Still Cruising Along in Haiti

No matter how the head persons at Royal Caribbean might try to legitimize this, it is just way too out of line for defending. That's my opinion, anyway. Here's the deal.

Only sixty miles from the absolute destruction and carnage on account of last week's earthquake, Royal Caribbean's luxury liners are still queued up for letting their guests get their party on at the Labadee Beach resort in Haiti.

Cutting loose and enjoying such watersports like jet skiing and parasailing, grooving on barbecues and shopping sprees, rum cocktails brought directly hammockside, and never minding not so far away the bulldozed mass graves, buildings brought to dust, the dying without food or water, the buried alive...

One passenger said he was sickened by it all. "I just can't see myself sunning on the beach, playing in the water, eating a barbecue, and enjoying a cocktail while there are tens of thousands of dead people being piled up on the streets, with the survivors stunned and looking for food and water."

Another said it was hard enough to picnic there even before, knowing that even under best of times so many Haitians were starving. "I can't imagine having to choke down a burger there now." Ya think?

Some booked on ships scheduled to stop at Labadee are mostly spooked that the people there might be so desperate as to barge in through the high fences made to keep them out, to get at the food and drink. Others were determined to enjoy their holiday whatever goes on. "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 prick.

Back to those at the top arguing support for why it's all good...

To feel better about it, or most likely to make feel better those who might find this a bit disconcerting, they point out that the ships are carrying some food along, too. Forty pallets of rice, beans, powdered milk, water, and canned foods were delivered on the trip last Friday, and more due to come on two later ships.

Also they have pledged to donate proceeds from the stopovers to help the devastated country. Not to mention how that Haiti will benefit from the revenues that are generated from the guests' shopping excursions and such. "Simply put, we cannot abandon Haiti now that they need us most."

I get it, those are not bad things. So long as they have apparently decided to go ahead with business as usual, it's the least they can do really. But give me a break; nobody is presuming that Royal Caribbean would be "abandoning" Haiti if the company would come to the decision instead to forgo landing their party boats there for now, out of particular respect for what is going on.

And the pallets of provisions, however many brought with, the donation of proceeds from the trips and so on... I still can't get it straight in my head that this is in any way justifiable to still keep going there.

Despite their bighearted piggy-backing goods with these vacation pitstops, if they weren't interested merely in pumping up their own coffers, I guarantee they wouldn't still be dropping anchor at port Labadee. It's all about the bottom line, rather than so much about being honorable.

If they really wanted to make good for the people in Haiti, I'm pretty certain they would be quite capable of springing for the cost of the supplies sent along so far, and then some, accompanied also by a corresponding donation to compensate for the travelers' lost economic splurging.

They could afford to. They just aren't so openhanded when the truth of the matter is they simply wouldn't come out as far ahead in the accounting ledger. Like I said, just my opinion, but I consider this crossing the line of bad taste for the sake of greed, despite their propagating an apology of flimsy excuses rationalizing why.