What society sells its children into slavery?

[Smeg]

It's not my question, but is taken from the article.

Thailand cops protect sex-slave trade

Thailand cops protect sex-slave trade
Joel Brinkley
Sunday, September 14, 2008




(09-14) 04:00 PDT Mae Sai, Thailand -- In this little town on the Burmese border, parents sell their young daughters into sexual slavery for less than the cost of a toaster oven. These little girls, 11 or 12 years old, are forced to serve in brothels and not permitted to leave.





This has been going on for many years. I know this to be true. I was here before, in 2001.

Back then, brothel agents visited the schools to look over the fourth-graders. They offered cash to parents of 8-year-olds for the right to buy their daughters when they finished the sixth grade.

The agents dressed in business suits and called themselves professors. They told parents they would take their girls to good jobs in the city - nannies, secretaries, etc. - where they could also continue their education. Instead, they were sold to brothels and held captive until they paid off that payment to their parents, the cost of transport and numerous other charges. That could take years.

I interviewed 12-year-old Noie Wongboonma, whose mother had just tried to pull her out of school and put her on the "bus to Bangkok," as everyone here refers to that trip to perdition.

"Sometimes my mother wants to sell me," she said, her head bowed. "I feel very sad that my mother would want to do that. I don't dare argue with her. But I don't want to go where my mother wants to send me."

I went home with Noie and met her mother, a blank-faced woman who had a part-time job peeling garlic. "Yes, a person offered Noie a job," she acknowledged. "I don't know where that person is from. I don't know what job. Maybe to sell herself. He said, 'Let her go to work with me, and you will get a lot of money.' He didn't say how much."

Today, agents still troll the schools. Thousands of girls from here have been forced into the trade. Many have died - of AIDS or abuse. Some others, however, have paid off their bondage. They are allowed to return home for the Buddhist New Year - wearing spaghetti-strap blouses, garish bangles, sparkly makeup. The younger girls look at them, wide eyed.

"These 11- and 12-year-olds, they go with the traffickers now because they want fancy clothes and mobile phones," said Ladda Benjatachah, who runs a government shelter for victims.

The Daughters' Education Program, a school in Mae Sai, tries to rescue young girls who are at risk of being sold. The teachers now see the trafficking problem passing through a worrisome transition. The school harbors 180 local girls. Brazen agents still stop by to flatter and wheedle the 12-year-olds to join them when the teachers are not around. Mothers still try to pull their daughters out of school. As the school's Web site puts it, "they often stand to gain much by selling their daughters."

But more often, even when girls are given protection from the traffickers and the opportunity for a free education, some will sneak off in the middle of the night.
"I've thought about it," said Santyod, who would not give her last name and said she was "almost 13."

"You see them come back here with nice clothes, mobile phones. They go out drinking." She and two schoolmates giggled, hands to their mouths. They sat on a couch, tight up against each other, glancing occasionally at the school director who sat by, watching without comment.

How can any government stand by and watch as this despicable practice continues and evolves year after year? Part of the answer can be found in the offices of almost any police commander in Bangkok. Gift bags, dozens upon dozens of them, sit on the floor. Spilling out of them are bottles of whiskey, sweets, perfume or lingerie for the wife or mistress. Any cash that might have been tucked in next to the Chivas Regal will have been plucked out, but the bags remain as a display of the officer's power - and corruption.

No gift bags sit on Visut Vanichbut's office floor. He's a police major general. The trafficking problem in Thailand, he says without hesitation, "has gotten worse - much worse" because "our people are more interested in the financial gains they can get from these activities."

The traffickers pay these police officers to overlook the sale of little girls. What society sells its children into slavery? You have to ask: How can these men even look at themselves in the mirror?

Joel Brinkley is a professor of journalism at Stanford University and a former foreign policy correspondent for the New York Times. To comment, e-mail insight[at]sfchronicle.com, or e-mail him at brinkley[at]foreign-matters.com.
This article appeared on page G - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle

[Texpat]

Children here are often seen as property of the parents.
A commodity they made and nurtured for 10/11/12 years.
Some return is expected, nay, demanded.
Work in the field, go abroad, sell your ass. Whatever, but send me money.

You owe me.

I'd shoot myself in the head before I ever asked my children for money/assistance. It's not the role of a western parent (well as I see it anyway). Thais don't see the world like that.

[pai nai ma]

...a poor one....

[buriramboy]

Shocking article.

[peterpan]

Any moral qualms they may have, are easily overcome, with a culture where honour has no worth and money has more worth than any human quality, compassion, honesty, respect for others etc.

[DrB0b]

A little over the top, PP. This disgusting trade happens in many places, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Eastern Europe, Mexico, China, among many others. It's nothing specifically to do with Thai culture, it's more to do with human nature. Contrary to what many people would have us believe humanity is characterised more by greed, lack of empathy, violence, ignorance, and selfishness than by ethics or morality. This can be seen in any country and in any culture. This is a trade, and like any trade where's there's a profit to be made there will be plenty of people more than happy to take that profit, no matter how evil the source. It's not all that long ago that London was internationally famous for its child-sex trade. Most people I know, in many countries, are disgusted by this trade and it's unfair and inaccurate to paint an entire nation or culture as evil because of the activities of some of its people.

[good2bhappy]

Any historian can tell you selling children into sevice/bondage was not uncommon in pre victorian UK

[DrB0b]

Any historian can tell you selling children into sevice/bondage was not uncommon in pre victorian UK

Not only pre-Victorian. It was extremely common in Victorian England. Covent Garden and the areas near St Giles were renowned for the child-sex business.

[DrAndy]

It is a very sad situation, and one which cannot be easily addressed

the same used to go on in England, but 100 years ago, when the poor were disenfranchised and there was no state safety net, no health service etc

I suppose that we can only hope that, as the economy gets better, this terrible situation will slowly die out. At least there are laws against child prostitution, but those are useless without decent law enforcement

[barbaro]

Children here are often seen as property of the parents.
A commodity they made and nurtured for 10/11/12 years.
Some return is expected, nay, demanded.
Work in the field, go abroad, sell your ass. Whatever, but send me money.

You owe me.

I'd shoot myself in the head before I ever asked my children for money/assistance. It's not the role of a western parent (well as I see it anyway). Thais don't see the world like that.

Spot-on. Sad but true.

[pai nai ma]

selling children into sevice/bondage

sexual?

[DrB0b]

^Yes, very much so.

[jandajoy]

Going on today with young women from the Eastern block countries. Admittedly they seem to be older. But when can slavery ever be justified?

[good2bhappy]

one of the reasons for the Offences Against The Person Act of 1861

[DrB0b]

Child Prostitution

In the subject of Victorian prostitution, children are often overlooked. However, the fact remains that all street children survived by means of theft or prostitution, brothels existed containing children exclusively, and of nearly 2,600 prostitutes arrested in Paris 1,500 were minors (Rush, p.63).

Children were often viewed as commodities, a source of income for their poor families. We hear of child labor and sweatshops but rarely the sad truth of children being pimped out by their own parents - it was in fact a very profitable and widespread practice. Gentlemen would pay massive fees for little girls."(The) standard pricing system brought about twenty pounds for a healthy working-class girl between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, a hundred pounds for a middle-class girl of the same age; and as much as four hundred pounds for a child from the upper class under age twelve.." (Rush, p.64) Virgins were especially prized and garnered an even higher price. "Deflowering" was a common sexual fantasy and the obvious pain was a turn-on. There was also the fact that an unspoiled child would have less diseases to spread and Victorians till held to the ignorant belief that STDs could be cured through sex with a child.

The term "child" held it's own problem as there was a constant struggle over deciding when a child was mature enough to seduce or consent. The official age of consent stood at 12 until it was raised to 13 in 1875. Then in 1885, a series of publications made it impossible for the public to continue to hide their eyes. William Stead, the famous editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, privately investigated the extent of child prostitution and then published his findings under the title "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon". Even though these articles exposed only the tip of the iceberg regarding the underground world of kidnapping, child trade and sexual torture, a social uproar followed. Massive demonstrations were formed with demands for justice and an increase in age of consent. They received their wish when, on August 14, 1885, the Criminal Law Amendment Act passed, effectively raising the age of consent to 16. However, It was still hard to protect the children as they were often thought confused or unable to grasp the concepts of sexual seduction and the oath of truth given in courtrooms.

For a closer look at some of the trials brought to court soon after Stead's publication try
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aege.../Consent.html/. This is a wonderful page by Jennifer Payne, in which she follows the laws concerning the age of consent and those brought to trial for violating them.

For an extensive list of essays and sites devoted to the work of William Stead, try The W. T. Stead Resource Site at The W.T. Stead Resource Site, William Thomas Stead, Stead, Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon, Pall Mall Gazette, prostitution, child prostitution, Eliza Armstrong, Northern Echo, Review of Reviews, new journalism, sensationalism, truth about the navy,.

[DrB0b]

FindArticles > Independent, The (London) > Sep 11, 2001 > Article > Print friendly

Child sex trade becoming a US `epidemic'
Sue Pleming in Washington AS MANY as 400,000 children in the United States are victims of the sex trade each year, from juvenile pornography and street prostitution to selling sex at school, a study released yesterday said.

Richard Estes, co-author of the report and a professor of social work at Pennsylvania University, said: "We project one out of every 100 American children is involved in sexually exploitative activities. This is an epidemic." Professor Estes said 90 per cent of children involved in the sex trade were US nationals; the remainder were smuggled into the country.
Based on field research and surveys from 288 federal and local agencies, the two-year study estimated between 300,000 and 400,000 children in America were victims of sexual exploitation each year.

Professor Estes said: "That figure just blew our minds. We never thought we would encounter so many children in this predicament." The researchers visited 17 cities, amounting for 40 per cent of the population

The study found that as many boys as girls were affected but boys got less attention from officials because of the view that they could look after themselves. "Every place we went, we found for every girl there was a boy involved too. People feel a need to protect girls and for boys it's thought of as sowing their oats," said Professor Estes, adding some boys graduated from sexual servitude to becoming pimps.

The study found that 95 per cent of the commercial sex engaged in by boys was with men and at least 25 per cent of girls who were in gangs had sex with other members as part of the gang rites. Many of the exploiters of boys were married men with children.
The largest groups of children affected were runaway, "throwaway" and homeless youths, many of whom used "survival sex" to acquire food, shelter, clothing and other things needed to eke out a living on America's streets, Professor Estes said.
.
Copyright 2001 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
Independent, The (London): Child sex trade becoming a US `epidemic'

[pai nai ma]

It's nothing specifically to do with Thai culture

While I agree with this the thai's seem to have streamlined the process so well that their is virtually no danger of getting caught and held responsible. The openness in which it's done and the extent to which thailand fairly directly prides and enriches it's self in offering a sexual buffet, seems unique to me, in current global society.

how would one fail to confront this horrible practice with $35 Billion and the literal status of a god. the root of the mendacity and the scope of the hypocrisy must have some connection to the Thai bastardization of Buddhism -- fucked up from the floor up. it is. it is a perfect storm of ignorance, greed, self deception and feeding off the poor. sickening.

[good2bhappy]

(people in glass houses...)
it is not just Thailand
it is a shocking disgrace across the world.
We who come from the west should not be so quick to condemn. before you point out the speck in another man's eye, look at the beam in your own!

[good2bhappy]

-- fucked up from the floor up. it is.

or you could say from the roof down!

[pai nai ma]

sometimes I hate this place with the same passion I loved it as a new comer.

[Texpat]

It's mai pen rai at work -- an easy way out of any conundrum.
It may exist in the seedy, moldy underbellies of the modern world.

In Thailand it smacks you in the face within minutes of getting off the plane. Almost a badge of honor.

[DrB0b]

Going on today with young women from the Eastern block countries. Admittedly they seem to be older. But when can slavery ever be justified?

Never, JJ. And it's not just youngish Eastern European women being trafficked into Europe, the west has it's own thriving child sex trade, it's just that it seems to make people feel better to claim that only "immoral" cultures and barbarian "others" are responsible for this.

[pai nai ma]

(people in glass houses...) it is not just Thailand it is a shocking disgrace across the world. We who come from the west should not be so quick to condemn. before you point out the speck in another man's eye, look at the beam in your own!

agreed. but respectfully, this is the vatican of in terms of the bastardization of a culture, religion and and the breath taking but always smiling greed of its leaders. g2b you must concede a qualitative status to the commercialization of sex, including child sex, in tland -- do you not?

[pai nai ma]

Never, JJ. And it's not just youngish Eastern European women being trafficked into Europe, the west has it's own thriving child sex trade, it's just that it seems to make people feel better to claim that only "immoral" cultures and barbarian "others" are responsible for this.

you teeter a high wire here drbob.

i concede to the obvious feel good psychology of cultural projection -- but we live in the mecca of sexaul expolitation and to say other wise is to risk ones intellectual honesty.

it is a circus here.

and not to put to fine a point on this -- but cmn and others have claimed to have no direct knowledge of said practices as it realtes to children -- come on. wake up!

[good2bhappy]

^sadly it is the case here as it is in other countries such as India, Cambodia etc