Anti-child prostitution hypocrisy

Ron O’Grady, the founder of ECPAT, wrote: “If you can help save one child from the violence of sexual abuse, your life has had meaning and purpose.” (Child Advocates Unite against a Global Rise in Child Exploitation, Printscreen )

Exactly.

Crusades to rescue child prostitutes are not about suffering girls. Crusades to rescue child prostitutes are about adding meaning to the life of the crusaders.

The crusaders are fanatic Christians and feminists from the richest Western countries. They have everything else. Now they want a genuine purpose in life.

Sympathy for those who suffer, and taking action to help, whether humans or animals, is a noble character trait. Even more so, if those who act out of sympathy forego modern comfort and put their own lives in danger. Help for those who suffer can add a lot of meaning to a life.

But to claim such noble altruism, the worst suffering, not pet issues, ought to be priority.

For example the dying, from malnutrition and easily preventable disease, of millions of African children every year. Or the suffering in countries ravaged by civil war. Or the suffering in dictatorships where the police abduct, rape, and torture at will.

Whether a priest and a feminist hop on a plane to Manila or Phnom Penh to protect street children from sex tourists, or whether they board a flight to Khartoum or Kinshasa to help the children of the poorest families with basic nutritional and medical care, or demonstrate publicly against disappearances, or work to help prisoners, tells a lot about whether sympathy for those who suffer is the motivation, or whether it’s about fighting sex, or about settling scores, or about playing games to give one’s own life some meaning, without putting oneself at risk.

Few people are willing to dedicate their lives to those who genuinely suffer, or to even just forgo modern amenities.

For those who want to feel as if they are dedicating their lives to a noble cause but nevertheless want to avoid danger and discomfort, it’s a smart choice to join crusaders like ECPAT who target Western men who go for sexual relationships in Third World countries, and may have them with somebody below the age of 18.

Targeting can be done from home or comfortable hotel rooms, and those targeted, Western men in Third World countries, are largely defenseless, and not violent towards those who target them. That traditional media worldwide will give a lot of coverage, and portrait the crusaders as heroes, is an additional benefit. Even a UN stage is possible.

That is why groupings such as ECPAT have so much appeal. They now translate their acronym as End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, sometimes also as End Child Prostitution and Trafficking.

But the initial meaning was End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism.

ECPAT stands for End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism (now End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and the Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes)

Fighting Western men who travel to Asia to seek sexual relationships, and may have them with women under the age of 18, is an ideal give-meaning-to-your-life agenda for fanatic Christians with a deep-seated fear of sexuality, and sex-negative feminists.

Public support for crusaders comes from Western women who understand that their own sexual market value goes up by whatever limits competition from females in Third World countries.

Campaigners against Western men seeking sexual relationships in Third World countries, and possibly having them with females younger than 18, do not act to diminish suffering in the world.

If all the energy and funds directed at tracking down and fighting Western men who have sex in Third World countries with somebody below the age of 18 would be put at use to protect young children in poor countries from malaria and diarrhea, then tens of thousands of young children wouldn’t die every year.

More than a thousand people are murdered worldwide every day. Many of them are murdered gruesomely. Strangulated, drowned, burned alive, tortured to death, not just killed. Most are men. ECPAT activists reply: yeah, sorry, but not the issue of our concern.

In Third World countries or traditional societies, almost all sexual violence against women, or females below the age of 18, or much younger, is perpetrated NOT by male tourists from Western countries. The percentage is almost negligible. In Third World countries, or traditional societies, almost all sexual violence against women, females below the age of 18, or young children, is perpetrated by local men. ECPAT activists reply: yeah, very sad indeed; something should be done, but it’s not within our scope.

Christian fanatics and feminists could try Yemen or Pakistan. Or gang-dominated countries in Latin America. Uganda or Zimbabwe. A lot of severe violence of local men against local women and children everywhere. Domestic and sexual violence is so commonplace that to deal with it as crime is a luxury the legal system of poor countries can’t afford. ECPAT activists won’t go. It’s too dangerous to confront local men, whether Muslim or Mafia.

The purpose of organizations such as ECPAT isn’t the welfare of children or women. The purpose is to target Western men, and to entangle them in judicial proceedings, having them convicted to lengthy sentences, and ruined for life. That is why the ECPAT acronym stood for End Child Prostitution in Asian Tourism.

Until now, as a Google search for “ECPAT extraterritorial laws” shows, the main lobbying of ECPAT is for extraterritorial legislation in Western countries so that men going to Third World countries for sexual relationships and having contact with females under the age of 18 can be convicted in courts at home.

If ECPAT activists indeed would want to help Third World women who suffer, instead of seeking for themselves a comfortable but nevertheless exciting purpose in life, they could campaign to have their countries’ restrictive immigration policies changed.

Canadians, Scandinavians, and Australians have seized a huge chunk of the world’s best land, rich in natural resources and largely free of climate-dependent diseases. Share!

They should let an unlimited number of African families with children in danger of starvation, or daughters in danger of sexual violence, migrate into their beautiful lands.

They won’t. In fact, while they are willing to sometimes make handouts so they themselves feel good, they don’t want to share.

Hypocrites on an ego trip to add meaning to their lives.