Dilemma: Poverty Tours?

No Comments | February 9th, 2007 | Trackback

On the left, notice the poverty: In short, guided group tours of slum areas in Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Delhi and Mumbai are now offered; an interesting example from Rio is that the guides are in fact local residents of these neighborhoods; drug traffickers guard the neighborhoods and keep things in line by, well, “taking care of” anyone who breaks their laws. As the guides have an understanding with these traffickers, the tourists can come in and be more or less assured of their safety by this system.

First impression: this sounds awful. Rich tourists gaping at and photographing poor locals. Exploitation at its height.

Next impression? Read the whole article. Some of the tourists left with the new impression that people in these slums were in fact working hard; others apparently conversed with residents (likely with the help of a translator); the reaction of the residents doesn’t seem to be one of anger.

Yes, something about these types of tours doesn’t sit well, but in the end I personally feel like it is a question of, in the real world, where we have to deal with the reality of time and other practical constraints: does the good outweigh the bad? Are we to look at the tour guides as selling out their own people…or as innovators who saw a potential market and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps to develop a business? Is much of the money going into the local community…and if not, was there money going into the community before? Is totally ignoring poverty ethically better than making a focused effort to see and understand a bit of it?

People’s attitudes can still be exploitative without taking pictures or going on these tours; I personally believe that the transition from seeing poor people as “just different” to “they are just like me but for chance” is huge and meaningful, and a tour like this may be what compels at least some of the tourists to take that step.

I also think there is a good chance that large-scale poverty is a symptom of a social, economic and/or political system, and changing people’s minds about what is acceptable in these systems (and they may be local or national or international) is the first step towards dealing with the root of the problem.

I don’t think there is a parallel day–or-two-long action people can take that will make a difference more than the difference made by changing their minds.

What do you think?