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Doing Good?
Last night, we had a surprise. On the National Geographic Channel there was a show entitled "Taboo". Last night's episode was about Body Modification.
I won't get into the portion of the show that dealt with the 38 year old man in Miami who underwent silicone implants in his buttocks so that he would have a "bootilious" behind. I did get the impression though that his surgeon was very experienced in implanting things into men's backsides.
Last night's program was about the taboos involved in achieving what one's society considers as beauty. The portion of the program that was most interesting to us was the portion dealing with the "khun gahlien coryao" - Giraffe Women or Long Necked Women of the Paduang sect of the Karen hill tribe people.
The program was very informative and factual. The thrill for us was to see and hear two people that we actually had seen and talked to on previous visits to their refugee camp. One person is a very precocious 10 year old girl who I met twice at the entrance to her village. She is a natural salesperson. She goes to school and is proud to show tourists her school. She is also very happy to sell you pictures of her schoolmates as well as special stationary.
The other person that we knew on the program was an elderly woman. She is a widow and her daughter had unexpectedly died in the Fall of 2006. I first met her in December 2006. When I returned in April 2007 with Duang, they had a very long conversation. The woman is a tragic figure but a survivor. I hope to check on her when we return to Maehongson.
The show actually surprised me in that it was supportive of the Karen culture of women wrapping brass tubing around their necks. During the portion regarding the Paduang people, a young female scholar, who had lived with the tribe for five months, stated that the Karen are in control of their lives in the village, the villagers were not inhabitants of a human zoo, and that the women were not exploited.
This is not politically correct. Many websites and publications indicated that the women are oppressed and the villages are tantamount to human zoos.
I was outraged when I first visited the village of Huay Sua Tao. Prior to going to Maehongson, I had researched my trip. The guide books were not very complimentary regarding visiting the Paduang people. The publications "left" it up to the reader to make their own decision regarding visiting the villages. The guide books informed the reader that the villages were like a human zoos, and that the women were exploited.
My overriding desire to photograph and meet unique people over rode whatever guilt trip that publications attempted to induce. Once I hade entered the village and took the time to speak with the people, I realized that the guide books were wrong. I became angry at the audacity of the writers and publishers. I discussed this with the head man of the village, Khun La Mae. I will assume that the writers and publishers be they in New York or London meant in their minds to do good for the Paduang people. But I doubt that they spent any time to thoroughly research and to determine for themselves the facts.
The people in the refugee camps rely heavily upon entrance fees and purchases of souvenirs from tourists for their survival. The women are free to wear or not wear the coil around their neck. The women who choose to wear the coils decide to out of respect for their centuries old culture and out of tradition. To discourage people from visiting the villages affects the ability of the inhabitants to earn a meager living. They have very limited resources at their disposal to make money. To apply outside standards upon their culture to restrict the effectiveness of their resources is unconscionable.
To have my observations of Paduang life affirmed by a person who actually lived with the people for five months was gratifying.
The insight of last night's program was that beauty was in the eye of the beholder within that particular culture. As appalling to us as wearing neck rings in the Paduang culture, or scarring of a young boy's body to give him crocodile skin in an African tribal society, we similarly modify our bodies for the same reasons. We have breast implants, calf implants, face lifts, nose jobs, tattoos, and the aforementioned buttocks implants to be more beautiful in terms of our culture's standards.
My recent documentation of the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is another example of abhorrent behavior in terms of our culture. But is it wrong? I can not say so. I just find it very interesting. Do I approve? It does not matter if I approve or disapprove. I only accept it as it is. It is their culture and it works for them.
People trying to do “good” are often very dangerous people. The act of doing “good” often involves judging that the current situation is bad and that it must be corrected. What is good for one people is often bad for another people within the context of their individual cultures. It doesn't make one right or the other wrong. They are just different.
Often the attempt to do good reduces the effectiveness to assist.
I remember shortly after I left Algeria in 1996, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton made a tour of North Africa to highlight the need for equal pay for women in the Muslim world. I was insulted at the arrogance of their quest. I had just left a country where women did not know what they were going to feed their families that night. I had left a country where people were living in quarters that you would be in trouble with the authorities in California if you kept animals in similar conditions. I had left a country where there was no hope for the future, a place where people only wanted to leave if they only could.
Applying American standards and priorities in that situation, denigrated any good intentions there may have been. How can you help and assist when you demonstrate a lack of knowledge for the immediate problem? To assist and help, you need to first establish credibility - for your intentions as well as your abilities.
I don't try to do good anymore. I only try to help when and where I can.
I help and assist people within their culture as they wish as well as how they see that I can. If there are issues that I can not support, I do not help nor do I feel compelled to do good by trying to change things to my approval.
I expect and hope that they would give me the same considerations.
Life is simpler and happier - for me.
I wonder what it would be like if a similar philosophy applied to government policies.
Last night, we had a surprise. On the National Geographic Channel there was a show entitled "Taboo". Last night's episode was about Body Modification.
I won't get into the portion of the show that dealt with the 38 year old man in Miami who underwent silicone implants in his buttocks so that he would have a "bootilious" behind. I did get the impression though that his surgeon was very experienced in implanting things into men's backsides.
Last night's program was about the taboos involved in achieving what one's society considers as beauty. The portion of the program that was most interesting to us was the portion dealing with the "khun gahlien coryao" - Giraffe Women or Long Necked Women of the Paduang sect of the Karen hill tribe people.
The program was very informative and factual. The thrill for us was to see and hear two people that we actually had seen and talked to on previous visits to their refugee camp. One person is a very precocious 10 year old girl who I met twice at the entrance to her village. She is a natural salesperson. She goes to school and is proud to show tourists her school. She is also very happy to sell you pictures of her schoolmates as well as special stationary.
The other person that we knew on the program was an elderly woman. She is a widow and her daughter had unexpectedly died in the Fall of 2006. I first met her in December 2006. When I returned in April 2007 with Duang, they had a very long conversation. The woman is a tragic figure but a survivor. I hope to check on her when we return to Maehongson.
The show actually surprised me in that it was supportive of the Karen culture of women wrapping brass tubing around their necks. During the portion regarding the Paduang people, a young female scholar, who had lived with the tribe for five months, stated that the Karen are in control of their lives in the village, the villagers were not inhabitants of a human zoo, and that the women were not exploited.
This is not politically correct. Many websites and publications indicated that the women are oppressed and the villages are tantamount to human zoos.
I was outraged when I first visited the village of Huay Sua Tao. Prior to going to Maehongson, I had researched my trip. The guide books were not very complimentary regarding visiting the Paduang people. The publications "left" it up to the reader to make their own decision regarding visiting the villages. The guide books informed the reader that the villages were like a human zoos, and that the women were exploited.
My overriding desire to photograph and meet unique people over rode whatever guilt trip that publications attempted to induce. Once I hade entered the village and took the time to speak with the people, I realized that the guide books were wrong. I became angry at the audacity of the writers and publishers. I discussed this with the head man of the village, Khun La Mae. I will assume that the writers and publishers be they in New York or London meant in their minds to do good for the Paduang people. But I doubt that they spent any time to thoroughly research and to determine for themselves the facts.
The people in the refugee camps rely heavily upon entrance fees and purchases of souvenirs from tourists for their survival. The women are free to wear or not wear the coil around their neck. The women who choose to wear the coils decide to out of respect for their centuries old culture and out of tradition. To discourage people from visiting the villages affects the ability of the inhabitants to earn a meager living. They have very limited resources at their disposal to make money. To apply outside standards upon their culture to restrict the effectiveness of their resources is unconscionable.
To have my observations of Paduang life affirmed by a person who actually lived with the people for five months was gratifying.
The insight of last night's program was that beauty was in the eye of the beholder within that particular culture. As appalling to us as wearing neck rings in the Paduang culture, or scarring of a young boy's body to give him crocodile skin in an African tribal society, we similarly modify our bodies for the same reasons. We have breast implants, calf implants, face lifts, nose jobs, tattoos, and the aforementioned buttocks implants to be more beautiful in terms of our culture's standards.
My recent documentation of the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is another example of abhorrent behavior in terms of our culture. But is it wrong? I can not say so. I just find it very interesting. Do I approve? It does not matter if I approve or disapprove. I only accept it as it is. It is their culture and it works for them.
People trying to do “good” are often very dangerous people. The act of doing “good” often involves judging that the current situation is bad and that it must be corrected. What is good for one people is often bad for another people within the context of their individual cultures. It doesn't make one right or the other wrong. They are just different.
Often the attempt to do good reduces the effectiveness to assist.
I remember shortly after I left Algeria in 1996, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton made a tour of North Africa to highlight the need for equal pay for women in the Muslim world. I was insulted at the arrogance of their quest. I had just left a country where women did not know what they were going to feed their families that night. I had left a country where people were living in quarters that you would be in trouble with the authorities in California if you kept animals in similar conditions. I had left a country where there was no hope for the future, a place where people only wanted to leave if they only could.
Applying American standards and priorities in that situation, denigrated any good intentions there may have been. How can you help and assist when you demonstrate a lack of knowledge for the immediate problem? To assist and help, you need to first establish credibility - for your intentions as well as your abilities.
I don't try to do good anymore. I only try to help when and where I can.
I help and assist people within their culture as they wish as well as how they see that I can. If there are issues that I can not support, I do not help nor do I feel compelled to do good by trying to change things to my approval.
I expect and hope that they would give me the same considerations.
Life is simpler and happier - for me.
I wonder what it would be like if a similar philosophy applied to government policies.
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