Like many of the articles in this book, I thought Alison Hawthorne Deming's "The Edges of the Civilized World" (pages 143-153) was trying to have it both ways. But perhaps Deming acknowledges this best when she says, "Each one of us is at the center of the civilized world and on its edge" (page 150).
The article reminded me of my first real trip outside the United States. In 2001, my wife and I visited the tourist trap of Dunns River Falls in Jamaica. About 200 mainly white tourists held hands with each other and the native guides as we climbed the Falls to the top.
Once at the top of the Falls, the tourists had to walk through a maze of shops in order to get back to the minivan. I was in graduate school, and we didn't have any money for trinkets, but the sellers were aggressive, even to the point of blaming us for not making it possible for their children to have any Christmas presents that year.
When they saw us, they saw rich Americans, and we were rich, comparatively. The whole experience saddened me, though. There are a lot of gated "resorts" for foreigners in places like Jamaica, but I have little interest in going to a country and not seeing the country. Then again, what does it say about a place so desperate for money that it prostitutes out its best locations. Are tourists no better than johns?
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