Enlightenment, eat the rich vs. posh vacationing, best destinations to visit, how rich escaped during crisis, soaring flight rates, covid celebrities, rising inequality, climate change and sustainable tourism.
As borders reopen and lockdown eases in some countries after months of restrictions, travellers who long started planning to escape from the grim realities, have started heading out for impromptu short trips or Wellness vacation or Work vacation. Outfits selected, scarves and sarongs chosen, dresses and shoes packed, sunscreen and lotions zipped in a pouch, summer hats ordered from online stores and yes, winding up reports and thesis presentations, folks are sorting out their visas. Why not? Globetrotting was a buzzword back then, getting travelling bug bites was the norm.
So, after getting back to the normal, why must boho chiques not hop into the bandwagon again? Even the insta feeds and youtube shorts depict the angst of the pandemic, craving for the attention they long had. Travelling was never about a personal enlightening experience for the self declared foodies and travel aficionados. Its a market of 'I have it and you don't, honestly I don't give a damn about you, just follow me, you sidekicks.'
For some not so lucky but who still wish to travel after pandemic, on shoestring budget, this will burn a deep hole in their pockets. Visa prices vary enormously depending on the traveller’s passport: richer the country, the less its citizens have to pay to go abroad.Wondering if travelling a lot is a fad or not, I assure you, it doesn't make you enlightened or less shallow than any other human walking on this earth and travel culture is another form of flexing, big time!
Hitting the clubs, searching for the best booze and joints, ogling at the women visitors, clubbing, partying or barhopping might as well be considered "shallow" but traveling is often portrayed similar to seeking enlightenment. Money won't buy you happiness but if you can get your hands on visas and flight tickets for hitting corners of the unknown world, that might give you happiness and a sense of elation, though it comes with shelling a big amount of bucks. You need to ask, what's wrong if happiness comes out of money, isn't it the same thing?
"Travel culture" is flexing (I don't see it any different than cancel culture where you first refuse and then completely deny what's happening around you, pretending to be woke at the same time, suddenly waking up from a deep slumber and cancelling out on those you see with disdain, the ones you find hateful, or the ones whose thought process you can't relate to). If you observe closely, in last few decades, it became offensive to brag about expensive stuff, so now people now brag about their 'trips' and 'experiences' It surely is flexing proving your superiority and supremacy over those who can hardly think about luscious indulgences, much needed leisures, luxurious getaways and expensive executive suites. Wealth is privilege, a deathly poison when it takes the form of recklessness and unnerving madness amidst widespread human devastation.
It wasn't long ago, when health officials warned travellers to avoid non essential travel to control the crowding and spread of the virus. Remember, when Maldives suspended Bollywood celebrities who had been visiting the exotic location for vacationing while people were dying in India? India's rich being largest single group of visitors to the archipelago this year even after the ban.
Commercial airline prices have already soared as more countries closed the doors on India. In the final days before the UAE's flight ban came into effect, a one-way flight in economy class from Mumbai to Dubai cost $1750, not less than 10 times the regular price. Even, New Zealand had closed its borders to arrivals from India in April. Australia followed suit, suspending passenger flights until May 15, and Canada, Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates and the UK were among other destinations that had done the same.
"It's not only the ultra rich", quoted a owner of a private club "Whoever can afford, they are taking private jets." Well, let's leave all the mind games, we know who all are the ultra rich that can "afford to" have such luxuries. Period.
In U K, Zara Holland and her partner Elliot boarded a plane to Barbados with plans to ring in New Year in sunshine but the pair in a bizarre moment, were taken into police custody on the island after trying to flee the country when Elliot tested positive for COVID-19. Love Island couple Molly-Mae Hague and Tommy Fury who traveled to Dubai and Maldives were shamed on social media for filming their travel without wearing masks. They were pointed out, when one of the netizens questioned them, for not wearing masks properly, for being selfishly shameless and inconsiderate about native populations of the countries and islands they were visiting. The pair didn't forget to get their precious views, amidst global concerns about the virus spread but forgot to comply with the rules? Suspicious enough!
Money can not only buy you freedom from consequences, it can allow self-interest to thrive, even in the face of tragedies.
Madonna in recent fan video soaking in rose petals preached a sermon to her fans saying about advantages of pandemic and how 'It's the great equalizer and what's terrible about it is what's great about it.' She was brutally brought to realisation when she got accused of "romanticizing" a global tragedy sitting in a bathtub sprinkled with flower petals wearing nothing but jewelry and waxing poetic about coronavirus.
Justin Bieber, Hailey and Kendall in an Insta live stream came off as demeaning and insensitive while talking about how they "can't feel bad" for their wealth since they "worked hard." for it to enjoy the privileges. The whole conversation turned sour when they began to discuss how "blessed" they were at a time when people were "crippling." but "can't feel bad enough for the things they have." Vanessa Hudgens complained about missing travelling to Coachella, telling fans that COVID-19 deaths are "terrible" but are they not "inevitable." Surely not for Vanessa.
Bette Midler, who laments in his titter bio of being "stuck at home just like everyone else," offered a self-deprecating tribute to housekeepers, backhandedly saluting them for doing best to keep families well, safe and alive. It didn't go well with women who are suffering additional burden of unshared house work, the full time care for family that they've to do, has left them with no option for leisure or travel. A lady who was also a mother responded saying, most people never get the luxury in life, of outsourcing menial tasks like cooking, cleaning and washing to a housekeeper or help or a maid, in the first place.
Entertainment mogul David Geffen, having net worth approx $7.7 billion, was doing aboard his $590 million superyacht, Rising Sun, in the Grenadines. Can we say that this is best way to quarantine and best time amidst fatalities to be a billionaire? Their lavishing lifestyle and ravishing hobbies looks nothing less than a blast. When held accountable, Geffen made his social media account private. In US, Ted Cruz was once caught flying to Cancun while Texas was hit by COVID as well as power crisis during a deadly winter storm. Kim Kardashian was seen hosting an island birthday bash for family in Tahiti amidst raging pandemic.
Back in US, it started with Zac Efron,then Mark Wahlberg and Matt Damon when jetted in, and then dozens of other celebrities were seen fleeing all to set up temporary homes in Australia. More recently, Julia Roberts landed Australia for shooting the film titled "Ticket to Paradise." Irony! Half of the Hollywood fled to Australia, viewing it as a Covid-free idyll. Also, Julia Roberts and Ed Sheeran holed up together to quarantine on a luxurious ranch outside of Sydney. While civilians were being stranded outside airports because of lockdown earlier, the two tier system favoured the rich and A listers and was unusually softer towards them which angered the citizens. In India, Pooja Bedi asked people to 'free their minds' as she took a private boat ride in Goa while in US, Gisele Bunchen striked a lotus pose as in meditation, preaching calmness from a luxurious island.
Haven't y'all learnt about practising what you preach? Still, here you are, in a spree to enjoy tropical sun, with waterfalls in the background, having cocktails in the pool, relishing the summer delights, like we've never heard of pre Covid era. Don't act like a multi millionaire snowflake! You can do much better, writing a check with much ho hum, just to shut mouths of social critics. You can't get away with the bare minimum you do on one hand, while sprouting tone-deaf and ineffectual verses on the other. Your dismissive attitude toward the severity of the crisis is sickening.
It's stomach churning and sinister to see, how pandemic has revealed stark inequalities in society and how we'll perceive money and privilege, in days to come. I don't see it any different than Indian politicians holding their rallies in poll-bound states and MPs flying in the private jets through one state to another, travelling at their best while others who were pro government ministers, were busy promoting herbal grasses, dark chocolates and cow urine as Covid treatments.
They were just too many wealthy people who were seen carelessly using their vast resources for their own pleasure, travelling, shopping, splurging rather than to help, as people struggled with the impacts of COVID: unemployment, displacement, poverty, and hunger & loss of lives. Meanwhile, essential workers in a war like conditions, were reaching out to people with necessary services, even for low wages.
IMF estimates that income inequality rose more sharply in 2020 than it did in previously occurring economic and financial crisis. Inequality between nations, as well as between households is on rise, wiping out a decade of progress in battling inequality in developing economies, according to the IMF. We are back to zero on the scale, the worst hit are women, ethnic minorities, migrants, the low-skilled and the young. Wealthier one's can afford to travel and not care if their actions adversely impact low-income and marginalized communities that don't have access to healthcare resources,”
The pandemic not only intensified their beliefs around money and politics but has unmasked all and left them butt naked with the revealations.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “I like to pay taxes. With them, I buy civilization." Oligarchies are almost impossible to unwind except by war like conditions or a mass revolution. Extreme wealth inequality confronts nations with a civilizational threat. Wealth taxes can be an answer in future.
Emissions from polluting industries like flying, threaten to crash the climate. One environmental report shows the similar pattern of inequality around the world – a small minority of rich, the frequent flyers take an unfair share of the flights while the poorest communities are already suffering the impacts of a warming climate, the benefits of high-carbon lifestyles are enjoyed thoroughly enjoyed by the few.
A progressive tax on aviation would treat frequent flying as luxury habit it is. A lot of people travel but it's only the privileged few who fly often and that needs to be taken into account. Meanwhile, avoiding just one transatlantic flight a year could be eight times more effective at saving on emissions than recycling. Living car-free could be 11 times more effective. To cut the carbon footprint we need to stick to “high-impact actions” than “sweating for the small stuff”.
As inequity in public transportation is increasing, with air flights being the most inequitable. Amenities for those who can afford to pay a lot, are improving as it was visible throughout pandemic, but not for the common mass who cannot afford air-conditioned travel or high speed transportation. In India thousands of people died during first phase of unannounced lockdown where people in absence of transport walked miles on concrete roads in blazing hot summers during day, met with accidents or crushed under the wheels of lorries or trucks during night. About 8,700 people died on train tracks. Those who reached homes after endless efforts will have scars for life and loss of faith in the system. Sadly, transportation is being privatised for the rich rapidly, with the only public sector airline being sold off and airports also being privatised, bus terminals and train platforms are given to big corporates in India like Adanis and Ambani.
After seeing the public being mocked during catastrophe, I concur that "traveling" doesn't make you an enlightened intellectual in any way if you don't have the basic sense of life and deeper understanding of humanity. Dimwits who try to compete with the others over number of places they've been to or lesser known foreign places they've travelled or 'done' a country better than everyone else, just to get praises in closets full of other dimwits, needs a thorough realisation of reality. Bragging about 33 countries and 3 continents shows your stupidity that the list of places is nothing but a possession to you. Mind you, lists won't make a difference in other's lives but impact does.
Infact, traveling if done right, helps in breaking down cultural differences and stereotypes, dissolves mental barriers, taking us out of our comfort zones, smashes down the colourful shades over our eyes through which we judge others. I remember the school song which we sang, along with my girl choir members at the inauguration of international children's summer camp.
Good neighbours come in all colours,
Black red yellow and tan
Our outside may look different
but we belong to the family of man.
(humankind precisely)
And the other one which we cried and sang for the grand finale after one week long program, hugging our friends who were returning back to Australia, US and South Africa.
When the world says, stay away
we're from a different land.
Gonna tell that we're one country
we are world citizens.
Then turn that wall into a bridge
take your neighbours by your hand
Walk across the bridge
to the world, god promised man.
Building Bridges of the
walls.. that keep us apart.
That was one of the most unforgettable days of my life as a teenage girl having her worldview moments. Through these valuable conversations, meeting people, from diverse backgrounds, races, and cultures, I learnt how they’ve been negatively stigmatized, stereotyped and portrayed in media as well as majority factions of society. It forces you and instills in you, an urge to out grow these portrayals and smash them down on the face of persecutors, which takes effort if one is entrenched in a society and culture that celebrates jingoists and their chauvinism.
Also, how can we forget some of the online travelers or travel influencers, taking 'business' trips to sell what? sweatshop junks, plastic shades, bare minimum bikinis, weird mix of drinks, skin creams that even they'll fear to use in real life. Social media exploitative and self-indulgent celebrities behind their short term fame, have no credibility at all. They are the same people who'll spread rumours and racist stories about how the local people were so strange and how "they did things the wrong way." I wish to know, If you hate Japanese people that much why did you even go to Japan? or India or China? Stop your Asian hate penetrated deep in your bones, your privileged act and how you treat others like you're visiting a zoo or circus. It's hard to digest your audacity to travel, yo write off a country as "lesser than" yours, and then you are are so proud telling others that you didn't actually visit the country too much and basically just stayed for a day or two because you see these countries and it's people nothing less than animals, like how "everyone’s looks too drunk or as if they are cracking on pots and the city is just so weird and dirty!" Well, you know who is lying to whom and what you just did, added it to xenophobia.
Travel doesn’t make you more enlightened than others but it surely gives you a better opportunity to develop a perspective and sense of empathy. The worst people you'll meet will be the ones who've never stepped a foot outside their town they were born in, hating everything foreign or different than theirs, trying to enforce on others, what they perceive to be normal. In Iceland 'stupid' translates to 'someone that doesn't go far from home' How ironic! So the issue isn't with travel per se, but with the way some travel aficionados talk about travel or show off on social media. It melts down to the kind of conversations people do, at last.
With employing 330 million people, contributing 10% to global GDP before pandemic, predicted to create 100 million new jobs ahead – it's imperative to restore tourism and travel industry to become accessible and inclusive, the one which supports equality, diverse cultures and individuals both as travellers and job seekers.
Climate change and “overtourism” are so intricately linked that we must address it soon. A 2018 study found that global tourism accounted for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions from 2009 to 2013; four times higher than previous estimates. Even more worryingly, this puts progress towards the Paris Agreement at risk – recovery efforts must centre around environmental sustainability.
As 20 most popular global destinations are predicted to add more international arrivals than rest of the world combined and consumers wanting to travel again we must, in all seriousness, need to address the issues associated with rising inequity, rich exploiting the travelling industry, high flight prices, carbon footprint, alternative sources of travelling, overcrowding in places emerging as hot tourist destinations, like Saudi Arabia, Maldives, Mauritius or even Italy or Greece.
Anthrocene was a reality and so is Great Reset, a chance to make sure that as we rebuild, we do it better as it provides an opportunity to rethink how travelling can become a truly enlightening experience and how tourism is delivered in more sustainable , inclusive and resilient way.
