The Problem With Poverty Tourism
“Ah, look at them, they have nothing,” is a phrase you’ll hear often if you spend any time traversing the Asian sub-continent. Though it’s not just Asia, I’ve heard this phrase, in various different iteration from the Balkans to the southernmost tip of the Americas. Some travelers seem to go out of their way to photograph, watch and generally note extreme poverty around the world, but why?
Poverty tourism isn’t exactly a modern invention though, it’s been around since the late 1800s when wealthy Londoners would go and visit their slum dwelling compatriots. But since the explosion of cheap flights, a whole sub-brand of tourism has built up, from people spending a week living in an ‘authentic’ Indian slum, to pretending to save orphans in Cambodia.
Despite good intentions, Australians and others from western countries are often propping up Asian orphanages that separate children from families.
Let’s just get something out of the way through, if you can afford to go travelling at all, whether it’s two weeks to the south of Spain or a month in Kathmandu. You’re globally in the top 10% richest people on the planet, yes I know, it might not feel like that as you try to fall asleep in your crowded dorm as an Australian backpacker starts professing on the meaning of life, but statistics don’t lie.
Now quite often the motivation for poverty tourism is really just simple naive curiosity. Seeing, learning, how other people around the world live, which paradoxically usually makes us feel better about ourselves than anything constructive. This post though isn’t about that sort of poverty tourism though, it’s about the other kind, the far more destructive and self-absorbed kind; self-actualization tourism.
In recent times its sort of become a thing for wealthy celebrities, and seemingly random YouTubers, to spend a week, or even a month living in slums around the world. The reason for this though is not usually to help the slum dwellers, actually it very rarely, if ever helps the slum dwellers. Instead, the process is meant to help the foreigner, the visitor, to change their views on life, to become kinder and humbler. Well, sorry, but that’s just complete and utter rubbish.
This strangely puts some sort of weird value in poverty, that really doesn’t exist. No single person on earth chooses to live in poverty, no matter all the smiling kids and welcoming strangers you might see on these tours. No one would turn down a nice three bedroom flat with running hot and cold water for a slum with a sewer running through it. Also, again, no one would choose to sit on the street corner and beg or send their kids out to wash car windows instead of going to school. People live in poverty because of complex economic reasons, that are just way too complicated to get into in this blog, not because there is value in it.
It’s demeaning to the people who do live in these slums, and to be honest you don’t have to go halfway around the world to visit them either, no matter which rich western or eastern country you live in, there’s plenty of poor places for you to visit, but you don’t do that do you? You’d much rather spend your time shopping, or indulging in a bit of expensive sushi.
So, on your travels, before you set about wondering around the slums, marveling at the poverty, snapping the perfect ironic picture. I implore you to think for a moment, and switch perspectives. ‘How would you feel, if you lived in a drafty one bedroom run down house, with no running water, one bed, and three kids and you’re busting your butt off hand cleaning your clothes when some random tourist comes up to you and smiles pitifully at you.
“Look how happy they are, yet they have nothing.’
Not so nice now is it?
We may feel that it helps us to become kinder, nicer, more understanding people, when we go about exploring extreme poverty, but at its heart, all your really doing is dehumanizing them. Again, putting a value on their poverty. In my opinion, if you need to witness extreme poverty to make you a better person, maybe, just maybe, you weren’t a very good person to begin with.
So, I implore you, next time you think about taking a picture of a beggar to pop up on your Instagram feed or make a short life-affirming video out of, don’t. Talk with them, engage with them, offer to buy them lunch, but above all, don’t rob them of their dignity, few, if any, chose that life.
Callum is a writer at http://www.alongthewindingtrail.com where he writes about travel and tries really hard to make us laugh.
