By Susan - www.bsdme.info (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #695) on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 - 2:07 pm: |
Elvis Tjin has a face book page.
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By Grunt (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1081) on Thursday, May 6, 2010 - 12:32 pm: |
I always schedule my trips to Bonaire to avoid the cruise season.
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By Josie (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1459) on Thursday, May 6, 2010 - 3:25 pm: |
just sent my email. This really disgusts me...
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By Lloyd Haskell (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #546) on Thursday, May 6, 2010 - 3:46 pm: |
Bonaire is getting bigger and well known , you know what goes with that.
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By Carole Hibdige (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #3) on Thursday, May 6, 2010 - 4:34 pm: |
Not more cruise ships - I have sent my concerns to the tourist board.
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By bonaire ta den problema si abo no ta akt (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #141) on Thursday, May 6, 2010 - 4:38 pm: |
The only relevant thing is if your dive dollars are more than the dollars provided by the cruise ships.
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By elaine sculley (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1436) on Friday, May 7, 2010 - 4:06 am: |
if u think the tourist are destroying island now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!wait
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By Antony Bond (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #664) on Friday, May 7, 2010 - 7:11 am: |
I too have just written this open letter:
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By Jake Richter - Richter Art Gallery (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #6544) on Friday, May 7, 2010 - 9:46 am: |
Maybe it's worth mentioning that Elvis (the Minister quoted in the first post) is also the husband of the director of the Tourism Corporation Bonaire, Ronella Tjin Asjoe-Croes, who can be reached directly at gm@tourismbonaire.com
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By Carole Hibdige (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #4) on Friday, May 7, 2010 - 10:57 am: |
Here is a copy of my email to the Board of Tourism:
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By Vince DePietro-www.bonairebeachcondo.com (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #2986) on Friday, May 7, 2010 - 11:54 am: |
Thanks Carole for posting that..
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By Chris (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #236) on Friday, May 7, 2010 - 2:29 pm: |
Aruba and Curacao are on the 2011 schedule for the Carnival Miracle.
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By Gord Alder (Owner Seaside unit 101) (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #166) on Friday, May 7, 2010 - 2:40 pm: |
To whom it may concern
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By Jerry C Ligon (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #118) on Friday, May 7, 2010 - 8:24 pm: |
Tjin Asjoe wants Carnival Cruise Lines to visit Bonaire
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By Antony Bond (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #665) on Saturday, May 8, 2010 - 6:52 am: |
People may (as I have done) wish to contact the Cabinet of the Governor of the Netherland Antilles.
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By Antony Bond (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #666) on Sunday, May 9, 2010 - 4:54 am: |
Just a heads up. Sean will be raising this issue today on his Forum program at 12.00pm local time. www.megahitfm.com
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By Pauline Kayes (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #266) on Sunday, May 9, 2010 - 4:08 pm: |
Jerry, when I wrote my article in The Reporter in March on divers noticing the deterioration of the island and wanting to go elsewhere, Ronella Croes said she wanted to talk to me and hear these points of view. I never heard from her, and I doubt if she or her husband really care, either of them about the environmental damage all these cruisers are wreaking on Lac Bay, Klein Bonaire, etc.
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By Mel Briscoe (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #716) on Sunday, May 9, 2010 - 4:34 pm: |
Perhaps the new "owners" of Bonaire -- as of Oct 10 -- will be interested to learn of these events and attitudes and will be willing to clean house.
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By Lloyd Haskell (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #547) on Sunday, May 9, 2010 - 4:55 pm: |
In the long run the Cruise Company's can buy their way into any port they decide to put on their itinerary . They are almost as powerful as Oil Company's.
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By Glen Reem (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3218) on Sunday, May 9, 2010 - 7:30 pm: |
Is Ramoncito Boie's point of view on cruise ship visits stated anywhere?? He has seemed the more interested in the 'quality' of the island among the political party leaders. How about the other leaders?? Holland???
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By Jerry C Ligon (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #120) on Sunday, May 9, 2010 - 7:56 pm: |
Politicians of all ilk hate it when their quotes are recorded and replayed.
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By Bonaireisgreat (BonaireTalker - Post #94) on Sunday, May 9, 2010 - 9:53 pm: |
Well, if Bonaire would rather cruise ships vs. someone who visits Bonaire for 4-6 weeks a year (and there are MANY that have extended stays), this diver is off to another island
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By Glen Reem (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3219) on Sunday, May 9, 2010 - 10:19 pm: |
TKS, Jerry, for the words from 15 months ago.
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By Bonaireisgreat (BonaireTalker - Post #95) on Sunday, May 9, 2010 - 10:20 pm: |
Well I've written to TCB and hopefully it will do some good. The economic impact on increasing the cruise ships to Bonaire and loosing divers:
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By nò cruise barkunan (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #142) on Monday, May 10, 2010 - 12:53 am: |
Tjin Asjoe, my question to you, is this all worth it?
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By Susan - www.bsdme.info (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #696) on Monday, May 10, 2010 - 7:02 am: |
We have heard that TCB has implemented a questionnaire at the airport for views from stay over visitors to Bonaire. Supposedly they already have 1,000 filled out.
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By Bonaireisgreat (BonaireTalker - Post #96) on Monday, May 10, 2010 - 7:23 am: |
nò cruise barkunan, what actions do you suggest?
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By LaDonna * (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3798) on Monday, May 10, 2010 - 7:29 am: |
Susan, Yes when we left Bon on 4/18 my husband and I were approached as we sat in the departure lounge and asked if we were divers and would we fill out a questionaire. We both were happy to comply. They asked normal "touristy" type questions. I let my feelings be known that I didn't like the island being overrun by cruise ship traffic.
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By Susan - www.bsdme.info (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #697) on Monday, May 10, 2010 - 7:52 am: |
Thank you!
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By Bonaireisgreat (BonaireTalker - Post #99) on Monday, May 10, 2010 - 8:36 am: |
Response from TCB:
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By Freddie {Moderator} (Moderator - Post #941) on Monday, May 10, 2010 - 10:45 am: |
eddie and Bonaireisgreat, please post with your real names on this thread.
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By Pauline Kayes (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #267) on Monday, May 10, 2010 - 10:50 am: |
I think it is time to lobby for the removal of both Croes as head of TCB and Asjoe as Minister of Economic Affairs. Why? She has very little background or education in sustainable tourism and follows the Aruba-philosophy of tourism, which will never work on Bonaire. He has very little background, education, or knowledge on making a "green" economy work, which is what would make Bonaire prosper.
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By John Gnann (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #143) on Monday, May 10, 2010 - 12:51 pm: |
nò cruise barkunan wrote: "Very few divers will go elsewhere..."
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By nò cruise barkunan (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #143) on Monday, May 10, 2010 - 8:47 pm: |
Go somewhere else. I support that.
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By Pauline Kayes (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #268) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 7:15 am: |
that's why a little PR campaign aimed at divers coming to Bonaire might leverage some change. Just a flyer to pass out to all those customers on Delta, Continental etc. informing them of all the "ungreen" activities on Bonaire (from no sewage processing to over-running and deteriorating Lac Bay and Klein Bonaire with cruise passengers) might encourage them to boycott Bonaire until the government and tourist officials prioritize the healing of these reefs and not selling trinkets in the marketplace.
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By Leo Hoogenboom (BonaireTalker - Post #16) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 7:26 am: |
Sure Pauline, great idea. You go and pass out all those flyers.
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By Antony Bond (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #668) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 8:10 am: |
It's a hard thing to balance Leo.
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By Pauline Kayes (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #269) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 8:30 am: |
Antony, very well said. If those business folks like Leo are depending on tourists for a monthly salary, they might want to pressure the TCB and the government to invest in ecotourism for the long-term and not just short-term, "get rich" schemes for a very few people, like the owner of the Bonaire Gift Shop.
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By Lorraine Meadows (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1334) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 9:00 am: |
Sometimes it seems I am reading a chapter from "The Last Carnavale".
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By Leo Hoogenboom (BonaireTalker - Post #17) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 9:41 am: |
Next time when I post something it might be better if I introduce myself first.
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By Mickey McCarthy (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #841) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 10:58 am: |
Lorraine
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By nò cruise barkunan (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #144) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 3:16 pm: |
Unfortunately the head of the TCB and her economic minister husband want to Arubacize Bonaire, which will cause the collapse of diving tourism on Bonaire.
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By ***Ron Gould*** (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #2231) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 4:23 pm: |
Mickey, sorry to hear about your wife passing. It truly brings a tear to my eye... Ron
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By Freddie~~~~~~ Spring has Sprung ) (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #14366) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 4:27 pm: |
Hugs Mickey {{{{{{{{{{{{{}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} I am sorry for your loss,,,,
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By Menno (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #324) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 4:42 pm: |
On Aruba there are operators who run a 60 or more passenger snorkel-boat. They fill that boat every single day (maybe even multiple times per day) with folks who pay for looking at eeehhhh sand??? while bopping (??) around in yellow life-vests. They do that already for years and years and to me it looks as if they will keep on doing so for many more. So, I am kind of afraid that "no cruise barkunan" is sort of right that there always will be divers and/or snorkelers here. If they don't arrive by plane (anymore) - they will arrive by boat..... The only ones suffering then are the hotels and maybe the airport but that's all......
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By Lizard0924 (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #431) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 7:39 pm: |
Menno and the poster who changes his/her name regularly are right....Bonaire may change (for better or worse, depending on your viewpoint), but the dive industry won't collapse, it will simply evolve to meet the "new" demands.
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By Lorraine Meadows (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1335) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 9:14 pm: |
Mickey,
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By Lorraine Meadows (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1336) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 9:18 pm: |
Mickey, my condolences to you as well.
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By Chris (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #238) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 9:21 pm: |
Lorraine : Sparky Thorne : The Carnival never ends
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By Lloyd Haskell (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #551) on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 - 10:29 pm: |
Cozumel does alright and it use to be dirt roads in the 70s , as the songs says " Bon will survive "
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By Lorraine Meadows (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1337) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 8:28 am: |
That's it, close Thanks, Chris. (blonde moment)
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By Pauline Kayes (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #270) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 9:36 am: |
As long as there is no infrastructure to support all these cruisers (no sewage processing plant, no environmentally-sustainable landfill for garbage, etc.), it is folly to bring in even more people. I just hope Dutch officials being brought in to address infrastructure problems will solve them before the reefs are totally dead. It would be absurd to think that Scuba magazine would continue to depict Bonaire as a divers' paradise when the reefs are dead rubble.
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By Eric M. "CamMan" (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1088) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 10:59 am: |
Did I imagine it did someone from the island state that the year round cruise ship agenda would not increase cruise ship numbers overall for the year. They were going to spread the traffic out instead of having it all hit during the high season. Part of the goal here would be to decrease the reef damage by not hitting it so much all at one time.
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By michael gaynor (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4106) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 11:53 am: |
It is true if anyone cares to contact the Harbor Master and check the arrivals as compared to what we have just had.
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By michael gaynor (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4107) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 12:03 pm: |
Time to make a general comment..Yes, I do work as a consultant for the Dept of Tourism but have strong opinions about the economy of the island since I am also a business owner. One point I would like to make is that some of the statements directed at the officials from TCB and the government are disrespectful and while well intended, are not the Bonairean way of showing displeasure. Please if we could make our points but refrain from the disrespect, etc.
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By Pauline Kayes (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #271) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 4:41 pm: |
Michael, with all due respect what would be the Bonairean way of showing displeasure that would really result in action and not just more empty words? Take the sewage plant, for example--over 25 years of working on it, lots of words (as summarized so well by Jerry Ligon above) and still nothing.
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By Mickey McCarthy (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #842) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 4:55 pm: |
Lorraine
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By Glen Reem (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3220) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 5:48 pm: |
As Michael points out, things here become a little extreme.
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By Menno (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #325) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 7:57 pm: |
Being one of the persons who has his "hart on the tongue" and easily let my big mouth take over and react before thoroughly thinking the answer/reaction through, I would like to add to this discussion that showing disrespect, as you (Michael) and other officials like to name such reactions, may be triggered because these folks, me for one, are sick and tired to be lied to all the time. Ronella, in her function as TCB director, stated years ago that TCB is not in favor of mass-tourism but the facts show differently. Our government states for some 25 years by now that they are working on a sewage solution but the facts show differently. Respect. Hmmmm..... Nice word. In my book respect you need to earn. In my book you don't earn that by lying to me.
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By Glen Reem (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3221) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 8:53 pm: |
'The facts' show that Bonaire doesn't have a proper sewage system not that officials have not been working at it. How should they have funded it, Menno? Don't they need Curacao's cooperation in the legislature? Did they have it? My comment above on funding stands until someone on island shows me my information is wrong.
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By Menno (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #326) on Wednesday, May 12, 2010 - 9:34 pm: |
I don't know how they should have funded that but I am also not the one who mentioned to work on building one either. I just noticed that in the 10 years I live here now nothing has happened on that front. Sorry for calling such lying. I wonder; Why did they bring it up if they knew there was no way of getting it done. How should (or can) I call/name that without disrespecting someone????
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By Vince DePietro-www.bonairebeachcondo.com (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #2992) on Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 6:32 am: |
Glen..Personally, I would not use the words "small potatoes among world wide spills" in describing the ongoing event in the Gulf known as the Deep Water spill.
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By Jerry C Ligon (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #121) on Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 8:05 am: |
Bonaire had the funds, Euros, that were ready to be distributed within a financially secure framework to Bonaire, but, the island leaders decided to try for another referendum on our Holland-BES status. Their tactics were underhanded. They fired up the people by using remarks like "Colonists taking advantage of us", "too many Dutch would now come to Bonaire, and we would be overrun." I really think the 'leaders were afraid of the higher level of competition that would be generated by a more worldly view brought here by the Dutch. In other words, even their positions would be jeopardized when the new arrivals from Holland began to take part in the local government by filing for government positions. My two cents worth is that these leaders were more worried about their future that they were about what was good for Bonaire-like sewage plant, re-surfacing of the airport runways, road repairs, funds to upgrade education, police and security.
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By Vince DePietro-www.bonairebeachcondo.com (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #2993) on Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 10:16 am: |
Jerry.. I do think a lot of folks will agree with you! I am one of them.
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By Pauline Kayes (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #272) on Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 11:16 am: |
Jerry, let's just hope their fears become a reality--that there are some qualified people coming from Holland to replace the ones who have few qualifications for the jobs they hold--like in Economic Affairs, Selibon, etc.
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By Eric M. "CamMan" (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1105) on Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 11:50 am: |
Unfortunately, that seems to be the nature of people who seek public office. They typically do so out of ambition, rather than with a servant heart. So they make rules that benefit their own elitist lifestyle and leave the rest of us to pay for it and get no benefits from it.
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By Mel Briscoe (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #717) on Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 12:26 pm: |
Eric, I've lived and worked in Washington DC for 22 years, and have met a fair number of people who seek public office. I'd say there are good examples of what you say, but in general it is not true. If anything, they are TOO committed to being a public servant, because of an overabundance of self-confidence that they can make a difference for the better. Two things go wrong: (1) their sense of "better" may not match yours; and (2) they can't have any effect if they don't get reelected, so they end up doing and saying those things that keep them elected....which may not be the things that make a difference for the better.
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By Eric M. "CamMan" (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1106) on Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 12:35 pm: |
I think we just see the same problem from two different angles. Agree that the system is broke. Why, I guess is up for debate.
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By Glen Reem (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3222) on Thursday, May 13, 2010 - 1:09 pm: |
Jerry has the right reason (the new referendum desired by one political party for its's own purposes) for the recent pause in progress using the money newly available from Holland as part of the new alignment, which reinforces my point that before that there was little the island could do. Bonaire does have some good politicians who brought the change into place. Let's hope that good sense will prevail again.
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By Pietri Hausmann (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #416) on Saturday, May 15, 2010 - 11:26 am: |
the 2010-2011 schedule is out .. it begins September 25th with one ship then nothing until October 12 and ends may 4th ..so indeed for now it is not year around...Carnival lines is not coming to Bonaire in that time period ..
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By Pietri Hausmann (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #417) on Saturday, May 15, 2010 - 11:29 am: |
the 2010-2011 schedule is out .. it begins September 25th with one ship then nothing until October 12 and ends may 4th ..so indeed for now it is not year around...Carnival lines is not coming to Bonaire in that time period ..
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