Global recession fuels child sex boom.
Increasing poverty in children’s countries of origin and smaller budgets for social services are two of the factors heightening children’s vulnerability. Deterioration of living conditions often compels young people to abandon school in order to contribute to the family income, putting them at risk of seeking livelihood options that lead to their being exploited, according to ECPAT International.
and
ECPAT International’s recent report also warned that the number of children and young people trafficked within their own country is increasing. Such trafficking frequently involves movement from rural to urban areas or from one city or town to another without the need for travel documentation.
Muslim country bonus fact: The International Labor Organization says sex tourism contributes as much as 14 percent of the gross domestic product of Indonesia and Malaysia. The real question is would more conservative, religion-based governance better confront the problem with harsher policies, or make it worse as puritanical attitudes turn the victims into untouchable wretches and scapegoat them for the crimes of their victimizers?
America doesn’t seem to be doing any better at coming up with just solutions:
See an interview with the girl here. The judge had little choice because of California’s harsh mandatory sentencing guidelines. His options were life without possibility of parole, or 25 to life.
bingregory 9:15 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink |
sex tourism contributes as much as 14 percent of the gross domestic product of Indonesia and Malaysia
Fact check and then retract please, because that is utterly ridiculous. Tourism as a whole doesn’t equal 15% of the GDP of Malaysia (about 7-8% in 2008 from casual googling), so how on earth could sex tourism itself make 15%? Those sex tourists still come in on a visa, after all.
bingregory 9:30 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink |
Ok, just checked that ILO link for you, assuming you refer to the one in the comments section of your lead link with the title “Sex Industry Assuming Massive etc”. The only thing REMOTELY like your “bonus fact” is the line the financial turnover of the sex sector is estimated at US$1.2 billion to US$3.3 billion per year, or between 0.8 and 2.4 per cent of the country’s GDP, in Indonesia.
Very irresponsible, Johnpi, and it makes your handwringing “real question” more laughable still.
johnpi 10:34 pm on November 2, 2009 Permalink |
This is the last sentence of the Global Post report I linked (not in the comments section):
I appreciate your research, and see that as the value of open source blogging.
it makes your handwringing “real question” more laughable still
Why don’t you just go all the way and dismiss me outright as a ‘liberal busybody,’ what with all my “enjoin the good, forbid the evil” liberal tropes…
And I question your response: How society responds to the problem of sex tourism is a matter of greater or lesser laughter? Casual misogyny is on the side of your better angels if that’s your point of view…
I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn’t mean to come off like that…
bingregory 10:43 am on November 3, 2009 Permalink |
So for the record, you don’t have anything more than the original article which was itself pulled apart in its own comments section for using spurious statistics? This is how misinformation spreads. Shouldn’t you post an addendum or something?
You’re right, I should be a bit more serious about the problem, when the ILO has clearly shown that every man woman and child over here is turning three tricks a day to fuel the national economy. Between that and heating our homes with virgin tropical rainforest firewood while jabbing orangutans with a sharp stick, I hardly get a chance to catch my breath.
johnpi 11:46 am on November 3, 2009 Permalink |
lol. Well, at least you have a sense of humor about yourself.
The addendum that disputes the figure is this thread of comments.
In case you haven’t noticed, most posts around here are based on single media stories, that – once posted – our readership of Muslims and their friends have the opportunity to analyze, discuss, critique, correct and rebut.
And again, you’ll notice that my questions about harsh policies and conservative Islamic response to those who have been sexually victimized stands alone from the ILO figures you dispute.
Contributing to my ‘busybodyness’ about the issue, is this new report out of Israel about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and rape:
Just in case you’re going to argue ‘That report was about Israel, Muslim communities are completely different,’ here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia’s section on ‘Women in Islam’ about rape:
Yes, I know, it’s Wikipedia, but it wouldn’t take that long to put together a dozen stories from the Talk Islam archives that demonstrate the accuracy of that description.