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The Ethical & Responsible Travel Minefield
Just about every country seems to have a place on many travelers’ lists that will draw commendation from some. In Australia climbing Uluru (Ayers Rock) might be frowned upon, signs at the rock tell visitors that climbing it is disrespectful to the aboriginals. There are many things tourists do wherever they go the inevitably cause [...]
Tuesday November 24 2009
Just about every country seems to have a place on many travelers’ lists that will draw commendation from some.
In Australia climbing Uluru (Ayers Rock) might be frowned upon, signs at the rock tell visitors that climbing it is disrespectful to the aboriginals. There are many things tourists do wherever they go the inevitably cause offense to some locals.
In Cambodia visitors to the killing fields have come under fire as the concession was sold to a Japanese country and the government refuses to cremate the remains in a traditional Buddhist ceremony.
However no one discouraged visiting Angkor where the Apsara authority was given… without public tender and only a small fraction of the profit is returned to the maintenance of the historic site. While unlicensed guides are excluded from the killing fields they are found at many temples where they pay bribes to police daily to be allowed to extort money from ambushed tourists.
My personal experience having visited both Choung Ek and Toul Sleng was that I felt I learned much more about Cambodia and how people have treated each other in the past and still do today in the fields. We see that governments are willing to sell off their own history in order to line their own pockets with a quick dollar. The business at any cost attitude that exists worldwide becomes clear and the few companies making token gestures of environmental and social responsibility in the west only represent a small portion. Bad business prevails and often the governments meant to regulate and protect us are in some way involved.
There is no consensus in Cambodia that remains from the KR era should be cremated, the number of similar memorials around the country, all Buddhist, shows that Cambodians feel these memorials are appropriate. As for those who describe it as voyeuristic, it’s an ignorant assumption to make that people visit to be shocked and horrified. Yes it is shocking and horrifying but most of us leave with far more than rattled emotions, find me a backpacker who didn’t learn much more from the experience.
While travel teaches us about a lot of the good things about the world, when we consider responsible and ethical travel we also learn that there is a lot more bad dealings going on than we tend to uncover at home. It is literally a minefield when you choose to look beyond the surface, particularly in developing nations. We have a responsibility to ourselves and the people of the countries we visit to learn about it and consider the choices we make when we travel.
Note: I love Road Junky, there are plenty of great opinionated pieces and often I disagree, that’s why I like it, I found with this post though I not only disagreed, I found it hypocritical. The last paragraph describes the exact opposite of my time in Cambodia and I’m sure it does for many others as well. I do however admit to one happy pizza.
danhaneveer
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7 Comments
@Dan,
Thanks for the reply Dan, If you found my response to be an attack, I’m sorry for that. My point was to respond to the sole area of my knowledge contained in the article. That being Colombia and the drugs tours. And whilst, you may not be trained journalist, you are still conducting journalistic activities.
In other words, I immediately saw that your references to Colombia were a fabrication, it therefore brings into question the remaining statements in the article. It is no way meant as a personal attack, but whether you publish an article on the internet or in your local high school newsletter, it does not matter. Printing heresay or suppositions is unethical, and could be construed as sensationalist.
As someone who resides much of each year in Colombia, I showed this article (before it was edited) to several locals and all were unaminous in there disgust. I guess it is a little like trying to buy Fosters beer in Australia. It may be one of our most famous exports but it is almost impossible to find here! (i am Australian by the way). The same goes for Colombia, cocaine is almost impossible to find. Sure there are drugs available, but cocaine, forget it! Almost all is exported.
Again apologies for any offence taken. Brendan
@Brendan
You’re right, I don’t recall where I read that but I’ve not been able to find it again or anything to substantiate it so I have removed that passage.
You’re also right on the journalism part, I’ve never studied journalism and I don’t profess to be a journalist of any kind. I’m a blogger and sometimes bloggers and journalists alike make the mistake of not checking the details. I’ll do my best to not do it again.
As a frequent visitor to Cambodia with a keen interest in the country I stand by everything I wrote, I’ve seen it myself.
I might suggest that instead of attacking the author of the next article you find incorrect details within you simply inform them of the facts. My guess is that most of the time you’ll find they are willing to make changes and are even grateful for your help
I agree with your conclusion, sometimes there are too many variables that deciding what is the right thing to do is not easy. In my experience, I always try to decide if I am legitimately employing someone that is actually working for a living or if I am giving a “handout”. In cases where people “ambush” tourists as you say, this can be a hard decision. I also try to decide if the job that the person is performing would vanish if tourism somehow vanished. Sometimes it is a really bad thing for everyone to be dependent on tourists. By spending money in different ways, all tourists can influence how the local population is given incentives over what type of businesses to start and jobs to find.
“More recently we have seen drug tours become popular in South America. While some are buying cheap cocaine direct from drug lords in Columbia there are others in Burma doing their hardest to make sure as little of their tourist dollar goes to the the ruling junta as possible.”
Being a frequent visitor to South America and Colombia (perhaps the author could at least learn how to spell the country’s name??) , these so called “drug tours” do not exist. Especially in Colombia. Even if they did, it would be incredibly dangerous and reckless to become involved in.
I cannot comment on Cambodia, but the obvious sensationalising of the Colombian aspect of this article, makes me wonder about the veracity of any of it!
Very poor piece of “journalism”, But I doubt you could call it that.
Another big one is the sex tourism in Thailand. That is out of control.
So many people feel they can do anything outside of their home countries. It is sad to see how desperate some countries are for money. Hopefully, income equalities will start to lesson and these abuses will become less common.
Ethical travel is very important. It is strange and difficult to abstain from certain “touristy” things when you know a different country is benefiting or they are not using the funds to maintain the site.
By the way, I went to Choung Ek and Toul Sleng and that was really difficult for me. Such a sad story that happened so recently.
Tourism versus being too politically correct. I know with the Ayers Rock (Uluru) situation, some of the tourism dollars generated are given to the Aboriginal community. The PC brigade can’t have the best of both worlds.
I believe recently a viewing platform was built on/near the rock, in completely the wrong place!
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