A newly formed NGO, Sex Trade Impact (STI) is calling on policy and decision makers in tourism sectors across the Caribbean to take a closer look at the phenomenal growth and size of the local, regional and international sex trade and the impact it has on the industry.
STI appears merely as a thought provoking initiative from the outset, but a closer look at its objectives brings to light the importance and need for public and private sector organizations to take steps to the minimize the impact of the global sex trade on their tourism economies.
Headed by its founder and president Charles Lewis, STI is based in Barbados. The organization was launched to offer facilitation, training and consultancy services to government agencies and private sector organizations to deal with issues stemming from the Sex Trade.
The organization’s first initiative is to host a series of tourism seminars around the region, commencing with its October 15 debut in Barbados, which will feature speakers from numerous areas of interest, relevant to the cause of protecting investment from the negative impact of the Sex Trade.
These seminars are geared toward educating tourism officials, owners, directors and managers on the challenges brought about by an ever growing Global Sex Trade, magnified by the vulnerability of the region to this age old practice.
Lewis states “Regional policy and decision makers in all public and private sector organizations can no longer trivialize the impact of the sex trade. The lure of the rich lifestyle and making ‘Big Money’ is causing a dramatic increase in the number of people in the Caribbean becoming sex workers.
“The success of our tourism industry is also boosting the migration of foreign sex workers to our shores, in search of wealthy clients.”
Lewis further states that, “In acknowledging their dependency on tourism, government officials, owners and managers can no longer pretend that the sex trade issues do not affect their establishments and the industry on the whole.”
With 25 years in the Sex Industry under his belt, Lewis has for many years identified many of the problems which are usually overlooked or swept under the carpet. Left unmonitored these issues will continue to undermine years of tourism development.
The work of STI does not stop at tourism. The NGO is also focusing on the health issues and joins the fight against the spread of AIDS/HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
They are also developing initiatives to promote the destigmatization of sex workers and the protection of their human rights.
Lewis continues, “One of the aims of STI is to become an effective medium through which government agencies and Sex Workers in the Caribbean can communicate to voice their concerns and resolve issues.
More information on the objectives of Sex Trade Impact can be found on their website. www.sextradeimpact.com
October 19, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Issues of the Sex Trade from a Management Perspective
Now I promised for some time to be a contributor to the STI and I know I have been procrastinating, but I just didn’t want to jot down some things in point form, I wanted to write something t hat may be of some help to what the STI is trying to achieve.
The commercial sex industry includes street prostitution, massage brothels, escort services, outcall services, strip clubs, lap dancing, phone sex, adult and child pornography, video and internet pornography, and prostitution tourism. Most women who are in prostitution for longer than a few months drift among these various permutations of the commercial sex industry. However in the Caribbean the trade is not as centrally organised, most prostitution happens between “ordinary women”(and men) that meet and sex is traded for cash, or gifts or other favours.
To begin, lets face it, the various governments and official authorities are not going to admit it but, this trade is here to stay. It has been said in many spheres that this trade is the oldest profession, and as long as there are men(and women) out there that are willing to use what ever resources available to them to gain sexual favors, there will always be women( and men) out there that are willing to provide such services for profit.
In prostitution, demand creates supply. because men want to buy sex, prostitution is assumed to be inevitable, and therefore ‘normal.’
Here are quotes from three different client type persons:
1. “It’s like going to have your car done, you tell them what you want done, they don’t ask, you tell them you want so and so done…” (McKeganey, N. and Barnard, M. ,1996, Sex Work on the Streets: Prostitutes and Their Clients. Milton Keynes Open University Press,
2. Discussing his experience in a strip club, one man said, “This is the part of me that can still go hunting” (Frank, K. (1999) Intimate Labors: Masculinity, Consumption, and Authenticity in Five Gentlemen’s Clubs, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Duke University, Durham, N.C.).
3. Violent behaviors against women have been associated with attitudes which promote men’s beliefs that they are entitled to sexual access to women, that they are superior to women, and that they are licensed as sexual aggressors. ( White,J.W. & Koss, M.P 1993, “Adolescent sexual aggression within heterosexual relationships: prevalence, characteristics, and causes. ” In H.E. Barbaree, W.L. Marshall and D. R. Laws.(eds.) The Juvenile Sex Offender, Guilford Press, New York.
Well lets get this out of the way…shall we… prostitution is illegal ( in its true sense), the trade of money for sex in any form is in fact, illegal, at least in Barbados and the Caribbean that is. This fact has never stopped the actual trade and by my observation the authorities would not waste precious resources in trying to stem its marketplace, but there are some aspects which are not necessarily directly linked to the actual act of prostitution, that are negative, and authorities and society on the whole, believe there is a cause for grave concern.
In my mind there are 4 major areas of concern that have drawn scrutiny to the trade, and for the good of the society as a whole, every effort should be made to eliminate, these are :
1. Illegal immigration
2. Violence against women
3. Child Prostitution
4. The transmission of STDs such as AIDS
Illegal immigration
There are health and social implications of the crossing of borders by sex workers, many of these women cross borders for hopes of a better life and to make money to either take or send back home to families or even for themselves to cushion the harsh living conditions that they may be subject to. In many cases these women either leave on their own accord or are enticed away by promises of large amounts of money, but have to endure degrading circumstances harsh and taxing lifestyles. In any case, this usually puts them in harms way as they are away from home and usually a foul of the law, so any unlawful act for which they are a victim of , goes unreported and thus they have no recourse but to endure what ever is thrown at them.
Often with these types of workers are prone to high risk behavior as they are away from home and also away from any inhibitions that home brings. Being away from home there is no back prop of home life and desperation brings desperate acts such as condom-less sex, and abusive violent sex acts that brings injury to the worker (physical or psychological).
Violence against women
Now the former leads us into another point, many of these workers come in contact with unsavory characters either “client” or “manager” that form an attachment to these women, much like a an attachment to a cell phone or any other toy or possession.
These characters in the grand scheme of things believe these workers are their possessions, even the clients believe that if they are paying, the workers are their property for the rental period, and ”…if its mine I have the right to do with it as I want…” this possessiveness is usually enforced by violence ( physical or mental) and the men, who only have their own agenda at heart, subject these women to all kind of abuses knowing the workers will think twice about involving the authorities.
These sentiments are very well founded as seen in 1991, …police in a southern California community closed all rape reports made by prostitutes and addicts, placing them in a file stamped “NHI.” The letters stand for the words “No Human Involved.” (Linda Fairstein, Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape, 1993, New York, William Morrow.)
If we view prostitution as violence against women, it makes no sense to legalize or decriminalize prostitution. The primary violence in prostitution is not “social stigma” as some maintain. Decriminalizing or legalizing prostitution would normalize and regulate practices which are human rights violations, and which in any other context would be legally actionable (sexual harassment, physical assault, rape, captivity, economic coercion.) or emotionally damaging (verbal abuse). (Melissa Farley)
Child Prostitution
Now this is the vilest, most reprehensible act against children there is, it is defined (in Barbados and most of the world) as the prostitution of a child under the age of 16( legal age of consent) , this brings an element or statutory rape in the mix, but with child protitution there are two types, there are the little children that knowingly sell themselves for money or gifts and those that are forced into prostitution by some elder figure that has some hold on them.
In Barbados and most of the Caribbean the former is true, young girls are lured into selling their bodies by way of gifts and money from older men , usually its not the case as in the American parlance where they are runaways looking for that father figure, but a case where these guys shower them with gifs and money and actually have them as their “girlfriends” and no one in authority makes an attempt to out a stop to it. These girls see how easy it is to have money and things and when they are no longer required as the older man’s play thing, they move on and the girls move on to the next man, often having multiple partners.
Sexual Transmitted Diseases
Well with all the information out there on STDs I would not attempt to school anyone on how grave the situation is our there with AIDS and other diseases, but I will say now that I ALWAYS ADVOCATE CONDOM USAGE AND DENOUNCE HIGH RISK BEHAVIOUR.
Now please, with that out of the way, lets see how the sex trade ties into the spread of such diseases.
Sorry to say, but many of these sex workers are in desperate situations and also use “crutches” like drugs and alcohol to help them to do all the things that they feel they have to do to survive, this almost always, leads to high risk behavior. Men take advantage of them either by offering more money or by violence. The risk of the sex worker engaging in unprotected sex is a very real possibility and we can see the escalating web of transition for every high risk act carried out.
Synopsis and Recommendations
Now with all the above in mind, it’s not too hard to see that all of the issues are intertwined, and one could say are almost undistinguishable, but many of the workers are involved because of desperation or at least need, and this is what causes many of the issues that are a cause for alarm. Although the sex trade will never be erased, however the negative aspects can be removed or at least reduced drastically, just by acknowledging the issues and provide services that can cater to the workers. Burying your head in the sand and not acknowledging the issues is not going to work.
Here is my list of recommendations to reduce such negative aspects:
• Governments’ should work together to stem the flow of sex workers from country to country or make it not worth while for the migration … in the Caribbean, CSME will go a long way to stem this.
• Authorities should take a greater interest in Violence against women in general, as long as a women, as well as a would be aggressor know that authorities will take victims of this type of violence seriously this well go a long way to deterring such acts.
• Parents and adults should be vigilant with regards to kids and those under 18, a public sensitization program should be undertaken so that parents know it is an offence for their 15 year old daughter to have a 40 year old “boy friend”. And its NOT ok for school girls to be wearing expensive jewelry or having 1000$ phones.
• Make substance abuse programs to incorporate the sex trade issues as part of their programs and offer alternatives. Any worker with a clear head will be less prone to problems.
• Special Health care Programs (Medical and Mental) should be formulated with sex trade workers in mind, a healthy worker in any profession is always better for the society on the whole.
• Condoms programs should be stepped up and costs should be subsidized by Public service entities.
• Sex trade providers and managers should take an active role in terms of cost and training for the sex workers for these programs and initiatives, as it will be of benefit to them, as well as the general society.
Conclusions
Now you have heard a lot from me and maybe you haven’t spotted the management perspective that is first stated, but here it is boldly.
The sex trade, as in the actual paying by a customer for sexual favors by a worker, is itself an illegal act but who is going to tell on who? Two adults making a decision to have sex and to collect money, cannot draw the attentions of authorities, its just not worth the effort to pursue. What draws the attentions of authorities is the Violence, the drugs, and the health issues associated with the trade that does make the authorities take notice. If these issues were removed or at the very least reduced, there would be less scrutiny leveled on the sex trade and thus managers would be able to manage the trade in a manner that gets noone hurt.
Sex trade workers are human beings, and should not be exempt from basic human rights, if the premise is that the trade is going to continue no matter what, then there should be mechanisms to protect the workers and customers in some way. When this is done then what is left is not worth the time and effort of the powers that be.
In the sex trade there are many victims and many undesirable influences, but if you remove the circumstances that impact workers and clients negatively and also these unwanted elements, then all you are left with is a victimless crime.
October 24, 2008 at 7:00 pm
Now speaking to Charles, he is telling me (in a sense) that to validate some of what was written in my piece should be validated by some of my own experiences as a manager.
So here goes:
1) In general both Clients and Workers in generally think that they are being robbed, and so, as a reaction, the client will try to bargain for the lowest price and least services. From there he will push smaller amounts at the girls for the extra Services he really wants, conversely the girl will call for large sums and also endeavour to charge “extra money” for so called extra services; A good manager has to temper this.
However when they both get into the room they conspire to trade money outside of the manager thereby cutting out the “manager”. In any other situation this may be a workable arraignment as this should be an advantage for both client and worker; the client pays less and the worker gets some extra cash. This is all well and good, if both parties do what they say they are suppose to do, but given the personalities involved this is rarely the case. On more than one occasion I have had to part a fight or settle a dispute with client and worker either because the worker didn’t hand up the extra services or the client didn’t hand up the cash.
2) I have had workers in desperate situations come to me and ask me to give them jobs, telling me they would do ANYTHING for a client, just to make that extra money, and in one case the worker told me that they would even have unprotected sex, or even suffer physical abuse if it will get that extra cash. Now, for me, that is just not on, but one can see that another unscrupulous “manager” may take her up on her offer. I don’t need to state the all the possible BAD outcomes that can arise of this situation. And the terrible risk to Client and Worker…and by extension the general public.
3) One Experience with a hotel, is that they didn’t let the worker go up to the client’s room, it was late at night and the worker didn’t want to leave the job alone, so what happened is that the client and the worker agreed to meet on the beach near the hotel, now I am sure you see the problem and I surely see a grave issue, but they both didn’t see it and got robbed, for which I was accused of orchestrating the whole thing. I was just glad the Client didn’t talk so no damage to the reputation (at least not publicly) .
These are the 3 experiences that I think are worth the while of this discussion and I welcome comments
October 29, 2008 at 11:15 am
LEGALISE WHORING- My View on Prostitution & Sex Trade Workers
Prostitution is an issue which has caused severe controversy internationally cross-culturally and
historically. Of late Charles Lewis of SEX TRADE IMPACT has been creating waves with his views on proposed legislation for SEX TRADE WORKERS AKA WHORES AKA PROSTITUTES so I have decided to add my 2 cents worth.
I am not going to get into religion because the church is bound by principal to say this is a GOD FEARING NATION – they wont bother to day that the church has in the most whores, lesbians & homosexuals, gay priest molesting boys or that some pastors married and still have 2 children out of wedlock with the Sunday school teacher and song leader…….or that the tithes & offerings that supposed to be used for GOD’S WORK is used for building the pastor’s three storey – 8 bedroom, 8 bathroom house, pay for Mercedes or sending their children to the most expensive colleges to study. Furthermore I can not begin to understand that church up in BCC that got people running bout in circles talking crap bout one of their members cant sing behind MY BEST FRIEND Chrystal Cummins-Beckles because she is singing one of KAREEN CLARKE’s original songs from the album FIRST FRUIT. Would you believe that the people say because Kareen’s recent incident which we all know about that their member could not be seen or heard in public singing anything whiten by such a person (meaning Kareen)…….. THE APOSTLE TELL the chap ABRAHAM THAT THE DEMONS THAT IN KAREN SONG COULD ENTER HIM IF HE SINGS BACK-UP FOR SUCH A SONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RIGHTEOUSNESS RIGHTEOUSNESS IS ALL I LONG FOR…………………..……………..
WHAT THE HELL?? YA MEAN TO TELL ME THAT DEM JUDGING – PEOPLE IN THE CHURCH THAT RUN BY A FORMER PIMP & HOOKER JUDGING???? DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED!!!!! JUDGE NOT LESS HE BE JUDGED – YE WHO BE WITHOUT SIN CAST THE FIRST STONE!!!!!!!!!!! WHO WASHED JESUS’S FEET? NOT MARY MADGALENE?? SHE WAS A WHORE
But Religion in Barbados is a big business where money does all the talking but let me tell wanna no-church can’t dictate what i put in the offering plate.GIVE GIVE GIVE 10% OF MY SALARY telling me the Lord provides Yes THE LORD PROVIDES yes he does – & the poor ass people in the church giving way all the money cant buy food or pay the bills while the good shepherds living large YET the congregation thinking THE LORD PROVIDES – HE ALSO DOES NOT WANT NO FOOLS IN HIS KINGDOM – WAIT A SECOND DIDN’T PEOPLE MORTGAGE THEIR HOUSES ETC FOR THAT CHURCH THAT CLOSED DOWN – THE DOVE CONFERENCE CENTRE & THE PASTOR ALONG WITH THE SECRETARY (WHO WAS NOT HIS WIFE BY THE WAY) FLED BIM???? WUH LOSS THAT IS A DIFFERENT NOTE ALL TOGETHER
MOVING ALONG
Of the estimated Thousands of individuals who have worked as prostitutes in Barbados, the overwhelming majority are women (PLEASE DONT FOR A SECOND TELL ME THAT WE DON’T HAVE THOUSANDS OF PROSTITUTES IN BARBADOS OR TRY TO DRIVE UP BUSH HILL TO COUNT THEM) We have high profile “CALL GIRLS/ESCORTS” who work at Banks or other financial institutions, restaurants or even in education (THESE PEOPLE SELL THEIR BODIES IN ORDER TO GET 1000 REMI WEAVES, CAR PAYMENTS PAID, GET THEIR RENT PAID OR SIMPLY TO TRAVEL TO LOS ANGELES OR MIAMI TO SHOP FOR THE STORES THEY NEED TO RE-STOCK. I know of some very sexy male models who call themselves dancers for private parties who sell sex to the highest bidder so the men are in the business too. So ladies & gents pay close attention more often than not this high profiled workers have spouses, even children and lead normal 9-5 working lives.
It is true to say that we have some pimps who import the Guyanese or Surinamese ladies and rent them out……the treatment of these sex workers can sometimes be are grim bordering on inhumane. Non-National Prostitutes have a significantly greater risk of experiencing violence, rape, physical abuse, and death than Barbadian prostitutes or other women in the general population. Due to some of the afore mentioned many social-psychologists believe that Prostitution could be one of the most dangerous professions around. It has been stated that high percentage of prostitutes have been sexually abused as children, and a high percentage will be physically abused and even raped after entering the sex trade.
In the sex trade, most of the time men pay and women perform…even if the prostitute is male he allows the female client to act out her fancy & allows her to think that she is in charge.
It can be argued that people choose prostitution though some claim they were victims of circumstance. According to Charles Lewis of non-profit organization Sex Trade Impact prostitution can be a lucrative business whether legal or illegal. I have to agree with him men will always seek out women they can pay for sex. The ‘victimless crime’ perspective changes, depending on who’s on top of who……..
If prostitution is decriminalized it will become economically profitable and feasible for not only the prostitutes, but also our society as a whole. Without the dated European laws, which tirelessly try force prostitution underground and fail miserably professional prostitution could become a clean and safe occupation. If sanctioned, prostitution will become economically lucrative for the governments involved. Come on I mean we have male prostitutes who ply their trade on the opposite site of CENTRAL POLICE STATION and NOT ONE OF THEM ARE ARRESTED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of the reason I think legislation needs to be in place for sex workers is to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS it should be mandatory for all sex workers to undergo preventative spread of sexually transmitted diseases educational seminars & any people wanting to buy sex who do not wish to use condoms could go and FOOP cows, sheep or pigs. Let us help them protect themselves so that they could protect society in the long run after all some of wanna wives done know wanna husbands buy sex what would you rather?? I am sure you would like for him not to buy the sex at all but if he does you should hope that he uses a condom.