Readers of my blog postings and articles are well aware of my deep concern (and fascination) about the collision between extreme poverty in Haiti and high-end tourism development in the Turks & Caicos Islands. Indeed, just a few days ago, a sloop from Haiti with 44 persons aboard was intercepted by the Marine Police just off the private island of Ambergris Cay (south of South Caicos).

Ambergris Cay is without question one of the most exclusive private islands in the world with several stunning and tastefully built villas spread out along the coast with spectacular views. Moreover, the developers have set aside large swaths of wilderness to ensure the island retains its ecological balance, including protection of some 7000 endangered iguanas. Here, villa owners and guests can look out their windows during whale season (late January – late March) and watch humpback whales breaching a few hundred yards away. Hard to beat that! So, it’s not surprising that the superbly managed super high-end island resort caters to 1/10th of 1% of tourists and with its own private jetport.

Intriguing, of course, is that the private island is just 120 miles north of Haiti where human traffickers regularly send off boats from the north shore with dozens if not hundreds of desperate migrants. While these boats skirt the shores of Ambergris Cay–usually off-course in their effort to reach Provo–the close encounters once more prompts the question: Are we witnessing a microcosm of extremes that foreshadows a world in which the very rich will live next door to the very poor? Actually, this is already happening on Provo. The wealthy can, of course, segregate their properties with gated communities, high walls, and security guards. But the poor masses will take up residence just outside in hopes that some of that crumbs from wealth on the other side of the fence spill over to them. That, of course, is going to be visually uncomfortable, until it isn’t, and the two worlds simply become an accepted part of the landscape.

But as we drift toward those disparate worlds, and certainly not for the first time, we need to consider the consequences. For one thing, it will certainly reinforce a clear and ever-growing class system of haves and have nots that is unlikely to remain static. Great inequality in wealth and status and privilege rarely does. In this case, the lives of the well-to-do and the struggling isn’t hidden from view by either side of the divide. And no one should have any illusion that the gulf of disparity, close and personal, will simply be accepted. The deepening divide needs to be addressed now. For those with means, it presents a magnificent opportunity to solve a seemingly intractable socio-economic problem of opportunity and, in so doing, perhaps create a model for the world.