I'm sure everybody
in the cruise enjoyed the weeklong journey that originated from San
Juan, Puerto Rico, stopped over at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, St.
Marteen, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia and the Barbados and back
to Puerto Rico. In the map, Puerto Rico is a little smaller than the
island of Mindoro. St. Thomas and the other locations are as big as
the island of Romblon or Sibuyan. For me it was certainly a great
enjoyment being together with my children who seldom see us since
they got married. So it didn't really matter if we had to pick up
the tabs for price of the cruise itself. My only regret is that we
cannot afford to go on cruise vacations as often as we want.
My great vacation
time was, however, spoiled when my curious mind started comparing
the land of my birth with the one I cruised for a short visit. There
was nothing to wonder about those islands except the fact that millions
of tourists visit them every year while only a handful do visit my
home province once in a blue moon. Those island countries have almost
the same colonial past as the Philippines but why are they more attractive
to the tourists? We became independent 105 years ago as compared to
those islands, some of which are still a colony of a foreign country.
In fact only a few of them gained their political independence although
they are still a colony economically.
I'm not saying
that we might have been better off if we had not been granted independence
but what I saw in the Caribbean convinces me that independence is
sometimes a bane rather than a boon to the progress of the land. Take
the case of Puerto Rico, which is not an independent country, yet,
its economy is flourishing as a U.S. territory. I may not have a fair
assessment but the bottom line is that the strict political idealism
of independence can no longer thrive in today's modern global economy.
Economics is nothing but the production, distribution and consumption
of goods and services. A completely independent individual or nation
is economically stunted when he or she refuses to produce or exchange
goods and services with another individual or nation.
I may not be nationalistic
in my views but I can't help making comparisons of the bad and the
good between Philippine tourism and the Caribbean Cruise. It's depressing
that while the Philippines has more beautiful islands than any country
in the world, we try to drive tourists away by our independent thinking
that we don't want invaders to step on Philippine shores. It's also
frustrating that even though Filipinos are known for their hospitality,
the good hosts become hostage takers.
Caribbean cruises
thrive because the Caribbean people are friendly. Taxi drivers don't
overcharge passengers. Our tourist guide in Puerto Rico would even
drop us off at our hotel when he had to drop us at the airport after
the tour. Our tourist guides in the other islands spoke broken English
and sang broken tune and still we liked their services because they
did nothing to take advantage of us or abuse our being strangers.
This reminds me
of the kind of hospitality a taxi driver showed me in Manila a few
years back. I gave him 200 pesos, which was the agreed fare but he
asked for tip. When I handed him the tip of 20 pesos he rejected because
he said it was too small. I thanked him in return for returning my
20 pesos.
Caribbean cruise
waiters and waitresses are very good. Many of them are English speaking
Filipinos. Many of the ship crewmembers are Filipinos too. It's amazing
that we meet Filipino passengers too other than the six of us. What
puzzles me was the question why Filipino tourists and cruise line
workers have to go to the Caribbean instead of going back to the Philippines.
As far as I am concerned Filipinos are literate so they can go anywhere
they want to go. I'm even prouder to say that everywhere I go to cross
borders I always find a hard working Filipino.
