I am amazed at people and the world.

With Burma's riots and Britain and France; two of the main sanction busting countries in Myanmar (both BP and a French company have oil pipelines there - some sanctions) both prattling on about more sanctions and how China and Russia (who do not have oil pipelines) should clamp down on the military junta. Bloody British Government and their lies AKA foreign policy. Watching recent TV programs and seeing British tourists in state owned hotels in Burma there because they claim to be helping the Burmese; I get so tired of it.

For myself I recently bought a Nintendo DS lite for my wife on eBay. The seller has feedback from over 17,000 people. The goods are in the UK, new, with a 12 game kiddy pack my son would love; they sell tons of these items, I think all of their business are these games consoles. So it does not arrive and I ask for the tracking number, which they give me, which ends in "CN", which means it comes from China. Sure enough the postman delivers a form from the Portuguese customs section of the central Post Office in Lisbon for me to complete and agree to pay duty. Oh, the seller says they will be happy to refund the duty! Oh sure, I bet they are for every one in how many that actually get stopped. I suspect the UK postman is not so efficient.

Of course the problem I have is this seller is selling Nintendo's which probably have been illicitly gained (I am sure Nintendo does not sanction dealers in China selling UK specification Nintendo's complete with UK power plug into the UK market), defrauding the British / EU tax men out of many thousands of tax revenue and over 17,000 people do nothing. British businesses who employ people and pay taxes have to compete with people selling illegal duty and tax free goods basically. Yes, I have gone to the British Customs and Nintendo and notified them. EBay / Paypal do not give a damn that they are helping someone defraud the tax man by, I estimate, $1.5 million.

My point? Everyone speaketh such morality but when the chips are down they do not really care. 17,000 people have apparently bought dodgy tax avoiding probably stolen (I suspect the Chinese manufacturer for Nintendo made a few extra consoles without their knowledge) goods and that is OK, as long as they get what they want. EBay and Paypal with such massive publicity about ethics and online safety do nothing (besides warn the seller); so it is just their listing fees they give a monkey's about.

So I truly wonder if anyone really gives a damn about what and who their holiday dollars go on when they travel, and what pious BS they rattle off for their own benefit. Sorry, Burma and stuff like this p's me off big time. What we spend is one of the world's greatest weapons for good or bad. If we all stopped buying unethical and illegal products, if we all went on ethical holidays, if we all lived up to and paid for our carbon footprints; oh well, I best go take my plastic soapbox and burn it!

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There are two categories of travellers, those that experience a country and those that take their home with them wherever they go.

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