The following is a quote by Martin Luther King Jr. regarding one's life's work:
"Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man must do his job so well that the dead, the living, and the unborn could do it no better."
Monday, June 23, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Reflection of the Day: "Servant of your Inward Heart"
"There is nothing closer to you then yourself. If you don't know yourself, how will you know others? You might say, "I know myself", but you are mistaken....The only thing you know about yourself is your physical appearance. The only thing you know about your inside [batin, your unconscious] is that when you are hungry you eat, when you are angry, you fight, and when you are consumed by passion, you make love. In this regard you are equal to any animal. You have to seek the reality within yourself....What are you? Where have you come from and where are you going? What is your role in the world? Why have you been created? Where does your happiness lie? If you would like to know yourself....the reality of your existence is in your inwardness. Everything is a servant of your inward heart."
(Al-Ghazali, The Alchemy of Happiness)
(Al-Ghazali, The Alchemy of Happiness)
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Sex trade thrives in Afghanistan
Source: MSNBC/Associated PressPhoto: Farzana Wahidy / AP
Article: Sex trade thrives in Afghanistan
*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:
The girl was 11 when she was molested by a man with no legs. He paid her $5. And that was how she started selling sex.
Afghanistan is one of the world's most conservative countries, yet its sex trade appears to be thriving. Sex is sold most obviously at brothels full of women from China who serve both Afghans and foreigners. Far more controversial are Afghan prostitutes, who stay underground in a society that pretends they don't exist.
Customs meant to keep women "pure" have not stopped prostitution. Girls are expected to remain virgins until their wedding nights, so some prostitutes have only anal sex.
They are often the casualties of nearly three decades of brutal war and a grinding poverty that forces most Afghans to live on less than $1 a day.
Some prostitutes are forced into the sex trade by their families. The Ora report said 39 percent of the sex workers interviewed found clients through their relatives — including 17 percent through their mothers and 15 percent through their husbands.
Click here to read the full article!
*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Video-Survival: Renting home to Sex Workers (Ethiopia)
Source: Vlogit
Emishaw lives in a crowded area of Ethiopia. His mother has to rent out their home to sex workers in order to make money for the family...
ZIMBABWE: From school teacher to Sex Worker
Source: IRIN
*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:
Surviving the world’s highest inflation rate is resulting in people ditching their professions and embarking on work, which they had never previously considered. Mavis, a qualified nursery teacher, has swapped her life as an educator for that of a sexworker and now cruises for clients in the upmarket hotels of the capital Harare.
"I am a professionally trained infant teacher, but last year I decided to quit the profession as the money that I was earning was not adequate to sustain myself,” she told IRIN.
"If I was still working as a school teacher, I would be earning just over Z$300,000 (US$7.5 at the parallel exchange rate of Z$40,000 to US$1) a month, but now, I can charge as much as Z$500,000 (US$12.5) per night regardless of whether the client wants my services for a short while or for the whole night."
Mavis said that the majority of her clients were married men, who had to get home to their wives. "When clients cannot be with me for a long time, I can double my earnings in a single night,” she said.
There are some clients who demand to have unsafe sex and even offer to pay more but I insist on the use of condoms or cancel the transaction," Mavis said. More than 5,000 teachers failed to report for duty when schools opened for the new term two weeks ago.
Click here to read the full article!
*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.
*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:
Surviving the world’s highest inflation rate is resulting in people ditching their professions and embarking on work, which they had never previously considered. Mavis, a qualified nursery teacher, has swapped her life as an educator for that of a sexworker and now cruises for clients in the upmarket hotels of the capital Harare.
"I am a professionally trained infant teacher, but last year I decided to quit the profession as the money that I was earning was not adequate to sustain myself,” she told IRIN.
"If I was still working as a school teacher, I would be earning just over Z$300,000 (US$7.5 at the parallel exchange rate of Z$40,000 to US$1) a month, but now, I can charge as much as Z$500,000 (US$12.5) per night regardless of whether the client wants my services for a short while or for the whole night."
Mavis said that the majority of her clients were married men, who had to get home to their wives. "When clients cannot be with me for a long time, I can double my earnings in a single night,” she said.
There are some clients who demand to have unsafe sex and even offer to pay more but I insist on the use of condoms or cancel the transaction," Mavis said. More than 5,000 teachers failed to report for duty when schools opened for the new term two weeks ago.
Click here to read the full article!
*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.
“My mother said I could help the family more if I left school to be a sex worker”
Source: IRIN
*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:
Janet Camara (not her real name) told IRIN her mother urged her to leave school and become a sex worker in early 2008 when it became clear that food and fuel prices meant her mother could not support the family on her own. Janet agreed to do it, becoming one of an estimated 250,000 sex workers in Guinea, according to a local non-governmental organisation.
“My father left a few years ago and my mother supported us by selling odds and ends in the market. I have three brothers and three sisters, and until the end of last year we were all in school. But as food prices rose my mother had more and more difficulty buying enough food for us to eat.”
“I was in my final year– my exams would have been this year - and one day my mother said I could help the family more if I left school to be a sex worker. I didn’t want to leave my friends behind but I thought I might earn enough to buy myself some nice clothes or a phone, and bring money home to my family, so I agreed to do it.”
“I bring home rice, bread and plantains – I help my mother a lot - but I can’t buy anything more because life has changed here - prices are rising so high my earnings only cover the basics.”
“Now I regret leaving school because I miss my friends, and I didn’t know this would be so hard. I suffer a lot. I take an HIV test every six months – organisations come around and offer them to us. I try to always insist clients use a condom but sometimes it means I have to charge them lower prices, and I end up losing clients that way.”
“We get a lot of military men here, but they often round us up in their trucks and take us out to the fields to rape us – and they end up paying nothing at all.”
“On a good day I’ll make US$33 but there are many days when I don’t make anything. The amount that a client will pay varies between US$3.30 and US$20, but that’s unusual. During religious festivals I may make nothing at all for weeks - Ramadan is the worst time.”
“Since I’ve been on the streets over the last year I’ve seen more and more young girls doing this work. I imagine most of them are leaving school like me, but I’ve also heard of some students continuing their studies during the day. I’ve also seen young boys working on the streets – they are more hidden but they exist.”
Click here to read the full article!
*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.
*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:
Janet Camara (not her real name) told IRIN her mother urged her to leave school and become a sex worker in early 2008 when it became clear that food and fuel prices meant her mother could not support the family on her own. Janet agreed to do it, becoming one of an estimated 250,000 sex workers in Guinea, according to a local non-governmental organisation.
“My father left a few years ago and my mother supported us by selling odds and ends in the market. I have three brothers and three sisters, and until the end of last year we were all in school. But as food prices rose my mother had more and more difficulty buying enough food for us to eat.”
“I was in my final year– my exams would have been this year - and one day my mother said I could help the family more if I left school to be a sex worker. I didn’t want to leave my friends behind but I thought I might earn enough to buy myself some nice clothes or a phone, and bring money home to my family, so I agreed to do it.”
“I bring home rice, bread and plantains – I help my mother a lot - but I can’t buy anything more because life has changed here - prices are rising so high my earnings only cover the basics.”
“Now I regret leaving school because I miss my friends, and I didn’t know this would be so hard. I suffer a lot. I take an HIV test every six months – organisations come around and offer them to us. I try to always insist clients use a condom but sometimes it means I have to charge them lower prices, and I end up losing clients that way.”
“We get a lot of military men here, but they often round us up in their trucks and take us out to the fields to rape us – and they end up paying nothing at all.”
“On a good day I’ll make US$33 but there are many days when I don’t make anything. The amount that a client will pay varies between US$3.30 and US$20, but that’s unusual. During religious festivals I may make nothing at all for weeks - Ramadan is the worst time.”
“Since I’ve been on the streets over the last year I’ve seen more and more young girls doing this work. I imagine most of them are leaving school like me, but I’ve also heard of some students continuing their studies during the day. I’ve also seen young boys working on the streets – they are more hidden but they exist.”
Click here to read the full article!
*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.
Friday, June 06, 2008
THE LIVELIHOODS OF COMMERCIAL SEX WORKERS IN BINGA
Source:Eldis
Authors: M. O'Donnell; M. Khozombah; S. Mudenda
Publisher: Save the Children Fund, 2002
Article: THE LIVELIHOODS OF COMMERCIAL SEX WORKERS IN BINGA
*The following is a direct quote of the summary provided by Eldis:
This report, from Save the Children (SC), explores the links between commercial sex work and food security in a fishing community in northern Zimbabwe. The authors found that one of the coping strategies for women during periods when they had little or no income or food would be to engage in commercial sex work (CSW). The authors argue that sex work needs be viewed form a livelihoods perspective if the underlying factors of sex work are to be addressed. Existing SC programming focuses more on the provision of information, education and condoms in order to reduce the risk of HIV transmission through commercial sex, rather than on livelihoods-related aspects.
The authors suggest two basic ways in which livelihoods programming could influence CSW. In order to prevent women from entering CSW, large-scale interventions such as SC food aid programmes could potentially have a role in supporting livelihoods and therefore help to reduce the need for women to engage in sex work. For those already engaged in CSW, but seeking a way out, income-generating projects should be considered. The authors also argue that promoting ‘safe sex’ to those engaged in CSW does not work because women are not in a position to negotiate condom use and, indeed, can make more money by not using condoms. The authors suggest that SC review its delivery channels for condom delivery and use and take these livelihood factors into consideration.
Click here to read the full article!
*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.
Authors: M. O'Donnell; M. Khozombah; S. Mudenda
Publisher: Save the Children Fund, 2002
Article: THE LIVELIHOODS OF COMMERCIAL SEX WORKERS IN BINGA
*The following is a direct quote of the summary provided by Eldis:
This report, from Save the Children (SC), explores the links between commercial sex work and food security in a fishing community in northern Zimbabwe. The authors found that one of the coping strategies for women during periods when they had little or no income or food would be to engage in commercial sex work (CSW). The authors argue that sex work needs be viewed form a livelihoods perspective if the underlying factors of sex work are to be addressed. Existing SC programming focuses more on the provision of information, education and condoms in order to reduce the risk of HIV transmission through commercial sex, rather than on livelihoods-related aspects.
The authors suggest two basic ways in which livelihoods programming could influence CSW. In order to prevent women from entering CSW, large-scale interventions such as SC food aid programmes could potentially have a role in supporting livelihoods and therefore help to reduce the need for women to engage in sex work. For those already engaged in CSW, but seeking a way out, income-generating projects should be considered. The authors also argue that promoting ‘safe sex’ to those engaged in CSW does not work because women are not in a position to negotiate condom use and, indeed, can make more money by not using condoms. The authors suggest that SC review its delivery channels for condom delivery and use and take these livelihood factors into consideration.
Click here to read the full article!
*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.
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