We each begin in innocence. We all become guilty. Leonard F. Peltier

For some reason, many travelers like to loudly and publicly comment on how cheap everything is in the country they are visiting. However, have you ever noticed yourself doing this? I know I regretfully have…

I have come across this kind of behavior many times while traveling and I have even caught myself responding to others when discussing how far the US dollar goes in certain countries. It is a commonly ignorant blunder, but my question is whether the travelers commenting on this topic think about how the locals around them might feel about this comparison. What is cheap for us might be prohibitively expensive for the local in front of you. How did we, as western travelers, become so insensitive to our local surroundings? Was it through our privilege and general ignorance of local customs and conditions? This is certainly a spicy topic of discussion among travelers. Yet, the unfathomable part about this heat is that most of Western tourists whom I’ve discussed this with had no idea about how their comments and actions could be interpreted by those merely trying to make a living. 

From now on, in my travels, I try to make sure to never comment on the topic of how far the US dollar goes. It is a cruel mistake that unintentionally shoves the privilege of other peoples financial strengths into the face of those around us from different financial conditions.

However, I would like to add to this short post a famous saying by Aldous Huxley whom stated that, “most ignorance is vincible ignorance. We don’t know because we don’t want to know.”

There really is no definite answer for why we do certain things, yet, it is “universally acknowledged” that humans can choose to make the choice in not confronting or staying blinded about certain topics, especially when discussing uncomfortable topics. Humanity is truly a confusing species. To this day, I am still trying to pick up and assemble the bread crumbs I’ve collected along my journey for understanding the universal question of “Why are we (humans) like this?”

Banner image taken by me in Bukhara, Uzbekistan