Gertsamtkunstwerk

How was your weekend?

As promised, we went to The Hogshead on Friday night, meeting up with Brycchan, Megan & John. At last orders we were joined byLib-Dems Robert and Matthew.

On Saturday we were going to spend the evening in Chinatown, but when I went to wake Jimmy from his afternoon nap, I instead joined him in a sleep. We changed our plans and went up to Crystal Palace. We headed for our favourite Spanish restaurant but we would have to wait half an hour for a table. So we made the mistake of going to a faux-Mexican restaurant called Borderland. I say 'mistake' because whilst there was actually nothing wrong with the experience, we will not be in a hurry to repeat the experience of bland, slap-dash prepared food and indifferent service.

We walked down to The Railway Bell, to check out the new management. Turns out they knew Jimmy and he them from nearly twenty years ago when they made the Wagon and Horses on Lyham Road Pub of the Year. I don't remember anything from getting in the taxi to waking up at quarter to one this afternoon. That rather scuppered my plans to go down to Sainsburys and cook an amazing meal. So I cobbled together Ready Meals. Tip on Ready Meal preparation - serve it sitting up at table with a bottle of really good Pinotage.

I sent an email of complaint to BBC News because of the amount of time they devoted to the Space Shuttle. I pointed out that whilst, of course, it was sad it was no sadder than the people who die every day in road accidents, nor in the railcrashes in Australia and Zimbabwe, or the explosion in Lagos, all of them, incidentally, in Commonwealth countries. Despite what BBC News Editors think, we are a sovereign nation, not the fifty-first state of the USA. I finished by saying that I would hope they spend hours grieving the loss of Iraqi citizens in direct proportion to this overlong coverage.

I am writing this while watching Dan Cruickshank and the Lost Cities of Iraq. A delight of a programme, showing deserted architectural treasures, such as in Babylon, Ur, Nineveh and the Garden of Eden, many of which may be destroyed in the war. They are older than the Pyramids, arguably even more important in the history of civilisation, and, may I dare say, more impressive.

It is sad that it probably got a very small audience, but I wonder whether the warmongers would be so gung-ho if they had had the chance to see it. I think it would be regarded as sacrilegious to bomb the World Heritage sites of Egypt, but I am not sure we have the same scruples about Iraq. Just a shame there appears to be no accompanying website.

Ethical Tourism

As it's International Human Rights Day today, I thought that I would pick up on something that Jae wrote:

After reading on Gert's blog that she is off on holiday to Egypt, I want your thoughts on what I think of as "ethical holidaying". I would never go to a country I felt was morally corrupt, such as Egypt where about 50 men were arrested for being suspected as gay (please note that to top it off they almost certainly AREN'T!!). I felt bad just visiting Italy. I think of it this way. Would you go for a holiday to Nazi Germany, when you know they are killing Jews? Would you go for a holiday to Jamaica where they chase gay men into the ocean, and wait on the beach until the gay man drowns, or they simply kill him on the steps of a church? I am not trying to say that YOU shouldn't go, just saying I couldn't. Just interested in your thoughts.

That is a very difficult one to answer. There are a number of trite answers eg whether or not I go to a country makes absolutely no difference to their human rights. Name me a country that doesn't leave something lacking in the human rights field - in my lifetime I have visited USA, Canada, Ireland, Italy, France, Greece, Switzerland, Cuba and Spain. And there's the UK, as well. Some have better human rights records than others, but I don't suppose even Canada is a paragon. Or, my going to a country is not an endorsement of their government, a government that is not always endorsed by its population

There is also the sanctimonious answer: it is only by Western Liberals visiting countries with a bad human rights record can they progress. Or, I go to countries to find out more about them, not merely to sit on a beach topping up my tan, or seizing photo opportunities.

Or there is the argument that it's easy to sit in an armchair pontificating, but a lot harder to do something about changing the world.

But they are all lacking something.

Arguably, all tourism is ethically unsound. All non-sustainable transport is unethical. I suppose if I were ethically pure I would never go on holiday, except by bike. But I am not ethically pure. That can be said for most of my consumer habits. Most of my clothes are made in Third World countries, and I don't enquire about the conditions of the workers who produce them. I don't go out of my way to buy Fair Trade chocolate or coffee. I smoke. Much of my food is pre-packaged, and not locally sourced. I don't pretend to be ethical.

When I was younger I considered living a life free from capitalism. But I realised I couldn't. Not just because I lacked the moral fibre, but because I can't see how it is possible. Going back to nature, being self-sufficient still requires the financial means to rent or buy property.

I have already decided that I am taking 2003 off from Politics. What I shall do instead is study more, especially on development issues. I don't know what the implications of that are. I'm unlikely to up sticks and go to a developing country.

I think that the points that Jae made are valid. But I also think that the world we live in is complicated. My Indian manager is going to India for Christmas, my Nigerian colleague to Nigeria. I have friends living and working in Russia and Zimbabwe - one of the Russians, is in effect, exiled from his home country of Singapore because he's gay.

When it boils down to it, I am a member of Western society and I want to see the world. Not very ethical.