Virgin for sale, welcome to India in 2008

kristinm

Sorry - replying to Jasmin (gets confusing doesn't it?) That's a different question though isn't it - those women are doing what they know how to do.. they men are doing nothing.. that's wrong.... but don't blame the women, blame the men - if they didn't engage in prostitution, the men still would do nothing and everyone would starve no doubt.

It's a parallel argument in a way to the one about those who survive by growing opium in parts of Asia.. it would be great if it didn't happen, but what else is there for them to do unless things change on a much bigger scale?

chAos

******

chAos

It's in the post. Click on the underlined word.

Jasmin

Yes, I've seen it, edited my last post.

__________________
'Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome' - S. Johnson

chAos

oops.

Jasmin

Very hard to understand from our point of view. Wouldn't most parents give up their lives for their kids in a second? And yet, others will sell them....I don't get it.

kristinm

I guess that's the divide between rich and poor nations - when life and death is at stake.. one child or lose the whole family?

machadinha

I'm not at all sure how many parents in "rich" nations would actually give their lives for their child without thinking. They might like to think so, but maybe they're naturally not put to the test all that often.

And I'll agree, what if it's the choice between twelve of your children. And your grandparents, and your aunts and uncles and their extended family, and... And knowing that they in turn are your old age insurance... And that so it is likely to go on over the generations...

(Make no mistake, life in "the West" wasn't all that different until fairly recently. The welfare state and public education and health insurance and pensions and blah blah blah are all relatively new developments, and they don't seem to be doing all that well of late. Hence your teenage mothers, btw. Issues of education, of basic health care, of alienation, of a decent economic and social perspective, of the illusion that women have been perfectly emancipated when they obviously and going by all available data really are not. Of the so-called "glass ceiling" being still very much a reality. Etc.

btw That age of 18 or whatever we've invented is fairly random anyway and likewise not eternal or objective of course, it doesn't tell you much about social morality or the upkeep or decline thereof. Just a few hundred years ago kids in Western Europe would be considered ready to start a working life and probably a family at what we'd now consider to be pubescence; they didn't normally live to be very old either.)

__________________
Reading tips, all picked up at IndiaMike : INDAX's A Comprehensive Guide To India / Dinoj Surendran's Desi Humor / ITHVC on Culture Shock & Travel Health / JetLag Travel Guides For the Undiscerning Traveller / India Travel Links

Jasmin

Mac. I meant parents in general, not just from the 'richer' countries...

machadinha

Yes, Jasmin, it was in reference to Kristin's remark re: rich vs. poor nations. Which I thought otherwise to the point though.

I'll drop this for now, I don't feel like being so sharply on top of it. Sorry for that. I don't know either.

puchoo

Really hard to imagine and put one's self in their shoes. Maybe they are used to it i.e for them its a way of life and that in itself brings a certain numbness..... ? cant really comment, other than of course that i wish it would all stop....but that might not be too easy.

__________________
Cheers!
Sidharth

Indiamike Mod team............the new kid on the block!

puchoo.wordpress.com

Nick-H

This is a special case.

It is the fact that this is an entire community, caste or tribe (I'm not at all sure of the appropriate word in this instance) to whom this is normal way of life. This is not the poorest family on the street; this is an entire community.

As such, perhaps the US polygamists, being a community thing, can be compared, but neither the girls on the street of most Western cities, getting their next fix, nor the high-class prostitutes making hundreds of pounds an hour, compare at all.

By the way, I don't think prostitution is morally repugnant at all. It is a very straight-forward transaction, and a great deal less repugnant, in itself, than many of the games and deceptions that surround sex. For many, though, it is not a transaction entered into with free will; then it, and especially the actions of those bringing it about, becomes repugnant.

__________________
.


Just one member of the IndiaMike Mod Team

chAos

Had a conversation recently about this, about legalizing prostitution, and if so, would that make it, like Nick says, a simple business transaction? If you could make it all above-board, with health care coverage, OSHA regulations, tax deductions for condoms and the like, would you be able to get rid of all the nasty bits associated with prostitution as it stands now?
This article seemed to come a little close, having rituals surrounding it, much more integrated into the community. It struck me much like it struck Mach, reminding of the temple prostitutes of yore. (not yorp, tho)

Yess, as a matter of fact, the conversation was with a guy, hmmm...

Nick-H

What's he got to do with it?

chAos

(osha = Occupational Safety & Health Administration) meant to add that but forgot