Greetings from Guantanamo Bay ... and the sickest souvenir shop in the world
By ANGELA LEVIN - More by this author »
Last updated at 00:06am on 4th May 2008
Mockery: A child's T-shirt proclaiming the camp a tourist spot
The sands are white, the sea laps gently and crowds of bronzed Americans laze in the Caribbean sunshine.
They have a cinema, a golf course and, naturally, a gift shop stocked with mugs, jaunty T-shirts and racks of postcards showing perfect sunsets and bright green iguanas.
Only the barbed wire decoration, a recurring motif, hints at anything wrong.
Welcome to "Taliban Towers" at Guantanamo Bay, the most ghoulishly distasteful tourist destination on the planet.
As these astonishing mementoes show, the US authorities are promoting the world's most notorious prison camp as a cheap hideaway for American sunseekers – a revelation that has drawn international anger and condemnation.
Just yards from the shelves of specially branded mugs and cuddly toys, nearly 300 "enemy combatants" lie sweltering in a waking nightmare.
It is six years since foreign prisoners, many captured in Afghanistan, were first taken to this US-occupied corner of Cuba. Yet even now, no charges have been brought against them.
While the detainees lie incarcerated, visitors can windsurf, take boat trips and go fishing for grouper, tuna, red snapper and swordfish.
The United States' 1.5million service personnel and Guantanamo's 3,000 construction workers are eligible to visit the "resort", which boasts a McDonald's, KFC and a bowling alley.
They even have a Wal-Mart supermarket.
each man thinks of his own fleas as gazelles
question authority
While the detainees lie incarcerated, visitors can windsurf, take boat trips and go fishing for grouper, tuna, red snapper and swordfish.
They can fish all they want... but they won't catch anything, lol.
An international group of ecologists and economists warned yesterday that the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if steep declines in marine species continue at current rates, based on a four-year study of catch data and the effects of fisheries collapses.
Seems like a little bit of fabricated outrage to me. The Gitmo shirts and other stuff are made for the same reason people buy "I survived Hurricane Katrina" shirts. For the people that work there and have to live there, it is just adding humor to their situation.
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is."
Seems like a little bit of fabricated outrage to me. The Gitmo shirts and other stuff are made for the same reason people buy "I survived Hurricane Katrina" shirts. For the people that work there and have to live there, it is just adding humor to their situation.
I agree. It's a very poor story (as I would expect from the Mail) in that it completes overshadows what it is important. You have to read a fair way in to discover that that those 'sunseekers', 'tourists' and 'visitors' are in reality all military personnel.. and is there a significantly sized US military base that DOESN'T have fast food joints and a bowling alley these days?
There is indeed worldwide outrage about the treatment of the prisoners, but does anyone really care about T-shirts and mugs, in bad taste or not? If so, maybe they should re-examine their sense of priorities?
me casa esu casa, guantanamo
the grass is greener on my si-i-i-ide and i got all my moro's in! guantanamo! juss me and ma family i-i-i-i
...
lol thats the tiight song guantanamo
and now its officially died
thank you sister snakey for making me stop one of the songs
and WOOW at the topic
people really cant get worse and stupider..................i take that back...
me casa esu casa, guantanamo
the grass is greener on my si-i-i-ide and i got all my moro's in! guantanamo! juss me and ma family i-i-i-i
...
lol thats the tiight song guantanamo
and now its officially died
thank you sister snakey for making me stop one of the songs
and WOOW at the topic
people really cant get worse and stupider..................i take that back...
me casa esu casa, guantanamo
the grass is greener on my si-i-i-ide and i got all my moro's in! guantanamo! juss me and ma family i-i-i-i
...
lol thats the tiight song guantanamo
and now its officially died
thank you sister snakey for making me stop one of the songs
and WOOW at the topic
people really cant get worse and stupider..................i take that back...
Whether or not it's over exaggerated, why in the world would you do it anyway? There's nothing humorous about it. And what exactly do you think is supposed to be important about it except that they're making it a tourist attraction? Or near it at least.
I doubt she cares how she writes on a forum Izyan. It's not english class
*Without Allah, without Islam, life would be meaningless. If I've ever learned patience, it's because of this. Alhamdulillah...*
I have never had an image of Guantanamo, except the mistreatment of our fellow Muslims whom they don't exactly have proof against. Nothing positive before and surely not now!
Peace
Last edited by Nσσя'υℓ Jαииαн; 05-05-2008 at 11:34 PM.
*Without Allah, without Islam, life would be meaningless. If I've ever learned patience, it's because of this. Alhamdulillah...*
same here...did u see the Sudani brother they left out? Sami Al-Hajj?
subhanallah if u see how he looked before and now der is a MAJOR difference
he looks beaten up
Learn silence as you have learned speech.
Speech will guide you, and silence will protect you.
same here...did u see the Sudani brother they left out? Sami Al-Hajj?
subhanallah if u see how he looked before and now der is a MAJOR difference
he looks beaten up
same here...did u see the Sudani brother they left out? Sami Al-Hajj?
subhanallah if u see how he looked before and now der is a MAJOR difference
he looks beaten up
Hmm I dont remember...I might not have. His name is familiar though.
*Without Allah, without Islam, life would be meaningless. If I've ever learned patience, it's because of this. Alhamdulillah...*
Hey there! Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.
When you create an account, we remember exactly what you've read, so you always come right back where you left off. You also get notifications, here and via email, whenever new posts are made. And you can like posts and share your thoughts. Sign Up
Hide
Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks