Fences
Waterskiing
A friend alerted me to this article in The Guardian:
'Sixty miles from Haiti's devastated earthquake zone, luxury liners dock at private beaches where passengers enjoy jetski rides, parasailing and rum cocktails delivered to their hammocks.
The 4,370-berth Independence of the Seas, owned by Royal Caribbean International, disembarked at the heavily guarded resort of Labadee on the north coast on Friday; a second cruise ship, the 3,100-passenger Navigator of the Seas is due to dock.
The Florida cruise company leases a picturesque wooded peninsula and its five pristine beaches from the government for passengers to "cut loose" with watersports, barbecues, and shopping for trinkets at a craft market before returning on board before dusk. Safety is guaranteed by armed guards at the gate.
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.
"It was hard enough to sit and eat a picnic lunch at Labadee before the quake, knowing how many Haitians were starving," said another. "I can't imagine having to choke down a burger there now.''
Some booked on ships scheduled to stop at Labadee are afraid that desperate people might breach the resort's 12ft high fences to get food and drink, but others seemed determined to enjoy their holiday."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.
The company said the question of whether to "deliver a vacation experience so close to the epicentre of an earthquake" had been subject to considerable internal debate before it decided to include Haiti in its itineraries for the coming weeks.'
One could argue that this is abject and cynical.
But I say it’s wonderful – to have a nice holiday on a luxury cruise liner, while knowing that your boat carries “food aid” for the wretched of the world.
I’m all in favor of combining waterskiing with good deeds.
Je blijft tobben...
Heer Grunberg,Ik richt mij maar tot u in de Nederlandse taal, want in een ver verleden heb ik wel Engels geleerd, maar de finesses van deze wonderlijke taal zijn met het klimmen der jaren verloren gegaan.
Enige schroom zou mij toch niet vreemd zijn mocht ik op een cruiseschip gezeten de kusten van Haiti aan de horizon zien verschijnen. Anderzijds lijkt mij het links laten liggen van een gewond land ook niet zo'n goed idee. De vraag is wel, kunnen die Haïtianen de vermoeide en hongerige wereldreizigers nog een maaltijd (HALLO?!?) voorschotelen? Het aanschuiven aan tafel en het voorschotelen van kwestige maaltijd zou de economie namelijk weer een héél klein beetje kunnen aanzwengelen. Met het verdiende geld zou de restauranthouder misschien een mobieltje (motorbiele telefoon) kunnen kopen... wat dan weer perspectieven zoude openen voor de lokale venter van elektronische dingen.
Nee, ernstig nu, het is een probleem. Als die cruiseschepen echter voedsel medevoeren voor Haïti kan er natuurlijk geen enkele twijfel bestaan.
Met vriendelijke groeten,
Drs. Johan Arendt Happolati
Choke down a burger
If one is so greatly concerned about the well being of Haiti after the earthquake why would they choke down a burger 60 miles from the earthquake zone, but be able to enjoy a burger 600 miles away? People are starving no matter how far you are. If you choose to spend money for a burger you might as well do it on Haiti thus supporting the local economy.Sasja
Sixty miles is the limit for the do-gooder.@ Dries
The world is one big death camp...Sander
Then what about particular death camps? If the whole world is a death camp there’s no need for any special attention to particular ones.There’s funerals everywhere, that doesn’t mean I won’t take my hat off at the particular funeral I’m going to.
We switch into a different, less cheerful way of conduct when in proximity of a tragic event, it's human.
http://www.patrickcrosley.com/img/big_picture_refugee.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42030000/jpg/_42030400_tejita_tourist03_ap_416.jpg
(Gran Canaria)
Sander
That's a bit easy.Hotel Waldhaus in Sils-Maria wasn't a death camp at all, at least that's what I woud argue.
I know that your bed was too small, and I know that you don't take small beds lightly, but for a death camp you need more than just a small bed.
Sincere apologies by the way for the bed.
Dries, Arnon
Ok, ok, I agree it was a bit easy to just declare the whole world a death camp.But the fact remains that death is omnipresent and the question remains how many deaths one need to declare it a party-free zone and what distance to any disaster-zone is appropriate to party.
I guess it has more to do with mourning people than with the actual death. And it feels perverse because the Haitian people are still mourning.
Arnon, I'm sure the pain I felt in the morning in Sils-Maria had more to do with the amount of Limoncello I consumed than with the size of the bed.
Jeanette
It's the contemporary way of getting people to be altruistic perhaps, altruism that's rewarded with pleasure.engagement
Of course it's ''abject'' and ''cynical'' - but those are relative terms which on a human scale are often defined by the radius to some epicentre of devastation, alas. But the fact that every second stars die doesn't withhold me from enjoying the sun.In your Christmas article VN ( Dec. 2009 ) you wrote: "Engagement is to mobilise the tears of the masses." Do you think God engaged with those of Haiti'?
Sander
Self-preservation might be interpreted as the need to party.Next outing I will make sure you get two beds.
Duinker
"With those"?I don’t believe God has anything to do with Haiti or cruise liners.
See also under: Pat Robertson.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/13/pat-robertson-haiti-curse_n_422099.html
(But I do not like the looks of those cruise ships. I find them very ugly. Floating paper shredders)
Aliefka
I see you're back, with your usual drama (the pictures, how touching...), still no need of any humour and lightness in your life?, it can be unbearable, I know, but so are most of your comments (grapje).Aliefka
You're so adorable and thx for letting me win my bet, you reacted within the 3 hours, still the same ego problems I guess. Nice to have you back, it get's sometimes a bit boring to read only about films, expositions, intellectual articles and other arty-farty stuff, with you it's at least some simple fun, despite yourself.I have no clue when the first fundraising party took place in this world... (you?). How contemporary is contemporary?
In my view what is called altruism is always rewarded, f.e. there's the pleasure of feeling good about the fact one helped somebody out. So companies like Royal Caribbean International could get more ships out to Haiti making people feel good. In the end a thirsty man or woman doesn't care if a bottle of water comes from a 'pleasure free' origin or not.
