Caught between the tiger and the crocodile

Via Juliana Rincón Parra

Cambodian sex workers talk about their experiences, and their views on the law.



The popular opinion is that the the 2008 law to outlaw sex work was an election game and a strategic international move to curry favour. Whether this is the case or not, the police are using the law to imprison sex workers in "rehabilitation" centres. Money must change hands to secure a release.

The police strategy is to lock up women who carry condoms, assuming they are sex workers. Putting aside the issue of how messed up that notion is, it clashes with the 100% condom use campaign to reduce HIV transmission. The 100% condom use was working although there are issues of secondary sex workers and police harassment. The HIV infection rate is declining in Cambodia.

There is much more I could saw on the sexism, discrimination and human rights violations that the police are a part of. Instead, the sex workers speak for themselves. Too often sex workers are silenced but Cambodians are using the net as a easy way to get information out there.

When you've watched the vid, check out more from sexworkerspresent - vids made by sex workers all over the world.

Kevin Myers and the editors at the Indo are abhorrent

Kevin Myers may be known as someone whose "articles often offer criticism of left-wing opinion and the "liberal consensus", sometimes incorporating hyperbolic sarcasm and parody" but engaging in racist stereotypes in disgusting. It is very important to remember at this point that this vile piece of journalism was ok'ed by three editors at the Indo. He did not act alone. All four are guilty.

The article criticizes aid work and the system of world governance for not resolving issues of poverty and political instability during the past 20 or so years. Firstly, there are certainly valid criticisms to be made about aid effectiveness and distribution. I see the problems first hand in Cambodia.

However, the article uses the most horrible racist stereotypes and Myers is rooted in white male rich privilege. He is judging what he cannot understand, despite claims of having visited Ethiopia.

Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty, siring children whenever the whim takes him.

Just because you have been there, Myers, does not mean you have any understanding. In fact you sound like the typical backpacker - "I am so at one with the Cambodian people, even though I can't speak Khmer and have only been here for a day". One visit does not make you an expert. One visit does not entitle you to make sweeping generalisations about an entire continent. Nothing entitles you to make sweeping generalisations.

You are aware I presume that Africa is a continent and not a country because you write as if there are not thousands of different cultures, languages, poverty levels, education levels and a million other differences between a South African, an Algerian, a Kenyan, an Ivorian or a Ghanaian. Within each of the countries on the continent of Africa there are different tribes and traditions and you demonise them all. How typical - white colonisers have been doing it for years.

But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention of our own Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no comparison. Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was down by 30pc. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules, Ethiopia's has more than doubled.

Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness. Somewhere, over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent, Kalashnikov-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts.

Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world.

This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or commonsense. Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the next president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against infection. Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea etcetera.

Wow you resort to the racist construct that sees black men as oversexed and intent on raping. That's not original. It's not new. It's one of the oldest stereotypes in the book.

You use racism to fuel the fear that is in Ireland that "they" are taking our jobs. "They" are using "our" women. You use your space to create and fan the fear. As thefreeslave eloquently says

Racism/white supremacy is a vicious, global system that has butchered too many human beings, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Yet, it too is a tool, a MAJOR tool and the means, the apparatus of control, rather than the end desired by the ruling class itself.

You use racism as a tool. You accuse "Africans" of being too reliant on aid. You put the blame on the victim. That's nothing new either. Rapists use that defense every day.

Broad brush-strokes, to be sure. But broad brush-strokes are often the way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters. Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 20th century have endured worse broad brush-strokes than almost any part of Africa.

Oh really Myers? Been to Cambodia or Lao recently?

They are now -- one way or another -- virtually all giving aid to or investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.

Your statement that Africa is giving nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS, is... I'm not sure that there are words to express how truly revolting that statement is. Perhaps others will find words to cover that.

Your use of "AIDS" is offensive. No one uses that anymore. "People living with the HIV virus" is how people phrase things nowadays. I will probably be accused of being the PC police but words matter. And you Myers, chose the more offensive of all the available words. As a journalist, words are your craft and you use them to incite hatred.

I would prefer to fisk every point made but I find I don't have the stomach to keep rereading this bile. Legal proceedings should be taken. If anyone wants to respond personally to Myers - I'll be dropping him this post - his email is posted on the bottom of the webpage and reads kmyers@independent.ie

International Women's Day 2008

Happy International Women's Day 2008. Hope it's a great day for women and men.

In a perfect world, there would be no international women's day. There would be no need. And the old argument of "what are you moaning about, you've got rights now, man hating humourless feminist bitch" would just fall away. But, we don't live in that world.

We have Sean Connery, saying it's OK to smack your bitch up



The Washington Post just published its perennial women are dumb article. This article has both the denial of the rape crisis and the "sluts deserve it" attitude. Check out the history of IWD. Sexism hurts everyone. Really. Feminists are not man-hating bitches.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, discusses institutionalised discrimination in her press release today. Go read it all.

GENEVA (OHCHR) – Laws that discriminate against women are still to be found on the statute books of virtually every country in the world, and repeated promises by states to revise or repeal them are not being honoured, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said Friday.

Arbour... said a newly released report commissioned by OHCHR shows that “the effects of this failure to create true legal parity between men and women in all sorts of social, economic and political arenas is having a detrimental effect on women in many countries – sometimes to a devastating degree.”

Perhaps the most pernicious and dangerous discrimination involves sexual abuse that is not recognized as such under a country’s laws, or is in effect tolerated by legislation that is either vague or not enforced. “Rape is recognized as a crime in most legal systems,” said Arbour.

“But, even when it is, inadequate legislation or local traditions often mean laws are not properly enforced. In addition, at least 53 states still do not outlaw rape within marriage, and men frequently enjoy total impunity for physical as well as sexual violence against their wives.”...

“Many states appear to have simply ignored the commitments they have made,” Arbour said. “It is shameful that, in the 60th anniversary year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, fundamental rights are still not enjoyed by many women around the world. In some cases, they suffer from multiple forms of discrimination, such as race, age or disabilities as well as their gender. Unless states take their commitments seriously, investing in women and girls will remain a matter of rhetoric.”

Don't stand for discrimination on gender, sexism, sexual assault or violence against women. Stand up. Be counted. Make sure your voice is heard. All genders have this responsibility as citizens of the world.

Assault is not a compliment

After reading all the horrific stories of violence against women in Cambodia and the lack of action on the part of the police, it is nice to read about a judge who takes assault seriously

Phnom Penh - A Cambodian man convicted of smacking a female motorist's bottom was handed a one-year suspended jail sentence and his friend was sentenced to the same term in absentia, a court official said on Wednesday.

Phnom Penh municipal court prosecutor Kry Soky said Van Theara, 22, remained on the lam after being found complicit in delivering a playful slap on the bottom to a female motorbike rider which his friend had claimed was meant as a joking compliment.

Assault is not a compliment.

He said Theara's friend, Khun Pheakdey, 18, had been ordered to pay compensation of $350 and released after already serving five months in jail for his moment of indiscretion.

Violence and assault are not moments of indiscretion, they are criminal acts and perpetrators deserve to be punished to the full extent of the law.

"This is not a funny story because funny stories do not end up in court. This is sexual harassment. A polite man takes a strange girl he likes by the hand, not by the bottom," Soky said by telephone.

The case was prosecuted after the victim's parents heard about the incident and filed a complaint to the court, he said.

It should be amazing that the judge has to publicly state that sexual harassment is not a joke, but it isn't. With the sheer number of rape jokes and the status of women in Cambodia, it is necessary to tell these truths in a public arena. It is not funny.

Once more with feeling: assault is not a compliment. Rape is not a compliment. Violence is not a compliment.

Land grabbing - the same old story

Source

See the lake? The Boeng Kak Lake? It's known as backpacker central. People hang out, enjoy the breeze and patronise the local drinking establishments and guesthouses. Besides the backpackers, there are hundreds of families living around the lake, who earn their livings through the provision of services to tourists. They own their land, well legally anyway.

A Korean company has won the government-sponsored contract to drain 90% of the lake. Although they do not have a contract to dispossess the residents, that's that the Phnom Penh police force is for. Plans to evict hundreds of families from their homes are going ahead in spite of much local opposition.

Oh well the company's lease on the area is only 99 years. Perhaps the residents might get their land back eventually. It's the cost of living in Cambodia these days. Land grabbing and corruption are widespread. The government breaks its promises to provide new housing and support. It doesn't even matter that this is an election year because the PM has stated that if his ruling party doesn't win, he'll start a civil war.

PM rejects daughter for being gay

This seems to be a case of do as I say, not as I do. The PM is disowning his adopted daughter because she is gay. He is afraid that she will claim assets from his family

Cambodian's prime minister said Tuesday he was severing ties with his adopted daughter, who is a lesbian, but appealed to people not to discriminate against gays.

Hun Sen said he plans to file a civil court case to disown his adopted daughter so that she cannot claim any inheritance from his family.

"We are concerned that she might one day cause us trouble ... and try to stake her claim for a share of our assets," he said. (Source)

And he is apparently terrified of lesbians. He has actually imagined the following scenario.

"I felt very regretted with her and that the lesbian case happened in family. I and my wife will send a complaint to court to deprive her of any will and property of my family," he said.

"I and my wife adopted her while she was 18 days in 1988 and she used my family name from that time. She brought her girls to my house and slept together with them," he said.

"We are concerned that one day her girls take bombs and poisonous materials to our house and we all will die. Who knows in advance? I have five children and one adopted daughter," he said. (Source)

"I sent her to study in the USA, but she went to have a wife and someday she might bring her wife to our home with a grenade" (Cambodia Daily 31/10/2007)

Of course homophobia and paranoia are playing a role here but is the strong man of Cambodia terrified of homosexuals? He is afraid that his ex-daughter's girlfriends would murder him. Where does that fear come from?

Unfortunately people pay closer attention to actions than words. The PM disowned his daughter for marrying a woman and yet a government spokesman claims that ain't the fact that she's gay but her behaviour...

He is worried that his family name Hun might be used ... His point is that parents should not discriminate but the court should be aware if his daughter creates any problems outside the home, it won't involve him. (Cambodia Daily 31/10/2007)

Oh noes not his family name associated with homosexuality! That is discrimination. Calling for an end to discrimination doesn't hold much weight when one publicly disowns a daughter for marrying another women. Such claims ring false when one is terrified of being murdered by gays.

Unfortunately homosexuality is still quite a taboo in Cambodia. If you read the comments, following the sources I used, quite a nasty picture begins to form. Hopefully acceptance will come with time.