The preteen-sex-for-food program by Khyron

REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

The preteen-sex-for-food program

POSTED BY: KHYRON
UPDATED: Tuesday, May 9, 2006 08:46
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Sunday, May 7, 2006 7:37 PM

Anybody see this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4983440.stm

Liberia sex-for-aid 'widespread'
Young girls in Liberia are still being sexually exploited by aid workers and peacekeepers despite pledges to stamp out such abuse, Save the Children says.

Girls as young as eight are being forced to have sex in exchange for food by workers for local and international agencies, according to its report. The agency says such abuse is becoming more common as people displaced by the civil war return to their villages. The UN in Liberia said it would investigate specific allegations.

The United Nations promised to put safeguards in place after sexual abuse in the refugee camps of West Africa was first revealed four years ago. But a study by Save the Children, which involved speaking to more than 300 people in camps for people displaced by the war, found that abuse was still widespread. The report said that all of the respondents clearly stated that more than half of the girls in their locations were affected.

Girls from the age of eight to 18 years were being sold for sex, "commonly referred to as 'man business'," the report noted.

'Clear priority'

One 20-year-old woman told the BBC that she had been forced to have sex with a worker for the World Food Programme (WFP). "This young man had been doing it to most of my friends. And the children too don't have strong minds. They will have sex with him to get the food," Konah Brown said. But government officials and teachers are also contributing to the abuse, Save the Children says.

Teachers have demanded sex in lieu of school fees, or even just to give good grades the report found. "This cannot continue. It must be tackled," said Jasmine Whitbread, Save the Children's UK Chief Executive. "Men who use positions of power to take advantage of vulnerable children must be reported and fired.

"More must be done to support children and their families to make a living without turning to this kind of desperation." The WFP's Greg Barrow said the organisation would be taking the latest allegations with "the greatest seriousness" and was already taking steps to investigate them. "The key here is to find what link in this chain of delivering food, and getting it to the people who need it, is perhaps abusing this position," he told the BBC.

The UN's Humanitarian Co-ordinator in Liberia, Jordan Ryan, also said specific allegations would be investigated. "Unfortunately not all international NGOs have taken it seriously. But it is a clear priority," he said. "We have never done enough until there's a zero case load. Has enough been done? Not yet. Are we working on it? You bet we are."

Other people can occasionally be useful, especially as minions. I want lots of minions.

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Monday, May 8, 2006 10:08 AM

KHYRON

Who says Africa doesn't have any natural resources that the West wants? Since it's impossible for Liberia to pay for food with oil, I guess some other arrangement needed to be found.

It's a serious issue and I want more people to be aware and disgusted by it, so bump.

Other people can occasionally be useful, especially as minions. I want lots of minions.

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Monday, May 8, 2006 10:33 AM

CHRISISALL

Another place the stong and mighty should be to defend the weak, Ooops! That's right, we're busy.

Sorry about the acidic sarcasm. Reading things like that make me feel like Charlton Heston at the end of 'Beneth The Planet Of The Apes', if you know what I mean...

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Monday, May 8, 2006 11:47 AM

OLDENGLANDDRY

It's difficult to know what to say about a subject like this. I think in the deep down recesses of our consciences we all know that these things are happening far more regularly than we would like to admit. After all we (the modern western world i mean) are the great moral saviours of the world, right?
In the U.K. at the moment the police have recently started to "crack down" on sex-traffic prostitution, where girls and young women fron foriegn countries are conned, coerced or just plain kidnapped and forced to work in brothels. What the police are finding is the tip of a very large iceberg. Most of the girls are from eastern Europe but a proportion are from Asia and Africa. There clients are almost certainly well-to-do members of society and there is almost certainly a certain amount of blind-eye turning by local authorities.
I suppose I am using this example to point out that we are all becoming hardened to the discovery of these situations and when it happens close to home it becomes even harder to register a suitably disgusted response to it when it happens on the other side of the world.
Am I disgusted by it? Yes. Do I know what to do about it? No.
And my inability to come up with a suitable answer or even suggestion goes beyond frustration. The only thing left, to me at least is to carry the message forward and make sure more people learn about these situations and there consequences for our future as a civilized society.

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Monday, May 8, 2006 12:04 PM

AURAPTOR

America loves a winner!

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Another place the stong and mighty should be to defend the weak, Ooops! That's right, we're busy.

Sorry about the acidic sarcasm. Reading things like that make me feel like Charlton Heston at the end of 'Beneth The Planet Of The Apes', if you know what I mean...

It's ok. The UN will get right on that investigation. Right after it wraps up that tiny Food for Oil scandal thingy.

People love a happy ending. So every episode, I will explain once again that I don't like people. And then Mal will shoot someone. Someone we like. And their puppy. - Joss

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

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Monday, May 8, 2006 12:20 PM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
The UN will get right on that investigation.

I hope you're right...but I won't hold my breath.

Chrisisall

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Monday, May 8, 2006 2:09 PM

HKCAVALIER

What the heck is the UN gonna do about this? It's just silly to think that more soldiers will mean less flesh-trafficking. Where there is a will there is a way.

So where does the will come from? What is wrong with the human species that this kind of brutalizing exploitation goes on (and on and on and on)? This is not simply normal male sexuality. Other primates do not buy and sell each other for sex--let alone children who aren't even old enough to concieve.

There is a terrible woundedness at the heart of human sexuality it would seem, something which developed in us during our evolutionary past, but we as a species are dead set against really investigating it. What are we protecting, do you suppose?

The need to have physical power over another human being (the kind of physical power nearly any adult has over nearly any child of 12) is symptomatic of a serious sense of worthlessness. Why do so many men feel so utterly worthless that they actually feel better after raping a 12 year old (at least until it wears off and they have to do it again) instead of much worse?

There are plenty of ways to get sex if you NEED it, other than raping children. No, when men rape children, the goal is raping children, not sex.

Also, this kind of violation requires a ton of rage to carry out. Where's all the rage come from? Why do so many have so much rage that they have to resort to bizarre acts of sexual predation? You know, rare individual psychosis is unavoidable to be sure, but this stuff is a worldwide phenomenon with infrastructures and de facto governmental sanction.

What is up with the human species?

My studies have given me some clues in how we raise our children, in the developement of so-called patriarchal societies, addictive pathology, etc.

But then I look at my own self and if anyone has the preconditions for a deeply violent sexuality, I do (for those who don't know, I was sexually abused by both my mother and my father for a period of years when I was very young), and yet I know I won't be violating anyone ever. How do I know? Couple things: one, I sought help and got it--I've done a ton of healing work (and will, no doubt, do a ton more); and two, well, I've always had a very oppinionated conscience.

When I was young my little Jimminy Cricket told me not to worry, that I would get out of that terrible house someday. Unable as my parents were to instill in me a sense of right from wrong, my own conscience has told me, through my own physical sensation, right from wrong; doing the wrong thing just feels, well, wrong and doing the right thing glows with hope and potential ('course there was a dangerous period in my late teens and early twenties when I tried to distance myself completely from my emotions--you know, too much pain--but aside from my being an "A" class asshat to everyone around me, I really only hurt myself).

My own conscience seems to me so utterly normal that it's hard for me to believe that all us humans aren't hardwired with such a useful li'l voice inside. My own experiences have taught me that we can (and all too often do) drown out this voice through any number of means. But my experience has also tought me that healing from even the most extreme sexual wounds is possible.

Let's all make the choice to heal our sexual wounds; talk about what bothers us; find someone we trust to tell our disturbing thoughts to; teach our children gentleness and compassion by example; and value our own human dignity enough to make ourselves heard and set an example. Can we do that?

Thanks Khyron.

HKCavalier

Hey, hey, hey, don't be mean. We don't have to be mean, because, remember, no matter where you go, there you are.

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Monday, May 8, 2006 2:55 PM

CHRISISALL

Here's the part where I say that if I was ever sick enough to engage in that kind of misery for my own gratification, I would want someone to kill me.
Those who pimp human pain are just dead men walking, and unlike Spike, aren't soon likely to regain their souls.

*emotional rant off*

Respect innocent young humans, and let them grow- your garden will be full of light.

Chrisisallornothing on this topic

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Monday, May 8, 2006 2:58 PM

SASSALICIOUS

I'm so thoroughly appalled right now. I also can't say that this surprises me in the least, which is even scarier . . . that something so horrific doesn't seem entirely out of the ordinary.

But what shocks me the most is that it's being propagated by the people who are supposed to be helping the Liberians. When the UN gets around to doing their investigation, I bet they'll be unpleasantly surprised to find some of their own men involved.

Is it bad that I lose faith in the human race a little more every day?

I want a private paradise

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Monday, May 8, 2006 3:16 PM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by Sassalicious:

Is it bad that I lose faith in the human race a little more every day?

I can only say to you go back a hundred or more years, and it was worse. At least this kind of situation will be gone in a century or so...

Seriously, these abberations are relatively small in number when one considers the total percentage of possible offenders.

eh, doesn't make ME feel better about it either Chrisisall

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Monday, May 8, 2006 3:27 PM

KHYRON

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Seriously, these abberations are relatively small in number when one considers the total percentage of possible offenders.

Well, we're not talking about general paedophilia here. This seems to be fairly common problem ("The report said that all of the respondents clearly stated that more than half of the girls in their locations were affected.") that's only been made public recently. What's especially shocking here is the blatant abuse of power by the aid workers involved, seemingly without fear of any repercussions.

Other people can occasionally be useful, especially as minions. I want lots of minions.

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Monday, May 8, 2006 3:33 PM

CHRISISALL

Sorry, I meant, like in Global percentages. Certainly locally, this is a very big problem.

Chrisisall

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Monday, May 8, 2006 4:28 PM

KHYRON

HKCavalier, as always your post was thought-provoking, and I'm sorry to hear about what your parents did to you.

Here's something that's downright unsettling (from Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedophile):

Extent of occurrence

The extent to which pedophilia occurs is not known with any certainty. Some studies have concluded that at least a quarter of all adult men may have some feelings of sexual arousal in connection with children. A study by Hall et al. of Kent State University, for example, found that 32.5% of their sample — consisting of eighty adult males — exhibited sexual arousal to pedophilic stimuli that equaled or exceeded their arousal to the adult stimuli. Further studies indicate that even men erotically fixated on adult females are generally prone to react sexually when exposed to nude female children.

In 1989 Briere and Runtz conducted a study on 193 male undergraduate students concerning pedophilia. Of the sample, 21% acknowledged sexual attraction to some small children; 9% reported sexual fantasies involving children; 5% admitted masturbating to these fantasies; and 7% conceded some probability of actually having sex with a child if they could avoid detection and punishment.

I think the last sentence is probably why the problem is prevalent among aid workers, they know it's much easier for them to avoid detection and punishment doing the work they do.

Other people can occasionally be useful, especially as minions. I want lots of minions.

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Monday, May 8, 2006 4:33 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

I wonder what the age of consent is in Liberia?

It can't be twelve, can it? Surely it's got to be closer to eighteen. In which case there must be a law forbidding this, right?

The troubling thing is that the aid organizations are charged with this, and I would tend to believe that their job is to provide the food without cohersion to the recipient. The idea that aid workers or teachers may be taking advantage of their position and power to seduce underage girls is abhorrent to me. (sp?)

On the flip side, I would not feel at all bad about any random adult doing this to another adult. Because then it's just prostitution.

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Monday, May 8, 2006 4:43 PM

KHYRON

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
On the flip side, I would not feel at all bad about any random adult doing this to another adult. Because then it's just prostitution.

That seems to contradict this:

Quote:
Originally posted by AnthonyT:
The troubling thing is that the aid organizations are charged with this, and I would tend to believe that their job is to provide the food without cohersion to the recipient.

But forced prostitution is another matter. Although I'm totally opposed to it, I'm hardly as disgusted by the thought of it as the thought of what's happening to non-adult females.

Here's the link to the original report from Save the Children: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/scuk/jsp/resources/details.jsp?id=41
68&group=resources§ion=news&subsection=details

Other people can occasionally be useful, especially as minions. I want lots of minions.

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Monday, May 8, 2006 5:03 PM

ANTHONYT

Freedom is Important because People are Important

I'll put it another way.

1) No adult should be having sexual relations with a child.

2) No adult should be using a position of authority or power over another adult in order to demand sexual favors. (i.e. a teacher, an aid worker, an employer.)

However, sex-for-food and sex-for-rent and sex-for-pretty-bauble is a pretty well established international trade, both as official prostitution (sex-for-money-which-can-buy-food-or-rent-or-bauble) and as informal prostitution (if-you-buy-me-lobster-and-pay-for-my-apartment-I-will-have-sex-with-you.)

The price of a prostitute will obviously be much lower in downtrodden third world countries, and an offer of Triscuits and a dry place to sleep for the night might do the trick. If it is between consenting adults, that's their business.

--Anthony

"Liberty must not be purchased at the cost of Humanity." --Captain Robert Henner

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Tuesday, May 9, 2006 8:46 AM

FREMDFIRMA

Sadly, this is not as uncommon as you would think or hope, southeast asia has been downright notorious for this kind of thing, and even with the arrest of Gary Glitter and ECPAT's best efforts, it's still a mess.

We did, however, get our displeasure across enough for Thailand to take notice - forget the state dept, and the U.N. won't do jack, and even if they did they would not ask us, one of only TWO countries on the planet to not sign the UN Convention on the rights of children... but why ask the state to stand up, when you can ?

Google the phrase "don't buy thai" and you'll see previous efforts, which can easily be duplicated if only you can get enough people to give a damn.

Believe me, for a while there we downright economically strangled Thailand in retaliation for this, and having done that, even the mere threat of repeating that action could carry some weight if one can present it to them in a logical, reasonable fashion.

-Frem

PS - side note, keep Dyncorp and Haliburton OUT of these places, and you cut off a lot of the market for such trade, both companies and their subsidaries have a long history of being 'prime consumers' of this business.

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