Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Bonaire’s Chez Nous Restaurant to Feature Fundraising Four-Course Dinners

Those visitors lucky enough to be on Bonaire right now can enjoy an unusual treat this week, when they attend one of the four-course dinners presented by the island’s cooking school, Chez Nous Restaurant.

Each year for the past seven years, some very fortunate local student chefs were sent to spend six weeks in Italy learning how to prepare authentic Italian feasts from the Emilia Romagna region of Italy.  Chef Antonio Mazzotti of Riccione Locande Girasoli has taught past students, and he will also teach the 2011 students, as these fund-raising dinners will assist in sending our young chefs to Italy in 2011.

Starting tomorrow and running through January 9th, a resplendent four-course Italian dinner accompanied by hand-picked wines will be prepared under the guidance of Chef Mazzotti, bringing a true Italian flair to the meals.  It’s a great opportunity to sample fantastic food and mingle with locals who support this important function.  The dinners will begin at 6:30 PM each evening from January 5 through 9, 2011; reservations are required and can be made by calling Sara at 786-9299 or sending an email by clicking here.  Cost is $60.00 per person.  (Source: Italy Stage 2011)

Saturday, January 01, 2011

Happy New Year, Bonaire!

On Bonaire, the close of 2010 ended with a beautiful fireworks display over much of the island, and for those who just don’t want to end the festivities, today, January 1st, offers new opportunities to say hello to friends on the island and wish them Bon Anja Nobo!

Tonight, January 1st, Posada Para Mira will host yet another fiesta for those who want to continue their festivities.  From 9:00 PM until 3:00 AM, dance under the stars to music from DJ Fe, as well as to Magic Treasure, direct from Curacao.  Entry cost is $20.00 per person.

Of course, January 1st brings other new and welcome changes to the island in its transition to a special municipality of Holland, as now the the official currency is the U.S. Dollar.  Beginning today, all financial transactions will be conducted in U.S. Dollars.

And, as tradition dictates, the people of Bonaire are in the thoughts of their Lt. Governor today, as Glenn Thode gives us the following words in his New Year’s address:

Beloved citizens of Bonaire. Please permit me a small space in your mind to share some ideas with you as we switch from the year 2010 to 2011.

The year 2010 was a turbulent year for Bonaire. We have seen many changes in the year that just passed. These changes made us go to long moments of thought and debate about the meaning of them all. For each person there is something different of importance in these changes. As Island Governor I consider one change of special historical significance. We the people of Bonaire and our government left the constitutional relationship with the Netherlands Antilles and entered into a new type of relationship with the Netherlands within our Kingdom.

Now we enter the first year in history as a “public entity.” This status is new for Bonaire and it is new for the Netherlands. We can compare this new structure, the construct we call “public entity Bonaire,” with a newborn baby. Just a few months ago, this baby saw the light as a result of Bonaire and the Netherlands coming together.  When a baby is born, it must adapt its eyes, movements, and all other abilities to the new world it just entered. This new world exposes the baby to unknown conditions it must adapt and get used to. The baby must learn things adults do by heart. It must learn to eat without help, it must learn to walk, first at the hands of mom and dad and later balancing alone on its own legs. In the beginning, the baby will spill its food, speak incoherently, and stumble and fall. The baby will cry a lot. It will get child diseases. But with encouragement and support it will learn to eat and drink without spilling food, it will speak correctly and will learn to walk, run and jump over obstacles along the way. Even the child diseases will eventually pass to history one day.

For the baby to grow up and become as we wish it to be, we all have to lend a hand. Hillary Clinton once said: it takes a village to raise a child. To raise the public entity Bonaire to the healthy adult we dream of, the support and nurturing of and by every one of you is needed. We need the complete community to help raise this newborn baby to become the responsible entity, standing on its own feet as we envision it.

I call upon all citizens of Bonaire to form a village in 2011, united in our support for our baby New Bonaire. With our support, this baby will learn to feed itself, it will start to crawl and continue to develop the ability to walk and then run. Each person has unique thoughts about how to raise our child. Let us discuss our ideals, realities and options as responsible individuals in a civilized society. In a home where there is continued fighting, children grow up with frustrations and traumas. Constant fighting raises problematic adults. I am convinced that the responsible thing to do is to have a dialog about our differences. We need to create a common vision and convert this into policy and effective action to attain the results we want.

I call upon you to embrace our new currency in 2011. Let us also work together in good faith to achieve the positive goals we were pursuing when we chose to arrange things as they are becoming, for instance our new tax system. Let us embrace each other for an exemplary election campaign, where one supports and champions his preferred candidate without harming the preferred candidates of others. And afterward, let us close ranks and support our new Island Council and Executive Council. In a structure in which they are separated from each other, after the elections we will enter a new era of government for Bonaire.

Citizen of Bonaire; let us find each other to bring about change into the positive. The feelings of doubt and insecurity that we experienced in 2010 can change into wishes and hope in a future that is of our making. New conditions bring new opportunities to create this future. When we connect our fortune and life to a partner, this does not mean that we enslave ourselves to that partner. Bonaire has entered a relationship of co-dependency and community with the Netherlands. For reflection, I wish to close with the lyrics of a Bob Marley song: emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.

I wish us all a blessed year 2011 in unity, which will be a very Happy New Year.

(Source:  Lt. Governor Glenn Thode, Posada Para Mira)