Missruckus's travel blogs:
|
|
 | |  |
preliminary thoughts on travel and the tsunami.
Entry 1 of 20 | show all | print this entry |
NOTE: there are many links in this entry so be sure to click on them!
i have been to southeast asia only once before (after emigrating to canada that is), to vietnam in 2001, to visit family and return to my birthplace for the first time in 22 years (at that point). however, the other countries i will be visiting this time around (thailand, lao, cambodia) are ones i have no 'connection' to (meaning no family, etc.) - though obviously, i have a connection in that people there make my clothes, sew my soccer balls, harvest the rice that i eat, etc.. and i benefit under my privilege as someone living in a wealthy western nation which is connected to the poverty of these poor nations. oh, and let's not forget that such 'natural disasters' as earthquakes (which can trigger tsunamis) can sometimes occur because of the environmental destruction that we in the wealthy western nations have largely caused, due to our over-consumption and destruction, relative to the rest of the world (check this and this out as an example of the serious global effects of climate change).
as some of you also probably know, i also think a lot about travel and the politics around it because it's something i enjoy doing. i've never read any books or academic articles about the politics of travel, so it's all just my own scattered thoughts for the most part.. i should look into it though sometime since i could stand to learn a lot.
anyway, a long time ago, i attempted to get some discussion flowing around travel to the 2/3rds world, and posted some thoughts of my own here. i look at some of them now and while i still agree with some of the suggestions i had for 'responsible travel', i disagree with some. for example, i used to think that seeking out an organization to hook up with and do some 'political work' over there would appease you a bit of being a 'bad tourist', but now i think this is just a way to appease your own guilty feelings of being there. after all, i don't believe that it is very helpful most of the time to do certain types of work in the short term (like when you breeze in and out of places in the course of travelling) and not be able to stay long enough to build actual relationships with people, etc.. viable political work requires commitment, and appeasing your own guilt by trying to 'do good' while there for such a short amount of time isn't that useful, and perhaps even somewhat harmful sometimes. that's some of what i think now anyway. and certainly, in coming up with this list, i was trying to appease my own guilt around my desire to travel.
i don't think you can ever really escape the intrinsic issues of travelling while in a poorer country - issues of class, privilege, imperialism, and so on. a friend of mine once said he doesn't think people from wealthy nations should travel to poorer ones at all (not sure if he still thinks this now - this was a few years ago), but i disagree with this as well. while being opposed to capitalism, i must acknowledge that it has dug its claws into every corner of the globe (no matter how much people like to romanticize about there being any 'traditional' or 'untouched' cultures - culture has never ever been static in the first place) and this means that survival for most people around the globe means being a part of that system, even if they may disagree with it or suffer under it. until the capitalist system is overturned, people need to survive under that system. for some parts of the 2/3rds world (including places i will be visiting), tourism dollars are one of the major means of survival for the people there, even with all the baggage that brings. there is also this important view, however. (by the way, this is not counting a country like myanmar, where their democratically elected leader, aung san suu kyi, is presently under house arrest - after spending time in prison - and the country is being run by military juntas instead. she has asked that people boycott travel to myanmar until those who were elected in 1990 are allowed to form a government so i'm opposed to travel there. presently, a lot of the money you spend there as a tourist will go into the illegitimate government's pockets.)
here's a quote somewhat related to what i just wrote in the paragraph above:
"the assaults from the present system necessitate that most activists work for reforms, but those of us who are radicals understand that it is possible to do so at the very same time that we work for fundamental change - a revolution." -barbara smith
even as a 'budget traveller', i will be far wealthier when over there than the vast majority of the people who live there. while most of these people will never be able to visit canada, i am very privileged to be able to skirt around borders so easily. when they try to come here, they get detained rather than welcomed like we are (like the woman i once met in a toronto detention centre who came to visit family in montreal from grenada, but who was instead detained in the toronto airport enroute to her montreal flight, under suspicion that she was going to stay in the country 'illegally'.. and then deported back before she even saw montreal). anyway, blahblahblah.. all of this class and privilege stuff should be glaringly obvious to everyone.
and this brings me to the tsunami. i'm still going on my trip, just avoiding the affected areas since i don't think it's appropriate for me to be there right now. i've seen some people talk about wanting to volunteer over there but i think that going over there as an unskilled volunteer is going to get in the way of relief work rather than actually be helpful, not to mention using up already scarce resources (such as safe drinking water). i think one of the most useful things people can do right now is to donate money. i've also seen people talk about how sick it is that people are still vacationing after all this has happened. it's a quandary, that's for sure, because the contrast between those who are suffering over there and left homeless, and the privileged western travellers is very glaring. but i also think that tourism halting in these areas is going to be detrimental to people's economic livelihoods. for example, thai areas like phuket and koh phi phi that were hit depend on tourism during their high tourist season (which is now).. i don't just mean the wealthier owners but the many workers who have few job prospects outside of the tourist industry. i'm not sure what they do the other times of the year though when fewer tourists visit, like during the rainy season, or whether they mostly rely on money made during the tourist season to survive during the rest of the year.
anyway, i've seen some people suggest that aside from donating money (and by the way, i wish this many people would think of donating money for relief efforts in more overtly political tragedies like israel's destruction of palestine and the recent wars in iraq and afghanistan! the civilians there sure could use the international support too.. not to mention when crises happen in parts of africa - where's the relief money then?), the best thing for travellers to do is to continue travelling and spending money. i concur with this but i wonder if there are things i haven't thought of (and what if i'm just turning into a liberal or something. eek!). what do people think?
i haven't been reading/watching/listening to a whole lot of news but those i have seen here seem to focus a lot on thailand where a lot of the dead and missing are westerners. meanwhile, it is countries like indonesia and sri lanka (with fewer western tourists dead) who have suffered the most. this is not to say that death is not devastating regardless of whose it is, obviously, but to say that i notice that even in the course of tragedy, some lives are counted as more important than others, and it directly reflects the unequal power and privilege in the world.
this is a good article, an important perspective given little light in the media during this tragedy:
"In death, imperialism lives on
For the western media, it is clear that a tourist's tragedy is more important than that of the 'locals'. . ."
thoughts! thoughts! thoughts! please send any you have my way. could be on any of what i have written so far, or any other thoughts you have on travel, period. i have a hard time thinking this all through by myself without discussion. thanks!
|
|
If you like this entry, search for other entries by missruckus, from Ontario, Canada or try a new search. |
| |
| Table of Contents |
| 1. | preliminary thoughts on travel and the tsunami. - Toronto, Canada Jan 02, 2005 |
|
|
|
|
Back to Entry - Back to Home
|
6 votes 
