Cruise liners during Haiti crises

[Cataboo]

Haiti doesn't have much to begin with - if cruise ships stop there, that is at least some tourism dollars going into the country and some of the Haitians have jobs and are getting paid from it...

Losing the tourism dollars & port charges doesn't help Haiti any... and if the cruise lines are willing to deliver supplies... that's a good thing.

One of the articles I read quoting some of the passengers said that a lot of them were making sure to buy a lot of the local crafts from the market without bargaining to try to contribute more to the economy.

[shootingstar]

Find it hard to believe that alot of locals who are suffering, even destitute could benefit directly from the cruiser liner passengers for the next few days.

There would have to be a large supply of undamaged local goods to sell. Would only benefit very few locals for the next few days.

Better passengers donate even their own clothing right out of their suitcases and leave the port. Give away some of the cruise liner mattresses or extra pilows. ( I cannot sleep on double pillows in hotels.)

Too hard to redirect cruise liners for next few days from emergency areas in Haiti?

It's not safe, the buildings are unstable, utilities,etc. in chaos.

People there need time and immediate medical attention, housing.

[Cataboo]

The cruise lines did drop off pallets of supplies from food for the poor. The cruise lines are accepting donations of supplies at their major ports of departure for anyone that wants them to bring them to Haiti:
http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=3640
As has been covered, it's difficult to get aid into Haiti right now.

It's 100 miles from the port to the earth quake on the opposite end of the island- it's nowhere near the carnage, there aren't unsafe buildings there. It's easier to get stuff from the Dominican republic to Port au prince than it is to get things there from Labadee. Haiti is a tropical country of skinny people - they really don't need fat westerners clothes that much - so having the cruise line passengers donate their clothes won't help so much, but the cruise line passengers are able to donate to haitian charitities using their cruise cash card thing and their tv systems.

There is not a good road system in Haiti to begin with - any goods that are being sold in Labadee are likely to have been produced locally and the earth quake damage doesn't reach to the north coast.

So we're talking about employing 500 haitians and getting $6 per tourist being the LARGEST proportion of the Haitian tourist industry. That's 500 haitians that have families that they need to support and who need the money from the tourist industry.

If the cruise lines don't stop at Labadee - they're just going to stop elsewhere, and the tourists are just going to have fun elsewhere, and still ignore the tragedy in Haiti. And the country doesn't get money that it would have otherwise.

The cruise lines are claiming that they are stopping mainly to deliver supplies and aid, they're donating money to haiti because of the criticism, and that they actually lose money stopping there 3 times in a week...

From the wikipedia:


Labadee (also Labadie) is a port located on the northern coast of Haiti. It is a private resort leased to Royal Caribbean International. Royal Caribbean International has contributed the largest proportion of tourist revenue to Haiti since 1986, employing 300 locals, allowing another 200 to sell their wares on the premises, and paying the Haitian government US$6 per tourist.[1]

The resort is completely tourist-oriented, and is guarded by a private security force. The site is fenced off from the surrounding area, and passengers are not allowed to leave the property. It is also blocked off from the remainder of Haiti by mountains[2]. A controlled group of Haitian merchants are given sole rights to sell their merchandise and establish their businesses in the resort. Although sometimes described as an island in advertisements, it is actually a peninsula contiguous with the island of Hispaniola. The cruise ship moors to the pier at Labadee capable of servicing the Oasis class ships, which was completed in late 2009.[3]

Attractions include a Haitian flea market, beaches, watersports, a water-oriented playground, and a zip-line.[4]

[PamNY]

Reading this thread has left me spluttering with rage.

The Haitians involved are entirely capable of deciding whether or not they will do business with cruise lines at this time. The brutal truth is that life goes on after a disaster; the business relationships they relied on before the earthquake are the same relationships they will rely on in the future and they -- not some outsider without even passing knowledge of what it's like to live through an actual disaster -- will decide how that is handled.

A discussion of what they should do is extraordinarily arrogant and patronizing.

[smilingcat]

Its quite obvious that the information we are reading in print/hearing on radio/seeing on TV seems to be contradictory and I really do not wish to have a flaming war.

What I read and listen are oversea news, be it Der Spiegel, BBC news or English translation of other news media.

I really don't listen to American News. I think if Mr. Walter Cronkite were alive or Mr./Prof. Fred Friendly (father of Edward R. Murrow show; also known as father of journalism; and a distinguished professor at my alma mater, Columbia University), I think they would cringe listening to the pundits and the so called fair and balanced view of news reporting.

Since none of us are in Haiti as a witness of the trajedy first hand, our argument as to what happened there is moot. If you are offended by my comment, "lack of care or concern by us Americans", I was just relaying what I heard. I listen/read mulitple news sources from different countries because I question the accuracy of the information and any bias it may contain. You may want to do the same.

One thing is for sure and that is we have a great trajedy in Haiti. I wish for a speedy recovery, and the loved ones to be reunited...

peace to all,

Smilingcat

[bmccasland]

And know that it will take years to rebuild. 5 years later, there is still destruction, and reconstruction going on in New Orleans, and there are buildings where nothing has been done after the flood. The advantage here was that some parts of the metro area didn't flood, buildlings may have flooded but they were still standing (meaning multi-story buildings had functional upper floors), and help could arrive by driving in. In Haiti, most if not all assistance has to come by air or sea, and the major structures are destroyed or left unsafe.

Haiti is deja vu all over again, but worse. Probably more like the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which none of us are old enough to remember.

[Cataboo]

Most of my information on where/what Labadee/Port au Prince and the economy down there is like is from my bf or his parents. His parents spend several months of the year there, they still have family there, and his father is flying there today with a load of supplies on an aid mission and to check on relatives (so far it sounds like they've been lucky & most everyone is fine).

But no, I have no idea what it's like to survive an earthquake or similar tragedy - and I definitely didn't mean to enrage anyone. I do think the question in this thread is more - was it appropriate for the cruise lines to bring a bunch of tourists to party on the beach vs. whether or not the Haitians want it. And maybe it's arrogant to even ask that question or think that the cruise lines should make that decision instead of the Haitians. The Haitians around Port au prince and the Haitian gov't have more important things to do now than to worry about tourists.

I guess the most similar examples I can give are - directly after Sept 11th, when tourism dollars to New York city plummeted because tourists didn't think it was safe or appropriate to go to New York... And New York city put out a few things saying that tourists and their money were welcome, because losing the financial industry & the tourist industry to a city that has just put out a ton of money on rescue and recovery is a hard hit. Or Mardi Gras in New Orleans in the year after Katrina... Is that appropriate or ghoulish? Life has to go on - and if all the tourists that go are aware of the recent tragedy and are more generous at contributing to charities because of it - I won't call that a bad thing, I'm not sure how comfortable I would be myself with it. I did go up to New York city two weeks after sept 11th, because we already had plans to take an out of country relative up there, already had opera tickets, etc. - we stayed at a hotel in the city instead of NJ like usual, figuring that hotel money going into the city was better. And we did take a somber walk up to "ground zero".