Everything is not black and white. Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper to understand a situation.
That seems to be the case with the folks screaming about Royal Caribbean’s decision to continue making port calls in Haiti. It seems to me if they would be quiet long enough to listen, they might hear things that would change their opinion.
The cruise line makes a good argument for resuming visits to Labadee, its private Haitian get-away that was not affected by the massive Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and other parts of the Caribbean nation, killing upwards of 200,000 people.
How can vacationers frolic in the sand and surf while 100 miles away people are homeless, starving and dying?
Well, the cruise line employs 230 Haitians at Labadee, Haitians who were unaffected by the quake and still need to work. And, the cruise ships bring money-paying customers to the straw market and vendors who hawk their native wares and services at Labadee.
Royal Caribbean is stimulating Haiti’s economy.
One cruiser said after the 7.0-quake she struggled over whether to cancel her long-planned vacation with the stop in Haiti, but after doing some research, realized she could benefit Haitians by visiting and spending money.
She wouldn’t be whooping it up while there, she said. It would be a down day. But she wasn’t going to avoid Haiti, she would support it, albeit at a cruise line’s private waterfront sanctuary.
Royal Caribbean has been one Haiti’s largest foreign investors over the past three decades. It spent $50 million to build out Labadee and has supported the nearby economy for many, many years.
And during this tragedy, it has used its ships to ferry food to hungry Haitians.
I doubt for a long time to come that cruise ship visitors to Labadee will enjoy the paradise the way people did before. But eliminating the port stop from Royal Caribbean’s itinerary, that to me would be more offensive than the decision to keep visiting there.
Do you agree?