Livebericht: it’s becoming “european” style
A friend went to Cambodia. She send me a message from back there. It made me think a lot. It made me sad. Here is what she wrote:
I just wanted to tell you a little bit about my Cambodian experience before answering what you told me. It was great ! I really enjoyed my time there : we first stayed a few days in Phnom-Penh (capital city) and then we went to small villages in the North of the country. These places are not very picturesque, we were the only tourists there, but maybe that was the best part of the stay because we really had the opportunity to share Cambodian people’s life ! I think that during my experiences over the world, I have rarely met such friendly and caring people : they were welcoming us so well… I liked it because they weren’t doing it to get money from us and it wasn’t submission either : i guess it’s just the way they are ! One day a monk asked us to enter his English class (he was the teacher) and to start talking with his students. I also appreciated monks because they were very kind and tolerant (in fact I think that it’s the buddhist religion who is really open-minded and tolerant… but that’s another story !). At the end of the stay we went to Angkor, THE famous monument of the country, everyone who goes to Cambodia visits it. It was beautiful but I also realized the bad consequences of tourism : Siem Reap, the city which is next to this famous site suffers a lot from tourism and is loosing its identity : pubs and clubs everywhere and it’s becoming “european” style…
Does this have to be the consequence of tourism? Does money really just produce superficial wealth but really destroys culture and human? Do we want this to happen? What can we do against it? Are we aware of what we are doing? Do we try to? Do we want at all? Are we changing anything?