The 1975 singer Matty Healy’s Malaysia rant exposes a dilemma: shouldn’t a lack of respect from tourists from liberal societies invited to less tolerant ones be expected?
- Through slick tourism videos, people from liberal societies are routinely invited to visit less tolerant countries looking to benefit from their visits
- Might we suggest that if they want the upside from tourism, local communities should perhaps be prepared to forgive the odd bit of high-horsery
Promotional tourism videos don’t come with small print.
“I made a mistake. When we were booking shows I wasn’t looking into it. I do not see the point of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with.”
He was referring to the fact homosexuality is frowned upon – and is indeed a crime – in Muslim-majority Malaysia.
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It’s perhaps understandable that a band on an international tour might not bone up on the cultural sensitivities of the countries they are visiting, but how aware and respectful should international tourists be of the attitudes prevalent in the places they’re flying into?
Destinations Known would rather cause as little offence as possible, but that’s just us. Should individuals who care less for the feelings of others be taken to task for causing offence (so long as they break no laws)?
After all, if you invite a glutton into your house, you can hardly be surprised when they eat all the biscuits. Likewise, if you invite a rock band (and we use the term “rock” loosely; when we saw The 1975 at Clockenflap, we found them insipid) to perform in your country, you can hardly be surprised if they act up on stage.
That’s what rock stars are supposed to do. At least Healy didn’t bite the head off a (perhaps Covid-carrying) bat, à la Ozzy Osbourne.
Many are thus indulged, you could argue; the Europeans who let it all hang out on beaches in Muslim Asia; the alcohol drinkers who are provided with their own bolt-holes in dry countries; the backpackers who can’t keep their hands off each other in public.
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But many on social media commenting in the wake of Healy’s shenanigans – as unwise and potentially damaging to members of the Malaysian LGBT community as they were – are insisting that foreign visitors “must show respect”.
Might we suggest instead that, if they want the upside – the thrill, even shock, of live music and the arts; the income from tourism – local communities should perhaps be prepared to forgive the odd bit of high-horsery and turn a blind eye to less-than-wholesome behaviour.
Yes, it probably comes from a place of ignorance and unwitting privilege, but loudmouths and exhibitionists can be ignored. And forgotten when they have gone.
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While we’re on the subject, we really don’t understand the often-levelled accusation that these petty miscreants cause offence to a nation as a whole. Did Healy really offend the whole of Malaysia? Do the Russian influencers who seem to never tire of stripping naked at places of religious significance in Bali offend every Indonesian?
The singer was addressing just the few thousand people at The 1975 gig (many of whom cheered his words, it should be noted) and the ostentatious naturists are showing themselves off only to those who follow them on social media.
The “whole” of Malaysia or Indonesia get to hear of these antics only because an army of keyboard warriors clutching their digital pearls can’t resist sharing “shocking” clips, along with their outrage, as widely as possible.
Perhaps it is they – let’s call them “seethizens” (seething netizens) – who are most guilty of causing offence; by bringing it into being where there was none before.
China resumes visa-free entry for Singaporean citizens
The Singaporean passport is going from strength to strength.
According to the Henley Passport Index, which was updated this month, before the Chinese announcement, Singaporeans can travel to 192 out of 227 recognised global destinations without a visa, having more freedom to roam than the citizens of any other country.
Japan had ranked No 1 but has now fallen behind Germany, Italy and Spain, all of which are tied for second place, with 190 visa-free travel destinations for their passport holders.
Hong Kong is in 17th place, alongside Andorra, its travel document allowing visa-free access to 170 destinations.
New novel gets beneath Bali’s skin – ghosts, demons and all
Every destination deserves a memoir or novel that provides visitors with some local flavour while they are lazing by the pool.
Tuscany has Under the Tuscan Sky, Penang has The Gift of Rain and Bali has Eat, Pray, Love (or at least some of it).
But if that last one is a little too cloying for your tastes, perhaps consider the recently published Driftwood Chandeliers when you’re next kicking back on the Island of the Gods.
The novel could have done with a better edit and the plot, which revolves around the development of a small Western-owned resort and the deaths of a couple of foreigners, is meandering, but for insight into the lives of Bali villagers – both Hindu “paddy people” and Muslim “fisher-folk” – it is invaluable.
Although a work of fiction, “the majority of the incidents in the book are based on something I’ve witnessed, or anecdotes that are common knowledge in the Balinese village that has been my second home for the last 20 years,” says the author, Indonesian-speaking Mark Eveleigh.
Billed as part mystery, part magical realism, “to a Balinese person very much of it might seem very real indeed,” says Eveleigh. And therein lies the book’s appeal to anyone interested in getting beneath the skin of this particular holiday destination, ghosts, demons and all.
