BBC Radio programme about the prostitution in Thailand

[vesuvia]

According to the BBC World Service website, "in Thailand, anywhere between 100,000 and 1 million people are involved in the industry."

A BBC World Service discussion on "World Have Your Say - Is sex tourism bad for Bangkok?" is available to hear on BBC iPlayer from now until Wednesday 16 February.

Quote from the programme :

(BBC Interviewer)-- Is there anything about the sex industry in Thailand that makes you uncomfortable?
(British male long-term resident of Thailand)-- No, no, not at all ... It's very open and very, very geared towards the tourist industry. It's only one part of a great lifestyle that you can have here.

so he read "uncomfortable" as in whether the industry leads him to feel any sense of shame or embarassment for buying people's bodies (a resounding no!)... the thought of being uncomfortable with encouragingg the exploitation of women and underage girls doesn't even register

love the interviewer. Is he the same guy who interviewed Naomi Woolf?

the only thing the THai guy was worried about was the reputation of Thai women. He was very keen to say "well we have "all kinds of" Eastern European women here" as in Thai women aren't particularly immoral... FFS Then tried to say it was okay because it happens in Scotland. He called it a "necessary evil"

Some quotes of listeners from the programme's blog:

Anti-prostitution :

"in Bangkok the prostitutes were everywhere. One kept following me around trying to get me to buy her. I kept saying no, then she offered to do it for free. I asked the sponsor of the charity school why she would do it for free, she said the young girl was trying to get off the street for the night. She also pointed out that most of them were probably displaced from the tsunami."

"Even if the women are gaining economically, they are suffering internally."

"The problem is that it's illegal but not cracked down on."

"the men who go there for sex could be going any number of other places for the same service, but a lot (or most) of them go to Thailand because of it's reputation for having child prostitutes - slaves - and the success of that encourages it in other countries".

Pro-prostitution:

"I hear all this negativity about the sex trade but not all people can work in offices. Sex work is "work". There are prostitutes even in developed nations where they have access to education. Don't assume that all sex work is bad work. Just take the american porn industry - it makes billions."

Sex tourism in Thailand has certainly had a negative effect on our perception of it.

Child prostitution aside(that should obviously be illegal) Prostitution may be the only way out of abject poverty these women have.

That's got to change.

yeah, the American porn industry makes billions... not for the women though