tim's experiment

The government web pagfe has now sprouted a little logo which invites you to go straight to what officials call the Outbound Travel Alert system. This would he a kind thought if the alert system was trustworthy. It is not. The list supplied has three categories. There are countries in which travellers should exercise caution and monitor the situation:  India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Thailand. This is a reasonable observation given the recent history of the countries concerned, though the inclusion of Indonesia may be a bit unkind. Then there is a category of countries which should be avoided unless your travel is essential. There are currently no countries at all in this category. Then there is a category to which all travel should be avoided. There is one country in this category: the Philippines. And this is of course preposterous. There are some hazards to travelling in the Philippines, no doubt, but to suggest that the country is in a class of its own, two degrees more perilous than the scenes of recent civil wars, is too outlandish to be taken seriously.

Now of course we know how this happened. After the bus tragedy in Manila the Hong Kong government in essence put the Philippines on its no-go list as a sign of displeasure. There may have been some justification for caution in the immediate aftermath of the killings, when there was at least a theoretical possibility that the victims had been chosen because they were from Hong Kong, rather than just being an unlucky pick by the hostage-taker. This possibility has now wholly receded. None of the millions of words devoted to the tragic event has suggested that it was in any way connected with the nationality of the hostages. Having put the advisory on, though, officials are now faced with a difficulty: having had no good reason for putting it on they now have no good excuse for taking it off. So it sits there, a shameless lie, commemorating our officials’ contempt for the people they serve.

Because the travel advisory system is an important safety measure. But it only works if people trust it. If it is used as – say – a way of imposing economic sanctions on governments we are having a tiff with, then it loses its informational value entirely. If the alert on the Philippines is ostentatiously unwarranted, why should people feel worried by those for India, Indonesia and other unhappy spots?  Actually there are probably parts of the mainland where one would be well advised to exercise caution and monitor the situation. But I somehow do not think we shall ever see a travel advisory for them. If the government is not going to offer honest advice it would be better if it offered no advice at all.