Now, on to more serious matters
- Sexual slavery, the trafficing of females, the Khmer Rouge, and Pol
Pot ...
Yes, no discussion about
Cambodia could possibly ignore the Khmer Rouge. However, I want
to
avoid giving a history lesson that you could more easily read about in
any one of the many books about the subject. On that note, I have
one to offer, named "First They Killed My Father" by Luong Ung
(2001). It is a touching masterpiece describing what it was
really like to be an unlucky family during the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge
rule. She really makes you understand what it was like when her
father was dragged off, knowing he was going to have his head
bashed in
by a hammner, and what if was like to slowly watch a family member die
a
heinous death of starvation. Yes, it is a hard read, but really
should be required reading for just about anyone. Another example
of an ideology gone extremely wrong - but this one was particularly
painful and horrible. The amount of death (a quarter of the
population) and suffering during this time was beyond our
imagination. We visited the "Killing Fields" (the place where
executions took place) and the Toul Seng, aka S21 interrogation museum
(the place where alot of torturing took place), and it left a
significant impression (cick for
photo). At the S21 museum they had a posted sign of the "rules of interrogation" (click
for photo).
The country will take decades to "recover" and this is for two
reasons. First, the genocide was particularly curel, prolongued,
and recent, and second, the Khmer Rouge exterminated the entire
educated class of the country. For the latter, just wearing
glasses or having soft hands were immediate death sentences. This
has, and will have, long lasting effects on the country. Imagine
all intellegence wiped out, and also, the mere thought of
intellectualism, the strive for knowledge, erased from an entire
country. Well, I have to say, it shows. In Cambodia they
are (sorry) a
bunch of dummies, and compared to their hated neighbors they truly are
decades behind with regards to high tech industries, information
technology, medicine, ... just about anything. Talk about
shooting yourself in the foot - the Khmer Rouge murdered all of
the doctors in Cambodia, and then ordered farmers to treat the
inevitable hoardes of sick and injured patients for the next four
years. These farmers had no training and absolutely no medicine
supplies
anyway. Ouch!
I am currently reading another book, named "Sex Slaves - the Trafficing
of Women in Asia", by Louise Brown (2000). It is another must
read and exactly reiterates (in my opinion) what I was trying to say
(but I failed) about prostitution in my emails from Brazil.
Actually, the book has two main points of importance. The first
is that the notion that Asian prostitution is about westerners using
prostitutes is completely bullocks (aka wrong). Yes there are
thousands of
western men going with Asian prostitutes. Nearly all of these
women are freelancers, meaning they have chosen prostitution.
This absolutely pales in comparison to the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of
Asian men who use prostitutes. Basically, because there is no
such thing as premarital sex and/or casual dating in Asia then there is
no outlet for men, and they are forced to use prostitutes - there is
simply no other way, as in Asia, still, the notion of women being
virgins at marraige is universal. And, (the second point) in
direct contrast to high end, freelance prostitutes serving westerners,
the prostitutes that serve plumbers, laborers, and every other type of
common man in Asia have mostly been coerced into prostitution, or
directly sold. The entire Asian sex industry is completely hidden
and considered immoral, even though nearly all Asian men have used
prostitutes, and many use them regularly. (common numbers are 80-90% of
Asian men have used a prostitute, and 40% regularly do so). The
toursit sex market is transparent and out in the open - which serves
another purpose to distract everyone from the MUCH larger and MUCH
GRAVER problem of the rest of the Asian sex market.
I tried to make the point in previous emails that prostitution is
universal and making it dirty and seedy only forces it deep
underground, and the women suffer. This is exaclty what is
happening here. The low cost, forced prostitutes that serve
common
Asian men are the ones sold into sexual slavery at an early age, and
are trafficed all over Asia. Again, as I said, the entire thing
is hidden, though, and hard to find. One night in Phnom Penh I
wanted to get to the bottom of it, and late at night I was wandering
around looking around. I kept finding places
named "guest house" which didn't look like guest houses I stay
in. Then I found a big one and I could see there was
something going on inside - bunches of Asian guys were showing up in
cars and on motor bikes. However as I walked past the gate a
guard stopped me and instructed me that I was not allowed in. I
took a guess and asked him if there was "boom boom" going on here and
he said yes, but only Khmer-Khmer boom-boom, not Barang
(foreigner)-Khmer boom boom. I assured him that I was only going
to have a look and that I wouildn't ruin any of the girls with my
"Giant non-Asian penis" (more on this later), but he still wouldn't let
me. He did point me in the direction of another place I could go
in and watch.
I found it and it was quite a sight. Picture a large room with
about 20 or 30 girls, in the 16-21 age range (as Cambodian girls are
usually older than they look it would not surprise me if they were all
over 18). Outside the room were dozens of Asian men of varying
ages, but mostly teenagers, all wth
smiles on their faces like it was Christmas. In turn they went to
the front, told the "mamma san" which gurl they wanted and for five
dollars (so I was told) they got some "boom boom". Very amusing
sight.
Alright, sorry to all the Asian men on the list, but I have to say ...
here they have a real hangup about penis size - in that they all
readily admit they, Cambodians atleast, have small penises which they
assure me are
tiny in comparison to my "Giant White Penis". This is an
additional reason that they don't want Foreigners with their women, and
also the women complain that it is too painiful to be with a Baraing
(White/Europeon). I was talking to a Belgian girl who had sex
with a Cambodian man, and before they got naked he pre-appologized for
his small penis size. Pretty funny.
Anyway, Besides temples I spend alot of my time going around food
markets. Every town or city has many of these morning, day, and
night markets, selling everything you could imagine. They are
never boring, and very photogenic places. They are also
perfect for getting meals if you are a bit brave. See the photos
below and click to enlarge.
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