Depressing?

[A_Traveller]

From footer on BBC new web site

06:54 GMT.

The most read story in Australasia is: Life as a Thai sex worker

Sigh.........

Regards

[Prakanong]

From footer on BBC new web site

06:54 GMT.

The most read story in Australasia is: Life as a Thai sex worker

Sigh.........

Regards

I read the piece after it was pointed out to me this morning.

Same old tripe that is trotted out every so often - why do they not do a profile on a Singaporean sex worker in Geylang where its legal?

Could also try Batam, Cambodia or numerous other places but no - the image perpetuates by lazy journalism looking for an easy story.

[Payboy]

But these men don't understand that most of us have no choice - we're just trying to earn money for our families, and waiting for a chance to leave."

as she was not forced into it by the mafia, couldn't she have chosen from a host of unskilled jobs? carrying a heavy bag full of golf clubs in scorching heat is also an occupation of choice.

[mr_hippo]

Copy of an e-mail I have just sent to the BBC - not expecting a reply from them -

Are you having a slow news day? I refer to the article on your website by your correspondent, Kate McGeown in Bangkok entitled 'Life as a Thai sex worker' What is the point of the article? Yes, there is a sex industry in Thailand but this applies to all countries. Is she supposed to write a certain amount of copy per week? Is she trying to attract more of the 'sexpat' types here? Couldn't she concentrate the thrust of the article towards 'Nightlight' and the good work that they do?

[Prakanong]

Copy of an e-mail I have just sent to the BBC - not expecting a reply from them -

Are you having a slow news day? I refer to the article on your website by your correspondent, Kate McGeown in Bangkok entitled 'Life as a Thai sex worker' What is the point of the article? Yes, there is a sex industry in Thailand but this applies to all countries. Is she supposed to write a certain amount of copy per week? Is she trying to attract more of the 'sexpat' types here? Couldn't she concentrate the thrust of the article towards 'Nightlight' and the good work that they do?

You could have also asked if the girl actually said all those things and how much the journo paraphrased.

Could also ask if the interview was in English and Thai as well I suppose.

Thing is it could have been any one piece I have seen in print for donkey's years now - its probably made up ;-)))

[GuestHouse]

Amoung the tricks of the trade Thai Prostitutes employ to make a living out of their Johns is the art of telling a John what he wants to hear.

Why does anyone think that this is not extended to telling the BBC reporter what she wanted to hear?

[kmart]

A twin piece entitled "My life of drudgery inventing this <deleted>: From a bored hack who also has to pen the horoscopes" should be on the TV front page.

[Prakanong]

Amoung the tricks of the trade Thai Prostitutes employ to make a living out of their Johns is the art of telling a John what he wants to hear.

Why does anyone think that this is not extended to telling the BBC reporter what she wanted to hear?

Exactly - itis not just prostitutes in Thailand who tell you what they think you want to hear though

I have had it from all sorts - from the guy doing tasks on a project to the taxi driver wanting a bigger tip.

Its also a problem in research - especially with things like diary cards ;-)

[PeaceBlondie]

Kate reads ThaiVisa someimes; maybe she'll appreciate our comments.

[PhilHarries]

Kate McGeown? She must be getting close to her sell by date surely?

But anyway, lets face it folks, given the choice between writing a piece on the sex workers of Bangkok and the working conditions of the trawlermen of Hull (including the rough old slappers they have to endure) there's no real choice is there. Besides which she doesn't have to actually go out on the streets interviewing pro's, it's all been done before, a few minutes on Google, cut and paste and file the report. Then it's off out on the p1ss, easy money.

[jumbo2]

From footer on BBC new web site

06:54 GMT.

The most read story in Australasia is: Life as a Thai sex worker

Sigh.........

Regards

I read the piece after it was pointed out to me this morning.

Same old tripe that is trotted out every so often - why do they not do a profile on a Singaporean sex worker in Geylang where its legal?

Could also try Batam, Cambodia or numerous other places but no - the image perpetuates by lazy journalism looking for an easy story.

Totally agree...it happens all over Asia why always put a spolight on Thailand...Batam is alot worse...as is Ipswich and Kings cross in the U.K.... these journos should report on somthing that is of interest like what has been going on in the south lately...doubt ill see or read anything on the BBC regarding that!!!!!!

[Jeffery Stanthorpe]

A twin piece entitled "My life of drudgery inventing this <deleted>: From a bored hack who also has to pen the horoscopes" should be on the TV front page.

[rio666uk]

Kate McGeown? She must be getting close to her sell by date surely?

But anyway, lets face it folks, given the choice between writing a piece on the sex workers of Bangkok and the working conditions of the trawlermen of Hull (including the rough old slappers they have to endure) there's no real choice is there. Besides which she doesn't have to actually go out on the streets interviewing pro's, it's all been done before, a few minutes on Google, cut and paste and file the report. Then it's off out on the p1ss, easy money.

i was gonna shun the BBC for a fairly futile piece.. considering far more important things happening in the Kingdom.....

but the above post has taken the wind right outta my sails - too true

[bannork]

Kate McGeown? She must be getting close to her sell by date surely?

But anyway, lets face it folks, given the choice between writing a piece on the sex workers of Bangkok and the working conditions of the trawlermen of Hull (including the rough old slappers they have to endure) there's no real choice is there. Besides which she doesn't have to actually go out on the streets interviewing pro's, it's all been done before, a few minutes on Google, cut and paste and file the report. Then it's off out on the p1ss, easy money.

I had the misfortune to grow up in Hull in the late 60s and there was a saying 'as rough as a Hessle road fishwife'. Peroxide hair with black roots showing, cigarette dangling from lips, wearing slippers in the cold east wind streets, dragging a snotty-nosed, crying nipper around, they would talk to their fellow fishwives in an abbreviated form of foul English.

Now that was depressing, things must have improved since then.

[StateSix]

Maybe she should have wrote a piece on prostitution in the UK, where there has been a huge increase in the amount of Eastern European women tricked into going to the UK, sold to pimps, then forced to work in brothels. At least 'Pim' had a choice.

And just to cap it off, she has to get in the line "Many customers prefer children or young girls", suggesting that not only are all western guys who are over here dirty sex perverts exploiting poor, innocent Thai women, but that we may well be paedophiles as well.

[jayjayjayjay]

Nothing new, will be here in another 20yrs time, same story, different girl. Economics will stay the same for a very very long time given "sufficiency economy" of the present government, I thought Taxsin gave Thailand a little hope (OTOP, farmer based development projects), but alas, bangkokians dont want that to happen!

Pathet-thai-ruam-ruit-nua,

Chat-Chua-Thai,

Ben-bracharat

pa thai,

kong thai,

took suan

....da.da.da.da.

[ColPyat]

I would advise to read the links as well, the NGO that saved that girl from the heathens is advertised as well.

Enjoy:

http://www.nightlightbangkok.com/

[Prakanong]

I would advise to read the links as well, the NGO that saved that girl from the heathens is advertised as well.

Enjoy:

http://www.nightlightbangkok.com/

They probably contacted the journo and said they had a story for her.

Why do they not just work through someone with lots of experience with this such as Empower or are there ulterior motives such as indoctrination and a judgemental attitude?

But it gets better - they are miracle workers going for Beatification then Sainthood

From their site

"Aye, who was diagnosed with lung cancer was prayed for and now her diagnosis has changed to asthma"

ROFLMAO - the power of pray

Edited February 23, 2007 by Prakanong

[qualtrough]

Seems the gist of replies so far concern not the accuracy of what she wrote, but the fact that she wrote it at all. Awful defensive for people who I believe are not even Thais. You think the BBC doesn't report on the sex trade in other countries, including the UK? Below is just the first two pages of results for a 'prostitution' keyword search on the BBC site. Doesn't look like the BBC shys away from reporting on prostitution in the UK or elsewhere, does it? In fact, I don't even see Thailand in those first two pages of results.

Action Network - Prostitution

There are 80,000 prostitutes in the UK and 95% of street-based prostitutes are drug users. Measures have been recommended to help prostitutes get help over drugs and housing.

BBC Children in Need - Who you help - Child prostitution

CHILD PROSTITUTION Fact: in Britain an estimated 5,000 minors are involved in prostitution. She resorted to prostituting herself as a means of paying for her addiction.

Action Network - Forced prostitution in both parts of Kashmir...

New visitors: Returning members: Noticeboard Local campaigns Post a notice Read messages Forced prostitution in both parts of Kashmir...

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Your views: Prostitution

Listen online to Radio 4 Your views: Prostitution 30 Jan 2006 What you had to say. Her husband went to prostitutes for the first 14 years of her marriage.

Action Network - save the 'kashmiri girls'...from compulsive prostitution

save the 'kashmiri girls'...from compulsive prostitution - countless girls are coming to the metropolitan cities of india to sell their bodies and soul to provide for their fam....

Action Network - Viewpoint: Helping prostitutes

When we lost the zone we had a dispersal of street prostitution. We can't be held responsible for street prostitution.

Action Network - My story: Protesting against prostitution

My story: Protesting against prostitution - Rob Kirkwood is part of the Leith Links Residents' Association, which has been campaigning against prostitution in th....

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Prostitution

A wife speaks out. Listen online to Radio 4 Prostitution 20 Jan 2006 A wife speaks out At the end of a week in which the Government announced new plans to change the laws surrounding prostitution,

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Prostitution

Listen online to Radio 4 Prostitution 22 April 2005 Are our attitudes to prostitution too narrow?

Action Network - English Collective Of Prostitutes

Updated: 12 Jan 2005 By Campaign for the legalisation of prostitution and for human, legal, and civil rights for prostitute women.

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Prostitution Law

Listen online to Radio 4 Prostitution Law 30 November 2004 looking at ways of making reform work Britain's prostitution laws are to undergo their biggest overhaul for 50 years.

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Prostitute Trafficking

Listen online to Radio 4 Prostitute Trafficking Monday 24 February 2003 More and more women are being trafficked into the UK for the sex trade each year.

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Prostitution in the Netherlands

Listen online to Radio 4 Prostitution in the Netherlands Wednesday 31 October 2001 Earlier this week the Magistrates Association asked for the legalisation of brothels in Britain.

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Prostitutes

And at the end of this month official tolerance of prostitution in Leith will come to an end. Would you accept a Prostitution-tolerant zone in your area?

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Middle Class Children & Prostitution

And yet this is exactly what is happening, according to campaigners against children in prostitution.

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Listener's Letters: Prostitution

Listen online to Radio 4 Listener's Letters: Prostitution Friday 6 December 2002 Are we right to judge someone who sells sex?

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Ethiopian child prostitutes

Research by Save the Children Denmark in the country's capital, Addis Ababa, shows that thousands of young girls under the age of 18 have been driven to prostitution just to survive.

Radio 4 Woman's Hour -World Cup Prostitutes

With the country's relaxed laws on prostitution and lurid headlines in the newspapers about giant

BBC NEWS | Talk about Newsnight | Prostitution - the oldest dilemma?

Prostitutes are often among the most vulnerable members of society, working to fund drug habits or out of desperate poverty. Prostitution should have been legalised many years ago.

Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Prostitute Trafficking

Listen online to Radio 4 Prostitute Trafficking Monday 24 February 2003 More and more women are being trafficked into the UK for the sex trade each year.

[ColPyat]

They probably contacted the journo and said they had a story for her.

Quite possibly. A lot could be written, said and done on prostitution here, and a lot in fact has. That piece though is maybe one of the most miserably researched pieces i have ever seen.

Rather comical, actually.

[ColPyat]

Why do they not just work through someone with lots of experience with this such as Empower or are there ulterior motives such as indoctrination and a judgemental attitude?

Mainly relying on NGO's is a bit of a risky undertaking. NGO's have their own agendas. And in Thailand, it's not exactly difficult to meet a prostitute. I wonder why the need to go through an NGO, and especially a fundamentalist christian one.

[A_Traveller]

One of the reasons I posted originally was the banality of the report, which looked to me as a PR handout from the organisation and the fact that unlike the BBC broadcast streams which have diligently worked on the issues within and behind prostitution in many locations, the web site seems stuck in SE Asia, with occasional forays to Sri Lanka.

As others have noted there is a underlying 'peadophiliac' angle within this web reporting which also puzzles me.

In closing I was also concerned that the BBC should give free advertising to a organisation which repeatedly states the aim of introducing "..women and children to the love and mercy of Jesus Christ, to disciple them into a strong faith as people who will then impact their communities" with out adding the corollary of Thailand's Buddhist tradition.

Regards

[madjbs]

She probably just "forgot" to add to her report that Miss Pim probably classes "children" as any girl under the age of 21 as is the norm in Thailand.

Jake

[bkkmick]

There was an article on the BBC site last week ... saying that there are approx. 80,000 prostitutes working in the UK.

I remember some REALLY rough looking tarts walking the streets in Belfast.

[tijnebijn]

Just another generalisation of Thailand!!

[qwertz]

An article in one of the English dailies a couple of years ago devoted two pages to an article on a middle aged guy who'd found his dream girl in LOS. It was so f***kin patronising, how this plain, balding, sad little man was being taken by a battle hardened BG. If it had been me I'd have sued them. I was so p***ed off I wrote to the editor and asked if the rag was so hard up they could only afford to send their most junior hack to Bolton on the train for the interview instead of sending a professional to Thailand for a week to learn the facts. The so-called journalist wrote me to say "I am very sorry if my article did not meet your approval, but as a journalist I only wrote the facts as they were presented to me". BTW, the poor guy had got to know the girl through a marriage agency, not in a bar. This was not mentioned in the article but the guy wrote me after the editor passed on my letter to him as requested. He also said that the hack had written in miles of fantasy about beer bar life in Pattaya. He'd never even visited Pattaya. How sad that this kind of crap sells. I hope they sacked the little git as I suggested.

[Thai-Spy]

One of the reasons I posted originally was the banality of the report, which looked to me as a PR handout from the organisation and the fact that unlike the BBC broadcast streams which have diligently worked on the issues within and behind prostitution in many locations, the web site seems stuck in SE Asia, with occasional forays to Sri Lanka.

Indeed, it does seem to read that way from our perspective. The BBC's focus on the region may be in part due to recent high-profile incidents; you could call it the "Gary Glitter Effect" for want of a better term.

As others have noted there is a underlying 'peadophiliac' angle within this web reporting which also puzzles me.

The mainstream press has never been capable of dealing with with sex-tourism and child-sex tourism as separate issues. Instead of dealing with the latter as a psychiatric issue, they are lumped together on a generalized spectrum of perversity.

When Pim finishes the vocational programme and goes out into the real world, and experiences the mistreatment of the typical for-profit jewelry manufacturing environment, how is she going to feel about Nightlight, their training programme and their Christian message?

Further, if Pim should later make a holistic decision, taking into account her working environment, her personal happiness, her income and other factors, and then decide to go back to the bar because it was better for her overall... Will the BBC and Miss McGeown be as willing to give us an expose of mainstream workplaces in Thailand and the inequities of Thai society? Will they tell us that Nighlight presents unrealistic expectations for the people they seek to assist?

We can only hope they would have the intellectual honesty to do so -- a characteristic largely absent from the article -- but this hope is probably misplaced.

[jbsears]

In closing I was also concerned that the BBC should give free advertising to a organisation which repeatedly states the aim of introducing "..women and children to the love and mercy of Jesus Christ, to disciple them into a strong faith as people who will then impact their communities" with out adding the corollary of Thailand's Buddhist tradition.

I don't understand why this would worry anybody. I think it is wonderful to bring attention to organizations that bring such assistance to these people. Hopefully with the attention brought about for this NightLight organtization, more money and assistance will come its way. It shouldn't matter if it is a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, or Hindu organization; they are doing a good thing.

[TAWP]

In closing I was also concerned that the BBC should give free advertising to a organisation which repeatedly states the aim of introducing "..women and children to the love and mercy of Jesus Christ, to disciple them into a strong faith as people who will then impact their communities" with out adding the corollary of Thailand's Buddhist tradition.

I don't understand why this would worry anybody. I think it is wonderful to bring attention to organizations that bring such assistance to these people. Hopefully with the attention brought about for this NightLight organtization, more money and assistance will come its way. It shouldn't matter if it is a Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, or Hindu organization; they are doing a good thing.

I would say they are dealing with cultural and religious imperialism, and that isn't something I want to commend.

[britmaveric]

I'd wager just re-hash of an old story, doubt the writer has even been to thailand.