Maltese hunters and trappers often complain about the German-based organisation CABS (Committee Against Bird Slaughter) activists and their like, who regularly visit Malta as volunteer ‘tourists’, on missions to help us poor Maltese.
The accusations against these tourists range from spying on one’s privacy through the illegal flying of drones and the use of other sophisticated equipment, trespassing, harassment, theft, exercise of pretended authority rights, filming and photo shooting of people without their permission, which shots are then made public irrespective of any data protection legislation; illegal possession of protected birds, etc.
However, none of these ‘tourists’ has ever been found guilty of any of these accusations by the Maltese law courts, except for one single instance when in 2012, the local (not a ‘tourist’) CABS representative was found guilty by the Gozo courts of the criminal act of exercise of pretended rights and of trespass, for which he was fined a miserable €100.
The same Gozo court that last week imposed a €5,000 fine and permanent revocation of the hunting licence of a Maltese young man. The same court that has just acquitted British TV presenter and volunteer ‘tourist’ Chris Packham from the accusations brought against him for assault of Maltese nationals including a Maltese police officer.
From what one reads about Packham, in the UK he is regarded more of a comedian than the environment protectionist he professes to be, and yet, when he visits Malta we roll out the red carpet.
It is also ironic, that in this Brexit era (and I do immensely admire the British population’s courage in the referendum vote) on his acquittal, Packham demanded that the Maltese authorities abide by the EU’s “birds” directive.
It is just as well shameful, that these volunteer ‘tourists’ are invited by BirdLife Malta, notwithstanding the harm they cause to the Maltese islands. I challenge any Maltese national who can watch Packham’s video clip on You Tube not to feel offended to the point of throwing up, by Packham’s facial expressions and sarcastic remarks about the Maltese people, police, law courts and Malta in general.
It is unfortunate how things are skewed in the media around such ‘celebrities’, and thus understandable why BirdLife Malta keep inviting these volunteer ‘tourists’ to Malta, by whom they are often led by the nose. It is also an undeniable fact that these happen at this time of year, the annual media ‘news’ eruptions because of the very important traditional spring hunt in Malta.
Racial neocolonialism happens when the tourist presumes to be ‘expert’ and know what is best for the hosts, and thus assume a cultural superiority complex
Even though this Maltese servile manner is far from the colonial days when I, as a boy, would have patiently waited in line for a considerable time at a grocery store, only to be overtaken by some English lady who would be served immediately on entry, I feel almost ashamed to admit that the Maltese attitude of looking up to anything or anybody foreign is still very present today.
I’m afraid I am not that convinced that Independence in 1964, Freedom Day in 1979 and EU membership in 2004, did much to free the Maltese from colonial influence, which, I do admit, wasn’t all bad.
Volunteer tourism endorses exchanges between the volunteer tourists’ culture and the host destination’s community’s culture or way of life. This intercultural exchange strengthens this category of tourists’ feeling of dominance over the host country’s population.
Guttentag (2009) lists the negative impacts of volunteer tourists as the cultural dominant influence of the volunteer tourists over the destination’s community; the attempted infliction of the tourist’s culture on the host people; and the disregard of the residents’ needs.
Colonialism may at times be the reason why today volunteers from the ‘first’ or ‘north’ world choose to travel to aid the ‘third’ or ‘south’ because they may feel guilty and responsible for occurrences in colonial times.
Neocolonialists nomination can only be neutralised if one eliminates the superiority complex attitude of ‘us’, the volunteers, being better than ‘them’, the locals (Palacios, 2010). Oppenheim (2012) says the arrogance of volunteer tourists who at times regard the destination locals as helpless, brings out the cultural imperialism in these types of tourists.
According to Raymond and Hall (2008) racial neocolonialism happens when the tourist presumes to be ‘expert’ and know what is best for the hosts, and thus assume a cultural superiority complex, while Sin (2010) says that because of the superiority complex of the volunteers, volunteer tourism results in conflicts and problems to the host community.
The author further says that such conflicts could arise in instances when hosts look upon the volunteers as some rich interfering beings with nothing better to do; big spoilt persons who think they can change things for the better in a relatively short time; people who do not want to interrelate with the locals believing that they have nothing to learn themselves, but can only teach better ways according to their own culture since they think that their hosts’ culture is no good.
Oppenheim (2012) says that charity should begin at home, and before venturing off to carry out volunteer work to protect some natural environment, regardless of the carbon footprint that such travel produces, volunteer tourists should first investigate if they can help in their home environment.
CABS and other volunteer ‘tourists’ visit the Maltese islands during wild bird migration periods to act as ‘bird guards’. These people overlook bird-killing illegalities taking place in their home country; their visits are for short periods, when they also holiday by taking advantage of the warm Mediterranean weather; and since they have no prior visit communication with their hosts, some cultural exchanges with the Maltese, especially rural landowners, including hunters and trappers, have at times resulted in conflicts, mostly due to their superiority attitudes which are abundantly evident and their disrespect of Maltese culture and traditions.
In conclusion, it is clear that in volunteer tourism neocolonialism is inevitable because of people’s different cultures, and therefore yes, CABS and their like’s presence in Malta, promote intercultural exchanges that rationalise and reinforce neocolonialism.
Lino Farrugia is CEO of the hunters’ federation (FKNK).