For The Record:

Mike: Jossy, I received an email this morning asking me about something they thought they heard in a television interview. It has to do with you having Joran Van Der Sloot followed, before the Holloway incident. Do you have any memory of such a thing?

Jossy: That question is way off base since I never had Joran followed by anyone! I never mentioned anything of the sort in any interview. People many times give reign to their imaginations and come up with unbelievable theories and ideas that do not conform to the reality. My loyalties to Aruba are unquestionable, but my loyalty with the truth has priority over everything else. I do not have any agendas, hidden or public; I just do my job as Director of the DIARIO.

Mike: There has been misinformation floating around on the internet for a long time about your background. Would you mind giving us a brief biographical sketch?

Jossy: I was born in Aruba in 1934. My father came from Venezuela in the year 1901, together with my grandfather, who emigrated from Lebanon to Venezuela in or around 1894. The exact date has not been established. They came to Aruba hidden in a fruit boat, to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the political persecutions that were going on at that time. (I believe Cipriano Castro was then in power).

I was born in Aruba and attended school at St. Dominicus College, where I finished the sixth grade. I then went to Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, when I was 14, to attend high school at St. Stanislaus, of the Sacred Heart Brothers, where I graduated in 1951. I then went on to Mobile Alabama, to attend college at Spring Hill College, of the Jesuit order. I graduated in 1954. I came back to Aruba and then traveled to Venezuela to find employment. I was hired by the Mobile Oil Company and stayed with them for 9 years as Safety Supervisor. I worked for the company in Barinas, Anaco and Puerto Cabello. In 1967 I came back to Aruba and remained here until now.

When in Venezuela I used to contribute many articles (of a literary nature) to El Universal, and published quite a lot of material (short stories, essays, etc.) in the best magazines of the country (Bohemia, Elite, etc.)

I started to write for a paper called Nobo, published in Curacao, then started my own section of a paper (EXTRA) with a friend from Curacao. Then I decided to start DIARIO more than 25 years ago, and was able to make it the largest (by far!) of the papers circulating in Aruba. Today it has over 89% of the market exclusively.

I started to publish books in Papiamento, English and Spanish, and have so far published 56 of them, including 4 dictionaries, 4 novels published in Cali, Colombia, the History of Aruba, and other fiction and non-fiction books. I am considered to be the most prolific writer in the history of the Netherlands Antilles, not only because of the quantities published, but also because of the quality.

That, my friend, is a brief summary of my schooling and literary activities.

Mike: Thank You Jossy!