Selling My (Self/Stuff) in a Time of Genocide
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Selling My (Self/Stuff) in a Time of Genocide
Is it ethical? Idk, but I gotta make rent.
It’s been 43 days of a genocidal massacre tearing Palestinian lives to shreds.
Over 13,000 people have been killed, several thousand of them children. Thousands more have been injured. Entire family lines have been erased.
I sat at the National Library in Singapore yesterday, reading my book - The Way to the Spring: Life and Death in Palestine, by Ben Ehrenreich - and I cried.
What’s happening in Palestine, as our global leaders continue to resist calling for a ceasefire and refuse to put pressure on Israel to end the senseless killing, is horrific.
And Palestine isn’t the only place in the world that’s seeing such atrocities.
Immense violence and killings are taking place in Sudan.
Millions of civilians are being forcibly displaced in the Congo.
Protracted conflict has caused one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises in Yemen.
Ukraine is still at war with Russia. Pakistan is expelling Afghani refugees. Iran is executing activists and suppressing the rights of women.
These are just a few of the ongoing conflicts in the world at this time.
Even writing this article feels self-indulgent — why should I have time to rest and reflect and write while hundreds, thousands, millions around the world are suffering, fighting for their lives, being killed?
In the face of their death, my life seems frivolous.
Simply by virtue of where I happened to be born, and to whom, I enjoy an existence that is dramatically free of upheaval, chaos, conflict.
I do not have to justify my right to exist.
I do not have to parade my suffering on social media.
I do not have to prove that my loved ones were unjustly murdered, nor do I have to beg “the powers that be” to do something to stop the killing.
My existence feels frivolous.
In times like this, it feels insensitive to try to sell my shit as a small business owner.
To advertise on my social media - Hey, come work with me & I’ll make your life better - seems callous.
To post about my new offerings or my new business venture in the hopes of enticing someone to buy something I’m selling feels entirely out-of-touch.
Indeed, socially conscious marketers these days do recommend “turning off” advertising messages in times of crisis to amplify and highlight the voices of those affected.
And that makes (made?) sense to me.
We live in an extremely noisy world, where all kinds of messages are competing for our very limited attention. Causes, celebrities, corporations — everything yelling for us to “pick me, pick me” for our 10 seconds of attention or $10 “to make a difference”.
It makes sense that non-urgent messages should take a backseat in light of a humanitarian catastrophe. It’s perfectly reasonable to expect someone selling something to shut up for a while so we can hear the voices of those suffering. It’s logical that you would shelve a big launch till after the conflicts have been resolved.
But as one crisis unfolds after another, I’ve found myself wondering — how sustainable is this strategy?
And, who do these “media blackouts” benefit?
When I look at the people speaking out on behalf of the Palestinians, advocating for Iranian activists, or amplifying the displacement in Sudan, what I’ve noticed is that they are often (not always, and not only) people who have the experience of oppression in their heritage.
Black people, brown people, Indigenous people, LGBTQIA2+ people, people who have been pushed to the fringes of society for some reason or the other.
These are the people who come forward to speak up about the injustices that we’re seeing in the world.
These are the same people who decide — let me prioritize the messages from the oppressed over my own personal agenda.
These are the people who decide — yes, I’ll push back my launch, I won’t market, I won’t promote because there are more important voices that need to be platformed right now.
To what end?
The people who don’t care about everything blowing up all around us continue promoting their shit — and they make the sales, rake in the dollars, and continue on in their merry way without a care in the world.
And the people who do care? They stop promoting and marketing, nobody buys their shit, they struggle to make rent, all while still trying to keep speaking up for the oppressed, giving voice to the voiceless, and organizing for change.
Maybe I’m biased because I fall into the second camp. But I feel like there’s something profoundly fucked up about this picture.
So what do we do from here?
Where do we go, the people who care, but still have bills to pay and rent to make?
What do we do?
In my last article, The Power of And, I talked about our capacity to hold multiple truths at once.
That we can care about the genocide taking place in Palestine, AND advocate for the rights of workers.
That we can grieve for the lives lost AND delight in the laughter of our family.
That we can lend our energy to dismantling systems of oppression AND building a better future for us all.
I think that is where our (my?) next step lies.
I will continue amplifying the voices of the oppressed AND I will share what I have to offer the world.
Yes, there are people who are suffering in ways I cannot even fathom, but there are also people who are struggling in ways that I can help them.
Surely it would be selfish of me not to share my gifts with them simply because other people have it worse?
I don’t know; I’m still conflicted I think.
But what I am seeing more clearly than ever is that all of our liberation is tied. No one of us can be free while others are not.
And if my work, in some small way, contributes to the liberation of someone, anyone, is that work not worth doing?
Do I not owe it to them to show up for them?
I think I do.
So here’s the work that I do.
I’ve been calling myself a Transformational Travel Coach. It sounds vague, undefined — I recently learned that people think that I’m a travel agent.
I’m not.
What I do is something else entirely.
I support women navigating challenging life transitions to reconnect with their deep inner selves, uncover hidden desires, and create a life they love living — through travel.
Intentional Travel can be a powerful medium of transformation.
When you leave behind your home environment, your usual context, your comfort zone, you open yourself up to new ideas, new possibilities, new opportunities.
More than that, you open yourself up to get to know yourself again.
Yes, that self that’s been hidden (buried?) under everyone else’s expectations, opinions, and assumptions about who you are and who you should be.
What do you want to do? Where do you want to go? Who do you want to be?
These are simple questions, but many of us women struggle to answer them.
We defer our desires, put our plans on pause, and let go of our own lives.
To the point that we don’t even know anymore.
Travel — on your own terms — can be that space for you to reclaim yourself.
But I get it, travel can be scary. Many of us women are discouraged from traveling.
“It’s so dangerous!”
“It’s unsafe!”
“You’ll get robbed/kidnapped/raped/killed!”
“Don’t go alone!”
“Don’t go at all!”
As someone who has been traveling for the past 10 years, most of it alone, I’ve heard all of these and more, in a million more variations to boot.
I’ve navigated traffic in Vietnam, I’ve sailed across the Caribbean, I’ve climbed mountains in the Andes, I’ve camped in Mexico, I’ve dived in the Philippines, I’ve hitchhiked in Brazil, I’ve Couchsurfed in Europe — I’ve done all this and more.
I’ve also been pickpocketed, robbed, harassed, stalked, and cheated death — multiple times.
And what I’ve walked away with is an unshakeable confidence in myself and my abilities. A deep self-trust in my instincts. An inner sense of power that I can do anything.
Countless women I’ve met while traveling have recounted similar stories.
What travel gives you is something that is almost impossible to recreate elsewhere.
And I want more women to be able to tap into their inner confidence, build that self-trust, nurture their inner power — and I can help them do that through travel.
Now, isn’t that work worth doing?
I think so.
So while I continue to speak up about dismantling systems of oppression (and trust me, I will!), I will also be sharing more about my work in helping women seek freedom in their own lives.
Because that too, is liberation work.
And if you’ve read this far, I have a humble request for you. Will you please share this with someone you know? Whether that’s a small business owner who has been putting their business on the back burner in light of all the global tragedies or a woman who wants to travel but doesn’t know how to get started - please help me share the word.
Sending you so much love as my tiny act of resistance against the tremendous amount of hate we are witnessing,
Crunch
Interested in working with me in a 1:1 capacity? Some new options are available: Check them out here. Or reach out via email. Custom packages available (and I do non-travel-related coaching too!)
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