Cerro Rico
Why do people travel? Personally, I travel to see different landscapes, absorb local culture, photograph natural phenomena, hike beautiful mountains, and eat exotic foreign food. I think many people are in the same boat.
Recently, both here in Brazil, and on vacation in Bolivia, I was introduced to the concept of poverty tourism, and I have really been grappling with the idea. Poverty tourism occurs when individuals deliberately patronize areas of low economic ability motivated by curiosity and the desire for adventure.
Potosí is a city in Bolivia which boasts to be the highest (altitude-wise) in the world. Sitting at approximately 13,420 feet, the only thing towering above the city is the mountain referred to as Cerro Rico. In its heyday, Cerro Rico bestowed great importance on the city by providing wealth from an abundance of silver ores which, by this time, will have been depleted. Once, one of the wealthiest cities in the world, Potosí is now greatly depressed. Aside from offering spectacular Spanish influenced architecture, one of the main tourist attractions in Potosí is to actually visit the mines which are surprisingly still in use.
Although many tourists claim this experience as one of their trip highlights, I chose to sit this one out. I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of paying money to a tour operator to visit hoards of impoverished young men working long hours in a dark, damp, dangerous, unhealthy, and a really desperate work environment. The idea never sat right with me.
Similarly, before I left Rio, I had the opportunity to go on a guided tour on the favela Rocinha. I have been to this favela several times, but have never been on a professional tour (probably owing to a similar inner complex concerning poverty tourism). In any event, during the World Urban Forum, I met a very friendly tour guide and he invited me along. So, I gave it a shot.
Our guide was knowledgeable about his neighborhood and even welcomed tourists into his home to show off the view. However, even though he suggested that there was more to favela life than drug trafficking (of course!), this aspect was sadly all we saw. Our guide also mentioned that a certain percent of his proceeds went to fund an art project, but we never even saw it!
I was left wondering if this art project existed, and left with an unshakable and profound distaste of bourgeois insensitivity and ignorance after witnessing countless clashes and knowledge wars between our tour guide and his patrons.
Sex and violence sells. Tourists crave danger and the extraordinary (and maybe even to learn something new). I totally get it. But my problem with poverty tourism is that voyeurism adventure simply serves to exploit the living and working conditions of others. Meanwhile, the money generated by these poverty tours only find its way back into the hands of those running the tourism infrastructure e.g the tour operators, hotels, and restaurants.
What do you think?
Jamie Worms is currently a volunteer for Catalytic Communities in Rio de Janeiro. For more about the ethics of poverty tourism, check out the post “Favela Tourism: Harmful or Helpful?”
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Reminds of when people came with picnic baskets and watched the North and South fight during the American Civil War.
Insensitivity and lack of compassion baffle my mind
One of the better ways to experience favela life is to visit with the accompaniment of a local NGO or a community leader. This will ensure your safety, enhance the quality of information you will receive during your visit, and increase your chances of participating and aiding the residents of low income communities.