Poverty drives Myanmar's hidden sex industry

YANGON (AFP) - Sandar was 13 years old when her mother talked her into selling her virginity to help pull the family out of poverty.

Two decades later and still far away from that goal, Sandar has been arrested for prostitution more times then she can recall, jailed twice, and forced to pay bribes or have sex with policemen in exchange for her freedom.

Her friend Sei Sar Nyo, who sits beside Sandar grasping her hand, has been beaten for asking clients to use a condom. Sei Sar Nyo's family no longer talk to her, and she faces regular abuse in socially conservative Myanmar.

Despite the hardships, Sandar, who gave one name only and is now 33, and Sei Sar Nyo, 25, laugh when asked what other job they would do.

Nothing else would pay so well, they say.

"I'm not interested in any other business," says Sei Sar Nyo. "If I worked in a company I would earn 30,000 kyat (about 24 US dollars) in a month -- in this job I earn that in a night."

These two women come from very different social backgrounds, but ended up in Yangon's underground sex industry for the same reason -- to support their families in one of the poorest countries in the world.

Both are now working during the day for international charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), but their nights are spent selling sex in the city's brothels, restaurants and karaoke bars.

"Economic factors (are) getting worse and worse, and so there are more and more sex workers," said one aid worker who did not want to be named.

Humanitarian organisations here estimate there are at least 15,000 sex workers in Yangon, but the trade remains firmly behind closed doors in this military-run country.

"When I was 13 years old, I had 11 brothers and sisters and we faced economic hardship," says Sandar, a slight women in an orange T-shirt and black sarong whose tired face is beginning to show the years of hardship.

"Then a broker came to my mother and asked if I would become a sex worker."

With her mother's encouragement, Sandar eventually agreed. The first time was painful and traumatic, but she carried on for the sake of her family.

Sei Sar Nyo, a prim, pretty young woman in glasses and traditional clothing, comes from a more prosperous background but has similar motives for her decision four years ago to become a prostitute.

"I'm married and my husband is HIV-positive," says Sei Sar Nyo, who has a young son. Her husband, who passed the HIV infection on to her, was bedridden and unable to work.

"I had a lot of problems and no one to depend on," she says.

A friend convinced Sei Sar Nyo to start working in a restaurant, which turned out to be an illegal brothel.

"Once I found out I was so sad, but I stayed because I had a lot of family problems and a lot of debt," she says.

Unlike in many neighbouring countries such as Thailand where scantily-clad prostitutes can be picked up at noisy bars, no such red light district exists in Yangon.

Men head to karaoke bars, tucked-away brothels, or restaurants like the one Sei Sar Nyo works in, where waiters set up "dates" for a cut of the takings.

With her youth and good looks, Sei Sar Nyo can earn up to 25,000 kyat (about 20 dollars) per client -- a princely sum in impoverished Myanmar.

The country has been under military rule since 1962, and a series of dictatorships have ruined what was once one of Asia's most promising economies.

The current junta spends a tiny proportion of GDP on health and education, and rising commodity prices are pushing more people into poverty.

Despite the critical humanitarian situation, international donors have scaled down aid because of the regime's human rights abuses and the detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Independent aid groups say they struggle to operate free of junta interference, and many have withdrawn.

All of which means vulnerable groups like sex workers have little access to healthcare and other support -- a potentially disastrous situation when between 20 and 30 percent of prostitutes are believed to be HIV positive.

Sei Sar Nyo says she sometimes has unprotected sex because she needs the money, and sees a disturbing flippancy among older men.

"When I negotiate for using the condom, I explain that I am HIV-positive. They say 'I don't care'," she tells AFP.

Until a few years ago, a woman could be arrested on suspicion of prostitution for carrying a condom and so prostitutes were reluctant to use them.

This law was withdrawn, but Frank Smithuis, Myanmar country manager for MSF, says that sex workers are still targetted by the authorities.

"There is a huge incentive for a policeman to grab a sex worker in most countries, and Myanmar is no exception," Smithuis says. "You can get money from the sex worker or free sex in exchange to avoid arrest."

He points to neighbouring Thailand, where there is an informal agreement that police will not target brothels promoting safe sex, and says Myanmar would benefit from a similar arrangement.

MSF has five clinics for sex workers in Yangon, which offer free condoms, diagnosis and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

They also hire women like Sandar and Sei Sar Nyo to visit brothels and talk to their peers about safe sex and the importance of regular STD tests.

"I want to share my life experience," says Sei Sar Nyo. "I don't want my friends to become like me. I would like my friends to use condoms."

Source: AFP - 23 April 2007

Poverty drives Myanmar's hidden sex industry

YANGON (AFP) - Sandar was 13 years old when her mother talked her into selling her virginity to help pull the family out of poverty.

Two decades later and still far away from that goal, Sandar has been arrested for prostitution more times then she can recall, jailed twice, and forced to pay bribes or have sex with policemen in exchange for her freedom.

Poverty drives the sex industry in most countries, the story above could have Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam as the focus. There is a huge hidden sex industry hidden in back streets and corner bars away from the glaring neon lights in Thailand. Anyone who has spent any time in a small village across this country will know the small bar serving lao khao and the girl who will have sex in the back room for 300baht.

The most revealing line was when the girl said she had been beaten because she told clients she was HIV and wanted to use a condom. The men will uncaringly risk their life and those of their partner by refusing to use one even knowing she is hiv. One of the girls in Laos told me that carrying a condom there had the same problem as in the story. Police/Army grab them and because she has a condom she "must" be a prostitute. She said the girls either don't use them or wait while the customer goes to the corner store to buy them. The girls don't go inside because they risk being targetted for arrest.

Sad but true

CB

The continuing story of 'Mans inhumanity to Mankind'.

A military junta more hel_l bent on their own position and spending on a military budget instead of its populations welfare, never fails to 'piss me off'.

I guess it is the same all over the world, sometimes for other reasons, that a nations own people are kept in abject misery.

Moss

A very serious topic indeed and I would assume it has been posted in Bedlam for two reasons, to see if we are able to have a serious debate here without it disintergrating into banality and to attract some of the more senior or serious posters into Bedlam for constructive debatess. Good idea on both counts.

As for the subject though I would say I don't really have enough knowledge to add anything, other than it would seem that it is a combination of poverty, social politics and cultural values that creates this situation.

I am saddened that this piece of yellow journalism should be reproduced as a

supposed attempt to expose the unbelievable problems of the people of Burma.

It's slant and content serves to reinforce the belief in France that every female

in SE Asia has her pussy for hire at very reasonable rates and any European

who visits the region does so with the intent of enjoying (preferably underage)

female company on a short-term rental basis.

The "reporter" recounts his "interviews" with two ladies. Both of them quote

earnings of $20+ per day/night. As in this country the rich are few and the

poor are numerous this cannot be typical. Once , on a Ranong/Kaw Theung

visa run , I was offered "short time" for 50b. I had managed to thrust this

offer to the back of my mind until I read this post.

I personally regard the sort of journalist who would earn his wage by

filing such "bullshit but good copy" reports as a far worse type of whore

than his supposed interviewees.

It's slant and content serves to reinforce the belief in France that every female

in SE Asia has her pussy for hire at very reasonable rates and any European

who visits the region does so with the intent of enjoying (preferably underage)

female company on a short-term rental basis.

I have never visited the country in question, but every single time I have made a run to Cambodia via Chong Chom, the services of a young maid has been raised as a question before I get 10 yards into the place, along with cheap cigarettes and alcohol. So, unfortunately, most SE people have the same prejudice. Or, at the very least, the ones at the border crossings do.

Oh my!!! Hidden sex industry!!!! Sounds exciting!!!!!

It is a deeply sad & disturbing situation. I can't comment on Farangsay's view that it is sensationalistic journalism. Nor can I comment on the idea that they are promoting the idea that Westerners are sex tourists. I must admit, I thought the article was talking about native Burmese, but I agree, the amounts of money talked about might disprove that.

However, the fact that, all over the world, particularly in poorer countries women are being forced by theirs & their families' poverty to sell their only asset - their bodies is an undeniable fact. It always has been. "The world's oldest profession"...

I can only be grateful that I was born into circumstances where this was never something I even had to contemplate. I'm not rich, by any means, but I'm lucky. Lucky to be Western, lucky to come from a family where selling me would never, never have been an option. My father killed himself to give our family money. We would have far rather had him, but he took that choice from us. However, the difference between my life and these girls' could not be more marked, IMO.

The continuing story of 'Mans inhumanity to Mankind'.

A military junta more hel_l bent on their own position and spending on a military budget instead of its populations welfare, never fails to 'piss me off'.

I guess it is the same all over the world, sometimes for other reasons, that a nations own people are kept in abject misery.

Moss

So true

Burma to Buy More Indian Weapons

By The Irrawaddy

April 24, 2007

The Indian press reported on Monday that a senior Burmese general met top leaders of the Indian Army in Delhi to negotiate the sale of additional military hardware to the junta-led nation.

Burma’s quartermaster general, Lt-Gen Tin Aung Myint Oo, who oversees all military supplies to Burma’s armed forces, met his Indian counterpart Lt-Gen Sudhir Sharma and Vice Chief of Army Staff Lt-Gen Deepak Kapoor, according to a report in The Indian Express.

At the meeting, Tin Aung Myint Oo requested the sale of infantry weapons and ammunition in return for Burma’s help in flushing out Indian insurgents based along the 1,600-km India-Burma border, the report said.

Most prominent on Burma’s military “shopping list” were small arms such as assault rifles, light machine guns and hand guns, the report said.

Indian military officials had promised aid and training to Burma during a previous visit by Burmese naval chief Vice Admiral Soe Thein in early April.

Since the late 1990s, India has shown a greater willingness to engage Burma’s military rulers in trade and weapons sales. Past negotiations have seen the sale of two British-made “Islander” aircraft, light artillery and T-55 tanks to Burma.

That engagement has come with a few strings. In return for weapons and training, India has sought Burma’s help in crushing separatist insurgencies in its eastern states along the Burmese border.

Indian separatist groups such as the United Liberation Front of Asom, the United Nationalist Liberation Front and the People’s Liberation Army, are thought to use bases set up in the thick jungles and hilly areas of western Burma, from which they are said to launch attacks on Indian soil.

From:

Irrawaddy.org

LaoPo

I am saddened that this piece of yellow journalism should be reproduced as a

supposed attempt to expose the unbelievable problems of the people of Burma.

I personally regard the sort of journalist who would earn his wage by

filing such "bullshit but good copy" reports as a far worse type of whore

than his supposed interviewees.

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement.

But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

Niels Bohr.

I saw this quotation yesterday and I thought it was very apt for Farangsays comments.

I can only be grateful that I was born into circumstances where this was never something I even had to contemplate. I'm not rich, by any means, but I'm lucky. Lucky to be Western, lucky to come from a family where selling me would never, never have been an option.

NR, you are very lucky, a good percentage of the female part of this planet share the same sort of luck...... however, a good percentage don't have that luxury.

The Trafficking Trap Persists in Border Towns

RANONG, Thailand (IPS) — A Burmese woman sits on the wooden floor of a small room in Ranong, a Thai town bordering southern-most Burma. Over the sound of a whirring fan, the 18-year-old who is just over four feet tall recounts her past.

''I was sold twice to brothel houses,'' says Mi Kay (not her real name). She lowers her head and is silent for a while.

Mi Kay ran away from her hometown, Rangoon, more than a year ago. She had eloped with her boyfriend after passing her matriculation exam, but their families forced the couple apart after two days together.

Unhappy and restricted by her family, Mi Kay fled to the southern port town of Kaw Thaung, along the Thai-Burmese border. It was not an unknown place to her, having visited the town as a child.

However, Mi Kay did not know that Kaw Thaung - like many Burmese border towns - was a centre for human trafficking. She worked as a waitress at a local teashop for more than a month before she became a target for human traffickers.

An older schoolmate from Rangoon came and struck up a conversation one day. The woman lived in Ranong, a Thai border town three kilometres from Kaw Thaung. She told Mi Kay that there were good jobs across the border. After a few visits from her schoolmate, Mi Kay decided to move.

But Mi Kay's old acquaintance turned out to be a trafficker and sold Mi Kay for 6,000 baht (154 U.S. dollars) to a brothel in Ranong.

Mi Kay at first refused to work, so the brothel owner physically abused and tortured her, breaking her spirit. Finally, she became a sex worker. '' It was painful. I was also really afraid as well,'' she recalls.

Mi Kay works in a well-known red-light area called Pauk Khaung in southern Ranong province, a major fishing industry town in Thailand.

Each evening, the sounds of Burmese karaoke fill the streets in Pauk Khaung. Over 100,000 Burmese migrant workers live in Ranong district. There are about 150 Burmese sex workers at 40 karaoke bars and brothels in Ranong, locals here say. They receive half the 200 to 500 baht (five to 12.80 dollars) paid to the owner for each customer.

Mi Kay described as hel_l the first four months she spent in isolation at the brothel. ''I always thought to run away, but they locked me in during daytime,'' she says.

Mi Kay once tried to escape, was caught as she waited for a boat back to Burma. '' They beat me several times. Both of my hands were swollen,'' she says, holding up her tiny hands.

Eventually, her brothel owner sold her to another brothel for 10,000 baht (256 dollars).It was a turning point for Mi Kay. The new brothel owner assured her that if she paid off her purchase price, he would let her go.'' Sometimes I slept with ten customers in one day to pay the debt,'' she says. It was repaid in just over a month.

Mi Kay is free to go now, but after all this time of being in the sex industry, she says she cannot. She thinks that being a sex worker is a means of survival and of earning more money for her return home.

The sale of women to brothels is not an unusual story amidst the Burmese community in Ranong, says Thiri, a friend of Mi Kay's. Trafficked Burmese women almost never gain their freedom as they are continuously sold between brothels, she adds.

Thiri, 33, has been a sex worker for five years. She has HIV, but cannot stop working. ''I have to work for income,'' she explains.

HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases are but some of the vulnerabilities that Burmese sex workers face in Ranong, says health worker Hla Hla Win, who runs a private medical clinic.

She says local authorities from the Burmese side in Kaw Thaung ignore the activities of human trafficking networks, while the Burmese government's actions to eliminate human trafficking are just '' window dressing ''.

Of the newcomers to the sex industry in Ranong this year, almost half of the Burmese entering brothels were trafficked, says Hla Hla Win, also a member of exiled Burmese Women's Union.

Chaw Chaw, anti-trafficking coordinator for the World Vision non-governmental organisation in Rangoon, says the root causes of migration to Thailand are economic, social and political problems in Burma.'' Lack ... of education and general knowledge of travel process (are) part of the main reasons for human trafficking,'' she says.

Despite international scepticism about the Burmese government's efforts against trafficking, Chaw Chaw says the military regime, called the State Peace and Development Council, made this issue part of its national agenda in the last year.

A member of the Myanmar National Committee for Women's Affairs, an SPDC-controlled organisation, recently expressed concern over Burma's human trafficking situation. However the official, who declined to be named, said that trafficking could not just be stopped: ''It is a long process. We can only reduce it.''

For months, Burmese state television has been running a campaign encouraging people not to go to neighbouring countries and offering suggestions to women on how to avoid traffickers.

Burma's Home Affairs Ministry says the government has ''taken action against offenders in 412 cases'' of human trafficking between July 2002 and June 2004. It claims to have rescued 1,047 women from being sold abroad in the same period.

Meantime, Mi Kay blames herself for her nightmare. ''It was a big mistake to come here,'' she says, taking a deep breath.'' If I did not run away from home, I would not be like this.''

Mi Kay says she still loves her boyfriend but has given up on her love because '' I have a dirty body.''

She still has dreams of returning to Rangoon and to her family. For now, though, she continues working in Ranong. ''I do not have enough money yet,'' she says.

Source: Inter Press Service Asia-Pacific

Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation

Burma/Myanmar

Trafficking

There have been 200,000 Burmese women trafficked to Karachi, Pakistan. (Indrani Sinha, SANLAAP India, "Paper on Globalization and Human Rights")

The number of Burmese women and girls travelling to Thailand through Mae Sai to enter the sex industry is increasing. 60% of them are under 18 years of age. (Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, "Influx of Burmese sex workers via Mae Sai on the rise," Bangkok Post, 2 June 1997)

The military and political situations in Burma, has led to an increase in migration, which has made women extremely vulnerable to trafficking for prostitution. (Indrani Sinha, executive director, "Paper on Globalization and Human Rights," SANLAAP)

Girls from Burma, aged 12-18, are in more demand for the sex industry in Thailand since traffickers are luring fewer girls from Northern Thailand. (Wanchai Boonphacra, Centre for the Protection of Children's Rights, "More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade," Poona Antaseeda, Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997)

Burmese girls trafficked to Thailand come from Chiang Tung, Ta Khi Lek, opposite Mae Sai, and Yong and come from minority groups such as the Tai Yai and Mon. (Poona Antaseeda "More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade" Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997)

Traffickers are increasingly transporting Burmese and Chinese girls for prostitution, partially due to a decrease in the availability of northern Thai girls. "Their pleasant character, white skin and beauty were similar to northern girls." (Prof Kusol Sunthorntada, Researcher, Institute for Population and Social Research, Mahidol University, ("More foreign workers join sex industry as fewer Thai girls enter flesh trade," Poona Antaseeda. Bangkok Post, 24 November 1997)

Methods and Techniques of Traffickers

Deceptive job placements, abduction by agents and the sale of girls from hill tribes are all forms of trafficking. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

The 'green rice season', when farmers are short of money, is the prime season for ‘girl hunting’ in the rural and hill tribes. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Health and Well-Being

Fifty to seventy percent of Burmese women who are deported from Thailand are HIV positive. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Policy and Law

Trafficked Burmese women and girls are considered illegal immigrants in Thailand. They are arrested, detained and deported back to Burma. Fifty to seventy percent of them are HIV positive. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Prostitution

Since Burma’s turn to a market economy in 1988, prostitution has increased. Some blame the promotion and growth of tourism. ("Myanmar tightens laws against prostitution," Reuters, 7 April 1998)

20,000-30,000 Burmese women are in prostitution in Thailand. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Policy and Law

The military government has tightened laws to curb the growing prostitution trade. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) amended the Suppression of Prostitution Act, 1949, and raised the jail term for those convicted of the offence to a maximum of five years. Previously, the prison term was "not less than one year and not more than three years." The term brothel was redefined to include any house, building, room, any kind of vehicle/vessel/ aircraft or place habitually used for the purpose of prostitution or used with reference to any kind of business for the purpose of prostitution. ("Myanmar tightens laws against prostitution," Reuters, 7 April 1998)

Official Corruption and Collaboration

Repatriated prostituted Burmese women found to be HIV infected were killed by authorities. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Organized and Institutionalized Sexual Exploitation and Violence:

Burmese women are being used as "comfort women" by troops of the State Law and Order Restoration Council. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

The Burmese Army, with 300,000 troops, has for the last 35 years effectively been a school for rape and ethnic cleansing of women from ethnic minorities. Many girls living in the southern panhandle have continued to be raped by soldiers after the signing of a cease-fire between the New Mon State Party and the junta in June 1995. (Earthright Organization, William Barnes, "Military a school for mass rape," South China Morning Post, 23 February 1980)

Rape by the Burmese military, particularly against ethnic minority women, is institutional and endemic throughout areas of conflict in Burma. However, the government does not provide protection for these women. (V. Coakley, "Commentary: School of Rape, the Burmese Military and Sexual Violence" Burma Issues, April 1998)

Ethnic Burmese women are being systematically raped by military personnel as part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. The violence against women is directly related to the military's goal of wiping out all ethnic resistance. "There is a pattern of rape, and...civilians are targeted for political reasons or because they are part of a certain ethnic group," said the EarthRights group. According to the United Nations (UN) special rapporteur on Burma, government troops have been abducting "increasing numbers of women, including young girls," and subjecting them to rape and other abuses. The UN Commission on Human Rights says women most likely to be raped are refugees, internally displaced women, and women belonging to ethnic minorities. Rapes by the military typically occur during raids on villages, when women are abducted for forced labor, or during encounters with victims of forced relocations in the jungle. (Dennis Bernstein and Leslie Kean, "Burma: Evidence of Systematic Military Use of Rape," Boston Globe, 30 July 1998)

Cases

The Burmese Army has been accused of fostering a "school for rape," and been responsible for sexually abusing Burmese women in epidemic proportions. One platoon of troops from LIB 519, led by Sergeant Hla Phyu, stationed at Kaeng Kham village went from house to house, raping every adult woman in the village. "When soldiers rape women there is no action taken against them, they have permission from their officers." Dozens of women and girls were killed in a mass murder after being raped by the Burmese soldiers. (1996 Shan Human Rights Foundation report, Shan resistance leader Sao Ood Kesi, Denis Bernstein and Leslie Kean, "Ethnic Cleansing: Rape as weapon of war in Burma," The Nation, 16 June 1998,)

On September 15, 1997, 120 troops led by Capt. Htun Mya found 42 women and 57 men hiding in the forest in Kunhing Township. The troops gang-raped all the women for two days and two nights. Afterwards, the soldiers reportedly killed all the 99 villagers. (1996 Shan Human Rights Foundation report, Shan resistance leader Sao Ood Kesi, Denis Bernstein and Leslie Kean, "Ethnic Cleansing: Rape as weapon of war in Burma," The Nation, 16 June 1998)

Published by the University of Rhode Island

<snip>

Fifty to seventy percent of Burmese women who are deported from Thailand are HIV positive. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Policy and Law

Trafficked Burmese women and girls are considered illegal immigrants in Thailand. They are arrested, detained and deported back to Burma. Fifty to seventy percent of them are HIV positive. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Prostitution

Since Burma’s turn to a market economy in 1988, prostitution has increased. Some blame the promotion and growth of tourism. ("Myanmar tightens laws against prostitution," Reuters, 7 April 1998)

20,000-30,000 Burmese women are in prostitution in Thailand. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Policy and Law

The military government has tightened laws to curb the growing prostitution trade. The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) amended the Suppression of Prostitution Act, 1949, and raised the jail term for those convicted of the offence to a maximum of five years. Previously, the prison term was "not less than one year and not more than three years." The term brothel was redefined to include any house, building, room, any kind of vehicle/vessel/ aircraft or place habitually used for the purpose of prostitution or used with reference to any kind of business for the purpose of prostitution. ("Myanmar tightens laws against prostitution," Reuters, 7 April 1998)

Official Corruption and Collaboration

Repatriated prostituted Burmese women found to be HIV infected were killed by authorities. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

The above literally made my mouth fall open. I knew the ruling Junta were guilty of many, many human rights' abuses. I had even heard of the disgusting practices of the Army in raping women & killing them, but I guess I didn't realise quite how sanctioned those actions were. But wholesale killing of girls who (for whatever reason) have been forced into prostitution & been unlucky enough to contract HIV? I just don't know what to say...

Horrific. Is there a worse country in the world for human rights? The Congo pehaps. I don't know enough about it, but it would be a fair bet that Burma has some commodity valuable to other countries that stops those countries intervening in Burmas affairs.

Since Burma’s turn to a market economy in 1988, prostitution has increased. Some blame the promotion and growth of tourism. ("Myanmar tightens laws against prostitution," Reuters, 7 April 1998)

Is Burma really a tourist destination?

Is Burma really a tourist destination?

unfortunately, yes. I know some folks who love to travel there because it is pristine and are in full support of the political situation.

I always replied to them that there are other nice places in the world where I rather would spend my tourist dollars.

Is Burma really a tourist destination?

unfortunately, yes. I know some folks who love to travel there because it is pristine and are in full support of the political situation.

I always replied to them that there are other nice places in the world where I rather would spend my tourist dollars.

Being in support of the political situation in Burma is insane.

Unfortunately though boycotting Burma will lead nowhere, and traveling there IMO has more benefits for the Burmese than negatives. The more exposure people there get to the outside world, the more change might come, and at least some much needed money will get into the hands of ordinary people.

But it will be a very slow process.

Is Burma really a tourist destination?

unfortunately, yes. I know some folks who love to travel there because it is pristine and are in full support of the political situation.

I always replied to them that there are other nice places in the world where I rather would spend my tourist dollars.

Raro I like Myammar and the people are very decent - unfortunately the military junta is not. To go there you have to have government issued tokens which is a requisite for the visa but I used them for "official purposes" ie flying, government buses, bigger hotels etc anything that had the finger, hand, or fist of the military junta in it. For the rest of the time I use real money and stayed in small "unofficial guesthouses" where the small amount of tourist money is much appreciated.

I find it difficult to accept that any tourist "is in full support of the political situation" as you wrote. I have never met one on tour there but I think the tourists who take photographs, write articles about the situation that exists there, and the excesses of the junta are helping to move the tide against the Myammar military junta.

CB

Agreed. The more tourists the better the coverage of the national abuses. The real culprits such as China who blatantly pour in squillions to prop up the Junta, should be publically castigated.

( at least China is pretty up fron about it................UK, USA........scratch the surface and see who else is involved with the Rape of their natural resources )

I am saddened that this piece of yellow journalism should be reproduced as a

supposed attempt to expose the unbelievable problems of the people of Burma.

It's slant and content serves to reinforce the belief in France that every female

in SE Asia has her pussy for hire at very reasonable rates and any European

who visits the region does so with the intent of enjoying (preferably underage)

female company on a short-term rental basis.

The "reporter" recounts his "interviews" with two ladies. Both of them quote

earnings of $20+ per day/night. As in this country the rich are few and the

poor are numerous this cannot be typical. Once , on a Ranong/Kaw Theung

visa run , I was offered "short time" for 50b. I had managed to thrust this

offer to the back of my mind until I read this post.

I personally regard the sort of journalist who would earn his wage by

filing such "bullshit but good copy" reports as a far worse type of whore

than his supposed interviewees.

I am not sure what you are trying to say here. I don't see anywhere in the article that the reporter is saying or suggesting that "every female in SE Asia has her pussy for hire". What the journalist is writing about is the very real problem facing women and children in every third world country - which is exploitation. I don't know if you have ever been to Myammar or if you have spent any real time in the country but I have have and it is not "bull shit by good copy" it is a reality and happens everyday. Take a look at the real world and take off the rose coloured glasses you currently have firmly attached. Myammar like many other parts of the world has a very large exploited class. These are young children and women who are the most vulnerable. To say there is no sex trade in Myammar is not only idiotic but obviously wrong to anyone who has been there. The border towns have rows of "happy restaurants" with women available for on site or take away. Walk around any of the karaoke bars and the same sad and abused faces that are all over the third world look back. The majority of the trade for them is amonst their own countrymen but the occassional sexpat wanders around getting it on the cheap. I sat in a karaoke bar once and we watched the passing parade of girls who were using the rooms to the back of a grocery store. Six rooms and the average time spent in the room was 10 minutes with a customer. I saw one woman go wiith five different men in the four hours I sat there. Afterwards she sat with the other women on a bench seat outside the bar. I don't know what she got paid and how she split the money with the bar and room rental but it was what she did to survive in a country without social services, where women have much lower status than men, and were to be poor, uneducated, and young means to be exploited.

Down in Rangoon (the old capital) ask a driver to take you for a town tour and they take you (any single or group of men) to a neighbourhood of shophouses that has little kids sitting around tables or playing in the dirt out front. This is the child sex area and it is the same thng that can be found in places like Phnom Phen. It is controlled by the Army who patrol it. Interestingly the NGO child sex agencies don't seem to be able to find the place or do anything about it.

Prostitution is a fact of life, not everyone does it and the journalist reported conversations with two sex workers. I don't know if they exist or if she made it up. I cannot comment on the journalist's code of ethics or degree of accuracy. However what is real is the situation and that needs to be read around the world.

CB

Down in Rangoon (the old capital) ask a driver to take you for a town tour and they take you (any single or group of men) to a neighbourhood of shophouses that has little kids sitting around tables or playing in the dirt out front. This is the child sex area and it is the same thng that can be found in places like Phnom Phen. It is controlled by the Army who patrol it. Interestingly the NGO child sex agencies don't seem to be able to find the place or do anything about it.

Crowboy, I have been around a LOT, and I've never seen anything like this ANYWHERE including Cambodia and the Philipines. I have seen plenty of redlight districts where the children of the workers were around playing normally including Patpong, but they certainly weren't for sale.

The fact that the NGO's didn't know about it speaks volumes, because this type of thing pays the rent for them.

We know each other personally and I have the greatest respect for your opinions, but I think that you are very mistaken here.

Down in Rangoon (the old capital) ask a driver to take you for a town tour and they take you (any single or group of men) to a neighbourhood of shophouses that has little kids sitting around tables or playing in the dirt out front. This is the child sex area and it is the same thng that can be found in places like Phnom Phen. It is controlled by the Army who patrol it. Interestingly the NGO child sex agencies don't seem to be able to find the place or do anything about it.

Crowboy, I have been around a LOT, and I've never seen anything like this ANYWHERE including Cambodia and the Philipines. I have seen plenty of redlight districts where the children of the workers were around playing normally including Patpong, but they certainly weren't for sale.

The fact that the NGO's didn't know about it speaks volumes, because this type of thing pays the rent for them.

We know each other personally and I have the greatest respect for your opinions, but I think that you are very mistaken here.

I haven't seen it in Rangoon, but i have seen such places in the border areas of Burma, such as the Shan States and Wa State. And in Cambodia many years ago i have seen it very openly in areas also visited by western sex tourists, such as Tuol Cork and KM 11. In KM 11 there were even brothels specialized for virgins and very young girls. In Cambodia it is not as open as it was still ten years or so ago, but it still exists.

Don't be mistaken - this very sickening part of what i would even not call prostitution by my definition anymore is unfortunately very real.

The youngest girls at CM 11 looked around 12 or 13 years old and there were not many of them. Also, Vietnamese look much younger than Thais because of their sparse diets, so I'm not even sure that they were as young as that.

Sad as it is, there is a big difference between 13 years old and "little kids sitting around tables or playing in the dirt out front" which sounds like around 5 to ten years old. I find it very difficult to believe that such places existed, but so many of us old timers never saw them.

The youngest girls at CM 11 looked around 12 or 13 years old and there were not many of them. Also, Vietnamese look much younger than Thais because of their sparse diets, so I'm not even sure that they were as young as that.

Sad as it is, there is a big difference between 13 years old and "little kids sitting around tables or playing in the dirt out front" which sounds like around 5 to ten years old. I find it very difficult to believe that such places existed, but so many of us pld timers never saw them.

Well, for me 12 or 13 year old girls are little kids. But lets not go into semantics here.

They did exist in KM 11, and they were that young, and they were frequently also visited by westerners. Many of the older ones, 15 or 16 up, also once started off in that age, being under contract bondage. In Tuol Korc's Cambodian section behind the railway lines many brothels even did not bother with debt contracts as many girls were sold by parents, relatives or outright kidnapped from the villages. And those are just the more well known areas as they were frequented by westerners. Almost every town in Cambodia has such areas, with exactly the same picture.

There is no talking away these clearly documented facts - these are not just unsubstantiated reports by self serving NGOs, but there is ample footage existing from the different reportages on the subject, arrests of offenders by combined western and Cambodian police agencies, and more than a few court cases with convictions even by western courts.

Down in Rangoon (the old capital) ask a driver to take you for a town tour and they take you (any single or group of men) to a neighbourhood of shophouses that has little kids sitting around tables or playing in the dirt out front. This is the child sex area and it is the same thng that can be found in places like Phnom Phen. It is controlled by the Army who patrol it. Interestingly the NGO child sex agencies don't seem to be able to find the place or do anything about it.

Crowboy, I have been around a LOT, and I've never seen anything like this ANYWHERE including Cambodia and the Philipines. I have seen plenty of redlight districts where the children of the workers were around playing normally including Patpong, but they certainly weren't for sale.

The fact that the NGO's didn't know about it speaks volumes, because this type of thing pays the rent for them.

We know each other personally and I have the greatest respect for your opinions, but I think that you are very mistaken here.

UG - I know the area in Phnom Phen and it is near Sharkey's bar.

In Rangoon it is at the back of the old flower market.

CB

Down in Rangoon (the old capital) ask a driver to take you for a town tour and they take you (any single or group of men) to a neighbourhood of shophouses that has little kids sitting around tables or playing in the dirt out front. This is the child sex area and it is the same thng that can be found in places like Phnom Phen. It is controlled by the Army who patrol it. Interestingly the NGO child sex agencies don't seem to be able to find the place or do anything about it.

Crowboy, I have been around a LOT, and I've never seen anything like this ANYWHERE including Cambodia and the Philipines. I have seen plenty of redlight districts where the children of the workers were around playing normally including Patpong, but they certainly weren't for sale.

The fact that the NGO's didn't know about it speaks volumes, because this type of thing pays the rent for them.

We know each other personally and I have the greatest respect for your opinions, but I think that you are very mistaken here.

UG - I know the area in Phnom Phen and it is near Sharkey' bar.

In Rangoon it is at the back of the old flower market.

CB

Poverty - the state of living in a family with income below the federally defined poverty line. What exactly is the defined poverty line in Myanmar?

In theory nobody needs to starve in Thailand. In theory nobody needs to beg in Thailand. In theory the money and gifts given to temple monks is given to the poor.

When I make my infrequent visits to Pattaya, I am accosted by boys offering their bodies for sex for as low as 30 baht. My BF just laughs. I will hand them 20 baht so they can get a street meal - with no strings attached.

In our remote Issan village, the honour (virginity) of the village girls is more closely guarded than that of the village boys.

The boys are available for a couple of bottles of beer Leo - not that I am interested - one Thai boy is enough for me!

Peter

When I make my infrequent visits to Pattaya, I am accosted by boys offering their bodies for sex for as low as 30 baht. My BF just laughs. I will hand them 20 baht so they can get a street meal - with no strings attached.

Peter

Oh dear,

I thought Pattaya bashing was confined to the other forums. 30 Baht............me thinks not.

The youngest girls at CM 11 looked around 12 or 13 years old and there were not many of them. Also, Vietnamese look much younger than Thais because of their sparse diets, so I'm not even sure that they were as young as that.

Sad as it is, there is a big difference between 13 years old and "little kids sitting around tables or playing in the dirt out front" which sounds like around 5 to ten years old. I find it very difficult to believe that such places existed, but so many of us old timers never saw them.

Well, for me 12 or 13 year old girls are little kids. But lets not go into semantics here.

Yes, they are very young, but they also are sexually mature and will soon get pregnant or married anyway. The boyfreind soon dumps them and there they are on the game.

Doesn't sound any different than any other 3rd world place including parts of S. America. Personally, I look forward to visiting Burma - not for the chcks but the history...