Travel Ethos

Travel (meaning)
1. To go from one place to another, as on a trip; journey.
2. To go from place to place as a salesperson or agent.
3. To advance or proceed.
4. To go about in the company of a particular group.
5. To move along a course, as in a groove.

Ethos (meaning)
1. The disposition, character, or fundamental values peculiar to a specific person, people, culture, or movement.
2. Ethos is one of the three modes of persuasion discussed by Aristotle in 'Rhetoric' as a component of argument. At first speakers must establish ethos. On the one hand, this can mean merely "moral competence", but Aristotle broadens this word to encompass expertise and knowledge. He expressly remarks that ethos should be achieved only by what the speaker says, not by what people think of his character before he begins to speak.

Q) So what does “Travel Ethos” mean?

A) Well, as the component “travel” has so many possible variations along a common theme (to go from “a” to “b”), it can mean many things to many people; but in the context of this travel forum “Travel Ethos” means seeking to attain ethical holidays through shared information and a desire to do the right thing.

Q) Huh? Doing the right thing when you go on holiday! What are you on about? You mean not getting drunk or swearing at some dumb waitress?

A) Partly, yes, but Travel Ethos goes way beyond the obvious need for plain manners and civilized behavior. It is about making sure your holiday benefits the everyday people of the country you visit, leaving the locals with happy memories of your visit so as to reduce the increasing intolerance in this world which if it continues will cause many serious problems for all of our children, treating their environment with the same regard as you expect your environment to be treated at home, supporting the right people (not the bad guys) to send a message (to the bad guys) and even putting right the wrongs many western governments commit in that country in our name. Getting drunk in itself is solely an issue between you, your kidneys and your health care provider.

Q) What! You want me to become a damn missionary when all I want to do is go on holiday and relax for 10 days?

A) The premise that taking extra care and indeed time to travel ethically somehow detracts from or even ruins a holiday is false. By taking care to spend your holiday dollars with the good guys and understanding then respecting the everyday people of wherever you are going will actually also reward you with a much better quality and rewarding vacation. It is a win-win or doubled edged sword situation, so why not grab it? To know which are the good guys, simply learn how to spot the bad guys by visiting our “Travel Fraud” page.

Q) What do you mean “put right the wrongs my government does in that country”?

A) Western foreign policy is duplicitous and totally commercially or rather corporately selfish. The USA, Britain and Australia lead the world in unpleasant and inaccurately named diplomatic policies in SE Asia. They are not alone, but they are the worst, you only have to look at Burma / Myanmar to understand this; a country publicly so anti its former colonial power Britain (and visa versa), yet major UK corporations are the second on the so called country “red list” for sanction busting in Myanmar. What western governments say and do are not the same, plus they have one set of rules for their domestic audience (voters) and another very different one for the people of other countries. In the case of third world countries, western governments back western corporations who in turn commit unlawful and often illegal acts in order to exploit the wealth of that country against the best interests of its people. Western governments de facto support corruption, fraud, civil and human rights abuse in order to achieve massive short sighted financial gains for their major corporations.

Even if you accept your own government is guilty of such acts but this in some way benefits you financially, courtesy of the trickle down effect, you can to some extent put right some of these wrongs by spending your holiday dollars carefully – please see the page “Your Holiday Dollars”. However, it is highly unlikely western governments' foreign policy acts help their own citizens financially. Although western major corporations make more money at the expense of the local people, their culture and environment, it is the shareholders and stooges (corrupt officials who get “bribes”) of these companies that benefit. If western corporations did not win overly profitable actual or virtual closed bid contacts involving “bungs”, they would still likely get the business in a much more transparent, open tender but just make less profit. No corruption bungs, less corporate profit means the money goes where it belongs, the everyday people of the country being exploited.

In fact it can be easily argued that western foreign policy not only puts its citizens at greater risk but also costs them money. When you look at the amount of foreign aid that countries like Australia pour into places like Indonesia, and when you realize that perhaps 75% of that money gets into corrupt officials pockets, foreign aid is basically subsidizing their major corporations, but who pays for that aid? Why the tax payers do of course. Just look at the millions of dollars poured into the Aceh Tsunami Relief Fund from both foreign government aid and donations then ask yourself how it is many Acehnese were still living in emergency yellow plastic tents without mains water or sewerage two years after the tsunami, with the aid relief manager citing wholesale corruption and theft as being the problem. Every day westerners were taxed and donated their dollars for this humanitarian effort, but so little got where it was intended while the major corporations’ shareholders are laughing all the way to their banks as the money whittled away from that by corrupt officials no doubt mitigated their own need to make "contributions". Now you know why major businessmen are happy to make healthy donations to political parties.

Travelers with ethos therefore also vote in their country’s own general elections according to the political parties true foreign policies.

Q) How does leaving the locals with happy memories of my stay make any difference?

A) Too many western tourists to SE Asia go there with a superior, condescending proxy colonial attitude towards local people who are financially less fortunate then ourselves. But people are people with human emotions and selfish behavior from swearing at beggars to treating hotel staff like serfs just because you can is only going to make things worse for you, your family, your country and your descendants in the future. It is a fact Bali (2002) bomber Amrozi was once a tour guide in Bali and Hambali the terrorist leader who orchestrated this attack was once a keen supporter of western culture and wanted even to live one day in the USA; why did they change into people who wanted to commit the mass murder of westerners? If you think you can treat people badly with impunity you can not. If you treat people well and with respect, the chances are fewer members of that community will become so anti-western in the future. But it is not just some form of insurance for us in the west, it is also their human right to be treated as equals.

Q) So you are saying we need to be environmentalists as well!

A) If you want your children and their children to grow up in a world free from extreme weather conditions, toxins, starvation and avoid the resulting severe economic conflict, yes. If the droughts, floods and dramatically rising sea levels don’t make you sit up, take notice and want to do something, you are pretty much sentencing your own children to a climatic nightmare. Your flight to your holiday destination alone will push tons of various carbons into the atmosphere for your children to clean up, maybe. In our “Worthwhile Links” page there is a link to the Carbon Neutral flight carbon dioxide calculator in case you would like to pay for the carbon you cause travelling to and from your tropical destination.

Many SE Asian countries have their environments decimated through greed and laziness; just make sure you are not a part of that; avoid hotels that pollute. Also do not be easily fobbed off by hotels who feign being “green” for marketing benefit. Hotels that tell you they would like you only to have a change of bathroom towels every two days are saving money and taking guests for suckers, not being environmentally sensitive. If they back this up with a commitment to only using natural, bio-degradable detergents to wash the towels, OK. But if all they do is have organic tea on their menu, etc. while claiming to be green, they are pulling your cord. Also look for the businesses who actively go out and try to clean up the local environment, not those who try to just clean up!

Q) Anything else?

A) The people of Thailand, Bali and Lombok are often very poor, too frequently malnourished and / or abused. The problem is that most tourists do not see this, as the poor areas are far away from the mass tourism track, e.g. Isaan in Thailand and North East Bali. Travel Ethos is about experience, knowledge and understanding, so why not travel to one of these areas and see for yourself (do not worry, they will not eat you). Maybe take some basic gifts for their children; the whole world loves children. Some pencils, some crayons, some chalk, some paints, some books. Maybe then you will see the whole, real picture of what it is to live in a 3rd world country and feel proud you have started to do your part in making the planet a better, safer, more enjoyable place for us all.

Finally, if you come across corrupt officials, report them. Perhaps it is better to wait until you are out of the country and can write a letter to the local police chief and cc it to your country's consulate giving details including the date, time, location and if possible the official's name or at least a description of them. Also post a message on our and other travel forums about what happened as the corrupt hate publicity, so the more people report such things, the sooner they will end.

Thank you