Posted on 01/19/2010 2:49:07 PM PST by alabama_heart
Cruise ships still find a Haitian berthLuxury liners are still docking at private beaches near Haiti's devastated earthquake zone for holidaymakers to enjoy the water Latest: Cruise company to donate sun loungers to Haiti makeshift hospital
Robert Booth guardian.co.uk, Sunday 17 January 2010 21.53 GMT
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines faced a difficult decision over whether to dock as per itinerary at Labadee Beach, Haiti after last week's tragic quake. Photograph: Daniel Morel/AP
Sixty miles from Haiti's devastated earthquake zone, luxury liners dock at private beaches where passengers enjoy jetski rides, parasailing and rum cocktails delivered to their hammocks.
The 4,370-berth Independence of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International, disembarked at the heavily guarded resort of Labadee on the north coast on Friday; a second cruise ship, the 3,100-passenger Navigator of the Seas is due to dock.
The Florida cruise company leases a picturesque wooded peninsula and its five pristine beaches from the government for passengers to "cut loose" with watersports, barbecues, and shopping for trinkets at a craft market before returning on board before dusk. Safety is guaranteed by armed guards at the gate.
The decision to go ahead with the visit has divided passengers. The ships carry some food aid, and the cruise line has pledged to donate all proceeds from the visit to help stricken Haitians. But many passengers will stay aboard when they dock; one said he was "sickened".
"I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while [in Port-au-Prince] there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water," one passenger wrote on the Cruise Critic internet forum.
"It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving," said another. "I can't imagine having to choke down a burger there now.''
Some booked on ships scheduled to stop at Labadee are afraid that desperate people might breach the resort's 12ft high fences to get food and drink, but others seemed determined to enjoy their holiday."I'll be there on Tuesday and I plan on enjoying my zip line excursion as well as the time on the beach," said one.
The company said the question of whether to "deliver a vacation experience so close to the epicentre of an earthquake" had been subject to considerable internal debate before it decided to include Haiti in its itineraries for the coming weeks.
"In the end, Labadee is critical to Haiti's recovery; hundreds of people rely on Labadee for their livelihood," said John Weis, vice-president. "In our conversations with the UN special envoy of the government of Haiti, Leslie Voltaire, he notes that Haiti will benefit from the revenues that are generated from each call …
"We also have tremendous opportunities to use our ships as transport vessels for relief supplies and personnel to Haiti. Simply put, we cannot abandon Haiti now that they need us most."
"Friday's call in Labadee went well," said Royal Caribbean. "Everything was open, as usual. The guests were very happy to hear that 100% of the proceeds from the call at Labadee would be donated to the relief effort."
Forty pallets of rice, beans, powdered milk, water, and canned foods were delivered on Friday, and a further 80 are due and 16 on two subsequent ships. When supplies arrive in Labadee, they are distributed by Food for the Poor, a longtime partner of Royal Caribbean in Haiti.
Royal Caribbean has also pledged $1m to the relief effort and will spend part of that helping 200 Haitian crew members.
The company recently spent $55m updating Labadee. It employs 230 Haitians and the firm estimates 300 more benefit from the market. The development has been regarded as a beacon of private investment in Haiti; Bill Clinton visited in October. Some Haitians have decried the leasing of the peninsula as effective privatisation of part of the republic's coastline.
Don’t know if this is good or bad. Sounds creepy to me.
Link?
Yes, the cruise lines should immediately suspend all operations in Haiti, thus bringing an instant halt to the influx of cash that goes into the local economy.
Ummmm rum cocktails.
Can’t ya hide all those piling up dead bodies?
I’m trying to enjoy my vacation here.
This is really sick.
I’m kinda torn on this but stopping some of what little revenue Haiti is making really shouldn’t be an option.
Oh it would be so much better for Haiti if we just shut down their entire economy by stopping cruises from going there.
Seems to me that Haiti could use all of the cruises docking there that they can get.
I think its great they dropped of pallets of food supplies and income from touris’s win win win
How DARE those people have a good time while there is so much suffering in the world. </sarc>
There is nothing wrong with Royal Caribbean doing this. In fact, they are helping the local Haitian economy and maintaining jobs for the local people.
What, are people supposed to pay hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars for a cruise and they miss a port? The port was not damaged and this allows local people to keep their jobs and support their families.
There is nothing unethical about what Royal Caribbean is doing.
It’s just an excuse for liberals (who detest private industry from the bottom of their hearts) to go after another company.
It’s all about feeeelings, instead of thinking things through.
I doubt if this infuses much cash into the local economy. The passengers are in a closed leased area. The only people making any $$$$ are the probably corrupt Haitian officials who made the deal.
Labadee is 80 miles from the island of Haiti. Cuba sucks, should we stop partying in Florida ?
Get a grip. Labadee is beautiful, and, the Haitians that work there need the income. DBADA.
Quite a dicotomy. Judging by the images of roving bands with machetes, I’d say Haiti’s economy was non-existant even in better times.
I hear machine gun toting guards guard the high fence keeping the riff raff out. I’m OK in the theory, but the money is going to the corrupt gov’t.
But why create a special port? Aren’t there enough other ports of call in the Caribbean?
When I first read the headline I got a weird feeling that it might be inappropriate given the circumstances, but after a few more seconds of deliberation it’s probably a good thing. Cruise lines and the tourism industry employ local people and bring in needed cash to a devastated economy. I think that outweighs any appearance of “insensitivity”.
Bill Clinton just said they have to think about how to get Haiti going again - this cruise line is providing employment right now. They should be asking other cruise ships to stop there in order to give the Haitian economy some help.
Uh, maybe Labadee is not so nice... Here’s a vacation video from a week or two before the quake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmWMFDvEeD0
For sightseeing? Maybe the local flair? Help cremate piles of corpses?
Now is, most definitely, NOT the time to take a little vacation jaunt to Haiti.
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