Spurning Tricks

Kerry Howley | July 25, 2005

In The New York Times Magazine, Matt Steinglass reports on U.S.A.I.D.'s penchant for forcibly removing Cambodian sex workers from brothels and turning them into tailors:

As for vocational training, [sex worker advocate Rosanna] Barbero says, sex workers "are all pretty damn sick of 'We'll put you in front of sewing machines 14 hours a day and make you a better woman.'"

The article says Barbero got involved because "peacekeepers and aid workers affiliated with the United Nations were fueling a sudden explosion in prostitution."

To recap: The presence of a largely U.S.-funded development community makes prostitution profitable; U.S.-funded NGOs then attempt to reform the fallen.

Whole thing here.