4 minutes reading time
(829 words)
TIPS FOR A CONSCIOUS TRAVEL
There are some incorrect and harmful behaviors that the traveler and the tourist often carry out naively, believing on the contrary to make a charitable or kind gesture. I am talking about things that I too for a while in my life did not perceive as wrong, but when I realized it because you explained it to me by others or because I self-enlightened I did not go back even half a time, on the contrary, I always tried to open your eyes to others too. It is a rather thorny subject that actually applies not only on the road but also at home.
DON'T GIVE ALAMOS TO CHILDREN
I'll tell you an episode: in 2011 I was in Myanmar with a friend and in the Valley of the Temples in Bagan, we were surrounded by children who were asking for money or who wanted to sell us something. I did not care and I did not give them anything and then my friend painted me as a miser. He asked me how I could be so cruel as to give nothing to those children, with eyes that recalled tenderness. However, the truth is quite different and has nothing to do with avarice: we must not in any way encourage certain behaviors! Children must be at school or most on the street playing and not asking for change or selling various items. The more we yield to their tenderness, the more we nurture these phenomena and their families will continue to take advantage of them without trying to find solutions to ensure their childhood and adolescence far from child exploitation. At most, we keep pencils, markers, notebooks, or small toys in our backpack to give as gifts on these occasions, but we never, ever give them money! Let's talk to each other, let's try to understand what brought them there at that moment, let's rather try to help their families, but for no reason, we do not support these reprehensible social phenomena. Children have the right not to work.
NOT EVEN CANDIES!
Attention also to candies especially in developing countries because the problems could be of two types:
There are countries in Africa where it has now become so common to offer sweets that a real market for them has been created, in fact, children don't eat them but collect them to resell them .... ergo, it's like giving them money! In fact, more often than not, parents or older children manage this collection, who often also use force to force children to deprive themselves of these sugary gifts.
Sugar: in some countries, it can be a problem because they have no way of taking care of their teeth and therefore if you donate it, always do it in small quantities.
DO NOT GIVE WILD ANIMALS TO EAT
The second episode I tell you happened in Peru: I was at Machu Picchu, where there are some wild llamas. I saw some people offering him cookies to take not only close-up photos but even selfies. I scolded them without thinking twice and was covered in insults because they just wanted to take a picture and a few cookies could not possibly harm the health of the llamas. False! I am not a vet, but it is easy to understand that if any visitor were to give them cookies they could have problems with the amounts of sugar ingested ... and believe me, I know something about excess sugar!
When we come across wild animals the first thing to do is not to offer them food of any kind.
Such an attitude, even with things that may appear to us healthier and more suitable for an animal, radically ruins its eating habits and behavior, especially those towards us. Can't you just be satisfied with having crossed paths with a wild animal without offering it food for any reason? Do you think that precisely because of human behavior certain animals have now become a danger to humans such as bears in the United States or dingoes in Australia: usually suspicious animals are now accustomed to human presence and have become aggressive due to their desire for looking for food from people.
OTHER FUNDAMENTAL TIPS FOR A CONSCIOUS TRAVEL
Another fundamental point concerns conscious purchases of souvenirs: do not buy exotic ones that can damage ecosystems or protected or endangered species as well as ancient artifacts or objects made of coral, shells, bones, and ivory or animal skins now in extinction.
When we visit other countries with both social and natural cultures and/or dynamics different from ours, we should always try to make an effort to understand what impact our actions as "hosted citizens" could have on them: if we have any doubts, let us know from more trusted people we know locally or try to search for information from authoritative sources online. We will have the satisfaction of being travelers and people who are more responsible and respectful of others.
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