Haitian Cruise Fun!

[CampDavid]

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/18/cruise-ship-d...

[quote]The Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines' ship Independence of the Seas went ahead with its scheduled stop at a fenced-in private Haitian beach surrounded by armed guards, leaving its passengers to "cut loose" on the beach, just a few kilometers from one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the region's history.
[/quote]

Not overly sensitive...

[ThunderSpook]

That article says "a few kilometers" yet the Guardian article it links to says "60 miles". Bit of a mis-match there.

Edited by ThunderSpook on Monday 18th January 17:41

[Rich_W]

CampDavid said:

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/18/cruise-ship-d...

[quote]The Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines' ship Independence of the Seas went ahead with its scheduled stop at a fenced-in private Haitian beach surrounded by armed guards, leaving its passengers to "cut loose" on the beach, just a few kilometers from one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the region's history.

Not overly sensitive...

I know what you are getting at.

But as a thoughtful question. At what distance from the disaster is it "acceptable" to have food, water and healthcare? 100Km? 1000km?

[Magog]

I read the article about this earlier in the guardian. It sounds to me like quite a considered decision by the cruise line. As i understand it, all the ships that are stopping there are delivering aid/food in some form, they are going to donate profits from that section of the cruise to the disaster fund. They are keeping local Haitians employed and paid, which will hopefully will have some small stabalising effect, and can only really be a positive thing for them and the country.

I suspect it would have been a lot easier for them to just quietly re-route the boats, and avoid any media attention. I suspect the main complaints are from cruise passengers who just don't feel comfortable with the decision, which is understandable.

[Simpo Two]

Then again, they have paid to visit Haiti and could whinge if they don't go there. Life goes on.

[Ayahuasca]

That is unbelievably insensitive.


The last thing you want after paying all that money for a cruise is to be hassled by hoards of starving refugees.