07 June 2003Travel
Army of Fools

The Tahitian Princess pulled back into Apia Harbor this morning disgorging slow moving tourists all over the island. I met one couple out in front of MD's Big Fresh supermarket by the entrance to the harbor.

They were a meaty, sun-scorched pair from Glendora, California.

"TO BE A TOURIST is to escape accountability. Errors and failings don't cling to you the way they do back home. You're able to drift across continents and languages, suspending the operation of sound thought. Tourism is the march of stupidity. You're expected to be stupid. The entire mechanism of the host country is geared to travelers acting stupidly. You walked around dazed, squinting into fold-out maps. You don't know how to talk to people, how to get anywhere, what the money means, what time it is, what to eat or how to eat it. Being stupid is the pattern, the level and the norm. You can exist on this level for weeks and months without reprimand or dire consequence. Together with thousands, you are granted immunities and broad freedoms. You are an army of fools, wearing bright polyesters, riding camels, taking pictures of each other, haggard, dysentric, thirsty. There is nothing to think about but the next shapeless event."

--Don DeLilio, The Names

They had gotten this cruise really cheap, they said. 3000 bucks for the both of them for ten nights including air fare. They had taken the tourist bus around the island but it broke down somewhere on the south side and they had to take one of the local buses which I'm sure was a kick in the ass for them. They had come overnight from Bora Bora and were headed to Pago Pago.

They couldn't pronounce any of the names of the places they had been or were going. Instead of "Pong-o Pong-o", they said, "Payng-o Payng-o". They reminded me of a quote that I had just read in a book that I'm reading by Don DeLilio called The Names.

The sun set tonight at 6:06pm and the cruise ship left the harbor at about the same time, followed out by a blue tug boat to the open ocean where it hung a right and pointed towards Payng-o Payng-o.

Posted by andrew at June 7, 2003 09:14 PM


Comments

brian Says:

holy shit, don delilio is an elitist jerk!

June 9, 2003 06:53 AM
brian Says:

his negativity is disrupting my wa and harshing my chi.

June 10, 2003 09:32 AM
Andrew Writes:

Look, the guy is just a realist. I'm sure you've seen these people wandering around archeological sites in developing countries wearing black socks with their sandals or Stan Smiths, skin scorched by the equatorial sun, having no clue where they are, where they are going or what they are looking at. If that doesn't sound familiar to you, then go out an have another look. Anyway, you crack me up.

June 10, 2003 07:38 PM
brian Says:

A realist? You've been a tourist before - were you "stupid"? "Ignorant" is a much more accurate word. He paints with too broad a brush for my taste - of course there are some awful tourists, but there are many prepared, respectful ones - such as yourself. I repeat, he has disturbed my wa.

June 11, 2003 08:45 AM
Andrew Says:

Yes, I have been both stupid and ignorant. Tourists are mostly stupid though. They don't care about the cultures they visit to even learn how to dress appropriately. I see it here all the time. I just retunred from the ava ceremony for the new group of trainees and I saw a woman wearing a tiny wrap around tube-top-ike thing that is definitely not appropriate attire for Samoa, bot to mention really unattractive.

June 11, 2003 02:24 PM




Remember me?

(You may use HTML tags for style)

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.americanidle.org/MT/mt-tb.cgi/183

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference:
'Army of Fools'.