Korsu
Contributor
There has always been some jealousy between the islands of the Lesser "Dutch" Antilles. That was one of the reason that lead to Aruba breaking away. Curacao by far being the largest island, always had the governmental seat in Willemstad for the Dutch Antilles and thus the sense that all things have to go through Curacao. Of course very little of import occurs without oversight from Holland (that ultimately controls the purse strings).
10/10/10 is supposed to be the date of the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles (we shall see).
At that time Bonaire will become a special municipality of Holland. Bonaire will switch to the dollar as of 1/1/11.
Curacao will become a "constituent state" of Holland, somewhat along the lines of Aruba.
How any of this affects Bonaire remains to be seen. The dollar conversion, some think may actually add to further poverty and increase petty crime. The Dutch government, as with most of Europe, has its hands full and there is increasing sentiment to take care of things at home and stop pouring money into Bonaire and Curacao. So I wouldn't hold your breath for any drastic changes on the island in the immediate future. A lot depends on the political climate in Holland.
The Scuba Board has had endless discussions about crime in Bonaire. It is not going to go away any time soon. We are not going to change the "Papiamento" culture. If that bothers you as a traveler, then don't go there. If you are street smart, chances are you will enjoy the island and it's diving without major incident. By now, everybody should know about traveling to Bonaire with eyes open, which frankly is true for most of the Caribbean.
