17-04 Trafficking

I remember Moldova during our two-week tour of the Soviet Union in 1987, mainly because so many of the women looked like my grandmother who was born in Romania. And Moldova is part of Romania in terms of language, culture and history.
It is an isolated unspoiled place surrounded by Romania on the west and Ukraine to the north. But my only big memory was the wine and it was great.
How shocking when researching this chapter to discover that close to 500,000 women working as prostitutes in the European Union had come from impoverished countries of the former Eastern Block which include Moldova. The others are Albania, Romania, Bulgaria and Belarus.
It is hard to imagine the horror and depravity associated with the trafficking of women around the world, usually for the purposes of prostitution.
But if you read, The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson, you will a good sense what sex slavery is all about. What a great story following Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkist as they investigate a sex trafficking Ring in Sweden. And, sure enough, the girls are all from Eastern Europe.
I loved the Lisbeth character who travelled with a hammer and a can of Mace in her handbag. No one is going to exploit this young lady.
When Mary and I travelled through South-East Asia we experienced first hand prostitution of young girls in the Philippines and in Thailand. And it is apparently a major industry in Cambodia. Love the photo. “I am not for sale.”
Often it is hidden, but I remember in Thailand having the guide point out a building, as a big-time brothel. It catered to the sex tourist industry which brought in plane loads of men from Japan each weekend.
Not hard to believe that this is a $30 billion industry world-wide. And the biggest growth industry for organized crime.
But the term sex trafficking does not always apply to girls moved from places like Eastern Europe or South-East Asia.
Right in Canada we have a federal commission examining hundreds of missing and murdered indigenous women. The public assumption is that these girls were engaged in prostitution. It is something most Canadians are ashamed to talk about.
But even in cities across Canada, we know prostitution exist via the web, or in massage parlours, spas, strip clubs and what have you. It is something that is hard to regulate. Let’s stamp out this evil practice.
But prostitution itself should be open and regulated so the health and well being of women are protected.
That’s the way I see it anyways.