rabbit track - from Tookey to Expatriate Tourism
I go off on tangents now and then. My mom used to call them rabbit tracks. Here's one. You probably won't follow the connections, so I'll explain at the end of this post.
My earlier post about Tookey Williams (actually spelled Tookie, apparently), and then
http://news.google.com/news?q=Tookey&num=50&hl=en&safe=off&sa=G&scoring=d, then
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2391072005, then
http://haggishunt.scotsman.com/, then
http://www.scotsman.com/
I learned a little about Scottish culture (at least as promoted by what appears to be either a very old Scottish expatriate newspaper, or a very thorough Scottish tourism promotion company). I gained an interest in learning more about Robert Burns and Scotland, particularly Scotland's expatriate and emigrant communities in other parts of the world. Sometimes rabbit tracks lead somewhere meaningful, and sometimes only to another potential track, to be picked up at a later date. Sometimes the end of a rabbit track is rewarding, in which case I can certainly say I gained it, and other times it's almost a burden, so that it's hard to say that it was a gain and not actually a debit of sorts. This time it's hard to say which it might be.
The particular thing I want to learn from Scotland's expat community is the way its recognition of its own cultural heritage exerts influence upon and is influenced by Scotland's tourism industry. There may be lessons in that study for other cultural communities, particularly those of 3rd world countries just now coming into prominence in the world, whose younger generations have been coming to the western world for education and returning to build up their own countries, and whose older generations have been exiled for years after fleeing an opressive regime. Think of the appeal to grandchildren of Scottish immigrants to this country, who have grown up hearing stories and reminiscences of "the old country". Why shouldn't that type of appeal transfer to Asian immigrants? It might not seem that way at first blush, to a westerner at least, because we tend to think of 3rd world culture (or anything foreign) as inferior. But I bet there will be people who long to return to the climate they were familiar with, or the people they left behind, or the food, all the things we all find attractive in our old stomping grounds, even if the greater forces that originally drove us from the place are still there.
So how will tourism change in the next few decades? In the Hispanic sections of our town, I see ads for wire transfer services, offering convenient ways to send funds back to family members in Mexico. If I could read any Oriental languages, I'm sure I would see the same types of ads in other areas, for sending money to China, Korea, Vietnam, or Thailand. Will I still see those ads 20 years from now? Or will they be replaced by ads offering to transport the wealthy children of immigrant families back to their ancestral homeland, the one they only know through their parents and grandparents?
How did I get here?
The search for news of Stanley Tookie Williams' fate led me for some reason to several pages of headlines completely unrelated to Williams, partly because Tookey is apparently a popular surname somewhere in the world. One Maggie Tookey is a volunteer with Edinburgh Direct Aid, and is recently returned from working in Pakistan and Kashmir to bring cold-weather supplies to the people of the region hit by earthquakes in October. I was curious about how that effort is going, so I read part of the first article, from the Edinburgh Evening News, hosted by Scotsman.com. A banner ad for an annual hunt for an apparently mythical creature caught my attention, and I went to haggishunt.scotsman.com. From there I got curious about the purpose of the top-level domain.
My earlier post about Tookey Williams (actually spelled Tookie, apparently), and then
http://news.google.com/news?q=Tookey&num=50&hl=en&safe=off&sa=G&scoring=d, then
http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2391072005, then
http://haggishunt.scotsman.com/, then
http://www.scotsman.com/
I learned a little about Scottish culture (at least as promoted by what appears to be either a very old Scottish expatriate newspaper, or a very thorough Scottish tourism promotion company). I gained an interest in learning more about Robert Burns and Scotland, particularly Scotland's expatriate and emigrant communities in other parts of the world. Sometimes rabbit tracks lead somewhere meaningful, and sometimes only to another potential track, to be picked up at a later date. Sometimes the end of a rabbit track is rewarding, in which case I can certainly say I gained it, and other times it's almost a burden, so that it's hard to say that it was a gain and not actually a debit of sorts. This time it's hard to say which it might be.
The particular thing I want to learn from Scotland's expat community is the way its recognition of its own cultural heritage exerts influence upon and is influenced by Scotland's tourism industry. There may be lessons in that study for other cultural communities, particularly those of 3rd world countries just now coming into prominence in the world, whose younger generations have been coming to the western world for education and returning to build up their own countries, and whose older generations have been exiled for years after fleeing an opressive regime. Think of the appeal to grandchildren of Scottish immigrants to this country, who have grown up hearing stories and reminiscences of "the old country". Why shouldn't that type of appeal transfer to Asian immigrants? It might not seem that way at first blush, to a westerner at least, because we tend to think of 3rd world culture (or anything foreign) as inferior. But I bet there will be people who long to return to the climate they were familiar with, or the people they left behind, or the food, all the things we all find attractive in our old stomping grounds, even if the greater forces that originally drove us from the place are still there.
So how will tourism change in the next few decades? In the Hispanic sections of our town, I see ads for wire transfer services, offering convenient ways to send funds back to family members in Mexico. If I could read any Oriental languages, I'm sure I would see the same types of ads in other areas, for sending money to China, Korea, Vietnam, or Thailand. Will I still see those ads 20 years from now? Or will they be replaced by ads offering to transport the wealthy children of immigrant families back to their ancestral homeland, the one they only know through their parents and grandparents?
How did I get here?
The search for news of Stanley Tookie Williams' fate led me for some reason to several pages of headlines completely unrelated to Williams, partly because Tookey is apparently a popular surname somewhere in the world. One Maggie Tookey is a volunteer with Edinburgh Direct Aid, and is recently returned from working in Pakistan and Kashmir to bring cold-weather supplies to the people of the region hit by earthquakes in October. I was curious about how that effort is going, so I read part of the first article, from the Edinburgh Evening News, hosted by Scotsman.com. A banner ad for an annual hunt for an apparently mythical creature caught my attention, and I went to haggishunt.scotsman.com. From there I got curious about the purpose of the top-level domain.
posted by Farmer Field at 1:41 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home