Flower Girl Arrested in Hotel!

[Guest]

Originally posted by nepfan:

"Yes, Scum_Baggio, if you have some time I'd like to hear a little about India...What draws you there?"

It's work-related, but then I'm one of the lucky few whose work is actually their hobby. What draws me to India? Thousands of years of a very unique culture, there's always something new to discover even if you'd been there a thousand times, and I love the people who accept me like one of their own (speaking a few vernaculars does help); and I love the food and even Hindi movies. I must have seen a thousand of them, no exaggeration.

All the details would of course go beyond this thread, so we'd have to start a new one in "Regional Sanuk" or something like that. Maybe, eh?

Till later, Namaste, SB

[ August 10, 2001: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ]

[Guest]

Originally posted by pattaya127:

"I find it hard to believe one would think a good scam to go From Thailand to India for the purpose of begging."

It's not only hard to believe, it's plain nonsense. Thailand's gross net product per head of population is almost five times higher than India's and beggars are much better off here. The slum of Klong Toey in Bangkok is heaven compared to the slums of Bombay or Calcutta.

Having been to India almost 50 times, I have hardly ever seen a beggar there who wasn't Indian; the exceptions were a couple of young Nepali drug addicts who were panhandling tourists, plus the odd Bangladeshi beggar or two. On the other hand, I've seen a few beggars from Tamil Nadu pursuing their vocation in Singapore. They had come in on tourist visas and were obviously "posh" beggars who could afford the plane ticket and probably made well up on that investment.

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by Scum_Baggio:

Originally posted by nepfan:

 

All the details would of course go beyond this thread, so we'd have to start a new one in "Regional Sanuk" or something like that. Maybe, eh?

Till later, Namaste, SB

[ August 10, 2001: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ]

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I'll read it if you'll write it. Like to know what cities you'd recomend. Like Indian food, but still confused about it.

[Guest]

RapidoFreddy, The girl snuggling up to you in Golden bar is one of the ones we are talking about.

Chicago Dave is right to show compassion. Compassion and frustration were the reasons I wrote the first post in this thread. But, the greater tragedy is that there just isn't anything, that I can think of, either to help these girls (and the gum salesmen and the shoeshine boys and.....) or the legions that will follow in their footsteps.

Your comment about the police sweeping them up is not a new idea. The police have done this several times along with the Indian peanut salesmen and others working in Thailand illegally.

But the girls are Cambodian and sending them back to Cambodia isn't the solution. If they don't get on the next bus back to BKK they will be faced with a world of dismal poverty, ignorance and no future. Their only sensible option in Cambodia is the same as here...become a prostitute.

You mentioned why doesn't Thaksin do something about it. I think he has made a start by extending government sponsored education past the 6th grade. He is also trying to convince other leaders to create a Kindergarden level in the school system so that the children can be worked with at a younger age. The school system here is, indeed, flimsy, but it is a start.

But that doesn't help our flower girls. They come from Cambodia which most of our Western countries have totally ignored. Cambodia is too poor to even create the facade of an education system.

In many ways I think prostitution may be the best avenue for these girls...At least they will have money and more power over their own lives. Remember, the sweet young 13 year old had purchased her own moblie telephone. I really don't mind too much if they pull a few scams on us silly farangs.

I've been thinking about this for some time and, frankly, I'm no furhter along than when I started. I still can't decide whether to buy their overpriced stuff or not.

So, for now, I ignore them....But, that's a damn lousy solution.

[Guest]

Scum_Baggio,

I have no way of finding that article again and no way of determining if it was actually true.

I do recall the kids were indigineous hill tribe kids and orphans. These people can't even get the Thai government to issue them Thai identity cards so they can get jobs, attend Thai sponsored schools, benefit from the new medical treatment laws, travel outside their communities, own property or obtain house registration cards. They do live lives of hopeless poverty. They live a long way down the hill from Klong Toey.

I believe the reason given was that they were good prey because they had no families to complain and the Indian governemnt wouldn't intervene because they weren't Indian.

However, I should withdraw that from my posting since I can't support it. Consider it withdrawn. I won't edit it out because then new readers are going to be puzzled as to what all the references to it are about.

However removing it doesn't doesn't change the thrust of my post.

[Guest]

nepfan,

the Indian peanut vendors never really get "swept up"; they are threatened with jail and ensuing deportation by the police, and usually after payments or about 2,000 Baht they are set free. Occasionally, the police rob these poor buggers of every item of any worth that they may find on them. In some police precincts, illegal workers like the Indians pay a regular amount to the local "long-pak" or police station; for this they get a little slip of paper with a signature which every policeman will recognize. That saves them a lot of trouble.

I can guarantee you that the guys bringing in Cambodian beggars also pay someone in authority. Garland vendors, who ply their trade at busy traffic intersections, pay the police something like 50 Baht a day, otherwise they would be chased away. The police in Thailand are a law unto themselves.

[ August 10, 2001: Message edited by: Scum_Baggio ]

[Steve]

Unfortunately, with the kind of business that goes on in LOS and the fact that we spend money seen as a princely sum with a casual display, it will bring out a lot of undesirable things.

Where I grew up the richest guys were the mob and drug dealers. When you're on public assistance, it looks attractive. So I would assume something similar happens in LOS also on a scale that fits the circumstances there. There was at least some hope in my area but in 3rd world countries it seems even more hopeless

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by nepfan:

I'll read it if you'll write it. Like to know what cities you'd recomend. Like Indian food, but still confused about it.

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anywhere!

but do not make the mistake of going less than two months the first time. india takes a lot to get used to, and you don't want to dislike it just because you did not give yourself enough time to like it.

the longer you spend in india the more you will get confused about it, that is one of india's beauties, makes you going back constantly.

[Flashermac]

Several decades ago, before the police under heavy pressure from Thai women's groups shut them down, there used to be a couple of brothels that specialised in underage girls. The Chinese-Thai owners would get 12 or 13 year old girls from an orphanage (don't ask me how) and train them to be hard as nail 3-hole pro hookers. The girls were apparently so young that they quickly got into it. (They got fed, clothed and paid fairly well and lived better than in the orphanage.) I knew a fellow who was into that crap and he told me the girls were more hard core than any 18+ girl you'd ever meet in a bar. They'd do almost anything, even take on two guys at a time in double pens.

I also ran into underage pros in Patpong a couple of times in the '80s. One was just 15 and would come into a go-go bar and hustle. That pissed off the regular girls, since she was stealing their business. (She also modeled for Shrimp and shacked up with him for a while.) The other was just 13 and was dancing nude and hustling everyone in the bar. You could tell how young she was by her still developing body. This time the dancers told the owner her real age and said if he did not get rid of her, they would tell the police themselves.

[Flashermac]

p.s. I suppose when you are really poor, the money in the sex scene looks appealing -- even if you are just 12 or 13. These kids figure they have no real future anyway, so they figure "What have I got to lose?".