Royal Caribbean leases a prime piece of coastline in Haiti it calls Labadee, and every week -- including the week of the earthquake tragedy -- the cruise line's ships deliver thousands of tourists to frolic in this essentially privatized paradise. The tourists sunbathe, swim, kayak, fly on zip lines, go down an inflatable slide, and drink "Labaduzees," Royal Caribbean's very own special cocktail.
Only 15 miles away, in the "real" Haiti on the other side of a mountain, past the armed guards protecting the tourists, thousands of refugees from the quake are pouring in to Cap Haitian, clamoring for help and resources. Less than 100 miles away lies Port-au-Prince, with its tens of thousands of bodies stacked up on street corners and being carted off in dump trucks to mass burial grounds, and the still living experiencing a true hell on earth.
Why Not? That's the title of the blog by the President and CEO of Royal Caribbean International. Why not travel to Royal Caribbean's private paradise? Labadee is so ruled by the cruise liner that the term is even a registered trademark! It's a place where you are guaranteed to see no Haitians vacationing. Or suffering. Foreign tourists have come here for years in seeming oblivion to Haiti's usual trauma, so why stop now that their misery has increased a notch?
Besides, these cruises are great for helping the earthquake victims, according to the CEO, who says that "being on the island and generating economic activity for...our 230 employees helps with relief while being somewhere else does not help with relief." Let me translate that for you: "Being in our private resort and generating economic activity for Royal Caribbean gives us great relief, and being somewhere else does not."
In a separate blog post, the Associate Vice President noted that the company will "contribute all the net revenues earned on Labadee...on Monday and Tuesday." That means it will pocket the revenues on all the other days the cruise ships stop in Haiti! That's some relief! I'm sure these revenues far outweigh the nominal donations of food and supplies the cruise ships are delivering when they stop in Labadee®.
Perhaps the Haitians fleeing for their lives will push their way over the mountain, and past the private guards. Maybe they will push their way onto their country's own lush beaches, take a ride on a zip line, and kick back and have a Labaduzee, prior to disembarking on a Royal Caribbean cruise to yet another paradise. Vacations for Haitians. What a concept. Or maybe the foreign tourists -- Royal Caribbean's loyal customers who are mostly American -- will eventually demand to dock at Port-au-Prince, so they can disembark and gawk, taking photos of the devastation, like people slow and stare when they pass a horrific car wreck. Why Not?
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