Price Discrimination

Growing up in the Dominican Republic, I am familiar with the struggle to survive that many people face in developing countries. I was fortunate enough to immigrate with my family to the United States at the tender age of ten. The American dream however, was not all that is cracked up to be. I struggled to learn English amidst discrimination and ridicule. As I travel throughout Southeast Asia, I am forced to confront difficult questions. I am constantly discriminated against, not because I don’t speak English or the wrong color, but because I am a tourist and a person with money and power. At the market I am given inflated tourist prices and a different, more expensive menu when I eat in restaurants. I am made to pay more for the same services offered to Vietnamese and even public transport charges me twice as much for half a seat. It has been confusing and trying for me to go from a person who has been oppressed and therefore wholeheartedly believes in equality to someone of privilege. Why should I pay more for the same exact thing? Besides, the money is not going to the poorest in Vietnam, but to people who already have business and are therefore better of. I worked extremely hard to be able to afford this trip and it’s not my fault that Vietnam is a poor country. When did I suddenly become responsible for the U.S. devastation of Vietnamese society, culture and economy during the Vietnam War? I have my own gripes with the U.S. government to be held accountable for its actions. And unlike all those Vietnamese who respond “U.S. #1” when I tell them I’m American, because when I say Dominican Republic they give me a blank stare, the United States is not perfect but merely good at advertising. With it’s over a century old efficient marketing campaign, it has convinced others, especially those in developing nations, that money grows on trees and the streets are plated in gold. But the fact is, in the angry eyes of the Vietnamese who rip me off, I am a representative of the U.S. and I owe them. I am not a local, I do not speak Vietnamese and therefore I do not deserve the local price because I have not endured what they have. But how can I express to them, many with very limited English, that I too have had similar obstacles to my self determination and dignity? And although I’m relatively richer here, I know what it’s like to be poor. I’ve been poor and in the States, still am. So who’s responsible, accountable for both me and the Vietnamese getting less for our buck? How do we distribute resources and aid in an equitable manner so that the poorer aren’t getting poorer? The responsibility rests on the individual as well as at the state level and although I don’t like it, it’s a doggy eat doggy world and we are all just counting our dongs. I raise more questions than give answers because this is an issue that still muddles my mind and I want you to think, get confused and angry because this is the grueling process that sprouts answers and inspires change.