Life on the Outside

My Summer Vacation … in a Third World Country

A few weeks ago I got a tip about a former Berthoud resident, whose father still lives in the area, who traveled to Honduras shortly after President Zelaya was ousted. Within 24 hours, I was able to interview the young man, a former LDS missionary named Neil Brandvold, who had traveled to the South American country to participate in the recent protests.

This ended up being a two-part series and garnered a fairly good number of comments for the size of the Berthoud paper (links to both stories are below).

Witness to History
Back on U.S. Soil

While I commend Neil for his passion and commitment to a cause so close to his heart, I was left a little stunned by his photos.
The interview was done by e-mail and I have no doubt about his commitment to the nearly 70 percent of the Honduran population that lives in poverty.
However, one of the images included in the many he posted, and similar to the one we ran on the front page, showed Brandvold posing in front of a line of military police – the same military police who later opened fire on an unarmed crowd of protestors. Brandvold and others he had traveled with were smiling and even laughing in the photos (at least until they were hit with tear gas) like they were on holiday.
Just when did political unrest, military coups and the death of innocent civilians become a tourist attraction. I realize Brandvold was by no means the only American involved in the Honduran protests. And I’ve heard stories of other Americans traveling to join protests in countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East but I wonder if this a growing trend among the under-30 crowd. There’s even a name for it, although it’s not as snazzy as eco-tourism, political tourism is on the upswing.
Perhaps my age really is showing. Perhaps I would have to be a 22-year-old activist to understand the attraction of traveling half-way around the world to a country thousands of others are desperately fleeing. I remember having this same reaction a few years back upon reading about U.S. citizens flying to these same countries to join in the military battles. Being involved in protests may be slightly less dangerous than joining in battle, but I still wonder what the public outcry in America will be should that 22-year-old American become yet another death reported from half way around the world.