Between consenting, uncoerced, informed adults.

And no outrage here: http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/15/world/meast/yemen-child-bride/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 For me, this is what makes my blood boil. Not the above.

Well, to "adult" and "consenting" I'd also add
"rational."

Navigating the crowded back streets of Bangkok I came
across a curtain-draped stage and on the platform
were a dozen very, very young Thai and Lao girls,
provocatively dressed, trying to smile.

"Just fifty Euros for an hour -- take any three --
none over thirteen!" The pimp (an elderly woman)
half-yelled at me.

I stared at her for a minute, while she repeated the
same come-on in German. Then I muttered, "Too young."

"Older whores in back," the old lady smiled -- "crazy
in the head, some of them. You can do anything to
them. Pay in baht, no Euros needed for them."

A few minutes later I downed half a bowl of sticky rice
and threw up on the sidewalk restaurant table.

Haven't been back to Thailand since.

UD

Good one I missed: Mentally rational / mentally unimpaired.

What a HORRIBLE experience uncle dale. Those poor kids!

fluhist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What a HORRIBLE experience uncle dale. Those poor
> kids!

That's Thailand for you. Sometimes I hear folks say that
they want to live in a "free" country, where there are
practically no governmental restrictions and laws. Well,
that's the sort of place I was in.

And while we're adding "Mentally rational/mentally unimpaired"
to the list, it might be worthwhile to consider the gals I
saw in Amsterdam, within easy walking distance of the great
old art museum I visited there -- with needle tracks all up
and down their arms and legs.

A heroine addict, desperate for a much desired "fix" is
pretty close to "mentally impaired," when she begs the
local pimp for a spot on his street corner.

My guess is that about 90% of the world's prostitution
(of both females and males) happens under duress or
distress -- and it isn't the pimps and brothel-keepers
who are suffering.

Perhaps schlock is correct, and we shouldn't rush to
judge the prostitutes who chose that profession of their
own free will (and can leave it whenever they want to) --
but, as I said, that's about 10% of the scene.

UD

I wonder to what degree the 10% correlate to legal operations in non-third world countries.

Human sex trafficking is such an awful problem. I don't know where to begin to make a difference on that issue but it breaks my heart.

ck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Human sex trafficking is such an awful problem. I
> don't know where to begin to make a difference on
> that issue but it breaks my heart.

A few years back I lived on the island of Saipan, next
to one of the infamous Willie Tan Garment Factories.
Young girls, ages 16 to 18 were shipped over from China
in lots and immediately upon arrival were shoved into
tiny, overcrowded dorms -- with locks on the outsides
of all the doors and bars on the outsides of all the
windows. They ostensibly worked 8 hour shifts, with a
lunch hour -- but, in reality, they had to come to
the huge sewing room early, work through the lunch
break, and stay very late (performing "voluntary"
overtime sewing, to pay back their transport and meals
costs). Most of their hourly pay was sent back to China.
The money actually handed over to the girls came at
the end of their 5-year contracts.

The only time we ever saw these workers outside the barbed
wire of the factory compound was when they were injured
or sick -- when we might see two or three together, trudging
the dozen miles to a health clinic, barefoot and in rags.

My wife once was invited into the factory work room to pick
up a large bundle of fabric scraps that had been promised
to the Saipan public school system. Conditions inside the
compound were unspeakable -- a filthy prison. Although none
of the workers were chained to their benches, there were
obvious indications that could quickly and easily be done.
Some of the girls gazed at her with a "please-let-me-die"
look in their eyes.

Google "Jack Abramoff" for interconnected details, including
the public prostitution of some of these 16 year old kids
in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

And yes, the shirts bore the labels "Made in the USA" and
yes, there was a local joke about what the seamstresses
were trying to tell us, when they capitalized the "MADE."

UD