At what point does normal hospitality become something else?
Chris Breedy promises he'll serve doubles to the Simon Fraser team if they visit Mount Gay. Good Work Chris! Keep 'em happy.
Our story about the Simon Fraser University team coming to Barbados to research medical tourism caused a lively discussion on and off the blog. Folks raised all kinds of questions about the research, how it will be used and about who is funding the research.
On anonymous reader called “One who knows” stated the the Simon Fraser University team already arranged to meet with Barbados government representatives and that the government had plans to fete the Canadians with some tours, dinner at the Hilton and a boat ride with rum punch.
One of the team members, Assistant Professor Jeremy Snyder, wrote back to us (copied at the bottom of this post), answered a few readers’ questions and took a strong stand on his research team’s independence and funding.
We’re impressed! We don’t usually see that kind of transparency and ethics ’bout this rock. Although you can probably buy our own George or Cliverton for a bottle of Mount Gay’s finest, it sounds to us like Professor Snyder and his friends won’t be corrupting their report because somebody bought dinner and took them on a bus tour around the island.
But the discussion does raise an interesting subject: At what point does normal hospitality become something else? Where are the lines? Continue reading
