haz turismo

During my highly enjoyed European summer break I watched "fight club" again. This time it filtered deeper in my brain, it changed something in me.

"Everything on a plane is single-serving" I quoted The Narrator in my thoughts when boarding on my plane back to Auckland.
On my plane to Auckland I made a single-serving friend.

His destination: back home. His residence: Afghanistan. His occupation: army.
I wouldn't have spent so much time talking to him if we were not forced to stay buckled in our assigned seats inside a pressured cabin for 15 hours straight.

With so many hours ahead I needed to know the reason: why are you in Afghanistan?
He answered he wouldn't get a job back home. Besides, he'd be bored. It didn't satisfy the philosophical depth I wanted to reach with the question. And his simplistic answer woke memories of a song:


Haz turismo invadiendo un país.
Make tourism invading a country/it's cheap and they pay your accommodation.

He said those people lost so much that they would work doing anything. He implied they almost employ them as slaves.
He also said the troops won't leave any time soon because they are now an economical source for the country they, ironically, brought to misery to begin with: the army consumes, he said: things are really cheap there. I could picture a bunch of shaved-head young soldiers having a blast, having huge houses, eating out every day... What about that for a Stockholm syndrome.

Make tourism invading a country.
Free accommodation.
...They won't want you to leave.
...They will give you their women, they will sell you their kids.

That song regained sense.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO0M0dIzUMk