[tz] [PATCH 4/4] * iso3166.tab (BQ): Change common name to "Caribbean Netherlands".

Paul Eggert eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Wed Sep 4 21:27:35 UTC 2013


On 09/04/13 13:27, John Haxby wrote:

> our guide told us a little of the history of the island
> including the fact that comparatively recently it had
> become independent from the Netherlands.

Wheee-eww!  Your guide got it totally backwards.
Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands.
That is, unlike (say) Aruba, it is part of the Netherlands, not
one of the constituents of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

BQ is a collection of three such special municipalities,
Bonaire being the most populous.

> That would seem to counter the proposed name on both counts :)

As far as I can tell, "Bonaire" typically refers just
to the island of Bonaire, not to the entire territory.
I couldn't find an example of someone calling the entire
territory "Bonaire" (much as people often call the
United Kingdom "Great Britain").  So I don't think
just "Bonaire" would work.

The names I found in common use for the territory were
"Caribbean Netherlands", "Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba",
and "the BES Islands".  "Caribbean Netherlands" seemed
the most common.

It's not a big deal either way, of course.**



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