News reaches us that slum tourism in Mumbai has taken off since the Oscar-fest for hit film Slumdog Millionaire, much of which is set in Mumbai’s slums. Just as the awards began rolling in for the film it was memorably described by Alice Miles in The Times as Poverty Porn.
Is such tourism wrong? No, not unless we begin to think like Prince Charles and start banging on about how we should ‘learn’ from such poverty.
Closer to home, it is the same with rural poverty in Romania, or anywhere else in the Pocket Empire. While visitors might marvel at places which ‘remain unchanged for centuries’ it is important that we remember that the people who live in those places do not do so by choice. For them, poverty is not a lifestyle choice (which is one reason why so many choose to escape it, usually by migrating).
Cleverly linking to another matter, readers of In Your Pocket guides might like to take a look at this site. Worldwrite is a network dedicated to increasing development where it is needed most, and which has recently branched out into video travel guides.
Their first effort is London Behind the Scenes, perhaps the first original London guide we’ve seen in years.
Enjoy.
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