“A Small Place”

How do you feel when traveling to a foreign place? Excited? Intrigued? Curious? If you said yes to any of those emotions, you are like most people. When traveling to a new place, such as a foreign country, we become these naive, curious tourists. As a tourists, the first thing we want to do is look around to see all the beauty found in our surroundings. Without realizing it, we are actually ignoring big issues currently going on in the environment. We have so much built up adrenaline and excitment for our trip to begin, that we don’t even notice the big picture going on in the society we are visiting, like corruption. Although not all foreign nations are corrupt, many small nations are.

A Small Place is all about how small places, such as the island of Antigua, can be impacted dramatically by foreigners. Kincaid divides the reading into sections whcih further explain the impacts. Locals of these smaller foreign countries describe tourists as ‘ugly people’. What is meant by that phrase is that the locals find it annoying and confusing on why these people leave their perfect lives at home to visit these less fortunate places for entertainment purposes. In fact, most locals can’t stand tourists. Tourists are not only threats to the peace of the locals, but also a threat to their culture and practices.

Most of these nations hold resentment againsts tourists because of past events. Antigua, for example, had a rough up bringing. Locals of Antigua were living comfortably with their own lifestyle until the English settlers colonized it in the late 1600s. This changed everything in Antigua, from architecture to beliefs. They experienced racism verbally and in the form of slavery. Also, the governemnt that was set up was horrible. The corruption seen in Antigua today, is mostly related to this. Natural distasters that took place, such as Earthquakes, did not help out.

Although Antigua achieved independent in the late 1900s, there still hold a grudge towards foreigners. The locals are still suffering from poverty because of their past. Antigua is the only place the locals are familar with, therefore don’t see the reason why people come and visit. All they see are the poor conditions of the island. Therefore, they hate seeing these toursists come through admiring the ‘beauty’ of their island instead of acknowledging the real problems.

Work Cited

Abe, et al. “Why Tourists Ruin Places They Visit (and What You Can Do).” Nomadic Matt’s Travel Site, 1 Jan. 2021, www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-tourists-ruin-the-places-they-love/.

Eunice, Mary. 25 Countries Where the Locals Are Totally over the Tourists. 26 Dec. 2018, www.thetravel.com/25-countries-where-the-locals-are-totally-over-the-tourists/.

“History of Antigua and Barbuda.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/place/Antigua-and-Barbuda/History.