Oh a good turn out.
Let's get a few things straight here. First of all, follow the whole thread. Obviously there is no meter or gauge that tells me if you have or haven't, so I won't assume.
Now, this all started when a comment was made, or several, that claimed that some countries are f'ed, shitty and not worth going to or basically shouldn't be acknowledged.
I will reiterate. Every single country is worth going to, even if going to it only then concludes that it isn't worth going to, but please, find that out for yourself or don't argue in favour of that point. Asking "why the fuck would I want to go there," is a piss poor attitude and smacks of arrogance. You may not want to go there, and that is understandable, but then say so respectably.
I've never gone to any of these places to volunteer or in another way directly help the people there. Many of these places do or did, however, largely rely on tourism. The minute Syria was labelled as part of the "Axis of Evil," their tourism industry essentially died. They sure as hell weren't able to understand why. So are they, in fact evil? Nope, but a lot of people depending on tourist dollars got the short end of that.
I would, in fact, counter that going there "throwing a loonie and toonie here and there and snapping a few pictures of people suffering" indeed does help. Or does staying within your own little world doing absolutely nothing somehow help more?
The mere fact a person goes to these places and then is able to impart at least something that they've learned about it to others; in hopes that they subsequently might, at least, open their own mind ever so slightly is doing a heck of a lot more than than spouting armchair world views. It might even give that person the inspiration to go themselves.
So yeah, you can go ahead and call me out for being arrogant, but I could do the same. In fact, until a call out by you (skithebert) I was only presenting another side to an arguement, not childlishly trying to marginalize anyone. Seemingly for what I wrote and am about to reiterate below:
We in north america aren't as good as we sometimes like to think we are. I've already given examples, but in case we didn't all read them, just think of the size of our cities, the exorbitant amounts of energy and resources we use and the amount of subsequent pollution it creates. We are responsible for some of the worst environmental disasters in history and are culprits to why a lot of said "shitty" countries are "shitty" to begin with. Europe is not to be absolved from this, but there is only so much time in a day.
For those of you that had a little trouble reading the part where my comparisons were done with "obviously a slight exageration," I have just rewrote that here for your convenience. Seriously, read a post in its entirety.
My slight at Texas is merely the same thing that was originally done - pretending I know something about somewhere that I've never actually been- and a slightly malicious joke.
Again, for probably the third time, I will make this explicitly clear, I understand that there are countries with some serious, serious issues and problems. We can call them fucked up, or shitty or whatever, but what in many cases are isolated instances, does not a country make. Regardless, shedding light on why these issues are prevelant, whether its just for yourself or for National Geographic is only something that can be helpful; again also a reason in and of itself to visit a country.
Yeah, they are dangerous. They are, however, never as dangerous as they are made to seem. This includes the Government of Canada's precious little travel warnings. Sorry to be so smug about that, but really? Oh never seen that site before... Again, find out for yourself. They've got an astericks beside Malaysia, and China and Thailand...
I for one, choose not to live life in a bubble. I would think as skiers, most could agree. If you want to stay 100% safe, stay at home and watch other people have experiences on T.V.
So you will have to excuse me if I sound arrogant and self-righteous regarding this issue, but I'm merely trying to fight fire with fire. It gets a little disheartening to hear people (specifically in north america) write off other areas of the world as shithole, butt-fuck countries because they see some fear-mongering, sensationalist snippet about them. Or worse yet, and often the case, have never even heard of them so instantly put them in that category.
If anything, we as North Americans should be thankful that we don't have to live there, and not throw it back in their face about how shitty their country is. I have a feeling that the large majority of Sudanese, Somolias, Iraqis etc know things aren't all that wicked at the moment and they'd probably rather have it otherwise.
Lastly, I've actually never "vacinnated my ass" in any of these places. Not something that is actually a good idea, but I'm not a big fan of needles.
Gnarton, I also suggest you go check out Thailand. I don't know why you would think it's the armpit of Asia. Don't be silly, that place is amazing.
Ese - I don't get it: Is a white person incapable of understanding or at least emersing themselves in a culture outside their own? Hm. Was my point ever that I go, or want to go to some of the world's most dangerous places to try and dodge bullets and then prove how manly I am?? No, you're right, that was my point...
Don't get me wrong here fellas, I've never explicitly said that the next thing I'm going to do is jump on a plane and go to Darfur or Mogadishu. I am saying, that until I do, I can't really even begin to say how it is there. It's likely dangerous and overwhelming and very intimidating, but it might also be very rewarding and also might not at all be like what it's made out to be. I for one, feel it's less arrogant and presumptious to wait until that chance comes before I slander them outright. I guess if you feel as if you automatically know better, than we will leave it at that.
