Blog 4 Striking the Brothels' Bottom Line

Yulieth Hassan

Blog-4

Striking the Brothels’ Bottom Line

By: Nicholas Kristof

In this article, the author, Nicholas Kristof, addresses the topic of sex trafficking in Poipet, Cambodia.  He describes his experience dealing with one brothel where he “purchases” two teen age girls to later give them their freedom from this profession.  Keeping in touch with them over the years, he discovers that both girls have chosen different paths despite being given the same opportunity to reform their lives.  He also discovers that what he, and many others, believed to be a lucrative profession, was not immune to the typical challenges that face any legitimate business, namely, lower profits, community acceptance and customer satisfaction.

The first teenager, the article implies, started her own business with the support of a local aid organization.  The second teen eager, been given the same opportunity, returned back to the sex profession to support a drug addiction habit.  This comparison reinforces the important point that having the same resources available does not necessary mean having the same outcome.

Mr. Kristof also reflects his own positive outlook, based on what he has seen, towards curtailing this human trade business.  He cites the intervention and the support provided by the local aid organizations and the arrests and crack down by the local authorities.  He also cites journalists who thrust the human rights aspect of those women into the public arena and, for those particular women in Cambodia, the political pressure exerted by the US Department Traffic Office when sanctions were used as leverage to force a social change.  The result, in a two year period, a reduction, by a factor of two, of the number of operating brothels in Poipet.

Sex trafficking has been known to be one of the most ancient professions.  As such, the author states that while the number of brothels has been reduced by a factor of two, new ones are also appearing as “Karaoke lounges”.

The author concludes his article by making a number of suggestions that he believes can curtail sex trafficking, especially that of virgin girls.  He suggests that the government of Cambodia increase the number of sting operations where both persons involved, the customer and the seller, be arrested.  He also calls on the Obama Administration to make priority of this human rights issue involving modern day slavery.

I thought the article was very well written.  I was surprised to learn that humans are purchased like any other commodity that has a price tag.  I felt the article did not address adequately the consequential mental and physical human suffering of those involved.

It was recently brought to my attention by my professor that sex trafficking is a huge problem in the Phoenix metropolitan area.In a u- tube video our professor demonstrated how young girls are drawn into the prostitution with the promise of a rosy career in Hollywood,like the movies,and entertainment industries,young girls with otherwise promising future and loving and caring parents are tricked into vulnerable broken women with broken families.It is quite interesting that the Obama administration is willing to exert political pressure on the Cambodian government to curtail trafficking but seems to be unwilling to exert similar efforts to curtail the problem in Phoenix and within the USA