Disturbing Phnom Pehn "Slave" Brothel Report-

[chuckwoww]

Some light reading...warning: can cause headaches.

 

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwIntroIndex.htm

[kamui]

MightyMouse said:

And once Cambodia is 'cleaned up' , attention will probably be focused on Cambodia's neighbor, Thailand.

 

[color:"green"] Welcome to the real world. [/color]

 

This is higly unlikely IMHO. The influence of NGO's is that strong in Cambodia, because 50% of the country's income is from foreign donations, credits etc. Since the country is so weak and dependent on international funding it is an ideal playground for foreign NGO's, many of them doing seemingly a real good job while others might have their own agenda which might only partly be helpful for the people.

 

This cannot be compared with the current situation in Thailand with a strong, nationalistic goverment, which simply ignores foreign complaints in case of problems with human rights.

Even during the war against drugs with thousand of dead people I did not read such a strong statement against the Thai goverment, involving so many interantional organizations like what happened after ca. 80 women where freed/kidnapped (depending on whom you ask) from an Afesip safe house in December.

 

International Outcry

Gov't disputes claim of abduction

 

PS: As we all know, in BKK there is no need for foreign NGO's to bring the nightlife down....

[kamui]

Here is the next installment. IMHO this article is quite weak, compared to the other articles. This is another single fate, nothing less but nothing more es well. No numbers about the amount of sex trafficking, no information about the structures behind it e.g.

 

 

After the Brothel

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

 

Published: January 26, 2005

 

POIPET, Cambodia ? When I describe sex trafficking as, at its worst, a 21st-century version of slavery, I'm sure plenty of readers roll their eyes and assume that's hyperbole.

 

It's true that many of the girls who are trafficked around the world go voluntarily or under coercion too modest to be fairly called slavery. But then there are girls like Srey Rath.

 

A couple of years ago, at age 15 or 16 (she's unsure of her birth date), Srey Rath decided to go work in Thailand for two months, so that she could give her mother a present for the Cambodian new year.

 

But the traffickers who were supposed to get her and four female friends jobs as dishwashers smuggled them instead to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. There, three of the girls, including Srey Rath, were locked up in a karaoke lounge that operated as a brothel and ordered to have sex with customers. Srey Rath indignantly resisted.

 

"So the boss got angry and hit me in the face, first with one hand and then with the other," she remembers. "The mark stayed on my face for two weeks."

 

That was the beginning of a hell. The girls were forced to work in the brothel 15 hours a day, seven days a week, and they were never paid or allowed outside. Nor were they allowed to insist that customers use condoms.

 

"They just gave us food to eat, but they didn't give us much because the customers didn't like fat girls," Srey Rath said.

 

The girls had been warned that if they tried to escape they could be murdered. But they were so desperate that late one night, after they had been locked up in the 10th-floor apartment where they were housed, they pried a strong board off a rack used for drying clothes. Then they balanced the board, which was just five inches wide, from their window to a ledge in the next building, a dozen feet away.

 

Sry Rath and four other girls inched across, 10 floors above the pavement.

 

"We thought that even if we died, it would be better than staying behind," Srey Rath said. "If we stayed, we would die as well." (I talked to another of the Cambodians, Srey Hay, and she confirmed the entire account.)

 

Once on the other side, they took the elevator down and fled to a police station. But the police weren't interested and tried to shoo them away at first - and then arrested them for illegal immigration. Srey Rath spent a year in a Malaysian prison, and when she was released, a Malaysian policeman drove her away - and sold her to a taxi driver, who sold her to a Thai policeman, who sold her to a Thai brothel.

 

Finally, after two more months, Srey Rath fled again and made it home this time to the embraces of her joyful family. An aid group, American Assistance for Cambodia, stepped in to help Srey Rath, outfitting her with a street cart and an assortment of belts and keychains to sell. That cost only $400, and now she's thrilled to be earning money for her family.

 

Over the last five years, the U.S. has begun to combat sex trafficking, with President Bush's State Department taking the lead. But there's so much more that could be done, particularly if the White House became involved. More scolding and shaming of countries with major sex trafficking problems, like Cambodia and Malaysia, would go a long way to get them to clean up their act.

 

It's mostly a question of priorities. No politician defends sex trafficking, but until recently no one really opposed it much either. It just wasn't on the agenda. If, say, 100 people in each Congressional district demanded that their representatives push this issue, sex trafficking would end up much higher on our foreign policy agenda - and the resulting ripple of concern around the globe would emancipate tens of thousands of girls.

 

You'll understand the stakes if you ever cross the border from Thailand to Cambodia at Poipet: look for a cart with a load of belts. You'll see a beaming teenage girl who will try to sell you a souvenir, and you'll realize that talk about sex "slavery" is not hyperbole - and that the shame lies not with the girls but with our own failure to respond as firmly to slavery today as our ancestors did in the 1860's.

[chuckwoww]

I saw that. No doubt it happens and any 15 year old girl (from anywhere) who goes to work in Thailand is going to be a prime target. I also checked the NYT website where Kristoff fearlessly ventures inside an actual Cambodian brothel...

 

http://www.nytimes.com/

 

It's a fairly balanced report but I have a feeling the brothel owners are going to regret the day they let him and his cameraperson in.

 

I don't know if Kristoff is sincere or not but he's pushing all the right buttons. AIDS is mentioned frequently and I notice he uses the word 'shame' a lot so I suspect that is one of his main tactics.

 

"But there's so much more that could be done, particularly if the White House became involved. More scolding and shaming of countries with major sex trafficking problems, like Cambodia and Malaysia, would go a long way to get them to clean up their act. "

 

We'll never know to what extent he is projecting his own feelings of guilt and shame onto the Cambodians who, like the Thais, don't seem to feel particularly ashamed of the sex business.

[Guest]

"We'll never know to what extent he is projecting his own feelings of guilt and shame onto the Cambodians who, like the Thais, don't seem to feel particularly ashamed of the sex business. "

 

Good remark,

watched the report, nothing much really, girls don't even look young, but they sure shouldn't let guys like Kristoff in

[Guest lazyphil]

I think Thais are ashamed of the biz, its been discussed here endlessly how a non bg wont be seen dead anywhere near NP, Patpong etc

[Guest]

"its been discussed here endlessly how a non bg wont be seen dead anywhere near NP, Patpong etc "

 

Well...than perhaps it could be discussed a bit more , clubs in Silom soi 4, which is the soi just besides Patpong 2 attract many well off thai, boys n girls. I haven't hung out much in Lucifer(patpong 1) but for a while it had quite a mixed crowd. Prostitution is so widespread in Thailand regular girls mix with not so regular in many places, especially where prostitutes are not as gross as most of those in western oriented areas

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"I think Thais are ashamed of the biz"

 

I think what worries them much more is that farangs know about it, and that it is visible.

Don't hear any girls complaining about walking around in Ratchada for instance.

 

Sanuk!

[chuckwoww]

khunsanuk said:

Hi,

 

"I think Thais are ashamed of the biz"

 

I think what worries them much more is that farangs know about it, and that it is visible.

Don't hear any girls complaining about walking around in Ratchada for instance.

 

Sanuk!

 

I think some are ashamed. Most couldn't care less. Much like the citizens of Amsterdam.

 

The point is will shame work as a tactic? Dragging kids out of Svay Pak made great TV and achieved the effect of driving pedos back wherever they came from. The Viet girls simply moved into less visible locations.

 

I wasn't too impressed with the shocking expose of Poipet brothels myself but I expect Kristoff will get some mileage out of it, especially among people who couldn't find Cambodia on a map. Let's not forget the stated objective...rescuing '14 year old girls kept in cages' and 'the hundreds of thousands of girls trafficked annually'.

[Guest]

"rescuing '14 year old girls kept in cages' "

 

Yes, wonder how he can convince anyone with this kind of report. I must have sided strongly already but he seems to fail to illustrate his point with the pictures at least, and pretty much with its written report. Gives you an idea of the mainstream readership....