Women for sale

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all day - and my beautiful sister had to give money for this!

When they told me that I was OLE IO soing to be like that, I said no I am an easterner, but I went to Jaffna to train as a nurse. In Jaffna there are a lot of strongly conservative people, who are very strict with their caste system. There are half a million Untouch¡ables. That's why the TULF ¡never made progress - they are only higher-caste Tamils. →a's pogroms TOURISM is now a part of a development strategy of the developing countries within the pattern of open "foreign led development.

It is now a major source of foreign exchange for many Asian countries, including Sri Lanka. And for the governments has far outshadowed the harmful side effects of tourism.

Peter Holden has observed:

"By cheapening culture for a quick show or for sale, tourism tends to destroy what it claims to enhance but worse than that it deludes people into believing that what is destroyed is still alive, and they are forced to act like animals in a zoo, performing a culture which is just not possible to live anymore. The result is the building of a pseudo culture which has been stripped of life and power."

Prostitution and child prostitution are also part and parcel of the tourist industry. Inducements including night clubs and massage clinics are openly advertised by travel agents and tour conductors.

The destructive cultural effects of tourism are taken to the extreme by sex tours.

Prostitution tourism has spread throughout the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan and more recently into Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The availability of "feminine" Oriental women is advertised together with the sun and sand, reducing countries like Thailand, Singapore, Manila and Hong Kong into the brothels of the East.

In Thailand, prostitution was developed on a huge scale by US forces' "rest and recreation" during the Vietnam war. In South Korea, Kisaengs (prostitutes) are included in the price of tours.

Women's groups in South Korea denounced the Kisaeng Tourism with demonstrations at the airport in 1973 against the Japanese. This stirred the Japanese women who also demonstrated and carried out massive campaigns. In September 1980, the Christian Conference of Asia sponsored an International Workshop on Tourism in Manila.

It is ironic that traditionalists and anti-feminist bodies, who condemn Women's Liberation as aimed at the desexing of women or granting them freedom to indulge in sexual licence, have not come forward with any protests so far. Only women concerned with women's liberation have come forward to attack this system.

The mother image and the image of the virtuous woman of the East are torn to pieces by the advertisers of sex tourism. The traditionalists have registered no protest!

Studies have revealed that in Bangkok and Manila a prostitute receives only one-fifth to one-eighth of the money paid for her 'services'. The rest of the money is shared proportionately among the bar-keeper, massage clinic proprietor, hotel, pimps, tour guides, taxi drivers and corrupt policemen.

Prostitution

In Sri Lanka prostitution is becoming a highly developed branch of the tourist industry and exists on different levels according to the nature of hotels and the amount of money the tourist has in his or her pocket.

vrumen adopt this profession because of dire poverty.

Our beginnings go back over 40 years.

But our tradition of Child prostitution is also a problem. "When a drug and prostitution racket involving some policemen in the Erunta District of Manila was denounced in the papers, the police arrested minors catering to the tourists, especially young girls barely thirteen years old. The operators of these prostitute rings were not touched" , said 'The Evening" of 11 February 1980 (Manila).

Asian airlines have ventured out on a new strategy to tade heavily on the bodies of airhostesses.

Malaysian Airlines System has an advertisement which says: "In Malaysia girls are taught the gentle ways of womanhood, among them the art of providing graceful service."

Japan Airlines assumes that passengers who travel are all males. Their advertisement boasts that "He (the passenger) didn't expect her to sew his button but she did."

Korean Airlines speaks of the hostess's resplendently buoyant yet prudently tender smile, uniquely modest, traditionally oriental.

Thai International emphasises the gentle art of service and courtesy.

We are not told that the women are efficient. We are not told that they can rise to any occasion. We are not told they can cope with any emergency. We are not told they are trained as nurses or baby sitters.

Exotic

All the air hostesses are shown smiling seductively, standing idly, looking glamorous and shy and beautiful in very exotic settings such as gardens and ultra-modern living rooms.

Yet the average air hostess does the work of a waitress, very hardworking, standing on her feet all the time, at the beck and call of passengers.

At the end of the flight she is a tired, worn-out young woman.

(Adapted from the Sri Lankan feminist magazine, 'Voice of Women').

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Orga: 26 Ja muary 1984 Page

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When you're traveling to foreign lands, a little gentleness goes a long way. Especially on Philippine Airlines.

Philippine hospitatity goes back 1,000 years!