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A review by maribeaux
The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS by Elizabeth Pisani
2.0
I lost my respect for the work when I reached chapter six and it made me overall question the information presented on the topic of sex and drugs.
I won't say much, just that it would have been wiser if Pissani had left her uneducated, anecdotal-evidence-based opinions on human trafficking to the experts on the issue, who not only admit that most of the females in the sex trade in Asia are trafficked, but also that commercial sex not only hasn't fallen, but it is rooted so deep in many cultures of Asia, that people can't seem to step away from it because they can't, they don't want to, they're used to it, or all those. Human trafficking is a pandemic. Girls and women are held captive against their will like slaves (actually, even worse), they are manipulated, mentally broken, threatened to not speak to anyone or leave their spots.
Yes, stories of such women would make good documentaries if these women would actually have been free physically and psychologically to speak, available to be exposed to random interviewers. But oh, these are all rumors (!) "A friend of mine said this", "a friend of mine said that". I wonder how much money was thrown to make the UN and WHO look clean, innocent, reliable, honest on that matter. Just because one doesn't or can't see cases of human trafficking doesn't mean it doesn't exist, that it is rare or that it is not a serious matter.
But let's not forget that Pissani's goal wasn't ever to take a deep dive into the sex trafficking so it doesn't much surprise me that the chapter is quite contradictory to studies of the noughties.
I won't say much, just that it would have been wiser if Pissani had left her uneducated, anecdotal-evidence-based opinions on human trafficking to the experts on the issue, who not only admit that most of the females in the sex trade in Asia are trafficked, but also that commercial sex not only hasn't fallen, but it is rooted so deep in many cultures of Asia, that people can't seem to step away from it because they can't, they don't want to, they're used to it, or all those. Human trafficking is a pandemic. Girls and women are held captive against their will like slaves (actually, even worse), they are manipulated, mentally broken, threatened to not speak to anyone or leave their spots.
Yes, stories of such women would make good documentaries if these women would actually have been free physically and psychologically to speak, available to be exposed to random interviewers. But oh, these are all rumors (!) "A friend of mine said this", "a friend of mine said that". I wonder how much money was thrown to make the UN and WHO look clean, innocent, reliable, honest on that matter. Just because one doesn't or can't see cases of human trafficking doesn't mean it doesn't exist, that it is rare or that it is not a serious matter.
But let's not forget that Pissani's goal wasn't ever to take a deep dive into the sex trafficking so it doesn't much surprise me that the chapter is quite contradictory to studies of the noughties.