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May. 30th, 2008 11:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ltmurnauGee, everyone seems worried about an influx of furrin hoo-ers to this jock-o-rama circle-jerk we are pleased to call "2010".
Or, if you're Stockwell Day, ostentatiously not worried: see earlier entry http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/176153.html
Though I would think the amount of money involved in moving THOUSANDS of women into Vancouver, housing and feeding them, and then moving them back out again after 10-12 days would not make this a very profitable venture.
Again, THOUSANDS of them - how many people are supposed to turn up to this boondoggle anyway? And how many of them, how often, will have the need or opportunity to engage a prostitute (above and beyond the generous supply already at work in Couverville....)? And in the final analysis, aren't these goombahs all in town to see someone slide rapidly down a hill, or slide rapidly across a sheet of ice, or something, and not to sample the exotic delights of Stefania the Not-Very-Convincing Trannie?
Again, it's interesting to see how everyone, in talking about 2010, automatically begins to overstate its probable impact on whatever else it is they are talking about - traffic, restaurants, climate, sex....
Act now to counter Olympic sex tourism, group urges
Lori Culbert, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thousands of sex-trade workers will be trafficked into Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics, and so British Columbia must take action now to halt an increase in sex tourism, a group of international transition-house workers warned yesterday.
The group, in Vancouver for a conference, is calling on governments to provide more support for women working the streets. However, its members are opposed to a fledgling initiative to create a legal brothel in time for the Winter Games.
Suzanne Koepplinger, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center, said there is anecdotal evidence from social service agencies in Salt Lake City that many sex-trade workers were imported into Utah for the 2006 winter Olympics.
She said no studies were done to prove exactly how many, but she argued the same observations were made by similar agencies during the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany.
The situation could be different in Vancouver if all levels of government took action now, Koepplinger said.
"We really are all at the front end of an issue that we have the opportunity to make a difference in," she said at a press conference organized by Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter.
Marai Larasi, chief executive of London's Nia Project, which advocates for the safety of women and children, said British social service agencies are already discussing how to protect sex-trade workers during the 2012 Summer Games.
But she said legalizing prostitution is not being discussed.
In Vancouver, a diverse group of sex-trade workers led by advocate Susan Davis has been incorporated as a co-operative. It is developing plans for several arts and business initiatives, including the opening of a legal brothel by 2010.
Supporters say it would give sex-trade workers a safe place to ply their trade.
Larasi argued there is no proof women are safer working inside brothels in countries like Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, where prostitution is regulated.
"If there is tolerance, if the selling of women is made appropriate, then that is how people are going to approach this city. [They will think] that women are fodder," Larasi said of Vancouver.
Dianne Hogg, who is with a women's aid organization in Scotland, argued that "establishing a brothel establishes prostitution as a choice, as a viable [career] option," rather than a last-ditch means of survival.
Hogg called for governments to make it easier for at-risk women to avoid prostitution by increasing the supply of affordable housing, employment opportunities, child care and support services for addiction and mental health.
She also urged that men who buy sex be sent to jail, instead of to classes for johns.
Davis, the Vancouver sex-trade worker behind the brothel initiative, argued there is proof in a recent report from New Zealand that brothels are safer for women than the streets.
"We need to try something new. It's been 100 years and it just isn't working," she said of Vancouver's sex trade.
However, before a brothel can become a reality, the co-operative must first convince the federal government to grant it amnesty from Criminal Code provisions governing adult prostitution.
The federal Conservatives haven't warmed to the idea, but Davis is working with member of Parliament Libby Davies (NDP Vancouver East) on some possible solutions.
In an interview from Ottawa, Davies said local sex-trade workers support the proposed brothel because it would reduce stigmatization and make it easier to lodge complaints against bad dates.
"They are trying to develop something that they believe will create a much safer environment that they will control," said Davies, who participated in a parliamentary committee studying prostitution laws.
"No one is talking about legalization. No one is talking about setting up some sort of state-sanctioned commercialized sex trade."
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan said yesterday that he doesn't support the brothel idea. He believes governments should be focusing instead on treatment for women in the survival sex trade.
Koepplinger, who is from Minnesota, said U.S. agencies typically "look to our enlightened neighbours in Canada" when it comes to social initiatives, and she hopes the brothel initiative doesn't succeed.
"The world," she said, "is watching what Vancouver does right now."
Or, if you're Stockwell Day, ostentatiously not worried: see earlier entry http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/176153.html
Though I would think the amount of money involved in moving THOUSANDS of women into Vancouver, housing and feeding them, and then moving them back out again after 10-12 days would not make this a very profitable venture.
Again, THOUSANDS of them - how many people are supposed to turn up to this boondoggle anyway? And how many of them, how often, will have the need or opportunity to engage a prostitute (above and beyond the generous supply already at work in Couverville....)? And in the final analysis, aren't these goombahs all in town to see someone slide rapidly down a hill, or slide rapidly across a sheet of ice, or something, and not to sample the exotic delights of Stefania the Not-Very-Convincing Trannie?
Again, it's interesting to see how everyone, in talking about 2010, automatically begins to overstate its probable impact on whatever else it is they are talking about - traffic, restaurants, climate, sex....
Act now to counter Olympic sex tourism, group urges
Lori Culbert, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, May 29, 2008
Thousands of sex-trade workers will be trafficked into Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics, and so British Columbia must take action now to halt an increase in sex tourism, a group of international transition-house workers warned yesterday.
The group, in Vancouver for a conference, is calling on governments to provide more support for women working the streets. However, its members are opposed to a fledgling initiative to create a legal brothel in time for the Winter Games.
Suzanne Koepplinger, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women's Resource Center, said there is anecdotal evidence from social service agencies in Salt Lake City that many sex-trade workers were imported into Utah for the 2006 winter Olympics.
She said no studies were done to prove exactly how many, but she argued the same observations were made by similar agencies during the 2004 Olympics in Athens and the 2006 soccer World Cup in Germany.
The situation could be different in Vancouver if all levels of government took action now, Koepplinger said.
"We really are all at the front end of an issue that we have the opportunity to make a difference in," she said at a press conference organized by Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter.
Marai Larasi, chief executive of London's Nia Project, which advocates for the safety of women and children, said British social service agencies are already discussing how to protect sex-trade workers during the 2012 Summer Games.
But she said legalizing prostitution is not being discussed.
In Vancouver, a diverse group of sex-trade workers led by advocate Susan Davis has been incorporated as a co-operative. It is developing plans for several arts and business initiatives, including the opening of a legal brothel by 2010.
Supporters say it would give sex-trade workers a safe place to ply their trade.
Larasi argued there is no proof women are safer working inside brothels in countries like Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, where prostitution is regulated.
"If there is tolerance, if the selling of women is made appropriate, then that is how people are going to approach this city. [They will think] that women are fodder," Larasi said of Vancouver.
Dianne Hogg, who is with a women's aid organization in Scotland, argued that "establishing a brothel establishes prostitution as a choice, as a viable [career] option," rather than a last-ditch means of survival.
Hogg called for governments to make it easier for at-risk women to avoid prostitution by increasing the supply of affordable housing, employment opportunities, child care and support services for addiction and mental health.
She also urged that men who buy sex be sent to jail, instead of to classes for johns.
Davis, the Vancouver sex-trade worker behind the brothel initiative, argued there is proof in a recent report from New Zealand that brothels are safer for women than the streets.
"We need to try something new. It's been 100 years and it just isn't working," she said of Vancouver's sex trade.
However, before a brothel can become a reality, the co-operative must first convince the federal government to grant it amnesty from Criminal Code provisions governing adult prostitution.
The federal Conservatives haven't warmed to the idea, but Davis is working with member of Parliament Libby Davies (NDP Vancouver East) on some possible solutions.
In an interview from Ottawa, Davies said local sex-trade workers support the proposed brothel because it would reduce stigmatization and make it easier to lodge complaints against bad dates.
"They are trying to develop something that they believe will create a much safer environment that they will control," said Davies, who participated in a parliamentary committee studying prostitution laws.
"No one is talking about legalization. No one is talking about setting up some sort of state-sanctioned commercialized sex trade."
Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan said yesterday that he doesn't support the brothel idea. He believes governments should be focusing instead on treatment for women in the survival sex trade.
Koepplinger, who is from Minnesota, said U.S. agencies typically "look to our enlightened neighbours in Canada" when it comes to social initiatives, and she hopes the brothel initiative doesn't succeed.
"The world," she said, "is watching what Vancouver does right now."
