Viewfinder Vices
Cultural Diplomacy & Responsible Tourism
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” — Mark Twain
Imagine you’ve been tasked with setting immigration policy for migrants after a global pandemic. Your criteria are set in a worldview based on past experience, yet here’s the catch — you’ve never left your home country.
Who would you admit? Why?
Experience plants a seed for future judgment. What types of experiences warrant a license to judge?
A historian studies the chronology of human geography while a nomad charts the boundaries along foreign terrain. Equipped with a compass and sketchpad, the nomad etches a foundation for future scholars who may never walk in his footsteps. Who is more fit to judge the nature of newfound lands?
History is a mirage of recollections from the past. Seldom documented by the few who make it, often recreated by most who have longed to live it.
Global Citizenship: My land is your land
“There are some buildings in the world that do not seem the property of any one nation. They belong to mankind. They are like cathedrals, continually open to all worshipers, — the rich, the poor, the grand, and the obscure.” — John Stoddard 1897
What are the ethics of tourism? How should we behave while visiting foreign countries?
The Tourism Constitution
- Respect your hosts, respect your guests — one cannot exist in the absence of the other
- Land is sacred, the ocean is pure. Keep them clean — reduce, reuse, recycle
- “Watch the tramcar please” — be alert and aware of your surroundings
- Home sweet home — rent your second home while away (100% occupancy); land grabbing is immoral
- Surrender a sense of nationalism. “When in Rome…do as the Romans do.”
- Yield to locals…working to deliver you a vacation.
- Ask not what your destination can do for you, but what you can do for your destination.
- Seek first to understand, then be understood — visit significant landmarks: churches, monuments, restaurants, etc... Participate in cultural immersions.
- Overcome Viewfinder Vices — only photograph what you don’t want to remember. Respect the integrity of the excursion — it’s what you pay for after all?
- Become an Ambassador of Culture — places have souls. How have they inspired yours? Share your adventures.
Cultural Diplomacy: Made in America?
What is the prevailing perception of an American Tourist?
Based on my years of seafaring expeditions, I’ve encountered many biases and judgments when interacting with multinational travelers. Among the laundry list of flaws, I’ve fought an uphill battle rooted in the expectation of:
Loud & Obnoxious Behavior
Ego-Centric Ethnocentricism
Narrow-Minded Entitledness
Wasteful, Materialistic, Oversized
Uncultured
Among others, these descriptive adjectives struck a chord. How did we develop such a poor international reputation? I often reflected on this dilemma after apologizing for world events and clarifying media bloopers from mainstream cable news stations. How have we become so…disrespectful?
Citing a mountain of history textbooks, we have a tendency to bolster our egos on the world stage. Do other countries really view us as we see ourselves? Or worse — how we view them? Where did this American Egotism stem from?
Oh right — Manifest Destiny.
But what does it mean to be a Cultural Diplomat? Isn’t that reserved for the State Department? Don’t you have to pass a test and wait for your tour of duty?
Well…not exactly.
Public Diplomacy and Cultural Diplomacy are two sides of the same coin, but let’s start with the Diplomacy part.
Diplomacy — the art of dealing with people in a sensitive and effective way.
Public Diplomacy — the profession, activity, or skill of managing international relations, typically by a country’s representatives abroad.
Cultural Diplomacy — is a type of public diplomacy and soft power that includes the “exchange of ideas, information, art, language and other aspects of culture among nations and their peoples in order to foster mutual understanding.”
This is around the time in the discussion where my students will plead for a reprieve:
“Mr. Miles! Mr. Miles! Can we go outside! Ugh…this is BoOOooOooOring!”
“Okay, okay, calm down. Let’s understand diplomacy first, then we can engage with the rest of our community on the Boardwalk.”
And you’ll be respected as young cultural diplomats of our school. I’d chuckle to myself.
So who becomes a Cultural Diplomat? Can we elect a group of people to represent us abroad? Maybe they can hurdle a few barriers, throw a stick across a field, or even run around in circles with a flag on their uniform? We should probably hold try-outs first. Or an audition?
Unlike Public Diplomacy, most of us are already cultural diplomats. Everything we post, click, share, tweet, or say to a foreign audience is an example of cultural diplomacy.
The question now becomes…what kind of diplomat are you? What image for yourself, your state, and your country do you want to project? What role will you play on the world stage?
Is it this?
Or this?
