{"id":4220,"date":"2010-10-27T01:02:12","date_gmt":"2010-10-27T08:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=4220"},"modified":"2010-10-27T01:02:12","modified_gmt":"2010-10-27T08:02:12","slug":"mitch-albom-haiti-roya-caribbean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=4220","title":{"rendered":"Those Who Help the Haitian Cause"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Once a sports writer, I still have a special appreciation for chroniclers of the games with a special gift for stringing words together. Like Mitch Albom (left), arguably America’s best sports columnist of his time. I love his writing but, far more than that, I love his humanity.<\/p>\n

Haiti. All of us cringed when the earthquake ravaged Port Au Prince in January. Here we are again, this week, cringing at the thought of cholera attacking these poor, poor people who have so little.<\/p>\n

Mitch Albom<\/a>, a sports writer, did something about the first tragedy and it would surprise no one if the second becomes an extension of his mission. He did something with more than words. He rounded up a group of people in Detroit to go to Haiti; three of them the first trip, then nine, then 19. They came from many backgrounds and occupations but in Haiti they were all the same…volunteers who built buildings and dug toilets and slept on filthy floors to try to make a difference.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It is a world apart from the cruising we write about, but the cruising world \u2014 like Mitch Albom but in a different way \u2014 also cares. In particular, that caring revolves around Royal Caribbean. The school that the cruise line built, with earthquake-resistant construction materials transported to the island from Miami on cruise ships, is now open. L\u2019Ecole Nouvelle Royal Caribbean<\/em> covers 6,500 square feet near nine Haitian villages and towns. It has six buildings, 12 class rooms, a computer lab, offices and bathrooms.<\/p>\n

Best of all, it has education for young Haitians.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The cynic will say that Royal Caribbean<\/a>, which also donated $1 million to Haitian relief this year, cares because it has a vested interest in Haiti. Its cruise ships \u2014 along with those from Celebrity<\/a> and Azamara<\/a> \u2014 regularly stop at Labadee, one of those nine villages and towns, because Royal Caribbean has a private resort at the port.<\/p>\n

Does it matter? Is it more important to help poor people get educated, or do nothing? What’s better, to show a poverty-stricken population that somebody really does care \u2014 and there are many others also making hands-on contributions, most visibly actor Sean Penn \u2014 or to make a financial contribution to an organization that may or may not apply it where it’s needed.<\/p>\n

Maybe the cruise line will inspire others to help. Maybe it will inspire Haitians to help. Mitch Albom did both of those things in Haiti, and he’s just a sports writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once a sports writer, I still have a special appreciation for chroniclers of the games with a special gift for stringing words together. Like Mitch Albom (left), arguably America’s best sports columnist of his time. I love his writing but, far more than that, I love his humanity. Haiti. All of us cringed when the… Continue reading Those Who Help the Haitian Cause<\/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":[16,25,31,15],"tags":[51,39,379,40,380,33],"class_list":["post-4220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruise-industry-news","category-people","category-ports","category-stories","tag-cruise-ports","tag-haiti","tag-helping-haiti","tag-labadee","tag-mitch-albom","tag-royal-caribbean","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220","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=4220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}