Dark Matters, Russian Reflections and Something Funny

Hello subscribers!

Ten days have passed since my previous DT Newsletter. But as I explained in the one before that, I’m no longer sending Newsletters on a strict weekly (every Sunday) basis but rather as and when I see fit (I know it’s a Sunday today, but that’s just coincidence in this case ...).

Over the past ten days, the developments with Russia’s war against Ukraine have continued to dominate the media. But I’m now trying not to get unhealthily consumed by all that. Hence also my 9 March post offering some DT escapism from “doomscrolling”. As a follow-up I added a comment the next day pointing out another link between those Easter Island moai and something dark, namely in the form of the cover of The Stranglers’ latest album which has the superbly ambiguous title “Dark Matters” – see e.g. here (it’s a very good album too, possibly The Stranglers’ best, many critics say … I’d never paid much attention to them before, so I can’t compare it to their earlier work, but I find this new album quite excellent).
  

The same day I also uploaded another new Blog post which had two themes: firstly it’s about Chernobyl again, where apparently the Russians cut the NPP off the mains electricity supply, which in the (social) media triggered exaggerated fears of another nuclear catastrophe looming. The IAEA was quick to point out that this was unlikely, though, given that the spent fuel rods still stored at Chernobyl are decades old and keeping them under water is sufficient to stop them from overheating, even without electricity. But of course no electricity also means the workers there can’t do their jobs – which is carrying on with the decommissioning of the plant. But given the plight of the civilian population of Ukraine at the moment, this suddenly seems to be of secondary importance. Just like … well, just about everything.

The second theme of the post was another exercise in escapism, as it were, namely through the feel-good story of the deep-sea discovery of the wreck of the Endurance – the vessel that was lost early in Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctica expedition of 1914/15, after which one of the greatest stories of heroism and survival ensued. All members of the team could eventually be rescued. And now the Endurance has been found, over a century later and apparently in astonishingly good condition (thanks to the icy Antarctic waters).
  

This past week I took my time drafting another long DT Blog post, which is entitled “Russian reflections” and features a whopping 26 photos, including the featured image above (which I gave the caption “the Russian world upside down”). This new post went up just a few moments ago and it’s mostly about the impressions of Russia I gained on my long trip there in August 2017. Quite a few of those impressions will now have been undone by the current developments, from the youth culture I saw with its open-minded internationalism to the craft-beer and foodie scenes (maybe not affected instantly, but in the longer run they probably will be). Of course the themes of propaganda, disinformation, media restrictions and the economy played a role as well, but, more on topic, there are also plenty of specific dark-tourism destinations featured in the post, some of which may also now be affected. I feel especially sorry for those excellent English-language tour guides I had in St Petersburg (for the Road of Life tour), Perm (Perm-36 excursion) and Moscow (tour of Gorky Leninskiye). With no Western tourists coming any more, they’ll basically have lost their jobs (as their services were aimed primarily, if not solely, at Western tourists). In short: even though I obviously feel for the Ukrainians, my heart also bleeds for Russia, or rather the Russia I saw back in 2017 and that will now no longer be the same … Not that you could even travel there from the West if you wanted to at the moment anyway.
  

And while all eyes are on Ukraine and Russia, tragedy in Africa gets largely overlooked by the international media – yet again! We already saw that with the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which played at best a minor role in the Western media at the time while they focused mainly on what was happening in the Balkans, with the wars that started in the wake of the break-up of Yugoslavia, and which included the siege of Sarajevo. (So it’s actually incorrect to say that this current invasion of Ukraine by Russia brought back war to Europe for the first time since WWII.)

Today, it’s the northern Ethiopian province of Tigray whose plight is being under-reported. The head of the World Health Organization (himself an Ethiopian) had this to say about it: “nowhere on earth are people more at risk than Tigray” (see e.g. this article). I have repeatedly featured Tigray in my Blog posts and Newsletters, so I felt it my duty to include this little reminder here in this Newsletter as well. Things are bad for civilians in Ukraine, but they’re even worse in northern Ethiopia.
  

But as a contrast to all those depressing tragedies, here’s something more light-hearted and even funny, in its own skewed way: apparently, on Amazon my book has, on and off, been the “No. 1 bestseller” in a category it doesn’t belong to! See this screenshot I took a good week ago:

I’ve never quite been able to relate to the concept of “haunted” (mainly because I don’t believe in ghosts), and how “unexplained travel” can be a category largely eludes me too. But the point is that neither feature anywhere in my book, except for the little note in the introduction where it says that “ … excluded are destinations that are ‘dark’ only in a paranormal or fictional sense, so you will not find haunted houses, ghost hunts or horror movie locations here ...” (Atlas of Dark Destinations, p.9). As I’ve often said, I find that the real world offers plenty enough in dark terms, so I simply see no need for such made-up extras – for myself, that is. I have no problem if others are keen on such things; as long as no harm is done, that’s fine by me. I just don’t want to participate in or contribute to that niche.

How it can be that my book, despite its totally different focus and the explicit exclusion of anything “haunted and unexplained”, ends up being classified as a bestseller in that very category is beyond me. I suspect it’s some automated algorithms again. As if further proof was needed that relying on algorithms is worse than resorting to some obscure oracle (to quote Edward Snowden). At least in this case you can just laugh about it – unlike when Facebook’s stupid algorithms went as far as completely purging me from the platform for nothing.

Oh, and speaking of “bestseller”: this is still only in four-figure numbers, mind – sales of the book are light years from making me rich. In fact I haven’t seen any money from it since the advance I was paid by the publishers. I don’t actually know how many copies need to be sold before I can see any royalties from that. But I’m not expecting much, now that the book has failed to be an instant sensation. Over time there may be a steady trickle. But these days only books that sell in six figures or millions can really make serious money. Oh well … At the moment my book and dark tourism are not of much significance anyway. There have been no further promotion efforts, no more interview requests, nothing. It’s all just dropped into the background. But I will try my best to keep myself and DT going somehow.

Until next time (whenever that may be),

Best wishes

Peter