When Greed Smothers Honesty Profits Will Soar
May 9, 2008 Editorial
When a friend of mine sent me a link to a story on a pro-cruise industry website yesterday evening, that was dated for today, I had a pretty good idea it was going to smell foul, much like the sludge dumped on Vanuatu by the P & O Pacific Star, a real crime, that only came to light when villagers' water was near the dump and they screamed "foul".
That is what you get when you allow an industry to police themselves, lies, deceit and abuse of common human standards and ethics when it benefits and suits their greedy stockholders. On that topic, why is it, do you think, after each horrific event, where a cruise line WAS fined, you've never once seen a blog by one of their stockholders condemning the act? I can answer that, greed.
When I visit a web page, the first thing I do is locate the scroll bar and start scrolling to the bottom of the page. This tells me immediately if I will bother to read the story. Long, drawn-out pages with tiny scroll bars are my pet peeve, one that savvy webmasters know to avoid, because I am not alone in my hatred of poorly designed pages.
In this case, I was watching my partner Kendall Carver's back as usual. Reading the entire pile of manure was mandatory, long, poorly designed page or not.
As I scrolled down, I noted 9 cruise industry ads on the page. That pretty much tells me all I know need to know. This webmaster is going to say and do whatever he can to protect his income. So, I am expecting the article to be trash, and was not disappointed. It was more bull manure than any one page deserves, and more than any one visitor should be force-fed.
When a good-hearted, dedicated man, who by most accounts is a retired insurance company officer, invites vermin into his home, he really should have a home full of cats, ready and willing to scratch out the vermin's eyes, right before they wrap their teeth tightly around their prey's neck and drag it off to the back yard for a little cat and mouse before the dinner bell is rang. Sadly, this vermin left unscathed by a gentle man, apparently no cats to guard him, only to continue to litter the web with his greedy, victim hating, fecal-laced germs in order to spread his plague and feather his wallet.
If I name him, I walk right into his plan, giving him the lime light, where he can be the center of attention. I drive traffic to his website, and he sells, sells, sells more cruises, professing there are no crimes, no convictions to prove there are crimes, and that even if there were crimes, no cruise line should have to do anything at all to protect the passengers. In his eyes, passengers are responsible for their safety.
I have nothing against selling cruises, but to out and out lie to potential passengers, that there are no crimes on cruise ships is not only irresponsible, it is immoral in my view.
This is the reason a grand-mother was so distraught after her little grand-daughter was raped by another passenger on a cruise ship recently. She had no idea there was such a threat on a "Love Boat" full of happy, good, honest passengers. Had she known of the potential dangers, she said, she would have never cruised. She had never been to Cruise Bruise.
This is what happens to people who do not live in those crime ridden hell hole cities, the cruise industry constantly compares themselves to. These passengers from good, clean, safe communities are unaware of the dangers.
This webmaster would be making a bundle after attacking my friend, my friend's friends and associates, and every other victim who has ever crossed my path, or sailed the high seas if I list his name, his website or drop a link. I won't contribute to it.
Instead, I want to point out ONE thing. When you have nine, count them, NINE ads for cruises on an editorial, where the industry (web sites) standard for ads on a page is THREE or less, I think the motivation for slamming victims, calling them liars, and supporting the proliferation of crimes on cruise ships by denying they exist can be summed up with ONE word. GREED. In this case, his greed has overcome his logic, with advertising covering over half of his top of the main page navigation rending it nearly useless. I could rest my case right there.
When greed robs you of compassion, humility, common sense, ethics, morals, dignity and the ability to design user friendly pages, you have sold your soul to the devil AND turned your back on your web site visitors.
Now, this article quotes the cruise line press release on the Manning case, and paints the cruise line as a saint. What it doesn't do is quote the FBI, or facts such as the FBI saying that the cruise ship had too few security cameras for them to property investigated the case and know what really happened to Mr. Manning. That my friends, is a crying shame.
How this can still be a problem after the death of ICV victim George Allen Smith,
several years back, is nothing short of disgusting. If the cruise lines really cared about public safety and getting answers to on board incidents, I would think they would have resolved the issue of security cameras by now.
Even in this small, one horse town, the police use video cameras posted in various businesses along the roads to solve crimes. They are a known case-solving tool. So, why is it that an industry under fire, continues to make sure security cameras are few and far between?
If all these people are really tossing themselves overboard, wouldn't it be to the industry's benefit to be able to say, with video footage proof that each and every passenger who went missing threw themselves overboard and there were no murders on their ships? Of course it would. But, that is not the case; murders are taking place. There can be no doubt.
None the less, while this greedy webmaster touts how much the industry has done "voluntarily" to ensure public safety, any regulation to ensure they follow a set standard of safety and investigation protocol he rejects. What the untrained eye doesn't read between the lines is if the procedures are VOLUNTARY, they can be perverted, misapplied, refused, not used, abused, misused, used, mishandled or confused at will.
If they are REGULATED, they are written in stone and fines and criminal charges will apply when the regulations are broken or abused with non-compliance. The only incentive to compliance is a major loss of revenue. Then, we will see those blogs from stockholders, screaming about the industry costing them money with their waves of non-compliancy. Peer pressure can be a very effective tool.
At one point, this same webmaster said to me that there has NEVER been a conviction for rape aboard, so rapes do not take place. If they did, there would be charges filed AND convictions. I know you have heard him say that, he tells everyone who will listen.
What he is unwilling to publicly acknowledge, is there HAVE been convictions, there HAVE been crew members admitting to raping passengers AND inspite of those admissions they have walked free when tried in third world country courts, that depend heavily on their cruise ship traffic and taxes paid by the cruise ships registered in their lands. How can a man admit to a crime and then be found innocent? Greed.
This same webmaster has told me that he has read EVERY case on my site. That would have to mean, he is nothing but a bold face liar. The cases do exist, he knows that, and yet he continues to lie about cruise ship sexual assaults. If he lies about cruise ship assaults, further victimizing the women and children who are trying to repair their lives, what else does he lie about? Ask Kendall Carver for an eye-opener. Why does he lie? In his words for redundancy, "see above".
Was it any mistake that this article, wrapped around extensive, excessive cruise industry advertising was targeted to throw smoke and mirrors around cruise industry crime and launched right when millions are getting ready to book their summer cruises? I think not. I see this for what it is, and I hope you will as well.
My friend Kendall is a good, honest man who has has been revictimized by a man driven by greed. When you support the offending website, you support verbal attacks against victims and their families.
The Cruise Bruise Cruise Ship Bruising Report
Cruise Ship Passengers Missing or Kidnapped - Cruise Ship Epidemic Illness - Cruise Ship Passenger Assaults Suicides or Murders On Cruise Ships - Cruise Ships Ship Wrecked - Pirated Cruise Ships
Were They Cruising For A Bruising
