Its like people from other places, richer places, come here and have turned this place from natural beauty to a Disneyland attraction. Take a bike tour through the "Real Bali." "Oh, look how cute the Balinese are working in their rice fields!" Beautiful coastline is either hidden by a row of resorts, or covered in construction machinery tearing it apart to build another. Its hard not to feel like an asshole for even being here. You don't see Indonesian vacationers attending dive school.
One could argue that we bring money into the country and tourism majorly contributes to their economy. The truth is the money comes in from the tourist, and leaves just as quickly to the foreign business owners while the locals struggle to sell you a sarong or ripped DVD for a dollar or two. They relentlessly follow and harass you for a stretch, but it just shows how desperate the situation is for their survival. Eat at a restaurant and you can be sure the employees' daily wages amount to less than the cost of your meal. On Gili Trawangan (or anywhere else for that matter) it would be a far cry to even call the residences "modest", while grown women do backpacking 20-35 year olds laundry for a quick buck, children sleep behind storefront counters, and starving horses pull around carts of tourists' luggage.
But what does that mean to me? Some people (like me) do contemplate these things, others clearly give no thought whatsoever to the bigger picture. You can at least be humble and respectful and some visitors really seem like they go above and beyond to make a point to abuse their privilege to be here.
Sure, with tourism and the money it brings it does do something for some kinds of development in the country, but I wouldn't be surprised if a large number of people miss some of the peace and quiet they used to have. I had dinner with some people I met yesterday at a pretty upscale resort and I was a little in disbelief about the art they chose to display on the wall in the middle of the restaurant. The message isn't to hard to grasp, but it did surprise me that it was right there as a reminder, or maybe an eye-opener, or maybe as a piece of material that is often stared at in a drunken blur and disregarded.
These things bother me because it makes me feel helpless and hypocritical. What can you do about it? By the time you make some of these realizations about the world, you are also realizing your place in a system that has taken thousands of years to develop, and you are already pretty steadfast in your ranking in society. The powers that got us here are bigger and stronger than me, and were the situation reversed the exploited would be doing the exploiting. We do it in our own countries, and we do it in our own towns. Everyone is a sell-out really. Everyone. Except Emily, but even she sells out for snowboarding. So I guess just be as grateful and as respectful as possible?
It troubles me a bit. Even having the ability to wonder "what to do with your life" is a privilege most people in the world do not have. Seeing the world and all of its beauty and all of its beast at least gives you a better understanding of how it all works together. Maybe its at least good to have some of this knowledge to consider and apply to the decisions I make in my fortunate life. Even if that's not what everyone takes away from visiting a place like this, the ones that do can make some sort of impact with every small choice made that is influenced by this awareness. The big ball is already rolling, and there's no point to stand in front of it and get yourself killed. As with many things in life, however, its the little things that count.
Or just throw in the towel, buy your ticket to hell and enjoy the ride. The universe and eternity make it hard to be convinced that any of it really matters sometimes.
well, you can't just sit here in syracuse or anywhere else and not go anywhere ever. humans MUST roam as a species. but what we CAN do is observe, appreciate, and protect the places we roam to. and appreciate the dignity and culture of the people we come in contact with. i think that's the difference. but it's very shades-of-greyish. to go there at all is to impact the place, that is a given. it's just how much impact, what kind of impact, is acceptable. i think we need to see this planet as borrowed from future as opposed to given to us from the past. when something is borrowed, it is assumed it will be given back one day, in at least as good as shape as when it was borrowed.
ReplyDeletemaria - "Do you want my Job" by Little Village - i will email that to you. give it a listen!