Showing posts with label tourism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tourism. Show all posts

Thursday, May 14, 2020

Travel in Muslim Countries: To Go or Not to Go

Most Westerners are inundated with negative images of Muslims, making excursions east of Switzerland seem foolhardy. As a U.S. citizen at an American hotel in Muslim-majority Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I'll offer my own perspective. 
Seen April 2021
First, tourism is a trillion dollar industry, and all significant economic sectors include aggressive competition.
While almost everyone has learned governments use fake news and intelligence operations (aka propaganda) against each other, not many of us realize corporate espionage is just as active. For example, during a major sporting event in the United States, a Chinese company's website went down after one of its commercials aired, depriving it of both revenue and reputation. Was it a case of too much online traffic, or something else? More recently, TD Ameritrade's website became inaccessible shortly after the United States assassinated an Iranian military leader on Iraqi soil. Coincidence? Or part of a proportionate response? 
And what of Huawei's acceptance woes internationally? 
From Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei's Lessons from Battle
Most Americans will never know the details behind such machinations; as a result, they tune out public affairs, leaving the corporate and governmental worlds to persons with more passion than common sense and no guarantee of extraordinary moral fiber. Over time, such disconnect leads to a casual acceptance of almost any kind of news relating to foreign affairs--even if the news has no basis in fact. 

Second, negative news is an effective economic weapon because it is cheaper to issue a press release that biases consumers against foreign products than it is to spend money on positive advertising (aka building a consistent brand). Whatever the proclaimed political platform, every government has the same goal: attracting investors and deposits in order to expand the economy and to lower unemployment. Malaysia in particular has received bad press because its leader, Tun Mahathir Mohamad, is unapologetically pro-Asian, pro-Malay, and nationalistic. 
From A Doctor in the House (MPH Publishing)
Some examples of negative news involve Malaysia's hotel policy prohibiting unmarried couples from staying together. Setting aside the fact that states like Sarawak and Sabah are known to be fiercely independent from authorities in Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, people fail to read the fine print: such policies are applicable only to Muslims and no one else. Since no front desk hotel clerk has ever asked me to state my religion, one can see obvious enforcement problems. In fact, none other than Tun Mahathir has said, "Islam does not ask us to find fault in people to the extent that you breach into other people's homes. That is not Islam." Why, then, do such policies exist? 

Here's the short version: after 1945, Europe could not afford to occupy countries east of the Suez, which it had done since Portugal controlled the Straits of Malacca in 1511, signaling Islam's decline in SE Asia. Despite overreaching--even WWII's "winners" had crushing debt--European leaders believed they could successfully resist or co-opt anti-colonial movements threatening private property interests. In one particularly brazen example, the Dutch, intending to stymie independence efforts, seized the future Indonesian president. (See Operation Kraai/Crow.) Though Westerners are taught WWII ended in 1945, in reality, battles continued worldwide over two additional decades to expel European colonists, especially the British. 
As European influence waned, newly independent countries--eager to counter vestiges of colonialism but with little experience building economies--had to discover new ways of governing diverse populations. In Malaysia and other majority-Muslim countries, politicians decided to restrict full benefits of citizenship to those presumed to be loyal to new governments, which in practice often meant Muslims (rather than Buddhist Chinese or Indians). 
By Tun Mahathir Mohamed
At the same time, Islam's reformation of slavery over a thousand years before similar movements in the West; lack of centralized structure (no Holy See); and absence of racial categories made Muslim-majority countries susceptible to hostile foreign infiltration and fraud, generating an ironic outcome: SE Asian governments, some still under European military protection, used anti-colonialism to justify identifying residents with greater specificity, thus mimicking British colonialists' "divide and govern" strategy. 
Later, Tun Mahathir refers to British colonialists' racialized division of labor.
In the United States, few people are willing to accept identity cards disclosing their religion or race, but such cards are common in SE Asia in order to better administer governance, including minimum diversity levels in government-subsidized housing. Mindful of an Animal Farm outcome in which new rulers become as corrupt as old ones, Muslim-majority governments began drafting laws applicable only to Muslims in order to respect non-Muslim minority residents. An unintentional result of using separate systems and/or governmental hiring preferences--whether in Hindu India, Muslim Malaysia, or now politically-Catholic-dominated USA--is that governments ceded the more dynamic private sector to non-majorities (e.g., Punjabis and Sikhs in India; Chinese in Malaysia, etc.), making themselves less relevant. 
Today, when Christian Westerners discuss sharia law, they bypass historical context: namely, that some religious minorities seek independent legal systems to resolve marriage, divorce, child-rearing, and inheritance issues because of Western colonialism's abuses and a rational distrust of legal systems in which Christian governments made and interpreted rules against politically-powerless minorities without input from non-Christians

Let's fast-forward to modern-day Malaysia. The country continues to struggle with corruption, even as its private sector appears healthy and citizens of all races and religions have experienced steady, sustainable improvements in quality of life. Meanwhile, politics in Malaysia--just like in several Western and Christian countries--has become an arena in which to signal moral purity rather than seek effective solutions. 22 years after opposition candidate Anwar Ibrahim was arrested on allegedly pretextual sodomy charges, former PM Najib Razak will face trial for his alleged role in the 1MDB scandal

Such political jousting isn't novel. When Tun Mahathir became president of Malaysia's now-most powerful political party in 1978, Tun Harun Idris had been investigated for corruption and jailed. After Tun Mahathir rose to power, he helped pardon Tun Harun. Lest you believe Muslim-majority countries are unique in using legal maneuvers against political opponents, you may want to review impeachment proceedings (Bill Clinton, Dilma Rousseff, Donald Trump); corruption convictions (Brasil's Luis "Lulu" da Silva, Spain's José Antonio Griñán); politically-motivated detentions without trial (Singapore's Operation Coldstore); FBI investigations before and during USA President Donald Trump's term; and President Trump's military-related pardons, plus dismissed prosecutions, including one where a lieutenant general pled guilty to lying to the FBI. (The only logical reason for such a lie would have been because statements requesting a foreign country not to escalate were code for an eventual quid pro quo that didn't happen only because of the FBI's investigation.) 
From USA's Mueller Report
In 2020, many voters see democratic elections as a game in which the ruling party uses all available tools to crush political opposition so as to cement power over the common purse, a power it wields to reward friends and destroy enemies. Sadly, they're not wrong. The level of incest--figuratively as well as literally--within political families is so prevalent, one has to wonder why voters didn't catch on earlier. See, for example, Belgium's Anciaux and Spaak families; Bolivia's Siles family; Brasil's Bolsonaro family (and many others);

In Brazil, 20,000 families control 80% of the wealth. -- Clark Winter's The Either/Or Investor (2008), hardcover, pp. 123.

Canada's Trudeau family (and many, many others); Colombia's López family... I could continue, but the list is extensive worldwide, and just the "U" countries (U.S., U.K., Uruguay) could fill a novella. (Note: Americans lived under a Bush or Clinton presidency from 1989 to 2009.) All available evidence indicates politicians are merely stand-ins for ruling families (Rockefellers, Gettys, Vanderbilts, Hearsts, Rothschilds, Morgans, etc.) which hearken back to a time when trading houses, along with their private militaries, ruled trade and therefore the world. 
We may know about the House of Bourbon, House of Bonaparte, and House of Saud, but though we're told "Hong" means "fragrant"--marketing so inapplicable to Hong Kong, one wonders if they're even trying anymore--in fact the "Hong" in Hong Kong refers to British trading houses. 

In the first half of the 19th century, the largest single industry in the United States, measured in terms of both market capital and employment, was the enslavement (and the breeding for enslavement) of human beings... Over the course of the period, the industry became concentrated to the point where fewer than 4,000 families (roughly 0.1% of the nation's households) owned about 1/4 of this 'human capital,' and another 390,000 (call it the 9.9%) owned all of the rest. -- Matthew Stewart (2018) 

Once one connects political power, military power, and trade (economic power), politicians are exposed as pretenders to a throne established centuries ago and protected by governmental inefficacy relating to offshore tax shelters that utilize complexity to provide anonymity. Within such a landscape, we can understand 1MDB as a misguided attempt to attract foreign direct investment, plus its corollary: zealous enforcement against the rise of patrons, especially in the informal sector, that might inspire unaccountable competitors. Perhaps we can now see some arrests are publicized to rally a political base; harass supporters of political opponents; gain advantages within a trillion dollar industry; or signal moral superiority by casting opponents as insufficiently religious. Admittedly, such a paradigm brooks no winners except would-be conformists and no prizes but internal rot, but if "all's fair in love and war," why not politics also?  

Native-born citizens and Hollywood aficionados forget America is an idea, not a specific place, and much of America's appeal comes from the eternal idea of refuge (including from political instability). In other centuries "America" was called the New World, and though I do not speak enough languages fluently to tell you more names, considering Justice Sotomayor's dissent in Trump vs. Hawaii (2018), Canada may now be more "American" than its downward neighbor. And so, to those Americans and Christians avoiding Muslim-majority countries because of inconsistent executive enforcement, discrimination on the basis of religion, and criminals run amok, rest assured: the United States has become like every other country, but with superior marketing. Welcome! May your children someday experience sunset gates and glows worldwide. 

© Matthew Mehdi Rafat (2020) 

Bonus I: "Tun" is a term of respect placed in front of a distinguished Malay's name. It is similar to "Mahatma." (Gandhi's first name is not Mahatma, but Mohandas.)  

Bonus II: Modern Western politics is in its current miserable state because everyone from Diego Rivera to the Workington Man has realized Western liberal values were mere covers for theft and supplanting of local institutions abroad rather than a sincere attempt to bring Enlightenment to all. -- Matthew Rafat (2019, after Britain's general election)

Monday, April 13, 2020

Tourism as an Extension of Old Habits: the Great Unwinding

Some time ago, I was in an Asian country where the official language is not English. Airports, cafés, and museums displayed a model of the president's childhood bicycle and allowed spectators to sit down and take photos against an artificial backdrop. 
I ignored the hubbub until one day curiosity got the best of me. After examining the bike, I noticed the brand name was in English. As this was was the second time I'd seen an antique bike in Asia with a small metal crest displaying an English name, I decided to give the matter further thought. How could it be profitable for the British Empire to manufacture then transport bikes across Asia? 
Flying Pigeon
Was Hong Kong involved? Did a company in what is now English-speaking Singapore have a license of some kind? It turns out the bicycles--expensive yet popular--were originally made in Tianjin, China after the Communist Party defeated British and Japanese colonialists. So why, after expelling the British, would the Chinese use their colonizer's language on their best-selling bicycle, a symbol of Communist manufacturing prowess?

I have no idea. My failure to speak or read Mandarin Chinese probably means I will never know the answer to my Flying Pigeon questions. I'm sure, however, a tourism marketing firm will invent a pleasing response, sending us farther away from historical understanding and thus any reasonable chance of connecting our human hands across the borders of time. This generic response--and others like it--will be copied by others in the tourism business until one day children will repeat the Flying Pigeon's English origin story as if it had been handed down by the Chinese Premier himself.

Mass tourism is intolerable to the extent it allows such falsehoods to multiply, truth defenseless in the face of poor translators (both financially and unrenowned) and historians more worried about "Publish or perish" than their own country's political miasma. How has the translation business not taken off at the same time as increasing globalization? What are all the foreign language professors and graduate students doing in their research time, if not translating the great works of their native tongues? And why in Allah's or Yahweh's name must readers choose between one, or at most two, translations of popular books? 


The truth is, I know the answer to why I don't have my answer. Entire economies have been built on the assumption the best of all realistic worlds is a world where weapons purchases and security/technology cooperation form the hard underbelly of the civilian economy. Rising from this foundation are the industries of advertising, soft censorship, and political chicanery, all of which must be adept enough to convince American citizens to view Vietnam and Iraq as two discrete moral instances, and to persuade British voters to spurn their neighbors in favor of a distant former colony.

So what happens when truth isn't necessary to sustain economies and globalization? 
I suspect it will involve more of the kinds of videos I've seen online, including one where a British tourist--who has presumably studied the Ottoman Empire at some point in his life--proudly proclaims he is drinking "Bosnian coffee" while drinking Turkish coffee in Sarajevo. The more such unintentional comedy multiplies, the more globalization seems destined to a great unwinding. And so it goes? 

© Matthew Mehdi Rafat (2020) 

Sunday, December 2, 2018

Jepara, Indonesia

Jepara, Indonesia is known for its exquisite woodwork but not enough is written about its natural scenery. Equally suitable for raising a family and adventure tourism, Jepara has thus far managed to be a hidden gem on the island of Java/Jawa. After Medan, it is my favorite city in Indonesia. 

If you visit, you can fly into Semarang's airport (I prefer Garuda or Scoot airlines) then take a shuttle or Grab/GoJEK to Jepara. I suggest staying one night in Semarang, where you can purchase a Telkomsel SIM card (I find the app useful but also frustrating) and see the city's outdoor food markets. 
Mini-Aquarium at Pantai Kartini 
Raden Adjeng Kartini, teacher, feminist, heroine.
Died shortly after giving birth to her child.
Air Terjun Songgo Langit;
Not an impressive experience but the easiest waterfall to get to.


A small example of Jepara's woodwork. In a restaurant.
Niagara Gorge Manten aka Air Terjun Jurang Manten.
Impressive waterfall and experience. Intermediate difficulty to reach but avoid if recent rain. 
Niagara Gorge Manten aka Air Terjun Jurang Manten

Monday, January 29, 2018

London: Expensive but Well-Run, except in Heathrow aka Hell

There isn't much to say about London that hasn't already been said, so I'll keep this short. 

1. Almost all of London's museums are free, though they ask for donations. Everyone knows about the British Museum and the Rosetta Stone, but don't miss the National Portrait Gallery right around the corner from the more famous National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. Many people, including me, also overlook the Victoria and Albert Museum. 
Me, hanging out with ol' George.
2. England's "mature" cheeses are delicious. So is Scottish fruit jam. 


3. London's bus system is fantastic, and some buses run 24 hours a day; however, they do not accept cash. You must buy an "Oyster" card (same system as Hong Kong) and put cash on the card for single rides, or purchase a daily or weekly option. The daily or weekly option covers all public transport within London, including the subway (aka the Underground), buses, and trains. I bought an Oyster card from an Underground station and chose the weekly option because I wanted peace of mind when getting from Point A to Point B, which often requires bus, train, and Underground usage. Even though I speak English fluently (most of the time), I needed help buying the pass from the machine, because the interface isn't intuitive. Most tourists will need a card covering Zones 1 and 2. 
Overall, London has excellent public transportation but also one of most complex systems in the world. When people joke about the fascists and "trains running on time," they're providing a valuable history lesson: if day-to-day issues like public infrastructure don't work consistently, the most aggressive politicians tend to get elected--and rarely focus their gaze only on the mundane. In any case, don't hesitate to ask easily-identifiable employees at the stations to assist you--all of them were uniformly helpful and knowledgeable. 

4.  I loved the British Library. It hosted a fantastic Harry Potter exhibit (entrance required a fee), but even without the special exhibit, the library would have been a great experience. Check out the cafe inside.
Visitors to the special exhibition are *not* allowed to take photos.
I have no idea where this photo of Rowling's early drawing of the Potter characters comes from.
No idea whatsoever. 
5.  Speaking of Harry Potter, if you want to see where much of J.K. Rowling's inspiration comes from, visit Oxford and Cambridge. They're only about 2 hours by train from London's city center and well-worth seeing. Though Cambridge is larger than Oxford, a daytrip is all you need for both cities. Try to arrive early--some of Cambridge's attractions are only open between 12 and 2pm. I liked Cambridge's vibe much more than Oxford's, but Oxford had incredible exhibits in a tiny museum inside Weston Library, including a handmade Christmas card by J.R.R. Tolkien. 
Not allowed to take photos in Weston Library.
Once again, I have no clue where this photo of a page from JRR Tolkien's 1936 Christmas card comes from. 

Note that out-of-London trips are not included in the Oyster card weekly or daily pass--you must buy separate tickets. 

6.  Don't miss Harrods, the original "everything store." It's easily accessible by bus. You can spend hours in this massive place and never get bored. You might even get lucky and see a magic show in the toy section. 
Now owned by Qatar, but formerly owned by Princess Diana's almost-father-in-law.

7.  I'll end with two cautions. England is not part of the Schengen zone, so many tourists, including Americans, receive six month visas on arrival. Partly as a result of this longer-than-typical visa provision, Heathrow airport's immigration staff are known to overreach. 

I've had issues with Heathrow airport's immigration staff every single time I've visited. I truly believe most of their immigration employees are incompetent, poorly trained, and/or do not want to be there. Stated another way, Heathrow's immigration officers are the only people in the world who make America's notoriously bad TSA look good. In a city as vibrant as London, perhaps Heathrow is where you apply to work when you give up on your dreams--and your life. Nevertheless, there's no excuse for asking tourists totally irrelevant questions. Accepting irrelevant questions as normal rather than offensive and illegal creates a slippery slope where privacy is nonexistent and employees provoke animosity against all government services. 

In my case, after presenting evidence I had an e-ticket to the Dominican Republic from Heathrow, I was asked where I was going after the Dominican Republic. Last time I checked, despite Sir Francis Drake's remarkable prowess, the Dominican Republic isn't under the United Kingdom's current legal jurisdiction nor was it ever an official British colony.

Let's quickly consider the purposes of immigration control and the laws immigration agents are tasked with enforcing:

a. Are you a criminal or will you be engaging in criminal activity?
b. Are you going to overstay your visa?
c. Do you have enough money or access to money to stay in the country you are visiting without becoming a burden on public welfare or accessing other public services you have not paid into? 

d. Are you here for a legitimate purpose or do you intend on working off the books? 

All the questions above logically relate to the ultimate goal of determining whether a visitor is entering a country for a legitimate reason. If you don't have money, you might engage in criminal activity or work illegally. If you cannot articulate a clear reason for visiting or if you don't have evidence of an outward-bound ticket, you might be intending to overstay your visa. If you have a criminal history, you are less likely to be entering for a legitimate reason. 

Thus, questions like how long you are staying, where you are staying, whether you have credit cards, how much cash you have on you, whether you have evidence of an outward bound ticket, whether you have family members in the country, what your job is, and even whether you are pregnant, all logically relate to the reasons Parliament passed laws empowering immigration and customs agents. In short, the Immigration Control Act of any country, not just Britain's, is designed to eliminate visitors who will pose a burden on the country's services or people. It is not a license to ask visitors stupid questions.

When I deliberately raised a ruckus with the Heathrow employee after she posed questions only a moron would ask a visitor with over 30 stamps in his passport and evidence of an outward bound ticket, she called her manager. The way I play this game is simple: if you screw up, you are either racist or incompetent--pick one. If you, the manager, accept your employee is incompetent, then you must admit you are responsible for poor training and oversight. In other words, you put your own job at risk. In the alternative, if you, the manager, accept your employee might be racist, what exactly do you do when you can't discipline her without the possibility of spending taxpayer monies against an entrenched union? I like this game. I encourage any government employee or contractor to play it with me at any airport. 

After checking my evidence of an outward bound ticket and directing me through the same process a second time, the higher-up who came to see me walked away speechless when I asked whether it was logical to send me back to the same immigration employee I had accused of racism or incompetence. I was let through the second time under the same employee and supervision of another manager. 

Moving on, the second caution about the United Kingdom is its prices. Even with the pound's devaluation post-Brexit, everything in London is probably more expensive than back home, unless you're from San Francisco or Tokyo. Should that discourage you from visiting London? I suppose it depends on whether you are willing to endure Heathrow and its unmerry band of men and women. Good luck. 

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Auron Tare: Albania's Bill Bradley

Auron Tare is that rare, almost extinct breed of politician who answers his own emails, gives direct answers, and inspires respect. I met him—all 6’4’’ inches, in a still athletic frame—for the first time on a rainy December Monday in a cafe. Tare came in jeans, a North Face jacket, and hiking shoes. Throughout the conversation (edited below for clarity and space), two themes arose: be authentic and differentiate yourself through excellent service.

On Travel and Tourism

Tare: With tourism, it is how you present it to the public, and how well you present it publicly.

Me: Has Albania done a good job attracting tourists?

Tare: The foreign market has done a great job discovering us. We don’t have a large tourism budget and have not engaged in widespread marketing. We need to be more niche-oriented and not seek to attend all the larger fairs. Attracting the right kind of the market is the key to developing something different. 

Me: What can Albania do better?

Tare: Many things, but to start, we should focus on incremental improvements, which are very important. First, good professional guiding [aka tour guides]. Second, train the taxi drivers. When I go to London or America, I know I am not going to be cheated. The first contact for visitors when they arrive should be a professional experience.

Me: How do you change the culture, which tilts towards inertia or short-term thinking? And how do you compete for the same tourist dollars as much larger countries?

Tare: Simple. Get a program of 30 people. Explain the program. Install good customer service. Explain the concept: the better you are, the more business you are going to get. Don’t cheat the tourists. Put on some cologne, perfume. Speak some English. Say a few nice words. When the passenger hails a taxi, get out of the car, take the bags, open the door, close the door, and so on. Here, some airport taxis tried charging 50 USD when 20 USD is normal fare to the city centre. When you arrive, the taxi is usually your first impression, and we want your first impression to be good and we want you to feel welcome. It’s a simple thing. [That 30 USD gap, is it worth destroying the tourist’s first impression of us?]

[Remember] Where are we? We are surrounded by Turkey, Greece, Italy. We are a small country. How can we compete? We have to improve the product. We have to have nice signs, nice guides.  We have to make people feel good. We want a more authentic feeling. That is how we are going to compete. 

Me: It’s interesting you mention tour guides. I went to a travel agency, and they only had packages for foreign destinations like Montenegro. I could not find anything for Shkroda or Gjirokaster.

Tare: [shakes his head] Tour guides and tourism itself need a lot of attention. Tourism can be one of the possibilities for economic development for a country like Albania. People here think tourism is something that happens [only] in June, July, August. No one thinks you have to work in the winter to prepare yourself for the summer.

Me: What do you think about Uber?

Tare: I think nothing. I see a general approach in raising the level of taxi drivers.

Me: Like you said, you are a small country. Uber won’t come by itself because it’s not cost-effective. I believe the UAE, probably the world’s best marketer in tourism, created its own taxi hailing app before allowing Uber. As a tourist, I feel much more comfortable if there is a ride-hailing app.

Tare: [nods acknowledgment]

On UNESCO and His Work with UNESCO

Tare: Albania has three UNESCO sites. One I created: Butrint National Park. The others are Gjirokaster and Berat, both of which have castles. Berat has an interesting combination of Ottoman and Byzantine influence in one place.

Me: How can I get there from Tirana?

Tare: Get a cab, bus, or minibus. I can send you the info.

Me: Please do. What is the process for designating a UNESCO site?

Tare: It is a long process, a very bureaucratic process. We approach it from different angles.

Me: How long does it take create one [a UNESCO site]?

Tare: A few years. You don’t “create” a site—the main reason for UNESCO is to try to protect the site. If it has universal value, then you approach UNESCO. The idea is to protect and save the place.

Me: What are the benefits of UNESCO? Do you provide experts? Funding?

Tare: Yes, the UN gives experts. A delegation comes. UNESCO provides professional expertise. You might get some money but that’s not the point. You need to do a great job yourself and make the site work well. Don’t depend on UNESCO, because the most important goal is to be self-sustaining. That is the ultimate goal: the site is to be self-sustaining.

Me: How do you make a site sustainable? So many so-called tourist spots have inadequate signs or background about a place, even in popular destinations like Turkey.

Tare: It’s management. Turkey has some nice sites. In fact, it has a lot. Money is not enough. I work very hard to make a site independent so a site works without any state-funded budget. We want a situation where you don’t care about UN or UNESCO because it functions well.

Me: But doesn’t a restoration cost a lot of money?

Tare: [In many cases,] It is not necessary to restore. What you do is preserve it. We conserve it. We present it. We make it a delightful experience. The moment you start putting too much restoration, you lose the charm, you lose the authenticity. Have you been to Niagara Falls?

Me: Yes, the Canadian side. I loved it. It’s one of my favorite travel experiences, breathing in the air.

Tare: It is disgusting.

Me: Wait, the Falls itself, or what is around the Falls?

Tare: The stores around it, the tourist center. It is cheesy. It is all for money. It’s disgusting.

Me: Ah, you mean the generic stores and kitsch a few blocks from the Falls. Yes, I agree.

Tare: Mass tourism destroys the beauty of nature. There’s a casino there—it is disgusting. Everyone falls into this trap. Everyone wants to imitate.

Me: How do you prevent the tourist trap?

Tare: There is big difference between traveling and tourism. Either you are a tourist or you are a traveler. If you are a traveler, you go to a place for the experience, to enrich yourself. Unfortunately, in the last half of the 20th century, mass tourism happened. In mass tourism, no one goes to eat local food, to meet local people or local tribes. Now what you do, you go, you stay in the same Sheraton hotel. Tourism and traveling are different concepts.

Me: Interesting statement from a man who said tourism could be the driver for economic development, but you are right. Everywhere I go, I see the same block signs with the city name, the same kiosks, the same food trucks… those Christmas kiosks out there? I just saw the same concept in Vienna, but on a larger scale.

Tare: I’m a romantic. I know it’s not going to happen, that we only get travelers here. Even so, we have to be careful in not making the same mistakes with tourism as other countries. Mass tourism has destroyed Greece, it has destroyed many cities, and it will destroy here as well.

Me: How do you stop mass tourism from destroying a country and how do you get travelers to come?

Tare: There are not that many travelers left. That is why we have to focus on tourism. The challenge is how to improve the tourism experience. People who go somewhere without understanding where they are, they are tourists—it’s not done in the traveling sense. There’s no spiritual experience. People in Michigan can go to Florida and then go to Europe, and they’ll have no idea they’ve left the USA. They travel in a bubble. They pay with the same Visa, stay at a Sheraton, eat at a McDonald’s. They are attached to it because it is safe, it is like home. How did it get this way? It is the centralization created by mass tourism.

Mass tourism has destroyed the environment, the culture. It is not easy to do it [travel] right. I like the Scandinavian model: fewer people, better quality.

Me: Wait, Iceland is drowning in tourists. They went with a cheap airfare strategy, and they are getting many, many tourists.

Tare: Norway is holding out for fewer [but higher quality] people. With cheap travel, you get hordes of people. These people still think they are in England when they visit Greece, for example. They drink the same beer, they watch the same football matches.
From Rachael Weiss' Me, Myself & Prague (2008)
They don’t manage to get the experience. Tourism is corrupting the soul, destroying the environment. It is very important to create a balance. You cannot sell a country because it is cheap. You cannot say, “Come to my country because it is cheap. Cheap means sh*t.

Me: But one of the reasons we have “tourism” is because people, especially young people, can only afford to visit a place for two or three days. The more expensive a place, the fewer days most people can stay.

Tare: I’ve stayed in tents, I’ve hitchhiked. I had 60 bucks in my pocket and I visited 5 countries. You have to promote a country as a niche experience. Go for the experience—who cares what is the next destination? I once took a bus in Iran for 10 hours and ended up somewhere I didn’t know. I woke up the next morning and had no idea where I was. Nobody spoke English but I was fine. They thought I was American, but I was not. They are very pro-American, by the way. Turns out I was near a mine and had slept with local workers all night. 

Me: When was this? [Expecting it to be when he was much younger.]

Tare: 7 years ago. Take the bus and go somewhere. Have you ever been on a Greyhound in the U.S.? I don’t use apps. I just go wherever.

Me: Yes, but I grew up without much disposable income. I wouldn’t recommend Greyhound to anyone coming to California because the experience with each station varies greatly, and America is too spread out to make travel solely by buses viable for first-time travelers. Once the bus drops you off, you usually can’t walk somewhere. It’s not like Europe, which is much more compact. We have not invested in infrastructure in America. The buses are often from 20 or 30 years ago.

Tare: Ok.

On Politics

Me: Do you think Albania should continue to be part of NATO?

Tare: I think if you join the club, you have to pay. You can’t even join a book club these days without paying a membership fee.

Me: I saw Basha, the opposition leader, speaking against the incumbent politician on TV, and it was a spirited discussion. It makes me optimistic about Albania, to see that kind of peaceful opposition. Basha is young and he seems to have good ideas.

Tare: Young? His ideas are old.

Me: Wait, isn’t Lulzim Basha the younger politician [from Democratic Party of Albania, in the opposition since 2013], and Edi Rama the older incumbent [and current Prime Minister, affiliated with the Socialist Party]?
From Melody Warnick's This is Where You Belong (2016)
Tare: [Sighs] You are right—Basha is the younger one. He has a young face, but his ideas are old. This is the problem with TV—it projects false perceptions, even unintentionally.

Me: What has Basha or the opposition done that you disagree with?

Tare: They had power for eight years. People are not stupid. They see politicians with fancy cars, fancy watches, and these politicians do not have other jobs.

Me: I notice wherever I go, I get a receipt for services immediately, which includes the VAT. Is that new?

Tare: The law was there 20 years ago, but compliance began only 3 years ago. VAT has finally become standard. Since three years ago, we [the current majority] have made things much tighter.

Me: From what I’ve heard, power outages are a big problem here. Even coming to the city center from the airport, all the street lights were off.

Tare: Yes, I know this issue. The municipality is responsible for the power. It was not receiving sufficient funding.

Me: But this is happening under your party.

Tare: Yes, but it will be fixed. Electricity is provided through a public-private entity. It was an issue with collecting taxes and getting it to the municipality. Now that we are actively collecting taxes, we can better fund infrastructure. The problem is that the local entity is not receiving the taxes. This is a local issue where the taxes are being collected by the federal entity but not making its way down to the local entity efficiently.

Me: How did you change the culture with respect to VAT and other issues?

Tare: Let me give you an example. A while ago, I went with a representative to see the process for issuing birth and death certificates. There was a long line of people. When you reached the front of the kiosk, you gave your money to an outstretched hand, and then in a few weeks, you’d return to get your certificate. The representative told me that even if he is the most honest person, he cannot fix this [i.e., he could not stop corruption from happening eventually].

So the former mayor of Albania set up an office. It was a nice environment, and employees dressed well. We made sure the process was a one-stop shop with online facilities, online payment, and so on. The lines disappeared, and the process is now an excellent statement that proper service can improve the citizen’s life. The overall idea is that we must provide better service.

This place? [motions around the Bazaar we are sitting in.] It used to be a dump. My kids came here recently and said it is much nicer now. People are not stupid. They notice changes. They notice better service. 

Me: What is the Albanian Dream?

Tare: We are a small country. We have lots of energy here, and we need to channel the energy properly. We are now two generations away from Communism [over 25 years have passed since the fall of Communism in Albania]. We need to build technology. How did Malaysia and Singapore do it? The key is to channel the energy we have into proper outlets, and once we do that, we can see what the young citizens want.

Me: Do you want foreign capital?

Tare: We are actively trying to attract foreign capital outside of tourism, but we are a small market, and it is not easy.

Me: What is the role of public sector in attracting capital and businesses?

Tare: [chuckles] We don’t have one now. We see the private sector going after opportunities on its own.
Roberto M. Unger, Free Trade Reimagined (2007)

On Basketball

Me: What sports did you play?

Tare: I played basketball. I was a forward and played both small and power positions. I played for Albania’s national team.

Me: What was that like in the old days, playing for the national team?

Tare: You will not understand those days. A person who hasn’t lived under Communism cannot fully understand, even if I explain it. My wife, who is from Michigan, even she does not understand when I tell her about life under Communism. You cannot understand unless you were there.

Me: I’m more optimistic than you on this issue. Give it a shot.

Tare: [sighs] It was a big deal for us. Sports are a big deal for a country. The state took care of you as much as they could. They looked after you. We grew up with sports. The Russians can understand me immediately but not Americans. The upbringing is so different.

Me: We have problems now in America with parents pressuring their children to compete and hiring private coaches, leading to burned-out kids.

Tare: The Communist system [modeled on the Soviet system] was genius in creating structure. Take away the ideology, take away the propaganda, and leave just the basics—what they did here was genius. [Note: comment refers only to the specific system created by the Communists for different parts of life, i.e., art, culture, sport, community base, etc.]

Each school had a chain system—a regular academic school attached to another school that specialized in one particular sport or activity. [Note: this sounds similar to some charter schools in the U.S., especially in Las Vegas.] This meant that one school specialized in basketball, another school specialized in another sport. A lot of schools were at different levels and in a natural way.

Me: So I actually know a little bit about this because I admire perhaps the greatest Soviet/Lithuanian basketball player of all time, Arvydas Sabonis. He talked about this system before.

Tare: My dad was an athlete, too, so of course he directed me into sports. They direct you, but the chain was natural. I didn’t feel pressure. You didn’t pay anything [which is different from the United States, where expensive private coaches are becoming more common]. We had a Pioneers Club, sometimes called the House of Pioneers. You go there and you learn the basics. It could be sports, it could be handicrafts. It was a house where you discovered talents and promoted them.

People [today] don’t meet anymore in a coordinated way that builds community. The Communists had meetings for propaganda purposes, but take away the propaganda, and there was more community building. Now, TV has taken over. People sit in their houses and don’t go out. People in the same neighborhood don’t meet each other anymore in a substantive way. Before, under Communism, for propaganda reasons, every weekend, we would all meet together. For example, a cultural center for a specific region, every weekend, would take equipment into the mountains by mules and show a movie. 

[Note: I didn’t follow until I realized that the majority of people in Albania, even today, live in villages or the mountains. The Communists, when they were in charge, had to contend with bringing together vast stretches of people who didn’t necessarily have much in common and who didn’t even have access to TV, much less the internet. How do you unite a people who lack basic access to information or what their government is doing for them? It is difficult to imagine what it was like in the past when you are in a major city filled with young people, but Tare sheds light into how sports was used to unite an entire nation, and why it was so important for the Soviets/Communists to win, especially in the Olympics. This also explains why the Soviet Union kept its star athletes like Sabonis for so long rather than allow them to earn much more money abroad.]

They [the Communists] would take equipment to the mountain every week. People lived in the mountains, so they don’t know what is going on. The government was bringing movies up to the mountains. Yes, it was a part of propaganda, but what I’ve discovered now is that apart from propaganda, it was the best way for people to come together and talk. Everyone now stays home and watches TV. They’re more isolated than they used to be! Today, Albania gives concerts in the villages. 60% of Albanians still live in villages or mountains. We have brought in violinists from China and we hold similar events to bring people together.  

In the past, people were more spread out, but social interaction and collaboration was not based on money. Despite the propaganda, the Soviet Union’s Communist system, which was copied by many countries, attracted talent and brought people together in a natural way.

Me: What are your projects here in Albania?

Tare: First, we are building an underwater museum. People can go down into the water and breathe through diving equipment. There’s already one in Mexico. Second, we are also connecting coastline and mountain areas so people can experience remote areas.

Me: Isn’t that extremely difficult to do? You have to pave new roads, use cement…

Tare: No, in the old days people used paths. The paths are there. We need to put signs up, use navigation apps, and work with what we have so people can stay with villagers. There’s an article in WaPo about this project. [Link: http://invest-in-albania.org/washington-post-writes-mountain-tourism-albania/]

2007-2008 was the end of the era of the travelers in Albania. Mass tourism took over after 2008. The private sector has been aggressive in promoting fairs and other events. Of course, the state puts money in advertisements, but not as much as the private sector’s efforts. The difficulty is implementing concepts. The word sustainable is used everywhere, but how sustainable is it really?

Me: Can tourism promote economic development, especially in rural areas?

Tare: Yes, but it needs experienced guides. It takes time, it takes a special model. Right now, the model is this: whoever has the money wants to make the returns.

I have three kids that need to be picked up from school. I have to go now.

Me: Thank you.

Disclosures: I wanted to take Mr. Tare to a seafood restaurant next to the café, and we went to the quieter location to talk, but he only eats fruits and vegetables. I gave him some tea from a pot I’d ordered for myself and the only “benefit” to Tare was a glass of still water. Mr. Tare is a man intent on changing Albania’s perception in the world, and the last politician I’d expect to be caught in any corruption scandal.

Saturday, October 14, 2017

Travel Posts

Interested in travel posts? See below.
Abu Dhabi (UAE) is HERE.

Budapest, Hungary: at the Crossroads: HERE

Brunei is HERE


Calgary, Canada is HERE. I attended the Canada Cup (2019). 

Casablanca, Morocco, the NYC of Northern Africa, is HERE. (Rabat is included.) 

Cebu, Philippines is HERE. Bonus: Margarito B. Teves and Manila (2018). My favorite cities in the Philippines are Palawan, Dumaguete, and Cebu. (Bonus: interview with a Cebuana HERE, and Manila's Chinatown is HERE.) 

Doha, Qatar is HERE.

Edinburgh, Scotland is HERE. (2019)

Havana, Cuba (Part 1) is HERE

India, the "Golden Triangle" of Jaipur, New Delhi, and Agra, has a multi-part series. Part 1 starts HERE. Post-trip summary is HERE

Istanbul, Turkey is HERE.

Izmir/Ephesus/Kusadasi/Sirince, Turkey is HERE.

Jakarta, Indonesia is HERE (Asian Games of 2018). 

Kazakhstan is HERE (2019). 

Konya, Turkey, where Rumi and Shams are buried, is HERE.

Lisbon, Portugal is HERE.

London, England and Heathrow are HERE (Cambridge & Oxford also included).

Malatya, Turkey is HERE


Medan, Indonesia (North Sumatra) is HERE. (Bonus: Jepara, Indonesia is HERE and Madakaripura waterfall is HERE.) 

Mexico is referred to generally HERE and HERE. (Bonus: HERE) Queretaro and Morelia are HERE

Muscat, Oman is HERE


Padang, Indonesia: City of Waterfalls and Dragonflies is HERE

Palembang, Indonesia: interview with an Indonesian backpacker and archaeology/history buff is HERE

Prague, Czech Republic: Original Hipster Nation is HERE

Quebec, Canada: Avoid at all Costs is HERE. Quebec City's Winter Carnaval is HERE. (2019) 

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile is HERE. (Photos only.) 

Saigon, Vietnam is HERE. (Bonus: Hanoi is HERE and Hue, Vietnam is HERE.) 

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic is HERE (2018). A great city, but one that is sure to become increasingly "touristy" with time. 

Sharjah (UAE) is HERE.

Sverige aka Sweden is HERE (2021). 


Tbilisi, Georgia is HERE

Tirana, Albania: interview with Auron Tare is HERE

Tunis, Tunisia (and Sidi Bou Said) is HERE

Toronto, Canada is HERE. (Bonus: Toronto Museum, second-best Islamic Art museum I've seen after Doha's.) 

UNWTO's 2017 Conference is HERE.

USA: Iowa ("Once Fertile, Now Barren") is HERE (2018). Orlando, Florida (DisneyWorld) is HERE (2019). Seattle, Washington is HERE (2008). 

Vienna, Austria is HERE. I did not like the city. 

Yogyakarta, Indonesia and Prambanan are HERE. Are you interested in Buddhism? You've got to visit. 

My lengthy post about visiting 18 countries in 5 months is HERE. A shorter one is HERE ("Adventures in Travel"). 

You may also follow me on IG under matthewrafat or Twitter @matthewrafat to see more photos.

Bonus: What have I learned in my travels? More HERE (2018). 


Bonus: What to pack when traveling? More HERE (2018). What to do when returning? More HERE, at end of post (2019). 

Bonus: after seeing 50 countries I think I finally understand Western history. To that end, I've created two posts that presume to explain events from 1919 to 2019 in context. You can start HERE, then go HERE

Bonus: as a non-Muslim, will you be safe in Muslim countries? More HERE (2020). 

Bonus: a short article on mass tourism and the Flying Pigeon is HERE (2020). 

© Matthew Mehdi Rafat