Sometimes you just have to wonder
Friday, October 31st, 2008
There are three local news publications I check every morning. There’s The Straits Times Online—which requires a subscription for most of its content—that tabloid-styled daily The New Paper, and there’s Today, whose site I’ll read for the mornings when the newspaper ah pek doesn’t deliver our copy of Today in time before we leave the house each morning for work.
The three are really quite different in tone. Online critics e.g. from the numerous blog sites and forums like HWZ regard The Straits Times as the government’s official mouth piece. Just check out the posts on some of these forums and you’ll see what I mean. But I’ll still read it to at least get the raw news headlines. There’s also TNP, whose articles I take a look at mostly for fun.
There was one article though yesterday that brought to mind a topic a recent discussion. We were talking about foreign brides last Friday evening too during our small group discussions, and at one point the discussion veered to prostitution. One little bit of information Grace shared that came by way of her hubbie Roger who couldn’t attend on who patronizes these services at Geylang was so shocking that I thought I’d better not add it here on this blog (which I’m always mindful of is read by my students).
Coincidentally, there was an article right on this in TNP a few days ago. The article is right here currently, with a few excerpts below when the article gets archived. Formatted to save space.
Teens, pimp went from table to table
They solicited openly at Geylang coffee shop, sometimes in broad daylight
By Hedy Khoo, October 30, 2008
HIGH JINKS AT COFFEE SHOP: The scene at a Geylang coffee shop near where Wang and the two prostitutes touted their services.
This was the indecent proposal from two girls from China as they went from table to table at a Geylang coffee shop, at times in broad daylight. They were accompanied by their self-styled pimps - Chinese national Wang Minjiang, 36, and his nephew, Wang Youyi, 31.
Their selling point: The girls’ youth.
I’ll get straight to the point in this one: reading articles like this makes my heart boil. Not merely on how they solicit services, but why there still is a flood of this type of women coming into Singapore and abusing their social visit passes for prostitution. Is local enforcement doing enough? Or is it just that some local men are so desperate that there’s persistent demand?
A married friend of mine who also reads this blog once remarked that she packs contraceptives for her husband when he goes alone on his overseas trips. Her reason? Well of course she hopes her husband won’t use them. But if he has to, at least don’t bring home any diseases.
Sure gives you a funny feeling.
(Picture from the TNP article)





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