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NEWS > EVERYONE ELSE > HAITIANS JUST LYING AROUND AS TOURISM DRIES UP
HAITIANS JUST LYING AROUND AS TOURISM DRIES UP
January 17 2010
Port-au-Prince, Haiti – For much of the northern hemisphere the end of January is the time when most people have had enough of winter. At least two months into the snowy season, temperatures at the lowest they will be all year, and the sheer misery
of at least another month of scraping ice off car windows, wet socks, and freezing eyelashes is the limit for most people. For those who can afford to do so there is one simple and decisive action to take against the burden of winter; vacation.
With half the planet in the midst of the summer months, the relief of such warmth is something many people cannot wait to embrace. Unfortunately, recent global events have made that process very difficult for many travellers. The recent earthquake in Haiti is chief among those issues, tying up air travel, waterways, and generally making it very uncomfortable for many would-be travellers. Though the Haitians themselves are no doubt suffering as well, not the least of which is the lost tourist dollars, people travelling to all countries throughout the region are seeing enormous slides in tourism and all, countries and travellers alike, are placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the corpse-laden government of Haiti.
“Look, I work hard all year and even though this year has been rough we were able to save up enough money to take a trip this year only to be faced with this. It’s really a bunch of crap. We sacrificed all year only to be faced with this. I can’t tell you how disappointed we all are,” said a Florida businessman whose trip to the Dominican Republic has been delayed.
“We had planned to go to Haiti and had done so for a long time. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit and I wanted my children to see the place where slavery started to end. Going in the winter is the perfect time too but obviously, that isn’t happening now. It’s really too bad that they haven’t been able to move these bodies out of the way in order to accommodate tourists. You’d think they would want anyone’s money now,” said a Louisiana businessman who has cancelled his plans.
It isn’t just the Haitian tourism industry that has suffered either. Tourism to Cuba and Jamaica have also seen dramatic drop offs. It is though Haiti that has suffered the most with even areas far from the quake zone unable to pull tourists.
“There are bodies, a lot of bodies and not the kind that we are used to. These really aren’t the kinds of bodies we want baking out in the sun. There’s really no money to be made from them and that doesn’t help anyone. They are taking up room that could be used for housing paying customers. Right now they are just dead weight,” 
said Francois Bertrand of the Haitian Tourism Ministry. “The problem, well the main problem, is that there are so many of them. The collapsed buildings are an issue but nothing compared to all these people just lying around, We already have enough issues with people not working hard and this is going to further that impression.”
Thus far, 50,000 bodies are believed to have been buried. The total could reach up to 200,000.
“This has really done a lot of damage to our tourism industry and we genuinely want people to come to Haiti and get away from the cold. Let me reassure everyone thinking about coming here that this is not the normal state of affairs and we will soon have the roads cleared of corpses,” continued Bertrand. “Haiti is a beautiful country with beautiful people and we want to assure the world that not all of us are simply lying around.”
Because of the usual state of affairs in Haiti clean up is expected to last a few more days.
Emil Uliya, International Correspondent
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