Caribbean News Now!

By Anthony L. Hall

Is it appropriate to sail into the idyllic port of Labadee, Haiti on a pleasure cruise when the dead remain unburied and the impoverished country writhes in chaos? (Cruise Law News, January 19, 2010)

Anthony L. Hall is a descendant of the Turks & Caicos Islands, international lawyer and political consultant - headquartered in Washington DC - who publishes his own weblog, The iPINIONS Journal, at http://ipjn.com offering commentaries on current events from a Caribbean perspective

Labadee is an enclave that Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd carved out of the north coast of Haiti as a “private paradise” for passengers on its Caribbean cruises. It did this pursuant to a long-term lease with the Haitian government beginning in 1985.

But few people had ever heard of Labadee before the provocative question above stirred a media debate in the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake. More to the point, you’d think this question would’ve posed some kind of moral/social conflict for Royal Caribbean. But it did not.

For in an interview with National Public Radio on January 19 (just one week after the quake), its president, Richard Goldstein, said that the decision to continue business as usual in Haiti was a “no-brainer”.

The cruise line insisted that it could do more by donating one million dollars to Haiti’s recovery and rebuilding efforts from revenues generated on Labadee. Never mind that, according to a September 28, 2011, report by Bloomberg Businessweek, Royal Caribbean raked in $6.8 billion in 2010; or that its rival Carnival donated six million dollars even though it does not profit off Haiti the way Royal Caribbean does….

That said, the point of this commentary is not to hurl belated moral indignation. Not least because I am all too mindful that the mindset that allowed Royal Caribbean to treat post-quake misery just miles from Labadee as if it were unfolding in Bangladesh reflects that of resort developers throughout the Caribbean who have been invited over the years by local governments to treat vast areas of their pristine coastline as exclusive, almost hermetically sealed enclaves for visiting tourists.

Instead, I would like to suggest a way Royal Caribbean can make itself a better corporate citizen and earn an unprecedented amount of international goodwill.

One of my favourite TV programs is Frontline, which is a less commercialised version of 60 Minutes. On Tuesday night it featured a truly compelling report by Adam Davidson entitled “An Optimist in Haiti”, which posed this quixotic question:

Can one man’s unlikely tourism plan turn around Haiti’s economy?

That man is Lionel Pressoir. And the central feature of his plan is a restaurant he’s building to accommodate hundreds of tourists on a daily basis in the small, impoverished town of Milot; notwithstanding that, according to the report, he has never seen a single tourist there.

But Pressoir’s plan “to turn Milot into a major international tourist destination … a cultural and historical Mecca” is not as unhinged as it may seem. Because it is grounded in the absolutely stunning and irresistible fact that Milot is home to Haiti’s most historic sites:

1. the ruins of the Palais de Sans Souci -- the residence of Haiti’s revolutionary war hero and first president (1807-11) Henri Christophe; and

2. the Citadelle Laferrière -- the fort he built to fend off what every citizen in the early days of this first independent black nation in the new world feared would be an avenging attack by the French to reclaim it as a colonial possession.

Call him crazy, but Pressoir has an abiding belief that if these sites were included in a slick promotional campaign and roads were built to make them more accessible, tourists would come in droves. I agree.

Of course, with all of the other infrastructural demands on what little of the billions pledged to rebuild Haiti has been received, nobody expects roads to be built anytime soon that could take the few tourists who fly to major cities like Port au Prince to Milot.

This is why Pressoir is so focused on luring tourists from Royal Caribbean’s captive enclave of Labadee, which is only a tantalizing 10 miles along one rickety road from Milot. The problem is that he’s barking up the wrong tree by trying to get the Haitian government to buy into his plan.

Hence my suggestion: specifically, I am convinced that if Royal Caribbean were persuaded that, in addition to sunbathing and frolicking on the beach, its passengers would enjoy an excursion to Milot’s historic sites, Pressoir’s plan would be realized in a flash.

This is where all of you come in. Because if everyone contemplating a Caribbean cruise were to express a firm interest in visiting these sites, Royal Caribbean would find a way to make it happen -- even if that means adding a one-dollar surcharge to raise the $20 million Pressoir thinks is necessary to build a proper road between Labadee and Milot. Given its $6.8 billion in annual revenues, though, that $20 million is chump change.

But even if you have no interest, contact them anyway to say you’d be interested if this excursion were available. And you might mention that going on a cruise to Haiti and not visiting the Palais de Sans Souci and the Citadelle Laferrière is rather like going on a cruise to Greece and not visiting the Parthenon and the Acropolis. Unthinkable, right?!

So please contact Royal Caribbean, and get your family and friends to do the same: Contact Us

Related commentaries:
Haiti earthquake one year later

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GUILAINE BRUTUS:
I love this article because 5 years ago when i visited Milot for the first time i told my brother i wanted to own land there. I knew that it was an ideal place for tourism type businesses. this will push me to make my wish a reality. Some people just continue to read into the bad press instead of learning, knowing and visiting on thier own.

Ezili Danto/Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network:
Royal Caribbean as the steward of the historic residence and fort of the first President of free black Haiti? ...It's a repugnant notion. The cruise line's private enclave of "Labadee" is a name that Royal Caribbean trademarked as a variation of Marquis de La'Badie who settled in Haiti in the 1600's. That's right, Marquis de La'Badie, the French slave owner, whose descendants fought against Hen...ri Christophe and his army of former black slaves.

We at Ezili's HLLN strongly support this Jimmy Walker response to Mr. Hall's above article. "Royal Caribbean wasn't thinking of the 1791 Slave Uprising or the Haitian revolution when it snabbed the 260 acres of sovereign Haitian land to create its own enclave. It ignored Haiti's black national hero when it went about marketing its slice of Haiti...(elevating the slaveholder Labadee not Janjak Desalin or Henri Christophe...)

Source - Haiti's Historic Sites a Cruise Excursion? Royal Caribbean the Steward of Henri Christophe's Legacy? October 2, 2011 by Jim Walker http://bit.ly/n2p6RC

Anthony Hall:
With all due respect, the lawyers in the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network would have served their country well if they had protested not just the naming, but the acquisition of this enclave back when Royal Caribbean duly leased (i.e. not "snabbed" as they unfairly assert) the land from the Haitian government.

What's more, they could serve their country better today by helping the Martelly government recover land and other assets that were plundered by the Duvaliers and all of their cronies instead of venting plainly inconsequential political outrage against Royal Caribbean.

So far as I and Lionel Pressoir are concerned, the only question worth debating now is: what is the quickest and most efficient way to get tourists visiting Milot in droves?

I make it clear in my commentary why I believe appealing to, even putting pressure on, Royal Caribbean to fund the necessary building and repairs is the best way to do this. I invite the Ezili Danto/Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network and the Jim Walkers to tell the Haitian people what constructive proposals they have in mind.