Misty-eyed reverence of nature & the ideology of tourism

BAYANGGUDAW NOTES. 24 DEC 2016. SAT. N3.
'Misty-eyed reverence of nature as sold by tourism companies and their patrons, the tourism-dependent states'

I THINK OF my island life in Honolulu, and I think of my island life in Luzon.

I think of all the government propaganda that zeroes in on the need to lure tourists and to entrap them into believing the deceptions of a Boracay as a haven of stillness and quiet, and rest and recreation.

But something is not said here: this misty-eyed reverence of nature (as seen in Boracay, for instance) via a calculated and a calculating language to seduce the prospective tourists into enjoying the sunset and that feeling of being served by servile people around, 'em a battalion of some sort at your beck and call provided you show the moolah, the euro and the yen and the dollar glistening under the morning sun the better.

The 'contravida' in me comes off most of the time when I realize the deployment of this tactic of 'misty-reverence of nature'.

I grin when I see this kind of a 'travelogue' language in newspapers and magazine.

Most guilty are the airline magazines, with their glossy pages and glossy prints, their typography a case of applied psychology, the typefaces meant to make you believe in the illusions of a place.

Through the years, I have stopped believing in government-sponsored tourism activities.

Through the years, I have come to believe in my feet, and with rucksack on my back, I go where the wind goes. In the gaps and silences of places and times, I see the contesting realities that I need to see and that teach all the time about real life lessons.

Let's go!

PDX/