Thread: One thing the pandemic has done is reduce western protest tourism, the habit of very privileged people to go abroad and "protest" something, rather than do activism in their own communities, usually involving super-wealthy stunts, five star hotels, first class travel.

This whole sub-culture of protest tourism was common in Israel and the Palestinian areas, activists would jet in and go to Hebron for the afternoon, and then go for drinks in Tel Aviv...while "boycotting" Israel...on the beach one day...in the "trenches" of the protest the next

The poor people in places like Hebron would feel for a day that they were adored and loved by these westerners, but days later the activists would be gone, they had their photos to "prove" they did it...they got their funds and "authentic" struggle T-shirt...now off for drinks

This went on for years, a multi-million dollar protect activist culture, some groups even advertised their weeklong "adventure" to do protests...feeding their paternalistic "savior" complex...patting themselves on the back later at home.

And all this ended with the pandemic. The ability of westerners to jet off to take photos with the starving, the poor, the vulnerable, vulture off them and then leave...it all ended. Are the poor worse off? No. But less money for the already privileged.

The pandemic affords us time to see, did the protest tourism ever help, or did it feed a kind of abusive sub-culture...preying on the vulnerable, giving false hope, creating a niche of super privileged who profited off it.

I think in almost no instance did the protest tourists, riding SUVs, pretending to "build a school" ever help...and all it did is provide salaries to the already privileged, create a sub-culture to profit off the poor. They even built resumes on it...got jobs based on it.

Organizations devoted to this never had to hire locals, so they created artificial aspects of local economies, to exploit. But now we can have a year of data to see...how much did these people contribute to local economies...where did the cash go?

There is no reason the protest tourism dollars and euros couldn't be spent to pay local organizers and activists, but it was redirected to pay people who jetted in from the UK, US, Norway or wherever.

I remember over years seeing people who came to protest in Jerusalem near Rehavia (a nice neighborhood) with their little vests with the name of some progressive church group or organization...and you wonder...these people affect nothing, they accomplish nothing, but vacation

They could have taken the tens of thousands wasted on each one for their nice hotels, five star meals, and provided it to locals, but it was all about them, taking photos, having fun on an "activist" trip. All to feed their ego. Kind of a neo-colonialism.

There is no evidence, for instance, that Israel's policies got better or worse just because of a few western protest tourists...over the last year of the pandemic, without them...has Israel been more abusive? I don't think so. So their real affect was on themselves.

If they wanted to they could have devoted resources to empowering locals, helping BUILD local institutions staffed by locals, not the fly-in first-class protest tourism, that redirects protest cash back to the EU or US.

The climate change stunts, with people traveling on a yacht to a "climate" conference have also stopped. Less yacht trips and first class travel to attend the "climate" conference...why not redirect the millions wasted on conferences and tickets to local activism?

This was a transparently profitable industry of organizations, coverage and stunts...from protests to "building schools" to fighting climate change...all of which could have been done without the trips that benefit the already privileged mostly. And this year has shown that.

You can still lobby governments to change, you can pay local activists, you can do it without the need for the super wealthy to jet off for a photo-op. This year has been good for reducing neo-colonialism. But it has been less fun for those who lived off this and got plaudits.