Channel 4 in the UK ran a documentary My Boyfriend, the Sex Tourist last night and there is a follow up poll in their Talking Points section as well as an article in the Guardian Unlimited.
As at 4.00pm Thai time today, the poll was was showing a clear victory for the 'No, sex tourism should not be banned' voters, (see image on right). I have to say, I'm surprised by the strong 'No' vote but it's probably an indicator of how p4p has moved into the public domain from being a singular pleasure of the 'gentry'.
Groups of young guys taking weekend breaks in Amsterdam and Riga is a modern phenomenon and the stigma of paying for sex clearly no longer exists, or if it exists, it no longer matters.
The scene in Thailand has a veneer of fun hiding what is still an harsh life for many Thais in the industry. For every freelancer and go go star who can say "no thanks" there will probably be 'slave' with no options.
There's no acceptable moral position on this one and just because everyone appears to be doing it doesn't make it right. My rule of thumb is if it involves consenting couples of legal age then go for it, fill your boots. I also have no issue with inducements offered to encourage consent. It was a fact of life in England, (meals, booze, clothes, jewellery), so why shouldn't it be a fact of life here in Thailand.
If the do-gooders want to do some good then let them tackle p4p where couples are not consenting or not of legal age. Leave the wrinklies in Venezuela, Thailand and Kenya to have some consenting fun before they pop off.
p.s. I can see some merit in making p4p illegal for all males under the age of 40. I mean, you'd have to be a basket case to be under 40 and paying for sex. What say you George? Comments welcome !!!!!! Full disclosure - I'm 41+.
Sierra Tangos
- A gloomy 2008 predicted for property developers - property developers are not expecting 2008 to be a year of robust growth. They expect to sell about the same number of units as they did in 2007, but they fear the value will be lower. Their pessimism is based, in part, on a belief that Thailand's political problems will continue despite the election. [via The Nation]
- Four post election scenarios, none foolproof. Interesting article here regarding the various coalition governments that could come to power after Sunday's election. [via The Nation]
Ed. When you think that there are more than 30 political parties involved in this weekends elections then there will be plenty of wheeling and dealing going on next week to give PPP (we assume) the majority it needs.
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Scantily clad dancers were hired to spice up a political rally ahead of Thailand's weekend general election, prompting the Election Commission to declare Wednesday that "sexy shows" are inappropriate campaign events. Five dancers dressed in bikini tops, hot pants and stilettos gyrated on a stage, as loud music blared between speakers.
The rally in Ratchaburi province, 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of the capital, Bangkok, was organized by a provincial branch of the Election Commission on Tuesday evening. Local candidates from all political parties were invited to speak.
"We wanted something exciting to draw people to the event," said Chavalit Bunyeun, head of the commission's provincial office, which organized the event. He noted that the plan didn't really work: "Even though we had dancing girls, there were less than 100 people who came to hear the candidates."
Election laws prohibit political parties from offering entertainment at rallies, but Chavalit said he didn't think the law applied to events organized by the Election Commission itself. [via The China Post]
- Throwing stones at passing vehicles appears to have become a dangerous trend in Thailand recently. Police were alerted yesterday to a group throwing rocks at a car driving through Lat Phrao district but no injuries were reported. [via The Nation]
- The Abi Titmus 2008 Calendar
- The Second Thai-Malaysian bridge linking Narathiwat and Kelantan will be officially opened by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his Thai counterpart General Surayud Chulanont this Friday (Dec 21). Built at a cost of RM9.2 million shared by both countries, the bridge is situated in Bukit Bunga in Jeli, Kelantan, on the Malaysian side and Ban-Buke-Ta in Thailand’s southern border district of Waeng in Narathiwat. [via The Edge Daily]
- Does Your Computer Take Too Long To Boot Up ? If your Windows PC is taking a lot of time to start-up, chances are that too many programs and Windows services are configured to launch automatically when you log on. To fix this issue, you can either manually clear the start-up folder and registry entries or just download the excellent Autoruns 9.0 utility from Microsoft.
Autoruns shows you what programs are configured to run during system bootup or login, and the entries are in the order in which Windows processes them. You can select the services, executables and registry entries that may be responsible for the long start-up time and uncheck them to disable. [via Digital Inspiration]
- Reveal the domain owner and hoster of a domain. I know that you can literally use hundreds of scripts that lookup a domain name or IP and display information about that domain or IP. Most of those sites are rather slow and / or have so much advertisement on their websites that I prefer to use WhosIP from Nirsoft when I quickly want to lookup an IP.
WhosIP displays the IP owner, contact information (always an email address, but often phone and fax as well), country where that IP is located and additional information. Maybe you are asking yourself why someone would need that kind of information. This is important if someone attacks your computer for instance, or if someone spams your website and you want to check on his IP to find someone to contact about the spam.
WhosIP is a command line utility for Windows. You unpack it into a directory of your choice and use the command Whosip domain/IP to get information about that domain or IP. [via gHacks]
- CNET's Top 10 Games Of 2007
- Bioshock
- God of War 2
- Super Mario Galaxy
- The Orange Box
- Call of Duty 4
- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
- Crysis
- Halo 3
- Mass Effect
- Rock Band
- A nerd was walking on campus one day when his friend, another nerd, rode up on an incredible shiny new bicycle. The first nerd was stunned and asked, "Where did you get such a nice bike?"The second nerd replied, "Well, yesterday I was walking home minding my own business when a beautiful woman rode up to me on this bike. She threw the bike to the ground, took off all her clothes and said, 'Take what you want!'"The second nerd nodded approvingly and said, "Good choice. The clothes probably wouldn't have fit." [via AltumAngel]
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