Comments on: Return to India http://blog.twowolves.co.uk/2007/01/14/return-to-india/ Toujours Le Meme Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:33:14 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Stef http://blog.twowolves.co.uk/2007/01/14/return-to-india/#comment-2683 Stef Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:40:22 +0000 http://blog.twowolves.co.uk/2007/01/14/282/#comment-2683 Globalisation was, and still is, sold to ordinary people in the West on the basis that we would all share economic prosperity more fairly and that all of us would become better off as a result. It's not working out like that is it? I have never been to India but I have visited a few other 'developing' countries as part of my work and one thing I am damned sure of is that globalisation in its current form ultimately benefits no-one except for the oligarchs running those countries... and the oligarchs running our countries. You don't have to travel as far as India to see how the Game is being played Love the pictures BTW - the colour and texture are beautiful Globalisation was, and still is, sold to ordinary people in the West on the basis that we would all share economic prosperity more fairly and that all of us would become better off as a result.

It’s not working out like that is it? I have never been to India but I have visited a few other ‘developing’ countries as part of my work and one thing I am damned sure of is that globalisation in its current form ultimately benefits no-one except for the oligarchs running those countries… and the oligarchs running our countries. You don’t have to travel as far as India to see how the Game is being played

Love the pictures BTW - the colour and texture are beautiful

]]> By: Sophia http://blog.twowolves.co.uk/2007/01/14/return-to-india/#comment-2682 Sophia Mon, 15 Jan 2007 00:31:47 +0000 http://blog.twowolves.co.uk/2007/01/14/282/#comment-2682 Thanks Wolfie for this account of your journey and the wonderful pictures. It wasn't an easy one though as it seems, and you were in a guided tour, more sheltered than a traveler making the journey on his own. I think once you start traveling as a couple you become the target of beggers. One carpet salesman from Istanbul, with whom we had some frank talk (he was educated at the Lycée Français and we were the only French speaking travelers he could talk with last September), told us how they evaluate tourists for their financial potential. They have many accurate assumptions on tourists and their number one target are married couples. Married couples (and believe me they know when you are married, even if you decided to remove the wedding ring) are richer than non married couples because if they can afford traveling while having all these other expanses like paying the house, etc...it means they are rich. Married couples between 40 and 60 are a target for the same reasons and some additional ones. Between 40 and 60 one might have children at private school or university and additional epxanses, affording to travel for a couple that age means that they can spend some non budgeted money, etc... As for improvised guides they are everywhere. The worst is when your local guide considers you as a source of income and makes you a hostage driving you from one boutique to another for your shopping and banking some commission money from the stores you visit. In Cuba, this December, we discovered that a meal at the private house we were staying in for one night, having kept our 5 stars hotel in Santigao for a one night two days trip to Baracoa with a local chauffeur guide, was even more expansive than the hotel's restaurant. We should have asked but we didn't assuming that a private house that rents a room for 30 euros a night was not going to ask such a high price for the meal. The chauffeur might have taken some commission from the house owner for providing clients... On environment and economy you are right. These countries havn't got what it takes to hold all these economic promises but that they got the Human potential, educated people who can work long hours for very low wages, not just factory workers, and this is what western economies are preying upon in these countries Thanks Wolfie for this account of your journey and the wonderful pictures. It wasn’t an easy one though as it seems, and you were in a guided tour, more sheltered than a traveler making the journey on his own. I think once you start traveling as a couple you become the target of beggers. One carpet salesman from Istanbul, with whom we had some frank talk (he was educated at the Lycée Français and we were the only French speaking travelers he could talk with last September), told us how they evaluate tourists for their financial potential. They have many accurate assumptions on tourists and their number one target are married couples.
Married couples (and believe me they know when you are married, even if you decided to remove the wedding ring) are richer than non married couples because if they can afford traveling while having all these other expanses like paying the house, etc…it means they are rich. Married couples between 40 and 60 are a target for the same reasons and some additional ones. Between 40 and 60 one might have children at private school or university and additional epxanses, affording to travel for a couple that age means that they can spend some non budgeted money, etc…
As for improvised guides they are everywhere. The worst is when your local guide considers you as a source of income and makes you a hostage driving you from one boutique to another for your shopping and banking some commission money from the stores you visit. In Cuba, this December, we discovered that a meal at the private house we were staying in for one night, having kept our 5 stars hotel in Santigao for a one night two days trip to Baracoa with a local chauffeur guide, was even more expansive than the hotel’s restaurant. We should have asked but we didn’t assuming that a private house that rents a room for 30 euros a night was not going to ask such a high price for the meal. The chauffeur might have taken some commission from the house owner for providing clients…

On environment and economy you are right. These countries havn’t got what it takes to hold all these economic promises but that they got the Human potential, educated people who can work long hours for very low wages, not just factory workers, and this is what western economies are preying upon in these countries

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