This Beach Paradise Was a War Zone: How tourism sells peace by paving over history


You’re on a beach.
White sand. Warm breeze. Maybe a coconut in your hand.

You think: paradise.

But a few decades ago, this same beach may have been covered in bunkers, bullet holes, or mass graves.

That resort wasn’t always here.
Sometimes, it was a refugee camp.

🏝 The Geography of Escape

Tourism is one of the world’s largest industries.

And when developers look for the next hotspot, they want:

  • Beaches

  • Cheap land

  • Weak regulation

  • And no “baggage”

But here’s the thing:

The tropics are not neutral.

They’re full of memory.

And often? Trauma.

🇱🇰 Case Study: Sri Lanka

Today, you can book a luxury resort in eastern Sri Lanka.
Infinity pool. Five-star chef. Ocean view.

But in the 2000s, this was the front line of a brutal civil war.
The Tamil minority fought for independence.
The government fought back—with bombing campaigns and mass internment.

Tens of thousands died.
Journalists were killed.
Stories were buried.

Now?
The coast is open for tourism.
And the scars?
Covered by palm trees.

🇰🇭 Cambodia: From Genocide to Guesthouse

In the 1970s, Cambodia was ruled by the Khmer Rouge.
Nearly 2 million people died.

Today, you can visit the Killing Fields in the morning…
and relax at a budget hostel in Phnom Penh that afternoon.

Locals live with the memory.
Visitors buy a T-shirt and a smoothie.

🏖️ How It Happens

After conflict, governments want to attract investment.
Tourism looks like peace.
So they sell paradise.

But to sell it, they have to:

  • Erase trauma

  • Move poor people

  • Control the narrative

War zones become branding opportunities.

The new name?
“Untouched.”
“Hidden gem.”
“Off the beaten path.”

Translation?
“Cheap land where outsiders don’t ask too many questions.”

🚧 Who Gets to Forget?

Local people may still mourn.
Still live with trauma.
Still search for justice.

But developers bring bulldozers.
Governments bring silence.
And tourists bring hashtags.

The beach becomes a buffer—not just from the past, but from the people still living with it.

🧭 What Tourism Tells Us

Tourism is geography with amnesia.

It shows how space can be transformed—
not just physically, but narratively.

A war zone becomes a photo op.
A camp becomes a cabana.

Because once you pave over the past,
you can sell anything.

So the next time you walk along a perfect stretch of sand,
ask yourself:
What had to be buried to build this paradise?

Comments

  1. David Tyler Rand-McKayJuly 9, 2025 at 4:53 PM

    JUST ONE MINUTE:

    You're on a beach.
    White sand. Blue water.
    It feels like paradise.

    But twenty years ago?
    It was a war zone.

    In Sri Lanka, tourists sip cocktails where airstrikes once hit civilian towns.

    In Cambodia, the Killing Fields are a day trip.
    Followed by a sunset cruise.

    After conflict, governments want investors.
    Tourists want peace.
    So they build resorts.
    And bury the history.

    Locals live with trauma.
    Developers pave it over.
    Visitors post selfies.

    The new branding?
    "Untouched."
    "Hidden gem."
    "Off the beaten path."

    Translation?
    "Cheap land, quiet survivors."

    So yeah.

    That beach bar?
    Might be standing on a grave.

    Because tourism doesn’t just sell escape,
    it sells forgetting.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Norse Code: Vikings, Violence, and the Unexpected Birth of Empire

Image
  "The Norse Code: Vikings, Violence, and the Unexpected Birth of Empire" You know, when most people think of European colonialism, they jump straight to the Spanish in the Americas, or the British in India, all red uniforms and tea. But long before that — before muskets, flags, and treaties — there were bearded men in boats, with axes, and an alarming tendency to show up uninvited. I’m talking, of course, about the Vikings. Now the usual story goes: the Vikings were raiders. Plunderers. Pillagers. Yes, they were that — but also something more. Because while they were looting churches in England, they were also accidentally building the foundations of European expansion . Take the year 793 — the infamous raid on Lindisfarne. It wasn’t just the shock of violence. It was the realization that the sea was a highway , not a barrier. The Vikings weren’t trying to build an empire. They were looking for farmland, trade, and a good reason to leave Scandinavia — where, incidentally,...
Read more

Before Global Colonization: Europe’s Internal Empires

Image
  Throughout our shared history, humans have tirelessly sought to organize and structure society. At its most expansive, this quest for order and clarity has taken the form of empire. When we think of colonization, our minds often leap to distant shores—to the Americas, Asia, Africa. But long before these global journeys began, Europe itself was a continent colonized repeatedly from within. Here, within Europe's borders, we find a powerful story about human governance, expansion, exploitation, and the complicated legacy that empire leaves behind. The Roman Empire set the mold. From the first century BCE to its collapse in the fifth century CE, Rome reigned over vast territories stretching from Britain to North Africa. Romans were exceptional builders, organizers, and administrators. Their roads, bridges, aqueducts, and cities linked distant lands and diverse peoples into a single entity. Yet beneath Rome’s impressive engineering and cultural legacy lay the harsh reality of slavery....
Read more

Deep Research on Longevity, Elite Agendas, and the Population Decline Discourse

  Longevity, Elite Agendas, and the Population Decline Discourse Elite Voices Linking Population and Longevity Prominent tech billionaires and investors have increasingly weighed in on global birthrates – some drawing connections (implicitly or explicitly) to life-extension ambitions. Elon Musk has repeatedly sounded the alarm about falling fertility, calling population decline “the biggest danger civilization faces by far” newyorker.com . Musk has famously acted on his pronatalist stance (fathering around a dozen children), even allegedly offering to donate his own sperm to help others have kids (a claim he denied) newyorker.com . Intriguingly, Musk’s concern for more babies comes despite his skepticism of radical longevity; he argues that societal progress requires generational turnover and has said “it is important for us to die” lest society ossify under immortal leaders futurism.com persuasion.community . In other words, Musk fears a “gerontocracy” if people don’t age out,...
Read more