I suspect the "new thing" in Haiti is probably Royal Caribbean Cruise Line's leased area known as Labadee...the cruise ship "private island" concept that was started some years abo by Norwegian Cruise lIne and most of the others have followed suit

Local Haitian labor is employed so economically that is a plus for them I would assume.

I guess you'd have to ask the "locals" if this sort of thing is a plus or a minus.

Can't you just boycott Germany. The FA (=IRS) is mean, supresses my freedoms and threatens to take away all my hard earned money. And I can't do a thing against them! So much for freedom.

North Korea and China.

I know it is not politically correct to condemn a whole nations for the actions of a few, but when representatives of those States have energetically and repeatedly tried their best to kill one, it leaves emotional scars.

I even went back to South Korea once, when working for the U.N. Korean friends took me to the mountains on a picnic. Walking up those narrow trails with brooding mountains looking down on one, without a rifle in my hands, really gave me the willies.

You're welcome wombat7. It sure is funny to see how many chest thumpers there were back then.

>I try to avoide Texas as it has a bad habit of providing us bad presidents....

Once is happenstance.
Twice is coincidence.
Who's the third, Eisenhower?

Fortunately, the places that are dangerous, with questionable politics, human rights violations, bad treatment of women... also happen to be places I'm not interested in visiting. Works out real nice for me.

I find it interesting that some people would not visit China...but might make regular visits to Walmart for example, who is one of China's largest trading partners.

I would think that visiting a country, spending money on a hotel, meals, and a tour guide would be supporting...the people, and not the government.

Perhaps another way to look at it...we are all fed images, news articles, 2 minute TV stories that shape our image of a country. Perhaps one of our images of France is the TV film of kids burning cars. Should that be our "opinion" of that country, or is travelling to that place more likely to give us a more "balanced" view of a country?

Why is there a boycott of Cuba? Is buying Cuban cigars directly supporting Fidel, or the growers and rollers? Why should a government say " you shall not go to that country, stay at resort and lie on the beach"? I'm Canadian, we go, we enjoy, it creates work for many people there.

I don't feel like going to Germany and Poland because of events in WWII. I spent one day in Germany and really wanted to leave even though the people were nothing but nice. As far as Poland goes I feel they helped kill most of the Jews there, and what am I going to be doing there now? Oh, here was a vibrant Jewish community, there was a synagogue, and here is the concentration camp, and there is another. I don't need to see it, I know it happened.

If we look at historical aspects as to why we would or would not visit a country, then that would pretty much wipe out any travel, any where...I for one believe that if anything, tourism opens the eyes of the local populace to what "can" be (good and bad).

Let's face facts, the Soviet regime failed because of Blue Jeans and BMWs. Why do I say that, the 2 German States. East Berliners and West Berliners started from the exact same point in 1945. East Berliners had to watch wealth explode in the western part while they rationed. It was massive cultural differences that helped to force the change.

Just my thoughts

dave

"As far as Poland goes I feel they helped kill most of the Jews there"

Excuse me? The Poles helped kill most of the Jews?

Do I misunderstand you, or am I hearing an allegation I haven't heard before?

Yes, Waring, time for you to wake up and learn history.

Anya, I "hope" you're old enuogh to have experienced those days yourself. If not if would be wise imho, to learn about the nature of man.

Well, I guess nobody should visit the U.S. because of slavery or Spain because of the eradication of Native Americans or Rome because of the killing of Christians or Japan or China or South Africa or anywhere....

dave

Not wishing to send this thread off on a tangent, and being a graduate of Soviet and Eastern European Studies, which gives me a little history lesson:

While there was collaboration and anti-semitism in all of the occupied countries, I have never heard the Poles being accused of being complicit in MOST of the Holocaust in Poland.

If there is information on this, please point me in the right direction to learn more.

I know the Gestapo asked the French Authorities to "Stop sending so many Jews"

If you are refusing to go because of the actions of a few in Poland and the few who survive in Germany, then you had better rule out the Czech and Slovak countries, Austria,Hungary, Spain (who expelled all the Jews in 1492), Switzerland, Italy, and France.

Or England, all Jews expelled 1290.

When the remaining Polish Jews went back to Poland AFTER getting out of the Camps, there were towns in Poland whose popoulace killed the returning Jews.

Golly. Didn't ANYBODY want us poor little Jews?

That doesn't mean EVERYBODY in Poland did.

The only reason I would avoid a place, that otherwise would appear interesting from a tourism standpoint, is for safety reasons.

Now, I'll try like hell to avoid some poeple, particularly narrow minded know it alls who insist on talking politics and berating you simply because they have different political views.