Two held in The Gambia on gay charges

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Title – Two held in The Gambia on gay charges
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 3rd June 2008

Understanding and accepting local cultures, local laws and local tradition is very different to agreeing with them. Clearly beheading people because of their sexual orientation is an abhorrent stance for anyone to take, let alone the President of a country. It is simply not a point of view that we would accept in the UK.

However travellers have to accept that if they travel to The Gambia that is the reality they face in that country at this time. The views expressed by the president and the laws in that country means that homosexuals face severe sanction. As much as people feel this to be fundamentally unjust, you have to accept that when you visit another country you have to follow the current laws of that country, to live by them and to ‘respect’ them.

If you disagree with the laws of another country the way to voice your opinion is to write, demonstrate and lobby their embassy in the UK and join international pressure groups. Going to that country and thinking that your status as a foreigner will provide you with some form of protection, is asking for trouble. If anything being a foreigner in many such countries will mean you are more heavily scrutinised.

This is an extreme example, but there are many cultural and legal sensitivities in other countries that we may not agree with, but we must always observe. If you can’t observe them or don’t want to, then stay at home, or travel somewhere you can abide by local laws. Too many people apply their normal principles from the UK at their destination and in many destinations our way of life, our values and our cultures are as alien to our hosts, as this law in The Gambia is to us.

As part of our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop we examine Cultural Awareness and the effect culture shock has on travel, we discuss your approach to the different cultures you will encounter and how to behave at your destination in order not to fall foul of local authorities.

Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com or join us on Facebook. For a complete list of Blog entries visit our National Press Archive page.