As we all know, there are numerous humanitarian organisations whose purpose is to bring awareness as well as relief to impoverished communities. There are also many channels, through which members of the public can get involved, but one in particular caught my attention; I was sceptical. “Poverty tourism”, “poorism” and “slum tourism” are only a few names used to describe this new brand of tourism. On these tours, travellers are taken to squalors of their choice. The popular ones are Dharavi in India, the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, and some districts in Nairobi, Kenya. Good intention or exploitation? Though most critics accuse this method of being, not only profiteering from poverty, but also degrading and “voyeuristic”, I believe that it can be an honest and compassionate approach to poverty alleviation.
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| Dharavi Slum in Mumbai, India by Kounosu via Creative Commons |
"Poverty tourism” can be seen as an education on how impoverished communities live, raising awareness of the issues surrounding poverty and a percentage of the proceeds go to the development of under-privileged communities. I have gathered that the hope is, besides monetary assistance, for travellers to experience poverty, even just for a day, and make a difference. But can they? Entertainment??!
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| Dharavi Slum in Mumbai, India by depletedcranium.com |
That confronting yet refreshing perspective, made me inquisitive about what these tours entail, so I emailed "slum tour" operators in Brazil and India. The tour operator in India asserted that they have a strict no camera policy while in the slums and in the "red light" district. The operator from Brazil informed me that although cameras are allowed on the tours there are restrictions on when and where pictures can be taken. She reasoned, “Community doesn’t mind if you take pictures, as long as you respect basic rules like not photographing faces directly.” They also assured me that the aim of the tours have been discussed with the communities. The communities are aware that the tours are not to degrade or undignify, but to break the stereotype that the “poor” are lazy, and to show a very positive side of the slum- its sense of community, their dynamics and hard work.
Armstrong, the founder of Favela Tour, displayed openness when he explained the contributions they have made to the community. Favela Tour finances eighty percent of Para Ti community school. Poojari, the co-founder of Reality Tours, declared that they are transparent with their financial earnings by posting sales, loss and profits from the “slum tours” on their website. Reality Tours sets up a non-government organisation called Reality Gives that runs a kindergarten, and a community and education centre.
After my communication with the tour operators, I realised that as a traveller, it is imperative to research for credible tour operators and learn their ties to the community. We also have to be aware of social courtesy and be sensitive in our approach. Looking deeper, “poverty tourism” not only brings revenue to under-privileged communities, but also creates jobs for the locals; most of the tour guides came from an impoverished background. Some operators bring children off the street, educate and train them as guides, giving them a new lease on life. The life that SOCIETY has denied them.
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| Favelas by anthony_goto via Flickr C |
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| Slum in Cambodia by Oudam |
In response to Giovagnoni’s criticism, who is to say that a “vision traveller” is any more compassionate than a “poverty traveller”? Individuals make it voyeuristic, not the industry. In my opinion, there is no difference between a “slum tour” organised by an operator and a “vision tour” organised by a humanitarian organisation. You can dress it up and give it a different name but it still involves travelling to a developing country to witness a community living in hardship. Hence, it is “poverty tourism”.
“Poverty tourism” is only a tool and how ethical or how it contributes to the community relies heavily on the participants. By making a conscious effort to go through a credible organisation, I believe that “poverty tourism” can be an honest and compassionate approach to help alleviate poverty.
The topic is interesting.. I have never heard of "poverty tourism." This is certainly an unusual way to make money for poor communities.
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was my initial thought. I guess if you compare it to vision tours, it then doesn't seem that unusual. They are based on similar principles.
ReplyDeleteWith regards to the issue of poverty in the world, I would say that the world economy is one of the main factors that have been causing poverty across the world. Supposedly, the world economy should maintain a constant distribution or circulation of wealth. However, within the world economy, monopolism is taking place, the consequence is the rich can only get richer and the poor can only get poorer. To give a second thought, it seems illogical for poverty to strike on countries like India, Indonesia and the African Nations, the rational behind it is because each of this countries are consistantly producing the worlds natural resources such as rice, spices, diamonds, ect. How poverty can still exist in these places is such a mystery, we must ponder on world economic system and the international monetary system operations.
ReplyDeleteHi Aman! Nice to hear your thoughts about poverty. I believe that poverty is the ramification of globalisation. Well, actually globalisation is not to be blamed. The leaders of developed and rich countries behind the complex processes of globalisation are the ones who are amplifying the gap between rich and poor through globalisation. They get to call the shots. So what happens to developing and poor countries such as Indonesia, Africa, India (borderline) etc? They get the raw end of the deal due to their lack of contribution to the world economic growth. It's a vicious cycle.
ReplyDeleteFrom the very begining, around the 19th century, a group european organisation(DeBeers) discovered that there was a piece of land in south africa that produce a huge amount of diamonds. Through this discovery they started mining many regions in southern africa in search of gold and diamond. One of the most famous diamond known today the Kimberly diamond which orginated in the very heart of south africa in a town call Kimberly. They yield out every single diamond from that diamond mine until there was none left. At the end, the mine turn out to be the biggest man made hole in the world because of the mining activities that had taken place. The bulk of weath that emerge from south africa now landed to the hands of a european organisation(DEBeers). Yes, they were the predecessors of todays most powerful people. They were smart indeed but very cruel. A similar kind of activity was also practiced in India to get gold and also many parts of the world. With the wealth that they have, now they are set to rule world. This is one of the subjects that I major in and its a huge and never ending. Im still working on this particular subject to get into its roots. I would say that world monetary system is a sub-topic of globalisation that you major in.
ReplyDeleteOk.. so you are agreeing with what I said? Anyway, globalisation was a module that I did, not a major. I major in Journalism.
ReplyDeleteYes I do agree in most parts, but i found out that there are more important areas that should be observed to get to the base of poverty(such as:human capitalism, human index and human development concepts). I see, journalism is good, it seems interesting to me. you wanna share a little bit more?
ReplyDeleteYes of course there are other aspects and factors contributing to poverty. I don't believe and therefore have never mentioned that globalisation is solely responsible for the plight of poverty. I definitely believe that capitalism plays a huge part in poverty. Capitalist or "bourgeoisies" as Marx called them, are proprietors who reap in all the profits at the expense of the vast working class (paid minimun wage). They cause inequality in the country's economic, intensifying the gap between the rich and poor within that country. This happens not only in poor countries but also in developed countries such as the United States. So when I brought up globalisation, I was looking at the bigger picture. Can please explain how does "human index" and "human development concepts" contribute to this plight?
ReplyDeleteYes I would explain my thoughts based on my understand of the subject. The Human Index and Human Development Concepts does not contribute to poverty directly, however from those topics you can see the direction that we humans are moving towards. Those two topics are actually measurements to classify humans standard of living. The question is do we need classification amongst ourselves? Im not saying that it is a bad idea, in fact the observation can be transform into something productive. However the fact that our current generation have people living in a poverty state at one end and on the other end there are those who become so rich that their wealth can support their sons and grandsons. Why is there a huge gap between the two groups of people (What are ways to bring the margin closer so that there is less poverty?) and more importantly what is the solution to the problem. I am actually goinging towards human equality in which I believe does not exist in the world anymore(please share with me if you know any system which promotes absolute equality). I am moving towards this direction because I believe that practicing equality is the only solution to fight poverty. I guess its about time for the younger generation to change the old system.
ReplyDeleteLets face it, as long as the world is occupied by humans, there will never be equality. Call me pessimist or whatever you like but I have heard so much crap from politicians that I will only believe it once I see it.
ReplyDeletemuncho, I do agree with you on the statement you made,"as long as the world is occupied by humans, there will never be equality". We cant avoid it because this is human nature, however we have to understand the importance of equality and try to achieve it to the best of our ability. We cant achieve equality entirely, but we have to balance it as much as we could to reduce the sufferance of our own kind. I think this is one of the many true message of love and brotherhood. I would close this with a beautiful quote from the bible so that you may look and ponder it according to your own viewpoint, Mark 12:31 "The second is this: 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
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