Thoughts, feelings and emotions that hopefully provoke the purest of minds...Capturing thoughts through written words is like capturing pictures on film or digital camera.
Laughter soon turned into dead of silence....You can actually hear if a pin drops. Four men walked in. The men winked at them, they winked back in their flirtatious nature.
Sitting in two rows leading up the elevator; there must have been more than fifty of them, twenty five in each row, nicely dressed. Some in traditional costumes and some in modern clothes, sexually appealing.
It was after all a lazy Friday afternoon about 3pm when I decided to accompany a couple of friends to a KTV, Khmer style across the Japanese bridge.
As early birds, we get the best picks of the 100 girls in the house. It was after all first come first serve. They were chosen as commodities. After the selection process, we went up to our KTV room. Then the chosen girls followed.
Inside the KTV room, the girls were treated like queens with some respectable men amongst my friends. To some of the men, the working girls were nothing more than sexual slaves.
These hostesses or KTV girls are for the most part regarded as "bad girls" of society. Yet, men prey on them every day. Through the sexual role that they play and connections that they may have; some are able to move into the highest echelon of society to become mistresses or wives of the rich elites and powerful politicians.
For some, it is nothing more than a tragic road of despair involving rape, sexual exploitation, violence and all sorts of other abuses.
These stories are just too common in our today's Cambodia and they are sexual taboos in which we all kind of ignore.
Sexual promiscuity, sexual violence, exploitation and the threat of sexual transmitted diseases such HIV/AIDS are nothing short of deadly; but taken very lightly in our sad contemporary Cambodia.
Many people tend to blame these innocent working girls as leading their husbands, boyfriends and loved ones on when there are incidences of love triangle or sexual affairs taken place. Many of these girls are met with physical violence such as acid attack and bodily harm deployed by third party hench men.
Can we blame them? Is it their fault?
These innocent working girls deserved nothing more than sympathy because they are being looked upon disgustedly by all of us. And let's be honest with ourselves; we are after all humans. These are the same people we called sisters, daughters, nieces or even grand daughters.
Some people choose to love them for who they are; but for many they are nothing but sexual toys to be used and exploited to fulfill those moments of sexual pleasure.
They laugh when we laugh. They smile when we smile. They drink when we allow them and much worse we normally force them to drink with us. Men, who frequented these entertainment places know exactly what I am talking about! When they refused, we get very agitated. Some men with their egotistical prowess would go to extend of using force to threaten them.
Do these girls have many choices?
Under the facade of beautiful and innocent smiles...they are torn into pieces. Torn by societal norms that do not welcome these kinds of professions. Torn by the economic hardship that they have to endure. Torn by the fact that they are subjected to all sorts of sexual violence before getting paid. Torn that they may have acquired health related diseases caused by heavy drinking and illegal drug use. Worst yet, sexual transmitted diseases.
These scenes are all too common in most KTV joints around Phnom Penh and out in the provincial centers. The numbers are not decreasing but increasing exponentially by months on end. With the recent closure of the various garment factories; many more girls are seeking better opportunities and quick bucks.
It is an economic dilemma that the government ought to think about very quickly. Otherwise, these kinds of social issues will become nothing more than continued societal problems that may be detrimental to Cambodia's long term development and our hope to rebuilding this wonderful nation.
No comments:
Post a Comment