June 13, 2006
WELL, THERE'S A PIZZA HUT OUTSIDE YANKEE STADIUM:
Sex Isn't a Spectator Sport: Germany's World Cup pimping will fuel sex trafficking. (A Christianity Today editorial, 06/12/2006)
Seeking to better her life, Irina, 18, answers a newspaper advertisement for a training course in Berlin. Using a falsified passport, she travels from her native Ukraine to Germany. There she is told the school is closed and sent to Belgium for a "job." Upon arrival, Irina learns she owes those in charge $10,000 and must repay the debt by prostitution. Irina's handlers take her documents, beat and rape her, and make her a prostitute. Eventually they turn her over to another pimp in Brussels' red-light district. Watching for a chance at freedom, Irina escapes one day—only to be jailed by the police because she has no documentation.Sexual trafficking is a huge problem in Europe and worldwide. University of Rhode Island researcher Donna M. Hughes, who relates Irina's story, says global trafficking in women and girls for purposes of sexual exploitation rakes in $7 billion every year. Untold millions more are domestic "sex workers" within their own countries.
Human-rights groups are understandably outraged by Germany's decision to make prostitution a spectator sport at the World Cup. Germany, which legalized the world's oldest profession in 2002, already has an estimated 400,000 legal prostitutes. Apparently that's not sufficient to satisfy 3 million visiting soccer fans. So Germany's World Cup cities have issued extra prostitution licenses and approved "sex huts" (complete with condoms and snacks) to be set up like portable potties around stadiums.
Anti-trafficking activists say these initiatives will bring 40,000 more women into the country. Many will be poor Eastern Europeans like Irina, under the control of organized crime.
Our book features an essay co-authored by Ms Hughes. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 13, 2006 4:24 PM
...And just as wrong.
Posted by: Rick T. at June 13, 2006 5:26 PMI don't understand Rick. Are you equating adequate pizza with sexual slavery?
Posted by: Robert Mitchell Jr. at June 13, 2006 6:33 PMRbt. I believe Mr. Rick T is indulging in the fine art of facetiousness. Are you indulging in the same when you comment that Pizza Hut serves adequate pizza? If so, please run, do not walk, to a restaurant that serves real pizza, preferably run by a person of Italian extraction or for pizza sent from heaven, go to any neighborhood pizzeria in NYC.
Posted by: erp at June 14, 2006 9:38 AMMrs. Erp, I am not being flipant. Pizza hut is many people's second choice. Once you leave the beaten path, you can find some divine pizza; dogfood too. If you don't know the area, Pizza hut is safe.
Posted by: Robert Mitchell Jr. at June 14, 2006 1:24 PM