From: mptj@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
Subject: Re: Prostitution, possible approaches 
Date: 17 Dec 92 01:18:14 EST
Distribution: soc
Organization: Cornell University

In article <1992Dec14.032943.1036@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov>,
fstawit@icomp01.lerc.nasa.gov (Tawit Chitsomboon) writes: 
> In article <Bz7s7t.KDs@news.cso.uiuc.edu> 
> ssg9328@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Samart Srijumnong) writes:
>>................
>>Discussion alone does not lead to anywhere as far as the solution is 
>>concerned.  We need some actions. Some of us who have started project 
>>in area where prostitutes are concentrated which is know as EMPOWER 
>>which focuses on the prostitutes to be able to learn how to protect 
>>their interests, i.e. health, money, human rights, and the likes, have 
>>set a good model of how to deal with the problem. 
>>..............................
> 
> I don't know about that...Khun Samart. This could backfire. The P
> might think that they are well protected (and implicitly recognized).
> This gives them an extra incentive to continue the profession
> as well as encourage others to follow suit.
> 
> IMO, if we love them, we must pretend that we hate them. We must
> illegalize P and semi-P business (of course brothel and pimp
> as well). Khun Abi said this would give
> the police a free hand. Well, then, don't give the police a free
> hand; make sure that arrested Ps are treated with human dignity.
> Perhaps, we should form a special police force to deal exclusively
> with P. The officers are recruited exclusively from previous Ps.

Countries with less notorious posice forces have tried to do things like
that. It is better to learn from their lack of success than to repeat
their mistakes. Being outlaws (as you propose to make them), P's would
be at the mercy of the police, who would gladly take advantage of them in
any way you can and cannot imagine. Probably the only way to protect 
P's from underegoing this treatment is, like you said, to make former P's
the only members of this special police force. But I think it would be 
impossible to construct such a police force; you probably would not 
be able to find good willing and sane candidates that would go along with 
this plan.

> 
> All P arrested should be put in a (very humane) re-education camp
> for a year. The camp will, in a humane way, indoctrinate them with
> proper mental culture and also teach them other professional skills
> to survive in the society. One year in re-education like this would
> also give them time for the previous collective behavior to gradually
> dissipate.
> 

This proposal is very dangerous, because it contains all the ingredients
needed to deny all human rights from P's, despite measures of protection 
that you think you can incorporate. Anything that involves ideologies like
"re-education" or "indoctrination" has been widely tried in totalitarian
countries with a high rate of success in destroying individuals. I think 
that EMPOWER's approach, which, as far as I know, involves accepting P's
for what they are and supplying them with skills to survive in whatever 
setting they choose to be, is an approach that respects them as humans
with free will and the right to choose their way of life. Its results
may not be as swift as putting all the P's behind bars (which, on the other 
hand, would create a great vacuum in the profession which will suck more young
girls into the catch of prostitution), but it is sure to make a lasting effect
and to aid (rather than condemn) the true victims of the problem.
Also, if you make pimps (and, possibly, clients of P's) illegal,
you would decrease the economic attractiveness of the profession, and that
would help bring about the "dissipation of P's previous behavior".

> EMPOWER and other organizations like it could then work with the camp
> (or even run the camp themselves as a consortium.) They would help
> publicize the project, raise fund, and solicit volunteers for pro-
> fessional teachings, etc.
> 
> I think we should do something with the P customers. They should be
> arrested and fined (the fine money is then used to support the camp,
> and have photo taken (the photo is published or posted in
> the public newspaper/board if re-caught), and inform the relatives 
> (wife, mom-dad). (Now that I'm out ot it; it's OK :-)
> 
> I posted long ago that even without considering other humanistic virtue,
> like universal love and compassion, we should still be grateful to our P. 
> They have sacrificed their bodies to attract many rich tourists to our
> country so that we are all better off. We should all try to help them
> to gain their human's values back.

That is a good thing to remember when one approaches this problem. Stating
that there is something wrong with P's minds to the extent that they need to 
be "re-educated" seems to me like something that takes away all the 
human dignity that is left in them.

Abi