India hopes to shame its citizens out of spitting and littering at tourist sites with an advertising campaign showing schoolchildren looking dismayed and disapproving of the dirty habit.
The walls of countless buildings in India are streaked with dried red spit generated by people chewing paan, a mildly intoxicating preparation wrapped in a leaf and often containing betel nut and tobacco.
The tourism ministry wants to convince people to think of more discreet places to deposit their phlegm, and is spending 50 million rupees ($1.12 million) on a campaign to instill civic pride it says is widely lacking.
"Unfortunately spitting paan is considered an art in India," the ministry's Amitabh Kant told Reuters, adding that it was off-putting to many of the nearly 4 million foreign tourists that visit the country each year.
One of the adverts running in national newspapers shows four children looking distressed at the sight of a paan-splattered monument strewn with litter and covered with graffiti.
"What a shame that people like him have no respect for our heritage," one child says in a speech bubble, pointing an angry finger at a paan-chewing man on the brink of spitting.
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I find the campaigns foreign governments run to help make their countries more hospitable amusing. A week or two ago, there was an article about China and their "smile training" to make Beijing more hospitable for the 2008 Olympics. While it's true smiling and not spitting on the tourist sites can make a place seem more hospitable, it shouldn't be something you have to drill into your citizens heads.
In China, it's not customary to smile when you're happy. It's actually a sign that you've done something wrong. So by teaching them to smile whenever a tourist is approaching, you're trying to recondition them from the culture that they grew up in and that their parents grew up in to help make an American feel more welcome. But when I visit China, it's to see Chinese life. Not to be treated like royalty. If there was a section of China that was like something straight out of the kung fu movies, I'd spend my entire trip there. If I wanted American behavior, I'd stay in St. Louis.
Spitting paan is "an art in India" so apparently the citizens don't mind it, and by making an art of it have made it part of their culture. It'd be like saying "Alright, there's too much open gayness in America. You're free to watch Will and Grace in your own home, but if you bring it out into the public, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!" It's ridiculous to even consider that happening here. Yet it seems to be the norm in the world trying to attract American tourists and American money.
I guess I can add spitting paan on my list of things to learn how to do while I'm in India. After all, I'm always interested in learning a new art.
3 comments:
[It'd be like saying "Alright, there's too much open gayness in America. You're free to watch Will and Grace in your own home, but if you bring it out into the public, YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!"]
Strangely enough, there are plenty of people here in the states that feel this way. Most of them happen to call themselves "Christians." Sad, eh?
See here: http://www.jesuswouldbeashamedofyou.com/
Thing is, Chris, I'm a Christian. I just don't believe in cramming my views down other people's throats. There are many more productive ways to love one another than blast people for their behavior, at least in my opinion.
Hey, homey, I'm with you. I've, for the most part, moved away from studying all the different rules and regulations about being a Christian and a Catholic, because I've discovered that it all comes down to simply LOVING. If I create the most love that I possibly can, then not much more can be asked of me.
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