Those of you who might reach this page looking for pornography or the advances in field, would be heavily disappointed as it has got nothing to do with conventional 'pornography'. My only travel blog entry which may have pornographic inclinations(on the lingerie market in Istanbul), has been taken off the blog, courtesy my wife's request to maintain some modesty on this site. I tried my best to convince her that it was a decent article but she won.
Anyways...
'Developmental Pornography' is a term I came across while I was researching for a project on textbooks. Audrey Bryan in her book 'Learning to read the world' had mentioned it while explaining some ill-fitting images in text books. Here is how the book describes it:
‘Development pornography’ is the term given to the use of graphic images of poverty, famine, death and suffering that are often deployed by both aid agencies and Western media to shock viewers into a compassionate (and usually financially generous) response.
The original Article where the phrase was coined appeared in a 1981 issue of 'New Internationalist' by George Lissner called 'merchants of misery'.
Interesting article on this issue here
Many people in the development sector and also outside may now be able to place what we call developmental pornography. It is often also seen at five star hotel conferences on poverty etc.
Act 1
I did a fantastic workshop on textbooks in Bangalore and as I walked out of the workshop on the last day, I made friends with a auto-rickshaw (three wheeler 'tuk tuks' in India) driver on my way back into the workshop. I asked the auto rickshaw driver to stay back to give rides to many 'foreigners' in the workshop.
Act 2
I went out for a walk with two participants the next morning and was wondering if it would have been a good idea to make the participants visit the house of the auto driver or perhaps some villagers around. And suddenly, one of my walk mates, a distinguished professor of education, retorted that it saddens her when people do this. What right do we have to walk into poor people's houses and invade their spaces. We are able to do that because we are privileged.
I got her point and that was my point of connect between developmental pornography and touristic pornography. What my walkmate was poiting towards was touristic pornography.
So, let me define touristic pornography as I listen to dhrupad on my earphones.
Touristic pornography is the tourism which invades cultures and peoples without making a connect to them. The intention is not to experience culture or people but to create a photo-opportunity.And it is much more. Let me elaborate by my own informal research.
Developmental pornography in tourism:
Those in the developmental sector know it well. Have seen Indians take their 'foreigner' friends to see the streets of Delhi and click photographs with poor people. And these people give their own discourses on why India is poor without having visited an Indian village ever. Have heard many stories of it happening in other parts of the world.
I have also sat through board room meetings in my office with suggestions of taking people to the Dharavi slums of Mumbai. By the way, Slumdog millionaire was a pornography of sorts.
There is a flip to this as well. I remember when I first visited Bonn in Germany, I asked a couch surfer to show me a village and she had a hard time finding me one. I wanted to experience rural Germany and she said there is hardly anything rural left. But I did find out that villagers keep donkeys in the rural areas in and around Bonn and Cologne. Still looking for interesting villages in the so called developed world.
Found some nice ads around this:
Cultural pornography in tourism:
I have been to reception parties in South-East Asia, where local artists perform folk songs as educated people sip wine discussing poverty and sustainable development goals. There is no effort to introduce that local art form to people in the party. No justice to the performer who keeps singing as conversations in the party move on to deeper matters of health and human rights.
It even happens in Indian marriages as the shehnai person starts with a raag and people are busy doing something else. Of course this can only happen in regions, where a lot of culture is left.
And who can miss whats happening in the Tourist Golden triangle of India. Folk singers sing and dance in posh hotels...and 'foreigners' are pulled in the dance just to get some money. There is no effort towards making the effort to make them aware of the kind of folk music or dance being talked about or the problems faced by these artists and art forms.
It is also true of clothes, there is this trend of getting shot in a certain cultural attire. When you try and wear the local dress just for a photograph. Even Indian men wearing a kurta or sherwani on a marriage rather than regular use...just for a photo op. Sari is going the same way with women these days.
Nationalistic pornography in tourism:
If you have ever been to Charlie Checkpoint in Berlin, where you also have remains of the Berlin Wall. Its pornography to the hilt. People clicking photographs with the American flag and Germans dressed as American soldiers. I cried there. Thats what had become of the place which saw so much of bloodshed. Does tourism always have to be about pictures of smiling faces or can it be even some people sitting quietly. Can there be a historic tourist place where you just sit and pray.
The German Wall Memorial is still a better place. I think the consumistic tourism has killed Charlie at the check point. It pains me that so called peace activists go to these places and get pictures clicked with the uniformed jokers there.
Its the same for the Wagah border parade that happens on Indo-Pak border everyday. Pure nationalistic pornography. Read my other entry on it here - http://pakistanmusings.blogspot.in/2011/03/tamasha-at-wagah-pakistani-side.html
Disaster pornography in tourism:
I was discussing this issue with my Japanese Boss and she made me aware of a new dimension. Of how people in Japan wanted to visit the natural disaster sites post tsunami. I read about it being termed voyeuristic tourism on the internet. But apart from relief workers, there are also tourists around it. While human curiousity is natural to see but it becomes pornographic when too many people start visiting without agenda of help.
I am myself guilty of engaging in mild forms of this.
Environmental pornography in tourism:
This is the most often talked about as the world pumps in money on environment. This is most talked about with environmentally sustainable tourism being most written about by travel bloggers. Workshops and conferences and even tourism around environmental sustainability falls flat when such events are full of water bottles made of plastic. While you may visit a wild life sanctuary, you munch on chips and water, the packaging of which you leave behind. We just take responsibility of dumping it in the dustbin but not for what will happen after that. That dustbin being dumped in some unseen corner of the forest...feeding monkeys.
Pictoral touristic pornography
Where you are more concerned with taking a picture rather than enjoying the moment or the place. And with the advent of social media...more concerned about sharing it on facebook that you visited the place.
I think there are many more pornographies to be included in this list.
Anyways...
'Developmental Pornography' is a term I came across while I was researching for a project on textbooks. Audrey Bryan in her book 'Learning to read the world' had mentioned it while explaining some ill-fitting images in text books. Here is how the book describes it:
‘Development pornography’ is the term given to the use of graphic images of poverty, famine, death and suffering that are often deployed by both aid agencies and Western media to shock viewers into a compassionate (and usually financially generous) response.
The original Article where the phrase was coined appeared in a 1981 issue of 'New Internationalist' by George Lissner called 'merchants of misery'.
Interesting article on this issue here
Many people in the development sector and also outside may now be able to place what we call developmental pornography. It is often also seen at five star hotel conferences on poverty etc.
Act 1
I did a fantastic workshop on textbooks in Bangalore and as I walked out of the workshop on the last day, I made friends with a auto-rickshaw (three wheeler 'tuk tuks' in India) driver on my way back into the workshop. I asked the auto rickshaw driver to stay back to give rides to many 'foreigners' in the workshop.
Act 2
I went out for a walk with two participants the next morning and was wondering if it would have been a good idea to make the participants visit the house of the auto driver or perhaps some villagers around. And suddenly, one of my walk mates, a distinguished professor of education, retorted that it saddens her when people do this. What right do we have to walk into poor people's houses and invade their spaces. We are able to do that because we are privileged.
I got her point and that was my point of connect between developmental pornography and touristic pornography. What my walkmate was poiting towards was touristic pornography.
So, let me define touristic pornography as I listen to dhrupad on my earphones.
Touristic pornography is the tourism which invades cultures and peoples without making a connect to them. The intention is not to experience culture or people but to create a photo-opportunity.And it is much more. Let me elaborate by my own informal research.
Developmental pornography in tourism:
Those in the developmental sector know it well. Have seen Indians take their 'foreigner' friends to see the streets of Delhi and click photographs with poor people. And these people give their own discourses on why India is poor without having visited an Indian village ever. Have heard many stories of it happening in other parts of the world.
I have also sat through board room meetings in my office with suggestions of taking people to the Dharavi slums of Mumbai. By the way, Slumdog millionaire was a pornography of sorts.
There is a flip to this as well. I remember when I first visited Bonn in Germany, I asked a couch surfer to show me a village and she had a hard time finding me one. I wanted to experience rural Germany and she said there is hardly anything rural left. But I did find out that villagers keep donkeys in the rural areas in and around Bonn and Cologne. Still looking for interesting villages in the so called developed world.
Found some nice ads around this:
Cultural pornography in tourism:
I have been to reception parties in South-East Asia, where local artists perform folk songs as educated people sip wine discussing poverty and sustainable development goals. There is no effort to introduce that local art form to people in the party. No justice to the performer who keeps singing as conversations in the party move on to deeper matters of health and human rights.
It even happens in Indian marriages as the shehnai person starts with a raag and people are busy doing something else. Of course this can only happen in regions, where a lot of culture is left.
And who can miss whats happening in the Tourist Golden triangle of India. Folk singers sing and dance in posh hotels...and 'foreigners' are pulled in the dance just to get some money. There is no effort towards making the effort to make them aware of the kind of folk music or dance being talked about or the problems faced by these artists and art forms.
It is also true of clothes, there is this trend of getting shot in a certain cultural attire. When you try and wear the local dress just for a photograph. Even Indian men wearing a kurta or sherwani on a marriage rather than regular use...just for a photo op. Sari is going the same way with women these days.
Nationalistic pornography in tourism:
If you have ever been to Charlie Checkpoint in Berlin, where you also have remains of the Berlin Wall. Its pornography to the hilt. People clicking photographs with the American flag and Germans dressed as American soldiers. I cried there. Thats what had become of the place which saw so much of bloodshed. Does tourism always have to be about pictures of smiling faces or can it be even some people sitting quietly. Can there be a historic tourist place where you just sit and pray.
The German Wall Memorial is still a better place. I think the consumistic tourism has killed Charlie at the check point. It pains me that so called peace activists go to these places and get pictures clicked with the uniformed jokers there.
Its the same for the Wagah border parade that happens on Indo-Pak border everyday. Pure nationalistic pornography. Read my other entry on it here - http://pakistanmusings.blogspot.in/2011/03/tamasha-at-wagah-pakistani-side.html
Disaster pornography in tourism:
I was discussing this issue with my Japanese Boss and she made me aware of a new dimension. Of how people in Japan wanted to visit the natural disaster sites post tsunami. I read about it being termed voyeuristic tourism on the internet. But apart from relief workers, there are also tourists around it. While human curiousity is natural to see but it becomes pornographic when too many people start visiting without agenda of help.
I am myself guilty of engaging in mild forms of this.
Environmental pornography in tourism:
This is the most often talked about as the world pumps in money on environment. This is most talked about with environmentally sustainable tourism being most written about by travel bloggers. Workshops and conferences and even tourism around environmental sustainability falls flat when such events are full of water bottles made of plastic. While you may visit a wild life sanctuary, you munch on chips and water, the packaging of which you leave behind. We just take responsibility of dumping it in the dustbin but not for what will happen after that. That dustbin being dumped in some unseen corner of the forest...feeding monkeys.
Pictoral touristic pornography
Where you are more concerned with taking a picture rather than enjoying the moment or the place. And with the advent of social media...more concerned about sharing it on facebook that you visited the place.
I think there are many more pornographies to be included in this list.
