Saturday, October 21, 2006

...What dreams may come

Is anyone else offended by the new Ministry of Tourism ad campaign? Have you guys seen the print ads and outdoor lightboxes displaying images of chamber maids, waiters and street sweepers with the message "Tourism creates jobs for you and me" brazenly written underneath. I'm not mocking the service industry, but to present these menial jobs to the people as part of a national unemployment project is not only rude, it's short sighted and just plain bad economics. In their rabid pursuit for foreign investments the NDP have sold our dingity to the highest bidder, and managed to reduce us to a nation of panderers whilst trying to convince us that it's all for our own good. I think we should come up with a counter campaign that demands more for our children. Begad A7a!

ps. if any of you have pictures of these ads please let me know and I'll send you my email so you can forward them.

7 comments:

Forsoothsayer said...

i just they're just trying to discourage terrorists, not just promote tourism generally. plus, a job is a job.

Dee-Vine said...

THANK YOU!
i find them very offensive as well
what message are they trying to send?

Jester said...

Forsooth, I'm not by any means disrespecting the hardworking people who sometimes work two or three shifts a day to make ends meet, driving cabs, cleaning hotels, sweeping streets, but to advertise these jobs to the people as their salvation whether to discourage them from killing tourists or to trumpet the merits of selling off their lands and property to foreign companies is unacceptable. Besides, most of these are jobs of necessity, filled by graduates of universities and techinical institutes who can't find work
and resort to them to maintain sustenance.

Forsoothsayer said...

i don't think they're advertising them as their salvation. i think they're advertising them as jobs. i.e. sources of employment that will not be available if the tourists stop coming. and how do u know that these jobs are filled by educated persons? when you know that illiteracy is at 50%? i know the govt should be putting resources in properly utilizing skilled workers, but at the same time, these jobs do sustain a lot of people and they should be maintained as such.

Jester said...

Forsooth, we're in fact arguing around concepts that economists have been mulling over for years; free market economics vs. socialist economics. What I'm trying to convey, perhaps not very articulately, is that the brand of development that the government is advocating, touristic and otherwise, does little to achieve greater equality for its citizens. The approach deliberately impedes their participation in the control of the means of production, hence their destinies. So they make due sweeping streets, cleaning hotels, and waiting on tables, not because they're uneducated or illiterate, but because our government has preordained their fates for them.

Forsoothsayer said...

well...we know how socialism worked.

Jester said...

Forsoooooth, matgibihal bar ya Forsoooooth, socialist governments are doing fine in Scandinavia and Latin America ya Forsoooooth....(last word freak!)