Why Don't We Ever Learn? ESL
Teachers, Bar Girls, and the Sex
Industry.
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"My only regret is that I
should have asked for more."
---Response from a hilltribe
woman after being asked by a
reporter if she had any regrets
about selling her 14 year old
daughter into prostitution....
for only $12!
Mass tourism is one of the worst
things that has ever happened to
Thailand. I make this bold
statement because of two stories
I recently read in the Nation
newspaper here in Bangkok. An
editorial, "When will we face up
to the sex industry?" and "A
tale of woe and the Thai justice
system", a letter to the editor.
Both were published in the May
15, 2005 edition.
I hoped that I would never feel
the need to write about bar
girls or the sex industry, but
these two stories stood out for
the simple reason that both of
them involved ESL teachers
living and teaching in Bangkok.
The editorial mentioned an
"American citizen who teaches at
a well-known school who has
allegedly been buying sex from
two boys under 18."
The "tale of woe" from the
letters to the editor page was
quite a classic. It told the
story of a 63 year old ESL
teacher who has been living here
in Bangkok for four years.
During that time he met a bar
girl and decided to go into
business with her and her
policeman "brother." (I put
"brother" in quotation marks,
because some of us who have
spent more than a small amount
of time in the red-light
districts know that bar girls
have an unusually exorbitant
amount of "brothers.")
Anyway, this ESL teacher, (maybe
I should put ESL teacher in
quotation marks too), buys this
bar girl a 375,000 Baht pick-up
truck for the business they were
going to start only to have her
and her "brother" take off with
the vehicle. Now he's spending
God knows how much more money
trying to get the truck back
along with some of his dignity.
Would the same man spend $10,000
purchasing a truck for an
American or a British hooker?
Who knows? But it's an
interesting question.
One of these stories is a
tragedy. One thousand or ten
thousand of these stories is
merely a statistic. And in
Thailand, there are many
statistics. I wish the man luck
in getting his money, (and
dignity), back. But I doubt if
it's ever going to happen. When
will we ever learn? Don't we
foreigners realize by now that,
in the minds of many Thais-- bar
girls and non-bar girls alike---
we are here for one reason and
one reason alone: To support
them and their whole family so
that they don't have to support
themselves. Such is the evil and
pernicious nature of the mass
tourism industry.
This industry has created a
whole Thai subclass numbering in
the hundreds of thousands---
perhaps millions--- who do
little else but wait for ten
million foreigners to pour into
this beautiful country every
year so that they can attempt to
milk us out of every baht,
dollar, euro, pound, yen, won,
yuan, or peso. Mass tourism has
created and is perpetuating a
sick and perverted cycle of
mutual dependence between the
tourists and the locals. As TEFL/TESL
providers and professionals, it
should be our role and mission
to break this cycle of
pathological dependence. The
choice is very clear: You either
work to help solve the problem,
or you contibute to it.
As for that pervert ESL teacher
who allegedly molested two boys,
(and others of his ilk), what
else can be said but those who
partake in the sexual
exploitation of children,
whether in Thailand or
elsewhere, whether the
perpetrator is Thai or a
foreigner, should be prosecuted
to the full extent of the law.
The editorial in the newspaper,
and so much of the vast amount
of other literature that's out
there on this issue, point to
many factors for the continued
existence of the Thai sex
industry. Police corruption, the
apathy of ordinary Thais, and
the hypocrisy of the government
are all cited as contibuting
factors. Fair enough. But these
excuses for the perpetuation of
the Thai sex industry only begin
to scratch the surface. No one
seems to want to talk about the
real reason why the Thai sex
industry is so big and
pervasive.
The real reason why the sex
industry continues to exist,
(and thrive), lies squarely on
the laps of Thai mothers. Now I
fully realize that any criticism
of Thai mothers is tantamount to
burning the flag, but so be it.
Those who have lived here for
any length of time know that the
sex industry can be stopped dead
in its tracks almost immediately
if certain Thai mothers would
stop sending their 14, 15, and
16 year old daughters to Patpong
and Pattaya. These girls don't
arrive in the red-light
districts on their own. Someone
sends them there. Someone in a
position of authority and,
supposedly, in a position of
trust. Isarn, and other
impoverished parts of Thailand,
are replete with hundreds of
thousands of uneducated,
unethical, whiskey swilling,
buffalo herding peasants who
wouldn't think twice about
sending their "cherished"
daughters and sisters--- the
very future of this country---
to Patpong and Pattaya so that
daddy, brother number one, and
mommy can spend their days
drinking and enjoying the latest
Thai soap operas on that new 42
inch plasma television that was
paid for by, you guessed it, a
member of the Thai sex tourist
industry!
Some may see this as a financial
problem, a problem of poverty.
It is not. It is a social
problem. A lack of morality and
ethics within the population
that was strengthened and
fortified by a relentless mass
tourism industry which really
doesn't care about improving the
lives of the locals.
Others may also see this as an
economic phenomenon, purely
supply and demand. And a demand
will always be met with a steady
supply. They opine that once the
demand is eliminated, the supply
side of the problem will
disappear as well. But trying to
tackle an economic problem by
attempting to eliminate the
demand first is not the way to
go. Although the demand is a
part of the problem, it is not
the root cause. And until you
get to the root cause of the
problem, you will never solve
it. This problem must be chocked
to death at the source, the
supply side of the Thai sex
industry. But this will never
happen. Why? Let's check the
facts.
Too many people are benefiting.
That's a fact. No one really
knows how many Thai girls are
involved in the sex industry,
but the figure of about 500,000
keeps being thrown around by
NGO's and academic researchers.
In my opinion, it's probably a
conservative estimate, but let's
go with that. Now the money that
bar girls earn is shared by a
great many people--- all of her
"brothers." Bar girls usually
come from big rural families---
at least five or six in each
family. A half a million
multiplied by five or six gives
us two and a half to three
million people who live off the
money of sex tourists. And this
doesn't even include the bar
owners and their families, the
mamasans and their families, the
police taking bribes and their
families, and government
officials and their families!
So
even with a conservative
estimate we can plainly see that
so many people--- from greedy
and morally challenged Isarn
mothers, to the police and
government officials and
millions in between--- the Thai
sex industry, based on mass
tourism, has, for the last 30
years, kept millions of Thais
from developing a work ethic
that would have taken them out
of the third world and put them
squarely into the developing
world. This industry has, in
three short decades, taken a
once proud and very
self-sufficient people and
turned them into indolent
corpses. Certainly not something
to be proud of.
All of this raises an
interesting question for me. It
is expected that newspaper
editorialists and politicians
will, from time to time, comment
on the sex industry and the bar
girl scene. Afterall, they have
newspapers to sell and voters to
win over. Their "anger" at the
current situation--- if there is
any--- is not at all surprising.
Paying lip service to this
problem is what politicians and
newspaper editorialists are
suppose to do. But what about
the ordinary Thais? The ones
that are not involved in this
industry. Where is their anger?
I
love to roam the bookstores
looking at the latest farang
"sex-pat" novels. And I admit
I've read quite a few of them.
Same old stuff. "Fat, stupid
farang meets beautiful bar girl;
fat, stupid farang falls in love
with beautiful bar girl; fat,
stupid farang loses all his
money to beautiful bar girl."
And on and on it goes. They do
make for interesting reading
sitting on the beach in Pattaya.
But have you noticed that each
and every one of these books
were written by us westerners.
Why is that? Where is the rage
and fury and indignation of
ordinary Thais? Where are the
books by the Thai poets,
philosophers, and writers
lamenting the fact that for the
last 30 years their beautiful
country has been turned into the
world's biggest whorehouse? You
would think that there would be
a lot of anger about that from
the locals--- especially those
who aren't benefiting in some
way from the sex tourism
industry. This lack of anger
amounst the Thais seems a
terrible tragedy to me. To watch
your country go from
self-sufficiency to pathological
dependence on fat, horny
foreigners can't be easy.
Thais aren't dumb. They're not
stupid. Many of them have been
made solely and completely
dependent upon mass tourism for
their financial survival, so
they are not about to bite the
foreign hands that feed and
clothe them. A
perfect example of how mass
tourism is ruining the lives of
the locals by making them
financially dependent upon
foreigners is the island of
Phuket. Eighty percent (80%) of
the local population cannot
survive without a steady supply
of tourists, according to the
Phuket Tourist Association. The
recent tsumani has made it all
too obvious that Phuket, and
other parts of Thailand, are
one-horse towns. Diversifying
the economy is one of the
obvious solutions.
The politicians and newspaper
editorialists know this. They
also know that in the west,
money talks. But in Thailand,
money screams! Perhaps the
screams of the money hungry in
this society drown out the
screams of the moral and
ethical. This may be the only
society in the world where a man
can stand up and proudly shout,
"Yeah! My girlfriend's
a prostitute!"
If
selling your 15 or 16 year old
daughter or sister into
prostitution is acceptable
behavior in Thailand, then what
in the world would be considered
UNacceptable? If it's okay for
hundreds of thousands of Thai
men to live off the sex money of
their sisters and daughters,
then what on earth can be deemed
immoral? I'm asking these
questions because no ordinary
Thais seem to be standing up and
shouting from the rooftops that
this is wrong!
What does all this have to do
with ESL and teaching English in
Thailand? A lot, actually.
Remember, the original two
stories from the Nation
newspaper involved ESL teachers.
I
must admit that I have been
truly blessed living here in
Bangkok and working at AUA. Most
of my students are fantastic.
About 70% of them have
consistently been women. And
that's significant because most
of the young women here have
been left behind in Thailand's
attempt to modernize. The
choices for young Thai women
today are as stark as they are
clear. Get an education, (if
you're lucky), and work in an
office or a factory for $200.00
a month, (again, if you're
lucky), or sell your body to
foreigners for $1,000.00 a
month. Quite a choice!
I'm very proud of my students
who work hard in and out of
class. I feel a deep and
profound responsibility for
them. Some of these young women
will succeed not because of
their society, but in spite of
it. What can you say about a
society that tells its young
women that what you have between
your legs is worth at least five
times more than what you have
between your ears?
So
as ESL teachers and TEFL
providers in Thailand, we all
share a huge responsibility.
Firstly, not to get involved in
the sex industry. If we're not
willing to help solve the
problem, then the least we can
do is not contribute to it.
Those who get invoved with bar
girls do so at their own peril.
Any honest bar girl, (now
there's a wonderful oxymoron),
will tell you that she will
ALWAYS treat foreign men with
the same disgust and contempt
that her mother treated her.
This is a great life lesson when
getting invoved with any Asian
woman. (Observe the girl's
relationship with her mother
before getting invoved with
her.)
And secondly, to help our
students to succeed. Especially
the ones with very few choices.
They are the future, and, by
extention, so are we.
The great American playwright
Arthur Miller once said someting
to the effect that the truly
fortunate people in life get to
choose their own regrets. (I'm
paraphrasing here.) I doubt that
the regret of the hilltribe
woman quoted above is what Mr.
Miller was talking about. "I
regret not finishing school." "I
regret not spending more time
with my children." "I regret not
telling my wife more often that
I love her." These are the real
regrets in life. Not, "My only
regret is that I should have
asked for more", when selling
your 14 year old daughter into
prostitution for $12.
As
ESL professionals, we have a
profound responsibility to the
daughters and sisters of
Thailand. This responsibility
presents itself daily. And by
taking that responsibility
seriously, by showing the
daughters and sisters of
Thailand that, as ESL teachers,
we are here for them, that we
are here to earn their trust so
that they won't have to rely on
the mass tourism industry to
earn their living, we are
presenting ourselves as the
professionals that we were
deemed to be. That, in itself,
is a huge responsibility. The
truly fortunate may get to
choose their regrets, but the
truly fortunate ESL teachers get
to choose their
responsibilities. And there can
be no regrets about that.
Steve Schertzer.
esl_steve@excite.com |
