Pris­on­ers with Keys

While vis­it­ing Sal, one of the more touristy islands of Cabo Verde, I real­ised that free­dom depends a lot on the point of view. You would think, any tour­ist enjoys the free­dom to relax any­where in the sun from his every­day work-life. But no, every­body seems to feel more safe and com­fort­able with­in bars and ropes and bar­ri­ers and under sur­veil­lance of life- and oth­er guards. The loc­al five-star acco­mod­a­tions are equal to uni­formed pris­on cells, sur­roun­ded by high fences. Some seem to nev­er leave their beach loun­ger next to the hotel pool oth­er than to get from and to the air­port.

Once I had this thought in my mind I could not stop see­ing tour­ists as pris­on­ers. Trapped by their own lazi­ness and prob­ably fear of the unknown.