Post-trip reflections

Have my expectations from before the trip been met? Absolutely. It was a blast – it proved to be one of those rare learning experiences that you’ll never get anywhere else, probably not in NBS. Here, I’ll touch on some of the issues that I haven’t yet discussed in the daily reflections, as well as look back on some of my pre-trip projections.

‘How do humans function?’

Economics vs ethics – a perennial concern, and one that has been fought out in the great jungles of Thailand. What may seem to be a triumph for ethics – elephant camps adopting more ethical, animal-friendly practices – is unfortunately, purely a façade. These may be the right actions, but they are not accompanied by the right motivations. Camps are changing because tourists are demanding that they change. Where tourists still prefer traditional entertainment, for example, in the case of elephant riding, which causes long-term damage to the elephant, said activities still continue.

Nevertheless, would I consider this to be a step forward? Certainly. Elephants do benefit from this trend, after all. The real question is, how do we turn it into something more – i.e., how can we generate more change and make it sustainable? The trick is to align economic interests with ethical interests. One of the ideas which I thought might work is for the Government to endorse ethical practices, so as to cut marketing costs (they no longer have to convince tourists that they are the real deal), and encourage more elephant camps to adopt them. They may also be awarded for consistent progress in this regard – thus, giving them the time and breathing space to change their practices. In the long run, I hope that ethical motivation (from NPOs such as the Elephant Nature Park) will inspire other camps and replace economic motivation as the primary impetus for change.

On culture, race and religion

Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we weren’t able to converse with monks to find out more about what Buddhism, and specifically, Theravada Buddhism, says about the treatment of elephants. It’s a shame really, as I thought religion could have become a key driver behind the ethical treatment of elephants. This is something we might explore next time.

One thing that was consistently brought up though, is the division of people along national and cultural lines. A product of the Singapore education system, these differences never seemed to matter much to me, and I guess, the youths – but here we are, in Thailand, where these differences are rather stark and discussed in public. They seem to be validated by their place in the social hierarchy too, judging from some of the observations and conversations that we made. If stress was applied to the system, there may be trouble. Given the recent episodes of xenophobia in Singapore, we have to be extremely careful, especially since our national identity seems to revolve around, partly, our separating ourselves from others.

On turning points and surprises

The professors made a comment that threatened to throw us off the track – ethical and unethical camps can co-exist, purely on the basis of tourist preferences. We shouldn’t aim to convert all unethical camps, because unmet tourist demand would mean lost revenue, and lost tourist revenue is bad because most of the money used to support elephant welfare comes from there. Without the revenue, these elephants could be roaming in the streets. Perhaps we should keep at least some traditional camps going, to maximise utility from tourists – provided of course that certain regulations are in place to curb the worst excesses.

Perhaps we can go further. Can we predict, or even alter, tourist preferences in the future? What constitutes the right number of traditional camps that should be kept going, given this information? It was mentioned earlier that one of the reasons why Asian tourists preferred traditional camps is because their peers have gone to and recommended said camp. We can all do our part by recommending ethical camps, or reach out to specific sections via specialized portals such as Weibo, where the Chinese, for example, would be more likely to see it. Indeed, when we asked Jen what we could do to help in our capacity as students, he said that we can recommend the camp via word-of-mouth, and would thank us for that. Personally, I don’t think I’ll need a second invitation – it proved to be a great experience, and what a nice way to give back too.

The other surprise we had was the fact that all camps, including the ethical ones, engaged in certain practices that may not be deemed ethical (for example, the use of chains). In fact, we were cautioned, more than once, that some ethical camps may do and say completely different things. This revelation wasn’t entirely unexpected, but we hadn’t made a conscious note of it. It appears that we have to be careful before recommending any camp, and urge for government/NGO oversight on the practices of all ‘ethical’ camps.

Last words…

Through this trip, I’m glad I got to know myself just a little bit better – how to interact with people, how I can exercise better leadership, etc. – and my USP mates as well. Honestly, it went way better than expected, and I can now count on a new group of friends for the remaining years in NTU.

What’s next? I’m signing right up.