It was just four years ago this month that a few families got together and formed ICV. Since then, our organization has grown and gone around the world. Based upon recent developments, the need for our organization is now even more far-reaching. Recent questionable activities of the cruise lines include the following:
1. Offering unlimited drinks for one price on certain cruise ships. (Excess alcohol is often involved in certain crimes, etc)
2. Offering what's being marketed as "Cougar" cruises. (A "Cougar" is basically an older women looking to have sexual relations with a younger men.)
3. In an effort to keep as much revenue as possible within the cruise company itself including that generated by excursions, Royal Caribbean is taking tourists to a "private beach" in Haiti just 60 miles from one of the worst episodes of human suffering in recent history. They do this rather than taking them to a foreign port because the local merchants in those countries would take business away from the cruise lines. That is the REAL reason for the "private beach" which is owned by the cruise lines.
Clearly, the cruise industry is doing everything possible for the sake of profit but not for the sake of safety. During 2009 a record 25 people went overboard plus untold other crimes such as sexual assaults, robberies and drugs.
To deal with all of these various issues, ICV maintains two corporations; one is for Victim Support and is a 501c3 charity corporation. The second corporation is for lobbying efforts and is a 501 c4 corporation. Because of the growth and many issues ICV has to deal with, Jamie Barnett has been elected President of the Victims Support Corporation and will concentrate on better servings the many victims that come to ICV for support. Kendall Carver will become Chairman for both Corporations and will serve as President of the Lobbying corporation.
We are blessed with the outstanding board members that are listed on our website. Included are two former security officers from the cruise line industry plus representatives from Europe and Australia.
We are moving forward to have the Senate approve our legislation here in the United States plus starting an effort to obtain legislation around the world. More recently, our members are coming from other countries and new victim stories are coming from around the world including Norway, Italy and Brazil. One of our board members in England, Michael Groves, is starting to work on our project in Europe and Mark Brimble is addressing this issue in Australia. This week, ICV just launched a iPetition for legislation in Europe. It can be found at the following link: