Talk:Netherlands Antilles

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Contents

[edit] accurate?

Both size and population of the Netherlands Antilles are some more than half those of Zeeland.

Is this accurate? The area of the Antilles is given as 960 sq km in the article, Zeeland is 2683 sq km according to [1]. But maybe the latter includes a lot of water? ( 11:53, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)

According to [2] almost 1140 sq km of 2930 is water, leaving 1790 sq km land. So the comparison seems ok ( 11:58, 26 Aug 2003 (UTC)

[edit] "Discovery"

Were there people in the Netherlands Antilles prior to the arrivals of Columbus and de Ojeda? If so, we can't say they "discovered" or suggest they were the initial settlers of the islands. Beginning 16:19, Sep 5, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Wikipedia:Caribbean Wikipedians' notice board

I would like to announce the establishment of the Wikipedia:Caribbean Wikipedians' notice board. Anyone with an interest in the Caribbean is welcome to join in. Guettarda 1 July 2005 13:37 (UTC)


[edit] Het Wilhelmus

Before you put Het Wilhelmus out of the infobox,the Netherlands Antilles is an dependent area of The Netherlands,and therefore Het Wilhelmus is also an official national anthem,and that also counts for Aruba.

It's not a dependent area of the Netherlands, it's an autonomous part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, of which the Netherlands is the European part and the Antilles and Aruba are the Caribbean parts. The Wilhelmus is only the anthem of the European part of the kingdom. Aecis 09:11, 14 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Confirmation: Curaçao and Sint Maarten are to leave the Neth. Ant.

Reaching out to the Caribbean Monday, December 19, 2005 http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2005/12/19/out.shtml

[. . .] (quote)

Mr. Alex Rosaria, Minister in charge of Economic and Labour Affairs opened the conference and talked about the position of the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean as part of the geographic region with a common history, an equal present and a future in which each island has an important role to play in the Caribbean region.

Mr. Rosaria emphasized that the Netherlands Antilles is on the verge of profound constitutional changes. Sint Maarten and Curaçao are about to become autonomous countries in the Dutch Kingdom.

(/quote)

CaribDigita 18:56, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

Two questions:
  1. Will Sint Eustatius, Sint Maarten and Bonaire become integral parts of the Netherlands now, similar to e.g. Guadeloupe? IIRC, something like Kingdom Islands had been proposed as the name...
  2. Has there been any specific date? The only thing I've read was "before July 2007", which doesn't really say too much about when exactly it'll happen...
Thanks! ナイトスタリオン ✉ 19:51, 19 December 2005 (UTC)
Interesting this! Does this mean that these "Kingdom Islands" will be (re-)integrated into the Netherlands and become EU territory, while the two others are loosening their ties with the Metropole even more than what Aruba has done? Has there been any talk of federation, similar to what the British West Indies had at one point? //Big Adamsky 17:23, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
The working date for the constitutional changes is July 1, 2007, although the responsible minister in the Netherlands stated that in his point of view this is too early. The constitutional changes provide the creation of two more countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands (it now consists of Aruba, NA and Netherlands, it will consist of Aruba, Curacao, Sint-Maarten and Netherlands) and the creation of three Kindom Islands (Saba, Sint-Eustatius and Bonaire), these Islands will be represented in the Kingdom Government by the Netherlands, and become kind of part of the Netherlands. It is likely that these islands will get the same status as the French overseas departments in the EU, the status of Outermost regions[3]. NA and Aruba now have the status of Overseas countries and territories [4]. There is also a good chance that Aruba, Sint-Maarten and Curacao will get the status of Outermost regions, because that status has some economic advantages. But it is on the islands to decide. A recent report by the Dutch government states that changes in the status are possible. Sint-Maarten will be able to introduce the euro if the island changes status, so that one currency is used on the island instead of two. Maartenvdbent 20:50, 21 December 2005 (UTC)
St. Maarten: Voting steady for new Parliament According to this article the Netherlands Antilles should become history around July 2007.

[edit] Drug trafficking

If anyone can provide a reference to how the economy and drug trafficking relates to each other, then you are more than welcome to put that back in, but for now I've removed it from the first paragraph. Leftist 04:10, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Same-sex marriage

Is same-sex marriage legal in the Netherlands Antilles? I imagine it would be, considering that it is on the mainland. Should something about it go in the article?Hihellowhatsup 05:51, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

Same-sex marriage in the NA is not legal. However, since every "authentic act" from one part of the kingdom is legal everywhere in the kingdom, and marriage is an "authentic act", it will only be a matter of time before same-sex marriages will be recognised in the NA. However, it will probably remain illegal to perform same-sex marriages in the NA locally. Shinobu 16:53, 3 March 2006 (UTC)
See: "First same-sex couple registered on Aruba (in Dutch)

[edit] Proposed WikiProject

There is now a proposed WikiProject for the Caribbean area, including Anguilla, at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Caribbean. Interested parties should add their names there so we can determine if there is enough interest to start such a project in earnest. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 17:02, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Marijuana

From "Future Status", I've removed marijuana. It was mentioned alongside same-sex marriage and prostitution as legal on the mainland. However, in The Netherlands it's still illegal to import, grow, sell and own marijuana, but ownership is tolerated (this does not mean it's legal) in most cases when for personal use and in quantities below 5 grams. However, marijuana's illegal status has been used by courts to convict some owners of small quantities in special cases. I feel reluctant to introduce all of this in an article that is not about marijuana, and chose to rather remove it than to explain and ruin the flow and the focus of the article. So: does marijuana need to be mentioned, you think? In case, can it be done in a short way? Wurdnurd 12:52, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, it could be mentioned as "tolerance" for marijuana use, since laws regarding cannabis are far more strict than they are in the mainland of the Netherlands.Hihellowhatsup 23:44, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Official languages

Isn't English the/an official language of the three northerly islands? Dedden 18:24, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Date of the Breakup, and Municipality Status

Wasn't the breakup supposed to be for July 1, 2007? Why then the delay by nearly a year and half? And am I understanding the municipality status of Bonaire, Saba, and St. Eustasius correctly in that they will be separate political entities from each other? They will NOT form one political entity known as the "Kingdom Islands", and they will NOT either join with an existing province or form their own province? Inkan1969 22:37, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

The delay is because that July 1 date was way too early. The term Kingdom Island for Saba, St Eustatius and Bonaire will not be used because it sort of implies that they will become separate entities within the Kingdom of the Netherlands (like the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten are countries within that Kingdom). Instead, they will become special municipalities of the Netherlands, one of the countries of the Kingdom. It is unsure at this moment whether the special municipalities will join a province (Noord-Holland and Zeeland have offered to integrate these islands within their provinces), will form a new province together, or simply will not join or form a province at all (this is well possible, before the founding of the province of Flevoland the municipality of Lelystad for instance did not belong to any province). However, in the Netherlands the provinces elect the Eerste Kamer (Senate), so there must be invented another way to elect this body if the islands will not join a province. Maartenvdbent 13:22, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Area?

This article states the total area as 960 km2, which agrees with the CIA Factbook. Adding the individual island areas, however, gives 800 km2, which agrees with various sources including the Stateman's Yearbook, World Gazetteer, and the Encyclopedia Britannica. It wouldn't seem that the disrepency could be attributed to the area of inland water, but I suppose that's possible. What's the deal? GorillaTheater 15:43, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

The CIA Factbook is probably wrong. The official number can be found here (800 km²). --Polaron | Talk 23:11, 8 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Languages

I noticed that this English wikipedia article on the Netherlands Antilles makes little mention of the various languages spoken on the islands. If one looks at the Dutch (Nederlands) wikipedia article for the Netherlands Antilles, there is an entire section devoted to language which essentially states: "the official languages of the Netherlands Antilles are Dutch, English and Papiamento. Papiamento, the most widely spoken language in the Leeward islands (Bonaire and Curacao or ABC islands), is a Creole language based on Portuguese or Spanish, with much Dutch and also English and French influences. On the Windward islands (Saba, Statia and St. Maarten or SSS islands) English the is the most widely spoken language. The schools were always Dutch-speaking, but after some years it had been decided in the primary schools to introduce Papiamento and English as education languages. The middle schools remain Dutch-speaking, because they make use of the same central written final examinations as in the Netherlands and because many schoolchildren will follow higher education after middle school in the Netherlands. Antillean literature has been mainly written in the Dutch and Papiamento, but also for a small part in English and Spanish." It then goes on to show a sortable table the most widely spoken languages in the home as percentages of the population for the islands. The table seems alright, except not all the figures add up to 100%. For example the figures for Bonaire and St. Eustatius add up to 101% and the figures for the total add up to 99%, but that might be because the figures reflect a small number of people who use more than one language regularly. Overall though the table shows what the the text had outlined before with 75% of the population of Bonaire and 81% of the population of Curacao speaking Papiamento, while 68% of the population of St. Maarten, 83% of St. Eustatius' population and 88% of Saba's population speak English. So, should the section on language from the Dutch article be included in this article?72.27.81.161 22:10, 20 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Referendum section

I have trimmed down the prose (too wordy) in the referendum section and instead have opted for the tables. I hope this helps. - Thanks, Hoshie 10:46, 30 July 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Venezuelan claim

According to this article (in Dutch, sourced by ANP), Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez recently said he wants the northern Venezulean border investigated. According to Chávez, everything within a 200 nautical mile radius should be regarded Venzuelean territory -- the Netherlands Antilles are of course well within that area. Any thoughts on this, any other sources and should we mention it in the article? unsigned, apparently by 87.210.195.174 Oh,sorry, "it was I,SQB" but not logged on.

The Amigoe carried that story on the front page today. If we include it, it should be in weak form. Chavez makes such claims periodically, but shows no real intention of acting on them. Since Holland is a member of NATO, invading us would invite NATO retaliation, not something that Chavez really wants. Kww 20:40, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reform

Is the expected government reform mentioned in the article? That the Antilles are planned to become a province again. Mallerd (talk) 15:44, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps you should read the article. Over half of the text is devoted to that topic.Kww (talk) 16:30, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
Why do I recieve such a reply to a normal question? A simple "yes" would do better instead of this. Mallerd (talk) 19:42, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
Why do you ask such questions? You can read for yourself that it is in the article, there's no need for asking. Maarten (talk) 21:20, 10 December 2007 (UTC)
So it is, but that doesn't mean questions should be treated disrespectful, does it? Such behavior refrains people from asking questions. So, SORRYYYYY for asking...Mallerd (talk) 13:46, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
I would just like to point out that I wasn't rude or disrespectful to you. I answered your question, and pointed out a more direct way that you could have received the information.Kww (talk) 13:53, 11 December 2007 (UTC)