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Greetings, Bonaire E-News Subscribers
and Readers!
Bonaire, January 21, 2000 - It
is with great regret that we announce
that this message is the final one you'll
be receiving from the staff of the Bonaire
E-News. Yes - you read the previous sentence
correctly. We are ceasing publication
of the Bonaire E-News, permanently, effective
immediately.
So, likely the big question in your mind
is "Why?"
The simple answer is that we're tired
of being made the scapegoat for Bonaire's
occasional (or on-going, depending on
the matter) problems, and then threatened
with all sorts of actions (legal, financial,
business, etc.) by certain portions of
the island's tourism industry for articles
we've published.
Last year, this behind-the-scenes uproar
happened several times. For example, when
we issued Bonaire E-News flashes about
the damage caused by the wave system which
battered a good part of the eastern shore
line of Bonaire. After that incident,
we felt like we were being made to blame
for the waves in the first place. Similarly,
we took a lot of heat reporting the first
purse snatching on the island.
And, this week, we've been blamed of
single-handedly destroying Bonaire's tourism
industry because we published a government
issued press release about Commissioner
Booi's meetings with the travel industry
at DEMA. We should note that this press
release was drafted based on a live on-radio
interview with Mr. Booi, and issued by
the government's public relations office.
Contrary to the assertions of several
people who have equated us to the anti-Christ
(or similar feared icon), we did
not make this story up, nor editorialize
it. In fact, at the same time we issued
the Bonaire E-News, Amigoe - an Antillean
newspaper with an on-line section (http://www.amigoe.com)
published a near identical article on
their Web site in Dutch. We guess the
Bonaire E-News is (was, actually) more
important than Amigoe, since we got the
flack and they didn't. And, of course,
threats have accompanied the wild accusations.
(We should note that none of these accusations
or threats have originated with the Bonairean
government - in fact, they are generally
very nice to us.)
And likely the same complaining and bemoaning
will happen when the same set of people
see our parting comments here, but we
feel our readers deserve an explanation
regarding the abrupt termination of their
free subscriptions.
Seeing as we've been faithfully publishing
the Bonaire E-News as an affair of the
heart, as volunteers, it's safe to say
that our hearts have gone out of the whole
deal. We moved to Bonaire to remove stress
from our lives, and the accusations, threats,
and general harassment we suffer every
few months from our reporting just aren't
worth the hassle anymore. We had two choices
to avoid this hassle - convert the Bonaire
E-News into a fluff publication which
doesn't address any real issues (which
would have been a betrayal of the honest
and honorable way in which we try to run
our daily lives), or just cease publication.
We chose the latter route, obviously.
On the bright side, for us anyway, is
that it will free up quite a number of
hours a week - hours we can use to dive,
bike, and otherwise enjoy all that Bonaire
has to offer, while we continue our regular
day jobs as owners and employees of Bonaire's
Official Web Site Developer, NetTech N.V.
(http://www.nettech.an
)
We believe that Bonaire and Bonaire's
tourism industry loses far more than it
gains from the cessation of the Bonaire
E-News, but that's just our opinion.
We ask that you please don't send us
any messages to ask us to reconsider our
decision - it's final; or to get more
information on why the Bonaire E-News
will no longer be published - we've disclosed
as much as we care to. Messages expressing
thanks, sympathy, or good riddance will
all be graciously accepted.
We'd like to leave you, our readers,
with a final few house cleaning items:
- The Bonaire E-News mailing list is
private and confidential, and will not
be sold or given in any form to anyone.
That means your address will not be given
to anyone by us, no matter how much they
beg. Similarly, the Bonaire E-News trademark,
domain, and name are also not for sale.
- Archives of all past Bonaire E-News
issues will remain available for searching
and reading on our Web site indefinitely,
as they always have been, at http://www.BonaireENews.com
.
- A few weeks ago we had ordered about
100 Bonaire E-News t-shirts (all sizes)
and a dozen polo shirts (XL and XXL),
which have been printed & stitched
and should be here on Bonaire within the
next two to three weeks. If anyone is
interested in these collector's items
of an era just gone by, let us know. T-shirts
are $10/each and Polos $30/each. Send
a note to: mailto:shirts@BonaireENews.com
to reserve or order one or more. We'll
post pictures on our Web site of the shirts
once they arrive in case you want to see
before you buy, so keep checking there.
- For local Bonaire readers of the E-News,
we will continue to update "The Movies
Bonaire" web pages at http://www.InfoBonaire.com/cinema
each week as the cinema provides us with
listings, so bookmark that location in
case you want to know what's playing.
- The monthly underwater clean-up, co-sponsored
by us and Green Submarine dive shop, continues
on February 6th, as well as the first
Saturday of each month after that. For
more details, visit http://www.GreenSubmarine.com
later next week (once we've added a page
about the clean-up).
- The latest Bonaire activities calendar
can be found at http://www.InfoBonaire.com/html/calendar.html
- it gets updated reasonably often.
- For Bonaire Tourism questions, complaints,
comments, etc. visit http://www.InfoBonaire.com
or contact mailto:info@tourismbonaire.com
for the government-owned Tourism Corporation
Bonaire or mailto:info@bonhata.org
for the private sector Bonaire Hotel and
Tourism Association.
- Should you want to have some people
knowledgeable about local dining, diving,
activities, events, shopping, and markets
join you for lunch or dinner when you
come down to Bonaire, we're available!
<grin>. Drop us a note at mailto:jakeandlinda@BonaireENews.com
before you come down, and we'll see if
we can meet up. We've greatly enjoyed
meeting a number of our readers over the
last 18 months we've been publishing the
Bonaire E-News, and look forward to making
new friends (assuming we're not forgotten
once the E-News stops appearing in your
mailbox).
- And, should you find yourself on Bonaire
on a January 1st of any upcoming year,
we throw an annual party at our house/office,
and all our subscribers are invited. Drop
us a note for information at mailto:jakeandlinda@BonaireENews.com
.
Thank you all for your support and for
reading the Bonaire E-News for the last
year and a half - for the most part it's
been quite enjoyable, and we've appreciated
all the feedback we've received directly
from our readers during that time as well
as the new friends we've made as a result.
Sincerely,
Jake & Linda Richter
Kaya Rotterdam 2
Bonaire, Neth. Antilles
mailto:jakeandlinda@BonaireENews.com
Phone: +599-717-6773
FAX: +599-717-7854 or US 212-652-5089
(Internet FAX)
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Bonaire E-News - Copyright
(c) 2000 by Jake & Linda Richter -
All Rights Reserved.
"Bonaire E-News" and "InfoBonaire"
are trademarks of Jake & Linda Richter
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