From the "what in the hell is wrong with people?" file
by digby
Oh, here's some good news:
A tour company exposed by The Post on Sunday for bringing tourists to the South Bronx to gawk at food pantry lines, a “pickpocket” park and a housing project, yesterday announced it would stop all tours “effective immediately.”
What? I thought "slumming" went out with the Charleston but apparently, it's still quite a thriving business worldwide:
The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first use of the word "slumming" to 1884. In London, people visited "slum" neighborhoods such as Whitechapel or Shoreditch in order to observe life in this situation. By 1884 wealthier people in New York City began to visit the Bowery and the Five Points area of the Lower East Side, neighborhoods of poor immigrants, to see "how the other half lives."
In the 1980s in South Africa, black residents organized "township tours" to educate the whites in local governments on how the black population lived. Such tours attracted international tourists, who wanted to learn more about apartheid.
In the mid-1990s, international tours began to be organized with destinations in the most disadvantaged areas of developing nations, often known as slums. They have grown in popularity, and are often run and advertised by professional companies. In Cape Town, South Africa, for example, upwards of 300,000 tourists visit the city each year to view the slums.
Why do I have a feeling that most of the people taking a tour like this sees it as "education" the same way they see going to a zoo is about "education." I think the proper word is "entertainment.'
Or worse:
In 1675 Bedlam moved to new buildings in Moorfields designed by Robert Hooke, outside the City boundary. In the 18th century people used to go there to see the lunatics. For a penny one could peer into their cells, view the freaks of the "show of Bethlehem" and laugh at their antics, generally of a sexual nature or violent fights. Entry was free on the first Tuesday of the month. Visitors were permitted to bring long sticks with which to poke and enrage the inmates. In 1814, there were 96,000 such visits.
.