4 hours ago, AGareth2 said:

but they are the law

If laws don't fit to reality, then laws can be adjusted. That's why lawmakers are there. 

3 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Once again, the little man avoids the heart of the issue. It is his M.O. Dancing around an issue, and never, ever coming up with a real solution. Why is there prostitution in the first place? How do you get the women into a position where prostitution is not necessary?

 

Sorry little man. But, the only way to move the country away from prostitution is to get those very people who's fortunes you have been sworn to protect, to pay higher living wages. Convince them to part with a small portion of their fortunes. Unless and until the standard of living here rises to the point to where women can make a real living, this will continue. 350 baht a day for working as a cashier, standing on your feet for 8 hours, vs. doing one special massage for 1,000 baht? Graduating with a college degree, and alot of debt, after 4 years, and making 5,000 baht a month more than those without one? Come on. Who are you kidding? 

As always, articulately and powerfully expressed, Spidermike.

 

It always appals me that university graduates - even young Thai lecturers with M.A. degrees - earn a pittance in this country (only around 17,000 baht a month). Street vendors do better than that - and certainly taxi drivers! So where is the incentive to study hard and try to better oneself when one is just being kicked in the teeth by the System here? 

 

As you say, Spidermike, it is hardly surprising that some people are drawn towards prostitution when the alternative is all-too-often mind-numbing, callous and inhuman exploitation of their labour. So one form of exploitation leads to another (of a different kind) ...

I......Get rid of poverty 40% at least and maybe the girls can get better jobs. These girls just about get by selling themselves. To many girls to few customers. Only a few make good money. And for most it is the only game in town. 

38 minutes ago, djayz said:

It will take years, maybe even a whole generation, before that image changes. 

 

If these prostitutes stopped/had to stop working the bars, streets, etc., what other way could they earn money? Many of them don't have qualifications worth talking about or took up whoring because they could make more money than a regular job pays. 

 

Sad, but true. 

Bar girls and massage girls don't have qualifications?

Of course they do. Many have paramedical skills, and those should be supported in a hub of wellness - whatever Western women think about it.

Edited February 28, 20188 yr by micmichd

Yawn ....here we go again...

 

.. and just when we think he has run out of big ideas...

 

this is one is a beauty Lol

Reform is the job of the government of the day. 

Oh no!  This will totally change the fun nature of Pattaya and many other places in Thailand.

14 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

Once again, the little man avoids the heart of the issue. It is his M.O. Dancing around an issue, and never, ever coming up with a real solution. Why is there prostitution in the first place? How do you get the women into a position where prostitution is not necessary?

 

Sorry little man. But, the only way to move the country away from prostitution is to get those very people who's fortunes you have been sworn to protect, to pay higher living wages. Convince them to part with a small portion of their fortunes. Unless and until the standard of living here rises to the point to where women can make a real living, this will continue. 350 baht a day for working as a cashier, standing on your feet for 8 hours, vs. doing one special massage for 1,000 baht? Graduating with a college degree, and alot of debt, after 4 years, and making 5,000 baht a month more than those without one? Come on. Who are you kidding? 

Great post.

 

I would add that if you want to provide alternatives and disincentives to entering prostitution then Thailand needs to dismantle the huge network of procurers and brothels all protected by and paying money up to the police that not only sustains and feeds the huge prostitution industry but actually pressures teenage girls and boys to enter it when perfectly viable alternatives exist.

4 hours ago, webfact said:

PM urges all parties concerned to help solve prostitution problem

Easy.

Nationalise it, then it won't pay.

 

A crackdown on prostitution would certainly boost his popularity with Thais even if it was only cosmetic..

34 minutes ago, micmichd said:

and many happy Thai-Western relationships in fact started in a bar.

Financing relationship agreements you mean, sugar coated as "love you long time", that terminate when the money runs out.

Edited February 28, 20188 yr by lkv

It's a really popular topic, this.  :)

There is as much if not more prostitution in the us and any other country as Thailand - The only real difference is the price, most of the most successful girls in the US have good lawyers.  You can change the style and the location, but in the end it is about easy money at the level you can find it. 

There is no shortage of women looking out to hook up a guy with the cash, car, house or what ever she can get out of it.  By any other name it is the same thing.  That is not saying all women all like that - it is just saying a certain % will always go that route if they have the equipment for it. 

They (here or there) are just as moral as any politician I know of.

PM Prayut urges all parties concerned to help solve prostitution problem

 

Most success in solving

problems comes from addressing the biggest issue...get more bang for the buck. And that's fitting here.

Close down the shops serving Thais. 98% of the problem solved.

If the prostitution In Thailand is to be diminished. that will never happen. So many new laws that come out for this country are stated .after a week or two the are all forgotten. How else would these uneducated   ladys be able to provide for their  families. for them its very good money that could not be matched by working in a restaurant or hotel /resort ect.   

3 hours ago, AsianAtHeart said:

So called?  What would you call morals?  Is there such a thing? 

 

To forget one's morals is to contribute to the decadence of society.  More importantly, it is to be willfully ignorant of one's eternal interests--to sacrifice one's hope of eternal existence for a few very short moments of pleasure.  I say it's not worth it.  The eternal prize is worth risking everything for, and giving up everything in the effort, as an olympian does in seeking the gold medal.

 

And that statement right there alludes to the solution.  I think, as unpopular as their efforts have been portrayed, the attempts by the Shinawatras to strengthen the economy among the poorer classes were as much effective toward alleviating the core basis for prostitution as any.  Very few women desire such an ignominious and disagreeable "job."  Providing them better means of supporting themselves and their families would be the most efficient method of elevating the country out of its shame.

Oh dear, another apparent newbie ( low post count ) with no clue about the scene. How many hairdressers can make a living in LOS, or would you prefer they work in a sweat shop?

 

To eliminate prostitution they would have to start with the enormous Thai only scene, and doing that would cause problems even a puritan wouldn't want.

"Earlier, Gambian tourism minister Hamal Bah was quoted to have said that if western tourists wanted to go to Gambia for sex, they should better go to Thailand which is the sex destination."

 

He should have realised this was an attempted wind up when he saw the tourist minister's name. All he's succeeded in doing is drawing attention back to a problem that hasn't been in the headlines too much recently.

 

Ironically, Gambia has been in the headlines recently for accepting one of Thailand's famously rejected sex tourists - the big legged German beggar who'd been banned from here and a dozen other countries before they welcomed him to their bosom. So it's probably all sour grapes.

3 minutes ago, inThailand said:

PM Prayut urges all parties concerned to help solve prostitution problem

 

Most success in solving

problems comes from addressing the biggest issue...get more bang for the buck. And that's fitting here.

 

Close down the shops serving Thais. 98% of the problem solved.

If they closed down all the shops serving Thais, there would be no bars left in the country.

11 minutes ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

It's a really popular topic, this.  :)

Of course. Most of us, if we are honest, are here because of it.

And this just in live from The Gambia...

 

39 minutes ago, lkv said:

Financing relationship agreements you mean, sugar coated as "love you long time", that terminate when the money runs out.

So what?

Farangs come to Thailand once a year, pick a young Thai lady, promise her a rose garden, and then expect the young lady to stay away from sex with others and wait - maybe forever.

Did you do that when you were young?

 

A Thai lady is free ( that's what "Thai" means), she's not anyone's property, especially not the property of an old Farang butterfly. 

If you have the money, then please hand it over. If you can't afford a relationship with a Thai lady (and her family), then you better stay away.

 

Read this if you think Thai ladies are special: 

https://www.stickmanbangkok.com/readers-submissions/2009/11/the-rosetta-stone-of-womens-behavior/

 

 

Edited February 28, 20188 yr by micmichd
Link added

10 year old kids on motorbikes racing around with no helmets on the streets during weeknights at midnight and he's worried that some people know to come to Thailand for a good time and get laid???

Isn't it interesting?

When talking openly about (the non-existing) prostitution, it is "Pattaya" and the "farang"...

No mention of the sex- trade, undergone by Thais, which should be at around 90% of all sex- trade!

 

Also: how about trying to install a kind of safety- net?

You know...where men are held accountable for the babies they father, where education is meaningful and there are jobs that pay more than a bowl of rice and some moo ping on any given day?

How about taxing the super- rich to pay for it?

 

Oh well...Thailand....

4 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

LOL. More than 40% of the GDP and he wants to shut it down? Reminds me of a Supertramp song "dreamer, nothing but a dreamer"......

Not forgetting that it is something like 93% Thai's that use said services 

Where is this problem he is talking about ?

5 hours ago, AGareth2 said:

but they are the law

 

When he said "the authorities responsible for the prostitution problem" was he referring to the real Brothel owners?

Humm.... Bt20,000 per month in a dead end job or Bt3,000-8,000 per any given night in the bar. Not to mention all the other secondary jobs. To end that would be devastating to the economy.

 

Oh yeah. Anything else you want us to believe in? Santa Claus? The Easter Bunny? 

10 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Oh dear, another apparent newbie ( low post count ) with no clue about the scene. How many hairdressers can make a living in LOS, or would you prefer they work in a sweat shop?

 

To eliminate prostitution they would have to start with the enormous Thai only scene, and doing that would cause problems even a puritan wouldn't want.

There are perhaps a few here on TV who have more experience with Thailand.  I've only been around the country for more than a couple decades.  Of course, while post count might be an indicator of one's loquaciousness, it does nothing to indicate one's experience.  If it's any help to your understanding of my perspective, I am conversationally fluent in Thai and am literate in the language.  It's good you prefaced your statement with "apparent."  Not all things, however, are as they appear on the surface.

 

Eliminating prostitution will not happen if the modus operandi is to simply shut down the brothels.  The economic forces underpinning the problem must be resolved.  I remember the day in Thailand when a farm laborer would work over 10 hours in the sun for 100 baht per day.  Last I heard, I think the minimum is nearer to 250-300 baht per day for such workers.  But if this is insufficient to feed, clothe, and educate the family, much less pay for extras like medical care, the temptation to sacrifice one's own good for the good of the family increases.

 

Many years ago I attended the funeral in northern Thailand of a nine-year-old boy whose mother had given him HIV at his birth.  She had already preceded him in death.  Is it necessary to say how she acquired it?

What about the Police chief's who own the bars and encourage the girls to bring them as much money as they can?

Maybe Mister Prayut should investigate on this...and he won't be surprised...but...what will he do?