'Girls as dessert': Thai sex scandal exposes grim tradition
[URL]https://sg.news.yahoo.com/girls-dessert-thai-sex-scandal-exposes-grim-tradition-041553226.html[/URL]
'Girls as dessert': Thai sex scandal exposes grim tradition.
Sally MAIRS.
AFP NewsJune 25,2017.
When senior bureaucrats visited the remote Thai province where local official Boonyarit worked, the routine was often the same: welcome them with the finest food and drink and then bring out the teen girls, often referred to as "dessert".
The tradition -- known by the euphemistic Thai phrase "treat to food, lay down the mat" -- refers to the expectation that underlings lavish superiors and VIPs with local delicacies, top-notch accommodation and sex services.
Until recently the most sinister part of that tradition, the procurement of [url=http://isgprohibitedwords.info?CodeWord=CodeWord902][CodeWord902][/url] girls, was well-known but rarely discussed.
Yet a trafficking scandal involving teens, police and officials in Boonyarit's province has flung the practice onto the nation's front pages, prompting calls to root out a culture that helps fuel the kingdom's infamous flesh trade.
While Thailand is known globally for flashy red-light districts that cater to foreigners, the bulk of its sprawling sex industry is geared mostly towards locals.
"This tradition became common a long time ago," explained Boonyarit Nipavanit, a district official in Mae Hong Son, a poor and rugged province in the mountainous north.
"When groups of senior officials come for seminars or work trips, there is a custom of 'treating them', which means welcoming them with food, and then 'laying down the mat,' which means providing girls," he told AFP.
"Sometimes we received information about what type of girls they liked. Sometimes officials had to prepare five to ten women for a senior to chose from. ".
- 'She is a present' -.
Boonyarit is comfortable speaking freely about the practice now that detectives have opened 41 cases into an alleged police-run prostitution network in his province.
The probe was launched after the mother of a victim fled to Bangkok and told the media that her then 17-year-old daughter and other teens were blackmailed into sex work and forced to entertain officials and cops.
Some of the victims, she said, were branded with owl tattoos by the gangmasters as a kind of ownership stamp.
Under pressure from the press, national police arrested a Mae Hong Son police sergeant accused of trafficking girls into the sex ring and charged eight other officers with sleeping with the minors.
Five administrators from central Nonthaburi province have also been charged for allegedly hiring the teens with government funds during an official visit to Mae Hong Son.
"Since this story broke, many officials feel relieved that we don't have to do it anymore," said Boonyarit.
But the so-called tradition is far from unique to Mae Hong Son.
Trafficking experts say it is widespread in a hierarchial country where subordinates -- both in government and the private sector -- are expected to pamper bosses to hold onto jobs or move up the career ladder.
"We don't have a merit system in the bureaucracy, we have to bribe our bosses," explained Lakkana Punwichai, a Thai columnist covering social issues.
The practise of arranging sex for superiors comes from "a culture that sees girls not as human beings but as property", she added.
"She is a present. She is the same as food, as beautiful clothes -- something that has a price. ".
- Protecting the boss -.
Many sex trafficking victims are too fearful to come forward when it is powerful figures who control or patronise the business -- especially in rural areas like Mae Hong Son, where social networks are small.
Local authorities are also under pressure to protect their own.
That was the case in Mae Hong Son, where police initially tried to bury the accusations made by the whistleblowing mother, who has requested anonymity and is now under government protection in Bangkok.
"She was asked to compromise the case by some (local) police," her lawyer told AFP.
In the wake of the Mae Hong Son scandal, Thailand's Social Development Ministry said it would "lead by example" as an agency "opposed to the 'treat to food, lay down the mat' practice".
Anti-trafficking police also vowed to accelerate a crackdown on the flesh trade.
Last week a task force arrested three local officials from northeastern Nakhon Ratchasima province accused of having sex with teen girls -- some as young as 14 -- who were trafficked into an [url=http://isgprohibitedwords.info?CodeWord=CodeWord902][CodeWord902][/url] prostitution ring.
But experts say it is almost always only low-level pimps or officials who are punished.
"After police rescue the girls and handlers, they never expand the case," said Ronnasit Proeksayajiva from anti-trafficking NGO Nvader.
"They never investigate more about who the customers are. ".
Forget the CC points chase
[QUOTE=Hack351;2054501]Is there a thread suggestion for other aspects of travel? Like should I carry cash? Traveler's checks? I would prefer to do everything credit card, but I doubt the ladies take amex And other traveling suggestions like learning Thai phrases?[/QUOTE]Thailand is much more of a cash based economy. Besides hotels, and upscale shops and restaurants, expect to pay cash. Using credit cards is not common for small purchases like 7-11 / Starbucks / taxis much less go-go's and massage parlors.
Have pristine high denomination bills from you home currency to exchange. Exchange only enough at the airport to get you to your initial destination. The airport exchange rate is poor, far better in town.
Always try to have lots of smaller currency baht notes, and pay in exact change if possible. Trying to pay for a 50 baht street meal with a 1,000 note does not work. Negotiating hard with a street vendor down to 250 baht only to produce a 1,000 baht note does not really work. Hotels will break your large bills, and use larger bills when making small purchases at busy shops that have a cash register like 7-11.
SL.
Currency Exchange at Suvarnabhumi
[QUOTE=Sunlover2;2054805]Have pristine high denomination bills from you home currency to exchange. Exchange only enough at the airport to get you to your initial destination. The airport exchange rate is poor, far better in town.[/QUOTE]That is not entirely true. You need to go to the lower level of BKK and there is another row of currency exchange places, that offer a better rate than the top floor. This phenomenon exists in other destinations as well. A customs officer at MDE advised me the currency exchanges on the lower level gave a better rate than the one in front of me. You pay for the convenience everywhere you go.
Most notable on the lower floor of Suvarnabhumi is the branch of the fabled Super Rich exchange. Super Rich had the longest line and to no surprise, the best rate. As good as you could get at their Sukhumvit location. I stood in line behind an Aussie with his Viet wife who were exchanging Aussie dollars to USD before they made their connecting flight to VN. He said the exchange rate was actually favorable compared to what he would get at their destination, which says something about the place. Of course, I was baffled at finding out that the USD was the default currency in VN, and still can't get my head around it.
In town, you will see little non-descript currency windows on the streets that can also offer as good exchange rates, as any. I came across a small place off of Sukhumvit near Asok that offered the best I had come across the entire trip. A mature Brit expat there with his mature Thai lady swore that place had the best exchange rate in town. I can't recall the name or exact location, but my point is just be alert to these places when you are walking. Soon enough, you will get a grasp on what the best rate is.
I would also suggest you keep ample COINS handy and learn their denominations. Those come in handy at the 5 baht public toilets or the baht buses down in Pattaya. I got one of those old-time plastic squeeze coin purses to put the coins in (and used a money clip for the bills) and it was a neater way of handling coins than fumbling around in your pockets for loose change.
