When I travel around, especially Latin America, I constantly see these smiling, obese, fellow North Americans (and Europeans for that matter) taking their selfies on the beach with their $1000 iPhones in hand, proudly displaying their pride for the trip they've made to the coastline in a foreign (to them) country. Spending thousands to get there for a few days during what might be their only time off of work or out of the country in a year or longer. In all of these places there are locals living on a fraction of the wealth, smiling just as wide. Generally the locals are healthy in appearance and half the size of the tourists. The rich/obese tourist is one of the cringiest things about these travels in my opinion. We don't have good marketing representatives as a populace (speaking of my country, the US). It's difficult to believe this isn't widely due to our politics/ethics/diet and values.

We are products of our environment, but we also have brains and moral compasses. The things that separate us from the animals are things like shame, written language, use of tools and formal education systems. Despite all of this, some people still don't learn to become self-aware.

Having Self awareness and considering that you are a representative of your country, community, and family will go a long way in how others perceive you. How do we fix this problem?

When I look around, I see lots of people with good intentions, but what I'm noticing is a lack of realization that those intentions aren't being executed with sound actions.

Is it too late? Can we fix this?

Maybe this is just all flawed, I'm human, but I generally can't wait to get away from that blindness of ones own self. I don't have the solutions, but I'm hoping it's something we can build from and improve upon.