Stickman

[simie]

[Old Hippie]

The only problem I have with whoring is when they say no...what ever happened to professional ethics?

[kamui]

The only problem I have with whoring is when they say no...what ever happened to professional ethics?

 

That's the sad result of the influence of feminist prostitutes who spread the idea that BG's can decline to go with drunk, smelly, rude, ugly or cheap punters.

[Dexi]

What about these fundamentalist christian NGOs that claim to rescue bgs from the industry....how does that work exactly...do they pay them 20-30 k Bt per month to sit at home and watch tv ?

[cavanami]

Yeah...right...they rescue and get 20-30 k Bt per month to sit at home and watch tv?...tel me another fairy tale!

[Gadfly]

the majority of factory workers paid at minimum wages would rather do another job if they could? And that every now and then they feel they are exploited and abused but are stuck in the situation? But it wouldn’t come to mind to suggest that factory working should be prohibited.

 

Yes, and they have rights in Thailand. Why? Because their not criminals. Fire a Thai factory worker without paying severance, and you go to jail....unless you are an influential Thai or a politician. I have seen it first hand.

 

If you want to improve the lot of uneducated Thai women, decriminalize the industry. Of course they'll all want to work in the foreign oriented p4p industry where they are treated like humans rather than Thai brothels where they are treated like dogs, so that will never happen. And it will be much harder for Thai pimps ("boyfriends") to extract rent from the girls, which means, in Thai-speak, that "Thais" (meaning mafia and pimps) won't benefit from these sorts of alien measures.

[coops]

I am a prostitute.

 

I sell my mind and body to a corporation in return for money....

 

Thanks to a decent education and good luck i am a higher class of hooker than say a burger flipper in McDonalds.... but, there it is.

 

Plenty of people also are full of sexual hang-ups and repression.... ;-)

[Guest]

What about these fundamentalist christian NGOs that claim to rescue bgs from the industry....how does that work exactly...do they pay them 20-30 k Bt per month to sit at home and watch tv ?

 

No, they--"Nightlight" is the one I know firsthand about--pay them 7,500 a month to make crappy jewelry that they sell over the web. Granted, the workday (M-F) is pretty light, and includes a full hour for lunch; they rarely work more than 5 hours a day due to English classes and bible study. Plus they give them paid holidays, and 2 weeks off--fully paid--at Christmas.

 

That said, the vast majority of the girls still continue to see customers on the side and fake the conversion to Xianity.

[Wallenda]

I am a prostitute.

 

I sell my mind and body to a corporation in return for money....

 

Thanks to a decent education and good luck i am a higher class of hooker than say a burger flipper in McDonalds.... but, there it is.

 

Plenty of people also are full of sexual hang-ups and repression.... ;-)

 

Please. So working is the same as prostitution? So a farmer who raises crops to sell to take care of his family is a prostitute? So by that logic, the only people who aren't prostitutes are people who are on the dole or trust fund babies. But then again, even they have to fill out forms sometimes or abide by some of daddy's rules, so I guess it's Planet of the Prostitutes then.

 

The defining aspect of prostitution is selling your SEX. If you think there's no distinction, then it means you'd be willing to go work as a gigolo, so... have you? Would you? OK, so, it's not really an honest statement then is it.

 

Sorry, it's just a really tired old lefty mantra, that prostitute line. And I'm a John Lennon-loving lefty myself, so it's not like you're getting it here from any talk radio fanatic. What you're tooting here is irrational hyperbole.

 

[Wallenda]

This is a really good point and yeah, I am totally guilty as charged on this one. I take on board what you say and will try and look at why these things are happening.

 

The first piece in tomorrow's column concerns the Bank of Thailand's FTA number for December which was released yesterday - and shows a new record for foreign tourist arrivals...which I find kinda interesting.

 

Thanks... I just went looking for the raging debate alluded to in the OP here -- it seems it's happening all in Reader Submissions? (there's no STickman forum, right?) I have to admit I haven't really been reading those but just the main column. Just a nitpicky UI comment: your weekly column main page is set up so the most recent goes on top (most prominent) -- but the reader submission page is opposite, with most recent down bottom. I think the way you do your columns' main page is much more convenient/intuitive. Further, it'd be nice to get some sense of what the recent topics are for some of the latest submissions right there on that main page.

 

Back to our main issue here, I think the problem is more like homelessness in our countries: people are more upset about the ugliness of it, how it's in your face and making you feel uncomfortable, than they are about the real problem itself. I think that dynamic also fits Thais' hating prostititution. If it's hidden, they don't care about the issue at all. The reason it's not hidden is because of graft. Graft exists to the degree it does due to corruption, and we all know that's like a cancer that's now spread through the entire body, and no cure in sight. So the visibility of it is basically an inconvenient symptom of the disease, and as long as the myth of Thai-ness is propogated, that they know how to do things better than the rest of the world does, can't learn anything from other countries, do it the Thai way, stick to Face as the defining order of things, then... that's their choice. They make the active choice to have it this way. In any of our countries, if people were upset about it, they'd be out protesting and hounding their MP or congressman or whatever... and eventually it would get addressed. What are Thais doing? No man, all their energies are going toward the Thaksin issue. Which again, is all about buying into demogoguery and the Thai way of doing things (corruption). The prostitution scene is as ntrinsically Thai as ... well, that other unmentionable defining aspect of Thai society. Just different sides of the same animal. Look around the world. Nowhere else. Just there. It's a defining aspect of Thailand, whether they like it or not. It's the image in the mirror they can't bear to look at. Dear Thailand: this is you, not us.