ElGamin,
I happen to agree with you totally about the inherent evilness of the ...
DELETED DELETED DELETED.... but we should leave all such political discussions off this board
Before you get too worked up by presenting this as yet another right vs left, red vs blue split, I'd like to point out one more observation. Carolyn Maloney is a gringa, yes, but she is also a
DEMOCRAT from a blue state. Right wing religious zealots ARE at war with our hobby, but it is an unholy alliance with "liberal" femi-nazi zealots represented by such organizations as Equality Now, Casa Alianza et al. I'm sure those groups also do some very good work when it comes to the exploitation of women and minors throughout the world, but they have a seeming inability to distinguish between those who try to practice this hobby responsibly and those that give us ALL a bad name.
It should also be pointed out that this campaign is not all THAT new and has been going on since well before Bush took office. Allow me to point out this news release from the Associated Press from March 1998
http://www.aegis.com/news/ap/1998/AP980307.html. In fact, that article mentions the exact same tour company (G&F) as an example of such agencies and quotes some of the exact same "experts", such as Ken Franzblau of Equality Now. The difference is that these disparate groups are slowing gaining more ground. In 2003, Equality Now issued this press release
http://www.equalitynow.org/english/pressroom/press_releases/bigapple_20030820_en.html, which boasted about how after a hard fought 7 year campaign, Eliot Spitzer and they managed to gain a temporary restraining order against Big Apple Oriental Tours, one of 25 sex tour operators in the US, which effectively shut them down for good. BTW, with Spitzer, Franzblau and others involved this can't be dismissed as just the hysterical actions of some crazed gringas. There are plenty of men (all brain-washed or pussy-whipped?
) that are fighting against us. Today, these various "humanatarian groups" have gotten 6 members of congress to support legislation "that would clarify the law to allow prosecutors to bring charges against those who visit prostitutes abroad and sex tour travel agencies." We will have to wait and see how far such legislation actually gets and even if it passes how aggressively or easily it could be enforced.
Shutting down sex tour travel agencies based in the US is certainly not that far out of reach for these various groups. Would that by itself be such a bad thing? Read the reviews here of such outfits as Bendricks, Dreamgetaways, hottogotravel, globalfantasies, etc. They're all the same. They all charge a HUGE premium to the inexperienced traveler for supposedly removing the uncertainty involved in going to some strange place where one does not know where to go, what to look for, how much to pay etc. Essentially, they make a huge profit for imparting information that could be gotten for free or very cheaply at sites such as this one, Club Hombre, WSG, TSM etc. And the victim ends up out of pocket as much as he would probablyend up overpaying on his own.
It just so happens that I started out in this hobby over a dozen or so years ago with none other than G&F tours. Gunter stuck me as a basically nice but slightly greasy guy, profiteering from his experience as a monger. But I didn't know any better and pre-trip research opportunities on the internet at that date were either not yet available or at least unknown to me. It wasn't that bad a deal $2000 covered airfare and hotel for 10 days but the girls were extra and the "guiding" was very limited. I learned as much on my own and came to realize that independent travel was a far better way to go.
Besides skimming off a large percentage of their client's travel dollar for themselves rather than for the girls, these agencies do several things that actually hurt our hobby. They are high profile targets that inflame our opposition and are responsible for bringing down a lot of the heat that we find upon us. They also flood the various markets with the sort of inexperienced marginally informed newbies that are most likely to overpay for services by local standards and drive up the prices. IF the legislation stops at just targeting such agencies, I say good riddance.
Unfortunately, if you think these groups and congresswomen are going to stop there, you're fooling yourself. I don't know if ElGamin's dentist story is true or not, but I am sure that such an event would not displease these folks. If you'll note the quote above the legislation does not limit itself to tour agencies. Let's look at some of the other comments in the article:
"Overt travel operations such as G&F Tours function as only a small part of a much larger sex tourism industry", said Ken Franzblau, an attorney with Equality Now. "It's a bunch of guys who have no regard for the situation that these women are in. They don't really care where these women came from, how they end up the in the situation, how much money they get to keep." He's right that the tour companies are just a small part of the industry but the rest of what he said doesn't jibe with the sentiments that are generally expressed around here.
Jessica Neuwirth, Equality Now president, said even traveling abroad for the purpose of adult sex should be stopped because it helps fuel the larger sex trade and trafficking. "We actually know that there are Ch*ldren involved, but we can't prove it," Neuwirth said. I've heard this argument many times before but have as yet to see any credible evidence that it is so. In fact, if anything, all the comments that I've seen by guys who are engaged in sex with adult prostitutes show we're as disgusted with pedophilial behavior as anyone else.
Prosecuting prostitutes has been the traditional approach to sex trade ... URI Professor Donna M. Hughes said law enforcement must focus on those demanding sex acts. I think she is referring to us.
Few men are ever prosecuted or shunned for buying sex. And while the English language has a number of slang synonyms for prostitute, Neuwirth said, the only slang word to describe purchasers of sex is "john." "In the English language, there's not even a word for 'johns,'" Neuwirth said. "It shows the invisibility of those people." That may be true, but we avoid all those perjorative terms around here. And what about the term "monger" which many of us apply to ourselves. That's not exactly complimentary in its connotation, which is why I try not to use it.
No action has been taken in Louisiana against G&F Tours. But the proposed sex tourism legislation would allow U.S. attorneys to prosecute tour company owners and travelers(italics added). Convicting one of the big companies might discourage tourists across the country from signing up for trips, Franzblau said. Hopefully he only means that they will go after the records of those companies and go after their clients. Ultimately, they have a LONG way to go before they have any real effect. For one thing, a sex tour company might be able to get around the law by just providing hotel and air a guide that will say something like "on your left is the historic district and, oh look, on your right is the red light district" and let their clients contract with the girls on their own. For another, beyond the testimonials and promotional crap on those company's websites, how can the authorities really know what you are doing overseas short of following you around while you are over there. They have a hard enough time prosecuting the laws they already have in place over here, let alone trying to police, enforce, prosecute and convict someone for actions that they took extraterritorially.
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