Dear Editor,
With the Second Chamber in The Netherlands approving laws for the BES islands and also making it clear that same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia will be introduced on the BES islands, it is now time to start asking some questions based on equality within the Kingdom.
Several years ago, as everyone would recall, Saba and Statia used to benefit from the so-called Dutch driver's licence tourism. With Saba now becoming part of the Netherlands as a public entity and fully integrating, the question that comes to mind is: will Dutch nationals from the Netherlands now be able to come to Saba and start obtaining their driver's licences once again?
On the basis of equality, can we expect to see coffee houses being erected on the BES islands, where persons will be able to freely go and purchase their soft drugs for their own use? If we are talking about equality for the three aforementioned issues, then the driver's-licence and coffee-house-soft-drugs policies should be also carried out on the BES islands without any problems.
Already we can see that the Dutch cultural way of living is going to infringe on our local cultural way of living, which is surely dying out slowly. Dutch liberal habits will be introduced on us without our having any say whatsoever, and is this what we as a people really want for the youth of our islands?
Looking into the future, I can foresee many Dutch habits being brought to these three islands, and at a point, I feel that we as a proud Caribbean people won't be able to stop it because these unheard-of cultures are being backed up by laws laid down by the Second Chamber. But it will be very interesting to hear and see if, once we reach the 10-10-10 date, Dutch nationals from the Netherlands can come here once again and obtain their driver's licence, as this would be a good boost for the local economy once again.
The word is now out there, for those who are 100 per cent in favour of integration, to at least let the community of Saba know if this will be possible once again, and if soft drugs will become the order of the day. Mind you, we have been told over and over again that we are not interested in any equality business – we are in this for a good standard of living for the people.
Dave Levenstone
