Menus...

"Pet Maak maak!!!"

This was a phrase very commonly used by my darling husband and I during our eight months in Bangkok, Thailand. Very very spicy!!! When you first walk down the long and narrow outdoor markets, you are overwhelmed by the powerful aromas, color and variety in every single dish you see. The sellers are busy, working harder than most people you will ever see, in heat so intense that you walk out your door and the exertion of that very small act has you sweating like you were in a sauna. One would think with the incredible number of dishes that you would have plenty of variety in the dinner of your choosing... but “pet maak maak!” is the reality of living in a country where “spice” to them has a different definition than to ours as Americans. There are no menus, and nothing is in English, and very rarely do the people speak it, so you take your chance on whatever dish has less peppers... and bring a hot dog home just in case.

There are however in Thailand, menus for people and enough English spoken concerning that menu to ensnare somewhere between 60 to 80% of foreign tourists and 70% of Thai men. When my husband took the train to go get our internet connected in another part of the city, he was approached very forcefully by a man who put a “menu” in his face filled with Polaroids of girls whom he advertised as, “Very young! Very cheap!” As shocking as this might seem, that man would not have that angle or choosing of words, were those very things not in huge demand every single day. Very young... very cheap...

In Thailand, there are more brothels than schools, around 60,000 to be more precise. And it is estimated that up to 400,000 children under the age of 16 work in bars, brothels, and night clubs. Trafficking is a $16 billion dollar annual business, which makes up 50%-60% of the governments annual budget. This industry is more profitable than the drug trade. Yet the issue lies in the grey area of corrupt desire and lack of desire to learn the reality that would compel even a cold heart toward action for the voiceless. Because if you were to ask if children were prostituted in Thailand, you would receive an automatic no. But, if they thought you might be interested in those children for your own sexual agenda, they would be made available to you.

If you were to open your eyes to see, the evidence is everywhere. So which way will we look? Will our hearts hunger to learn what we can to help, or turn away from a problem that feels too large and too dark? My question is, did the children and women who are prostituted have a choice? The majority of them did not, as their worth lied in being a commodity as opposed to a human being. So if they did not have a choice, why should you? If there were options for them, what could you do?

Intro to Human Trafficking; Article for Fayetteville Newspaper, by Juliet Stuck