All the time people talk about how beautiful Thailand is, and one day I would like to believe that. I am sure at one stage in history, this country contained such beauty with it's mix of cultures and landscapes. However, now I fear that this is not what Thailand is mostly known for. Sex tourism makes up a large percentage of the economy in Thailand, pushing it out of it's third world country statis. Men from all over the world come for a couple of weeks at a time because the women are beautiful and cheap to buy.
Pattaya is not only famous for it's large population of Thai prostitutes, but has become a hot spot for sex traffiking of women from all over the world by people of higher influences (larger global crime circles). Women from poorer European countries (ie-Russia, Moldova), Vietnam, Cambodia, Africa, etc, can be seen on the streets with their pimps nearby. This trade has become the third largest global crime issue and is closely associated with the drug trade. Also, the local authorities support a lot of the trade by being paid for protection.
Why? I know, I asked myself many times as to why these women would sometimes willingly sell themselves to these men. No one simply choses to be used. I just could not understand how the whole thing became "okay."
Let me open your eyes a bit....
One of the ladies we did ministry with informed me that all of it has a lot to do with the culture and religious influence. Their culture holds family in the highest regard. In other words, to shame your family is the worst possible thing to do. Because the men are almost worshipped there, the women are responsible for caring for her intermediate family and her parents. Once a Thai (or Khmer) girl is married, she are now that man's property and he can do whatever he pleases with her. Men sometimes put their wives into prostitution because they know that this is the highest paying trade. A lot of the women we talked with in Pattaya came to the city with hopes of getting a highly paid job, and the only job that she can find that will support all of her family is prostitution. Of course most of the time, if the family knew that she prostituting herself, it would bring the family so much shame. A lot of the time, the employers would use this as blackmail to keep their girls employed. The girls are owing a debt to their employer as soon as they begin working for them and usually have to sleep with a certain amount of men each day in order to pay off the debt and support their families. The employer, then can threaten to tell her family if she wants to quit. Therefore, most of these women are just waiting for their foreign prince to fall for them and pay off their debts, support their family and offer them a "better" life. Those are the women that we met in Pattaya.
I did not know most of this information before going, and so I was completely naieve going into it all. I felt like we simply were tourists visiting a country in hopes of making a difference, and sharing a hope in which we hold. And although we did not see a nation change, or even a city, our eyes were opened to such a darkness in this world that most turn a blind eye to. I was completely overwhelmed with it, and every time I saw an old white man with a young Thai girl, I thought that I was going to be sick. Something I have learnt is that we cannot make a difference on this earth without starting with a single person. To see such a nation change we must recognize the individual.
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