Tourists vs. Travelers

One of the most discussed topics among the students here and between students and Nicaraguense has been the subject of eco-tourism, and tourism versus those that travel. There are a lot of points I want to bring up that I think are important to highlight because many have been overlooked. The first is that for me, is there really a difference between a traveler and a tourist? I don´t really think so. They both do the same thing, travelers take out their digital cameras much like a tourist does, a traveler wears a huge backback like all of us have been doing and a traveler consumes culture just as well. The difference I guess if you want to say that there is one is that a traveler seeks to learn about the culture, but the best kind of learning is when you don´t realize that you are learning, so when a ¨tourist¨goes to a museum, are they not learning about the artifacts from the culture that they are visiting? In my opinion the label tourist is exactly just that: a label, a stereotype for someone who travels a lot to new places. Just because some tourists may do things that are distasteful doesn´t speak for everyone who considers themselves to be a tourist and just because a couple of people when visiting foreign countries make fools of themselves doesn´t mean that every tourist is a fool, and to make that assumption is to take part in stereotyping, its just as if you´re saying that all Irish people are drunks, that all Hispanics become pregnant at 15, that every kid from a poor neighborhood sells drugs, that all Asians are good at math and science. There is no such thing as a positive stereotype because you still deprive people of the chance to be individuals.
Whether traveler or tourist, they are still buying water bottles, and yes that contributes to the pollution here, and someone mentioned that if the country invested money in purifying the water that there would be no need to buy bottled water, but I think that statement lacks merit for a couple of reasons. One, to purify the water is expensive, money that this country doesn´t have. Second, even if they implemented a recycling program here, has anyone been to Manhattan? My dad lives in Queens and there´s garbage all in the street and there´s a recycling program there. Third, few people realize that back at home, where I´m from, the drinking water on Long Island has higher standards to meet set by the EPA than is set for Poland Spring, and yet no one drinks tap water there. Even if the water was purified here, people would still buy bottled water, ¨just to be safe¨. Yes, its important to think about what role you play in contributing to the pollution in where you live, and where you visit, but the point is that really there´s no difference between a traveler and a tourist, a tourist is a stereotype and even if you see a difference between the two, both perform the same actions that contribute to pollution.
Another point important to highlight is that economies depend, and thrive off of ¨tourism¨. Look at what happened to the city of New Orleans, that attracted people to party for Mardi Gras, and after Hurricane Katrina, the only people who went there were people that volunteered. What would happen if Miami, and Hawaii experienced the same thing? What if these horrible tourists stopped coming? Tourism provides jobs, it sustains an economy and the city of Granada is developing because people want to come here, tourist or traveler. To say that people should only go to countries in which they identify with, countries in which their heritage lies, is to promote an ignorance, to only learn about your own culture and to say the world is only what you know, and to only learn your own language. Because really if thats what should be done, what is an Irish blonde like me doing in Nicaragua? Why did I bother to learn Spanish, French, and Italian? To educate myself, to go to France, Nicaragua and Italy and participate in the culture, to open my eyes to the fact that the world is not just Long Island, New York. I couldnt believe yesterday when I was working at the school with a girl that in her notebook her teacher drew a map of ¨el mundo¨, or the world, and it was only of Central America.
The nephew that is staying in the room next to mine here is from Canada, and he was here to do his internship for international business. He told me that he worked with his uncle that works for a company that rents out houses or apartments to tourists, and if tourism didn´t exist, what kind of job would he be doing? Would I have even met Marco? Tourism doesn´t suck dry the culture, it doesn´t rob the people and take advantage of them, that´s where the role of governments come in.
Aside from the negative aspect of contributing to pollution, the only downside that I could think of is that it changes the culture and forces the people to learn English, but I found out last night that the people speaking English in the plaza are not Nicaraguense, and in fact the other day a vendor told me in perfect English that hes from Panama and used to live in Brooklyn.
And yes, the conditions are bad here in the schools, but don´t be so quick to dismiss children back at home. At least here, every kid in school gets bed. In Brookfield CT, my 14 year old brother buys his friends lunch because if they don´t have money, if they forget to bring lunch, they dont get fed. In April I met with the Children´s defense fund and they told me that the largest population in the US living in poverty is children and its important to realize that kids stop going to school in the US because they get lice and cant afford to treat it and the schools wont let them back in, kids at home are getting high and having sex and finding their parents drugs and guns, kids in appalachia have mountain dew mouth, their teeth rot because all they drink is mountain dew and they dont have money to go to a dentist and what started in appalachia and has now taken the entire country at storm is the epidemic of abusing prescription pills, children and adults alike. The only difference is its not in front of your face, and if you miss the news special you wont hear about it. Remember, kids cant vote for change, and their voices arent heard so while its good to be here and help these kids, I remember kids from my own country, and I´m not quick to brush them aside.
Remember, addiction, as well as poverty, doesn´t discriminate. Just open your eyes a little and you´ll start to see at home that what we see here, exists there as well.