Moral Proportionality

Utterly amazing the way human sensibilities are so adept at disconnection. Those who engage in travel as tourists, enjoying their visits to picturesque, environmentally beautiful, romantic and historical parts of the world, defend their decisions to visit places where the vast bulk of the population lives in dire poverty, struggling to exist from one day to another, as 'helping their economy' by their tourism dollars.

And so it is in Haiti -, utterly ruined by its own history of corruption, gangster governments, rule-by-fear-and-intimidation, following hard on colonial rule that stripped its people of their human dignity, and the land of its resources - has perennially constituted a blot on the Western Hemisphere, as one of the most poverty-stricken, miserable places on Earth.

But the Island of Hispaniola, is situated in the Caribbean, one of the most lovely destinations for holiday-goes who worship sun, sand and warmth, and Haiti, occupying one-third of that island also has remarkably beautiful white sand beaches and aqua-tinted waters where international cruises tend to stop over to enable their clients to relax, scuba-dive, luxuriate in comfort.

The piteous fact that Haiti now lies in utter ruin due to the devastation wrought by a catastrophic earthquake, following hard on its earlier weather losses, is no impediment to the determination of those who spend their dreams, cash and time visiting such island getaways. The beaches still present as pristine, the waters irresistible.

So luxury cruise liners continue to visit those private Haitian beaches to enable paying customers to para sail, kayak and snorkel to their hearts' content. In their own defence, they maintain they are favouring the people of Haiti by their presence through their tourist dollars. Foreign tourists see no evil, hear no evil, speak of no evil.

While international aid agencies, and government teams of rescuers, disaster planners, move mountains of emergency aid, medical equipment, food and water, and at the same time assist in the disposal of untold numbers of dead Haitians, visitors to the country whose pampered feet tread those sandy beaches, dip into the limpid waters, unperturbed at their presence at the scene of such unspeakable horror.

"We are very sensitive to the idea of delivering a vacation experience so close to the epicenter of the earthquake, and we appreciate that many guests might feel the same way. However, given the terrible economic and social challenges Haiti now faces, they need the positive economic benefits now more than ever", an industry representative explained.

Results from a Cruise Critic poll taken over the past weekend indicate 66% of the 4,000 respondents polled felt in agreement with that statement. A 20% minority felt that continuance of visits under the circumstances were representative of 'poor taste'. "We have not had a large number of guests wanting to cancel", added the industry spokesperson.

Those that have, and know no want appear to be slow off the mark in identifying human values. But there is nothing particularly new about this. Those fairly large numbers of any society who look forward with pleasure to visiting parts of the world renowned for natural beauty, culture and history, wander those areas seemingly without notice of the masses of humanity living at absolute poverty levels.

And then we are taken aback at the (relatively low) incidences of tourists to such places being robbed, injured or murdered. By, of course, desperately poor people wishing to avail themselves of some of that disposable income foreigners expend, lavishly living a lifestyle they themselves could never begin to imagine.