Back on March 19th I posted about all the predictions of a mass migration of the world’s prostitutes to South Africa to service soccer fans at the 2010 World Cup competition. Indeed, a Google search for “40,000″ and “world cup” resulted in 700,000 links to stories about just that ridiculous projection.
Well, guess what. According to CNN:
The behavior of fans in South Africa has run contrary to what was predicted prior to the start of the tournament after David Bayever told World Cup organizers in March it was feared that up to 40,000 extra prostitutes could converge in the host nation to meet the expected demand.
Bayever, deputy chairperson of South Africa’s Central Drug Authority (CDA) that advises on drug abuse but also works with prostitutes, warned: “Forty-thousand new prostitutes. As if we do not have enough people of our own, we have to import them to ensure our visitors are entertained.”
Said one prostitute:
“Before the tournament we were getting good money but [over the month] it has not been busy at all. We thought it was going to be much better but it has been boring. I’ve actually left Johannesburg now because there has been so little trade.
And where are soccer fans going, if not to brothels?
But where one industry declined because of the change in soccer fans’ tastes, another has boomed — cultural centers such as museums and art galleries have reported record attendance.
interestingly, even though “non-existence” of the issue is pretty well publicised, mainstream media, ngo’s and bunch of other authoritarian sources” spits out bouquet of colourful stories every time new major sporting event is showing up on the horizon.
i wrote a piece in respect of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation in context of major sporting events and included some details and links to official documents published after such event in Germany: http://lotekk.wordpress.com/2010/06/11/on-julie-bindels-unhealthy-and-disturbing-fantasies/.
i also included links to blog posts in relation to HIV prevention in this context which could provide probably the most accurate outlook of the issues concerned.
Haha! Looks like the South African world cup sex hysteria was basically nothing more than a replay of the same discredited predictions made before the 2006 World Cup in Germany. I guess the anti-sex crusaders have adopted the strategy of repeating the same thing over and over hoping someone will believe it. Unfortunately, many do.
What I want to know is why prostitutes are referred to as “trafficked persons” but soccer players aren’t. They both travel and use their bodies for their own financial gain. Of course, the claim is that prostitutes don’t have a choice. They are supposedly forced into it by economic circumstances. Well, guess what. Almost everyone on the planet is “forced” to work if they want a decent standard of living (which, of course, they do).
I’m sick of moral crusaders dressing up their arguments as compassion toward their fellow earthlings when their sole mission is really nothing other than the persecution of people who don’t conform to their narrow view of permissible behavior. And it sickens me that, in this crusade, both conservatives and liberals are equally enthusiastic partners.
Cross posted on LO TEKK.
i guess it’s the “travelling bit” that matters or rather its “style”. according to article 3(a) of the Palermo protocol trafficking means
“the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”
and probably you would agree that it could be hard to apply such a definition to footballers. but i do get your point and i guess you could try and argue such a point with some “feminist philosophers” if you so wish, but i do not see how trafficking could be included in such an argument on neither side. in any case, you could have a problem with the arguments raising, let’s call it “bodily integrity” which could differentiate between the case of footballers and prostitutes.
anyway, i do share your views about “moral crusades” although sometimes i wonder to what extent are we on such a crusade
? i guess we have to make sure that at all time we keep our minds open.
thanks for mention and good luck
For anyone interested, I posted a full response to the above here.
I don’t deny my approach resembles a crusade, but I don’t think crusades are necessarily bad unless their purpose is the persecution of others. I can make an exceedingly good case that locking people up in prison who voluntarily exchange sex for money easily falls well within the boundaries of persecution.