There are currently a lot of parents around Australia preparing to say goodbye to their kids as they finish school and go on a trip. Maybe it will be to Schoolies. Maybe a gap-year. In the minds of all of them (OK, mostly the mothers) will be the face and the story of Otto Warmbier.
Mamamia published a story this week about the details of what happened to Otto Warmbier and they are chilling.
The 21-year-old American university student was on a study abroad program in China when he decided to take a quick tour with The Chinese-based tour company, Young Pioneer Tours who offered a five-day New Year’s tour of North Korea and advertised itself as safe for U.S. citizens. Warmbier, on a whim, decided to go.
It was advertised as, “The trip your parents don’t want you to take!”
There were 10 Americans in Warmbier’s tour group and on the second night, after a few drinks, Warmbier allegedly tried to steal a poster that was on the wall of their hotel. A poster. He was arrested a few days later at the airport as he was leaving the country with his tour group. He was officially charged with subversion and committing a "hostile act" against the state. He was sentenced to 15 years hard labour.
What happened next is unclear but devastating and ultimately fatal. Mamamia reports:
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Top Comments
What happened to Otto was despicable and should have never happened.
I do disagree with this line from the article though.
"If you've ever travelled overseas, you'll no doubt have memories of dumb, risky, reckless even maybe illegal things you did. There's something about being in another country that can make you feel like bad things won't happen. Or that the rules don't apply to you. Also, young people just do stupid things sometimes. We've all been there"
Do people actually think like this? Hasn't there been enough awareness about some of the things that can happen to you if you do something illegal overseas? Even as a young traveller I knew not to go overseas and do something illegal, nor would I go out of my way to do something illegal in my own country.
I currently live overseas and I find it totally embarrassing to watch the way tourists behave. They are disrespectful or ignorant of local customs, and often drink to excess and make complete spectacles of themselves. I think it's even worse in poorer countries wherein there's a real attitude of "we can live like kings on very little money".
I think we need to acknowledge at some point that the way we approach overseas travel as an opportunity to anonymously do daring, dangerous and inappropriate things, to feel free, to party wildly and break rules, is often only possible because we treat those countries, their people, culture and rules as our playground, without respect. It's an act of privileged people from wealthy countries. We should raise our children with cultural awareness and a healthy respect for other cultures and people. Learning language should be a part of travel prep, like passports and insurance are, and going to see and experience without leaving footprints should be the approach