Dear readers,
First of all, I’d like to apologize for the extreme delay in posts here on our blog. Both Rustam and myself have gotten incredibly caught up with our day-to-day life and haven’t been as on top of things as we’d like to.
Anyways, as I mentioned in the last post, this section will discuss themes of wealth and space as relating to travel. You can read the first section here!
Without further ado, Wealth and Space:
- Wealth Inequality: Where and How Do We Spend Our Money?
In Bali, there was a big market in the heart of the town where I was staying. There were endless rows of stalls, all filled with traditional art, clothing, and food, as well as tourist mementos and souvenirs. On the very first day of my stay in Bali, I walked down to the market and was told that if I so chose, I could bargain on the price of most anything I’d want to buy.
In many parts of the world, bargaining is very much a part of the market culture – I’d encountered similar experiences when I visited South Africa. However, it was a new experience for many of my fellow travelers. Most of us were from countries like Canada, the United States or England – where it would be pretty ludicrous to enter into a shop and try to bargain on the price of an object. Some of us had some experience bargaining, others were unaccustomed to the idea.
Being from the United States myself, the currency exchange was greatly in my favor. At the time that I was in Bali, the exchange was about 13,000 Indonesian rupiah to one dollar.. This meant that most things I was buying in Bali were incredibly cheap for me, and with the bargaining system, I could further haggle items down to only a few dollars. I often tried to bargain with a fair margin in mind, whereas other tourists I knew often bargained in order to spend as little money as possible. The translation into American currency still meant that we were spending very little money on most items in the market. Given the weight of our currency, we should be aware it is a privilege to try and benefit as much as possible from local economies. As Bani Amor says in their article, “Think interactions over transactions. And don’t haggle artisans down to the last cent over a little souvenir or brag about how cheap certain places are. They aren’t cheap. You’re just rich on a global scale.”
It doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t bargain. Bargaining is certainly part of the custom – it’s expected. We bargained our taxi and moped fares, we bargained in the market. It’s about doing it in a manner that is not disrespectful, an interaction rather than a transaction, as Amor puts it. You should pay what you believe the item is worth. Don’t bargain simply to spend as little money as possible. In Bali, I had the privilege to not really think about the true value of money, because everything cost so little to me. It doesn’t cost that little to the host community, as it inevitably ties back into their economy.
When it comes to money, it is also important to be aware of where we chose to spend our money. Are we contributing to the local economy, or disrupting it – perhaps by supporting businesses that are unsustainable or unethical? The volunteer organization through which I traveled to Bali suggested that instead of buying school supplies ahead of time to bring to our kindergarten, we instead buy supplies in Bali so as to support the local economy. A widely-held belief is that tourism is good for local economies – however, that is actually not the case. Bani Amor explains that “in reality, tourism-based economies tend to be the most unsustainable ones, as they push out local industries, make vulnerable laborers dependent on foreigners in power, and turn local business owners into nannies for bratty white kids on vacay”. This quote is especially applicable to Bali, a place whose economy relies heavily on tourism. It is important to consider that our money will have an effect – whether it is good or bad – on the economy. Are we contributing to local businesses – real, homegrown, family-run businesses? Are we contributing to businesses for a tourist experience, and perhaps turning a blind eye to larger implications of exploitation and unethical causes? It’s important to look into how your money is being used, since often times we are able to spend large amounts and thus influence the economy, even in the smallest of ways.
- Space: Being Aware of Your Physical Presence
A big observation I made while abroad is that tourists take up a lot of space. I first started to notice it on the crowded, narrow sidewalks of the village where I stayed in Bali. These sidewalks fit two people at best across, which often meant that if I was part of a larger group, we would walk single-file so that approaching parties could pass us. However, after a few experiences walking down these roads, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. Other tourists seemed to have no concept of the physical space they were occupying. Often, they would walk two-by-two on the walkway, which meant that they made a sort of barrier across. It doesn’t seem significant, but what was somewhat irritating was that they did not move aside for oncoming people. This meant that on several occasions during my walks I was forced to step off the sidewalk onto the street. The tourists would also stand in the sidewalks or shop doors, creating blockades, and not moving, seemingly unaware of the disruption they were causing.
This observation immediately drew my mind to an article I’d read earlier in the year, which was a study that showed a similar unawareness in men. The study spoke about how when men exist in public settings, they don’t expect to have to move out of the way for anyone, and they often take up a lot of space in many ways, such as dominating conversations and taking up a lot of physical space. When walking around, the researchers found that often men were surprised, confused, even angry, when they were forced to move out of the way for others. These men, like the tourists I encountered, had a natural expectation of entitlement to space. They didn’t see it as their job or role to move aside for others.
In my experience so far, it is similarly so with tourists, which brings us back to my favorite topic: privilege. Tourists, and I believe it is particularly so in non-Western countries, have a sense of entitlement to the space around them. In a public setting, it is the tourists who often dominate the physical space, but also in a bigger sense, a space of power. We need to understand, as travelers, that we are not entitled to every space.
Space is really a complicated idea in terms of privilege, because we can look at it in two ways: the first being the more straightforward concept of physical space; the other being the idea of space as an intercultural relation. We must understand how to exist in both types of space in a conscientious and respectful manner. When we enter a religious building, for example, we must take into consideration our physical presence in that space and the implications that holds. Our actions in that space are also important – are we beholding a sacred site as merely a beautiful tourist attraction? We must be respectful of space, and be conscious of the use, presence and function of that space. It is also important to allow space for intercultural exchange – when we travel with the expectation that space is accessible to us, we are implementing that long history of colonialism that has affected most, if not all, parts of the world. We must allow the local community to reclaim these spaces that have been fraught by colonialism and tourism, and let them show us what those spaces mean instead of arriving at that decision ourselves.
In the final installment, we will discuss Food and Healthcare!
See you then!
Shaghdad
Through the Plane Tree 