Travel

‘What not to do’

All creatures great and small

 

 tsika (‘ethics’ or ‘morality’) Shona, Zimbabwe

Haana hunhu (“He has no character”, “He is not moral”, “He is unethical”) 

 

Are you the kind of traveller who has a ‘to-do’ list when you go?

You know the type! They can cite the ‘top 10 things to do’ while they are still on the plane to their destination. They don’t sleep in. They pace up and down in their holiday accommodation, desperate to get out there and ‘explore’, to tick it all off the all important list.

I’m not that traveller. We meander, always have! We rarely research a place much before we go. We usually go to meet or stay with friends or family, so we typically receive their version of what’s worth seeing. As as a result, hopefully we get an experience that resembles a slice of ‘real life’.

We never have tour guides.

But forget about the ‘to do’ list for a minute. How about ‘what not to do’? Finding out about the dress sense and local customs in any country is easy enough. Anyone with half a brain knows how to dress respectfully and will keep that in mind, especially in some places.

But what about ethics when we travel? What should you never do when travelling, because it’s not morally right? That’s much more personal.

A huge part of travelling is about gaining an insight into a place, a culture and its people. Whilst living in developing countries, we have achieved that through genuine events; school assemblies, weddings, customs, traditions and dances. We have never paid for a ‘cultural performance’ or a tour of a village.

But what if you are just flying in for 7 or 14 days and want to have a more ‘authentic’ experience? Increasingly you see adverts for tours of shanty compounds in places like Kibera in Kenya and Khayelitsha in South Africa.

We’ve had the opportunity to go but never wanted to. Would you?

My gut feeling is that going to take a closer look at someone living in poor conditions is a form of ‘gawking’ at their life. It’s voyeuristic. It just doesn’t sit well. All I really want is for their life to improve and for apathetic governments to do more to empower their citizens.

But the other side to the argument is that it creates jobs for the tour guides who might otherwise be unemployed. I am left wondering, how much of the tourist’s ticket price actually goes into people’s pockets and how much is taken by the tour operator in the name of so called ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’. And at the end of the day, the ultimate goal of any business is always to generate profits and it will use its resources to achieve that. So are these tours, typically in developing nations, simply further exploitation of poor people? Or is this an ethical activity for tourists? What’s your experience of this?

Some compounds will also offer accommodation, a so called ’grass roots’ experience of sleeping overnight in an informal settlement. But is this responsible tourism? Do you need photos of someone’s aluminium shack? I question how much anyone can really experience someone else’s life by simply observing from a safe distance for a few hours or dropping in for a day.

When it comes to animals, it’s not much better. The treatment of animals is a massive problem in so many countries. I feel that activities like canned hunting are totally unethical. These animals are reared for the sole purpose of being hunted. Tourists fly in and spend thousands of dollars to shoot game. It’s big business. There are some canned hunting reserves in South Africa. They try to market their activities by saying that there are environmental benefits and that the reserve provides employment for local people.

For many, there is no justification of this practice. It’s barbaric and it should be banned. It sends out a clear message that if you’re rich, you can do whatever you like. In truth, the same applies to all hunting.

Animal welfare is a concern in other places too. Across Asia, many tourists are offered the opportunity to ride elephants. At first glance many of the animals appear like they are treated well. But ask yourself, how are they being trained?

In Sumatra last year we had the option to travel as a group to a national park, where we were assured that we would see Sumatran elephants. I wanted to go to see these wild animals and compare them to elephants in parts of Africa. It was one of the few occasions that I did some online research before going and I was glad that I did.

I read that in Sumatra, elephants were found at one particular national park with ease, chained to the spot so that tourists could take photos. Travellers reviewing the park reported that elephants were also being kept for tourist rides, beaten into submission by being hit with a metal spike. Many tourists recounted seeing scars on the elephants from this brutal treatment. If you claim to love elephants, please, never ride one.

We made a unanimous decision not to go to the national park.

Instead we were more than happy with the one elephant that we did see, perched on a shelf in the hotel bar: a plastic one.

After living in different countries in Africa, when I think of elephants in national parks, I imagine those intelligent, majestic creatures, grazing, dust-bathing and socializing with their herd members, mighty animals enjoying their freedom in the bush. We’ve been privileged to see elephants many times. The most memorable sighting was watching a family crossing the Chobe river in Botswana, ‘bouncing’, doing their own ‘elephant moon walk’. They helped each other cross the river by holding onto each other’s tails with their trunks. It was magical! And that’s what you should want to see; wild, free creatures, doing their thing in their space, not ones being forced to work or being chained up for a photo opportunity.

We have choices when travelling. Sometimes you see so much and can despair of it all. You are left thinking, ‘what chance is there for animals when some countries can’t even treat their people well’. Our world has so many problems. Surely the very least we can do as travellers, is not to contribute to these.

Bottom line, if an animal or a human is suffering in any way for your tourist pleasure, it’s really not a good idea.

Can you add to Mother City Time’s ‘What not to do’ list?

 

© Maggie M / Mother City Time