lt. Mark memorial built because he was motivated
Farrall of the Newark Police Department. Although by the many West Point classmates he’d
it took several days before Wheeler’s body was lost in the war, said some who knew him.
identified, he was not reported missing by his family “John was one of the few people who
because his wife was out of town at the time of his understood what a central role the
disappearance, investigators say. memorial would play in the nation’s
Wheeler is best known as one of the main forces healing,” said Richard F. “Rick”
A6 U.S. NEWS
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Suicidal New York man leaps, but saved by garbage pile
that the trash hasn’t been since the storm. was severely depressed and
picked up,” Kapatos’ aunt Mayor Michael Bloomberg had spent a month in the
said on Monday. “But me, said he expects workers to be psychiatric ward at Bellevue
I’m thankful that it was never caught up with trash collection Hospital before being released
picked up.” by Friday. last week.
Police said the trash bags “It will take a few days to He also was worried about the
below broke Kapatos’ fall and catch up,” Bloomberg said. possibility of being evicted
that he left no suicide note “But they’re out there today from his $572-a-month rent-
before jumping. and hopefully in the next three stabilized apartment, she said.
The Department of Sanitation, to four days, we’ll be done Kapatos’ eviction hearing
which was only resuming with it.” was scheduled to proceed on
garbage collecting on Monday, Katharina Capatos, who spells Tuesday, according to the New
estimates 77,000 tons of trash her surname differently from York City Housing Court.q
have been left uncollected her nephew, told Reuters he
NEW YORK – A would-be from his apartment on TRAVEL APPS if I didn’t have Internet access. If I found my
suicide jumper in New York West 45th Street on Sunday Continued from Page A3 location, I could click through to see what else
was alive on Monday after afternoon, authorities said. It’s a great option for tech-savvy travelers who was nearby.
leaping from a ninth-floor Sanitation workers have don’t want to weigh themselves down, but it The new apps, the first of their kind for Fodor’s,
window but landing in a giant not collected trash since the seemed most useful to me when I knew where are not meant to replace the guidebooks,
heap of garbage uncollected December 26 storm dumped I was going and had a general sense of what I spokeswoman Meg Rushton said. The
since the city’s massive more than a foot and a half of wanted to do — be it shop, eat, or visit sites company so far has apps for four destinations
snowstorm a week ago. snow on the city. Mounds of such as Bryant Park. — London, Paris and San Francisco in addition
Vangelis Kapatos, 26, was garbage several feet high line If I were entirely new to my destination, to New York. “We know travelers like to have
hospitalized in critical but many sidewalks. however, I’d think twice before committing options and the ability to access info on varying
stable condition after jumping “Everybody is complaining solely to an app. Guidebooks are a joy to platforms,” she said. “And we know that
flip through; you get so many travel ideas, of different platforms carry with them different
places big and small, along with a sense of strengths, which we feel we’ve capitalized on.”
neighborhoods. When I have a trip ahead of It was fun to use the app when I climbed
me, I spend hours leafing through guidebooks, out of the subway and into Grand Central. I
jotting down ideas, and examining my options. appreciated being able to type in my destination
The application, for me, wasn’t as browser- and just click through to the page as I walked.
friendly as the book. It was very useful when I If I were using the guidebook, I would have
knew what I wanted to do, but less so if I was had to rush to the side, to get out of the way
just skimming the pages for ideas. There were of the crowd, then take out my book and find
many fewer photos, and fewer breakout sections it in the index. (Going to the side is key in any
that pull out little tidbits of information. The crowded New York area — just like pulling
application is more to the point, to get you what over on the highway.)
you need in a hurry without any clutter. (If you Both app and book list Grand Central as a top
want extra information, the app does provide site in Midtown, and both advised me to look up
links to take you to web pages.) It also makes at the ceiling of the main concourse to see the
it easy for you to bookmark sites for future constellations made from twinkling fiber-optic
reference. And if you’re using a version on the lights. Both also recommended experiencing
iPhone, you’re just a click away from dialing the thrill of rush hour.
that restaurant to snag a reservation. Retreat, then, to the staircases and climb to the
I used the app on an iPod Touch, which meant balconies to take in the whirl of people rushing,
no phone calls or web access for the “what’s dodging and weaving their way home. I climbed
nearby” feature unless I was in a Wi-Fi area. high enough that it was safe to take out that
Luckily, the application has offline maps so orange-labeled guidebook again. Or maybe it
I could still find out, generally, where I was, was time for another Scrabble move.q
LOCAL A7
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Bobby Farrell, Boney
Photo Exhibit to launch at Westin Aruba Art Gallery
M. and the Strange
Death of Rasputin
PALM BEACH - On Saturday
January the 8th The Westin
Tribute to
Aruba Gallery opens the
first solo exhibit of local
an Aruban photographer Annemiek
(Miki) van Vliet.
Miki is an amateur
ledgend photographer, who focuses
mainly on nature.
However, architecture is
also a favorite subject. She
likes taking on the more
scientific and journalistic
role of photography as social
document, visual record, and
tool of communication, but
still, very concerned with
beauty. She tries capturing
the decisive moment, when
unexpected visual congruities
reveal significant moods
and meanings; a moment
The disco ballad for which
that is not there the next.
Bobby Farrell became most
She calls herself a hobbyist
known was about a debauched
with an observant eye who
Russian mystic who came to
uses photography for factual
a bad end after dallying with
statement, for persuasion, in the hope of making others
the women of the Romanov
for entertainment, and for see as well, maybe if it is by
court during its final years.
personal expression, or in slowing down for a minute
So it was a sad and eerie
other words, as a graphic and really look at it and try to
irony that the sixty-one year
means of depicting the “real” see behind the façade instead
old performer who was the
world. With this exhibit she of
sole male member of Boney
wishes to share some of the rushing by in this hurried life
M. passed away Thursday
world’s beauty that some we lead.”
morning in city of the tsars on
may not have the opportunity The exhibit is freely accessible
the anniversary of the “Mad
to explore. every day of the week till
Monk’s” death. Farrell was
“If it captured my eye, even in February 4, in the Westin
found in his hotel room in St.
ruined and dilapidated state, Aruba Art Gallery. You are
Petersburg, after a Wednesday I must have seen beauty in it most welcome.q
night show that included a
and that is what I want to share
rousing “Ra- Ra- Rasputin.”
Farrell was born in Aruba.
He left home as a teenager
and made his way to Holland,
where he built a reputation as
a DJ and dancer. The German
music producer Frank Farian
recruited him for a group
that he was putting together
in 1976. Boney M. was a
curious entity. Comprising
three women also from the
Caribbean (Liz Mitchell and
Marcia Barrett from Jamaica
and Maizie Williams from
Montserrat), it featured Farrell
dancing and lip-syncing to
vocals provided by Farian
himself.
Continued on Page A10
A8 LOCAL LOCAL A9
Wednesday, January 5, 2011 Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Gift Exchange at the Radisson
enjoyed the spirit of mutual resort’s refresh this year and financial performance.
Palm Beach – Department
appreciation and camaraderie. for scoring high on all internal Pictured here, fun party
Heads and Managers got gift exchange at the Radisson
General Manager Rob Smith bench-mark indicators, moments, as the Radisson
together for an entertaining Aruba Resort Casino &
thanked his hard working measuring the resort’s level conducts a gift exchange in
Spa. The event was nicely
crew for assisting in the of guest satisfaction and the spirit of the holidays. 
catered by the resort’s Food
& Beverage department and
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A10 LOCAL
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Bobby Farrell, Boney M. and the Strange Death of Rasputin
to his former producer’s
annoyance. When not
traveling, Farrell lived in
a quiet neighborhood in
southeast Amsterdam.
Grigori Rasputin, the
legendary mystic the Boney
M. song celebrates, is said
to have strongly influenced
Russian Emperor Nicholas
II and his family in the final
days of his reign. Legends
grew up around Rasputin Moika River its arms were to burn; some eyewitnesses
after he survived several in an upright position, as if claimed that they saw it sit up
assassination attempts. he had survived the cyanide in the bonfire (this may have
The exact circumstances poisoning and multiple been caused by improper
surrounding his murder on shootings his autopsy preparation of the body).
the night of 29-30 December revealed and had been Farrell’s agent, John Seine,
Continued from Page A7 they suffered from internal 1916 have remained the trying to claw his way out told Reuters that he was
The producer, according to problems. subject of rumor and from under the ice. Tsarita not aware of any specific
German newspapers, feared The quarrels between speculation for nearly a Alexandra had the corpse medical problems that Farrell
that he was not attractive Farrell and Farian became century, inspiring persistent buried on the grounds of the had been suffering, although
enough for the stage. so intense that, according superstitions regarding his tsarist residence of Tsarskoye Seine reports that the singer
Boney M. became world to legend, they sometimes powers. Selo about twenty kilometers did complain of feeling
famous in the late 1970s shouted at each other during Some accounts claim that outside St. Petersburg. unwell on Wednesday night.
for such hits as “Rivers of live performances. In 1982 when Rasputin’s corpse Peasants later exhumed it The cause of his death has
Babylon,” “Daddy Cool,” Farian threw his frontman was recovered from the and dragged it to the woods not been disclosed.q
“Sunny” and “Brown out. Farrell, who was married
Girl in the Ring,” as well at the time to a Yugoslavian
as “Rasputin.” In 1978, model, tried to launch a
the group made a rare solo career that never took
promotional visit to the off. In 1984 Farian asked
Soviet Union. Although they Farrell to come back, but
were not allowed to include Boney M. dissolved soon
“Rasputin” on the album they after, for good. Since 1992,
released in Russia, they have Farrell, like the other group
remained popular in former members, has toured using
Eastern bloc countries. But the Boney M. name, much
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Wednesday, January 5, 2011