Tourism in Africa.

There was an article in the New York Times mentioning that in Botswana they have suspended big game hunting and now a village is overrun with elephants and lions and unemployment has skyrocketed. Not surprising.

Someone suggested tourism and for the life of me it reminded me of a movie I'd like to see, The Last Remake of King Kong. Of course, the movie hasn't been made yet anywhere but in my fertile mind.

Anyway, I can picture the goings-on in the village as they enter the tourist trade. A village elder glances at his watch, puts out a Marlboro and shouts "Places! Costumes!" and the villagers, presently clad in shorts and T-shirts, scurry around and return dressed in grass skirts ala the Original King Kong scene on Skull Island.

Someone dumps a quart of gasoline on a pile of wood, strikes a match and flames leap skyward as the locals all start dancing around it chanting something that sound like something out of a Tarzan movie villager scene.

Out of the bus the tourists appear with cameras hung around their necks. One tourist approaches a grass skirt clad villager, who in real life has a Master's in physics. "Hold it! Smile!" Click goes the shutter.

A couple hours later the bus leaves, the villagers change back into their comfortable clothing and business as usual returns.

I have lived in a tourist town, Ketchikan, Alaska and at times it was a zoo. I have seen Native Americans get the "Holdit, Injun! Smile!" treatment by an ignorant tourist.

I remember a tourist asking a Native American kid, "Are you an Indian?"

"Yes, Ma'am," he replied with a tired voice.

"I see," said the tourist. "And how long have you been an Indian?"

I interrupted. "He used to be a Chicano but enrolled at the Custer Memorial Indian School and took courses to become an Indian. I believe he graduated and became one last year." I winked at the Indian kid who gave me the deadpan look that belies an awful lot of dry Native American humor. 

The tourist blushed and stormed off. 

Later a couple Native Americans the kid told the story to bought me a drink. 

While a lot of people promote tourism as a way of making a living, it is not all it is cracked up to be. It's also very, very dependent on the economy. Generally when the economy takes a drop the first thing to go seems to be the family vacation or cruise. It also hurts the quality of life of the locality.





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