From: messina@netcom.com (Tony Porczyk)
Subject: Re: "The Good Woman of Bangkok"
Organization: Messina Software
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 13:44:49 GMT


I am going to be unpopular after this post, but what the
heck, here we go...  (BTW, it is by *no means* meant as a 
flame for Mr. cooney@gw.wmich.edu)


Mr. cooneys@gw.wmich.edu writes:

> Did anyone see the documentary called "The Good Woman of 
> Bangkok"? It was on Canadian television last night. It's an 
> hour-long piece about a Bangkok prostitute, mainly 
> [...]
> But she seemed committed to the life she has chosen. The 
> film maker said he bought her a rice farm after making the 
> film, but when he returned a year later, she was back 
> working in "a sleazy massage parlor." She said it was her 
> fate.

Fate, my foot.  This conclusion and a lot of the arguments and
proposed solutions in the thread about prostitution that was
here months ago I would call 'bureaucratic-transcendental-bs'.
It seems that a simple concept of economy is something that 
is non-graspable to do-gooders.  What was the work/income ratio
from that farm?  What was the absolute income figure from the
farm?  Only after these two are examined can we talk about
more esoteric reasons.  You may wish to spend years talking about
a problem, educating, meditating, but until those numbers don't
come out right, the whole exercise is just that - exercise.
I had a personal experience similar to the one above - i met 
someone who would well fit the description above.  After she 
mentioned that this was the only thing she could do, I called a
few of my friends in Bangkok and within an hour she had a job
behind a desk, paperwork, clean and nice, paying average wage.
Couple of days later I saw her shopping happily at Robinson's.
She admitted she was back on Soi Cowboi.  2500 Baht a month
working in a office?  She was making TEN TIMES as much in a club.
So much for esoteric reasoning.  Did you know there are Russian
girls now working in clubs in mainland China?  Why, did Chinese
men suddenly become so attractive that Russian girls just cannot
stop dreaming about them?  No, the Russian economy got that bad.
It is economy, and it is also nature.  Notice that many women are
naturally attracted to men who are either wealthy or hold other
attributes of power.  Look at animals - that's exactly the same
way everywhere.  It applies equally to societies as units.  Poor
societies export their women first.  Cringe as much as you wish
over that statement, but that's the way it is.  I've seen that
happen in *many* countries, including european ones.  How come 
there is not an influx of German girls trying to find attractive
Thai men?  Not enough attractive Thai men?  Au contraire, but it
doesn't matter.  How come girls from California don't flood
Philippines?  Certainly has nothing to do with Philippino men.
Solution?  As the economy becomes stronger the problem will
solve itself.  Thailand is certainly on her way to becoming a
serious economic force.  Other countries will fill in the void.
In fact, if you look at who works at many of the clubs in Bangkok,
it is already happenning.  There are fewer and fewer girls from
Thailand and more and more from Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Vietnam.

Flame if you wish, I prefer honesty to double-talk.

t.