TUFTS OBSERVER VOLUME CXXVXII, ISSUE 1
SEPTEMBER 28, 2015
WHAT MAKES A CITY TRENDY? (PAGE 3)
THE TROUBLE WITH TUFTS IN TALLOIRES (PAGE 7)
THE MYTH OF THE MEANINGFUL TRAVELER (PAGE 20) #travel
Staff editor-in-chief Katharine Pong managing editor Moira Lavelle creative director Chelsea Newman news Claire Selvin Will Freeman
September 28, 2015 Volume CXXVXII, Issue 1 Tufts Observer, since 1895 Tufts’ Student Magazine
TABLE OF CONTENTS
opinion Ben Kesslen Jamie Moore arts & culture Xander Landen Carly Olson campus Julia Doyle Gabby Bonfiglio tech & innovation Dana Guth Tess Ross-Callahan poetry & prose Aishvarya Arora photography director Alison Graham
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR by Katharine Pong
FEATURE The Nashville Effect
by Dana Guth and Greta Jochem
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photography editor Menglan Chen
CAMPUS Problematizing Paradise
art director Eva Strauss
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by Ben Kesslen
lead artists Tess Dennison Nina Hofkosh-Hulbert
NEWS History By Osmosis by Philip Host
lead copy editors Liza Leonard
10 NINA HOFKOSH-HULBERT
copy editors Will Hodge Emily Ng Maya Pace Emma Pinsky Lauren Samuel
NEWS Chinese Power at a Crossroads by Max Kober
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OPINION Anatomy of the Millennial Traveler by Julia Malleck
20 ADRIANA GUARDANS-GODO
ARTS & CULTURE Can Your Paintbrush Change the World? by Anna Hernandez
POETRY Norway
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by David Weber Schloss
ARTS & CULTURE Off the Grid
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web editors Greta Jochem Lily Hartzell design assistants Kayden Mimmack Chase Conley Flora Liu Lynette Bian Zoe Baghdoyan Franny Kamio publicity director Yumi Casagrande publicity assistants Ashley Miller Kyle Scott
Contributors Adriana Guardans-Godo, Madison Hafitz
by Carly Olson and Xander Landen
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Theme Whether through a service trip, study abroad program, or an extended stay, travel influences how we understand the world around us. In exploring why, how, and where we travel, we also think about who gets to travel and the effects of their journeys.
@EVEFELDBERG
PHOTO INSET #TravelingObserver
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POETRY Desensitized
by Nayantara Dutta
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TECH & INNOVATION Your Friends in Bolivia by Nick Ficeto
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POLICE BLOTTER by Moira Lavelle
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The Tufts Observer has been Tufts’ student publication of record since 1895. Our dedication to in-depth reporting, journalistic innovation, and honest dialogue has remained intact for over a century. Today, we offer insightful news analysis, cogent and diverse opinion pieces, creative writing, and lively reviews of current arts, entertainment, and culture. Through poignant writing and artistic elegance, we aim to entertain, inform, and above all challenge the Tufts community to effect positive change.
@tuftsobserver
www.tuftsobserver.org COVER PHOTO BY RILEY ARONSON
Lately I’ve been thinking about growth. About how sometimes we can’t recognize it in ourselves, and also about how in so many small moments there are opportunities to be reaching for it. I think growth can look like learning how to bike or cook or speak a language for the first time. It can look like showing ourselves care and committing to learning more about ourselves. And it can look like developing relationships with others, making our communities stronger, more loving, and more resilient. One of my favorite things about the Observer is that it has allowed me to grow and develop in so many ways. Here, I’ve learned not only about design and editing, but also about communication and compassion—about what it feels like to create something and to be proud of that something. This semester (and every semester), we at the Observer are pursuing growth. We are focusing on cohesion, inclusivity, and community. We are pushing ourselves to think holistically and cooperatively, connecting the different pieces of what we do to form a unified product. We are looking to connect with people who are excited about creating and innovating. And as we do these things—each one of us involved in something bigger than ourselves—we are always thinking of you, our readers and an extended part of our community. Our magazine tells stories and asks questions, and to know that all of you are on the other side of that feels both daunting and incredible. We hope to be producing content that affirms you, that challenges you, that resonates with you. What we do is never perfect, but we’re always reaching, and I think there’s something powerful and hopeful and special in that. I’m really looking forward to sharing this semester together. Thank you for allowing us to grow with you.
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FEATURE
Youthification and the making of trendy cities By Dana Guth and Greta Jochem
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fter graduating from Tufts, Ben Kurland (A'15) moved back to his hometown of Nashville, TN. From his point of view, the Nashville he grew up in was “just some city in the South that’s famous for country music and not much else.” Somewhere between then and now, Nashville became a tourist hub teeming with liberal college kids, musicians, artists, and entrepreneurs. The once-small town grew 13.1 percent between 2007 and 2013; over 80 people—mostly millennials, Kurland says—move there each day. For Kurland upon his return home, this was a major culture shock. Instead of asking about his rural education, new acquaintances would exclaim, "Cool!" followed by, "But where are you from originally?" Nashville is an exemplary case, but it’s certainly not isolated. There is a new kind of tourism on the rise in America, and it’s affecting cities from coast to coast. It seems like every town from Austin to Santa Fe to New Orleans is suddenly duking it out to replicate the Nashville Effect and attract this fresher brand of tourist: the recent grad, the young professional, the “millennial.” For these new travelers, it's not enough to visit for the weekend—they want a permanent piece of the pie. The act of young people moving to the big city has been a phenomenon since our parents’ parents generation. But only now are cities themselves actively nurturSeptember 28, 2015
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A massive influx of young adults into previously smaller cities no doubt alters a community that’s lived there for W generations.
ing the trend, restructuring their fundamental layouts to attract twenty-somethings fresh out of school. This trend has not gone unnoticed by the Internet, with a new post every day touting [random Midwestern city] as “the next big town for millennials.” Dr. Markus Moos, a professor of Geography and Urban Planning at the University of Waterloo School of Planning has coined the term “youthification” to describe this exact phenomenon—what he calls the “increase in the share of young adults such that the city or neighborhood remains young over time.” Anika Ades (A’14), a current Brooklyn resident, explains that as more and more young people flock to a city, they bring bars, art galleries, and bike shops with them, steadily building the town’s “cool” reputation. “These cities are deemed cool and interesting to other young people, and it creates a snowball effect,” she says. 4
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Is there any actual data to support this seismographic shift towards post-grad “tourism,” or is all the buzz surrounding it just empty conversation? Research points to the former. What’s less clear—and less talked about—are the definitive reasons behind the change, and whether or not there will be lasting effects. A massive influx of young adults into previously smaller cities no doubt alters a community that’s lived there for generations. Seeing as this trend has sprung up in the past five years or so, many of these ripple effects have yet to be seen. But it’s clear across disciplines that these cities are already going through major changes. “The pursuit of youthfulness, whether it’s by the way we dress, how we cut our hair, or perhaps even through plastic surgery, has arguably become a cultural preoccupation,” notes Moos. A fact on the opening page of Moos’ website aptly summarizes the idea of youthification: “Even Google autocom-
pletes the phrase ‘Millennials live’ with ‘Millennials live in cities.’” He hypothesizes that America’s growing obsession with eternal urban youth accounts for both the essential push and pull factors of America’s hipper cities. According to him (and many would agree), we just want to be younger longer. For many of us, this means clinging to the “young adult” phase well past any age the term used to encompass. How does this manifest? One possibility, says Moos, is the desire to live on a “campus.” While classically popular post-grad magnets like New York City can’t offer the close-knit downtown feel of a university, smaller, blossoming cities (think Portland and Nashville) can. This is not to mention the oft-discussed millennial drift away from family life, including delayed childbearing and marriage. Whether this is due to a refusal to “grow up,” or the prevention of home ownership due to economic factors like plump student debt is up for debate.
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It’s hard to define the emotional basis for city dwelling. But Moos and his peers have reached a few undeniable conclusions: we, the younger generation, want to live close together. We want art, music, culture, food, and diverse company at a reachable distance. We want all of these things for a longer period of our lives than ever before, regardless of cost. And we definitely don’t want to have to own a car—fewer and fewer young people are investing in cars, according to government data, and instead are opting for bikes and public transportation. If a city can offer all of this, it becomes a millennial goldmine. This might seem like nothing new, but evidence from researchers, politicians, and urban planners all over the country suggests the contrary. Not only are graduates flocking to more and more “up-andcoming” towns in search of the illustrious “youthful” lifestyle, these same towns are now working doubly hard to foster it; that is, the relationship is suddenly two-sided. “I wouldn’t say there’s a recipe for success, but cities are certainly behaving
as if there is,” says Tufts Anthropology Professor Cathy Stanton, who specializes in tourism. “Places all over the world are pursuing a strikingly similar set of strategies at the moment as they try to hit this particular jackpot.” According to Justin Hollander, a professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University, cities use the same essential formula: “readjust their investment to try and attract as many creative industries as possible.” Hollander noted that a city is likely to attract prosperous young people not by reducing cost of living (which he says is actually a very inaccurate predictor of a youthful population), but by making it easy for them to start new, innovative business. Reworking cities to be more millennial-friendly has become a full-on industry in itself—a strange, modern subset of economically-driven urban planning. This sector employs urban studies professionals like Richard Florida, whose entire career involves fostering a young urban class (a group he describes as “high bohemians”)
by shifting funds towards infrastructure that fits with their lifestyles. Florida has done this in over 100 cities across America. He measures his effects on these cities with an original system—levels of attracted talent via a “bohemian index,” a “Gay index,” and a “diversity index.” Florida’s grand plan, according to his website, is to put more money toward attracting and retaining young talent rather than toward concrete infrastructure like stadiums, buildings, and malls. In Stanton’s eyes, while it’s clear that cities are in fact laying down concrete plans to attract millennials, there is no quantifiable measure of their impact. “Sometimes these strategies seem to add up to more than the sum of their parts, and it's kind of mysterious what makes that happen,” Stanton says. “It may be some combination of hype, luck, preexisting advantages, landscape or climate, price points, good government, concentrations of a certain kind of talent—chefs and restaurateurs, artists, musicians, innovators of various kinds—or something else that coalesces and gives a sense of making a ‘there
Reworking cities to be more millennial-friendly has become a full-on industry in itself.
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there,’ that is, some kind of identity that a critical mass of young residents start buying into.” Does young people flocking to cities, possibly to settle down, still count as a form of tourism? Aaron Langerman (A'15), now living in the San Francisco Bay Area, says yes: they come to the area thinking it’s a, “hipster paradise,” but are, “ignoring the history, the socioeconomic realities, the ethnic makeup of the city, and how it’s been historically changing. Instead, it’s completely decontextualized because they come here and think it’s the way it’s always been.” “Very few political leaders really care about gentrification,” answered Professor Hollander when asked about the ripple effects of a suddenly implanted but successful population. He noted that it’s these politicians, not academics or urban planners, who pull the strings. “They want increased business, property values, and more wealth. They’re not concerned with pushing out people so much as they [are] interested in pulling in whoever is economically attractive.”
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This explains why so many cities are, as Stanton puts it are, “marketing themselves vigorously to millennials” without much regard for anyone else—and it’s working. But for how long? It’s worth noting that, like all urban trends, the intense focus on this generational shift may be ephemeral, with no serious lasting effects. As Ades sums up, “For better or worse, these cities and neighborhoods tend to have expiration dates in terms of their recipe for ‘cool.’” Among others who have studied the living and consumption patterns that characterize the young adult population, Stanton cautiously shares this opinion: as soon as the media realizes and exploits a notable millennial obsession, young people have already moved on to the next big thing. “That sense of what's hip and up-andcoming has always been very elusive and hard to define, and people who've studied it show us that, in some ways, it's always already over,” Stanton says. “By the time that critical mass happens, there's a sense that a place is too trendy and not as real as it used to be.” O
FEATURE
PROBLEMATIZING PARADISE
A Critique of Tufts’ Most Popular Summer Program By Ben Kesslen
April 27, 2015
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very year, the tables in the dining halls are littered with posters inviting Tufts students to “experience paradise.” This “paradise” is Talloires, where each summer around 90 students participate in a six-week homestay program at Tufts’ satellite campus in rural France. Students often return from their stay in Talloires saying it was the “best six weeks of their life.” But after my six weeks there, I came to a very different conclusion. Talloires is indeed beautiful, but often it is only paradise for the White, straight, cisgender, and wealthy. Hidden behind the romantic French meadows and crystalline lake so well-advertised by the European Center is racism, Islamophobia, queerphobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and general intolerance towards difference— mostly coming from host families and other locals. What this discrimination creates is two Talloires experiences: one where the majority of students feel safe and welcome and another where, for a small minority, feeling safe is harder to come by. What is most interesting about this intolerance is the very fact that it is tolerated. Instead of calling this discrimination what it is, the European Center hides it under the false and dangerous guise of “cultural difference.” Queerphobia is excused and often labeled as “traditional European values.” Islamophobia is rarely discussed, with phrases of justification like “it’s different in Europe” thrown around. And attitudes towards racism are frequently responded to with complacency because it is just part of the “immersion experience.” While part of a homestay certainly involves being pushed out of your comfort zone, there is a difference between the temporary discomfort felt when there are snails on the dinner table and the lasting anxiety when host families are actively bigoted towards people with your identities. While it is impossible to find a group of perfect host families—all culturally and racially sensitive—it is important that when students go through difficult situations, they feel supported by the European Center. But often times, this much-needed support is what students in Talloires lack the most. In the Tufts European Center’s attempt to expose students to “authentic” French culture and in their emphasis on
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being good “Tufts ambassadors,” many students—particularly students with marginalized identities—are unable to find the “paradise” that dominates the narrative of Talloires. When the Center encourages all students to come to Talloires—a historically White, Catholic, conservative region of rural France—and then does not give them the support they need, it sets them up to have an experience that is far from sublime. Additionally, by forcing the “Tufts ambassador” label on students, constantly emphasizing being “flexible” in order to represent our institution well, the European Center is actually asking students to be complacent in the face of discrimination. This forces one to ask—who has the privilege to love Talloires and what does it mean to be a good ambassador of Tufts? My host dad, a veteran of the program, often said things that made me extremely uncomfortable. Whether he was preaching his racist ideas about Black Americans, making misogynistic comments about women we saw as we walked down the street, or repeatedly calling me—an openly queer student—purposefully degrading names, there were many times when I felt unsafe in his home. And while I am normally outspoken, I felt powerless for two reasons: the first because he was housing and feeding me and the second because I had been told so many times by the European Center director, Gabriella Goldstein, that we were to be flexible and courteous in our homestays and that the culture in Talloires was “different” and “more traditional.” A huge part of the orientation meetings for Tufts in Talloires stresses how “different” the culture is and that students are in a “conservative Christian region.” Girls are told to watch what they wear in order to “avoid danger” and students are constantly reminded they must represent Tufts well. The Tufts European Center makes a point to emphasize the idea that everyone on the program is a “Tufts ambassador.” But in their push for us to be “gracious guests,” they overlook the fact that this can come at a cost. In my effort to be a good “Tufts ambassador” I allowed my host dad to do things I would never tolerate anywhere
else. Many other students shared this experience. One student described a moment where, while driving, her host brother passed two Muslim women in burqas and screamed out the window, “Halloween is over!” Shocked and disgusted, she wanted to say something but felt like she couldn’t counter the blatant racism. How do you call someone out when you are a guest in their home for over a month? As for the other obvious solution, of informing the European Center, another student told me “It was hard to reach out to [the director and coordinator] without [them] somehow trying to remind you that you were a ‘Tufts ambassador.’”
Talloires is indeed beautiful, but often it is only paradise for the White, straight, cisgender, and wealthy. Brenda Lee (A’15) went to Talloires as a student and returned the next summer as one of the eight or so interns that the Center employs to help carry out day-today tasks. “The image [Goldstein] wants to maintain is a strong motive for not speaking up,” Lee said, referring to Goldstein’s deference to French families. As a result, “a lot of things were excused,” and host families were allowed to participate again even after being actively discriminatory. Often, when problematic issues arise with host families, the European Center “laugh[s] it off as a cultural difference.” A great irony lies in the European Center’s insistence that students must silence themselves in order to represent our school well. By being complacent with discrimination and by excusing it as “cultural difference,” are we actually being “Tufts ambassadors?” By tolerating behavior on our satellite campus in Talloires that we would never tolerate on the Medford/ Somerville campus, are we actually repPHOTOS BY BEN KESSLEN
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resenting our school—an institution that claims to embody active citizenship and stand up for injustice—well? Eura Myrta is a junior at Tufts who went to Talloires in 2014. In the beginning of her stay, when she went to Goldstein with anxiety regarding her host family situation, she said that Goldstein just “cite[d] all these cultural differences.” Then, later in the summer, when even larger problems occurred—such as worrying that her adult host-brother might try to make an advance on her—she felt like she couldn’t go to the European Center for help. Myrta believes that the European Center is “largely unequipped” to handle problems “beyond the surface level.” Because she felt so uncomfortable in her host family’s house, Myrta “spent as much time out of the house as possible.” However, this put a huge monetary strain on her because she had to buy her own meals to avoid eating with her host family. Myrta said that whenever she told Goldstein about the issue, Goldstein “systematically pushed it back until she no longer had to worry about it and it didn’t make a difference.” Myrta believes that because “the usual people that have gone in the past have been rich,” the European Center isn’t able to handle potential issues for students with fewer resources and less monetary flexibility. However, the issues facing these students also intersect with race, sexuality, and gender. When Lee was an intern at the European Center she realized she was one of the first students of color in the internship program’s history. Tufts in Talloires began in the late 70s; this was in 2014. Lee describes this isolation as quite difficult, not only for her, but also for the students of color in the program. A current student who identifies as a person of color and who studied at Talloires while Lee was interning said that because the only staff member of color was a student intern, he felt like he “couldn’t go to [the staff] if there were things that made [him] uncomfortable.” He said he “had to suppress [his feelings] and make [him]self think [he] was enjoying [Talloires] because all the other
White students were having a wonderful time.” Furthermore, as a queer identifying student, he said that while in Talloires he “didn’t even engage with [his] queerness because [he] wasn’t sure what people’s perceptions of the queer community were.” To navigate Talloires, he “acted as straight as [he] could.” Melissa Baptista, a sophomore, also said being a student of color shaped her experience in Talloires. Baptista was a McJannet Scholar—a recipient of an annual scholarship that funds multiple Tufts students to go to Talloires—and said she felt like the European Center paraded around students of color to show diversity. Each year a group of donors comes to meet the McJannet Scholars. Well into this event, when she and some other students of color were leaving, Baptista said, “the staff stopped us and made sure we stayed… [but] didn’t stop the White kids from leaving.” She said it was clear that the Center “wanted to showcase that the program is diverse” and ensure the donors that they were “helping these marginalized groups experience life abroad.” I, too, had experiences in which I struggled to get answers and solutions from Goldstein. In the very writing of this article, Goldstein was largely unresponsive to my emails. Finally, when I called her in France, she asked me to send her questions that she would then respond to. I emailed her five specific questions about my own experience, including whether my host dad would be allowed to participate in the program again, and how she more generally deals with discriminatory host families. She responded with an answer that sounded like it was written by a PR company, littered with phrases like “commitment to treating all members of our community with respect” and “the complexity of the world in which we live.” She gave me no specific answers. When I asked her again for responses to my questions, she suggested I speak directly to my host dad to work out my issues with him—ignoring the larger programmatic problems I was trying to address and revealing a lack of sensitivity. David Baum, Goldstein’s associate, eventually stopped replying to my emails and never answered my questions.
My own experience in Talloires was not solely negative. I have fond memories of swimming in the lake after class, going on day hikes run by the European Center, and having picnics on the beach. However, the more time I spent there, the more I realized the underlying issues that affect so many students’ experiences. These are problems that shouldn’t exist—and ones that have solutions. Historically, Talloires has catered to a certain group of people—White, wealthy, straight, cisgender students—and has yet to adapt to the program’s growing diversity. As more students of color, queer students, and students on scholarship attend the program, it needs to provide more tailored support for them. A primarily White and straight staff is not acceptable. An unwillingness to accommodate socioeconomically disadvantaged students is not acceptable. Excusing outward discrimination from host families, and then allowing them to host again, is not acceptable. These qualities do not represent what Tufts ostensibly stands for and we as students should not stand for it. While Goldstein claims that the European Center takes student concerns “seriously and act[s] quickly to work to resolve the situation,” too often this is only for a certain type of student. Goldstein told me it “is important for the programs at the European Center to grow and evolve,” and I agree. But I would add something else. It is crucial for the programs at the European Center to grow and evolve. It is crucial they adapt to the new demographics of the program. And it is time for the European Center staff to become good “Tufts ambassadors.” O
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HISTORY BY OSMOSIS Turkey, the Kurds, and the future of a divided nation By Philip Host
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ess than 24 hours after initiating a long-awaited air campaign against ISIS, the Turkish military began bombing the Kurdish Worker’s Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group that both the US and Turkey have classified as a terrorist organization. The Turkish government had previously spent over three decades at war with the PKK before reaching a ceasefire agreement in 2013. From 2013 until late July 2015, the government was engaged in agonizing yet steady peace talks. When I arrived in Turkey for a year of study abroad, the PKK represented a deep scar in the Turkish political psyche. Military service is mandatory in Turkey, so everybody knew someone who had fought against the PKK, or for them. As peace began to take root, art exhibitions about the suffering on both sides cropped up in Istanbul, and the violence edged ever so slightly towards the past. Most promisingly, a predominantly Kurdish party
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was voted into parliament for the first time. There was a sense of incremental progress being made—and then, just as I was preparing to leave, Turkey was back at war. Between January 24 and 25, the font size on the front pages of Turkish newspapers jumped a good 50 points and a number of headlines turned red. Most newspapers included little maps with arcing arrows indicating explosions in northern Iraq and Syria. American newspapers were a little quieter on the subject, accustomed to covering foreign wars, and headlines about Turkey were a little farther down the page or in the op-ed section. For this reason, most people either know nothing about the situation or have only heard vague mention of it. There are, however, a number of people who have kept more or less abreast of the situation and this category of people tends to broach the subject with a serious air and ask (as if expecting a partly-traumatized response) about my
experience in Turkey. I usually reply that it was pretty hectic, that there were explosions everywhere, that the Theodosian walls had collapsed (again!) and that the runway was disintegrating as my plane took off. Then, if they really want to know, I try to tell the truth. The truth is a bit messy. By choosing which true stories to tell, alternately romantic and disturbing, I can change most people’s minds about whether or not they should go to Turkey maybe half a dozen times in the course of five minutes. The truth of what I saw and heard leads to a number of contradictions and, in many cases, defies an overarching analysis. At the same time, I am at a certain remove from what I heard and saw, even with my own stories. When my friend asked me to write an article about the situation in Turkey, I immediately thought of an article by basketball player and freelance journalist Coleman Collins about his experience
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playing basketball in Ukraine during its revolution, and Russia’s subsequent annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. At one point he writes, “I worry that an experience that was so monumental for millions of people will become another in a string of ‘Well, this one time I...’ stories for me. I’m not sure how to avoid that. For the longest time I wasn’t sure how to write about it—the politics of the situation are incredibly complicated. But I hope there’s value in the simple act of being present in a place, trying to understand it, and telling what you’ve seen.” In a way I was lucky. I went to eastern Turkey at a time of distinct unrest, but well before any military operations. At the time, the Syrian-Kurdish city of Kobani was under siege. Kurds across Turkey were furious about government inaction; Turkey was widely perceived as happily sitting by as two of its enemies killed each other off. Protests, followed by riots, erupted in the southeast, where most Kurds in Turkey live. Istanbul also saw its fair share of unrest. I received frequent US State Department advisories and warnings, most of which were overblown. In November I flew east in search of the remnants of the Armenian and Urartian empires with an undeniable hope that I might see something. I had not clearly defined to myself what it was that I hoped to see, but the tension was vaguely alluring. I still feel a little guilty at how happy I was when I found myself in the midst of a PKK protest. Something about the superficially extreme circumstances—stay tuned—coupled with a knowledge that I was realistically pretty safe made the whole situation kind of fun and a little sickening. I had arrived in Doğubeyazıt on the Iranian border, and everything was closed. I went to my hotel and asked where I could find food. After some confusion, I was informed that due to the PKK, everything, including grocery stores, would be closed for an indefinite period of time. Until they reopened, the hotel owner told me, I could eat with his family; they had an emergency pantry, which contained an extraordinary number of eggs and maybe a dozen tomatoes. For about two days we ate eggs and I wandered about, taking care not to get caught between the gendarmerie and chanting crowds. I remember when it dawned on me—relatively early on—that ICON BY REFIKA KORTUN VIA THE NOUN PROJECT
the city was almost entirely sympathetic with the PKK and that the shops were closed in protest of the government. I find it difficult to totally condemn people or groups, though I may hate what they do. Violent organizations are, after all, usually expressions of a deep underlying anger, which often has deeper roots. With that in mind, I would like to be clear that although the PKK has every right to be angry—countless Kurdish civilians have been massacred, villages razed, and all in all it might be fair to say that the Turkish military has displayed more cruelty than the organization itself—it is not listed as a terrorist organization for nothing. Innocent people have died at their hands. They have been known for executions, assassinations, extortions, indiscriminate bombings, and any number of cruelties, which, while some accusations are no doubt false, still raise
I was clearly the least important person in the city; I was neither a threat nor an asset to anybody involved. And yet there I was in the midst of it all. questions about smoke without fire. I am fairly certain that the family running my hotel was connected to the PKK—a lot of people in the city were. Family members would mysteriously disappear at suspicious times, speaking in hushed and hurried tones about the PKK and the Pesh Merga. They would look up at me, decide that I probably couldn’t understand what they were saying (which was mostly true), and continue. Any questions I asked were met with vague answers, followed by a change of subject. I was clearly the least important person in the city; I was neither a threat nor an asset to anybody involved. And yet there I was, in the midst of it all,
“part of it” in the most naive sense of the term. History, or some minute fragment of it, was happening around me and I, a little giddily, hoped to absorb some of the significance by osmosis. How well can a foreigner hope to understand a situation in all of its complexity? If you have not made a serious effort to understand a culture—gone there, done all the required and recommended reading, asked questions, studied the language, gone to cultural events—then you might not be aware of how impossible of a task it is. One cannot immerse oneself in a monolithic “Turkish society.” One might be able to take a nuanced impression of an upper-middleclass family and miss out on the kids huffing paint thinner out back. Or one might stay with university students and never have a protracted conversation with someone who is devoutly religious. The only consolation for my detached foreigner’s eyes is that, well, Turks don’t really understand their whole culture either, not any more than I “get” American culture. There’s just too much of it for one lifetime—an approximation is as much as I or anyone else can hope for. We go places to see and do things, but we forget that the act of travel, the state of being foreign, casts everything in a strange light. I did not experience any of the protests or government reaction in the emotionally charged manner that makes them historic. Seeing something on TV is not as realistic as going there—not by a long shot. But for all the layered veils you remove, there will always be something obscured from your view, or some trend that, rightly or wrongly, takes on greater significance for you than for anyone else. The goal of journalism, as I understand it, is to “make an event real” to the readers. I hope that I have been able to convey one of the truths of the situation, namely that a baseline reality is pretty much impossible to establish. One can provide a constellation of events or one can talk about the shapes that one sees in the constellation. When someone tries to paint a scene they have to reduce it to a few “crucial” details, draw lines and curves and vectors between them, and ultimately the analysis or composition or whatever becomes greater than the facts itself. O
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NORWAY by David Weber Schloss stretched from her home on the North Sea East over the Swedes the Fins and the islands of Novaya Zemlya Wrapping over Asia’s upper coast the country grated against several existing territories in a months-long process of slow growth before cartographers eventually found her eastern border, nestled against the far Pacific coast Vast coastal nation of ice and snow Norway being cold and split through with fjords veins and forest deeps but also menthol and the clean pragmatism of public transportation She could call herself a sterile kingdom were it not for the small strand of earth at the distant edge of Kamchatka There the land is temperate and covered in a bright lichen that grows out from the shoreline in huge-reaching tendrils into the sea The moss is sacred and subspecies range from blue-gray to vermillion in color— the livid of birch smoke roiling up and fire from the witch’s pyre
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ART BY ADRIANA GUARDANS-GODO
#travelingobserver
September 28, 2015
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@THEOLIVE_MJ, @EVEFELDBERG, @YUNGTASHH, @_AAIKO_, @YUMZCAS, @ASHWMILLER, @CLAIREECHEN, @ALISONAWTREY, @GRACETELLADO
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@CLAIREECHEN, @KP0NG, @_AAIKO_, @UNBLOCKSTAS, @EVEFELDBERG, @MENGLANNN, @_AAIKO_, @THOMASCOOL7, @FEMININJAHADAY
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@_KYLEVSCOTT, @EILEENLJX, @THEOLIVE_MJ, @ALISONAWTREY, @ALISONAWTREY, @ALISONAWTREY, @YUNGTASHH, @SEIIED, @JOYCELYNCHEN
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POETRY
DESENSITIZED six neanderthal men and you all feel the same, collect me like another marionette doll to hold between your fingers, to finger while you murmur fiery blackmail into my earlobes. you drag your nails along my rim, ravenous. do you take me for a pawn? kangaroo boy, I am not your property. my blood is wailing from the minefields. let me be.
By Nayantara Dutta
ART BY NINA HOFKOSH-HULBERT
September 28, 2015
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NEWS
CHINESE POWER AT A CROSSROADS
Perspectives from East and Southeast Asia on the nation’s rise to regional hegemony By Max Kober
T
he summer of 2015 was a particularly meaningful time for Asia: it marked the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II. In the years leading up to the war and during the conflict itself, the Empire of Japan colonized and invaded most of what we know today as East and Southeast Asia. In the decades following, conflicts and regime change became emblematic of Asian politics in countries such as China, Korea, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Japan, for its part, has set aside its imperialist past, and is seen by many Western countries, including the United States, as a peaceful, democratic ally. Today, China is undisputedly the regional hegemon in Asia, with a significantly larger economic and military force than its surrounding countries. Continuing expansion into the South China Sea has drawn wide criticism from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the US, but China shows no sign of backing down. However, China’s 18
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hold on Asia may be slipping. The collapse of the Chinese stock market means Beijing may no longer be able to sustain its meteoric economic rise. The question for Western politicians and policy makers is this: is a rising China in 2015 as dangerous and formidable as a rising Japan was in 1941? During July and August, I had the chance to live and work in Shanghai and Beijing, where I gained a unique perspective on the emergence of China as a major world power. Before entering China, I traveled to Vietnam, the victim of occupation by both Japanese and French Vichy forces during World War II. The more recent military history of Vietnam includes its decades-long conflict with the US, the Vietnam War, in which the communist North and Western-backed South fought for supremacy. North Vietnam, supported by China, eventually triumphed and absorbed the south. I traveled to the former capital of the south, Ho Chi Minh City (called Saigon by its residents), and the
current capital, Hanoi, in the north. June 2015 marked an important date for the Vietnamese: it was the 20th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between the US and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, an event commemorated with a visit from President Clinton. It was the former president who initiated talks to reopen channels between the two former enemies. Despite this anniversary, a guide told me the Vietnam War is not the conflict on the mind of most Vietnamese. “China is the enemy,” my guide claimed in Saigon. “We fought one war with them already, and it seems like they are never satisfied with peace.” He was referring to the 1979 conflict in which Chinese soldiers invaded from the north, almost reaching Hanoi. The Chinese attack, as my guide noted, came as the result of Vietnam’s intent to topple the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime in neighboring Cambodia, an action that garnered the approval of the US and Western powers. The war
NEWS
demonstrated China’s military superiority, though the conflict ended in a stalemate. Referring to this stalemate, a worker at Halong Bay, near Hanoi in northern Vietnam, was less pessimistic about Vietnam’s chances. “If anyone is going to stand up to China, it is going to be Vietnam,” he said, less worried than his southern counterpart about China’s continuing expansion into the South China Sea. With the significant geopolitical differences between North and South Vietnam—the South is heavily influenced by Western values and benefits from a more open economic policy—it is no surprise that several members of the tourism industry with whom I talked in Saigon were wary of conflict with nearby China. The situation continued to escalate this summer, when the New York Times reported that since the summer of 2014, China has been converting small reefs into fully-fledged islands in an attempt to build and settle on these lands. The territorial waters China are exploring and developing in fact belong to Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Taiwan. “It is our waters they are expanding into,” said one restaurateur in Saigon; “They have no right to be in the Eastern Sea,” he said, referring to the Vietnamese name for the South China Sea. The Guardian reported in July that the Shanghai composite stock index had plummeted and trading was suspended. This reflected the larger collapse of the Chinese stock market. In conversations with my employers, the educators at Global Leader Education Corporation, and Chinese co-workers, the consequences of
The question for Western politicians is this: is a rising China in 2015 as dangerous and formidable as a rising Japan was in 1941?
ART BY EVA STRAUSS
this economic dip emerged. “The trouble is,” a 20-year-old college student from Hong Kong said, “the Chinese stock market is not like that in the US.” He went on to explain that, whereas in the US the biggest investors in the market are wealthier individuals who almost always operate through stockbrokers, in China the majority of stock trading is done by middle class families. “We are encouraged to buy or sell this stock or this stock in Xinhua [the Communist Party’s official media] and on TV,” he said. The collapse of the stock market, he remarked, showed that the Party was not omniscient. Another Chinese teacher currently attending university in the US concurred, “If people lose their trust in the government’s ability to run the economy, people will stop trusting the government to do anything.” In all, the people I spoke with, largely students between the ages of 18 and 25, felt that events such as the Shanghai index collapse reflected the possibility that the Chinese economy could be faltering. From a geopolitical standpoint, this suspension of trading raised serious questions about the viability of China’s untilnow meteoric economic progress. After the implementation of economic reforms under Deng Xiaoping started in 1978, China experienced seemingly unstoppable growth. While I was in Shanghai, the trend of seemingly unstoppable growth was called into question. An even younger group of Chinese students, high school students between 14 and 16, provided additional viewpoints regarding national attitudes about hegemony and regional competition. China’s expansion might be perceived as a dangerous warning sign of budding imperial ambitions by some observers in the region. But none of the students I talked to seemed to think so. After my conversations in Vietnam, I brought up the issue of the South China Sea with the students, citing a number of articles about the building of islands and offshore drilling. One student questioned, “How can it be illegal for China to be expanding in the South China Sea? It is called the South China Sea, so it belongs to China.” The other students in the 10-person class concurred. It was a simple way to express a controversial point: the territorial waters
of the South China Sea are in constant dispute, and its name does not do much to help the case of other countries. Towards the end of this summer, Chinese hegemony, which had taken a serious hit after the fall of the stock market, leaped forward again. August 15 marked the 70th anniversary of Japan’s announcement of formal surrender, marking an Allied victory in the Pacific. For most, despite the continuing apologetic attitude of the Japanese government, the statement on August 15 was too little, too late. Statements are traditionally made by Japanese Prime Ministers every 10 years on the anniversary of surrender, and this one, issued by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, was criticized heavily in China. AP reported that highranking officials from both South Korea and China were dissatisfied, with Beijing criticizing the speech as “evasive.” China, in many ways, has historically seen itself as a victim of Japanese aggression. It is true that Japan was responsible for significant atrocities during the war, and that millions of Chinese civilians were killed. However, the fact that Chinese commentators dwell on Japan’s aggression 70 years later signals two fundamental problems: first, the government of China during World War II was not the Chinese Communist Party, but rather the Kuomintang Nationalists; second, that Japan today has no military force, and it is China that represents the growing threat for most countries in the region. For citizens of Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines, countries who suffered at the hands of Japan 70 years ago, China may be looming on the horizon with imperialist tendencies. But all the evidence thus far suggests a different intention: the projection of soft power throughout the region, without actual risk of military engagement. While teachers and students I talked to in China expressed varied opinions, they could all agree on one point; China is no Imperial Japan. Not one person I talked to in China believes that the country is capable of invading and subjugating its neighbors. China, as a rising power, will never stop projecting its influence and reminding its neighbors of its growing influence. But events like the stock market collapse help remind us that China is not invincible. September 28, 2015
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OPINION
ANATOMY
OF A
MILLE NNIAL TRAVELER 20
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ART BY RACHEL CUNNINGHAM
OPINION
By Julia Malleck
U
niversity students love to talk about travel. Graduation plans commonly include “seeing the world.” We list off countries we’ve visited and want to visit. Our cohort is filled with restlessness. Our anthem is wanderlust. While our desire to travel is insatiable, we are particular about the kind of trips that we go on. The experiences we seek extend beyond the snap-some-photos-when-you-hopoff-the-tour-bus travel that our parents and grandparents engaged in. We want something more from our travel. These desirable travel experiences fall into three general categories: The Service Trip, The Authentic Trip, and The Getaway Trip. On The Service Trip, a university student usually goes to work in a developing nation. Activities include teaching English, capacity-building, language immersion, and more. The student is able to help the less fortunate by building modern infrastructure. Common photographs include the student, arms wrapped around local children, beaming. Upon return, the student can list this Service Trip on their resume as a fulfilling and character-building experience. On The Authentic Trip, the student wants to understand how the locals live. They want to seek out the hole-in-the-wall mom-and-pop shops. The student disdains going to any touristy location, instead opting to discover those places less frequented. Only local foods are eaten and broken conversations are conducted with local shopkeepers, vendors, and cabbies. This makes the travel more meaningful. Pictures include portraits, architectural features, market scenes, and exotic foodstuffs. Upon return, the student believes they have a deeper understanding of another culture, and may adopt words or phrases commonly spoken in their place of travel— much to the irritation of their classmates. The Getaway Trip, what I also call “Eat, Pray, Love” travel, is about escape. One wants to get away from routine, from patterns of thought that accrue within certain rooms, spaces, and sidewalks. One needs perspective and seeks the sublime restlessly across countries, atop mountain peaks, in sunrises, and in sunsets. Overlapping with The Authentic Trip, the traveler finds joy in the idiosyncrasies and newfangledness of other cultures. Common photographs include the student poised at a peak or beach at sunset, looking reflective or carefree. Upon return, the student talks about their self-discovery and boasts clearer skin and zero bags under their eyes. The big deal is that all these trips are possible because of a common denominator: privi-
lege. Many of us can point to a map and pick a new destination to visit, like picking out a new sugary confection at a sweet shop. Although not all privilege is the same within the university system, our status at this institution gives us access to scholarships and grants that allow us to travel. We respectfully visit places, help people along the way, and contribute to their economies. We’re culturally sensitive. We’re interested in acquiring language skills. We’re traveling more meaningfully than those hop-on-and-off the bus tourists. Right? Let’s examine these assertions more closely. On The Service, Authentic, and Getaway trips, there is novelty in another’s daily routine, which is exoticized, pitied, or seen as lacking and needing remedy. This occurs especially on the Authentic Trip, where the landscape of another’s life becomes a canvas for our spiritual struggles and soul-searching. On the Service Trip, we leverage a country’s underdevelopment to get a qualification on our spiffy resumes. I have heard many—including myself— disdain those groups of tourists who travel in groups, take photos, then hop back on the bus. They aren’t traveling meaningfully—their travel is not authentic or immersive. But what makes our resume-building and soul-searching travel any better? We drop into people’s lives, as if spirited on-location, then leave. Is paying your way for a trip to a “less developed” country to build a school any different from buying a designer handbag? Our privilege allows us to purchase experiences in the same way we can buy other status symbols. The price tags with these given examples could very well be similar. Travel is just another product we consume. My worry is that millennials’ “meaningful” travel has become a fig leaf in an age of neocolonial exploration. And yes, we’re the neocolonialists. We’ve adopted the accoutrements of colonial predecessors, this time in the form of GPS maps, higher education, and a belief in developing “underdeveloped” regions of the world. Note that the concept of a “developed” and “underdeveloped” world is an entirely subjective label, assigned by the West. If a country is not up-to-chalk, they need fixing—be it economically, socially or politically. We have the privilege to swoop in and “save the day.” We snap photos and post them to Instagram and into albums on Facebook, garnering the admiration and envy of our peers. Ultimately, we’re just tourists. We’re just a slightly different strain of the “typical” tourist (armed with sunblock, map, and guidebook). We’re subversive travelers in that, unlike the “typical” tourist, we layer our travel with moral,
ethical, or culturally-aware trappings. We travel clothed in a comfy superiority complex. At least the hop-on-and-off tourists are upfront about what they’re doing—spending money for experiences, entertainment, and pleasure. The way we can travel is a luxury. Though tourism has become a billion dollar industry, most of the seven billion people on this planet cannot travel for “pleasure” or to find “authentic” experiences. A large number of people moving around the world today are refugees, migrants, internally displaced peoples, immigrants, or victims of trafficking. Millions of people are uprooting themselves to seek physical safety and fiscal opportunity. We should be keenly aware that “wanderlust” is a phrase one can only sigh from the comfort of an armchair in front of a fire. The type of travel we speak about at this campus—and many similar institutions across this country—is a privilege. Our privilege allows us to relatively easily obtain a visa and comfortably cruise into the terminal of an airport. The hardest part of the trip is probably a calf cramp and a rude neighbor in seat B28. While writing this I feel uncomfortable with myself. I am guilty on all of the above counts, but it was necessary for me to write this piece as a self-confrontation. I’m not aiming for vilification here, nor am I calling for a halt to travel because each of us is possibly a miniature-Christopher Columbus. What I aim to do is to create a space for greater reflection and genuine engagement with the reasons why we as a cohort travel. If we really want to be “ethical” or “conscientious” or “meaningful” travelers we need squarely look at our motives and our privilege. After reflection, “meaningful” travel is a different creature entirely from the Service, Authentic, or Getaway Trips. Our ways of interfacing with the world—as either needing our help, as our next vacation spot, or as our spiritual solution—needs to be deconstructed. Biases and preconceived notions, feelings of pity or paternalism, concepts of underdeveloped and developed, our understanding of lacking or having—these all need to be unlearned. Travel should be a process to unsettle ourselves, upset our values, to move and be moved, removed, unglued, misconstrued. We cannot diminish our privilege or take it away. It is as stuck to us as our skin covering our muscles, and our muscles girding our bones. We simultaneously perceive and are perceived through the lens of privilege. This narrow mindset means that we travel narrowly. To find meaningful travel, we need to throw open wide our windows of perception. O September 28, 2015
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ARTS & CULTURE
CAN YOUR PAINTBRUSH CHANGE THE WORLD? By Anna Hernandez 22
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PHOTO BY MADISON HAFITZ
ARTS & CULTURE
O
n one of her last days teaching English in Guatemala City, a group of students ran up to Tufts senior Madison Hafitz singing “head, shoulders, knees, and toes,” a song she had taught them during her two weeks volunteering there. Hafitz only spoke a little Spanish, and admits that this made teaching at and communicating with the school where she volunteered challenging. “I feel like I did make an impact on those kids in the sense that I did teach them something. But it’s also the type of thing where I’m not sure how much was retained,” she said. When Hafitz went abroad to do community service work in 2013, she was among over 1.5 million young people who also participated in this growing trend known as voluntourism. Voluntourism offers the tourist a chance to experience a new place and be immersed in a different culture while feeling like they’re making a difference. To the modern Western traveler, it’s the best of both worlds. Hafitz’s experience in Guatemala inspired her to lead two service trips this past summer in Costa Rica through an organization called Westcoast Connection / 360° Student Travel. Hafitz led groups of teenagers aged 14 to 16 in repairing and painting houses. But she noticed that, for many, the goal of the trip wasn’t to serve. “We had a lot of issues on these trips… in terms of explaining to the kids that we were here for the service trip, not to take the Instagram photos. Some kids were doing it for high school service credit, others because their parents were making them do it,” she said. Hafitz went into her voluntourism experience with a focus on contributing to the community, but that is not always the case. “If people want to travel and see the world, then doing service is a totally okay thing as long as they’re not just doing it to be able to say that they did it,” said Hafitz. Cathy Stanton, an anthropology professor at Tufts, agrees. “[Voluntourism] is not inherently bad. The question is who is organizing it, and who is participating.”
Stanton said a trip shouldn’t just be about what the voluntourist can get out of the experience, but how they can actually help. Though a community in need of aid may benefit from unskilled volunteers, they might benefit even more from the help of people who volunteer their specialized skills. “There’s no formula for figuring out the right way to do this…every case is going to be different. There isn’t a one size fits all,” Stanton said. But there may be ways to use voluntourism to simultaneously make an impact on communities and promote cross cultural learning and interaction. Tufts thinks they have a solution. Tufts hopes to create an ideal type of service abroad with its new 1+4 BridgeYear program. The program is different than the traditional short-term voluntour-
A trip shouldn’t just be about what the voluntourist can get out of the experience, but how they can actually help. ism opportunities. By urging students to volunteer for longer periods of time, the program will “enable students to both learn from, and have a lasting impact at their placement,” according to Jessica Crowe-Rothstein, the administrator of the new program. The current placements are offered through partnerships with existing organizations, including Global Citizen Year in Brazil, Amigos de las Américas in Nicaragua, and United Planet in Spain. Service opportunities include environmental sustainability, child development, and community health, among others. The program is centered on active citizen-
ship, provides financial aid, and includes programming that continues on the Tufts campus after the year is over. But there are still critics of Tufts’ 1+4 Bridge-Year program and voluntourism in general. They are all saying similar things: tourists often volunteer for reasons centered on their own entertainment and overestimate the contributions they make in communities. Rafia Zakaria, a journalist for the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, said, “The willing, paying, and often unskilled are led to believe that hapless villages can be transformed by schools built on a twoweek trip and diseases eradicated by the digging of wells during spring breaks…. The helpers can see and touch those they are saving and take evidence of their new nobility home with them.” Voluntourism has the power to take the do-good, idealistic enthusiasm of tourists and reinforce the idea that the rest of the world needs to be saved by the affluent—and usually white—Western world. As Stanton puts it, “Voluntourism can help create a belief that people in need of Western aid are unable to help themselves.” Not only critics of voluntourism, but also voluntourism organizations themselves, have noted problems with their outreach. “What I think often gets lost is the host communities,” said Theresa Higgs of United Planet in Boston during an interview with NPR. “Are they gaining? Are they winning? Are they true partners in this? Or are they simply a means to an end to a student’s learning objective, to someone’s desire to have fun on vacation and learn something?” With more young people getting on planes to volunteer abroad every year, voluntourism isn’t going away any time soon. But, there is a possibility that it can be remodeled. According to Crowe-Rothstein, when involved over longer periods of time, voluntourists can make lasting change and connections with a community by using pre-existing and honed skills. O
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ARTS & CULTURE
OFF THE GRID HOW TOURISM AND INTERNATIONAL DESTINATIONS ARE CHANGING By Carly Olson and Xander Landen
B
etween September 12th and 17th, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) held their annual general assembly meeting in Medellin, Colombia. This city of two million nestled in the mountains of the country’s northwestern region served as the backdrop for UNWTO members to present new data—proof of the changing landscape of international tourism. The UNTWO works with economically developing nations, encouraging and teaching them how to use tourism to grow their local economies while preserving their cultural heritage. At the general assembly, the UNWTOs Secretary-General Taleb Rifai gave a speech highlighting Medellin’s recent success as a tourist destination. He stated that now, more than ever, cities like Medellin that were recently off most tourists’ radars, have the potential to become thriving international destinations and can benefit from it. According to the UNWTO, Medellin’s effort to develop its tourism industry by improving its infrastructure and transportation systems has paid off in economic development and helped remove its stigma as a dangerous place. “[Tourism] has the potential to de-
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liver on some of the most pressing challenges of our time, namely job creation, economic growth, and social inclusion,” he said. In 2014, travel to Columbia went up by 12 percent. But it’s not the only nation on the continent that saw an increase in popularity. International tourism throughout South America increased by 5 percent from 2013 to 2014. These numbers are certainly significant, especially when compared with those of other historically popular tourist destinations, like western and southern Europe. The UNWTO published a report in late 2014 titled “Tourism Highlights, 2015 Edition,” detailing the percentage of tourism growth worldwide, as well as projected growth. The report noted that Europe still boasted the highest absolute tourist numbers in 2014, but other areas of the globe are experiencing surges in popularity stronger than their European counterparts. South America and the Middle East saw an average annual growth of 5.1 percent and 4.7 percent of tourists, respectively, between 2005 and 2014. Also experiencing notable growth are the regions of Southeast Asia (7.9 percent) and South Asia (8.6 percent). Europe’s annual growth per-
centage was much lower—only 2.8 percent overall. The UNWTO report also predicts that the patterns from the past decade are expected to continue. According to these numbers, tourists are more inclined to travel to the regions of South America, South and Southeast Asia, and the Middle East than ever before. Why are these regions gaining appeal now? And with whom? American millennials are a driving force behind this shift in destination popularity. According to Dr. Deepak Chhabra, a sustainability scientist and tourism expert at Arizona State University, millennials are seeking travel destinations that center on cultural immersion, especially in nations that feel particularly unfamiliar. Chhabra calls this interest in engaging with foreign communities and customs “culture 3.0,” and cites it as a reason that a lot of young Americans are now avoiding beach and resort vacations in favor of ones that take them to global cities, or ones based in wilderness exploration. “There’s a demand to immerse in intangible heritage,” said Chhabra. Simply put, culture 3.0 is more centered on a unique experience for the tourist and less on traditional sightseeing associated with destinations like London
ART BY TESS DENNISON AND LYNETTE BIAN
ARTS & CULTURE
Average Annual Growth Rate of Tourism by Region Over the Past 10 Years 7.9%
8.6%
5.1% 2.3%
3.6%
and Paris. It’s also incredibly valuable to young Americans who are using travel to broaden their cultural scope and engage with something completely new, according to Chhabra. Culture 3.0 is something that cities like London and Paris cannot provide for young tourists. John Kester, who specializes in tourism and marketing trends at the UNWTO, said that young people have an urge to be original in the travel destinations that they choose. “It’s important for a lot of people to distinguish themselves. If half the people you know have already been to London or Paris, you’d rather make a statement by saying ‘I’ve been to Marrakesh.’” The UNWTO advises that the strategy of a nation trying to attract international tourists should be to preserve its cultural heritage. In a promotional video for Medellin, the narrator notes the “indigenous roots” and “traditions” that are expected to make Medellin attractive to tourists from all over the world. In a deep, sincere voice, the narrator bellows, “Medellin is culture.” Kester argues that expanding tourism industries only helps preserve a nation’s culture. “There are sufficient examples of
4.7%
countries where you might see cultural habits and elements disappear and because of tourism they experience a revival,” he said. Though this tourist surge has undeniably helped cities like Medellin create jobs for their residents, there are some negative implications to consider. Critics say that encouraging countries to hold on to their culture in order to attract tourists is leading to exotification. Tourists may seek culture in a place like Medellin because it gives them an opportunity to feel superior. This can be problematic, and it may not be worth the economic benefits that the nations are reaping, according to UC Berke-
ley senior researcher Alexis Celeste Bunten. “As part and parcel of [tourism’s] intimacy, hosts must submit to the ‘tourist gaze,’ compounding the objectification (and, in a sense, the dehumanization) of the host in relation to the tourist,” she said in her 2008 article “Sharing Culture or Selling Out?” In its “Global Code of Ethics For Tourism,” the UNWTO does emphasize that tourism should primarily benefit the host community, and it strives to protect this mission in its outreach. Nonetheless, it remains difficult to draw a clear boundary between commodification and cultural respect. O
Millenials are seeking travel destinations that center on cultural immersion, especially in nations that feel particularly unfamiliar.
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YOUR FRIENDS IN BOLIVIA
TECH & INNOVATION
Travel Apps and the Sharing Economy By Nick Ficeto
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“H
ola. You’ve got friends in Bolivia.” These words, scrawled across the homepage of Couchsurfing.com in large, bold text, invite you to explore the 1,000,000+ listings worldwide the site has to offer. Couchsurfing isn’t revolutionary so much in its concept as it is in its modern implementation—with 10 million “friends” to connect with and over a million “couches” available to sleep on, the possibilities abound. Airbnb, an online service that lets residents rent out some part of their home to travelers, offers a similarly benevolent message: “Welcome home. Rent unique places to stay from local hosts in 190+ countries.” With either of these services, you can browse in the morning and sleep across the world the following evening. The rising popularity of these websites within the past decade sends a clear message: travelers, particularly those of today’s youth generation, are steering clear of traditional online booking methods like hotel websites in favor of quick, cheap, and accessible alternatives that link them directly to an individual host. With Airbnb, booking is as simple as contacting a host and determining whether a match seems appropriate. Couchsurfing goes a step further, as co-founder Dan Hoffer described the process of creating a full personality profile and matching with other travelers or hosts as being akin to “online dating.” Thus, the thrill of finding a host or residence that uniquely suits your criteria is inherent in this experience. With young travelers seeking lodging to accommodate flexible travel schedules and a sense of youthful spontaneity, sites like Airbnb and Couchsurfing fit the bill. As Palmer Fritschy recounts in a blog for the Spectator Tribune, the benefits of using Airbnb over traditional hostels for students touring Europe on a budget are numerous. The best aspects of a hostel remain intact, as student travelers can meet others with similar ambitions and expose themselves to unfamiliar cultures. Tufts University sophomore Maude Plucker reminisced on her experiences one summer traveling Europe with friends, “We became more immersed living in a residential neighborhood…The owner of our apartment in Barcelona gave us a list of local places where tourists never ICON BY PIGER VIA THE NOUN PROJECT
TECH & INNOVATION
go.” Unlike hostels, however, homey living rooms and private bathrooms take the place of standard shared common rooms. Versatility prevails as one can choose to book anything from a shared apartment to a private flat, at any time, while the apps’ remote payment features ensures optimal convenience and security. This is not to say that there aren’t drawbacks. The lack of a front desk means that waiting for flaky owners could be an issue. For hosts, there is concern over the liability of travelers—one infamous Airbnb incident includes one couple’s home interior being destroyed in the aftermath of a druginduced orgy. As for Couchsurfing, the quality of a traveler’s experience can be highly contingent on the particular host. While an ideal host may enlighten travelers to the ins and outs of a city or offer a local’s perspective on the surrounding area, the prevalence of “sexsurfing,” a term used by some travelers to describe incidents of sexual activity between travelers and hosts, has been sufficient to make some pause and reconsider. But on a broader scale, what does the use of these sites mean to us as consumers? Knowingly or unknowingly, this new breed of travelers is constructing a model that has economists fascinated: the “sharing economy.” Described by Forbes contributor Tomio Geron as an “economy in which asset owners use digital means to capitalize the unused capacity of things they already have,” young consumers are now turning towards their peers as opposed to established businesses for services like accommodations. This may be attributed to an underlying growing distrust of corporate enterprises. Additionally, Geron believes there are holistic “economic, environmental and lifestyle reasons” at play; passive income has now become as easy as ownership of some rentable good, facilitated by the vast networks of the World Wide Web. Considering recent history, the eruption of the sharing economy may come as little surprise. Take a look at groundbreaking consumption platforms of the 21st century in online marketplaces. eBay made it possible for anyone to sell anything, as asset ownership equated profit. Sites like Craigslist gave rise not only to massive audiences for goods for sale, but
also to a freelance “gig economy,” where one could offer services to others for a fixed price without having to go through the hassle of a middleman or agency. Take this a step further, and the recent establishment of Uber as a formidable force within the transportation industry has allowed users to share their vehicle for a profit. It would be a short time before tech engineers would capitalize on the potential of this “sharing for profit” concept to expand to other industries—in this case, travel. But is the sharing economy truly fiscally viable for companies involved? It depends. In spite of Couchsurfing’s massive popularity, especially in years
Knowingly or unknowingly, this new breed of traveler is constructing a model that has economists fascinated: the “sharing economy.” prior to the explosion of Airbnb, their original model stressed too much social capital (i.e. connecting travelers) and not enough fiscal capital; its lack of revenue led to its near demise. If anything, a business model based solely on social connections is perhaps more utopian than it is sustainable. As a distinctly for-profit company, however, Airbnb tells a different narrative. With a $25.5 billion valuation as of June 2015, exceeding that of both Avis and Hertz car rental companies, Airbnb has dramatically disturbed the hospitality industry. Reactions to its success and tentative economic effects have ranged from praise, to vehement objection, to plain uncertainty, with particular attention paid to who benefits and who suffers.
For economics journalist Paul Mason, the sharing economy entails both disruptive and yet socially positive implications. With individuals involved in Airbnb acting as both producers (hosts), and consumers (travelers), the corporation handling the transactions is the only thing stopping the individual from reaping all the profits. Thus, if individuals were to gradually take greater ownership of the controlling side, greater economic inclusion would be achieved. The result? A society built off of greater social justice and economic opportunity for everyone. It may sound idealistic, but the visions of early 20th century socialists would be better realized with this sharing model than they would be via traditional versions of capitalism. Others, however, have been swift to protest the already visible negative economic effects of Airbnb. While those involved in major hotel chains remain surprisingly unfazed, with Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson going so far to call the website a mere “interesting experiment,” lower-priced hotels have already been adversely affected. Thus, owners have voiced demands for fair regulation of the company (as cities like Barcelona have already implemented), since they have been forced to slash rates to survive amidst industry changes. But criticism has also been brewing amongst a much larger group: residents. In an article for the New York Times, Nicole Gelinas scorns local politicians for the lack of regulation on Airbnb, with rent prices in major cities—including New York and San Francisco—climbing in the past year as a likely result of the business. With a 13.8 percent increase in Airbnb listings over the last year, a subsequent decreased supply of apartments (as some reserve use of their residence exclusively for Airbnb) in high demand areas has meant an inevitable rise in real estate costs. These changes may be far-reaching enough to alter the way we look at business in the future. Whether these occurrences are the result of classic capitalistic competition or an indication that the sharing economy is going to necessitate some government-induced changes is only for time to tell. Sometimes convenience comes at a price—it is this generation that will decide what that price will be. O September 28, 2015
Tufts Observer
27
POLICE BLOTTER
Police Blotter
By Moira Lavelle
Surprise Party
Sunday, September 6, 11:30pm
TUPD responded to a noise complaint at an off-campus residence. Officers cleared people out and approximately 100 people left through the front door. Officers spoke to the residents who stated that they had not organized the party. One resident stated he had simply woken up from a nap to hundreds of people in his house who he did not recognize. Officers asked who in fact had organized the party and both residents remained silent.
A Small Saturday, September 19, 11:15pm Gathering
TUPD broke up a large party at the International House, noting a large number of students and red solo cups. As partygoers were exiting, TUPD found several students trying to hide in bedrooms on the first floor. The students were asked to leave repeatedly. Residents stated it was “originally supposed to be a small gathering, but people kept showing up,� and insisted that, to the best of their knowledge, no alcohol was being served. Officers then pointed out several beer cans, bottles of wine, handles, and cups. The party was shut down, restarted again later in the night, and then shut down once again.
Pot Bust
Saturday, September 19, 11:30 pm
In a page-long TUPD write-up, officers reported that they were on patrol on Professors Row when they observed debris on the roadway. Upon inspection they determined it was a smashed plastic flowerpot, dirt, and flowers. Officers observed a similar plastic pot with flowers still standing on a nearby walkway beside an indented circle in the ground where the pot should have been! Officers deduced that someone picked up the pot and carried the pot approximately two yards to the road where they then smashed it. There are no suspects at this time. 28
Tufts Observer
September 28, 2015
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