St. Lucia Photographer Studies Fairness In Miami
Day 138/227 Left
St. Lucia Photographer Shares A Photo A Day
With The World For A Year!
Ricky’s Hotdog Stand
While in Miami last week I was really impressed just watching people lining up at Ricky’s hotdog stand waiting their turn to be served some really tasty looking hotdogs.
Here’s what was so fascinating for me: By lining up to be served, everyone got served in the order that they arrived, there was therefore no pushing nor fighting, everyone walked away knowing that they were treated fairly, and the maximum number of people got served in the shortest space of time due to the efficiency of Ricky’s service, resulting in the maximum profit to a very hard working Ricky.
I compared this typical scene which everyone in the developed world takes for granted, with the scenes of chaos that I have seen in many less developed countries where pushing ahead and scrambling to be served first is common place, with no regard for those who were there before; and it brought to mind the horrors of such a system, or lack thereof!
Then it made me think of fair and unfair and of the fact that the St. Lucia government has just approved a series of fiscal incentives to assist hotels in St. Lucia to weather the current economic crisis, while at the same time many of these hotels continue to deny brides from countries with hotdog lines, their inalienable right to their wedding photographer of choice, and I thought: "HOW DISGUSTINGLY BARBARIC!"
The St. Lucia media has reported for the second time, on this system of ECONOMIC APARTHEID now being practiced by some hotels and a group of concerned photographers have written to the St. Lucia government seeking redress.
Now imagine for a moment if a hotel in your country hogged all of the business and as a consequence provided their own internal taxi service, put out the hairdressers and offered the service themselves, took over the dive operations, bought their own dive boats and cut out the local business, etc, etc…then got tax holidays from your government. What do you think the response would be in your country?
Well much, though not all, of this is happening in St. Lucia as you read this post and I need your help to answer this question:
In view of all of the concessions that governments like mine give to hotels, should the ancillary services of these hotels, such as car rentals, dive shops, the organizing and fulfillment of shore excursions, the specialized service of photography, etc, be reserved for local entrepreneurs, or should the government allow the hotels to offer what they please and ban local entrepreneurs as they deem fit?
Please provide your thoughts and comments as the recently formed, St. Lucia Association of Professional Photographers would like to use your opinions to help us arrive at policy positions that are Fair, Balanced & Sound…
And please invite as many people as you can to participate in this debate
=====================================================
Wanna be the first to know when I post new photos?…
Then sign up in the email box over on the right of this page to receive
your very own personal Email Alerts from me…
Or go Totally High Tech and Get Your Alerts Via RSS Feed
on Jul 13th, 2009 at 3:56 am
[...] post: A Study In Fairness | St. Lucia Weddings by Kirk Elliott Tags: bells, hotdog, hotdog-stand-, last-week, lucia-photographer, miami, most-difficult, [...]
on Jul 13th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
If I was a bride and was trying to choose a resort location in St Lucia for my wedding, I would absolutely want to be able to choose whomever I wanted to be my wedding photographer. I would not want to have to settle for the in-house photographer offered at the hotel. They could have one, but I would like to choose anyone that was available in the area. My choice would be based on the qualifications of the photographer and my needs as well. This is only fair for the memories to be captured on the most important day of my life – my wedding day. Thank you for allowing me to have my say on this subject and good luck with changing the rules. Keep up the good work.
on Jul 14th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Grandma Margaret,
Thank You as always for your fair and balanced comments. I believe in my heart of hearts that it is the interest and support of persons just like you that will help the disenfranchised like myself, and so many others, to offer exemplary service to the world by being able to compete on a level playing field. And in leveling the playing field this dastardly act, by some hotels, of disenfranchising the brides who are paying money, will finally come to an end.
So here’s once again saying: “Thank You So Very Much for contributing to this debate”
on Jul 15th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
It is sad when a government begins to dictate business policy. A true democracy allows freedoms, not constraints for it’s followers. This is a dangerous path, to say the least. A wedding is about the bride and what she wants. Not political bureaucracy and big company monopolies. Keep up the fight Kirk!