{"id":1896,"date":"2010-06-26T01:54:33","date_gmt":"2010-06-26T08:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=1896"},"modified":"2010-06-26T01:54:33","modified_gmt":"2010-06-26T08:54:33","slug":"haiti-royal-caribbean-labadee-bob-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=1896","title":{"rendered":"Remembering not to forget Haiti"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s blog is only partially about cruising. It is all about the human spirit. In this case, that means Haiti, which is being somewhat forgotten in the wake of the oil tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico.<\/p>\n

Haiti, you may recall, was devastated by a January earthquake that took more than 300,000 lives. The pledges of thousands accompanied promises that Haiti would not be forgotten. Time, as always, marches on and when there’s another crisis to deal with, stuff happens. So the reconstruction of Haiti has slowed.<\/p>\n

Some people remember the promise. One is Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television and currently owner of the Charlotte Bobcats<\/a>. \"\"<\/a>Another is Royal Caribbean Cruise Line<\/a>, which has been sailing to its private Haitian resort at Labadee<\/a> for more than 20 years, and which is the reason you are reading about this in a cruise blog. You can say, with justification, that Royal Caribbean has a vested interest. Does it really matter? The fact is that the cruise line is one of four partners in a benevolent consortium dedicated to building two factories that will build 800 homes a month for the Haitian people.<\/p>\n

Johnson and his RJL Companies<\/a>, Global Building Solutions<\/a> and the WIN Group<\/a> are the other partners. Using a technology called structured insulated panels, they will build lightweight, earthquake-resistant homes with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, for $10,000 each. While other contractors have been stalled by the snail-like pace of government contracts, the Johnson consortium isn’t waiting. All that stands between the start of the project and homes coming off the assembly line is clearance from the Haiti Reconstruction Commission<\/a>, and six or seven months to build the factories.<\/p>\n

It’s a commitment, it’s a start, and it’s a reflection that somebody still remembers Haiti in the aftermath of the oily waters of the Gulf.<\/p>\n

That’s it, we’re done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s blog is only partially about cruising. It is all about the human spirit. In this case, that means Haiti, which is being somewhat forgotten in the wake of the oil tragedy in the Gulf of Mexico. Haiti, you may recall, was devastated by a January earthquake that took more than 300,000 lives. The pledges… Continue reading Remembering not to forget Haiti<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,31,15],"tags":[137,33],"class_list":["post-1896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-people","category-ports","category-stories","tag-caribbean-cruises","tag-royal-caribbean","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}