all those "Canadas" made me happy!
Ive been lucky enough to go to a lot of the places that Ive dreamt of going (and even those that were a completely random) so those that are left:
Australia
France
and i was just thinking yesterday that Iceland would be crazy
I'm in two minds about India, I'd love to see it and the culture and all but you are talking a land of extreme poverty, which is in part caused by the "Caste System", where it's not just ok to treat people below you like sh!t, it's expected.
I had a mate who was in Goa a good few years back, bit of a selfish bastard if the truth be told, but he was going on about how he managed to get a Taxi for a week for something like £20, the guy would pick him up at the hotel take him to the pub/restaurant/beach and wait there until he was ready to go home. He also managed to get a full meal for 12 guests at the hotel for £40. Now I do agree this is all fantastic value but it really is boardering on exploitation in my eyes. Plus if you do tip these guys the system is so fucked up that the Hotel Owner gets 50%, the Manager gets 40%,the Head Waiter gets 5% then each of the 20 or so waiting staff get .5% each.
I've also heard of the youngest child in a large family being crippled at birth, an extremely horrible thing to do to any human being. However if the one crippled child can do enough begging to feed the whole family, who have no other means of supporting themselves, does that mean it's for "the Greater Good" i.e. 5 lives against 1 cripple. I'm really not sure how that sits with me.
Mind you sitting in a nice comfortable warm office in Dublin ignoring it isn't the answer either so who am I to criticize ???
Dubz
*edit* this is all a bit deep for this time in the morning, I haven't even had a pint yet !!!
hehehe how heavy do you get after a few pints ?? lol
Know what you mean and this is an aspect which makes me hesitate of going. I'm just fascinated by the rich history and culture of India and I would love to see all these historic places. I know that I have this false image of India in my head and that I tend to overlook the poverty and deprivation. A good reason to go...
Ireland (and drink a good guinness, especially in Cork)
UK (The north England and Scotland...and go to all those four days gigs that you have...im so envy)
Norway (i don´t know why, i like cold weather)....
I had a mate who was in Goa a good few years back, bit of a selfish bastard if the truth be told, but he was going on about how he managed to get a Taxi for a week for something like £20, the guy would pick him up at the hotel take him to the pub/restaurant/beach and wait there until he was ready to go home. He also managed to get a full meal for 12 guests at the hotel for £40. Now I do agree this is all fantastic value but it really is boardering on exploitation in my eyes. Plus if you do tip these guys the system is so fucked up that the Hotel Owner gets 50%, the Manager gets 40%,the Head Waiter gets 5% then each of the 20 or so waiting staff get .5% each.
£40 for 12 comes round to Rs. 265 per person, which is quite a lavish expenditure for a meal in India... most city dwellers won't even be able to afford that. It isn't fair to compare absolute values of commodities of two countries and declare one exploiting its workers because of low prices. In India, wages as well as the cost of living is much MUCH lower than in the UK. I remember in England we felt we were hemorrhaging money just to buy food, things in general were painfully expensive. If a comparison is really required, then the countries' purchasing power parities should be taken into account.
And, poverty/deprivation is no reason why not to visit a country. You are welcome to visit any time, Ursina :)
I had a mate who was in Goa a good few years back, bit of a selfish bastard if the truth be told, but he was going on about how he managed to get a Taxi for a week for something like £20, the guy would pick him up at the hotel take him to the pub/restaurant/beach and wait there until he was ready to go home. He also managed to get a full meal for 12 guests at the hotel for £40. Now I do agree this is all fantastic value but it really is boardering on exploitation in my eyes. Plus if you do tip these guys the system is so fucked up that the Hotel Owner gets 50%, the Manager gets 40%,the Head Waiter gets 5% then each of the 20 or so waiting staff get .5% each.
£40 for 12 comes round to Rs. 265 per person, which is quite a lavish expenditure for a meal in India... most city dwellers won't even be able to afford that. It isn't fair to compare absolute values of commodities of two countries and declare one exploiting its workers because of low prices. In India, wages as well as the cost of living is much MUCH lower than in the UK. I remember in England we felt we were hemorrhaging money just to buy food, things in general were painfully expensive. If a comparison is really required, then the countries' purchasing power parities should be taken into account.
And, poverty/deprivation is no reason why not to visit a country. You are welcome to visit any time, Ursina :)
I didn't mean it was exploitation because of the differences in countries/cultures. I meant it was exploitation because my mate sat around on his fat arse taking advantage of the situation, which in my opinion was exploitative. Is it okay to visit a country to use the prostitutes cause it's cheaper ? Prostitutes are something for sale the same as anything else. Personally I would have paid double for the meal at the time we were making £500 a week on building sites, easily. He was lavish enough to through his money around with the westerners, he couldn't have thrown it into a shelter, beggers, orphanage, hospital ??
As for a reason not to visit, This was purely a personal point of view, I (personally) don't think I (personally) could cope with seeing people live in such conditions.
and before you start I already said sitting here ignoring it isn't the answer either I don't know the answer.
Obviously I'd like to live in a world were every fellow human being helps every other human being, but it's not going to happen, we don't live in a world like that.
I am not being negative about India or anywhere else for that matter. Some people get squemish at the sight of blood or animal cruelty, Human deprivation does it for me and for that reason I couldn't do it.
Dubz
I didn't mean it was exploitation because of the differences in countries/cultures. I meant it was exploitation because my mate sat around on his fat arse taking advantage of the situation, which in my opinion was exploitative. Is it okay to visit a country to use the prostitutes cause it's cheaper ? Prostitutes are something for sale the same as anything else. Personally I would have paid double for the meal at the time we were making £500 a week on building sites, easily. He was lavish enough to through his money around with the westerners, he couldn't have thrown it into a shelter, beggers, orphanage, hospital ??
As for a reason not to visit, This was purely a personal point of view, I (personally) don't think I (personally) could cope with seeing people live in such conditions.
and before you start I already said sitting here ignoring it isn't the answer either I don't know the answer.
Obviously I'd like to live in a world were every fellow human being helps every other human being, but it's not going to happen, we don't live in a world like that.
I am not being negative about India or anywhere else for that matter. Some people get squemish at the sight of blood or animal cruelty, Human deprivation does it for me and for that reason I couldn't do it.
Dubz
I don't think it'd be fair to say your friend was taking advantage, he was there to have a good time and there's nothing wrong with that provided no laws are broken. And he was probably charged more than the usual rates(outside the hotel) since he's a foreigner... About poverty and human deprivation, you won't encounter any of that if you limit your tour to the developed parts of cities and don't step into any train stations :) There is the odd street urchin of course, but we saw that in London too so it won't be anything new to you. But it's your choice of course, I'm not forcing my opinions on you... I know where you're coming from, having lived all my life in a foreign(developed) country, seeing a 6 year old holding a 1 year old begging for money at a traffic light everyday was hard to get used to...
