Madeleine Morris4d ago

RE: https://mstdn.social/@Remittancegirl/116221646008456537

I have mixed feelings about this. I spent 20 years living in Vietnam, not photographing the things I was prohibited from photographing.

Because I was visitor. It wasn't my country, and I was allowed to live there under the forbearance of the government. So, you know, I obeyed their laws.

Dubai isn't a democracy. Your rights are whatever the government says they are. If that offends you, go home.

Show threadMadeleine Morris4d ago

And yet I can understand that people living expat lives come to believe the rules don't apply to them. I saw it often, Westerners who believed themselves to be above the laws of the country that was hosting them.

And with smart phones it is very easy to think that because you can take a picture of anything, you should and have a right to.

But you don't.

Show threadPhil Thane ✅4d ago
@Remittancegirl in the UK it is generally permissible to take photos of anything*from* public land, eg a road or path, or *from* private land with the landowner's permission even if the person of thing you are photographing is on private or government land. Seems some Brits assume this is the case in all countries when clearly it isn't.
Show threadMadeleine Morris

@pthane Apparently so.

I cannot remember how often I had to stop a Western tourist, taking a picture of the Naval yards in HCMC and point out the incredibly LARGE PICTOGRAPHIC SIGN that indicated that photography was prohibited there.

I think they simply assume the rules don't apply to them. This is fairly typical western arrogance.

Mar 13 at 3:27pmWeb
Show threadPhil Thane ✅4d ago
@Remittancegirl You don't have to go as far as Asia to see examples. Greek islands being small often have airfields shared by commercial flights and military use. No photography there. USians are notorious in Europe for assuming their laws and customs are universal and my fellow Brits are embarrassingly prone to offending local cultural norms by turning up at historic religious sites in shorts, tees or crop tops.