Posted on 08/04/2013 2:13:52 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows
The economic crisis is forcing prostitutes to lower their prices and to accept dubious sexual practices, according to sector organisation Geisha.
‘The trend is apparent in the main cities, with some prostitutes unable to pay the rent on their rooms’, Ilonka Stakelborough from Geisha told Algemeen Dagblad.
Until recently, the minimum price was €50, but this has now dropped as low as €20 in cities such as Amsterdam and The Hague.
Geisha is to set up a project for sex workers so they can form a co-operative. Geisha will rent a room which prostitutes only pay rent for when they are actually working.
This city’s famed red-light district looks much as it has for years, with bikini-clad women behind plate-glass windows fluffing their hair or beckoning to passersby, colorful beds visible in the background as an unspoken invitation.
But things could soon change for the sex-for-hire industry following a recognition in the freewheeling Netherlands that its decision in 2000 to legalize brothels has failed to stem human trafficking.
“For something as simple as the lust for sex, we are tolerating modern-day slavery,” said Myrthe Hilkens, a Labor Party legislator who supports a series of moves to tighten the rules on prostitution. “I think that cannot be.”
The proposals are far-reaching. Most contested is a bill to require all prostitutes be registered with the government—a measure that has already been approved by the lower house but is struggling in the Senate.
Also in the works: raising the minimum age to 21 from 18, and a requirement that escort services be licensed, just as brothels currently are.
A vote is expected before the summer recess on July 9.
Meanwhile, the city government in Amsterdam on Wednesday is expected to approve tougher rules, including ordering brothels to close in the early-morning hours and requiring that prostitutes speak Dutch, English, German or Spanish, to make it harder to exploit them.
These ideas reflect a consensus that regulating prostitution hasn’t deterred human trafficking, which has increased since the opening of the former Soviet bloc in the 1980s.
“A huge concern is that a lot of criminal organizations send their prostitutes to the Netherlands,” said Ard van der Steur, a legislator from the center-right Liberal Party, which rules in a coalition with the left-leaning Labor Party. “Leaving everything the way it is fuels a grave concern that we are not doing what we should to prevent human trafficking.”
A similar debate is under way in Germany, which followed the Netherlands in liberalizing prostitution in 2002.
But critics say such restrictions will hurt sex workers, not those who exploit them. “You do not have to fight sex work, you have to fight trafficking,” said Ilonka Stakelborough, a former prostitute who now runs a Dutch advocacy group called Geisha.
Under the proposed registry, Holland’s roughly 20,000 prostitutes would have to meet with government officials and show they are not being coerced in order to get a registration card.
Critics call that a violation of the privacy of prostitutes, who may want to hide their current profession from future employers. A prostitute working involuntarily, often facing threats to her family, they add, can hardly be expected to tell a government official the truth.
“You put a coerced woman in front of a civil servant, and she will say whatever she has to say,” said Flavia Dzodan, an Amsterdam-based journalist who blogs on women’s issues.
The Senate will soon vote on whether to remove the registry from the bill. Underlying the debate is the broader question of whether prostitution can truly be “cleaned up.” The city’s red-light district, which expanded in the 17th century when Amsterdam was a leading port city, remains one of Europe’s big tourist attractions., with a Sex Museum, an elaborate condom shop and the smell of marijuana wafting from the many “coffee shops” authorized to sell it.
The city for several years has been trying to reshape the neighborhood, buying up brothels it considers dangerous, like those in dimly-lighted corners, and turning them into cafes or shops.
City officials say they have managed to cut the number of prostitutes’ windows in the red-light district from 500 to 409 in about five years, and want to ultimately bring it down to 300.
“We try not to address these problems from the moral point of view,” Eberhard van der Laan, Amsterdam’s mayor, said. “We say there is abuse and we want to fight it.”
The prostitution issue erupted in February, when Ms. Hilkens and another lawmaker, Gert-Jan Segers, made a highly publicized visit to Sweden, which outlaws buying sexual services but not selling them. Ms. Hilkens and Mr. Segers discussed this different approach from Holland’s in Dutch television studios.
No one expects the Netherlands to criminalize sex-for-hire soon, though Mr. Segers, of the Christian Union Party, believes it should. “It’s immoral when a man with power and money is buying the body of a woman,” he said. Dutch officials note prostitution is widely practiced even in countries that ban it. (In the U.S., prostitution is illegal except in parts of Nevada.)
“It’s unlikely to disappear anywhere on earth,” said Willem Witteveen, a Labor Party legislator. “You should bring it into the open and see if you can prevent excesses.”
Of course, there is something very German about the government registering prostitutes.
"Your papers please..."
It is dehumanization. You are using your body like a piece of toilet paper. It destroys dignity of the person and reduces them to animal and removes morality from sexual acts.
It is the slippery slope....like with all vice-—you can not have “Justice” (Virtue) when you embrace Vice in your “Justice” system. It is why homosexual “marriage” is an oxymoron and unjust law and defies Reason which is necessary for Just Law.
You can switch the “worldview” of children when they live in toxic cultures where Vice is enshrined in Laws (legal). Vice is normalized. Without Virtue, cultures can not be free.
The first thing Cultural Marxists do to get control is to destroy Virtue in children (control schools and sexualize them before maturity) and promote pornography in the “culture”. Sex is the easiest method to corrupt and destroy people and all long-term productive relationships and the family. Without the family, children will not survive in a healthy way.
It’s sad and reflects a loss of wisdom.
bump
But at least I give God credit for being and doing what He is, too. God is not content to stop with a mere morality. God loves sacrificially. God therefore can and will forgive anyone who wants to get right with Him.
I'll be right *er* on it! Just as soon as Queens Day rolls around.
Most of the year the meat behind the glass ranges from bow-wow to wow with most of them in the MEH category.
*But* (You knew there was a *but*) come Queens Day they bring out the prime, grade AAAAAA+++++ meat. Not a dog in the bunch. As my tongue was dragging the streets of Amsterdam I was trying out phrases in my head like;
"Hi Dear, Look what followed me home! Can I keep it?"
"Hi Dear, It's good to be home. This is Bambi. She will be living with us."
"Hello Dear, You've been wanting some help around the house, have I got a gift for you!"
Trust me, It would be *almost* worth the beating.
[[[[Dutch officials note prostitution is widely practiced even in countries that ban it. (In the U.S., prostitution is illegal except in parts of Nevada.)]]]]
Classic fallacious libertarian thinking. An illegal activity happens, therefore it should be legalized. Prostitution does take place in the United States, but not next door to me. It does not take place in most suburban neighborhoods (at least overtly) next to kids and wives and anyone else who would be hurt.
Because it is illegal, thank God.
It’s tough to clean up a business like prostitution. The nature of the business defies it being so.
Anyone see a parallel between this and banning guns?
They need to unionize or something.
Maybe liberals could establish "fair trade" for sex workers.
dubious sexual practices
Guy: Did we just have sex?
Gal: I was wondering the same thing.
Guy: I’m confused.
Of course not. To address anything from a moral point of view, you would first have to HAVE a moral point of view--and modern Europe lost that a long time back.
What? No Demodummies traveling to Holland these days? Probably due to the “sequester” and all.
Willie Jay Clinton will be right on it, I’m sure, since he was so certain about what he DID NOT do with that woman...
Several years ago there was a story about a German woman on unemployment, who was denied benefits because she refused to take a job as a "sex worker".
Found it:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1482371/If-you-dont-take-a-job-as-a-prostitute-we-can-stop-your-benefits.html
€50? That’s serious inflation from just a decade ago. Something is askew here.
With the open European borders, the professional prostitute class in the Netherlands came under attack by mostly eastern European sex-trafficked women, who worked as illegal prostitutes. At the time the going rate was around €20 for licensed, prostitute-union prostitutes.
€50 (for 10 minutes) was more like the price for ‘concierge’ prostitutes, also not legal, and not in the red light district.
The bottom line is that unlike Germany, where prostitution is very carefully regulated, the Netherlands are so laid back that problems could develop. Left to just the Dutch, neither the prostitution or drugs was a problem; but waves of immigrants quickly took to abusing the system.
Economy Hard on Prostitutes </NY Post headline>
Knew I could count on you.
Why make theft and murder illegal? Can't legislate morality.
i guess the phrase “this job sucks.” has a new meaning. and i thought prostitutes forming a cooperative meant a threesome.
With all those windmills in Holland, the Dutch must've gotten a lot of practice tilting at them.
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