Friday, November 16, 2007
TRAFFIC IN SEX
I have recently come upon some information about the dismal state of sexual exploitation of children in some Asian and Latin American countries. Dateline NBC did a documentary on Cambodia:
It's an exotic vacation destination, with ancient cities, bold colors, legendary temples, remarkable beauty — and horrendous crimes that go on behind closed doors. Children, some as young as 5 years old, are being sold as slaves for sex. It's a shameful secret that's now capturing the attention of the world and the White House, a secret that has been exposed by Dateline's hidden cameras. Dateline ventured into this dark place, where sexual predators can gain access to terrified children for a handful of cash. How could this be happening? And how can it be stopped?
Inside the world of child sex trafficking, each year, by some estimates, hundreds of thousands of girls and boys are bought, sold or kidnapped and then forced to have sex with grown men. Dateline’s investigation leads to the troubled and distant land of Cambodia. We reveal what “tourists,” like one American doctor, may be up to, and we'll take you inside a dramatic operation to rescue the children.
The night clubs of Bangkok and the windows of Amsterdam are among the most well-known destinations in what has become a multibillion-dollar industry: sex tourism. But the business is not all about adult prostitution. There are some places you might never have heard about, notorious places, the kind of places a sexual predator would be willing to travel halfway around the world to reach — destinations like a dusty village in Southeast Asia, where the prey is plentiful and easy to stalk.
They are children born into poverty and sold for sex. And while the thousands of men who flock here each year — many of them Americans — may think that they're involved in nothing more than prostitution, by any definition it is rape.
The small Buddhist country of Cambodia has a rich cultural heritage, but it has become a magnet for people who prey on the young and innocent. To follow their trail, we'll have to infiltrate their perverted world and pretend we're predators ourselves. It’s the only way we'll be able to see first-hand how serious the problem really is — so serious that President Bush told the United Nations it has become a top priority for his administration. Secretary of State Colin Powell is leading the administration's efforts and has a special office dedicated to the problem.
Read more at the website. These children are girls and many are under the age of 10.
But it's not happening only in the Asian countries. Paul Jeffrey, Methodist Missionary in Central America, reports that
Much of the growth of child prostitution in Central America has occurred in the last three years. [date unknown]. A recent study of 300 street children by the Nicaraguan Ministry of Family showed that more than 80 percent had begun to work as prostitutes in the past year.
According to Bruce Harris, Central-American director for Casa Alianza, a child-advocacy program sponsored by Covenant House in New York City:
"Central America is being invaded by smart child sex abusers who know more about the Internet and how to use it to achieve their sordid goals than do the official investigative police bodies of these countries."
Of course Covenant House, a Catholic institution, was the home of sexual abuser Father Bruce Ritter. One sincerely hopes they have cleaned up their act. But can one be sure?
Re Vista, Harvard's Latin American publication, reports:
The expansion of sex tourism has continued unabated, in part as a result of the promotion of tourism as a development strategy, particularly in the developing world, where poverty forces people into sex work. Resource-scarce regions, including many Latin American countries, where tourism has experienced considerable support from the government, have proven to be fertile areas for the growth of sex tourism. Until the tragic events of September 11, tourism had been increasing steadily worldwide, with Latin American countries among those enjoying rising figures. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) reports that the total number of visitors to Latin America and the Caribbean grew by 6.1 percent last year to 57.6 million. Research indicates that as countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua have increased efforts to promote tourism on a wide scale, sex tourism has risen proportionately.
It's disturbing to me that in these reports Americans are too often cited as the tourists seeking sex. What kind of warped sub-human travels to third world countries to have sex with a child?
