California State College Professor Promotes Sex Tourism in Thailand

L.A. Daily News April, 20th, 2010

As a California State University Northridge associate professor, Kenneth Ng spends his days teaching students the principles of economics: markets, monetary policy, interest rates.

But in his free time, Ng focuses on a very different kind of market: sex tourism in Thailand.

For the past year, Ng has been running a website that offers insights into the Thai bar scene, such as where to meet beautiful women and how to negotiate fees for their services.

Ng, who has worked at Cal State Northridge, for nearly half of his 50 years, never actively advertised his moonlighting gig to his students or academic colleagues.

But he was outed by a group of foreign businessmen who were outraged by what they considered a disrespectful internet posting. They contact his employer and colleagues, hoping Ng would be pressured into taking down his site.

University officials say they will not intervene or discipline Ng as long as his extracurricular activities do not involve public resources.

And Ng, himself, is defiant in his refusal.

"I am not going to let anyone make take it down." Ng said in a recent interview. "That's just a personality thing."

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Since the L.A. Daily News published this article early last week, the debate has been heated among the American public over his website content. People were outraged by his website promoting sex tourism in Thailand. The former U.S. Justice Department official and the founder of the organization PornHarms, Patrick Truman says that if Ng's website content is "enticing and inducing" a person to travel internationally in pursuit of prostitution, he is in violation of federal law, U.S. Code 18;2422(a)-(b). As of last week, Change.org reports that the professor's sex tourism website was voluntarily taken down by Ng because of the petition and complaints submitted by the American public. Amanda Kloer at Change.org suggests that "A reduction in websites pushing sex tourists to Thailand can really have an impact on the sex industry there. Since sex trafficking is a demand-drive industry, few buyers looking for women or children means fewer traffickers willing to supply them. And that means, of course, fewer victims."

Human trafficking in India Part I: Caste and Human Trafficking

Highly developed IT industry, nuclear weapons, and a fast developing economy with rich culture and resources are what one thinks of when he or she thinks of India in the 21st century. Also, when reading articles on Bollywood stars traveling to Africa to fight against human trafficking, readers are led to think that the victims are never Indian themselves, but instead are those who are trafficked from its neighboring countries. Furthermore, the democracy in India is well established enough that Indians, including the Bollywood stars, have a great understanding of a person’s fundamental human rights.

Scholars have pointed out to corruption, bureaucracy, and high illiteracy rates as three main factors causing human trafficking in India. However, unless one is familiar with the Indian culture and the society, one would have a hard time recognizing the connection between human trafficking and the three causes behind such atrocities in India. In fact, the causal relationship between human trafficking and the three factors is possible soley because the Caste System in the country allows Indians to accept such issues - which human trafficking - as part of the tradition or custom. Further, the Caste System allows many Indians to believe that human trafficking of low Caste class members is a fact of life, rather than a flawed tradition.

According to The Dalit Freedom Network, Dalit people are the lowest class in the Indian Castes system. The population of Dalit contains nearly 67% of the entire Indian population, which amounts to 250 million Indian citizens. [2] Though the Indian constitution outlawed the mistreatment of Dalits solely based on their social status, it has not officially abolished the Caste System from the society as a whole. Therefore, in practice, Dalit people's status in the lowest Caste's class continues to control their lives with a rare chance of climbing up the social ladder.

As Castes affect every aspects of a person’s life in India, Dalits have faced all sorts of discrimination against them. In the past, the society expected them to “use separate water taps, temples and graveyards in the cities." [3] Their Caste class status also affected their chances of getting a job or finding a place to live. Moreover, Dalit students were told to arrive earlier to clean the classroom for other students.

They were also expected to sit in the back of the classroom. [4] Some people say that such extreme forms of discrimination mentioned above no longer exist. However, Caste discrimination is severe enough for Indians to justify modern-day slavery. Even if they try to work hard to rise above the poverty line, their social status perpetuates the maintenance of their life styles under the poverty lines.

The Tradition That Fosters Trafficking

Thailand is an example of a culture in which the lower status of women is supported by the traditional values. A Thai woman, by tradition, is encouraged to take pride in making her husband comfortable and satisfied. Such traditional values of women are well reflected in the literary work of Sunthon Phu, a Thai poet recognized as a UNESCO Classic Poet of the World in 1986, described the duties of a good wife as follows:

A wife should show her respect to her husband every day. When the sun sets, she will not go anywhere but prepare the bed for her husband. When the husband goes to bed, she krap him at his feet (by raising the hands pressed together at her chest and prostrating herself at the husband's feet as a Thai way to show her high respect). In the morning, she wakes up before him to cook food and prepare all things for him. When he has breakfast, she sits besides him to see whether he wants anything that she can bring to him. A good wife will not eat before her husband.

Sadly, the dynamics of such traditional norms still pervade in many ways in Thai society. Since Thai society considers domestic violence as a private matter, a man can justifiably abuse his wife in any circumstance without fear of punishment. In any case, neither the victims nor the law enforcement would be willing to bring the matter before the court.

Such traditional values, if nothing else, mitigate the gravity of sex trafficking and the prostitution in the minds Thai men and women. A Thai man whose upbringing teaches him that a woman should please him would not feel bad about abusing his wife when she fails to do so. Neither would he feel the need to apologize to his wife for having multiple mistresses or visiting brothels for his sexual pleasure and comfort. Similarly, another Thai man with the same upbringing would not feel bad about buying Burmese or Cambodian children as a brothel facilitator to meet the customers’ sexual pleasure. Neither would he feel bad about selling them to the sex industries abroad such as, Japan, Europe or the United States.

Similarly, a Thai woman whose primary duty as a wife is to serve her sick husband will choose to sell her daughter as either a domestic servant or a prostitute to pay for her husband’s hospital bills. In her mind, her duty to fulfill the needs of family and her husband comes before her duty to protect her daughter as a mother.

Unfortunately, Thailand is not the only example of a culture that supports the lower status of women. In fact, the status of a woman in Japan is much worse than it is in Thailand. Therefore, the education that challenges such traditional or cultural norms in the minds of young men and women in various cultures is a vital step to fight against human trafficking.

Interview: Morgan Zamora

Morgan Zamora is one of the most inspirational people that I know. I have been fortunate enough to work with her as a Regional Coordinator with Americans for Informed Democracy, a not-for-profit that works to engage college students on global issues; our focus area was human trafficking. Morgan's work to raise awareness about and combat modern-day slavery does not end there, though. This fall she will be a junior in college, and despite being so young she is already a leader in anti-trafficking work. Her dedication, passion, and talent continue to amaze me.

Zamora is the Community Outreach Coordinator for the Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition (HRRC) in Houston, TX. She is also the president of S.W.A.T (Students Working Against Trafficking) at the University of St. Thomas. Like many anti-trafficking activists and advocates, Zamora was motivated to take action after learning that modern-day slavery exists. After attending a screening of TRADE, Zamora meet with representatives from HHRC, and she immediately wanted to begin volunteering for them.

In her role with HRRC, Zamora has worked to raise awareness and mobilize action in the Houston area. As she notes, human trafficking is extremely prevalent in the Houston Area. After volunteering with HRRC, Zamora now coordinates others who give volunteer outreach presentations to local businesses, asking them to display Rescue and Restore posters about human trafficking and trafficking hotlines. Thus far, nearly 200 business in the area are displaying the posters. Zamora also does outreach work with at-risk populations, and her student organization is planning an anti-trafficking conference. She sums up her work by saying "my work in Houston has been focused on mobilizing individuals throughout the Houston area and creating a network of active abolitionists in the city."

According to Zamora, once she has sparked an interest in someone, the main challenge is keeping their passion for the work alive. While awareness raising is important, as Zamora notes, it can be difficult to measure success or progress in this area. She also pointed out the potential dangers of anti-trafficking activism, saying that "it can sometimes be a great task within itself to continuously come up with innovative and creative new ways to be an active abolitionist in a manner that is 'safe.'" This is certainly a challenge that I can identify with, and I know we would both appreciate any ideas that people have.

As Zamora's anti-trafficking work has deepened, her perspective on the issue has also shifted and deepened. While her work still entails educating people about the fact that trafficking happens (and that it happens in the US), Zamora states "I feel now that it is even more important to focus on why [human trafficking] exists. I think the public and society needs to be more aware of the consequences of their actions in relation to promoting certain gender stereotypes and capitalistic activities. There is a reason why millions of people are being exploited around the world, and if I could shed light on that and possibly make people rethink some of their actions, then perhaps their would be less exploitation. But that may just be wishful thinking. I hope not."

In order to address trafficking around the world, Zamora argues that different cultures and regions must address the issue from their perspectives. Anti-trafficking efforts must be grounded in the local context and culture. She suggests that "Change must start within each society around the world and people must realize the effects of their actions. For example, poverty may be the overall issue involved with trafficking in Eastern Europe and India, but there are varying cultural aspects of both cultures that allow for the exploitation of women and children or men of certain socioeconomic status." At the same time, Zamora points out that efforts must include an understanding of global systems that perpetuate trafficking, and people must see that their actions have consequences beyond what they might immediately see.

Zamora ended her comments with encouragement and a challenge: "I feel that people need to be informed but then that people need to be empowered. They need to be able to believe that they can change the outcome of the system they live in. The world needs more active abolitionists, who are not only informed of the issue of human trafficking but that realize that they live in a globally connected world, and their actions within consumerism and society all effect the enslavement of people in the world or in their own city."