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Why Cambodia's sex workers don't need to be saved


geovalin

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BANGKOK, Thailand — Eyes gouged out for insolence, moms selling daughters to pimps, girls showered with maggots — if it happened in a Cambodian brothel, the story is never too shocking for Westerners to believe.

These tales, all propagated by fundraising charities in Cambodia, depict the nation’s sex trade as an otherworldly hellscape.

In the last decade, these groups have relied on such anecdotes to raise millions toward “saving” Cambodian women from prostitution. And in promoting this crusade, they’ve painted a picture of pitiful girls swallowed by an underground industry that is downright demonic.

Well, it turns out most of these women aren’t so clueless and weak, says a professor named Heidi Hoefinger.

Hoefinger is an anthropologist and Berkeley College professor who’s spent more than a decade befriending, interviewing and, at times, living with women who work in Cambodia’s hostess bars. These are street-side joints, drenched in neon, where 50 cents buys a mug of beer and $20 buys an evening of female company.

Her research has produced a counter-narrative that is strikingly different from the “trauma porn” — as she calls it — that is churned out by fundraisers.

extremely long and documented article which could disturb some readers => http://www.globalpost.com/article/6749854/2016/03/22/stop-trying-save-cambodian-sex-workers-researcher-says

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Maybe A little off topic.I don't see anything wrong with A woman that wants to have an income.My only problem is that the age that

They start.

Back in the day when I hung out with working girls, I was told that most of them start out in a small way in their home towns, often giving it away free until a friend explains they can make money from it. Lots of them start as young as 14 or 15. I knew one girl who was from Bangkok who told me her mother started her working when she was 14, but that's unusual. They usually get quite a bit of amateur experience before turning pro. Lot's of them are escaping from an abusive husband. Some of them are supporting an abusive husband. Many of them have kids they need to support. The NGOs that spread the stories about 500,000 women and kids being trafficked a year have been shown to be scams, set up to make money the same as Republican political action committees.

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Do gooders making a living fleecing the Christians back home...

A small percentage of these women are forced into this trade...some duped...and some go willingly...

It is the business of Cambodia to tackle this problem...if indeed there is a problem...

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Any underground activity or trade is incentive for exploitation, crime, and violence.

Prostitution is the oldest "job" in History. Nothing wrong with that....and no reason to be illegal or prosecuted, IF regulated to be sure that it is safe for the practitioners and its clients. Sex workers do not need to be saved. Needs to be protected.

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Here on the homefront the biggest con artist in Thailand are The Christian so called misionaries and NGO'S in Chiang Mai. And there is a slew of them. They do nothing for the locals. They live high on the hog and send their kids to private international schools at a cost of about 1,000 Dollars per month per kid. They have found the perfect scam. All paid for by the folks back home.

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ggt

Do gooders making a living fleecing the Christians back home...

Unfortunately it seems some charities do not have a compliance officer..

However, I have also seen people that are applying all funds, and sometimes more, to the project as intended, draw a local salary, and work very hard to get a life for victims of the people exploitation trade that unfortunately do exist.

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Nice article by a woman that has actually been down there and really knows what's going on.

Same goes for Thai bar girls. I know several of them who got the boyfriend, got more than enough money to spend the rest of their days with their families in Isan (incl new house, cars, etc) and still prefer to stay in Pattaya going to the same bars they used to.

At least from what I've seen in the foreign-oriented areas, I have never seen a girl "forced" to work in a bar. They all had the choice to stay in the village, work in factories, work as maids/waitresses/street vendor, and they still picked the bar over all those options.

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The reason they pick the bar over a factory job is simple economics. A factory job pays 7-10K Baht per month. A young , attractive girl can make that in a week or much more. They see other girls wearing nice clothes; a new I phone; and a chance for a future. Even University grads in Thailand start at a low salary - 15K per month. The prices of food in Thailand are high and caring for children and schooling are not cheap. When a country has so many of its women working, servicing a foreign tourist or expat population- something is radically wrong. Does anyone really think that deep down- a Thai woman likes servicing men- who are mostly drunk; foul mouthed and uncouth.

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Maybe A little off topic.I don't see anything wrong with A woman that wants to have an income.My only problem is that the age that

They start.

Disease, crime, rape, violence, drug addiction and mental health problems are common problems with third world prostitution, and elsewhere.

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Professor Heidi Hoe finger! You couldn't make this sh*t up! cheesy.gif

  1. www.jjay.cuny.edu/faculty/heidi-hoefinger แคช
    Peer-reviewed Book. Hoefinger, Heidi (2013) Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia: Professional Girlfriends and Transactional Relationships. Modern Anthropology of Southeast Asia Series, London: Routledge.
  2. www.iseaa.org/heidi-hoefinger.html แคช
    Dr. Heidi Hoefinger grew up in upstate New York, USA. She completed a BS in Education (with a concentration in Music and a minor in Anthropology) at Plattsburgh State University of New York.
  3. www.facebook.com/hoefinger แคช
    Heidi Hoefinger is on Facebook. Join Facebook to connect with Heidi Hoefinger and others you may know. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes...
  4. www.linkedin.com/in/dr-heidi-hoefinger-b1a18115
    View Dr Heidi Hoefinger’s professional profile on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the world's largest business network, helping professionals like Dr Heidi Hoefinger discover inside connections to recommended job candidates, industry experts, and business partners.
  5. www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=1849997 แคช
    Rating and reviews for Professor Heidi Hoefinger from Berkeley College New York, NY United States.
    yeah, just can't make dat shit up
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Maybe A little off topic.I don't see anything wrong with A woman that wants to have an income.My only problem is that the age that

They start.

Back in the day when I hung out with working girls, I was told that most of them start out in a small way in their home towns, often giving it away free until a friend explains they can make money from it. Lots of them start as young as 14 or 15. I knew one girl who was from Bangkok who told me her mother started her working when she was 14, but that's unusual. They usually get quite a bit of amateur experience before turning pro. Lot's of them are escaping from an abusive husband. Some of them are supporting an abusive husband. Many of them have kids they need to support. The NGOs that spread the stories about 500,000 women and kids being trafficked a year have been shown to be scams, set up to make money the same as Republican political action committees.

Most of the ones I met where from poor families and where at a time young teens in trouble because they got pregnant. So I guess they gave it out free to one guy anyway.

With very little education, and no chance to earn a decent income many resorted to being a Bar Girl as with good looks, and nerves of steel (I guess), they could make a decent living. Some became great at this, some not so bad, and most never make it in this trade at all.

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In the world there are always some sob story that some people will churn out

to try get money from other people. This seems to be like that.

There are scam fund raisers all over the world.

I have been in parts of Thailand were there were not many tourists, but

I have always been able to locate a local watering hole (bar) where the local

Thai men could find a young woman who was very willing, for a few hundred baht.

In Chiang Mai I was taken by my Thai relative to a place where there were no Farangs,

or tourists and my relative had no problem finding a small Thai bar with about 6 nice

looking young Thai women. I was able to get a nice afternoon memory for a pretty cheap price.

I do not believe that Thailand has changed that much in the last few years, so this

Cambodian story is not too hard to believe that it is a way for some people to

just get money from those who are sympathetic to this story.

The oldest profession still exists in almost all places in the world.

Geezer

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It was noticeable years ago the that smug NGOs in Cambodia and elsewhere campaigning against prostitution did more damage to families, individuals and communities than the prostitution did. But the fat cat NGOs thrived. The same with drug squads around the world. Their intervention and incarceration of drug users does damage than the consumption of drugs - but the drug squads get bigger and bigger and richer and richer as budgets and personal wealth swells. Some of these so called charities and NGOs are just a modern form of racism and imperialism. If the do gooders want to chase up sex traffickers go the USA where modern sex slavery is possiblly the worst in the not so civilized world.

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Maybe A little off topic.I don't see anything wrong with A woman that wants to have an income.My only problem is that the age that

They start.

Disease, crime, rape, violence, drug addiction and mental health problems are common problems with third world prostitution, and elsewhere.

Its poverty that leads to despair not sex. - Disease, crime, rape, violence, drug addiction and mental health problems are common problems with third world and the developed world.

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