Travel and the Tsunamis
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 01.10.05 | 10:14 PM ET
The catastrophe in South Asia touched the lives of millions of people around the world, including countless travelers. It was natural that newspaper travel sections address it. Yet judging from my brief online survey, few did, beyond issuing the requisite travel warnings. Thomas Swick of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, for one, wrote a thoughtful essay. “Before the earthquake, the line was clear,” he wrote. “There were the people on vacation, and the people working to serve them…Then the earth shook and the sea rose up, washing away houses, boats, people, distinctions. Hotel guests and maids, greased sunbathers and barefoot vendors, the woman getting a massage and her masseuse—all were embroiled in the same grisly waves. According to reports, nearly half of the people killed in Thailand were foreigners.” Meanwhile, an essay I wrote appeared in the Boston Globe pointing to one small bright spot in the tragic story: Although travelers to developing nations often get a bad rap in the media for a number of reasons, many travelers who were in South Asia when the tsunamis struck quickly pitched in, carrying bodies, distributing aid and picking through rubble. Some have remained to offer assistance. “[T]heir willingness to help,” I wrote, “instead of immediately returning home or setting off for carefree climes demonstrates a fact that too often gets overlooked: Travelers are capable of great good.”
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
