I Love Asian Ladies

Featuring Stories from...........

2011-11-22T03:47:00.000-08:00

Kingdom of Bhutan / འབྲུག་ཡུལ་ / Druk Yul
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Republic of Uzbekistan / O‘zbekiston Respublikasi/ Ўзбекистон Республикаси
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Republic of the Philippines/Republika ng Pilipinas

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Republic of Korea /대한민국大韓民國/Daehan Minguk [ also known as South Korea ]

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Hong Kong/香港特別行政區
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State of Brunei/بروني دارالسلام /Negara Brunei Darussalam

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Tibet/བོད་*/Bod (བོད་)

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Kingdom of Cambodia/Royaume du Cambodge/Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea

Featuring Stories from...........

2011-11-22T02:46:00.000-08:00

Republic of India/भारत गणराज्य*/Bhārat Gaṇarājya

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Монгол улс/Mongol uls/Mongolia
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中華民國/Jhonghuá Mínguó/Taiwan [ also known as Republic of China ]
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Republik Indonesia/Republic of Indonesia
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ราชอาณาจักรไทย/Ratcha Anachak Thai

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Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam/Socialist Republic of Vietnam

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Malaysia

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조선민주주의인민공화국/朝鮮民主主義人民共和國/Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk/
Democratic People's Republic of Korea [ also known as North Korea ]
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中华人民共和国/Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó/People's Republic of China

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日本国/Nihon-koku/Japan

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Sex trade accounts for 1.6% of GDP of South Korea

2011-11-22T02:07:00.000-08:00

The sex trade in Korea was estimated to amount to 14 trillion won ($ 13 billion) last year, roughly 1.6 percent of the nation`s gross domestic product.

The Korean Women`s Development Institute, commissioned by the Ministry of Gender Equality, yesterday released a report on the sex trade.

"The official figures of the sex trade dropped compared to 2002 thanks to a continued crackdown on prostitution," said Byun Hwa-soon, a researcher at the think tank.

"But we cannot deny that new forms of prostitution and overseas sex tourism, which domestic authorities cannot police, have increased."More than 46,000 brothels and disguised sex-service businesses disguised were identified last year, down 23 percent from 2002, according to the report.

The number of prostitutes dropped by 18 percent to 269,000 during the same period. The sex trade involved some 94 million transactions in Korea last year, down from 170 million in 2002.

The amount of money traded for prostitution was over 14 trillion won, much less than 24 trillion won in 2002.

About 21 percent of the transactions were made in businesses claiming to be bars, karaoke clubs, massage parlors, barber shops or other businesses.

Yesterday`s report came five years after the Ministry of Gender Equality and the Korean Institute of Criminology jointly conducted a research of similar scale for the first time.

Under a new law against the sex trade that took effect in 2004, the government plans to issue such reports every three years.

[ The above article by Kim So-hyun appeared on Korea Herald, September 20,2008 ]

Japan: Teens on the make!

2010-08-05T08:10:00.000-07:00

A disconcerting look into the world of Japan's schoolgirl prostitutes

YOUNG WOMEN THE WORLD over are driven into prostitution by poverty and despair. But as Harada Masato's Bounce Ko Gals makes clear, Japanese kogyaru - teenage prostitutes - are very different. They turn to vice not to help feed their families, but to adorn themselves in the latest Gucci and Prada outfits. And it's all done without a hint of embarrassment - as one scene shows, when a kogyaru openly leads a middle-aged client around a department store, picking out designer accessories in return for her services.

Bounce, Harada's 10th film, follows a day in the seamy but energetic life of three kogyaru working in Tokyo's nightlife district. Dressed in their trade's outfit of school uniform, mini-skirt and white socks, they deal with seedy clients and aggressive yakuza gangsters who accuse them of taking work from "legitimate" prostitutes. But this is no hard, documentary-style feature. Harada has made a coming-of-age drama, showing how the three grow in the kogyaru world. (The Ko Gals of the title means something like "trendy young girls.")

It was the shock of discovering that Japanese men were buying the used underwear of teenage girls for sexual kicks that prompted Harada, 49, to make his film. "It made me so depressed that men of my generation had become that rotten," he says. The underwear theme features in Bounce, as do scenes of girls being hassled on the street by porn "talent scouts," a run-in with a client who is aroused by watching girls clean toilet bowls and a sex-film shoot that turns violent when the girls refuse to perform a particularly lewd act.

In his research for Bounce, Harada ploughed through volumes of news reports on the kogyaru and talked to teen prostitutes. Some even ended up in minor roles in the movie. The result, he says, is an accurate view of their world. "We invited 200 teenagers, mainly girls, to see the film when it opened," he says. "They said it was the first time they had seen such an honest portrayal of Japanese teenagers by the local cinema."

Harada lays the blame for teen prostitution mainly on the men who are turned on by girls wearing school uniforms. "Bounce shows how teenagers go wrong because of those sleazy middle-aged men," he says. "In the film, one of the girls says she once told a man as a joke that he could kiss her for 100 million yen. But the problem is that Japanese men today will say, 'Okay, I'll pay you 100 million for a kiss.' There's something wrong with these guys."

The problem is rooted in the sexist nature of Japanese society, he thinks. In fact, the only vaguely decent male in Bounce is a yakuza leader who, though he condones prostitution, feels a little disgusted by customers who use their buying power to sleep with teenagers. "Japanese men are not confident in sexual situations," says Harada. "They are nervous about women. But if the woman is a minor, they can manipulate her."

The director, who has a 20-year-old son, also blames bad parenting. "During my research, I found that one thing kogyaru all have in common is that they rarely talk to their fathers. In fact, the fathers are hardly ever there. They talk a lot to their mothers - but their mothers seem to be the kind who were obsessed by materialism before the bubble economy burst. The only thing these women can teach their daughters is what is fashionable and what is not."

One of the more disturbing aspects of the film is its depiction of the kogyaru scene as a fully fledged subculture. The girls tend to mix only with their own kind, have their own dress code and have developed a unique slang. They think that adult society has let them down, and find a cynical joy in breaking its rules. But they are not lost in the traditional teen sense. They know precisely where they fit into the perverted world they have chosen for themselves.

Last December, the Tokyo authorities introduced a law tightening up on teenage prostitution. It has driven some of the more blatant activities off the streets and into clubs and karaoke bars. These days the girls are careful to make it appear they are being rewarded for "companionship" or for performing a song. The only real difference is that, with the economic slump, many would-be customers are no longer able to splash out on expensive European fashions.

The Japanese media have now tired of schoolgirl prostitution and moved on to bloody crimes committed by teenage boys. But the kogyaru problem persists - as Harada discovered. "I left a notebook in a cinema where viewers could write their opinions about the film," he says. "One kogyaru wrote that I had said everything that she wanted to say but couldn't. Then she left her telephone number."

By Richard James Havis

Maid in Bhutan

2010-08-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

NGO comes up with a project that could be the answer to a dire need

Bhutan Association Of Women Entrepreneurs 2 August, 2010 - With more and more Bhutanese women working in offices, or choosing to run a business, a substitute to look after their children and run household errands, has been necessitated today.

The government disallowed Bhutanese from bringing in maids from across the borders, just as they restricted those from villages under a certain age.

Barely a year since the rule was implemented, and taking notice of the emerging situation of the almost desperate need for maids at home, especially among young office-going parents in urban areas, a nongovernmental organisation has stepped forward to offer a solution.

The Bhutan association of women entrepreneurs recently proposed a project to the labour ministry, one of which looks at fulfilling the need for domestic helper, a term the association prefers over maids, in the society, and help domestic helper find proper jobs.

If approved, the association’s secretary general Phuntshok Choden said they would train interested women in services expected of domestic helpers.

“When we say domestic helper, it doesn’t just apply to babysitters,” the association’s president said.

The plan is to recruit groups of women and train them under different categories of work, such as dish washing, baby sitting, cleaning homes, doing laundry and cooking, based on their interest.

“Once they become skilled domestic helpers, they’ll be sent with whoever hires them,” Phuntshok Choden said. “We’ll be the conduit between the employee and the employer.”

She explained that, if a couple wanted a helper for a few hours to look after their baby, the association would send a babysitter, who would then return after completing her time.

“The babysitter can relax and enjoy the rest of the day,” she said.

Likewise, people requiring helpers to clean kitchens or do the laundry could avail of the services.

“People can also specify how many times a day and at what particular time they want a helper,” Phuntshok Choden said. “We’ll take the responsibility if people complain about our helpers’ misconduct or other issues.”

The association’s president Damchae Dem said the organisation wanted to professionalize this cadre of people and the service.

“We’re trying to give dignity and a sense of security among these people in the job,” she said.

Regarding the payment for domestic helpers, the association officials said they were working out the amount with the labour ministry, including the issue of whether the money should be paid directly to the helper or to the association, which will then pay the helpers at the end of the month, depending on the number of hours they worked.

“We’ll definitely set up a standard payment, in accordance with the labour act,” she said. “The age limit for this profession will also be in keeping with labour ministry’s decision.” The association will run the project until a time they feel the domestic helpers are up for the task of running the business themselves.

Many working-mothers Kuensel spoke with were in support of such services.

Choden, a corporate employee, who sends her four-year old son to a day care centre, said she would prefer keeping her son at home with a trained domestic helper, than send him to a clustered day care centre. “He doesn’t like it there anyway,” she said.

A corporate employee, Wangchuk said, while his son stayed at a child care centre between 9 am till lunch time, he had drop his son to his ailing grandmother after lunch. “She has to look after three other little children,” he said.

Kinley Choden, a mother of a 2-year-old, however, disagreed with the idea, because not every family in Bhutan could afford to hire helpers on an hourly basis.

“How long can I hire a helper every day and pay every day?” she said.

Phuntshok Choden said the association was worried of this very issue of whether there would be any takers of the services they intend to offer following a huge investment.

The labour and human resources secretary Dasho Sonam Tenzin said they had to discuss the proposal further.

“We support such a proposal that would benefit the society’s need, but the project requires a more simplified proposal,” he said. “The project will, no doubt, meet the dire needs for domestic helpers.”

BAOWE is a non-governmental and non-profit organisation, registered under the civil society organisation act 2007.

Their objective is to provide women entrepreneurs and women professionals the support they require in capacity building.

[ The above article by Yangchen C Rinzin appeared on Kuensel Online on August 2010 ]

Uzbek women in Thailand

2010-06-22T05:38:00.000-07:00

The emergence of Uzbek women working in Thailand has recently come to public attention, the Thai media has reported on the issue since 1999. It became intensified during the period of 2000-2002. Studying the figure of these migrant women, it clearly shows that the number has rapidly grown from 2,595 in 1999 to 5,017 in 2000. However, the only knowledge Thai people have on these women is that they are white sex workers.

The media portrayal of these women is that they are simply ladies of the night who have chosen with their own will to work illegally in prostitution outside their own country. Moreover, some of the women also involved themselves with international drug trafficking. Such media report has formed public prejudice against them and hampers better understanding of the complicated hardship behind their lives.

In order to comprehend situation of the newly emerged group in the international migration and trafficking, FFW organized a series of small group discussions in the Bangkok Immigration Detention Centre in 2002. The purpose of this is to learn about the situation, the pull and push factors for migration and the needs of these women. The result from the discussion has made us well aware of their lives and problems during their stay in Thailand.

The findings from the series of these meeting show that a high number of Uzbek women, though migrate with consent, are victims of the international human trafficking. There is a network of traffickers at the local, regional and international levels who provide and facilitate their travel and job placement in order to control their lives at the destination. FFW has compiled the information and prepared this report in order to raise public awareness on the plight of these women, and to call for cooperation from the concerned agencies.

Background Information about Uzbek Women

The following information was collected from the series of group discussions between Uzbek women and FFW, which were carried out during August to December 2002. The group consisted of about 10-15 Uzbek participants, and Russian was the language used in conversation. The participating women are of mixed groups. Half of them are Russians (white complexion and fluent in Russian language), the other half are natives of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan (with darker complexion and many were not well-versed in Russian).

The participants had been staying in Thailand ranging from 10 days to 5 years, the average of 5 months-1year with age between 19-30 years old or average of 21-25 years old. Their average education level is secondary and vocational school. One of them has a Bachelor Degree. The literacy rate of Uzbek women is equal to that of industrialized countries. Women are married at a young age i.e., 16-17 years old. 80 per cent of the participants were married and have children. Half of the married women are divorced.

Three women are housewives while, others are students, sale persons, self employed, telephone operators, discotheque employees and teachers in Uzbekistan. Their average income is between US$3-20 per month. The reason for coming to Thailand is to work and send money back home.

Some of them were informed about the type of work available for them in Thailand. Samarkand and Tashkent are the major cities where most of these women came from. The dramatic increase of number of Uzbek migrant women and men may draw attention with particular interests here.

Like the above article, read a similar story Uzbek girls in Nana

The World of Milieu (Ryu Mi) （ミリュウ）

2010-06-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

I accidentally hit upon this website Milieu: The Online Shop , the site is in Japanese but I did manage to translate some of it, the site has interesting stuff on Cosplay maid costumes......

They also mention the procedure to "order" the costumes displayed on the website, its interesting, have a look..

Malaysia - ‘Sexy’ school uniforms to stay

2010-03-22T07:31:00.000-07:00

[ A comparison of Malaysian & Japanese school uniforms, which one is sexier? ]

Dress code debacle: An Islamic group condemned girls’ school uniform, saying it encouraged rape and pre-marital sex.

I think that’s stupid plain excuses saying “encouraged rape and pre-marital sex”. Do you think it’s the factor? Is the Baju Kurung really sexy?? Compared to other Country like Japan or Western Country? haha

I think it’s human factor! To prevent crime and prevent rape cases it’s everybody’s responsibility.

School uniform sexy, says group

KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian group condemned the uniform worn by girls at government schools, saying it encouraged rape and pre-marital sex.

“The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction,” National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement.

“It becomes a distraction to men, who are drawn to it, whether or not they like looking at it,” she said, calling for a review of uniform policy so that it did not violate Islamic ideals.

In multicultural Malaysia, home to majority-Muslim Malays as well as ethnic Chinese and Indians, female students at government schools have a choice of wearing a white blouse with a knee-length skirt or pinafore.

They may also wear a “baju kurung” and a headscarf is optional for Malay students.

Munirah said that “covering up” according to Islamic precepts was important to fend off social ills, including “rape, sexual harassment and even premarital sex.”

“This leads to babies born out of wedlock and, to an extent, even prostitution,” she said.

“Decent clothes which are not revealing can prevent and protect women from any untoward situations,” she said, suggesting that girls wear a blouse of a different colour or with an undergarment.

However, the girls themselves also came in for criticism, with the association saying that some used the white blouse to lure men.

“This is the source of the problem, where we can see that schoolgirls themselves are capable of using this to attract men to them,” Munirah said.

“This could see them getting molested, having premarital sex and all sorts of things.” – AFP

and now…

‘Sexy’ school uniforms to stay

PALOH: The Education Minister dismissed talk that the current uniform worn by girls in government schools, which has been in use for decades, was too “sexy” and that it contributed to rape and other immoral acts.

Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Tun Hussein said the uniform would probably not change much in the next few years.

He said that he personally felt it was unfair to blame the students or their uniforms for sexual crimes committed against them.

“It is unfair to punish women and children for the clothes they wear for the act of the rapist,” he said, adding that he could not allow such stereotyping to continue.

“Clothing is not the main consideration for those who commit despicable acts like these,” he said, in reference to the National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia’s condemnation of the uniform for being too sexy.

The association said the uniform encouraged rape and pre-marital sex.

Hishammuddin said that although he believed that changing the uniforms would not reduce sexual crimes committed against schoolgirls, he would refer the matter to experts within his ministry before making a decision.

Its a mad world.........:)

Meet Japanese Girl?

2010-02-24T03:03:00.001-08:00

I recently came across a web page Meet Japanese Girl.com

The description says that ( This website gives you the information about Japanese girls or woman, including popular Japanese girls names, their current fashion trends, pictures and dating tips for those who want to meet and date with them. )

The site has some interesting info & photos of Japanese women in a wide range such as Sporty,Beautiful & Working women.

The most interesting section was Japanese Girls Information (Article) now this article gives info on Dating Tips with Single Japanese Women, Fashion & also 'Types" of Japanese Girls. Also you can sign up for a free newsletter.

So in case you're interested to know more just take a look at it.

Disclaimer: I am in now way promoting this dating site!! Its entirely upto you, I don't get paid by these guys!

SMS, Sex & Japanese School Girls

2010-01-29T08:53:00.000-08:00

The Japanese police recently took into custody a group of junior and senior high school girls from Tokyo and Saitama, a neighboring city, who used coded messages to sell sex.

Real sex, not just virtual sex.

Apparently, potential customers received text messages similar to this: IkebLUVR1800Yukichi2JC1, which looks like an illogical association of characters. However, the Japanese authorities managed to decipher the girls' code, which is pretty well thought. The first part refers to the neighborhood the girls live in – in this case "Ikeb"stands for Ikebukuro. LUVR translates into "I'm willing to have sex with you", while 1800 is the time, 18:00 or 6PM.

Yukichi refers to Fukuzawa Yukichi, a Japanese writer and political theorist from the 19th century, and, if at first he doesn't seem to have anything to do with the whole matter, he does, indirectly, as his face appears on the 10,000 Yen bills.

So Yukichi2 means the girl's services cost 20,000 Yen – which is exactly $187 and 18 cents. Furthermore, JC stands for Junior high school, while "1" means Grade 1, the equivalent of America's 7th grade. So the entire message means "I'm in the 7th grade and we can meet in Ikebukuro at 6PM to have sex, for 20,000 Yen."

What's striking (in a bad way) is the fact that the girls are almost kids, as the 7th grade students usually have 13 years.

At the moment there are no details whether the girls acted on their own or they are part of a bigger prostitution ring, but both versions only demonstrates that there's something wrong with teenagers today.

Mongolia: Women redefine their roles

2009-09-27T03:40:00.000-07:00

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union eight years ago, Mongolia has been going through a dramatic transition. The accelerated move from socialism to a free market economy has been a struggle. In particular, the role of women in the new society is just starting to be properly addressed. The rolling steppe, just beyond Ulan Bator, the Mongolian capital, is home to Batsuh and her goats.

She's a champion herdswoman and a respected member of the local community. She's also actively involved in improving conditions for rural women like herself. She knows the difficulties of providing for a large family - when she married her second husband, her brood grew to 18 children.

Multi-skilled women

Many local women visit her home seeking advice on everything from settling land disputes to job re-training. Unemployment is high in the region. In Mongolia, women make up nearly half of the work force - 10% can't find a job.

Batsuh says the balance must be re-dressed in favour of women: "During this difficult transition to a market economy, it's important that women get more training. "Poverty has a female face in my area particularly. But if women are trained then they'll have job opportunities, and their conditions will improve."

City life

In the city, the situation for women is better. In a typical neighbourhood of Ulan Bator, two sisters, Horloo and Nara, are striving to ensure they won't end up in their parents situation.
Their father is a retired mechanical engineer and their mother is a doctor.

The future seemed secure before the Soviet Union broke up.But eight years ago that security disappeared. There was no money left in government coffers and that meant there wouldn't be a pension. Nara and Horloo's parents have been forced to go back to the land.

They are now farmers out on the steppe. Horloo and Nara are determined to establish themselves in challenging careers. They have been to university because, they say, it's the only way for women to get ahead.

Nara, aged 18, would like to be an accountant. Horloo - who once dreamed of becoming a pianist and studied music at the country's top academy - wants to go to Britain to study English. Nara thinks its possible for women to carve out careers for themselves: "It's much different from when my mother was young.

Then the only role for women was in the home. "It's still difficult for women nowadays, but there is less discrimination. We just have to get a job.

"I don't think men get the better jobs. It's the competition of life you know. If women get a good education and look smart then they can get better jobs than men."

Escaping the poverty cycle

The government has many policies to improve the lot of modern Mongolian women. However, some argue that very few of these initiatives are actually put into practice. At the Women's Information Research Centre (WIRC) in Ulan Bator, a small group of young professionals brings women's issues into the spotlight.

Their special projects include micro-credit schemes to help rural women start their own businesses, which in turn, allow the women to escape the poverty cycle.

The Founder and Director of the WIRC, Oyuntsetseg, says that more needs to be done to help women get ahead in the new Mongolia: "Women play quite an important role in the family. In society their role is being recognised slowly since the beginning of the democratic process in our country.

"But our constitution is one of the most progressive in the world which proclaims all the equal rights and equal opportunities for women. But in actual life women have lots of problems in terms of being treated equally."

Women in politics

Out of 76 MP's in the Mongolian Parliament, Dr Sanjaasurengin Oyun is one of only eight women. Each week, she meets with her constituents to discuss a broad range of issues. Recently, she was voted the second most popular MP in the country.

Dr Oyun says it's difficult for a Mongolian woman in parliament, but it's still better than most central Asian countries: "Attitudes toward women in politics are still a bit condescending.

"Although, when I meet people from Japan or Korea, even recently during this Asian parliamentarians meeting, I spoke to some MP's from central Asian republics and I felt that attitudes here toward women in politics are much better than in those countries I've mentioned."

Traditionally women have been the backbone of the workforce and family in Mongolia. They're the first to rise in the morning and the last to go to bed. Yet there's an old saying here: "Women have long hair and short brains.

"But they're finally beginning to shake that stigma as more of them make inroads into government and business.

[ This report by Linda Sills was reported by the BBC on 24 November, 2007 ]

United Nations Recommends Ban On Japanese Sex Games

2009-08-28T08:36:00.000-07:00

Illegal and abusive sex acts in Japanese games -- namely those featured in the U.S.-banned PC game "RapeLay" -- earned extra media attention for the Japanese sex-game genre this year.

Now, the United Nations has stepped in and issued a formal recommendation, urging Japan to crack down on rape and sexual violence in games.

The United Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women encouraged Japan "to ban the sale of video games or cartoons involving rape and sexual violence against women which normalize and promote sexual violence against women and girls," according to Anime News Network.

The Committee's findings came in response to an August 7 Japanese report regarding the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

It criticized current Japanese laws for not adequately addressing virtual child pornography, citing what it called "the prevalence of pornographic video games and cartoons featuring rape, gang rape, stalking and the sexual molestation of women and girls."

Japan's government is currently conducting a three-year study of virtual child pornography within its borders, which the country hopes to use to shape future legislation.

North Korean High School Girls Video

2009-04-04T06:56:00.000-07:00

This is a very shocking video of some North Korean High School Girls marching in line to school while singing a song very proudly in a kind of school girl mob mentality that is quite shocking indeed, but every girl in a state-run high school in North Korea is expected to perform this kind of marching and singing together. This video was broadcast on North Korean Television and Japanese TV.

Edited and translated by Rob Pongi. Used by legal permission and all rights reserved. Note: This is an actual North Korean schoolgirls video from KCNA TV in Pyongyang, North Korea. This video does not reflect the views of Rob Pongi nor those of anyone else associated with Japanese TV Online Videos Asian Entertainment Also be sure to see the very shocking Fucking USA Fuck George Bush Video video and also the North Korean Drama 'Crimson Persimmon' tv video and be sure to see more Japanese TV Shows Online.

Watch the video: http://www.robpongi.com/pages/comboNKHIGH.html

You can find out more about this video in our Online FAQ http://groups.msn.com/TheRobPongiFanClub/faq.msnw

Is prostitution illegal in Thailand?

2009-02-11T06:28:00.000-08:00

Prostitution has been illegal in Thailand for more than 30 years. Not until recently has the Thai government made it an offense for a man/woman to have sexual relations with a prostitute aged between 15-18 or younger. The penalties for customers are 1-3 years imprisonment and/or a fine ranging from 20,000-50,000 baht. If the girls are younger, the penalties will be increased to 2-6 years imprisonment and/or a fine of from 40,000- 120,000baht.

[Source: Bkk post July 5, 1994].

At present, the Criminal Code already stipulates heavy punishment for those who sexually violate minors aged15 and under. According to the Criminal Code, any person having sex with minors faces 4 to 20 years imprisonment and/or fines of 8,000 to 40,000baht regardless of consent. Procurers, meanwhile, will get jail terms of3 to 15 years and fines of 6,000 to 30,000 baht if the girls are aged between15 to 18. If the girls are younger than 15, the more severe jail terms are 5 to 20 years and fines of 10,000 to 40,000 baht. For parents who sell their daughters into prostitution, these penalties will be raised by one-third.

[Source: Bkk Post April 5, 1996].

But until there is an agreement on the number of prostitutes in Thailand, we may never know if the penalties has affected the business.

"Customers may be discouraged from patronizing underage prostitutes because of the penalties stipulated by the bill. But the legal sanctions will not stop many Thai men from visiting a brothel or an entertainment place which also offers sexual services so long as this society believes that it is not morally or socially wrong, but something very normal, for Thai men to have a little extra-marital sex with prostitutes from time to time."

-Bangkok Post July 5, 1994 Editorial page 4

Harsh law has also been passed to eliminate forced prositutiton. In April 1996, the lower house passed a bill to punish persons who detain or deprive others of their freedom or who assault or force others to sell themselves. The punishment includes jail term of between 10 and 20 years and a fine of between 200,000 and 400,000 baht. If the detainment results in serious injury to victims, the punishment increases to life imprisonment and if the victims die, the death sentence.

[Source: Bangkok Post April18, 1996]

"In the face of the country's notoriety as a haven of child prostitution, the House of Representatives is reacting by issuing a set of more severe penalties for brothel customers, brothels, procurers and parents who "sell" their daughters. These efforts assume that once the legal amendments for harsher penalties pass into law, they will be effectively enforced. The sad reality is, however, that child prostitution is thriving on police corruption. And as long as the Government continues to turn a blind eye to this cancerous situation, the sexual oppression of children will never go away. And short of legal enforcement, the most perfect laws will end up as meaningless bits of paper of use only in assisting corrupt police officers in extorting more money from the parties involved. "

- Bangkok Post April 5, 1996 Editorial

Other resources on Thai prostitution

The Survivors'Voice joins the fight against Thailand's child sex tourism trade.
An article in german about side effects of prostitution. EinArtikel auf deutsch ueber Nebeneffekte der Prostitution.
Coalition against Prostitution and Child Abuse in Thailand (CAPCAT)is an internet "clearinghouse" for sharing information and resources on prostitution, child abuse and child labor. The site includes information supporting non-profit efforts in Thailand dealing with these problems, and lists volunteer and intern opportunities for individuals in Thailand and overseas.
An article from the Gemini news service about Thai's prostitution law.
An article from UNICEF about the Daughters' education program.
D!B!T!, an international effort to stop the vicious child prostitution in Thailand.
A link to An anthropologist's homepage by Rebecca Goolsby, Ph.D. who has a dissertation on women's issues in Thailand.
A link to the Prostitution's Education Network (contains statistics, discussion on issues concerning prostitutes in the U.S. and around theworld)
The story of "Dawn"."The words prostitution and trafficking separate women from all women, but actually, we are all together.The same laws should apply to all of us, women who are immigrants in the garment industry, in the restaurant business or who work as dancers in as prostitutes. What we need is to get rid of some of the laws we have, so that women in who do the work are legal, and they are able to call the police and file charges against people who abuses them or exploit them." - Dawn Passar
A review from Z-magazine September 1995 by Ryan Bishop and Lillian S. Robinson on the book, "Patpong sisters" by Cleo Odzer.
Hall's report on prostitution in Thailand which listed 29 references.
The film, Goodwomen of Bangkok and the Ph.D. thesis, Patpongsisters portrays a life of a prostitute in Patpong.
Another homepage about Thaiprostitutes can be found in here.

Indonesia: Sex and tea in Semarang

2009-01-14T02:28:00.000-08:00

The peculiar relationship between sex and jasmine tea in downtown Semarang keeps both police and prostitutes in a game of cat and mouse.

‘Operations all night tonight’, grumbles Fita. Half a dozen motorcycles roar into life, each carrying away a barely dressed teenage girl.

Two minutes later, a police truck lumbers down the street, accompanied by several smaller vehicles, some motorcycles and a throng of tabloid reporters. It is 2.30am on Pandanaran Street, Simpang Lima in the Central Javanese city of Semarang. The municipal police force has just started its third anti-prostitution operation for the evening.

‘They don’t bother questioning us, because they already know who is really selling tea; but we carry this union card’, explains Fita. The card distinguishes young female tea sellers from the ‘ciblek’ (from cilik-cilik betah melek), a Semarang-Javanese acronym describing the very young commercial sex workers found at the poci tea houses around Simpang Lima.

Suddenly, Fita calls out to a passing kijang van: ‘Poci, poci mister! Come in! Chicky-Chicky!’

Poci (pronounced po-chi) is not just a pot of fragrant jasmine-infused tea; in Semarang it means sipping it from tiny glasses in a tranquil setting, and the promise of introductions to some of Simpang Lima’s ciblek. The vehicle slows to a halt and its tinted windows roll down. ‘Poci mister? Drink it here’, she repeats, smiling.

The driver explains that he and his friend are looking for ciblek. ‘No problem mister! But won’t you drink first while we find one for you?’

Warily, the men get out and enter the tea stall. There are plastic stools on the vinyl mat that covers the sidewalk; a small counter stocked with glasses, tea pots and a gas burner adorn the otherwise bare stall. The spot-lit surrounds of Simpang Lima, the babbling water in the filthy drains and the scent of the tea combine for a cosy ambience. The men are served tea, coffee or hot ginger. They chat with the tea seller and puff meditatively on clove cigarettes.

A second tea seller is dispatched across the street to a crowded all-night warung where a group of young men and women are hanging out. After some discussion the tea seller returns, accompanied by three ciblek. She gestures them towards the guests. Drinks are bought and the girls start flirting, all the while exchanging glances with the tea sellers, who are already dividing up the proceeds of this encounter into their respective commissions.

‘If you haven’t drunk poci tea in Simpang Lima, you haven’t been to Semarang’.

Amidst the smoke and coy conversation the tea seller discreetly ascertains the men’s preferences and a deal is struck. After the drinks are paid for and an advance booking fee for the ciblek is received, the group climb into the kijang and disappear into the night.

Fragrant tea

Poci tea originates in the Central Javanese city of Tegal. Mixed with jasmine flowers and brewed in a special earthenware pot (the poci) that is only ever rinsed with clear water —thus imbuing it with its heady scent and making it more delicious each time — it has a unique aroma that has made it popular all over Java, where it is sold in the many warung tegal or ‘warteg’.
It is only in Semarang, however, where this tea has become synonymous with teenage prostitution. Even locals attest to the saying: ‘If you haven’t drunk poci tea in Simpang Lima, you haven’t been to Semarang.’

This peculiar pairing really started in 1998. During the monetary crisis, the spike in unemployment and fall in household incomes led to an increase in informal occupations such as the late night tea trade. There was also an increase in the number of professional prostitutes in Semarang, as young girls were forced to support families when their parents were unable to find work. Raids by religious militia on formal prostitution complexes across Indonesia also led to larger numbers of women engaging in unorganised or street prostitution.

Although street prostitution existed in Simpang Lima prior to 1998, it was on a smaller, ad hoc scale and was conducted at certain chicken and rice stalls where girls would exchange their services for a cheap night out at a nightclub. But in the face of economic crisis, the ciblek had to support themselves and their families. The previously amateur sex workers increased in number and professionalised – turning a pastime into paid employment.

And so a new way was needed to disguise the commercial sex trade to the public eye. A plausible cover was required should its participants be questioned by the authorities. The poci tea stalls gave the ciblek a safer working environment and the tea sellers helped them attract clients. The tea sellers’ sales increased, and they received a commission on every commercial sex transaction they negotiated.

Surprisingly, this flimsy guise appears to have satisfied the local community. Aside from occasional derogatory comments from passersby, poci tea hasn’t drawn a backlash from religious militias or local residents. Only the city authorities are frustrated by the ongoing trade, which they consider an embarrassment to Semarang’s good name. Accordingly, in 2000, the municipal government passed a new city ordinance banning prostitution anywhere outside of the government sanctioned prostitution complexes.

This regulation, and its enforcement by the municipal police force, established the present status quo: regular late night raids in the Simpang Lima area and the cibleks’ efforts to avoid detection and arrest. In a country where lofty political goals are seldom matched with practical means, the police have not been able to stamp out street prostitution in the poci tea houses.

Cat, mouse and the Prostitute Transport Squad

There is now a nightly bout of cat and mouse, or permainan kucing-kucingan, as the police operations director describes it, between the city authorities and the ciblek, abetted by their intrepid band of motorcycle taxi drivers.

The young men, who call themselves the ‘Pasukan Anjelo’ (Pasukan Antar-Jemput Lonte or Prostitute Transport Squad), are responsible for safeguarding the ciblek from arrest as they wait for clients to arrive at the tea houses. They are paid Rp20,000 (A$3) for helping a ciblek flee Simpang Lima in the event of a raid and receive smaller amounts for other moonlight transport services.

Reclining on mats beside a warung, gambling, drinking, and smoking, it might be surprising that the members of Pasukan Anjelo are quite a sophisticated operation. They are conducting reconnaissance so that they and the ciblek stay one step ahead of the authorities. They use mobile phones, sometimes posting scouts at key access points to Simpang Lima tasked with sending an SMS warning if approaching police are sighted. There is also a network between a number of red light districts in Semarang, such as the nearby ‘massage plus’ strip of Tunggal Indah and the transvestite sex worker muster at Taman KB, the Family Planning Park. If one location around Simpang Lima is raided, the others are immediately warned that an anti-prostitution operation is underway.

Should the early warning system fail them, Pasukan Anjelo is equipped with several 110 – 135 cc bebek (‘duck’ mopeds) to outrun the police. Although the police have larger, faster motorbikes, the bebek easily outmanoeuvre their pursuers as they race down Semarang’s rat-runs. The authorities only succeed when they get close to Simpang Lima undetected and then rush into the poci tea strip on motorbikes, apprehending the ciblek before they can flee.
And so it remains most evenings at the tea stalls of Simpang Lima. Each time an operation rolls out, the ciblek are sped away, only to return to the scene minutes later.

The end of the game?

Recently, however, things have changed. Over the past five years the police’s power to enforce city regulations has steadily increased. The department’s manpower tripled between 2003 and 2006, and they have been provided with newer equipment and vehicles.

This increased capacity is a major reason for the decline of the poci tea and prostitution partnership in Simpang Lima. The number of tea stalls shrank from 22 in 2002 to just eight in 2006. Although the ciblek are resilient and continue to evade arrest most of the time, the game of cat and mouse is now being played out more often. This makes it increasingly difficult for them to be available for clients, and their patrons are being scared off.

In the face of these challenges, many ciblek are finding other ways to supply the commercial sex trade, moving to nightclubs, karaoke lounges and massage parlours. Fewer prostitutes on the streets of Simpang Lima means fewer customers and lower revenues for the tea sellers. They too have begun to leave the business. With each departure of a ciblek or tea seller, the fame of poci tea and the Simpang Lima scene diminishes – as does the fascination that drew clients from across Indonesia.

It is twilight now for this partnership of sex and tea; the game of cat and mouse is almost over. What remains is a reflection of the lives and struggle of one lower class community in Semarang and the unusual means they found to fend for themselves and for one another.

[ Chris Urbanski is a fourth year student at the Australian National University. He has lived in Indonesia for four years, studying at Jakarta International School, Gadjah Mada University and the Muhammadiyah University of Malang. This article was based on a research project undertaken as an ACICIS student. ]

A visual journey into Japan's sex industry

2009-01-08T03:35:00.000-08:00

Sex is everywhere in Japan, but most tourists don't see it. They walk past the men handing out tissue packages at train stations, and assume the neon signs in entertainment districts point to karaoke bars. But many indicate hostess clubs, oral-sex parlours, and “soapland” bathhouses.

Those tissue packets advertise to men and are also used to recruit female workers.

According to Pink Box: Inside Japan's Sex Clubs (Harry N. Abrams, $45), Japan's commercial sexual-services industry accounted for nearly US$20 billion in 2001. And although these clubs are a cultural phenomenon, they're strictly off-limits to foreigners.

Pink Box captures their inner sanctums in a photographic collection. It's not a coffee-table book you'd want your mother to see. Photographer Joan Sinclair visited over 90 clubs and returned with images of women working in nude theatres, peeping rooms, “touch pubs”, and “image clubs” with elaborately decorated fantasy theme rooms.

Examples include a train replica where men pay to grope women posing as schoolgirls, and a department-store elevator, equipped with a mirrored floor and a uniformed, pantyless attendant. In “fashion clubs”, women provide services in true-to-life costumes—such as chain-restaurant uniforms, nurse outfits, officewear—or even dressed as anime characters.

On the line from San Francisco, Sinclair tells the Straight that she first learned of the clubs 10 years ago when she was working as an English teacher in Japan. She returned three years ago to photograph them. “ Pink Box is about the kitsch, the humour, and the over-the-top–ness of the domestic sex industry in Japan,” Sinclair says.

“There is a sense of humour about it that's uniquely Japanese,” she says, adding that manga and Japanese graphic art are partly responsible. “There's something in Japanese society…that makes these archetypes of everyday life the heart of the role-playing fantasy.”

How did Sinclair gain access to these clubs? She speaks Japanese, and got to know the managers, workers, and customers. Once given permission to shoot, she worked with those who volunteered to be photographed for the book. “It's not an underground industry,” she explains.

“They advertise, they all have Web sites…they have fan sites for the girls."Pink Box doesn't touch on the darker side of the industry: gritty brothels with Southeast Asian sex workers. Sinclair acknowledges that these exist but felt that was a different story to tell. She made the decision to shoot Japanese-style clubs that employ Japanese women.

(Prostitution is legally a grey area in Japan, but Sinclair says one criterion they stick to is that they rarely risk employing those under 18.)

The book quotes customers and workers on their motivations. “It would take a year to earn the money for my [Louis Vuitton] purse if I was working in an office,” says a worker.

“All I ask is that viewers not assume that this profession is inherently degrading. It's more complicated than that,” Sinclair writes in the book. “These women are not powerless, they are not on drugs. They have made conscious choices; they have their own dignity.

“The clubs are a reflection of modern Japan, a literate society where the rules are written out, prices are not negotiable, and fantasies are predetermined, prescripted, and prepaid.” Sex and the city indeed.

[ The above article by Carolyn Ai appeared on Vancouver Online on March 2008 ]

India: Fair side of martial arts

2009-01-06T03:29:00.000-08:00

S Lakshmi, a student, was walking back home from tuition one evening when she realised that a boy had been stalking her. Already on her guard, she landed a quick blow on his chin when he moved in on her. Her karate classes had helped, she was sure.

With reports of acid attacks, eve-teasing and harassment on the rise, women in the city are getting proactive about handling their personal security, as is evident from an increasing enrolment of girls in martial arts classes. In fact enrolment at almost all institutes has doubled in the last two months.

"Previously, we had 15 girls learning unarmed combat, now we train 32, in the age group of 15 to 30 years," says Sayeed Amjad Hussain, chairman of All Style Martial Arts Organisation and instructor in Asian Martial Arts Academy.

Pavan Kumar Sharma, an instructor in Yamaguchi Karate International too reports that in the last two months, five girls have joined his class of 65 students. "Now we have 12 girls. Some of them are even planning for black belts.

"Until now, women's presence in martial arts has not been significant. Observers say that out of the 5,000 institutes in the state, only 15 to 20 can boast of girls learning self-defence. This reflects the national scenario says Sharma, elaborating: "At a competition organised by the World Union of Karate Organisations in the city in November, 150 Iranian girls had participated, as against a mere 25 Indians, including seven from Andhra Pradesh.

"This is because martial arts is still perceived as a boys' game.Parents too have their own reservations in letting their girls learn the art from male instructors and in classes dominated by male students. Older, independent professional women on the other hand find the class timings say early evening hours of 5 to 7 pm are not employee-friendly.

Martial art institutes are tackling such issues with workshops and free week-long sessions, so that parents of girls can open their minds towards defence skills. Special weekend classes for corporate officials are also being planned.

In Hyderabad, schools are more receptive than universities and colleges, say martial art gurus. Over 60 girls of St Maaz school aged between 10 to 16 years are taking weekly Chinese Wushu lessons in school.

"Now most of them have enough expertise to take part in national and international events and win prizes," says principal Mahmood Sajid. Dawn High School and St. Adam's School have also opted for group sessions on their premises. Here, school authorities and trainers are counselling parents to spread awareness and dispel any fears.

Though training for two months is an ideal beginning, even a week-long specialised training in disarming guns and knives, collar chokes, holds and locks is enough to tackle any kind of nuisance on the streets, say experts.

"I remain alert when walking alone at night, but I am confident that I don't have to call for help if I face trouble," says Pratima, a black-belt holder. Men may see martial arts as a macho sport, but for girls it could be a survival tool.

[ This article by Pallavi Sengupta appeared on Times India on January 2009 ]

Japan's World War 2 sex slaves demand apology

2008-11-27T00:22:00.000-08:00

Women forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during the Second War have joined forces to urge politicians to pass a resolution demanding a formal apology.

Backed by politicians and activists, a group of surviving former sex slaves from across Asia demanded that the Japanese government enact legislation to compensate victims.

The government was also urged to issue a formal apology and provide a balanced account of the issue in school textbooks as the group gathered in Tokyo for the ninth Solidarity Conference for the Issue of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan.

Azuma Konno, a politician with the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, said: "The government has kept its eyes shut and ignored the issue. To build our future, we cannot remain blind to the past." A statement from a committee representing the women and their families added: "Survivors are quickly ageing, still suffering from pain and complications from damage in the days of sexual slavery.

"Due to the delay to an apology and compensation by the Japanese government, the situation has become even more painful for the survivors.

Historians estimate that as many as 200,000 so-called "comfort women" from across Asia were forced to provide sexual services for Japanese military during the Second World War.The issue has long been a source of contention in Japan. Last year, Shinzo Abe, then prime minister, was forced to apologise after stating that there was insufficient evidence to confirm that "comfort women" had existed.

A number of international governments have called for fresh apologies from Japan for forcing thousands of women into sexual slavery, including the United States and Canada last year.

At the conference, Lee Soo-San, 80, a former sex slave who was forced to join a military brothel at the age of 16, recalled her experiences: "Military men were standing in a long line in front of the room. I did not think I could ever survive. My body is damaged and full of scars."

[ This article by Danielle Demetriou appeared on Telegraph on 26th November 2008 ]

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For further reading:

Barbara Drinck, Chung-noh Gross Forced Prostitution in Times of War and Peace, Kleine Verlag, 2007. ISBN-13: 978-3-89370-436-1.
Tanaka, Yuki Japan's Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery and Prostitution During World War II and the US Occupation, London, Routledge: 2002. ISBN 0-415-19401-6.
Yoshimi, Yoshiaki Comfort Women: Sexual Slavery in the Japanese Military During World War II, Columbia University Press, 2001. (mentioned RAA too) ISBN 0-231-12032-
X. Molasky, Michael S. American Occupation of Japan and Okinawa, Routledge, 1999. ISBN 0-415-19194-7, ISBN 0-415-26044-2. D.
Kim-Gibson, Silence Broken: Korean Comfort Women, 1999. ISBN 0-931209-88-9.
Hicks, George L. The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War, 1997. ISBN 0-393-31694-7.
Schellstede, Sangmie Choi. Comfort Women Speak: Testimony by Sex Slaves of the Japanese Military, 2000. ISBN 0-8419-1413-3.
Wakabayashi, Bob Tadashii "Comfort Women: Beyond Litigious Feminism" Nora Okja Keller "Comfort Woman", London, Penguin: 1998. ISBN 0-14-026335-7.
Maria Rosa Henson "Comfort woman: Slave of destiny", Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism: 1996. ISBN 9718686118.

Taiwan: Internet, text messaging luring girls to sex trade

2008-11-20T07:24:00.000-08:00

Technologies such as the Internet and text messaging are becoming common tools in recruiting young girls to the sex trade, social groups said yesterday.

The groups, including the End Child Prostitution Association in Taiwan, Garden of Hope Foundation, Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation and Mennonite Good Shepard Center, said the results came from a survey of 94 girls in shelters who had worked in the sex trade.

The survey showed that 40 percent of the girls were lured into the trade by their peers and 20 percent through Internet chat rooms. Only about 10 percent responded to newspaper advertisements or were recruited by employment agencies or through other media, compared with 30.9 percent in 1990. The remainder were recruited in a number of other ways.

While 42.5 percent of the girls knew what they were getting into, 34 percent did not know but could accept the situation afterwards, and 15 percent did not know and could not accept the situation, but could not leave. The others did not respond to the question.

Taipei Women's Rescue Foundation executive director Wu Pei-ling said the result showed that in contemporary society the girls were more affected by their private personal networks than before, when young people would be more influenced by the media.

The survey also showed that 47.9 percent of these girls had engaged in enjo-kosai, a Japanese term describing the phenomenon of schoolgirls selling their bodies to older men.

The survey quizzed 40 girls who had voluntarily entered the sex trade to understand their motivations. They were given multiple choices and could pick more than one answer.

"Among these girls, 70 percent said they engaged in enjo-kosai because they needed the money, 35 percent said the job paid better than others and 35 percent said it was out of curiosity," Wu said.

Wu said it was worrying that so many young girls would try enjo-kosai simply out of curiosity.

"The Internet and mobile phone short message systems also allow young people to get in touch with the sex industry easily," Wu said.

"With another survey we have done on the Internet, we have found that 37 percent of Internet users encounter pornography every day, 51 percent have viewed information regarding the sex trade and 52 percent of users search for pornography actively, with 15-to-19-year-olds the most keen searchers," Wu said.

Wu said that 85.12 percent of users said they had received sex messages via the Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan Cellular Corp or FarEasTone Telecommunications Co networks.

To address the issue the groups urged the government to improve its education program in shelters for teenagers, sex education in schools and its online detective work. They also demanded telecom service providers prevent sex short messages from spreading across their networks.

[ The above article by Debby Wu appeared on Taipei Times,Wednesday, December 17, 2003 ]

Philippines: Makibaka: Patriotic Movement of New Women

2008-10-31T02:14:00.000-07:00

Makabyang Kilusang ng Bagong Kababaihan [Patriotic Movement of New Women]

Women in Philippine society suffer triple oppression; as part of a people under semicolonial and semifeudal rule, as part of the opressed class, and as women under male domination. The Makabayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan (Makibaka, Patriotic Movement of New Women) exists as a distinct organization principally to confront and put and end to this oppression and
bring about the complete emancipation of women.

Makibaka unflinchingly supports the national democratic revolution, and, at the same time, believes that there are still a number of women issues that have to be addressed, the most
important of which is the further elimination of the influences of patriarchy in society and even within the revolutionary movement.

Makibaka aims for a society that is free, just and prosperous, where Filipino women shall have overcome class, national and gender oppression and exploitation. To achieve this, Makibaka
vigorously fights against imperialism, feudalism, bureaucratic capitalism and patriarchy not only in the life of the women but also of the children's.

The membership of the Makibaka is composed of women workers and peasants and other progressive and democratic classes.

Makibaka was formed in 1972 and takes pride in producing the likes of Maria Lorena Barros, its first chair, who after the declaration of martial law in 1972 went to the countryside and became a Red fighter of the New People's Army. She died in the hands of the enemy in 1976.

[From Liberation International, March - April 1993]

Japanese magazine publish Sex Guide for women

2008-10-20T01:28:00.000-07:00

Japanese magazine AnAn recently made a sex special edition.

This magazine made the special, with some collaboration from the Japanese Government, to try to incite Japanese girls to practice more sex and give birth to more girls (One big problem in Japan nowadays).

The first part of the magazine explains to the girls how to turn on their boyfriends and another part is full of typical questions with explanations from an expert and the last one if full of interesting charts.

They even included a DVD with real actors explicit explanations.

Movie Review: The Machine Girl

2008-10-18T01:05:00.000-07:00

The Machine Girl is one of those movies that is successful only because it tries to be bad (Remember Snakes on a Plane?) Of course, that doesn't make it good. Ninjas, flying guillotines, drill bras, a girl with a machine gun for an arm -- how could you not want to watch this movie after viewing the trailer?

Unfortunately, Girl is also one of those movies with a trailer that shows all the best parts, rendering everything in between underwhelming by comparison.

Want to have a good time? Don't watch the trailer, gather a bunch of friends, and sneak some forties into this movie. The trailer spoiled all the best parts for me, but I can certainly imagine how outrageous this movie would've been had I walked into it blindly.

The conundrum here is that most people probably would have no interest in watching this movie without seeing the trailer. And if you have seen the trailer, well, I guess the movie is still worth watching, but I'd either try to sneak in through the fire exit or wait for it to come out on DVD.

Whew. With that said and done, Girl is a Japanese revenge fantasy that revolves around Ami Hyuga (Asami), whose brother is brutally murdered by bullies for lunch money.

In a Kill Bill-like fashion, Hyuga starts hunting down his killers one by one. But when she confronts the ninja/Yakuza family responsible for her brother's death, she's outnumbered and captured.

Rather than killing her, the family chooses to torture her, first slicing off her fingers and then her left arm. She manages to escape and seeks refuge with a friend who engineers a machine-gun arm for her to aid her in her revenge quest.

You'll get everything you want out of a movie with this premise. It's a 90-minute splatterfest with enough blood spraying to fill a swimming pool. The bad guys are so bad they're not just senseless killers; they're also necrophiliacs. It's always fun to see how far the Japanese will go with the bizarre and the grotesque, and clearly in this movie there's no limit line.

Director Noboru Iguchi made a wise decision by not taking the movie seriously. The over-the-top visuals and cheesy lines like "What would Mom and Dad say, before they killed themselves over murder allegations?" make it clear this movie is a big joke aimed to amuse in the cheapest ways possible.

Takashi Miike made the mistake of trying to make a serious movie out of Ichi the Killer, which was about a sexually repressed man who fights with blades that come out of his shoes.

That movie is as repugnant as Girl but is lacking the laughs, which makes it feel more like you're watching a snuff film. Awkward.Aka Kataude mashin gâru.

[ The movie reviwed by Brian Chen at Hole in the Head Film Festival. ]

YouTube - The Machine Girl trailer
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSpCWJnnWVI

More reviews of The Machine Girl
http://www.dreamlogic.net/archives/machine-girl-movie-review
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009466-the_machine_girl/
http://www.amazon.com/Machine-Girl-Asami/dp/B0016K76V4

All you ever wanted to know on Geisha

2008-10-05T07:53:00.000-07:00

Geisha are professional hostesses who entertain guests through various performing arts. Gei means arts or performance, and sha means people. Geisha are not ordinary hostesses and are not prostitutes. It's believed that the women who danced for warriors in the 11th century are the predecessors of geisha. Geisha girls and women are trained in a number of traditional skills; Japanese ancient dance, singing, playing instruments (a three stringed instrument called shamisen is an essential instrument), flower arrangement, wearing kimono, tea ceremony, calligraphy, conversation, alcohol serving manners, and more.

Geisha girls and women are talented Japanese women who patiently go through extensive training. Even after becoming a geisha girl, they keep improving their skills by taking many lessons. Nowadays, there are geisha girls and women who learn English conversation to serve English-speaking customers and learn computer skills. The work of geisha is expanding these days, including modeling or international tours, for example. The districts where many geisha girls and women gather are called hanamachi (kagai).

Some hanamachi were developed near temples and shrines where many o-chaya located. Geisha used to entertain visitors at o-chaya. The o-chaya type of teahouse is completely different from those shops that merely serve tea or coffee. It's a sort of banquet house, which rents rooms for dinner parties. An o-chaya is usually a small Japanese-style house with wooden doors and tatami floors or Japanese-style gardens. Some o-chaya also train geisha and are places for maiko (young geisha girls) to live and go to work. Those o-chaya are also called okiya.

And some more...............................

To Become a Geisha in Japan

Since there aren't many people who want to endure the hard training necessary to become a geisha girl, the number of geisha is decreasing. Young girls who wish to become a geisha girl are usually introduced to an o-chaya through someone who has a connection to the teahouse. The head woman of an o-chaya, called okami, interviews the girl with her parents, explaining how the training goes.

If the okami accepts the girl as an apprentice to her o-chaya, the girl can begin her training immediately and live in the o-chaya if she has graduated from a middle school. Once a girl becomes a geisha trainee, she can't quit for 5 to 6 years. While helping with the chores and errands of the house, the young girl learns customs and social skills and begins music and dance lessons. After about a half-year, she becomes a young geisha girl called maiko (15-20 year old girls).

A maiko accompanies a geisha on her appointments to get to know the customers. Maiko girls wear a colorful kimono with long sleeves and high wooden shoes. Usually, when a maiko becomes 20 years old, she decides whether she will quit or become a geisha. If she gets married, she has to quit the job. If a maiko girl decides to become a geisha, the ceremony called "erigae" (literally means changes of collars) is held.

How to Party with Geisha in Japan

If a customer wants to call a geisha girl to a party, he/she asks the okami of an o-chaya, then the okami lets a management office (yakata) know about the request. Yakata are in charge of sending geisha or maiko girls to places, such as o-chaya, restaurants, hotels, and Japanese inns, depending on customers' request. If a customer is renting a room in an o-chaya for a dinner party, the customer will be charged for the food and geisha in addition to the cost for renting the room. The charge for calling the geisha girls is called "o-hanadai"

Unless you are referred by someone who is already a customer of a o-chaya, you aren't allowed to enter an o-chaya. O-chaya are very exclusive places. Usually, the charge for the service is billed to the customer from the o-chaya later, so, it's important for the o-chaya to have a trusting relationship with customers. O-chaya don't do business with a newcomer without the proper referral. However, many well-known restaurants or Japanese inns have some kinds of connection to an o-chaya, so you can request them to send geisha to your party.

When you do request, make it clear that what types of performance you would like. There are two basic types of geisha. One is called "tachikata" which mainly does traditional Japanese dance (mai). The other is called "jikata" which mainly sings, or plays an instrument. Tachikata are usually maiko girls and jikata are older geisha women. The cost for a party with geisha varies depending on the number of geisha, food, drink, hours, and so on. But, you can even have a party beginning at about $150 per person for a regular two-hour appointment. Consult with restaurants or inns who have connections to hanamachi.

Suggested reading on Geisha

1. Geisha
Written by Liza Dalby. She is an American anthroplologist and became a geisha in Kyoto.

2. Geisha - The Life, the Voices, the Art
Written by Ian Buruma and photographed by Jodi Cobb, who is a National Geographic photographer. Beautiful pictures of geisha women in Japan.

3. Memoirs of Geisha
A novel written by Arthur Golden. The life of a Japanese geisha, Sayuri.

4. Women of Pleasure Quarters - The Secret History of The Geisha
By Leslie Downer. She writes about the history and culture of geisha.

5. Yoshiwara : The Glittering World of the Japanese Courtesan
Written by by Cecilia S. Seigle. Yoshiwara is a district where prostitution was taken place in old days. A good book to learn about Japanese history and Japanese sexuality.

And even more.......................................

Top Five Geisha Shows in Japan

1. Miyako Odori Famous geisha shows by Kyoto Gion-kobu geisha women.
Place: Gion Kobu Kaburenjo
Address: 570-2 Gionmachi Minamigawa Higashiyama-ku Kyoto-city
Dates: April 1 - 30
Tickets: 4,300yen / 3,800yen / 1,900yen
Information: 075-541-3391

2. Azuma Odori Geisha shows by Tokyo Shinbashi geisha women.
Place: Shinbashi Enbujo Address: 6-18-2 Ginza Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Dates: May 28-31
Access: Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line or Toei Asakusa Line Higashi Ginza Station Toei Oedo Line Tsukijishijo Station
Tickets: 7,500yen / 6,000yen / 5,500yen / 2,500yen
Information: 03-5565-6000 (ticket reservations) / 03-3541-7206 (Shinbashi Kumiai)

3. Atami Odori Geisha shows by Atami geisha women.
Place: Atami Geiko Kenban Kaburenjou
Address: 17-13 Chuo Atami-city, Shizuoka
Dates: April 28 and 29 Access: 20 minutes by walk from JR Atami Station. or, take a NO.2 bus to Shimizu-cho Stop from JR Atami Station.
Information: Atami Geiko Kenban 0557-81-3575 Yumemachi Odori Hananomai
Dates: 11 am on Sundays and Saturdays
Tickets: 1,300 yen

4. Kyoto Go Kagai Godo Dento Geino Tokubetsu Koen It's a special show by geisha women from five hanamachi in Kyoto: Kamishichiken, Pontocho, Gionkobu, Miyagawasho, and Gion-higashi.
Place: Kyoto Kaikan Daiichi Hall Address: 13 Okazaki Saishoji-cho Sakyo-ku, Kyoto-city Dates: Weekend in mid-June
Access: Subway Tozai Line Higashiyama Station Kyoto City Bus Kyoto Kaikan Bijutsukan-mae Stop or Higashiyama Nijo Stop
Tickets: 9,000yen / 5,000yen
Information: Ookini Zaidan 075-561-3901 Kyoto City Touris Association 075-752-0227

5. Furumachi Niigata Odori A geisha show by Niigata Furumachi geisha women.
Place: Ryutopia Niigata Shimin Geijuku Bunkakaikan
Address: 3-2 Ichibanbori-dori-cho Chuo-ku Niigata-city
Access: Hakusan-koen-mae Bus Stop or Rikujokyogijo-mae Stop
Date: 1 day in June
Tickets: 4,000yen / 2,500yen
Information: Ryuto Shinko 025-222-7080

Tibet: Women face Choice - Nun or Prostitute

2008-10-04T00:58:00.000-07:00

It's evening in Shigatse and the lights are coming on.

In the Chinese district of the Tibetan mountain town, strings of fairy lights flicker around rows of shopfronts where women perch waiting for customers and men stumble out from backroom corridors.

"There are a lot of prostitutes here. They're all from the countryside. Maybe they don't have parents to look after them or anything else to do," says Jirga, an 18-year-old vendor.

Hundreds of kilometres away in a nunnery in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, a group of young Buddhist nuns sit stitching metres of maroon cloth into the robes that are the iconic uniform of the clergy.

"The life here is very good. If I wasn't doing this, I'd probably be a farmer," said nun Ani La, 30, speaking over the din of a thunderstorm that rolled in from the mountains.

The Lhasa nuns and the prostitutes of Shigatse may have little in common on the surface, but both are part of the same demographic group young, rural, Tibetan women and analysts say their ranks are growing.

As development draws herders and farmers to towns in search of wage labour, Tibet's women find themselves with few choices and little know-how for getting by in a market economy.

"Often where there is a concentration of nuns there is concentration of sex workers. The same forces are drawing young women away from villages," said Charlene Makely, a Tibet specialist at Reed College in the US state of Oregon.

Jirga, the vendor, shakes her head when asked how much schooling she has had. The answer is none. Her parents run a small stall selling jewellery and trinkets and she was raised to do the same.

At the Lhasa nunnery, more than 100 nuns live within the quiet yellow courtyard filled with potted plants and the sounds of chanted prayers, an oasis from the jumble of narrow streets of the city's old quarter.

Of the eight children in Ani La's family, three are nuns and two are monks. The others work on the family farm and one is a driver.

"This nunnery is popular because it's in the city, but the ones in the countryside are pretty popular now too," she said.

The nuns say their numbers have grown by a third in the past decade and would be higher if it weren't for government restrictions, imposed as part of a series of controls to keep nuns, who along with monks have a history of political activism, in check.

China imposed Communist rule in Tibet in 1950 and has faced periodic unrest since. Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, led a failed uprising in 1959 that led to his exile. Trouble flared throughout the late 1980s, too.

Most famous among Tibet's activist women were the "singing nuns", imprisoned for speaking out against Chinese rule and who became renowned after secretly recording songs in prison. The tapes were smuggled out and circulated underground.

The last of the singing nuns was released in 2004.

But in Tibet, where rural incomes are well under a dollar a day, some young women don't make it as far as the nunnery in their efforts to find security.

Their flight from village poverty ends in the sex trade.

"Men can go outside and look for work but for women it's not that easy. They can't do that," said 19-year-old Da Wa Qu Zong, who lives with relatives in Lhasa, looking after their son.

Many grow up in remote villages or in nomad families, herding yak and doing farmwork as Tibet's cities and towns experience a boom fuelled by massive central government investment a boom critics say benefits more skilled Han Chinese migrants at the expense of Tibetans.

"Tibetans are not only poorer, their extremely low level of education makes their chances of getting a steady and lucrative job in the cities as good as nonexistent," the Tibet Information Network said in a report documenting the rise in prostitution.

"In Tibet, prostitution is not just a symptom of poverty, but is triggered also by the growing prosperity of the few," the report said.

It's also a problem officials are loath to recognise, let alone begin to address.

"There is no prostitution here," said Bian Ba Ci Ren, an official in Shigatse. The government compound where he addresses reporters is just blocks from the city's red-light district.

HIV/AIDS cases are below 100 in the region, according to World Health Organisation figures. But views such as Bian Ba Ci Ren's have raised concerns the disease could spread, especially as the number of sex workers increases.

The official's pronouncement will also come as news to the young women in the shopfronts of Shigatse's euphemistically named "beauty parlours".

"I'm used to it by now," says one woman from the countryside when asked about what she thinks of her city vocation.

She returns to watching the street, where groups of men stumble drunkenly from shop to shop, leering at the women in the doorways.

[ The above article by Lindsay Beck appeared on Reuters, August 21, 2005 ]

Related reports for your reference:

Steel Butterflies: Prostitution in Lhasa
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=13005&t=1&c=5

Violence and Discrimination Against Tibetan Women
http://www.tibetjustice.org/reports/women/v.html

Unfavourable Education Policies Compel Tibetan Girls into Prostitution
http://www.tibetoday.com/watchdog_prostitution_lhasa_jan_issue_07.htm

Brunei: Public sector fairer to women than private

2008-09-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

Bruneian women have fair access to jobs across the sultanate, but in the private sector, men generally get better pay, a university lecturer said.

According to the Department of Economic Planning and Development, the percentage of women in the Bruneian workforce has grown substantially to 59 per cent in 2006 from just 20 per cent in 1971.

In an interview with The Brunei Times Dr Joyce Teo Siew Yean, Deputy Dean, Postgraduate Studies, Research and Development at the Universiti Brunei Darussalam, said that generally, Brunei does not have gender wage bias issues.

"Gender wage gap hardly exists in the public sector due to the uniformed pay scale," she said.

Not so in the private sector, she said, men on average earn 28 per cent morein all occupations.

"The gender earnings gap in the private sector could be a result of over-representation in some occupational groupings such as clerical and retail workers," she said.

But Dr Joyce said research shows there is no rigid occupational segregation in the Bruneian labour market. "Yet, concern exists within the country that the local workforce needs to play a greater role in National Development Plans, through reversing the trend of using expatriate labour ... This necessarily means an extended role for women given their importance in the workforce."

In Brunei, women would benefit more from a more equitable jobs distribution, suggesting that the government needs to address issues like giving women better access to non-traditional occupations.

"Women constitute a strong labour force, which need to be mobilised and encouraged to make an effective contribution to the development of the county," the UBD lecturer said.

It is vital that females are encouraged to progress up the hierarchy of occupations as their male counterparts, "otherwise they might not invest in education and training sufficiently," she added.

In a report to mark the International Women's Day, the International Labour Organisation said that in Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, women are currently seen to shift gradually into higher salaried jobs. The gender gap is also more narrow, where there are 73 women for every 100 men in the labour market.

With more young women opting to enter and stay in school, it has resulted in the decrease of young women in the employment-to-population ratio in this region, the report stated.

A worrying trend however is the rate of unemployment that is apparent not just in this region, but globally. Regionally, Indonesia posted the highest number of unemployed women.

Though there has been a high rise in the number of women in salaried work, the region also has the second largest share of women working as unpaid family workers.

According to the report, the move from agricultural employment is slower than in other Asian regions (although still sizeable). The overall increase in employment in services is being driven by women, who now account for 40.3 per cent of the services sector workforce.

Gender inequality is less of a challenge, but some trends need to be carefully watched, particularly women unemployment rates, which are increasing faster than men, according to the report.

[ The above article by Sobrina Rosli appeared on The Brunei Times,Monday, March 10,2008 ]

India: New breed of elite prostitutes cater to India's rich

2008-09-23T02:25:00.000-07:00

Zeba, a 23-year-old model and actress says she's found the perfect job. The money is great, she rubs shoulders with the super rich and her working hours are convenient.

Zeba is one of thousands of high-price call girls servicing India's nouveau riche and the throng of foreign businessmen drawn to a booming economy.

"If you have a modelling assignment, you have to work hard," Zeba, who declined to give her full name in order to protect her identity, said in American-accented English."But over here, it's just one hour. You talk to the person for half-an-hour and then the other hour in bed. You make a lot of money and it's easy," added Zeba, who charges 200,000 Indian rupees ($4,600) for an hour's encounter, of which the escort agency keeps half.

Prostitution is illegal in India.Yet voluntary groups estimate there to be two million sex workers, most of them forced into the trade by crushing poverty. Many suffer from HIV in a country with the world's third highest HIV caseload.

Call girls such as Zeba live in a world far removed from New Delhi's infamous G.B. Road, its main red-light district, and work as prostitutes as a matter of choice, plying their trade in five star hotels rather than on the streets or in brothels.

Many high-price escorts such as Zeba are educated women from middle-class families who see prostitution as a lucrative and even glamorous profession.

"Only two to three percent of India's prostitutes enter the profession willingly. These are the high-class girls, and it is them exercising their democratic rights," said Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research in New Delhi.

"These high-class escorts are definitely an outcome of globalised India," added Kumari.The growth of high-end prostitution in India underscores not only the affluence among the upper-classes who have the money to hire such prostitutes, but also the changing role of women in a deeply conservative society.

Even today, Indian women are expected to cover up in public and conform to strict societal norms. Premarital sex is taboo and Bollywood movies tease but generally stop short of kissing.

Yet the country's newfound economic affluence and expanding middle-class has also brought an insatiable appetite for the good things in life from designer clothes, to fast cars, to champagne dinners.

"With the changes in the economy and increased consumerism, the Indian woman is under pressure to conform to a highly capitalistic image which requires a lot of money to upkeep," said Anuja Agrawal, a sociologist at the University of Delhi.

"If Indian society were to really allow their women to be free, they won't be forced to conform to such a rigid behaviour."

Fast Growing Industry

Most high-end sex workers in India charge anywhere from 10,000 rupees ($225) to 50,000 rupees ($1,125) for an hour, but some charge many times more.

"I accommodate the rich, multi-millionaires and business entrepreneurs. Obviously it's a very big industry and in India it is especially fast-growing," said Sameer Chamadi, who runs an escort agency in India that has branches in Dubai and London.

"If the guys have money, they can have my escorts," added Chamadi. His business is one of many online escort agencies sprouting on the Internet in India.

Police in India say they try to enforce anti-prostitution laws by checking classified advertisements and the Internet for those soliciting sex. But they admit it is difficult to clamp down on high-class prostitutes and clients whose liaisons are usually arranged and conducted in private.

Chamadi and other escort agency owners insist their call girls are worth every cent and can do anything for their clients, from stimulating conversation to bondage fetishes.

"It's a major, major, class difference, and with us it's not just 'slam, bang, thank you Ma'am'. You can actually sit and have a proper conversation with us," said Zeba.

Starting out in Mumbai as a model, Zeba, a college graduate, got her break in movies through a client who was influential in Bollywood. She has no regrets about her chosen profession.

"I really hate people who put on an act about not liking something when they actually do. I mean sex is not just what men want, we women want it also," she said.

[ The above article by Melanie Lee appeared on Reuters India ]

Japan: The Love Machine

2008-09-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Claim: Vending machines in Japan offer for sale panties purportedly worn by schoolgirls.

Status: True.

Origins: Used underwear that has supposedly been previously worn by schoolgirls is being offered for sale in vending machines in Japan. Though we don't know the current price for such items, in 1993 they sold for the equivalent of US $50 apiece.

We'd read that this practice ended in 1993 and reported as much in the original of this article (which was penned in 2001), but since that time numerous readers living in Japan have written to say that not only haven't the machines gone away, but that they've themselves seen them.

Japan is home to a thriving bura-sera industry — Hello sailor of which traffic in the soiled panties of schoolgirls represents only one part — with "bura-sera" or "buru-sera" the term for a specific male fascination relating to that country's schoolgirls. "Buru" is anglicized Japanese (Japlish) for "bloomers" and "sera" for "sailor"; the term refers to the sailor suit, the predominant style of girls' junior and high school uniforms. Dozens, if not hundreds, of magazines are exclusively devoted to bura-sera photographs, pictures that feature girls clad in school garb, holding up their skirts to display their panties. Usually in such photos the girls' faces are hidden, but that is not always the case.

Girlish youth and innocence are considered sexy in Japan, a culture with a long history of regarding women more as sex toys than as people. This obsession with untouched adolescence results in the sad sight of women in their thirties emitting girlish giggles and clutching teddy bears in an effort to maintain their appeal to the opposite sex. Although it can fairly be said Western society also prizes youth in a woman, there the fascination has to do more with the looks of a girl than it does with her immaturity and presumed sexual innocence. A pretty 26-year-old who would be considered lovely in the West would in Japan be viewed by many as hopelessly long in the tooth.

Western society looks for firm, youthful bodies housing the attitudes of grown women — we like them young, but we don't like them to act young. In the West, a teen's sex appeal is dependent upon her ability to look and act much older, thus the fascination with makeup and plunging necklines, accoutrements that make her appear less of a child and more of a woman. In Japan, this ideal is reversed — sexy in the Land of the Rising Sun adds up to childlike behavior and modes of dress that express this ideal. Sometimes this amounts to the adoption of clothing styles highly reminiscent of high school uniforms, but even when a girl dons an evening gown, she will strive to look like a kinderling caught parading in Mom's finery. Likewise, childish outbursts, pouting, and tantrums are viewed as charmingly erotic because such actions work to further the violated schoolgirl image.

In a sexual culture so dominated by roricon (Japlish for "Lolita complex"), buru-sera fetishism finds its footing. Those whose way of life has taught them to lust for young girls find outlet for their interest through viewing suggestive photos of teen girls and handling items previously worn by them.

For a price, girls supplying buru-sera items for resale will don a new pair of panties at a porn shop in the morning on their way to school, then change back into their own underwear at the end of the day at the same shop, leaving its proprietor with a saleable item. Girls can also turn a profit on their own used undies by offloading them to the same people. Generally,
the more worn the item, the higher the price it will fetch. Porn shops featuring buru-sera items also vend girls' used school uniforms.

There is no guarantee that all the panties marketed as having been worn by schoolgirls actually have been. Such details are not scrupulously vetted; no regulatory body checks to ensure the veracity of claims made about these items. However, it is clear that at least some of the used undies do come from teen girls, thus this "underwear of a Japanese schoolgirl" story is no myth.

Japan has a tradition of vending through machines what Western society would view as unusual consumables. In addition to the many items one would typically expect to find offered for sale in this manner, porn magazines, disposable cameras, new pantyhose, horoscopes, and many other goods are routinely mechanically vended.

Part of the appeal of such machines is attributable to a matter of convenience, but concern for privacy also fuels the mania. There is less chance of embarrassment in buying condoms from a machine than from a store where the sale must be rung up and bagged by a clerk. Likewise, purchases of "pink" videos (what in the West are termed "blue movies") are less likely to be blush-producing experiences when these transactions can be effected without anyone else's looking on.

There was thus a waiting market for "schoolgirl panties" machines, in that those looking to obtain such items would not have to brave a bura-sera shop to fulfill their desires. These mechanical points of sale appeared in 1993 in Chiba City (Chiba Prefecture), in an area known for its porn magazine and adult video vending machines. Almost immediately, an outcry was raised against them, but there was a problem in getting them removed: Whereas sellers required licences to distribute other types of goods, no such requirement was on the books for soiled underwear, because no one had foreseen the possibility of trade in such an item. These machines existed outside the law in the sense that no specific statute existed that could be invoked to combat them.

The solution was as creative as it is odd-sounding — the machines were countered by invoking the Antique Dealings Law, a statute which stipulates that an antique dealer or a dealer in second-hand items must obtain permission from local authorities. Lacking those permissions, the items could not be vended.

In September 1993, three businessmen were charged with selling used panties without a permit under the provenance of this law. This supposedly ended the presence of such salespoints in that country, but like we said at the top of this piece, countless readers have since written to tell us that the machines can still be found.

By Barbara Mikkelson

Sources:

Annells, Jonathan."Hot Pants, Hot Customers and Hot Prices." South China Morning Post. 12 September 1993 (p. 4).
The Daily Yomiuri."Dealers of Used Female Underwear Charged." 21 September 1993 (p. 2).
Mainichi Daily News."'Bura-Sera' Vending Machines Stir Local Concern." 12 September 1993.
Tokyo Business Today."The Next Fad: Vending Machines for Panty Perverts." November 1993 (p. 64).

In Rural China, It's a Family Affair

2008-09-20T03:52:00.000-07:00

A dearth of brides has some village bachelors looking for love close to home

It's a chilly evening in this land of yellow earth and the matrimonial bed for Liu Dehai and Hai Hongmei is laid with a quilt embroidered with the characters for "double happiness." The words are also pasted on the wall, a bright-red portent of good fortune for just-married Chinese. Next to the bed sits a new pleather sofa, plastic wrap still hanging from its arms.

This should be a place of contentment and hope, but Liu's mother doesn't want anyone observing too closely. "Please," she says, hands frantically kneading the quilt, "do not speak of this room." Indeed, the newlyweds point to the desperation that has engulfed the hardscrabble villages of China's central Shaanxi province. For Liu and Hai are not just husband and wife but also first cousins.

In some Asian countries, such as Pakistan and Indonesia, marriage between close relatives is tolerated, even encouraged. The attitude is at least you know who you're getting and, if there is any wealth to share, you can keep it in the family. Most everywhere else, the practice is a social stain. Yet for increasing numbers of Chinese, the issue isn't a matter of choice—but survival. China is facing an alarming dearth of young brides.

Two decades of restrictive family-planning policies have resulted in a drastic gender imbalance—the country is missing 50 million girls who would have been born if not for sex-based abortions and female infanticide. Sons are valued far more than daughters in China because males maintain the family line and care for parents when they grow old. Girls, on the other hand, leave their parents' home for their husband's clan when they marry.

In China's poorest villages, fathers don't even count their daughters when asked how many children they have. "Two strong sons," says a millet farmer surnamed Yang when asked about his family. As an afterthought, he adds: "Two donkeys. A pig. And one daughter."

But all these strong sons will one day need strong wives. Now that the offspring of China's one-child policy are reaching marriageable age, millions are finding there just aren't enough women to go around. With so many men to choose from, women are loathe to live in, say, the mud caves where many Shaanxi peasants make their homes.

So men in the countryside are resorting to drastic means to continue their family lines, including wedding women who once had little hope of marrying, like those with physical or mental disabilities. Brothers share one wife. The most desperate of all, though, are those who marry members of their own family. Pretty girls who could have their pick of men in the cities are instead told they must stay home and marry internally—all for the good of their family clan.

Liu Dehai never imagined he would wed his shy first cousin Hai Hongmei. But Liu's parents couldn't make enough from Shaanxi's parched earth to buy their son a wife.Desperate, his mother asked her sister for a big favor. A few days later, Liu was informed he would be marrying his kin. "It can be unsafe to marry cousins," says Liu's mother. "But what can we do?"

While not as risky as once thought, marriage among first cousins nearly doubles the chances of birth defects. Reminders of the potential dangers fill neighborhoods just a few miles from Liu's village of Nanliang. In the roadside hamlet of Chenzhuangke, a first-cousin couple grieve for their young son who died of a rare blood disease. In the nearby city of Yan'an, a brother and sister squat in the mud-brick slums, signing a secret language to each other.

Both Cao Shuai and Cao Jing were born deaf-mute. Everybody in the neighborhood thinks they know why: their parents are first cousins. And last month in Yan'an county, a severely retarded newborn girl was found abandoned by the side of a dirt road. Authorities tracked down her parents, only to find out they were a brother and sister, eking out a life together in a dark, cramped cave. And the situation could worsen.

Chinese demographers estimate that in some rural areas, 80% of children between ages five and 10 are boys. "You think the problem seems terrible now," says a U.N. official based in Beijing. "But wait until all the kids from the one-child policy years have grown up. That's when the epidemic will really hit."

No one knows exactly what the impact a surplus of tens of millions of men will be on society. Sociologists predict that both military and monastic life will become more popular. But these institutions will only be able to soak up a limited number of men, and the government fears a rise in crime, prostitution and drug use as a swarm of bachelors roam the countryside. A hint of that future has already arrived in Shaanxi's Qiaogou village, where children play under a dusty apple tree, tossing scraps of vegetables as makeshift toys.

The noise is the raucous glee of boys being boys. There is only one girl playing among them. Seven-year-old Xiaochun is astonished when asked what he thinks his future will hold. "I'll get married and be a good farmer of course," he says. Where will he get a wife? After all, there's only one girl among his playmates. Xiaochun furrows his brow and considers the question. "I think in other villages far away, there are many more girls," he says. "I will get my wife from there." Across China, millions of young males are hoping the same thing, but only a few will ever meet the woman of their dreams.

[ The above article by Hannah Beech Nanliang appeared on Time Magazine, May 27, 2002 ]

Cambodia: The Status of Khmer Women

2008-09-18T03:44:00.000-07:00

The image of the Cambodian woman has always been compared to the celestial goddesses on the walls of the great temples Angkor Wat. The pleasant smile and distant gaze serve as a paragon for Cambodian women. Apsara, as they are called, represent water and purity and the fluidity of the virtuous female.

Khmer literature, in its didactic tone, has also played a major role in shaping the image and persona of the Khmer woman. Through stories about Srey Kroup Leakhnak, the virtuous woman who upholds the family name, Khmer women and men are trained for their social roles within Cambodian society.

But after twenty years of war, genocide and suffering and now resettlement in America, both Khmer society and its people find it harder to live up to the old ideas of what they have always defined as Khmer.

With the redefining of social roles in the Khmer community, Cambodians face complicated challenges in adjusting to the mainstream culture of America. Faced with a 180 degree shift in gender roles, women have found it even more compromising to save their identities as Khmer women.

"To be an improper woman is to cease to be Khmer, and given Khmer notions of the centrality of Khmerness, to cease to be Khmer is to cease to be fully human," wrote Judy Ledgerwood, Ph.D.

However, the conflict of ideals proves to have heavier consequences for women who have grown up in Cambodia and have now resettled in an environment which advocates and demands actions and morals that conflict with the social and moral systems they were taught to uphold.

Traditional Cambodian gender roles have relied on a unique system of "gender equality" which has been quite different from the "equality" considered by American standards from the women's feminist movement. As Ledgerwood explores, Khmer women's roles and their behavior greatly affect the status of their husbands, sons, and fathers. The ranking of a man within society has a direct correlation to the image projected by the women in his life. Women, have a power to upset the entire status structure through their behavior. It is a power that has no equal in male roles or in Western terms.

Yet this traditional role, though potent, has also proved enslaving to the Khmer women in the new Cambodian social structure and within the Cambodian communities in America.

As described in Khmer literature, the Khmer woman, must remain virtuous to uphold the image of her family. She is required to speak softly, walk lightly and be well-mannered at all times. She is required to stay in her home, and serve as the caretaker of the family and preserver of the home. As a young woman, a Khmer woman must be a virgin before she marries and be faithful to her husband after marriage, even though he is allowed to have extramarital affairs. But if a wife is virtuous, he will not need to look elsewhere for happiness. She must be clever and wise by bringing greater wealth and status to her husband.

Heavy consequences exist for women who disobey the didactic message directed to them in Khmer literature. Often times the women are punished by rape or end their lives in suicide from shame.

Many Khmer women, especially single mothers, have suffered through tremendous hardships, which have greatly affected their self-image. During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, women were often viewed as being less threatening to the regime; their lives were spared while they faced the death of their husbands, sons and fathers. Many continue to carry their painful memories throughout their daily lives.

Darkness in Paradise

For many Cambodians, immigration to America was a trip to thanh sour, paradise. But for about 150 women in Long Beach, California, heaven's salvation wasn't as bright. The images of the war atrocities plagued their memories and because of severe post-traumatic stress many were diagnosed as functionally and legally blind.

Reports of their condition hit the media in the late 1980s, when several women, many of whom were on Medicaid, were going to optometrist to get their vision checked. Doctors discovered that although their eyesight appeared normal, their minds had willed themselves blind. After some further research, Dr. Gretchen Van Boemel of the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles, tracked a consistent pattern of visual history.

Each one of the women had experienced and seen a family member murdered during the genocide. One woman saw her baby thrown against a tree. Another saw her husband disemboweled. Yet another witnessed the Khmer Rouge cutting the throat of her parents. And another saw her husband killed and was ordered not to cry.

"It's a coping mechanism," Van Boemel said to the St. Petersburg Times. "These women saw so much, they thought, 'I've seen as much as I can. I've seen bloodshed, I've buried enough babies, I've watched enough children die, and I don't want to see anymore.'"

As Chhou Chreng told the Los Angeles Times, "When I feel happy, my eyes are normal. When I think about Cambodia and my family, I see flashes of light and dark."

Although the women received adequate therapy from the researchers and doctors, they felt uncomfortable with American style therapy and diagnosis. People regarded as having any mental problems are considered deviants in Khmer society. Cambodians prefer to work out their problems within the family and with magic doctors or at the temples.

The psychosomatic result of post-traumatic depression that the women experience, are shared by many Cambodians. Although the traumatic stress may not be expressed in the same way, hundreds of Cambodian suffer from the memories of the atrocities and control their problems through suppression. Many of the women spoke of the reliance on Buddhist redemption and karma to cope with their suffering. They relate to problems with little resistance and reason that their condition was one willed by a predestined fortunate, their karma.

Widowed in America

Leng Houth, like other widows who survived the war without their husbands, hang pictures of their deceased husbands on a family shrine.

"I could not love anyone else as I loved my husband. It would be like a betrayal," said Houth as she looked as her husband's black and white photo taken nearly twenty-five years ago.

"I miss him everyday," she mumbled. "Tell my daughters about him as often as I can, so they will not forget how great a man he was."

Many of the women whose husbands were killed in the war, have remained celibate and choose not to remarry. Although many have re-established their lives within the American labor force and have learned to adapt to help their children, many remain silent and lonely.

Culture and literature play an important part in their choice not to remarry. Following the rules of being a proper wife, many of the women feel they must remain faithful to their husbands even after death. Once married, a woman is married for life and if she chooses to restart her life with another man, she is disrespected by her community and her peers.

Yet for others the story becomes even more complicated.Vaing Sau and her three children had been separated from her husband, an air force major, Bantum Chim, at the start of the war. She and her children had walked through the streets of Phnom Penh to the labor camps and suffered through the trauma of Pol Pot's regime.

She says she survived on the hope of being reunited with her husband. She fled to Saigon and managed to mail a letter to her husband, who had survived and made it to America.

Her husband responded with tears of joy and pain, but did not tell her that he had remarried after two years of being isolated and alone. When Vaing came to America, she saw a baby safety-seat in the car and regretted that she had ever come to America.

Chim arranged for her apartment, which was in the next building down from his and his new wife's. Confused and stuck between two women he loved, he didn't know what to do. The women, on the other hand, felt frustrated and betrayed.

Chim moved from apartment to apartment, sleeping at his first wife's apartment on nights when he and his second wife fought. But soon it all became a sham and he could not hold up the role of being husband to two wives.

"I come here to look for him," Vaing told the Washington Post. "I do what no women can do, with baby and children, walk and walk and we eat nothing. Many people die in my country. and I come here to look for husband. And he married!"

Legacies of the War and Camp Life

According to an article written by Chanthou Boua in 1993 and UNICEF surveys done in Cambodia in 1990, 65 percent of the population, and 70 percent of the able-bodied population are women. A 1990 U.S. Census Bureau reports that about 52 percent of the total Cambodian population in America are women. However, 13 percent of the median aged women are widows and about 25 percent of total Cambodian families are run by a female householder without a husband present. About 5.6 percent of total families are considered mother-child subfamilies who live with relatives or other extended family.

The statistics reflect how the population was greatly altered by the genocide, but more importantly the change has created a major shakeup in the pattern of Khmer society. The visible changes within the gender roles began in the Thai-Khmer border camps as a result of relief policies and disproportion of the sex-ratio.

In Political Pawns, Josephine Reynell, explores the dynamics of Khmer society in the refugee camps in the late 1980s. Under the "Women only" rule enforced by UNICEF, which tried to prevent rations from going to guerrilla soldiers, limited its distribution of rice to women and 8-years-old girls.

"Tickets entitling women and girls to receive food were handed out at the six-monthly headcounts when all eligible women had to gather within a fenced and guarded compound at an appointed time. These screening were traumatic for everyone involved, as families with insufficient food rations tried to pass ineligible children through the screening gates," Reynell wrote.

Great disadvantages were caused by the inequalities of the distribution. Families with more male adults and boys and females over age eight lacked sufficient rations of food. Also, families with small children were left hungry, with only the mother's ration to sustain the family.

Gradually, women's roles as the family breadwinner became a stronger and stronger force. For the first time, men relied on their wives to support the family with food. Khmer women's economic power had risen as a result of the relief policy.

In America, the same problem persists. Many of the refugee families became dependent on the welfare programs which aided families with smaller children. Welfare checks supported a family by proportion to the number of children under the age of 18. Women had more children to continue receiving checks and the role of the father as an economic asset was undermined by the government.

Another problem which has been a legacy of the overcrowded camp life and the psychological problems of post-traumatic stress has been the outbreak of domestic violence. With scarce resources and limited freedom, many Cambodians complained they were living like chickens in a cage. Psychological problems and disenchantment with the living conditions led husbands and wives to quarrels. Many men, frustrated with the dramatic gender role changes and lack of mobility, resorted to violence against their spouses.

Domestic violence prior to the war was very rare, but with the frustrations of war and disillusionment, the practice emerged while in the camps and continue for some Cambodian women now living in America. Substance abuse and gambling prove prominent in many of the urban city families and are greatly linked to the problems behind domestic violence.

While in camps, men also began to take second wives. Women, feeling inadequate about raising their families, had more to worry about if their husbands took a second wife. Polygamy was never unlawful prior to the war, but it was seldom practiced to the extent it was in the Thai camps.

In America, although polygamy habits have disappeared, higher divorce rates have occurred in the younger age groups. Many parents continue to arrange marriages for their daughters and many marry before finishing high school. Although some women have taken the opportunities to earn a higher education by entering college, traditional families still marry their daughters at around the age of 17 or 18.

Camp life presented many dangers to women, especially for women ages 15-25. The security problems at the camps and from trauma of the plight to the border allowed for many cases of rape and harassment. Because the number of reported rapes remained below the number of actual cases, a vast number of women have gone untreated and stigmatize themselves because of their experience.

A health study done in 1989 by Richard Mollica and Russell Jalbert, reported that 90 percent of the suicide attempts involved women ages 15-30. The report said:

"Most younger women have endured the suffering of the Pol Pot children groups and are now coming of age ill-prepared to deal with the responsibilities of marriage and child rearing. The increase in domestic violence and breakdown of the Khmer family structures (e.g. husbands having more than one wife) and lack of kinship support form older women and relatives increase their psychological vulnerability. Finally, many continue to be the victims of sexual and physical violence."

With a legacy of family shifting and violence, the image Khmer women perceive of themselves is a blemished image, a fractured Apsara.

Washing Muddied Cotton and Turning It Into Silk

Khmer traditionalists compare a Cambodian girl to white cotton wool. A boy is compared to a gem. And it is said that when white is muddied, it can never be washed to the purity and cleanness it once had. Gems, on the other hand, can be cleaned to shine brighter. Enslaved within a cultural double standard, Khmer women in America have been unfairly judged.

The atrocities of war, the violence and the hardship have drenched the white cloth with a deep rouge. Blood is harder to wash than mud.The responsibilities they must take just to survive and make a living for their children ostracize them from the traditional definition of Khmer women.

To deviate from the definition, the image so entrenched in Khmer literature and culture, a women ceases to be defined as Khmer. The backlash in response to resettlement in America has been an adamant urge to control younger Cambodian women from attaining a higher education, from entering the work force and from leaving the family home. Older Cambodian men complain of an increasing generation gap and say that younger people have lost their culture and no longer listen to their parents.

What they do not realize is that the demands on the Khmer woman have changed dramatically. Traditionalists feel their own power has been undermined by the resettlement. The children, who have learned the language and have adapted to American lifestyles have become the family spokesperson in dealing with social worker or figures of authority or have become the delinquent, the gangsta out for retribution.

The Khmer family structure has altered for both genders, but because Khmer culture has invested so much in the preservation of their culture through women, the gender changes have been exceptionally astonishing for the community in search of its old identity. Like the smashed sculptures along the walls of Angkor, the Khmer women's identity has been an intimate concern of all Cambodians. And the image's deterioration has direct consequences to each person's identity.

Unfortunately, the women, caught between the responsibility of fostering the Khmer identity for future generations and finding their place within the new power stratum, are blamed and blame themselves for the reshifting of gender roles.

Khmer women, eager to take advantages of the new freedoms and liberties and who are quickly elevating within the American system, have yet to gain the recognition of their communities. They find themselves alienated because they have lost the traditional traits of a Khmer women. They are regarded as a defector when they marry outside the race. They are considered antagonists if they voice their opinions within the community.

As for the widows and women who grew up in Cambodia, many have made compromises to adjust to their new lifestyles. However, many remain isolated within their homes and engulf their concerns in their children. They still perceive themselves as muddied cloth, marked by the blood of their husbands, sons and fathers.

The greatest misfortune is that few women realize the achievements and strengths which they possess. Having survived such atrocities and seeing all the bloodshed, they still have hope and a smile. It proves that Khmer women underestimate their own power and courage. Modesty, of course, is the sign of a "true" Khmer woman.

Gains Ahead

Women, in Cambodia and America, have emerged as a great economic power within their societies. Many younger women are realizing the task ahead of them. First, they must dissolve more gender barriers, so Cambodians can rebuild the country with a full force. Many of the younger women have sought education in the liberal arts: political science, humanities, economics and law.

As of 1990, only four women attained a doctorate degree and all received their degrees after their arrival in America. However, the numbers are rising, and more and more women are shedding the old traditions and embarking on their career before raising a family.

With joint efforts by women in Cambodia and in America, the shock and tragedy of the war may be eased. The Khmer Rouge return to year zero destroyed the social, economic and political framework of Khmer life and traditions. After twenty years, Cambodia is emerging again and the women have brought a new face to the reconstruction.

By Elizabeth Chey

Japan: Schoolgirl skirts getting longer!!!!

2008-09-12T07:54:00.000-07:00

Japanese schoolgirl’s skirts are actually getting longer. That’s what the teen magazine Cawaii has determined. It seems that Tokyo schoolgirl’s skirts are actually on average 10cm longer than 5 years ago.

Many Shibuya teens are moving towards a more “wholesome” image. Shirts are beginning to not be unbuttoned, and makeup is looking more natural. The new look is being called “Celebrity high school girl” due girls wanting to appear more elegant and refined.

Don’t expect to see any knee-caps in Kobe Japan. Over half of the schoolgirls there are wearing even lower skirts than Tokyo. On average skirts are 20cm longer than 5 years ago.

Sano Katsuhiko, uniform research director for Tombo, says

"The ideal length for skirts is just a few centimeters above the knees. Tokyo is still too short, and Kobe is too long."

You would think that Japanese schoolgirls would be totally for this change, however many actually prefer the skirts. Second year student Chika Takami says,

Slacks are easier to move around in, but there’s a very strong image that schoolgirls wear skirts. And school is the only time in our lives that we can wear these uniforms.

Sapporo Minamigaoka Schoolgirl UniformAt Sapporo Municipal Minamigaoka Junior High School, slacks have actually replaced skirts for female uniforms for the majority of the year. Females will be able to wear the skirts during the 3 hottest months in the year, but will be required to wear a uniform similar to the male uniforms for the other months. The female uniforms are to the left.

While it is still early, we can expect this trend to grow as functionality will replace the schoolgirl image. I think the younger girls will be the first to really be required to wear the slacks as it is easier for them to accept change, especially they grow up wearing slacks in school.

What trend will be after “Celebrity High School Girl”? Only time will tell.

India: Problems of Women Entrepreneurs

2008-09-09T01:39:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as the women or a group of women who initiate, organize and operate a business enterprise. Government of India has defined women entrepreneurs as an enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of the capital and giving at least 51% of employment generated in the enterprise to women. Like a male entrepreneurs a women entrepreneur has many functions. They should explore the prospects of starting new enterprise; undertake risks, introduction of new innovations, coordination administration and control of business and providing effective leadership in all aspects of business.

Push-Pull factors and Women in business

Women in business are a recent phenomenon in India. By and large they had confide themselves to petty business and tiny cottage industries. Women entrepreneurs engaged in business due to push and pull factors. Which encourage women to have an independent occupation and stands on their on legs. A sense towards independent decision-making on their life and career is the motivational factor behind this urge.

Saddled with household chores and domestic responsibilities women want to get independence Under the influence of these factors the women entrepreneurs choose a profession as a challenge and as an urge to do some thing new. Such situation is described as pull factors. While in push factors women engaged in business activities due to family compulsion and the responsibility is thrust upon them.

Problems of Women Entrepreneurs in India

Women in India are faced many problems to get ahead their life in business. A few problems cane be detailed as

1. The greatest deterrent to women entrepreneurs is that they are women. A kind of patriarchal – male dominant social order is the building block to them in their way towards business success. Male members think it a big risk financing the ventures run by women.

2. The financial institutions are skeptical about the entrepreneurial abilities of women. The bankers consider women loonies as higher risk than men loonies. The bankers put unrealistic and unreasonable securities to get loan to women entrepreneurs. According to a report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), "despite evidence that women's loan repayment rates are higher than men's, women still face more difficulties in obtaining credit," often due to discriminatory attitudes of banks and informal lending groups.

3. Entrepreneurs usually require financial assistance of some kind to launch their ventures - be it a formal bank loan or money from a savings account. Women in developing nations have little access to funds, due to the fact that they are concentrated in poor rural communities with few opportunities to borrow money (Starcher, 1996; UNIDO, 1995a). The women entrepreneurs are suffering from inadequate financial resources and working capital. The women entrepreneurs lack access to external funds due to their inability to provide tangible security. Very few women have the tangible property in hand.

4. Women's family obligations also bar them from becoming successful entrepreneurs in both developed and developing nations. "Having primary responsibility for children, home and older dependent family members, few women can devote all their time and energies to their business" (Starcher, 1996, p. .The financial institutions discourage women entrepreneurs on the belief that they can at any time leave their business and become housewives again. The result is that they are forced to rely on their own savings, and loan from relatives and family friends.

5. Indian women give more emphasis to family ties and relationships. Married women have to make a fine balance between business and home. More over the business success is depends on the support the family members extended to women in the business process and management. The interest of the family members is a determinant factor in the realization of women folk business aspirations.

6. Another argument is that women entrepreneurs have low-level management skills. They have to depend on office staffs and intermediaries, to get things done, especially, the marketing and sales side of business. Here there is more probability for business fallacies like the intermediaries take major part of the surplus or profit. Marketing means mobility and confidence in dealing with the external world, both of which women have been discouraged from developing by social conditioning. Even when they are otherwise in control of an enterprise, they often depend on males of the family in this area.

7. The male - female competition is another factor, which develop hurdles to women entrepreneurs in the business management process. Despite the fact that women entrepreneurs are good in keeping their service prompt and delivery in time, due to lack of organisational skills compared to male entrepreneurs women have to face constraints from competition. The confidence to travel across day and night and even different regions and states are less found in women compared to male entrepreneurs. This shows the low level freedom of expression and freedom of mobility of the women entrepreneurs.

8. Knowledge of alternative source of raw materials availability and high negotiation skills are the basic requirement to run a business. Getting the raw materials from different souse with discount prices is the factor that determines the profit margin. Lack of knowledge of availability of the raw materials and low-level negotiation and bargaining skills are the factors, which affect women entrepreneur's business adventures.

9. Knowledge of latest technological changes, know how, and education level of the person are significant factor that affect business. The literacy rate of women in India is found at low level compared to male population. Many women in developing nations lack the education needed to spur successful entrepreneurship. They are ignorant of new technologies or unskilled in their use, and often unable to do research and gain the necessary training (UNIDO, 1995b, p.1). Although great advances are being made in technology, many women's illiteracy, strucutural difficulties, and lack of access to technical training prevent the technology from being beneficial or even available to females ("Women Entrepreneurs in Poorest Countries," 2001).

According to The Economist, this lack of knowledge and the continuing treatment of women as second-class citizens keeps them in a pervasive cycle of poverty ("The Female Poverty Trap," 2001). The studies indicates that uneducated women donot have the knowledge of measurement and basic accounting.

10. Low-level risk taking attitude is another factor affecting women folk decision to get into business. Low-level education provides low-level self-confidence and self-reliance to the women folk to engage in business, which is continuous risk taking and strategic cession making profession. Investing money, maintaining the operations and ploughing back money for surplus generation requires high risk taking attitude, courage and confidence. Though the risk tolerance ability of the women folk in day-to-day life is high compared to male members, while in business it is found opposite to that.

11. Achievement motivation of the women folk found less compared to male members. The low level of education and confidence leads to low level achievement and advancement motivation among women folk to engage in business operations and running a business concern.

12. Finally high production cost of some business operations adversely affects the development of women entrepreneurs. The installation of new machineries during expansion of the productive capacity and like similar factors dissuades the women entrepreneurs from venturing into new areas.

How to Develop Women Entrepreneurs?

Right efforts on from all areas are required in the development of women entrepreneurs and their greater participation in the entrepreneurial activities. Following efforts can be taken into account for effective development of women entrepreneurs.

Consider women as specific target group for all developmental programmes.
Better educational facilities and schemes should be extended to women folk from government part.
Adequate training programme on management skills to be provided to women community.
Encourage women's participation in decision-making.
Vocational training to be extended to women community that enables them to understand the production process and production management.
Skill development to be done in women's polytechnics and industrial training institutes. Skills are put to work in training-cum-production workshops.
Training on professional competence and leadership skill to be extended to women entrepreneurs.
Training and counselling on a large scale of existing women entrepreneurs to remove psychological causes like lack of self-confidence and fear of success.
Counselling through the aid of committed NGOs, psychologists, managerial experts and technical personnel should be provided to existing and emerging women entrepreneurs.
Continuous monitoring and improvement of training programmes.
Activities in which women are trained should focus on their marketability and profitability.
Making provision of marketing and sales assistance from government part.
To encourage more passive women entrepreneurs the Women training programme should be organised that taught to recognize her own psychological needs and express them.
State finance corporations and financing institutions should permit by statute to extend purely trade related finance to women entrepreneurs.
Women's development corporations have to gain access to open-ended financing.

The financial institutions should provide more working capital assistance both for small scale venture and large scale ventures.
Making provision of micro credit system and enterprise credit system to the women entrepreneurs at local level.
Repeated gender sensitisation programmes should be held to train financiers to treat women with dignity and respect as persons in their own right.
Infrastructure, in the form of industrial plots and sheds, to set up industries is to be provided by state run agencies.
Industrial estates could also provide marketing outlets for the display and sale of products made by women.
A Women Entrepreneur's Guidance Cell set up to handle the various problems of women entrepreneurs all over the state.
District Industries Centres and Single Window Agencies should make use of assisting women in their trade and business guidance.
Programmes for encouraging entrepreneurship among women are to be extended at local level.
Training in entrepreneurial attitudes should start at the high school level through well-designed courses, which build confidence through behavioral games.
More governmental schemes to motivate women entrepreneurs to engage in small scale and large-scale business ventures.
Involvement of Non Governmental Organisations in women entrepreneurial training programmes and counselling.

Conclusion

Independence brought promise of equality of opportunity in all sphere to the Indian women and laws guaranteeing for their equal rights of participation in political process and equal opportunities and rights in education and employment were enacted. But unfortunately, the government sponsored development activities have benefited only a small section of women.

The large majority of them are still unaffected by change and development. The reasons are well sighted in the discussion part of this article. It is hoped that the suggestions forwarded in the article will help the entrepreneurs in particular and policy-planners in general to look into this problem and develop better schemes, developmental programmes and opportunities to the women folk to enter into more entrepreneurial ventures.

[ This article here tries to recollect some of the successful women entrepreneurs like Ekta Kapoor, Creative Director, Balaji Telefilms, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CEO, Biocon, Shahnaz Husain and Vimalben M Pawale, Ex President, Sri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad (SMGULP). ]

Vietnam: Facts on Trafficking & Prostitution

2008-09-02T01:07:00.000-07:00

Trafficking
Selling children into prostitution abroad is rising in southern Vietnam. ("Vietnam Child Sex Trade Rising," Associated Press, 24 April 1998)

Thousands of Vietnamese women are trafficked through the Vietnam-China border by illegal organizers who take them to Cambodia and from there to neighboring countries for prostitution purposes. Vietnamese pimps pretend to court village girls to bring them to the city, and then sell them to brothels. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Vietnamese traffickers sell hundreds of women and children each year in Europe, China, Cambodia and Macau, for prostitution and arranged marriages. ("EU wants more cooperation with Vietnam to end trafficking women, drugs," AFP, 27 February 1998)

Police uncovered a Taiwanese trafficking ring and arrested Lee Min Long, as he left for Taiwan with a suitcase packed with pictures and personal documents of 400 Vietnamese women. According to the police, from 1993 to 1998, Long traveled 23 times to Vietnam to organize a network selling Vietnamese women to Taiwan. Through local accomplices working at karaoke bars, restaurants and hotels, Long found young girls, generally from the countryside, and lured them with the prospect of marriage to a wealthy Taiwanese businessman. ("Women trade to Taiwan cracked down," HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network, 15 July 1998)

Many of the prostituted women and children in Cambodia are from Vietnam. (Chris Seper, "Police Sweeps Help Clean Up Child Prostitution," Christian Science Monitor, 8 January 1998)

Prostituted girls, most of them aged 15 to18 years of age, are found in the Svay Pak red-light district of Cambodia. Many girls are much younger. Most of them are smuggled in from Vietnam and all are bound by contracts, which last from six months to over a year. Svay Pak has the largest number of prostituted Vietnamese girls. ("The Street of Little Flowers," rewritten from 'Children of the Dust,' by MIKEL FLAMM and NGO KIM CUC, Bangkok Post, 23 February 1997)

Unofficial estimates say that there are as many as 15,000 prostituted persons in Phnom Penh, and that up to 35% of them have been smuggled into Cambodia from China or Vietman, mostly from the southwestern provinces of Vietnam (Long An, An Giang, Song Be, Kien Giang, Dong Thap, Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City).

Brothel owners pay traffickers from US$350 to $450 (8,750 to 11,250 baht) for each attractive Vietnamese virgin 16 years or younger. Non-virgins and those considered less beautiful are sold from $150 to $170 each (3,750 to 4,250 baht). ("Children of the dust," rewritten from 'Children of the Dust,' by MIKEL FLAMM and NGO KIM CUC, Bangkok Post, 23 February 1997)

One third of 55,000 prostitutes in Cambodia are under 18 and most are Vietnamese. (World Human Rights Organization and UNICEF, "Vietnam Child Sex Trade Rising," Associated Press, 24 April 1998)

Traffickers have admitted to selling women and children for US$250-300 each. (Border Guard Leiutenant Colonel Nguyen Thanh Hoa, "Vietnam Child Sex Trade Rising," Associated Press, 24 April 1998)

Methods and Techniques of Traffickers

Most women and children trafficked from Vietnam are taken to China and Cambodia, Victims are kidnapped for brothels by deceptive job offers or tourist trips, matchmaking with foreigners who often sell and resell the women abroad. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Marriages entered into by Vietnamese women with Taiwanese, Europeans, Americans and Thais have ended in, the woman being sold and resold in brothels by her "husband" upon arrival to the "husband's" nation. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

Official Response and Action

Between September 1995 and March 1997, Vietnamese border guard forces uncovered 121 child trade cases, arresting 186 traffickers and freeing 281 victims including 31 under age 16. (Border Guard Leiutenant Colonel Nguyen Thanh Hoa, "Vietnam Child Sex Trade Rising," Associated Press, 24 April 1998)

The Prime Minister of Vietnam, Phan Van Khai, in July 1998 gave policymakers one month to devise new laws to deal with the increasing child abuse, labor and trafficking. ("Vietnam party chief urges end to child abuses," Reuters, 1 July 1998)

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Vietnam Women's Union in Lang Son Province are to launch a province-wide information campaign focused on trafficking in women and children. The campaign aims to raise public awareness of the trafficking problem and alert potential victims that trafficking in women and children from Vietnam to China has been increasing in recent years. ("Campaign to stop trafficking of women and children starts," 14 March 1998)

Prostitution

There are 70,000 prostitutes in Vietnam - an old figure that seems far too low given the increasing number of new karaoke bars, massage parlors and discos known for prostitution. (government statistics Keith B. Richburg, "The Go-Go Dancers Haven't Gone," The Washington Post, 15 September 1997)

5% of prostitutes in Vietnam are children, which means that 20,000 children are in prostitution in Vietnam. This rose from 11% in 1991. (Christian Science Monitor, 21 May 1997)

Hotel massage parlors offer special massages, by the females, who earn only tips as they are controlled by the Momma-san. A massage costs $100 per service, but the price goes down as the night goes on. (Keith B. Richburg, "The Go-Go Dancers Haven't Gone," The Washington Post, 15 September 1997)

Policy and Law

The transition in Vietnam to a market oriented economy has left many women unemployed and forced to find any means to survive, including prostitution. (John Chalmers, "Economic Reforms Fails to Benefit Vietnam’s Women," Chicago Tribune, 9 March 1998)

Vietnam’s open-door policy for foreign trade and investment initiated in the late 1980s has led to a rapid increase in prostitution and trafficking. ("Vietnam to stick with open-door policy-report," Reuters, 3 April 1998)

Official Response and Action

From 1996-1997, 1,335 people have been arrested since police began a crackdown on prostitution. Ninety-four karaoke bars were shut down, and 500 others suspended. ("Vietnam Police Crack Down on Vice," Associated Press, 10 February 1998)

In early 1996, Vietnamese officials became concerned about the growing problem - prostitution, drugs, and pornographic and violent movies and songs - so the party and government launched a campaign. Unlicensed massage parlors were closed, others were ordered to keep their rooms well-lit and visible from the outside. Karaoke bars were forced to comply with the same regulations. (Deputy Foreign Minister Le Mai, Keith B. Richburg, "The Go-Go Dancers Haven't Gone," The Washington Post, 15 September 1997)

Official Corruption and Collaboration

As high as two thirds of the Vietnamese government officials are known buyers of women in prostitution in, massage parlours, karaoke bars and brothels. Their activities are financed through government agency "slush funds." ("Vietnamese government officials biggest customers for prostitutes," Deutsche Press-Agentur, 2 March 1998)

Child prostitution is on the increase in Vietnam. The military and Communist Party officials have been implicated in the rise. (The International Federation of Human Rights, "International human rights group slams Vietnam," Reuters, 25 July 1997)

Prostitution Tourism

Prostitution is becoming a feature of the burgeoning tourism industry: hotels and tourist companies providing women to male buyers. After Vietnam shifted to a market economy, prostitution became so integrated into trade relations that business deals are often closed with the use of women as incentive or reward to foreign investors, bureaucrats and corporate representatives. (CATW - Asia Pacific, Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the Asia Pacific)

The bar Apocalypse Now, known for its wartime motif - helicopters painted on the ceilings, with large celing fans serving as the rotor blades, is a favorite among foreigners living here. The bar is well known for prostitution. (Keith B. Richburg, "The Go-Go Dancers Haven't Gone," The Washington Post, 15 September 1997)

Pornography

A woman was fined US$170 and imprisoned for three years for showing pornographic videos at a café in southern Vietnam, after police seized 20 pornographic tapes at her home. Pornography is called a "social evil" and is banned in Vietnam. ("Vietnam jails woman over pornographic videos," Reuter, 31 July 1997)

Understanding the Chinese Girl

2008-08-31T06:14:00.000-07:00

Unlike Western girls who dream about having healthy and tanned skins, the Chinese girls like to keep their skin pale. So you will notice that there is array of whitening cosmetics products in the Chinese department stores, and umbrellas are absolute daily necessity for girls in the summer to prevent from getting suntanned. Having suntanned skin indicates either rustic farmers or manual laborers, thus lacking elegance and sophistication.

Influenced consciously or unconsciously by the traditional values, Chinese girls are desired to be docile and family-oriented. Too much exposure of personal emotions is against the traditions. Most likely you will find the Chinese girls put their hands in front of their mouths to hide their teeth when they smile. They will turn bashful and bend their heads down when required to answer questions. They seldom have eye contact when talking to males.

What do you think?

A Beginner's guide to Bed in Asia

2008-08-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

Most romantic in bed?

Filipinas

Most fun in bed?

Thai/Indonesian/Malay

Most exotic in bed?

Burmese/Cambodian/Laoatian

Most timid in bed?

North Korean/South Korean

Most weird in bed?

Vietnamese (maybe it was just bad luck on my part)

Most efficient in bed?

Chinese and Taiwanese

Worst in bed?

Hong Kong (ok,I know it’s not a country, but I’ve sat through more interesting business meetings)

Best and longest in bed?

Tibetan/Bhutanese/Nepalese/Mongolian

Easiest to get into your bed?

Japanese

Easiest to kick out of your bed?

Japanese

Most forgettable in bed?

Japanese

So,that was my experience,What was yours? Pen in your views would be great to hear your experience!