World’s largest cruise company ‘sincerely apologises’ over Hitler comment
Carnival Cruise Lines says sorry after Jewish customer complained about a response he got from one of its environmental officers
The largest cruise line in the world has “sincerely apologised” to a Jewish man after a representative told him that if he believed waste could be converted into fuel he probably also believed Hitler was alive and hiding in Argentina.
The apology was issued on Monday afternoon after Paul Manning, a Jewish News reader, complained about the response he got to a suggestion that the ships convert waste into oil to fuel the company’s giant cruise liners.
Manning, who chairs an organisation that combats ocean and beach waste, received a typo-laden response from Dejan Kuzman, environmental officer at Carnival Cruise Lines in Serbia and Montenegro, and posted it on his LinkedIn page.
It read: “Dear Paul, 1 ton of plastic can give you 800 liters of fuel only if you think the earth is flat and Sadam Husein [sic] really had nuclear bombs and that hitler is still alive and hidding [sic] in argentina…”
The Florida-based company, which said it was not aware of the message, is the world’s largest cruise line based on revenue, passenger numbers and fleet size.
Earlier this month, Carnival Corporation and its Princess subsidiary agreed to pay a criminal penalty of $20 million for six environmental violations, including dumping plastic mixed with food waste in Bahamian waters and falsifying training records.
It is the company’s second such fine, with Princess Cruise Lines having paid $40 million in 2016 for further pollution violations, three years after an engineering whistleblower detailed allegations of deliberate wrongdoing.
Asked for a comment about Kuzman’s message, a Carnival Cruise Line spokesman said it was “a company that prides itself on creating and maintaining a work environment where everyone feels valued and respected”.
He added: “We were not aware of this particular situation but it is obviously not a representation of our company and we sincerely apologise. We are looking further into this situation.”
Manning is based in Birmingham where he is a director of Ocean Resource Management and Owte Oil, which sells oil produced through pyrolysis from ocean and beach waste plastic.
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