Under the headline “Take a different trek”, The Adelaide Advertiser advises that “If your passport is full of the usual travel suspects it may be time for some new stamps”. They prescribe Mongolia, Russia, Sri Lanka, Peru and Burma as countries offering such new tourist experiences.
As I have highlighted in the past, the self-censorship of tourism writing on Burma must give the generals reason to smile. This most recent example shows, as if we needed any reminding, that de-historicised and de-politicised commercial descriptions can give a misleading perspective on local conditions. It’s an obvious point but it sometimes needs repeating.
The Adelaide Advertiser implores us to:
Explore the timeless beauty of Burma, one of the last remaining places where you can catch a glimpse of old Asia. Marvel as elders in traditional longyis walk beside golden pagodas and dilapidated colonial buildings. Hidden from the outside world for many years, Burma is home to special travel experiences – from mystical Bagan to the floating villages of Inle Lake.
I wouldn’t bother highlighting this example of the genre except that the author of this little feature, the Advertiser’s Travel Editor Jessica Hurt, has just pasted the copy of an Australian tour provider, Bunnik Tours, added a bit of “journalistic” finesse and put it under her own byline.
Underneath this description of “different treks” to Burma, Hurt goes on to make the commercial connection explicit:
Bunnik Tours has an 18-day tour from $3599 plus air taxes. It includes pre-departure information on Burma, return flights, three domestic flights within Burma, hotel accommodation for 13 nights, a two-night Irrawaddy Princess cruise, 15 breakfasts, two lunches and two dinners.
For details, phone Bunnik Tours on 1300 664 170 (free call) or visit www.bunniktours.com.au
I guess this is standard practice in the world of newspaper travel sections and advertorials. Is anybody at all surprised that only a few weeks ago “Jessica Hurt visited Egypt as a guest of Bunnik Tours”?
I am, however, mildly surprised that Bunnik Tours doesn’t demonstrate any understanding of Burma’s economy. According to the overview on their website, “the local currency Kyat (pronounced “Chat”) is equal to the US Dollar (1 = 1)”.
O dear.
Anyway, this is all just a digression before I get to the real point of this commentary.
The point is I do hope that Jessica Hurt takes one of these Bunnik Tours to Burma. To my mind, more journalists and better informed visitors are the only antidote to the disinformation that prevails around the world. Wasn’t it only this week that we learned, once again, just how strictly some people hope to control information about Burma! Under these conditions journalists who do make it to Burma (on a tour or by themselves) need to really think about what they are seeing and being told. If Jessica Hurt takes a Bunnik Tour to Burma I hope that she keeps an eye out for the many people who aren’t meekly accepting their smiling role in “Happyland“. And I hope she then writes about it.
Although if anybody (following the advice of Bunnik Tours) did ever change 500 US Dollars for 500 Kyat the Burmese vendor would have every reason to grin from ear to ear!
5 responses so far ↓
1 Pig Latin // May 5, 2007 at 11:23 am
Nicholas, The Advertiser is perhaps the worst paper in the country. If one of their journalists went to Burma they would probably try and build a Ray Martin stupa upon finding enlightenment. After building the stupa, the disinformation would continue unfortunately as the resulting articles would be a diatribe of gonzo, erratic confrontation that really they should have gone to Koh Samui.
I say this, and my father is reading it downstairs.
2 Jon Fernquest // May 5, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Thanks for this example of cheesy journalism in The Advertiser. I read it as a big incentive for someone to do a better job.
Namely instead of painting idiotic rosy pictures that exoticise the pitiful Burmese situation or add to the Soros funded horror story Burma genre, that people inevitably just zone out on after 20 years, like myself, read about the zillionth rape murder in the Burmese jungle, but what good is a story like this going to do after 20 years of these stories over and over again.
An elite commando brigade of baby Thaksin entrepreneurs being carefully raised in the jungle to defeat the evil junta with the forces of capitalism, that would be more becoming of billionaire Soros, after all he’s a businessman isn’t he?…etc, etc…something like that , might provide some hope.
3 Richard // May 6, 2007 at 1:19 am
I checked your link to current currency rates and gasped, it may have been a year or two since I actually looked and the rates but it seems to me that the Kyat is still much higher than it was not too long ago.
This site also gives close to the same amount 1US Dollar (USD) = 6.16260 Myanmar Kyat (MMK), perhaps I am remembering past black market values which I know have declined over the last couple years but hasn’t this “official” rate risen dramatically?
4 Nicholas Farrelly // May 6, 2007 at 4:07 am
Thanks Richard,
The last time I had reason to buy Kyat the going rate was 1340 to the Dollar. The “unofficial” rate does bobble up and down quite considerably.
I am not sure if the “official” rate (like the one given by this conversion webiste) really matters that much – although it is of some academic interest. Buying 6 Kyat to the dollar would, as you know, make visiting Burma a very expensive proposition!
Best wishes to all, and thanks for your comments.
5 aiontay // May 6, 2007 at 5:29 am
You could always apply for a grant from Soros for that commando captialist brigade. I’m not up on my thoughts of Soros like I should be, but I think his response would be that for that to work you would need an “Open Society”. Like I said, I’m not up on my Soros philosophy like I should be, but I’m pretty sure it ain’t even close to the regime in place like now, which favors Khun Sa capitalism, which a bit worse than the Thaksin variety.
Also, I think it is the military regime that is generating all those rape stories that are zoning you out, not the Soros foundation. Why direct your ire at the folks reporting the problem, rather than the people causing them?
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