One of the hassles of getting wiser as you age is that nothing’s as black and white as it once was. Just because something is legal doesn’t make it moral or ethical and the opposite is also true. Travelers often face the dilemma of choosing whether or not to journey to destinations that present legal, moral or ethical challenges.
Some travelers will tell you they simply won’t let politics interfere with their enjoyment of a country and culture. But how can you visit an area knowing your money is supporting a regime that keeps its people enslaved through poverty, lack of education, health care and the basic needs of survival?
Reasons Not To Go
Human rights organizations and other non-governmental bodies often issue pleas asking tourists to stay away from locales such as Burma/Myanmar, Tibet and Israel in protest against the treatment of minorities or in support of imprisoned political leaders.
Governments may prohibit travel to countries which, for some people, makes it easy as they simply won’t go against the law. The USA’s 50-year embargo against Cuba, however, is seen by many Americans as a politically-indefensible and immoral stance and keeping within the law is for them a greater wrong than breaking it.
What of countries in which a large part of the community is marginalize by laws or traditions? Women, children and persons with disabilities usually bear the brunt of the abuse a society heaps onto its less fortunate.
India’s social caste system, the conservative Arab world’s treatment of women, as well as a well-developed child-prostitution industry in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Thailand, Vietnam and countless other countries might make vacationers think twice about going to these destinations – assuming they are aware of the existence of the issues.
Decision-Making Resources
If your travel destination choices are giving you second thoughts, check out on-line resources that explain the issues as well as the severity of the situation in various locations around the world. You may find that you can actually do some good while you are there by frequenting locally-owned, small businesses, by volunteering on a project or, if requested to do so by an organization by reporting back on a local situation.
Human Rights Watch provides information on a broad range of issues including anti-terrorism actions that impinge on human rights, women’s and children’s rights, gay rights and more: http://www.hrw.org/
Tourism Concern also works on children rights as well as on the issues of environmental damage especially as related to the construction of golf courses, displacement of communities as a result of tourism, water abuse, cultural conflicts, exploitation of women, working conditions, and climate change: www.tourismconcern.org.uk/
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