Rental Truck Vandalized

[Mike]

Bold emphasis mine.

1.) Nobody likes being the victim of crime. This especially true if it's a tire, battery, etc..., and leaves you stranded somewhere, even though you followed the recommendations to leave nothing personal of value & doors were unlocked and windows down. That sort of crime seems a good deal less common, or so is the impression I get. I think we'd all agree that's bad news, and not something the diver can practically avoid.

2.) But I think what I bolded above is the real crux here. Bonaire is not a place to leave stuff like that in the truck unattended unless you don't mind losing it occasionally to thieves. The dive vacationer has the option to not make him subject to this crime by not leaving the stuff in the truck while diving. There seems to be a sentiment that Bonaire should go to the trouble, expense, whatever, to 'secure' west coast shore diving to enable those people to bring this stuff and leave it unattended, even though it's unnecessary and provides an incentive for the crime.

I imagine the government would believe the simplest, least expensive option would be for the divers to do what they're advised to do now. It would be like me complaining that if the police in the U.S. would do their job, I could leave our house door unlocked & keep more of my stuff out in the front yard in plain sight. Yes. But I don't think the local government is going to prioritize that.

I get that human beings want to do what they want to do. Sure, I'd like to bring a pocket camera & leave it in the truck to take snap shots on land, separate from my camera in a housing used on dives. But I know not to. If I do want to bring drinks and a few PB&J sandwiches or a few apples, I can freeze a couple of plastic jugs of water the night before, stick the sandwiches in a bag under the seat, and go. If someone happens to take the sandwiches (nobody's bothered our water yet), it's annoying, but not that huge a deal.

I would imagine the government might also decide that those who are determined that 'something should be done' could go as a group, and at each site, one person sits the dive out and hangs out at the truck. Instead of hoping random police patrols, sting operations, etc...deter crime from your truck, you know your truck is safe.

3.) I imagine the trickle down effect may be best served under the current system. While the grocery stores might like the cooler/picnic idea, the restaurants and gas stations probably don't mind hungry divers away from the hotel, but close to their businesses, or just driving around burning a bit more gas. And the dive resorts might like you doing your relaxing siesta back at the resort, preferably at their bar.

And the price of gas on Bonaire? Now there's a robbery situation I suspect we could agree on...

Richard.

Crime is good I guess is what it all boils down to then. Safety, security the unencumbered pursuit of happiness is over-rated.

Only on scubaboard.

 

[agilis]

I've been to Bonaire four times; once in the mid-70s, twice in the 90s, and most recently 6 years ago. I have no plans for any additional trips. The deterioration of the reefs and the marine life there has been extreme, though it's still a lovely place with great shore dives. Of course, all of the Caribbean has deteriorated over the past few decades to a roughly equivalent degree, and for basically the same reasons.

The thing that does not seem to be fully understood by many visitors is how very different Bonaire is when compared to most Caribbean islands. Its entire economy, it very existence, is tied to scuba diving tourists and the occasional cruise ship visit. There is almost nothing else. Tourists are seen by most residents of Bonaire in the same negative way that most low-level hotel staff regard vacationers.

There are about 15,000 permanent residents whose financial situation is extremely precarious. The population has been growing at the same time that the number of tourists has been declining. An increasingly large segment of the population has no real financial future. To a certain extent the strict environmental rules that attempt to protect the island's reefs are perceived as foreign control and partly responsible for the island's economic misery, especially by unemployed young people. That this may not be completely true is irrelevant.

I have been to several Caribbean islands at least as poor as Bonaire, but none with the constant and virtually open thievery that seems to exist there. I visit Dominica frequently, and have never had anything stolen from vehicles parked on remote beaches while I spent several hours in the water. In fact, once I found a towel I thought I'd lost on a previous visit to a beach there folded on the roof of my unlocked 4WD Suzuki the next time I drove to that remote snorkeling site. Though they seldom approach me, some local fisherman who spend their afternoons drinking white rum in a small nearby cemetery have always been distantly friendly.

Bonaire, in my limited experience, has a very different 'vibe', one that I find sufficiently unpleasant to offset the attractions of the marine park. To assert that the systematic theft from tourist vehicles used to access shore diving is just the normal behavior to be expected in the third world, or somehow the fault of the tourists, is disingenuous and unreasonable. The parked vehicles are, I think, seen as a resource to be exploited.

 

[T.C.]

Thanks, DiverVince. Congrats on the retirement. You are living my dream.

Good advice all around. Thanks for mentioning how those who break the rules and give positive reinforcement to criminals are hurting us all.

And lastly;

My recommendation is to be pro active and do not be lulled into the fallacy that you're in paradise.

Good advice that someone could use.

Crime is good I guess is what it all boils down to then. Safety, security the unencumbered pursuit of happiness is over-rated.Only on scubaboard.

Wow. You really had to contort yourself for that one.

No one has said crime is good or acceptable.
No one has said safety is overrated.
No one has said security is overrated.

Only in Colorado (or Washington state).

In fact, we've said just the opposite- Be Safe, by following the rules and exercising common sense. You want to make people less secure by advocating that they be able to throw away their common sense while on vacation. If your idea of unencumbered happiness is to bring expensive toys and gew-gaws to an unattended remote site where you'll be gone for over an hour, then you'd best purchase your own private island, far from other humans. Because such place does not exist where other humans are.

People will be people, and despite thousands of years of laws and morales against it, crime still happens. You cannot EVER change human nature. All you can do is lessen your exposure to the bad sides of it.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I wouldn't leave a cooler full of lunch and cold drinks in the bed of a pickup truck parked anywhere. Not when I go hiking at our local state park, not on the street in any US city, not at Disneyland. Whether stuff gets stolen depends mainly on how low the fruit hangs and how hungry the people are. I can imagine basically honest folks--people like you and me--being tempted to grab a cold drink from someone's cooler if they're thirsty enough and think they can get away with it. Speaking literally of fruit trees, I've helped myself to an apple off some farmer's tree on occasion, and that was theft. It's a continuum, not a matter of crime is "bad" here but "not bad" there, people are desperate here but well off there, etc.


agilis, interesting thoughts. There is definitely complex combination of factors in play on Bonaire.

 

[lmorin]

Crime is good I guess is what it all boils down to then. Safety, security the unencumbered pursuit of happiness is over-rated.

Only on scubaboard.

I am sorry for you that you miss the point.

 

[Mike]

I wouldn't leave a cooler full of lunch and cold drinks in the bed of a pickup truck parked anywhere.

Me make picture to explain better since wordz no work no more



Understand now?

 

[Lorenzoid]

Oh, so you roll up the windows and lock the doors of the pickup truck in order to keep the cooler safe. Good idea in some places, and likely to result in a smashed window in others. Anyway, I thought you objected to taking any sort of measures to deter theft? From what you've been saying, I got the impression you will only be satisfied in Utopia where you can feel free to leave anything anywhere without risk of theft.

 

[Mike]

Boy, oh boy...

Simplest way to reply to comments by someone else, is first to read them slowly enough to understand them so you can reply in context, so if you like go back and read the reply you were referencing and start over, and then we can talk intelligently to each other, right now you're off on your 2nd derivation from the original statement.

 

[gypsyjim]

Oh, so you roll up the windows and lock the doors of the pickup truck in order to keep the cooler safe. Good idea in some places, and likely to result in a smashed window in others. Anyway, I thought you objected to taking any sort of measures to deter theft? From what you've been saying, I got the impression you will only be satisfied in Utopia where you can feel free to leave anything anywhere without risk of theft.

Actually, I think the message is that crime is tolerable, even acceptable anywhere, except on Bonaire. On Bonaire you should be able to leave your Rolex President with the diamond dial on the dash of your locked truck all day long, and expect it to remain untouched.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Boy, oh boy...

Simplest way to reply to comments by someone else, is first to read them slowly enough to understand them so you can reply in context, so if you like go back and read the reply you were referencing and start over, and then we can talk intelligently to each other, right now you're off on your 2nd derivation from the original statement.

My intent wasn't to directly reply to the post about the cooler, if that's what you're saying. I was using the mention of a cooler filled with cold beverages as a good example of something that is likely to tempt fate even in the safest of places. If my comment was in reply to anything, I suppose it would have been this statement of yours: "Safety, security the unencumbered pursuit of happiness is over-rated." Nowhere can we expect to be completely unencumbered, free to leave our things anywhere we want. Rather, we do what is sensible under the circumstances to thwart temptation. Since you leave your cooler inside the cab of the truck, it appears that even you take some measures.