BoingBoing reported this morning on a Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines ship that made its scheduled docking at a private beach. Though the cruise ship delivered 40 palettes of relief supplies while it docked, vacationers frolicked and held a barbecue on the private area, just miles from the devastation caused by the 7.0 earthquake last week.
From The Guardian:
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.
This is just in poor taste. I’d be with the uncomfortable passengers who didn’t want to leave the ship– for the ones who did, “how?” I can imagine what an uncomfortable situation it would be to be in, but after dropping off the supplies I think it would be in better taste to give aid, collect further donations and then LEAVE.
I know how expensive some of those cruises are and more than likely I’ll never experience one in my lifetime, but if a devastation like that hit after I had already been booked, I think I would have seen if the cruise ship could take the money I had paid for tickets and donated it to relief instead. Just the thought of vacationing any where near there while so much suffering continues makes me sick to my stomach.
I wonder if they gave anyone the opportunity to get off board and help out– hand out water, food, medical aid– anything.
food aids are badly needed by third world countries and we really need to give something to the poor.~`;
of course cruise ships are expensive but of course the trip is very nice ‘,;