As Juliet so aptly put it "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Or similarly the quote "a rose is a rose is a rose" which merely is a statement of fact. This may not be as easy when investigating the Political Correctness of what to call those folks who have been migrating to Bonaire to escape hard winters and living behind dikes holding the sea at bay.
Let's talk about Holland, the land of tulips, windmills and wooden shoes. The Dutch, always known to be an industrious lot, have spent a life time building dikes holding back the waters from swallowing up the land they have worked so long and hard to reclaim. Well, I have bad news folks! The turf they have reclaimed is not Holland! Let me take you through an interesting lesson in the political correctness of what to call the motherland… are you ready for this?
On Bonaire we speak Dutch and as of October 2010 we say we are even more Dutch than previous generations. The absolute correct name for this land of seafaring far reaching explorers and ocean conquering nation is the Netherlands! A bit confused? Well you are not alone and it is completely understandable. The general region has been renamed a number of times over the last thousand years and has been known as follows. The Dutch Republic, The United States of Belgium and The Kingdom of Holland. The fact there are 12 provinces just adds to the confusion. Groningen, Drenthe, Overijssel, Gelderland. Limburg, Brabant, Zeeland, Friesland (with adorable little hearts on its flag), Flevoland, Utrecht, and here's the confusion: Noord (North) Holland and Zuid (South) Holland.
Calling the Netherlands Holland is like calling the United States Dakota. Though unlike the Dakotas, which are mostly empty, save for the occasional Jack Rabbit, the two Holland's are the most populated provinces and have some of the biggest attractions like, Amsterdam and Keukenhof. Chances are if it's Dutch, and you've heard of it, it's in one of the Holland's. Even the government's travel website for the country is Holland.com -- officially because it sounds friendlier, but unofficially it's probably what people are actually searching for.
Still there is more to add to the confusion. People who live in the Holland's are called Hollanders, but all citizens of the Netherlands are called Dutch as is their language. But in Dutch they say: Nederlands sprekende Nederlanders in Nederland which sounds like they'd rather we call them Netherlanders speaking Netherlandish. Meanwhile, next door in Germany, they're Deutsche sprechen Deutsch in Deutschland, which sounds like they'd rather be called Dutch! This linguistic confusion is why Americans call the Pennsylvania Dutch, Dutch even though they're Germans.
Bonaire is the Netherlands, its people are Dutch, and they speak Dutch. There is no country called Holland, but there are provinces of North and South Holland (sort of but not quite understandable).
Got it? Good, because it's about to get more complicated
The Netherlands is part of a Kingdom with the same name: The Kingdom of the Netherlands -- which is headed by the Dutch Royal Family. The Kingdom of the Netherlands contains three more "countries" and to find them we must sail from the icy North Sea to the Caribbean and Aruba, Curaçao, and on to Sint Maarten. These are no territories, but self-governing "countries" within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and as such they have their own governments, and their own currencies.
Geography buffs pay attention here:
While Aruba and Curaçao are full islands, Sint Maarten is just the Southern half of a tiny island also named Saint Martin the other half of which is occupied by France and also named Saint Martin. So despite being separated by Belgium on the European map, The Kingdom of the Netherlands and the French Republic share a border on the other side of the world on an island so nice they named it twice!
But why does the Kingdom of the Netherlands reach to the Caribbean anyway? The answer is simple, Empire building. In the 1600s the Dutch, looking to expand business, laid their hands on every valuable port they could. For a time, America's East Coast was 'New Netherland' with its capital city of New Amsterdam. There was New Zealand, as mentioned previously, and nearby, the king of the islands, New Holland. Though the empire is gone, these three Caribbean nations remain.
And while four "countries" in one kingdom, isn't unheard of, it doesn't stop there, because the country of the Netherlands also extends its borders in the Caribbean and three more islands: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. These are not countries in a Kingdom, but are cities of the Country of the Netherlands and they look the part. Residents of these far-flung cities vote in elections for the Dutch government just as any Hollander would. Though, weirdly, they don't belong to any province and they don't use the Dutch currency of Euros, they use Dollars instead. It's kind of like if Hawaii wasn't a state, but technically part of the District of Columbia, all the while using the Yen!
These cities of the Country of the Netherlands and these countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, are together are known as the Dutch Caribbean or more accurately The Caribbean Netherlands. And their citizens are Dutch and because the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a member of the European Union, it means these Dutch Caribbean folks are also Europeans.
So in the end, there are 6 Caribbean islands, four "countries", twelve provinces, two Hollands, two Netherlands and one kingdom, all Dutch. So if you are a visitor to our island you are actually in Holland or maybe in the Netherlands. Also you can claim having visited Europe as well. In any event, it is a great lesson in geo-politics and has us Bonaireans still preferring to be called just that, Bonaireans! (Now, what about those cute little hearts on the flag of Friesland?).
