This made my stomach sick this morning as I read this NY TIMES article about Haiti and cruise ships landing there. Tara over at the Livesay Haiti blog posted about this today and I know this hits her harder since she is a missionary living in Haiti and sees what we only read about on a daily basis.
Here is the final quote that is a real kicker from the article …. “I don’t want to see poverty,” acknowledged Helen Murphy, 66, of St. Paul, who was shopping in the tourist market one morning. “I’m on vacation. I don’t want to think that these people don’t have enough to eat.”
WOW did you hear that. That makes me so mad that I want to cuss! It is people like this that think us in America live the “normal” life. I bet that more people live as the people in Haiti do than the people in America do.
I am not opposed to the cruise ships in Haiti. In my very uneducated opinion it sounds like a great idea to provide jobs and clean up the country. Who knows. I don't like this woman though. I like to think that they took her comment out of context and she is one unhappy woman now …. but then again, how would you get what she said out of context – she doesn't want to acknowledge poor people. I feel sorry for her.
WOW!
What the? Who says that? Seriously? “I don’t want to see poor people, they dampen my spirits and I paid A LOT of money to vacation here….”
Boo to this lady. I hope she feels ridiculous.
And we think the Haitians are the uneducated ones…
Ignorance and selfishness. That lady doesn’t understand that she’s in deep poverty as well. Not lacking the physical; but comepletely empty in other ways.
It’s so hard for those who have never experienced third world poverty to ever understand it. Whenever I hear the word Haiti.. My heart goes out for that beautiful country. I really have hopes that one day Dave and I will journey there for something… Missions work or maybe even an adoption. I have such a heart for Haiti. It’s been over 12 yrs since my last visit but it holds such a special place in my heart. People are so ignorant but I can’t help but think we live in a nation that creates them that way…. hmmmm…..
pretty unbelievable! I don’t know how you would edit around that to get a comment like that. My guess is she said it…and if she came off the cruise ship she probably had already had a few for the day and was slightly less inhibited! That just makes me sick!
Interesting article. Jacmal and Cap Haitian are beautiful and cities like that do hold such potential to be thriving tourist towns. It would be great for the country financially and for Haitians in these villages. It’s such a challenge though since the country is continuously in political disarray. It saddens me that this woman was so unwilling to see beyond the walls. I think that sentiment is probably pretty wide spread though unfortuately. People pay for a nice vacation and they don’t want to be bothered by poverty. The problem is that they most likely don’t want to be bothered with poverty at all ever, not just because they are on vacation.
Haiti is a beautiful country with wonderfully beautiful people!! I long to return there someday, its been too long…
Sadly, it will be quite some time before the tourist market is ever revived in Haiti. Where the cruise ship stops is pretty much a private island that Royal Caribbean leases from the government of Haiti, for about $4million per year
i think that is crazy…for someone to be upset to spend so much money to go vacat..
and then be like oh …they are poor you did go there for a vacation what do those people being poor have anything to do with being on a vacation ..im sure these people do not want your pity..yeah helping out would be awesome but seriousy having pity on them does not help the situation………..i just dont know what else to say