Maldives
This Woman has composed an impassioned opinion on the article which not only resonated with many people of not only marginalized backgrounds but also have experienced the undesired side of tourism in their homelands. I highly encourage anyone to follow her perspective. Honestly she is spot on.
Therefore here is my weigh in on the controversy of the New York Times Maldives article. First of all of course the staff are going to “dote” as it was phrased within the piece on the guests. That is a part of Muslim hospitality whether they really are enjoying it or not. Secondly tourism in many places has become a necessary evil due to economy. Unfortunately with it often comes exploitation of the people, decimation of culture, land, respect for cultural laws, narcotics usage, trafficking and so on. People of the Maldives are facing the fact their island, their home is slowly disintegrating due to Global Warming. They’re facing the fact they may become refugees of this disintegration that has struck world wide. That furthermore met with the fact they’re now quarantined away from their friends, family, etc is a crime. Now the question of is tourism entirely wicked in and of itself?
I would say no however often tourists are the worst offenders of every place, culture, people and so on they feel entitled to utilize for their Eurocentric (or may as well be) entitled privilege. When it comes to tourism and visiting a country that is not your own by any means there has to be a balance somewhere because there is too much ill intent that goes on in the name of mere “tourism” and “vacations” that destroys the people and regions laden with the activity of tourism. I noted to the poster on my experience visiting Morocco a year and a 1/2 ago how by the end of my time there I was about ready to bluntly put slap the hell out of every Eurocentric disrespectful tourist I came in contact with. It was nauseating and not a great experience for the much part of it. To be fair there were some great tourists but the rest of them it was down to either walk off or ignore, or drag them all over Morocco because even I felt disrespected for the locals. Perhaps it was due to the interpersonal fact I am Amazigh (Berber) not but 3–4 generations maybe it was just my sense of fundamental respect and knowledge… perhaps both. It seems the more marginalized a people and or place is the more tokenized it becomes.. and as we all are aware tokenization never produces positive outcomes.
