Falsely Arrested?

Just a short post, I don't want to rant and rave. It gets tiring.

You've likely heard about the 10 Americans arrested in Haiti for trying to illegally take 33 "orphans" across the border to the Dominican Republic. You may have also heard that they belong to a church group.

If you go to the church's website the first thing you see is an update telling you that the group has been "falsely arrested".

The leader of the group stated to press that they didn't think they needed approval to take the children out of the country, they were just trying to help.

Regardless of whether or not their intentions were good or or not, they were correctly arrested for breaking the Haitian law. You cannot legally take any children across any national border without paperwork, even if it were simply Daija and I going for a say trip to Detroit. This is common sense. Also common sense: when you break the law (intentional or not) you get arrested.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" or something like that. Whether I intend to break the law or not doesn't change the fact that the law is broken. Some are blaming the religious aid groups as a whole, some are citing the arrogance of Americans in flouting laws in another country, many are pointing to ignorance and stupidity, some are balling them all up into a maelstrom of epic proportions but, like I said, I don't want to rant and rave. Just wanted to say, this was not a false arrest. False arrest is when you didn't do anything wrong - they definitely did.

Link It, or it never happened...

A collection of various links and stories. From me to you. Enjoy.

The biggest news in Toronto: A Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) worker (he takes subway fares from people) is caught napping on the job. Why is it such a sensation? It's another straw on the fire as people are fed up with the horrible service, rude employees, and fare increases. Most of the ire is directed at the union whose job it is to protect the rude employees who make as much as Registered Nurses or other similarly skilled workers.

Official responses to the story: TTC promises an investigation, the union's only response is to blame the photo taker for not trying to wake their sleeping employee, and said employee actually says on the record, "God bless the Union." Toronto public respond by snapping more pictures of sleeping employees and employees watching videos in the booth. If I had a union who protected me from being fired I might sleep on the job and be rude as well. I for one have personally experienced the outlandish rudeness of said employees though have yet to see a sleeping one - though I often see them doing crosswords or reading the newspaper. Yet another reason that slowly pushes me from pro-union to anti-union...

Africa = AIDS. According to Twitter, it's true!

Remember a while back when I wrote piece on using images of Starving Children in Africa? What, you don't? Well, it seems to be the most viewed page on my blog. I also found a chap who works in Ethiopia that seems to agree with me and wrote a great post on Poverty Porn, check it out.

Want to know more about Haiti's history? Did you know it was the first independent nation in Latin America and the first black-led republic in the world? Check out these two books which I am in the process of reading, The Black Jacobins by CLR James and Avengers of the New World by Laurent Dubois.

I've been following a great blog by a photographer in Liberia. Great photos to check out at Scarlett Lion.

Big news today: Ethiopian Airlines jet goes down off of Lebanon. Despite this, they remain one of the best, safest, most reliable airline on the continent - I would gladly fly them again.

Is Tourism Good for Developing Countries?

I've had this on my mind for some time now and it often seems to pop up in classes, readings, books, etc... Is tourism good for 'developing' countries? I have a lot of thoughts on the issue but I will try and keep them somewhat concise and try to focus on some solid examples.

Just today this article graced the front pages of cnn.com, Haiti Cruise Draws Ire, Support. A cruise company has built a small enclave in Haiti that it has used for some time now, essentially just a beach and a tourist 'experience' for those who want to say they've been to Haiti - a beach, hair-braiding, a straw market. Now with the recent earthquake (you've heard of this, yes?) people are questioning whether or not it is okay to holiday in Haiti while people are dying on the other side of the island.

NOW they're questioning it? Seriously?

Beyond that, the article goes on to quote from an organization called Sustainable Travel International, an organization I am guessing created to prop up the travel industry on the prickly ethical questions it might face. STI (interesting acronym to choose...) states what has been stated since the beginning of time - tourism brings money into the country which means it is good for the country.

Except that study after study shows this to be false: Western based corporations take the largest cut ("Welcome to Puerta Vallarta, Thank you for flying Northwest airlines", "We hope you enjoyed your stay at the Hilton..." ), nations take very little revenue and even less of that "trickles down" to the "common person". You say tourism gives people jobs, I say tourism exploits the neediest, forcing them into positions of servitude and exploitation.

The most succinct quote I have come across to date is from Carol Davies' book Black women, writing and identity:Migration of the subject. It states:

"So, if we are clear that tourism never really brings economic prosperity, the multinational corporations who own the industries take their made-money away, the tourist installations often destroy the environment and displace many people, the people are denied some of the most beautiful areas of their country because of tourism, that the local people are constructed perpetually in positions of service, then the link between tourism and invasion is not far fetched..."

I want Sustainable Travel International to tell me exactly how sailing with this cruise company is going to help those stuck under rubble, needing water right now, or needing medical attention.

I struggle with this; I desire a warm beach, daiquiris all day and a waterfront bungalow as much as the next person and yet I know that such 'high-end' tourism is neither sustainable for the host country nor equitable. It feeds our Western need for consumption and luxury at the cost of others.

The article ends with a person who they interviewed deciding to go on the cruise anyways, justified by the fact that it will help Haiti in the end and with the disclaimer that she "won't enjoy that day in Haiti", as if somehow this absolves her from the guilt she's obviously feeling.

I feel like this is the answer we/I usually take: find a convenient out and hold onto it in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, find a way to make that vacation seem okay - "I need this break", "I give lots of money to charities already", "It helps the country I'm visiting", etc...

We can and should question if it is right to vacation in places like Haiti after such a disaster but we should also be questioning if we should be vacationing in places like Haiti to start with. After all, if it is dying people you are worried about, people die in Haiti everyday from things like disease and malnutrition.

Carol Davies, in the book I quoted earlier, talks about the difference between luxury tourism and finding ways to make "meaningful encounters". She doesn't seem to be against learning about new cultures, meeting new people or visiting new places - she seems to be more against taking from new places, disadvantaging new places, exploiting new places, and making servants of new people. There's obviously a fine line sometimes between these two sides, many a "meaningful encounter" has been exploitation under the guise of a humanitarian intervention or cross-cultural exchange.

This is something that directly affects me and something that at times I've ignored. I enjoy traveling and the onus is on me to find ways to make meaningful encounters when I travel rather than feeding my own need to consume at the expense of others. I also battle my inner self who just wants to forget that people are suffering and sit on a beach, under an umbrella by the pool side bar. There's no quick and easy answer to this. Sometimes, struggle is the beginning and we need to be content that we're on the journey. Still, I don't see myself booking any vacations to Mexico/Hawaii/Dominican/Thailand/Haiti anytime soon....