Okay, I've been following the pissing matches on this thinking it would be useless to spend any real time and thot trying to address the multifaceted and growing crime problem. The island defenders are so dug in and poised to portray their paradise as one with understandable and acceptable petty crime issues that I doubt that any of those will want to consider differing views based on secondary research, but nonetheless - I'll offer some points. Diverbart offered some info that I had actually mentioned early here, about changes in the local governments, their association with The Netherlands, etc. and I'm glad he did. And yeah, crime is worse across much of the Caribbean, with the large number of island countries unable to offer a unified approach to the various facets. Some other destinations have more gated resorts or Mexico is quick to defend the Mayan Riviera that the Bank of Mexico (national treasury) developed just to attract tourism, but Bonaire seems to be still playing catch up - yet it just ain't about petty crime anymore and some of us have to wonder how bad it can quickly get? This in addition to the generally accepted petty crime on tourists that would not be allowed at some many other destinations, as so many others protect tourists from such so they won't lose our business - but this place doesn't bother, in part because some keep going anyway, in part because of the lack of national response, in part because of limited Dutch involvement, and so forth.
Now much of the crime increase across the Caribbean has also been associated with the bad company kept in the international drug trade, much of that headed for the US. Personally, I can see several reasons to decriminalize those drugs, let the fools who insist on using them go for it, destroy the crime organizations that currently keep doing whatever it takes to get it delivered, and stop wasting money trying to control the
mythological hydra. Let Darwin's Laws run their courses. Too many political, law, prison, and church careers depend on our continuing a war we lost long ago tho, so that won't happen we know. How does this affect the ABCs? Bonaire may well be less affected than Curaçao, but it's not immune so the overflow effect so let's keep in mind how big of a problem exists there, as well as how easily it can spread thru association.
This article is several years old, but the situation hasn't changed much. Really in interesting read. A few excerpts from
Drug Trade: Holland's Cocaine Highway - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International
It's 9:50 a.m. on a Sunday morning at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. KLM Flight 785 from Curaçao has just landed. Customs officials call it the cocaine flight...
...those caught usually face no consequences whatsoever. And that's why the searches do not serve as a deterrent.
Each year, at least 20,000 kilos of cocaine are transported by the so-called "cocaine coolies" along their preferred route between the Netherlands Antilles and Amsterdam's airport. Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner estimates the supply coming in through Schiphol covers at least half of Europe's demand.
...up to three kilos of hard drugs are tolerated in the Netherlands. Anyone who remains below this critical threshold is sent back home without prosecution. And, of course, every smuggler receives a proper receipt from the authorities if he gets caught so he can prove that he hasn't simply sold it on his own. To be put the three kilo rule in perspective, that mass is a hundred times the amount for which the death penalty is imposed in Singapore.
Most of the cocaine is imported from the South American mainland. The trip from the Colombian coast to the ABC islands takes only about three to four hours by speedboat. Until it's ready to be delivered, the cocaine remains hidden under water in watertight packets attached to fishing boats in Willemstad harbor.
(But it's really worth reading in its entirety.)
That's in addition to the drugs headed for the US thru there. From
2009 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR)
Netherlands Antilles. The islands of the Netherlands Antilles (NA) (Curacao and Bonaire off Venezuela and Saba, Sint Estates, and Sint Maarten east of the U.S. Virgin Islands) continue to serve as northbound transshipment points for cocaine and increasing amounts of heroin coming from South America; chiefly Colombia, Venezuela, and to a much lesser extent, Suriname
So aside from stealing your camera out of your parked vehicle, there is a growing increase of other crimes continuing to develop there, and the echoes spread far and wide. Most of the crime in the US is directly or indirectly fueled by drug crimes, and it's spreading there too - sometimes simple with increased skills and boldness in the criminal element.
So we see more petty crimes, but you say don't take anything.
And we see more burglaries of properties that were not originally planned to deal with a thread that didn't exist when many of them were built, but you say store all the valuables in safes.
And we see something new now, burglaries of properties with sleeping people in them! :shocked2: How did those happen? Yeah good shore diving and good beer can make for sound sleeping, but damn...?!
Folks, scopolamine ain't just for sea sickness. Try a new google search for
scopolamine crime and read about its darker side. There have been many other dark uses coming out of the continent almost in sight of the ABCs, but here is one excerpt from one article
Scopolamine - Drug information from Medic8.com
In Colombia a plant admixture containing scopolamine called Burundanga has been used shamanically for decades. In recent years its criminal use (as outlined above) has become an epidemic. Approximately fifty percent of emergency room admissions for poisoning in Bogota have been attributed to scopolamine. Also in Caracas, Venezuela, crime related to burundanga techniques has multiplied in the last years.
Now where were those drugs coming from again? The network is not just about delivery schedules; they spread a lot of things, skills, attitudes, etc.
And you want everyone to wear old T-shirts and mismatched flip flops, then put your cameras and cell phones in the safes. Sure, right...!
.....safety should come first after all.
