So youve just had an earthquake....

[draggar]

No, but the excuse being used by the cruise liner is that they are helping the relief effort by keeping tourism going. That means they are saying that the money is getting to the hazard zone when it simply isn't. That's my beef with it.

So then you're saying life needs to stop and these people need to lose business because of the earthquake which didn't affect this area? Interesting how no one mentioned about the Dominican Republic - parts of that country are closer to the disaster zone but they still need to have their lives going on or should it also come to a screeching halt.

Or are you insinuating that the workers in these resorts have some critical talent needed in the relief effort - like bartenders, waiters, and cleaning crews?

I think the relief effort would rather have 50 people with a skill they can use - medical, excavation, search and rescue, etc.. than 1,000 untrained people just wandering around possibly causing more trouble.

[lordlundar]

I sent you a PM continuing this draggar, as for his thread, I'm done repeating myself.

[jackfaire]

My beef is that they have to use an excuse because we are so ready to bash all corporations because god forbid they be allowed to continue doing business when there is no reason not to.

[kiwi]

Where I live I get 2 weeks holiday a year, if I have worked all year and this is my ONE vacation then I would get off the boat and enjoy my day.
Call me cold or heartless, but people suffer everyday like they are in Haiti now, me staying on board a boat wont change that one bit.

I am actively involved with charity during the year, I give up paid days of work or evenings and weekends to help, I also donate money when I can and my heart goes out to those in need right now, but apart from donating and giving my time I can't stop my life for them.

Had it been my vacation, I would have tried to continue enjoying myself. If that makes me a monster, so be it.

[draggar]

Where I live I get 2 weeks holiday a year, if I have worked all year and this is my ONE vacation then I would get off the boat and enjoy my day.
Call me cold or heartless, but people suffer everyday like they are in Haiti now, me staying on board a boat wont change that one bit.

I am actively involved with charity during the year, I give up paid days of work or evenings and weekends to help, I also donate money when I can and my heart goes out to those in need right now, but apart from donating and giving my time I can't stop my life for them.

Had it been my vacation, I would have tried to continue enjoying myself. If that makes me a monster, so be it.

Good post and I'm in the same situation. I give days off to help with charities, we help with money and other resources, I give blood. I've done some disgusting things (as in dirty, not immoral) to help out a charity.

For the people who go, I only ask them to think about what is going on, maybe tip the staff a little more in hope that it will help with the relief efforts. Don't go down there and be a typical tourist (and get in the way). If you want to see it, go to Google maps / Google Earth - they've updated this area with the highest resolution images they can.

I don't think people in most countries can fathom the scale of what is happening in Haiti. Imagine a disaster killing 6,000,000 Americans and displacing close to 100,000,000. I can't think of many natural disasters (mega tsunami hitting the east or west coast, Yellowstone erupting) that could cause this but I can think of plenty of non-natural ones causing this (major nuclear terrorist attack etc.).

Going with their current estimates (roughly 2% of the total population killed, 33% displaced - based on the most recent population estimates supplied by Wikipedia):

In the UK - 1.2 million people dead, 20 million displaced.
Germany - 1.6 million dead, 25-30 million displaced
Australia - 500,000 dead, roughly 6-7 million displaced
Japan - 2.5 million dead, 40 million displaced
Canada - 650,000 dead, 11 million displaced
Spain - 900,000 dead, 15 million displaced
Italy - 1.2 million dead, 20 million displaced
Russia - 3 million dead, 45 million displaced
China - 26 million dead, 400 million displaced
India - 24 million dead, 400 million displaced

Any of these could be considered a catastrophic disaster for any nation with the numbers that Haiti is seeing. People assuming none of money being spent in an unaffected area is going to the relief / rescue efforts are probably (yes, I am saying probably so I'm not accused of anything) thinking that the people in the unaffected area are extremely selfish and are unwilling to help. I don't know about you but if a disaster of this magnitude hit the US and I was in an unaffected area, I know my area would be helping as much as they could (my area was one of the largest contributors of aid outside of the affected area for hurricane Katrina).

[Lace Neil Singer]

I believe also that Haiti was pretty fucked up, government wise, before the earthquake. So it's probably best to donate thru rescue missions rather than thru their government.

I will also repeat what I just said, re the risk of aftershocks. I personally wouldn't take the risk, but if you will, more power to you.