The major omissions of travellers: the host society's fault? (And coding homework)


Author: Terence Rajivan Edward
Abstract. This paper points out that some societies may prefer lopsided geniuses in one thing over all-rounders and so all-rounders are not sent to describe them, resulting in major omissions.
Draft version: Version 2 (30 July 2026; v1 27th December 2025, adapted from 23rd August 2023)
Software used: Google docs, google drive, Google.com, kleki.com
PDF available at: https://www.academia.edu/145607735/The_major_omissions_of_travellers_the_host_societys_fault_And_coding_homework 

        I was struck by this opening to a paragraph by Chinua Achebe:
"Travellers with closed minds can tell us little except about themselves. But even those not blinkered, like Conrad, with xenophobia, can be astonishingly blind. Let me digress a little here. One of the of the greatest and most intrepid travellers of all time, Marco Polo, journeyed to the Far East from the Mediterranean in the thirteenth century and spent twenty years in the court of Kublai Khan in China. On his return to Venice he set down in his book entitled Description of the World his impressions of peoples and places and customs he had seen. But there were at least two extraordinary omissions from his account." (1792)
The two omissions are printing, there 100 years before Gutenberg, and the Great Wall of China. Now I usually blame travellers for major omissions, but I wonder whether in some cases the blame partly or wholly lies with the society being described. They prefer a man who is 10 out of 10 in this, that or the other - even if 0 out of 10 in some crucial area relevant to his overall work! - over one 9 of 10 in all relevant areas. For example, he is 10 out of 10 in language learning skills, but 0 out of 10 in ability to understand technology; theh prefer him to an all-round 9 out of 10 fellow. ("What is the big deal? Can you not send us someone more impressive at something?" they ask.)  So one does not send this society a 9 out of 10 man in general to report on it and the result is some superb descriptions but also some striking omissions. "Technology is not my strength. And how do you even explain printing to people without it?"


Appendix (coding homework - 2 pence man)
Two pence man only has 2 pence pieces. Can you get the user to input the price of an item (above one pound) and then tell them how many two pence pieces they need to buy it?


Reference
Achebe, C.1977  An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness. Massachusetts Review 18. Available at:
https://yale.learningu.org/download/ae5ac277-5cc2-483a-9541-37aaef9a0e67/C2116_Chinua%20Achebe.pdf