Human Goods

(photo source: Vitaly Shepelev/flickr)

After the Christmas 2004 tsunami, Hannah Lobel, in a 2005 article from the Utne Reader, described “slimy ’sexpatriates’ who’ve set up shop as purveyors of women free from the influence of ‘feminazis’” that took advantage of young women and girls struck by the disaster. She’s referring to an article by Alex Renton describing the tendency of international sex tourists to exploit regions of the globe most brutally hit by natural and economic hardship.  Renton writes:

It was the tsunami, of course. Patong beach, one of the worst hit parts of Phuket island, is among Thailand’s best known destinations for tourists seeking sex. So the men transferred their holidays to Bangkok. Happily for them, there was a drought in northeastern Thailand at the end of 2004. The poor rice crop that resulted sent more young girls than usual down from their impoverished villages on the plains of Isaan to harvest the tourists in the big city. This seasonal migration goes back, historians of the sex trade will tell you, to the Vietnam war and the establishment of Thailand as a brothel for American GIs on leave. Prostitution for foreign visitors developed into a major industry, although official Thailand shrouds its economic and social significance in misinformation and a variety of interesting hypocrisies.

Sex tourism, Renton argues, is at best difficult to measure.  Immigration officers don’t list sex as a qualifier when questioning incoming tourists whether their trip is for business or pleasure.  He adds, however:

Westerners form an important—albeit not the major—part of this economic picture. A few have settld here because of it, calling themselves “sexpatriates.” In towns like Pattaya on the Gulf of Thailand, on Phuket island and in the sex trade districts of Bangkok, they run bars, hotels and brothels, mediating the transactions between male tourists and Thai women. They are vocal on websites and in local publishing ventures, churning out guides for sex tourists. Some of these men see themselves as exiles, refugees from the “feminazis” who are crushing the spirit of the western male. Here, the old order of the sexes still reigns. Women know their place, they wash your feet before they have sex with you, they say thank you and help you in the shower afterwards. And, of course, westerners’ savings and pensions go a long way. Beer is a dollar a bottle, and a woman for the night available for £10 or less. It’s the “last place you can be a white man,” says one bar-owning sexpat on his website.

Interestingly, Renton also identifies another industry revolving around the Thai sex trade– that of NGOs that seek to combat sex trafficking.  Despite all the activism around the issue, it is difficult for journalists to obtain accurate statistics measuring just how big the problem is.  This is, perhaps, because no one actually has such numbers.

Nevertheless, Renton predicts that the trend will continue to escalate as long as tourists have disposable incomes and oppressed countries have disposable people …

The country’s beaches are overexploited, its forests shrinking and the islands poisoned by tourists’ waste. But Thailand and its neighbours retain one renewable resource for the tourists that is not in danger of running out—the supply of poor, smiling women.

(Photo: Bullit Marquez/Associated Press)

As the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics kick off this weekend, William Sparrow for the Asia Times asks,
“China has the Games, doesn’t it expect the players to show up, too?”

In an article also featured on The Human Trafficking Project’s site, Sparrow refers to the inevitable influx of Olympic-going foreigners who double as sex tourists.

Anyone who studies human trafficking will tell you that wherever there is a congregation of people with money who are open to a good time, there is a market for prostitution.

Dissecting a published set of guidelines for admitted foreigners released by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, Sparrow writes,

Under the rubric “Which categories of foreigners are not permitted to enter China?”, the HRC-translated guide included, “Those who are believed to potentially engage in smuggling, narcotic trafficking or prostitution after entering China”, and “Those who are suffering from a mental disorder or insanity, sexually-transmitted disease, or an infectious disease such as active tuberculosis.”

How the Beijing government plans to enforce these policies, namely prostitution-seekers and those with sexually-transmitted disease, is impossibly unclear. Even for an authoritarian government as strict as Beijing, it seems an immense undertaking to pre-determine the health and intent of millions of expected tourists.

It is obvious, however, that the government has thrown down the gauntlet and will do whatever it must to crack down on vice in an effort to present China’s best face for the Games. In terms of stopping prostitution, and its alleged negative effects on society, this may be a laudable endeavor. But on the ground, let’s be honest, it’s laughable.

Sparrow references a Washington Post article by Maureen Fan that points to China’s economic boom as a major factor for rising numbers of sex workers. This will be undoubtedly exacerbated by the arrival of millions of tourists with money to spend on fun.

Sparrow concludes,

In the main cities where the Games will be held - Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai - any efforts to prevent or even tame prostitution will prove unmanageable. The confluence of history, economics and human nature - all in a carnivalesque environment - will simply be too much to overcome.

Dubai, by most accounts, is something of a fantasyland. Exploding with new money that begets uninhibited , almost Dr. Seussian, architecture and draws affluent business and pleasure-seekers from around the world, it has also, much like Las Vegas or Amsterdam, become what I like to call an exception zone. A playground of privilege, if you will, where things you might not do elsewhere become acceptable. Because, hey, it’s Dubai. The rules don’t apply in this surreal metropolis.

Except wherever money and power accumulate, exploitation almost always follows, flying under the radar and making both business and pleasure attainable. Night clubs pulse with military contractors, tourists, and Arab businessmen seeking easy sex with Iragi refugees. Filipina maids, obtaining jobs abroad so they can send money home to their children, are often abused (sometimes quite sadistically). There have been numerous cases of maids being thrown out the windows of lavish, otherworldly skyscrapers that peak up, Jetson-like, above the clouds on a foggy day.

But it makes a kind of sense– where there is excess, people become increasingly expendable. And easy to replace.

Glen Carey, for The Asian Sex Gazette, published an article on the trafficking of persons to Dubai:

Dubai has transformed itself from a trading village to the Persian Gulf’s financial and tourist hub with lower taxes and a more vibrant nightlife than other Gulf states. Bars heave with men drinking $10 beers and women in short skirts.

That’s attracted rich Saudis, US oil workers flush with cash after stints in Iraq, and bankers who are paid as much as 40 percent more than those in London or New York.

Affluence has increased the demand for laborers and housemaids, and the development of laws to protect them from exploitation hasn’t kept pace, the International Labor Organization said in an e-mailed response to questions.

Women from Asia and Africa often sign contracts to work as maids, waitresses, hairdressers and secretaries, only to have employers confiscate their passports and force them to work as prostitutes, the US report said. Others work excessive hours under the threat of mental, physical or sexual abuse until they can pay off recruitment costs.

According to the article, Dubai, which is ranked on the Tier 2 Watch List of the U.S. Trafficking in Persons report, is making an effort to curb the problem. Carey writes, “In July (2007), the UAE formed a committee of senior officials to combat human trafficking, and it has opened a shelter for abused women. In the past year it has closed 40 hotels and clubs that allowed prostitution, said Anwar Gargash, minister of state for Federal National Council Affairs in Dubai.”

Such efforts are well and good. But you have to wonder, as you do with Vegas, about how much the problem really can be eradicated when the whole culture of the place, the essence of it, what makes it saleable, what makes its market value shine, is precisely the fact that it assuages the guilt of the haves by promoting their entitlement to the labor and bodies of the have-nots and building on the delusion of the Western right to pleasure at all costs. Costs which usually remain invisible to most of us who can’t even imagine having to surrender the autonomy of our bodies and souls.

In the end, Dubai is an exception zone, yes. But only more obviously than the rest of the world we occupy.

The New York Times published an opinion piece on efforts to boost prevention of child prostitution in Atlanta. Atlanta stands apart as perhaps the major U.S. hub for the trafficking of American children for purposes of sex (see earlier Human Goods post on Libby Spears’ documentary, Playground). The problem rears its head in most cities, especially those that draw lots of tourists and convention-goers (the equation goes something like: men on holiday minus wives plus extra time and money to spend equals exploitation far too often).

But as the opinion piece points out, the laws against sexual exploitation are already tough, and what we need is a much more holistic response to tackling the problem:

The men who drive the sex trade by patronizing prostitutes rarely figure into discussions of the problem. Shirley Franklin, the mayor of Atlanta, has changed that through advertisements underscoring the damage that these men do to their communities.

The city is also considering legislation under which first-time offenders on adult prostitution charges will be required to attend classes where they would learn about the broader social harm associated with their activities. Restitution and community service may be required.

These measures are a good example to state officials. Lawmakers also need to encourage programs that train teachers, law enforcement officials, social workers and others to focus on children at risk and to recognize the signs of sexual abuse and prostitution. By spreading knowledge and devising plans to help at-risk children, the authorities can put themselves in a position to intervene before damage has been done.

(source: BBC News)

The BBC reported that Interpol released these photos of an unidentified man sexually abusing three 6- to 10-year-old boys in what they believe is Southeast Asia.

“The law enforcement community around the world has done all it can to find this man who clearly presents a danger to young children, and we are now asking the public to help identify this predator and protect other potential victims from abuse,” said Interpol Secretary General, Ronald Noble, in a statement.

Last fall, Interpol arrested a man creepily known as “Mr. Swirl” (because his photo was cleverly encoded as a swirly thing before it was unscrambled by cleverer people). Mr. Swirl turned out to be not a comic book villain, but a Canadian named Christopher Neil who is now being charged in Thailand for having sex with a 9-year-old boy.

(source: BBC News)

The USA.

“The daunting truth today is that wherever drugs are being sold in the United States, children, too, are being sold,” the description of Libby Spears’ new documentary, Playground, says. “American children.”

This weekend, the Latino Social Workers Organization hosted a human trafficking summit at Dominican University in Illinois. The summit, which drew people from social service and governmental organizations across Chicago, premiered the trailer for Spears’ upcoming film.

Watch the Playground trailer (contains disturbing images and content)

Playground ties a thriving domestic sex trade of “throwaways” (ie, children) to the vast superstructure of slavery worldwide. Spears initially set out to investigate international sex trafficking, but found a horrific underbelly much closer to home.

“Trafficking is self-sustainable,” Father Larry Dowling, who is part of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Faith and Justice Committee, told the summit, emphasizing what a huge business it is. “Combating this problem is not. It requires funding.”

Indeed, human traffickers have the incentive of immeasurable profit and general impunity. Overcoming such a sustainable global industry requires us to finally decide that it’s a priority.

The human soul is not for sale: find out more.

Anti-sex tourism legislation can get a little tricky, as demonstrated by a recent case reported by the Associated Press.

A Florida man was arrested when he responded to a tourism ad advertising sex in Costa Rica. His intention for traveling? Sex with a 14 - 16-year-old girl.

But the travel agency was actually run by the FBI, and Jorge Muentes was arrested before boarding the plane.

His lawyers argue that he is being charged with a fantasy that he may or may not have acted on.

But prosecutors and the FBI say they were averting the damage before it happened.

Last week the Associated Press reported the conviction of an El Paso man, John Dickens Armstrong, for crossing the border to Juarez to have sex with underage girls.

Engaging in sex with minors is unique as a federal crime because it’s one of the only things Americans can be prosecuted for doing on foreign shores.

Tourism is now the world’s biggest industry, and the U.S. Department of Justice reports that the biggest factor drawing children into prostitution is poverty, with children serving 100 - 1500 clients a year.

Mexican officials arrested Armstrong last April when they found him with a 15-year-old girl in a Juarez apartment.