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Syracuse New York local news station Channel 10's "Travel with Val" takes a look at Royal Caribbean's controversial decision to continue sailing to its "private resort" of Labadee, Haiti. 

While the cruise line is shipping pallets of food and supplies to Labadee and committed $1 million from its net proceeds, is this enough from a corporation which grosses over $6 billion and pays no taxes? 

We have written many articles on the relationship between Labadee and Royal Caribbean.

Credits:   

Video               Syracuse New York local news station Channel 10's "Travel with Val"

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In 1986, Royal Caribbean shook hands with the tyrant Baby Doc Duvalier (middle photo) to seal a deal where it obtained exclusive control of 260 acres of sovereign waterfront land from Haiti.  Royal Caribbean trademarked it's new "private island" - "Labadee®" - derived from the name of the 1600's French plantation baron and slave owner Marquis de La'Badie. It then erected a 12 foot high security fence around its "island" and hired armed security guards to keep the impoverished Haitians out.  

For the past twenty years Royal Caribbean exploited Haiti. Labadee became a private resort where its mostly U.S. cruise passengers pay hundreds of dollars each to buy alcohol, pay for a private cabana, rent jet skis, para-sail or, more recently, zip line.  All of this money leaves Haiti and goes straight to the cruise line's coffers in Miami. 

Royal Caribbean does not pay Haiti anything.  Instead, the deal it struck with the despot Baby Doc requires only that the U.S. tax-paying passengers pay $6 each to have the privilege to lounge around Royal Caribbean's "private destination."  Royal Caribbean has perfected its business of avoiding paying its fair share. The cruise line incorporated itself in Africa and registered its cruise ships in Africa and the Bahamas in order to avoid U.S. taxes, safety regulations, labor and wage laws.   

Royal Caribbean claims that Haiti benefits from this arrangement. Yes, there are minimally paid Haitians working as cocktail waiters and cooks who are appreciative of having a job.  But many critics point out that most of the Royal Caribbean employees in Labadee come from countries other than Haiti.  In an article entitled "Haiti, Cruise Ships, and Colonialism in the 21st Century," the popular blog Feministing reveals that the Royal Caribbean employees in Labadee are not Haitians but come from: 

". . .  Indonesia, the Philippines, Romania, Turkey, etc. There was one, maybe two RC employees on Labadee from Haiti."

This criticism is not new.

On "Fantasy Island:  Royal Carribean Parcels Off a Piece of Haiti, Catherine Orenstein described Royal Caribbean temporarily suspending its cruises to Labadee when Haitians protested the few number of Haitians employed there. Cruises resumed only when Royal Caribbean agreed to increase the number of Haitian employees and to let a local band perform at their site.

Criticism of Royal Caribbean continues. Yesterday was a particularly brutal day for the cruise line PR people.  Newsweek magazine joined the ranks of those questioning Royal Caribbean's corporate morality in an article "Setting Sail on a Haitian Pleasure Cruise - the Moral and Economic Dilemmas of Royal Caribbean's Labadee Port."

On the same day, the widely respected non-profit organization, Center for Responsible Travel, issued a press release chastising Royal Caribbean for not doing enough. The non-profit group characterized the cruise line's move as "unsound" and a "colossal public relations faux pas."

This sentiment echoes the criticism by PR experts in Advertising Age's "Royal Caribbean Blasted for Continuing Stops in Haiti" where the consensus is that this was a "massive debacle" which may have long term damage to the Royal Caribbean "brand." 

The Feministing blog admonished Royal Caribbean for taking advantage of the incredibly poor country of Haiti and urged its readers to consider going on a cruise line other than Royal Caribbean "or tell them that these practices are unacceptable."

And hip Daily Kos bloggers pointed out the dis-connect between Royal Caribbean supplying extra lounge chairs to a hospital when surgeons desperately needed hack saws and medicine.  Meanwhile cruise tourists continue to enjoy Royal Caribbean's zip line, (YouTube video below), one of the cruise line's much touted "investments" in Haiti.

Several weeks ago, TV evangelist Pat Robertson claimed that the Haitians are cursed because they "made a deal with the devil" to free themselves from slavery 200 years ago. Although preacher Robertson was openly ridiculed for such a preposterous notion, I for one believe in curses. Not that Haiti is cursed at all, mind you, (and no doubt that Reverend Robertson is becoming increasingly delusional).  But, yes there are curses. Whether you call them bad karma, voodoo, superstition, what goes-around-come-around, don't tempt fate, don't tug on Superman's cape, an eye-for-an-eye, or there-goes-I-but-for-the-grace-of-God.

Twenty three years ago, Royal Caribbean shook the bloody hand of dictator Baby Doc Duvalier. A deal with the devil, no doubt.  Since then, Royal Caribbean sucked hundreds of millions of dollars out of Haiti while the destitute country languished. But what goes around comes around. Royal Caribbean released its 2009 fourth quarter results yesterday, earning only 3.4 million dollars on gross revenues of 1.4 billion dollars.  If it had to pay U.S. taxes, it would file for bankruptcy.

This cruise line's economic future is questionable. Many tourists will shy away from the zip lines in Labadee while Haitians languish on the other side of the security fence.  Royal Caribbean's plans to unload over 6,000 passengers from its ostentatious Oasis of the Seas and, later, the extravagant Allure of the Seas seem increasingly fanciful and frivolous at this time of death and destruction.  

Perhaps Pat Robertson was half-right.  It's Royal Caribbean - not Haiti - which is cursed for making a deal with the devil . . .  

Read our other articles on Ladabee:

Royal Caribbean "Returns" to its Trademarked, Private Fantasy Island of Labadee® - While Haiti Suffers

An Open Letter to Royal Caribbean Passengers Cruising to Labadee, Haiti

Royal Caribbean Tries to Muzzle Press as Controversy Over Labadee Continues.

Credits:

Rime of the Ancient Mariner Artwork      Iron Maiden Wallpaper

Baby Doc Duvalier photograph               Guardian U.K.

Deal with the Devil                                  Side Line Forum

YouTube zipline video                             FlaggerBoy

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Royal Caribbean's crisis management team remains in over-drive as the international press continues to focus on the incongruity of tens of thousands of affluent U.S. citizens sailing to Royal Caribbean's "private destination" in Labadee, as Haiti remains in turmoil.

Over the weekend even the Arab news station Al Jazerra sent a film crew to Labadee to document the story (video below).  Al Jazerra reported that Royal Caribbean forbid the reporters from interviewing any passengers at what is often erroneously referred to as the cruise line's "private island."  The video shows a Royal Caribbean security boat trying to waive the reporters away from the resort.  

Other news sources report that the cruise line tried to restrict reporters from interviewing the passengers at the beach resort.  In an article entitled "People Still Vacationing in Haiti Despite Devastation Miles Away," Fox News indicates that "Royal Caribbean allowed a team of journalists from the Associated Press to visit Labadee on Friday, but the cruise company's spokeswoman . . . would not allow them to interview or photograph cruise passengers."

It looks like Royal Caribbean's attempt to control the media did not work.  There are hundreds of stories, photographs and videos popping up on the internet regarding Labadee. 

On one side of the debate are those outraged that vacationers are drinking beer and jet-skiing with over Haitians 100,000 dead and devastated survivors are desperate for food and medicine. An editorial in the U.K.'s Mirror characterized the spectacle of Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas docking at the "heavily guarded Labadee resort to allow its residents to jet-ski, parasail or have rum punches brought to their hammocks," as "rampant self-interest and insensitivity."

The other side of the debate, most often voiced by travel agents and the cruise industry itself, is that the cruise ships are bringing some supplies as well much needed income to the Haitians who work at Labadee.  This sentiment is reflected in the ABC News article "Haiti Cruise Stops: Without This, We Don't Eat."  The article mentions that about 200 Haitians work at Ladabee and are wholly dependent on the cruise passengers. 

But even the ABC article states that Royal Caribbean would not allow reporters to interview or photograph cruise passengers.

Notwithstanding the cruise line's attempt at censorship, the images and video from Labadee continue to appear - showing what ABC News describes as the uneasy image of "vacationers stretched out on beach chairs in the sun, sipp[ing] cold beer and pina coladas with pineapple slices on the rim . . . "

Credits: 

Photographs   Lynne Sladky/AP (via Huffington Post  "Reading the Pictures: Haiti Cruises - The Fun is Just Beginning")

Video        Al Jazerra 

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Haiti is in turmoil. Over one hundred thousand Haitians lay dead in the streets and rubble of Port au Prince alone.  The anguish and suffering of millions overwhelm our senses. 

There is a raging debate taking place in U.S. newspapers, television and the internet, as well as in the comments to this blog. 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?

You must have conflicted feelings if you have a ticket on a Royal Caribbean cruise to the Caribbean this month.

But the fact of the matter is that the cruise line made a decision to sail to its “private destination” of Haiti irrespective of the public debate. In an interview yesterday, the President of Royal Caribbean, Richard Goldstein, explained to National Public Radio (“NPR”) that the decision to continue business as usual in Haiti was a “pretty easy decision . . . a no-brainer.”

A "no-brainer?"  Did he really say that?  Believe me, this is not a corporation racked with a social conscience.

But in the next ten days, almost 20,000 Americans - most of whom have a conscience as well as a brain - will sail to Haiti on Royal Caribbean cruise ships:

On January 22nd the Jewel of the Seas will sail to Labadee, Haiti with 2,501 passengers. On January 23rd the Independence of the Seas will sail to Labadee with 4,370 passengers. On January 24th the Freedom of the Seas will arrive with 5,400 passengers. On January 30th the Navigator of the Seas will arrive with 3,114 passengers. And on January 31st the Liberty of the Seas will end the month with 4,375 passengers.

So those of you who are cruising to Labadee in the next 10 days acutely realize that you have already paid for your cruise. Unless you cancel, and believe me you will lose your fare because in the eyes of the cruise industry there is no such thing as a conscientious objector, you will be in Haiti shortly. Whether you like it or not.

So what can you do? How can you make a difference?

Royal Caribbean issued high profile press releases about donating a million dollars over the next year or so based on the net proceeds of the money you spend in Labadee. So if you spend $170 on a zip line and a jet ski - and the cruise line figures that its costs are around $160 for these services - it may donate $10 to Haiti. Coming from a foreign corporation which does not pay U.S. taxes and collects $6,000,000,000 (billion) from tax-paying U.S. citizens each year? 

Not too impressive.

Especially compared to Carnival, with no relationship whatsoever with Haiti, which pledged to donate $5,000,000 - $4,000,000 more than Royal Caribbean.  

Royal Caribbean also released photographs (in the Nation of Why Not?" blog) and video to the media showing a small number of pallets of water and meager food supplies. 

Not too impressive. 

So its up to you to make a difference. Try and think outside of the box.

Here are some suggestions:

1. Don’t pay for the zip line, or jet skis, or para-sailing when you arrive in Labadee. Royal Caribbean will take most of your money and eventually send a pittance to Haiti after deducting its “expenses.” Instead, put $100 in an envelope and take it to the 12 foot fence which keeps the Haitians away from you and their beach. Hand the envelope to the people who are gripping the fence and desperately staring into the beach at you. Tell them to use it for their families and friends down south. If all 20,000 of you do it - that’s $2,000,000 by the end of the month.

2. Bring a case of water with you. Jam it into your duffel bag. Bring it into Labadee. Throw it over the fence. If all 20,000 of you do it, that's 20,000 cases - or close to 500,000 bottles of water.

3. Pull out your cell phone now. Text HAITI. (It feels good). $10 will go to the Red Cross. If all of you do it, Haiti will receive another $200,000.

In the next ten days, you and your fellow 20,000 cruisers have the opportunity to provide the Haitians with almost $2,500,000, one-half million bottles of water, and a lot of hope. That’s a heck of a lot more than Royal Caribbean is even thinking about providing for the next year.

And in February, we can talk about tearing that damn security fence down which Royal Caribbean erected to keep its “private destination” isolated from the reality of Haiti and its suffering people.

Credits:

Haiti dead     taranakidailynews.com.nz

Labadee security fence            Rudbeckia Flickr Photostream  "A Haitian view of Labadee"

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Following the devastation and destruction of Port of Prince, Royal Caribbean faced the potential public relations nightmare of sailing its mega cruise ships into its private resort of Labadee with thousands of affluent Americans partying and gorging themselves while over 100,000 Haitians lay dead and decaying in the streets and millions more already impoverished Haitians face hunger and hopelessness.     

The Guardian newspaper in the U.K. reported that Royal Caribbean's decision to go ahead with scheduled cruises into Labadee "divided passengers." One passenger commented on the popular Cruise Critic forum that he was "sickened" by the thought of frolicking in the Haitian port while other suffered:

"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 . . .  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.''

Another article "Cruise Ship Docks at Private Beach in Haiti for Barbeque and Water Sports" debates the appropriateness of all of this. The comments range from pointing out the "grotesqueness" of the spectacle of thousands of partying Americans in an idyllic beach to the nonchalant attitude - "life goes on . . . and as always, life is for the living."

There has always been an uneasy disconnect between the opulence of a cruise ship like Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas and a country as desperately impoverished as Haiti with a poverty rate of around 80 to 85 %.  Most Haitians are forced to survive on less than $2 a day.  The U.S. passengers on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, on the other hand, spend more for the cruise, drinks, casino chips, and excursions than most Haitians will see for decades.  In addition to the Independence, Royal Caribbean's Navigator, Freedom, Enchantment and Liberty of the Seas, as well as its subsidiary Celebrity Cruises' Solstice, will all call on Labadee this year. 

The disparity between the haves and the have-nots will become even more pronounced as the $1,400,000,000 (billion) Oasis of the Seas, which visited Labadee in December last year, will begin arriving every other week in Labadee starting in May.

The executives at Royal Caribbean know how to make a hard bargain with Caribbean islands which have little economic bargaining power. CEO Richard Fain cut a deal where for only $6 a passenger (paid by the passenger), Haiti turned over a 260 acre tropical waterfront paradise of Haitian sovereign land for Royal Caribbean to consider it "private property" bearing the trademarked name "Labadee®." Yes, that's right.  This is a name that Royal Caribbean trademarked  as a variation of the French slave owner Marquis de La'Badie who settled in Haiti in the 1600's.

Many years ago an article revealed the hypocrisy of this whole endeavor.  Entitled "Fantasy Island:  Royal Carribean Parcels Off a Piece of Haiti," the article explained that Royal Caribbean began docking in Haiti in January 1986 after the ruthless dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier leased the land to Royal Caribbean.  He thereafter fled to France and the country turned into chaos for the next decade. 

Royal Caribbean's timing was perfect.

The article continues: "plagued by a ravaged economy, residual political unrest, and 7,000 unemployed soldiers, the Haitian government was willing to bargain . . . Royal Caribbean got dirt-cheap entry, minimal regulation, and tactful silence."  The Haitian government earns less than $30,000 a week from the Royal Caribbean cruise ships, but, as Haiti's minister of tourism said: "we need to start somewhere."  Haiti was desperate. Royal Caribbean was Haiti's only choice.

Many argue that for the past many years, Royal Caribbean has not promoted or invested in Haiti.  Instead, as the article explains, it "exploited an acquiescent government and dictated its own terms of entry."  Its plan was to sell U.S. customers on an imaginary paradise.

Travel agents took the cue from Royal Caribbean and marketed the port as a "private island."  The fact that it was no island at all, but part of the mainland of Haiti, didn't bother the travel agents or the cruise line.  And it worked.  Consider a cruise review a couple of years ago:

One of the best Private Island experiences you could ever wish for! Labadee has four beaches and facilities for lots of people! Labadee is owned and operated by Royal Caribbean for the exclusive use of it's own passengers only . . .  Royal Caribbean maintains a nice lunch area on the island.  Here you can graze at your heart's content,  The cuisine was hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken, ribs, various salads, and deserts. No charge. It's all included in the cost of your cruise!

Even last week, the Miami Herald ran a headline, cluelessly referring to Royal Caribbean returning to the "island" of Labadee. But the pretense of an island is only half of the illusion. Not only did Royal Caribbean fail to promote Haiti, it didn't even refer to Labadee as being in Haiti.  Rather it referred to Labadee as part of Hispaniola (the island comprising the Dominican Republic and Haiti) to try and keep the image of Haiti's poverty, violence, and civil unrest away from its customers.  

Labadee might as well be an island, considering that Royal Caribbean hires armed guards to patrol the 10-12 foot fences which isolate the Haitians from the cruise line's "private island."  Royal Caribbean keeps the locals away from its passengers who are "happily ensconced on the shores of paradise" with no idea that just over the walls are shanty-towns, sweat shops, and hungry and impoverished Haitians. The money spent in the private paradise of Labadee doesn't spread far beyond the fences. The article points out that all of the food, drinks, and even the tropical fruits and vegetables all come from Miami.

So now after isolating itself physically, financially and figuratively from Haiti for the past 20 years, Royal Caribbean is trying to justify not disrupting its business while not seeming indifferent to a country it has been indifferent to for 20 years. It just spent big bucks ($50,000,000) building a new wharf - one of the few locations which can handle the new mega ship Oasis of the Seas - as well as the world's longest zip line and an alpine coaster.  Royal Caribbean is banking on bringing the Oasis' 6,000 captive passengers onto that new wharf and charging them for the new zip line ($65), or wave runners ($80) or para-sailing, etc.      

In the last few days, Royal Caribbean has made a big deal talking about offloading pallets of food for Haiti. Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas sailed with only 60 cases of food and water  last Friday according to the Royal Caribbean President's "Nation of Why Not?" blog. That's just four pallets. The blog has some photographs of the few pallets from the Independence of the Seas - four pallets of flour, tomato sauce, can goods, and water bottles. Four pallets?  Considering that on a typical seven-day cruise the cruise ship's passengers consume over 100,000 pounds of food and 12,000 gallons of alcohol over the course of over a hundred thousand meals- the photograph of the meager provisions sitting on the dock dwarfed by the huge Independence of the Seas seems like a sick joke. 

Subsequent articles mention that other cruises have included up to 40 pallets of food, photographs of which no one has seen, but if true this still is a pittance given the enormous needs of the Haitian people and the huge capabilities of Royal Caribbean's cruise ships. 

Supporters of the cruise line point out that Royal Caribbean also pledged to donate a million dollars to Haiti over an unspecified period of time.  It talks about using the net profits collected from the passenger's monies spent in Labadee.  Whether this occurs over the course of 6 months or a year remains to be seen.  Now a million dollars is a lot of money to me and probably anyone reading this article, but it is peanuts for a cruise line like Royal Caribbean. 

Royal Caribbean collects around $6,000,000,000 (billion) a year.  And because it registered its business in Liberia and its cruise ships fly the foreign flags of Liberia or the Bahamas, it pays $0 in federal Income taxes. $0.     

Why only a million dollars?  That will accomplish little. Even Royal Caribbean's competitor Carnival promised to send $5 million to Haiti, and it has no relationship with Haiti.  The $6 a passenger deal which Royal Caribbean struck with the leaders of Haiti rips the Haitian people off.  $6 to go into a 260 acre private paradise?  Well established ports in Alaska collect $50 a passenger in head taxes just to step off of the cruise ship. 

Americans are generous people. For the next two years, Haiti should receive $100 a passenger.   With 6,000 passengers from the Oasis of the Seas alone coming into Labadee a week, the country could receive $600,000 a week rather than the current pittance of $30,000.  Each  passenger can pay $50 and the cruise line can pay the other $50.

If the cruise line can collect $65 for a 2 minute zip line in Labadee for fun, it can sure as hell can pay $50 a passenger to Haiti to deal with the humanitarian crisis unfolding before its eyes.

$600,000 a week could begin accomplish something.

But instead the cruise line is talking peanuts.  And its PR people have created the illusion that the Royal Caribbean executives are in Haiti walking the streets and helping the people.  

Royal Caribbean's website shows a a photograph of CEO Fain and President Goldstein (above) walking with President Clinton with the mountains of Haiti in the background, next to headlines:

"HUMANITARIAN AID TO HAITI."  

The photograph looks impressive; any photo shoot with a President is worth hanging on your wall.  But neither Mr. Fain nor Mr. Goldstein have traveled to Haiti since the disaster.  And the photograph has nothing to do with humanitarian aid.  It was actually taken last year before the earthquake when President Clinton was visiting Haiti on an official visit as the United Nations special envoy. 

This U.N. trip was covered by Jason Maloney, of the Pulitzer Center, who ironically enough commented on Royal Caribbean's historical reluctance to support or even acknowledge Haiti. The center explained that there are "political sensitivities surrounding the ownership of the resort."  It called Royal Caribbean out on its claim that Labadee is a “private beach destination” or the company’s “private island.”  It also ran a photograph (left) of CEO Fain, President Clinton, and Royal Caribbean President Goldstein (in baseball cap and shorts) when Clinton was visiting the cruise line's "private destination." 

It seems rather shameful for Royal Caribbean to pull out a photo which has nothing to do with the "humanitarian" crisis for its own PR purposes.

Royal Caribbean has a net worth of $15,000,000,000.  It has a (tax free) annual income almost twice greater than Haiti's gross national product. 

So in this context - Royal Caribbean's highly publicized pledge of a a measly one million dollars, random pallets of food and water, and a misleading photograph of the cruise line executives with an ex-President are - - - pitiful. 

Royal Caribbean is proposing nothing meaningful to address the profound problems of this impoverished and exploited country.   

To help Haiti, text HAITI and a donation of $10 will go to the Red Cross.  As of this posting, Americans have donated over $19 million via texting for Haiti.  

 For other articles on this issue:

South Florida Business Journal (Kevin Gale)

The Guardian "The Haves & Have Nots in Haiti" (Gwyn Topam)

Sphere "Vacationing in Hell: Cruise Ships Land in Haiti" (Dave Thier)

"Cruise Ships in Haiti and Misdirected Moral Outrage" @thethirdestate

 Credits:

Haiti - earthquake     AP (via Mail OnLine)

Royal Caribbean cruise ship        thewe.cc 

Haiti - earthquake                             @CarelPedre via @Mashable

Independence of the Seas                 "Nation of Why Not?" blog

Royal Caribbean executives (top)       Royal Caribbean's website

Royal Caribbean executives (bottom)     Pulitzer Center

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