3/16/08
Opinion by Gino Troiani
The Beacon (Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, USA)
The nation of Cambodia is located in Southeast Asia, just west of Vietnam. It is largely underdeveloped, poverty stricken, and lacks a strong central government.
To support themeselves, many Cambodians live and work on farms, or in factories. In a nation where the average annual salary is around $350 a year, some citizens turn to illegal activities such as narcotics or the sex trade to make money.
Brothels have been an easy way to generate revenue for Cambodian pimps since the early 1900's [KI-Media: 1990s?]. When the United Nations (UN) entered Cambodia, sending troops to supervise the country's transition to the current democratic government, there was a large demand for prostitutes. Not long after the UN left, brothel owners discovered that they could market young girls to huge numbers of foreign clientele.
Today the sex trade in Cambodia is one of the largest money making businesses in the nation.
Out of an estimated 20,000 sex workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, the average age is around 15.
According to the U.S. State Department, sex trafficking is becoming a bigger business worldwide than drug trafficking. This means that every day thousands of young girls and boys are bought and sold into slavery.
The big question is, how do these young people find themselves as sex slaves?
According to a recent MSNBC article, one of the most popular ways of recruiting is by promising young girls steady work and shelter, an appealing prospect for girls who hope to help their families with much needed income. When they agree, they are brought to the brothel and sold for money. Because many young women in Cambodia are homeless and uneducated, one can imagine how easy this type of recruiting is. It is also not uncommon for a struggling family to sell one of their own children into the sex trade. The article reported that one woman recalls being tricked and sold to a brothel by her newly wed husband for $200.
The majority of brothels are usually filthy, run down shacks, that offer subhuman living conditions. Upon arrival, the young women are usually beaten, cadged and drugged.
Dateline also reported that, it is also common for the pimps to show pornography to the youngest women, as "educational" background so they know how to service a paying customer. Because Cambodia is ravaged with HIV, AIDS, and numerous sexually transmitted diseases, it is considered good luck for a Cambodian man to have sex with a virgin. Because of this, it is not uncommon for the young girls to have their hymen re-stitched so that they can be sold as virgins more than once for a larger sum. Their ages range from 4 and up.
CNN recently reported that, a young girl only fifteen who was recently rescued from a brothel testified that she had been "locked in a cage," and forced to service at least fifteen customers a day. If she objected she was starved, and shocked with electric rods. She was also given a methamphetamine tablet several times a day to cloud her memory and keep her in an altered state.
What is being done?
There have been numerous efforts by both internal and external organizations to break up the sex trade in Cambodia, but the struggle is far from over. The Cambodian government has set up an anti-trafficking department, but it is poorly funded, and many of the enforcement officers partake in the illegal activity themselves, such as taking handouts and tipping off the brothel owners.
For the girls who do find a way out of the sex trade, many of them turn to specialized shelters, which are dedicated to the rehabilitation of the young women. Here they receive both medical and psychological attention. The sad truth is that most of these girls die at a young age because of AIDS or other physical problems. Also a large number of the girls end up leaving and returning to a life of prostitution because it is the only thing they know.
Most of these young women have been exploited and abused on a daily basis for the majority of their lives. They have been stripped of their basic human rights, and demoralized to the point where there is nothing left but an empty shell. The United States and other developed countries have a moral obligation to educate and hold Cambodia to ensuring basic human rights for all.
To support themeselves, many Cambodians live and work on farms, or in factories. In a nation where the average annual salary is around $350 a year, some citizens turn to illegal activities such as narcotics or the sex trade to make money.
Brothels have been an easy way to generate revenue for Cambodian pimps since the early 1900's [KI-Media: 1990s?]. When the United Nations (UN) entered Cambodia, sending troops to supervise the country's transition to the current democratic government, there was a large demand for prostitutes. Not long after the UN left, brothel owners discovered that they could market young girls to huge numbers of foreign clientele.
Today the sex trade in Cambodia is one of the largest money making businesses in the nation.
Out of an estimated 20,000 sex workers in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, the average age is around 15.
According to the U.S. State Department, sex trafficking is becoming a bigger business worldwide than drug trafficking. This means that every day thousands of young girls and boys are bought and sold into slavery.
The big question is, how do these young people find themselves as sex slaves?
According to a recent MSNBC article, one of the most popular ways of recruiting is by promising young girls steady work and shelter, an appealing prospect for girls who hope to help their families with much needed income. When they agree, they are brought to the brothel and sold for money. Because many young women in Cambodia are homeless and uneducated, one can imagine how easy this type of recruiting is. It is also not uncommon for a struggling family to sell one of their own children into the sex trade. The article reported that one woman recalls being tricked and sold to a brothel by her newly wed husband for $200.
The majority of brothels are usually filthy, run down shacks, that offer subhuman living conditions. Upon arrival, the young women are usually beaten, cadged and drugged.
Dateline also reported that, it is also common for the pimps to show pornography to the youngest women, as "educational" background so they know how to service a paying customer. Because Cambodia is ravaged with HIV, AIDS, and numerous sexually transmitted diseases, it is considered good luck for a Cambodian man to have sex with a virgin. Because of this, it is not uncommon for the young girls to have their hymen re-stitched so that they can be sold as virgins more than once for a larger sum. Their ages range from 4 and up.
CNN recently reported that, a young girl only fifteen who was recently rescued from a brothel testified that she had been "locked in a cage," and forced to service at least fifteen customers a day. If she objected she was starved, and shocked with electric rods. She was also given a methamphetamine tablet several times a day to cloud her memory and keep her in an altered state.
What is being done?
There have been numerous efforts by both internal and external organizations to break up the sex trade in Cambodia, but the struggle is far from over. The Cambodian government has set up an anti-trafficking department, but it is poorly funded, and many of the enforcement officers partake in the illegal activity themselves, such as taking handouts and tipping off the brothel owners.
For the girls who do find a way out of the sex trade, many of them turn to specialized shelters, which are dedicated to the rehabilitation of the young women. Here they receive both medical and psychological attention. The sad truth is that most of these girls die at a young age because of AIDS or other physical problems. Also a large number of the girls end up leaving and returning to a life of prostitution because it is the only thing they know.
Most of these young women have been exploited and abused on a daily basis for the majority of their lives. They have been stripped of their basic human rights, and demoralized to the point where there is nothing left but an empty shell. The United States and other developed countries have a moral obligation to educate and hold Cambodia to ensuring basic human rights for all.
9 comments:
"Today the sex trade in Cambodia is one of the largest money making businesses in the nation."
Thanks to the UN for a job well done.
I believe the government of Cambodia can stop the sex trade in our country,Just think about it.
10:01, I agree with you. UN may not give Cambodia the best job it should be, but without existance of resistance group and UN's intervention, Cambodia is pretty much like Laos right now. UN did not promote this kind of business. It is the government's job.
Of course we can stop it, 10:01, we are not dumbo from the west, you know?
And just because with didn't stop this issue overnight, it doesn't mean we are ignoring it either. We just want to do it the right way without causing any undesirable side-effect, which is why we do it slowly but surely.
cambodia's sex business is just a late comers to the sex scene. i say this because if one ever get to travel to thailand and the philipines where these kind of sex acts have been in existence way, way longer than cambodia can realize. so this is a only a new phenomenon for cambodia sex business where in the thailand and the philipines they even have girls or guys perform live sex act on stage and for audience. so please don't be so alarm about it. it just happened that it is new to cambodia like many other concepts and development as well. cambodia still have a lot of catching up to do with other parts of the world. please think outside of the box, sometimes it helps to civilize some aspect of cambodia and it is ok to have that, especially in businesses of making money. this is why it is called businesses not culture or tradition; just businesses! this kind of business knows no boundary, and it's hard to stop this kind of human pleasure. instead of trying to exert dictatorship kind of power on these kind of business, i strongly encourage police or law focus more on the prevention approach of acquiring std, hiv/aids, etc., because this method is more effective in the long-run than trying to force law or trying to stop and hope that it would disappeared from the face of the earth completely, which i doubt it that will happen when other parts of the world are doing it. like they say, prostitution is the oldest professional, so prevention approach for std and hiv/aides, hepititus, etc is better than trying to control it altogether because other richer countries have tried to stop this already but to no avail so what make cambodia think they can control this human pleasure acts? let me stressed it, prevention approach, prevention approach, for a million times! thank you!
Oh what is a shit load of crock?
I don't agree with you Mr.3:11AM,But i don't hate you either.
Our country not that big to fix it.I am 10:01PM, Thank you!
I am 3:45AM and 10:01PM,I do agree with you Mr.3:11AM,I am strongly disagree with Mr.1:02 AM.
Our country not that big to fix it. Thank you!
it's just a business; don't make such a big deal out of it, please!!
Post a Comment