Petra

Hello again Sami

I was in Jordan a few months before the US and its allies invaded Iraq in early 2003. The impact of the impending invasion on tourism was devastating - all national monuments (including Petra) were charging half price, and places such as Jerash were deserted. Even Petra had very few people. It was very sad to see people's lives being impacted by a impending war not of their doing. I experienced the same thing in Kenya last year, when people were still avoiding the country due to post-election tensions many months earlier.

I think people in Western countries become over-cautious whenever problems arise in a country different from their own. For example, if there was civil strife in Melbourne, I live 1500km away and it almost certain that it would not impact on me directly. To be hypothetical for a moment, let's assume there is a problem on the Egyptian/Libyan border, yet people would see this and assume that Cairo, Luxor and Aswan are dangerous - yet they are many, many hundreds of kilometres away and any border dispute with Libya wouldn't impact on these tourist hubs at all.

I agree that responsible tourism is important for building cultures, but tourism that panders to the tourist at the expense of its own culture or beliefs is a dangerous thing. I remember seeing a group of local musicians playing French songs in India once. I sighed with disbelief, as I would prefer to see these people celebrating their culture by playing traditional music of the subcontinent. I think creating false cultural bubbles in places so as to make foreigners feel at home is unfortunate.

Sure, it is good to listen to a few favourite songs on your MP3, have "comfort food" instead of the local fare, and speak your mother tongue with fellow travellers occasionally, but if used too often it can lead to tourist almost isolating themselves from the culture they are visiting - where people will have little idea of the language, culture, food, music, beliefs and religion of a destination. Perhaps this is why I travel alone as I am forced to immerse myself in the culture - which I just love!

I look forward to reading your thesis and will do so in the coming week.

Thank you/Shukran

Shane Reply to this

Thank you very much my friend Mill,
I certainly agree with you regarding the same point I raised earlier about the modest way of utilizing such great opportunity. The opportunity of having the travelblog as an outstanding channel to give us better chances for healthy dialogs.

There is no doubt that the overwhelming majority of those friends who communicate with us are very polite. I kindly urge all of them to be kind to each other and to establish links of mutual respect between us.

For my friend, Petra Rum, I would like to thank you very much for your kind words. I like the way you described Petra as our mother.

I feel that Petra is part of body. I ‘m determined to protect with everything I have. It the warm womb from which I was born and she is the most beautiful woman in my heart and my mind (please don’t tell my wife, she may get jealous)

Reply to this

I ‘m determined to protect with everything I have.

Sometimes when people are very nationalist or very religious, they tend to disregard the needs and rights of individuals in the name of protecting a country or religion. Something to be careful of when we have strong feelings about a country or a religion.

Now, on with the discussion about Petra. 😉

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