The ugly American, the ugly English, the ugly German, the ugly French and other uglies have added another outrageous, silly activity to their insensitive arrogant habit of using the worlds poverty as a toy to amuse themselves. This would be the emerging and well organized "slum tours of the world" a group of on line companies who offer well organized tours to the worst slums in Africa, India, Brazil and even Ireland. These tours hide behing the mask of "education". How could you possible feel if you and your family were forced to live in a compound of cardboard and tin shacks that your government had ordered you into by diminishing choice? Demeaning is the only single word I can think of to describe this trend of nations forcing the poor to live in compounds that have no sewers, water, electricity, few schools and have no real physical, social or economic infrastructure. They are no better than the internment camps that were used in world war two and are alarmingly emerging again as a way of isolating undesirables in many nations. Now the slums have become "safe" tourist attractions were people are viewed by the enlightened tourist in a fishbowl habitat. This adds to the original demeaning actions of countries by allowing tourist to pay for tours to what are no more than internment camps for the poor and homeless. How much of the profits from the tours go towards helping alleviate the misery that permeates these slums is in question and should be.
info@favelatour.com.
http:www.nicheafricaholidays.com/
http:www.belfastcityblacktaxitours.com
http:www,realitytoursandtravel.com/
http:www.belfastcityblacktaxitours.com/
http:wwwrealitytoursandtravel.com/
All offer safe, "Educational" tours mostly in air conditioned mini vans, with tour guides and in some cases armed security. Some excerpts from tour sites follow,
"For the 2008/09 tourist season we introduced a market tour (2.5 hrs duration) through the busy areas of Crawford Market and surrounding bazaars of Kalbadevi and Bhuleshwar. Mumbai is all about the amount of people and the chaos and there's no better way to experience this than visiting this area. There are a few oasis of tranquility within the madness such as Jama Masjid Mosque and Mumbadevi temple where the guide will talk to you about the area and its people and their beliefs."
from sand travel.
"Welcome to Cape Town South Africa, the gateway to Africa.Cape Town, is the jewel of the Western Cape and home to the many customs and cultures of its rainbow nation. The Mother City hosts the majority of it's population in townships on the Cape Flats. Many of these vibrant and welcoming people originally hail from Madiba's (Nelson Mandela - former President) birthplace. It's a must for every visitor to Cape Town to experience a day in the life of the locals. Interact with the township dwellers as they go about their daily routine and find out more about their past, their future and what currently drives them."
from Nomvuyo's Tours
Recently I met a group of young eco. tourist wearing the Pura Vida t shirts that most tourist buy in Costa Rica. They were a well behaved group of obviously affluent young people in their teens and early 20s. (the price of such two to three week eco tours is well above $2000.00 USD without the air fare) They were form my native state of New York and none of them had accents that would indicate they were from Brooklyn or the Bronx. I would suspect most were from some of the more affluent suburbs not far from New York City but in reality worlds away from Brooklyn or the Bronx.
I put to them the same question that I would ask the slum tourist. Do you truly have a concern for the environment or poor people and just how much "good" are you doing?
The fact is most will return to their comfortable, affluent habitat and use the experience to write unusual, unique papers in college. The older ones will tell stories to the other members at the country club, or cocktail parties that will single them out and impress others. These activities, eco tourism and slum tours, just add to the bad taste activities that the "Haves" participate in. The tour companies reap profits by putting on a show that is less than humane and everybody goes home thinking that they have experienced the hunger and poverty of these unfortunate people. Actually the last time they experienced even a tinge of hunger is when they left a bicycle in the driveway and were sent to bed without supper. In reality the young ones are spoiled from the riches of an affluent environment and the older ones are one step away from becoming diabetic via glutony. My advice to all of them, donate the entire cost (including air fare) of your trip directly to the slum people through a viable agency. The average cost of a tour group of 20 from the US can exceed some $80,000.00 USDA. That would go a long way towards possibly wiping out a slum or at least improve it's infrastructure. Stay home and become an activist, wipe out poverty that is only a few miles away and enter the slums of America to help your own. I dare you to stop gawking at the rest of the world and clean up the mess you are responsible for first. Perhaps that might qualify you to try conquering the rest of Global poverty.
