Bonaire going down the drain??

[Bas Noij]

HI,
20 billion (million over here) is the amount to be spend according to a German member of the EU parliament I met recently. Payments are based on i.e. 8th & 9th European Development Plans. I am currently chasing this guy to get a detailed cost breakdown for the money spent/to be spend. Once I get it you will receive all information I have.
Whatever way you look at it, our tax money is certainly not meant to be spend for projects on Bonaire.

Hey mister knowitall....billion and million are two completely different things. You must be thinking of 'milliarden' in German which is billion in English.

 

[rye_a]

HI,
20 billion (million over here) is the amount to be spend according to a German member of the EU parliament I met recently. Payments are based on i.e. 8th & 9th European Development Plans. I am currently chasing this guy to get a detailed cost breakdown for the money spent/to be spend. Once I get it you will receive all information I have.
Whatever way you look at it, our tax money is certainly not meant to be spend for projects on Bonaire.

I hate to add to this asinine thread, but let's check these facts. First of all, the Euro is currently trading at $1.45, so 20 billion Euros = $29 billion. Considering that the latest census puts the population of Bonaire at 15,800, this would mean that the EU is planning to invest $1,933,333 per resident. Maybe I should move there...

Now, let's look at the assertion that this is all to be used for road construction. It costs somewhere in the range of $200 to $250 per linear foot to construct a two lane asphalt road in the U.S. If it were to cost $350 per foot to build the same road in Bonaire, $29 billion would build approximately 15,700 miles of road. With an overall North to south length of 24 miles, the newly constructed roads could criss-cross the island 654 times, which I'm pretty sure would pave all of Bonaire and Klein Bonaire to boot.

Two suggestions:

1. Don't believe everything that a politician tells you.
2. "Make" your own dang homework.

 

[gypsyjim]

Maybe the intention is to pave in gold bullion?

 

[JeffG]

wow this has been quite a post, and i have definitely held my tongue and not commented, but REALLY?!?! 20 billion EUROS just to pave the roads in Bonaire.. i mean jeez for 20 billion euros they could pave the wole damn island.. me thinks you exaggerate Mitridate, but if not please share where you got this info...

I was just there and the roads are pretty bad. LOL

Even if it is going down the drain. I enjoyed my first trip and already planning the second.

 

[gypsyjim]

I like the roads on Bonaire. Must be something wrong with me, but Bonaire is just great as it is. Perfect? No place , or person is perfect, but Bonaire sure does not need a US style highway system to get to the shore dive sites, IMO.

 

[JeffG]

I like the roads on Bonaire. Must be something wrong with me, but Bonaire is just great as it is. Perfect? No place , or person is perfect, but Bonaire sure does not need a US style highway system to get to the shore dive sites, IMO.

Nothing wrong with you. I had no problem with them. But the good women wasn't impressed with the roads in the Washington Park. I had to turn around and skip out of dodge. LOL

 

[Mossman]

I like the roads on Bonaire. Must be something wrong with me, but Bonaire is just great as it is. Perfect? No place , or person is perfect, but Bonaire sure does not need a US style highway system to get to the shore dive sites, IMO.

I'd be quite happy with a decent road back from Karpata versus the round-the-island or the scary shortcut alternatives, but not if it costs billions. For billions, I'd expect a security guard at every dive site so I don't have to worry about someone stealing my bottle of water and they could hire professional lion fish hunters to patrol the reefs. In fact, I'd apply for the latter job if they paid well and with billions to spend, of course they can pay well. (With all those billions, I'll probably get a really cool uniform/wetsuit too, I can't wait!)

 

[tflaris]

I like the roads on Bonaire. Must be something wrong with me, but Bonaire is just great as it is. Perfect? No place , or person is perfect, but Bonaire sure does not need a US style highway system to get to the shore dive sites, IMO.

Less is better in Bonaire. Leave it like it is.

3 time visitor.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[CuracaoJ]

I live in Curacao, and read our local (Bonaire/Curacao/Aruba) paper every day. I can assure you there has not been one mention of Holland, much less the EU (which has nothing whatsoever to do with us) spending anywhere near that amount of money on any of the islands. I can't find the annual budget online, but that figure would represent 7,401 times the amount of money spent on the police and the justice department of Aruba. In other words, nothing short of absurd.

Mu .02 psi.

Safe diving,
Jeff

 

[mitridate]

I hate to add to this asinine thread, but let's check these facts. First of all, the Euro is currently trading at $1.45, so 20 billion Euros = $29 billion. Considering that the latest census puts the population of Bonaire at 15,800, this would mean that the EU is planning to invest $1,933,333 per resident. Maybe I should move there...

Now, let's look at the assertion that this is all to be used for road construction. It costs somewhere in the range of $200 to $250 per linear foot to construct a two lane asphalt road in the U.S. If it were to cost $350 per foot to build the same road in Bonaire, $29 billion would build approximately 15,700 miles of road. With an overall North to south length of 24 miles, the newly constructed roads could criss-cross the island 654 times, which I'm pretty sure would pave all of Bonaire and Klein Bonaire to boot.

Two suggestions:

1. Don't believe everything that a politician tells you.
2. "Make" your own dang homework.

My suggestion, read all mails, including my corrections, before coming up with b...****.
Nobody is perfect, but at least I admit that I made a mistake. I got confused over the unusual American way of counting (hardly anybody else does it that way), and I corrected the figure. Apparently not acceptable to certain Americans, but what is acceptable to people like you unless it is American

Keep on living in your "awesome" ivory tower and do us all a great favor, don't move to Bonaire, the place has suffered already too much to deal with another disaster