"There is an almost Orientalist presumption [on the part of travel guidebooks] that the citizens of places like Cuba or Afghanistan have made a choice in rejecting globalization and consumerism. From the perspective of the disaffected Westerner, poverty is seen as enviable, a pure existence unsullied by capitalism. [ Lonely Planet: Cuba co-author Brendan] Sainsbury...

"In the years after Edward Said's Orientalism , the exploration of the East -- its peoples, habits, customs and past -- by travelers from the West has become a target for scholarly bombardment. Travel writers have often come to be seen as outriders of colonialism, attempting to demonstrate the superiority of Western ways by 'imagining'...