Madagascar's Take on Western Civilization

A Reddit who traveled to Madagascar relates how the locals viewed western society:

  • “They think we are pretty silly. We have virtually endless sources of education from the internet and yet we spend our time doing other things. Likewise, we have access to doctors but don’t use them that much.
  • “In no way do we appreciate the amount of money we have. Even the poorest people of the Western world are lucky compared to them. I felt incredibly guilty when spending an entire day’s wages on coca cola.
  • “We are also (this is all according to them) very wasteful. After buying my coke, I drank it and handed the bottle back, where it could be cleaned and used again. How often does that happen here?
  • “Do they hate us? The people I spent most of my time around were Merina (a Malagasy tribe) and very polite, so I don’t really know. You can’t really generalise. Some – especially those on farms being exploited by the US (yes, the US are complete bastards in Madagascar) had reason to dislike America. Others were fascinated and genuinely happy to see us. Ask yourself this, do you hate Saudi Arabia? Probably. Do you hate Saudi Arabians? No, not most of them.
  • “Even in rural, remote areas of the country Western influence is felt. The image of the white woman being the most beautiful is something projected everywhere.
  • “They generally presume we are intelligent, but also domineering. Many will be surprised upon seeing a white person doing work.”

via reddit

Image from http://madagasikaratour.wordpress.com/


Posted

in

by

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *