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Viewpoint
Letters to the editor
Interview
10/2004 |
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Letters to the editor
[ On the issue of lacking participation in Africa ]
Serving the poor
In D+C writers frequently express their concerns about the fact that time and again leaders of African countries meet and discuss issues pertaining to development, but nothing tangible comes out of them as there are no actions taken after these summits. I can only confirm this view as being correct. The reason is that we have quite a number of summits held in different African countries, but the majority of African people is still drowning in absolute poverty and has no say. My view is that engagement for the poor should be driven by people at the local level. Instead, our leaders meet and discuss issues that affect us on the ground without letting us participate. That is why we find that recommendations made at these summits are not carried out, because people who are supposed to implement them at the local level can not identify with them. What we need is local government to afford local people a platform to participate fully in identifying priority needs within their communities. The formulation of policies should be informed by the relevant electorate to make sure that measures meet the needs of poor people.
I sometimes wonder whether our representatives are well versed in what development really is. So far as this is not the case, we need programmes aimed at changing their attitudes towards local people. In turn, we will see more and more counsellors start working as development practitioners who are there to empower helpless people rather than to impose irrelevant development strategies. I wonder whether your journal could reach yet more people, because it deals with a lot of important developmental issues and could thus assist civil servants in dealing better with questions of development. Poverty in Africa is not only the result of a lack of resources, but also of a lack of will of development practitioners to learn new meaningful and practical ways of servicing poor people.
Mlungisi Hlela,
Ecotourism Development Officer, KZN Wildlife, KwaZulu-Natal,
South Africa
[ Travelling to fight poverty,
D+C 2004:8/9, p. 340 ]
Propaganda
As is so often the case, Nicole Häusler’s essay on tourism missed a crucial point: tourists who want to travel to developing countries tend to go by plane. If international tourism – which is primarily from North to South – was really in accordance with a sustainable development-oriented concept such as Häusler demands, people would have to spend their holidays in their local region, or travel by bus, train or boat. Häusler identifies problems with sewage as typical environmental consequences of tourism in poor countries but the effects of an intercontinental flight are far more serious. The well-intentioned idea of sustainable local tourism will be thwarted by the global consequences. Hoping for sustainable tourism is reminiscent of the customer who purchases a so-called eco-washing machine because he wants to protect the environment. However, it will take decades until the environmental pollution from producing the machine has been offset.
As for the impact of tourism on local cultures and Häusler’s reference to the “pro-poor tourism strategies” with the Karen in northern Thailand, one can also cite less pleasant examples. Also in northern Thailand, you can observe indigenous peoples “coming to grips with their traditions”, where women and girls with gold neck bands (giraffe women) are put on display in human zoos for the tourists on their trek.
Häusler writes that longhaul tourism in developing countries had a bad image. The conclusion of her contribution seems to be that this is no longer the case. It remains unclear whether Häusler has been taken in by the propaganda of the tourism industry or whether she is driving it herself. Her article states that despite the criticism, tourism figures are increasing continuously and as a consequence, the discussion has changed in recent years. How come?
Lorenz Matzat, Berlin
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