Monday 27 November 2000

Pic of the day: There are a few things you don't tell your employers. Anything about sex, for instance. Here represented by a screenshot from the role playing game Daggerfall. Yes, Bethesda Softworks included prostitutes in this game, but then thought better of it and disabled those particular interactions in the finished game... Yes, the ladies remain in a state of severe undress, but they will now just talk about everyday things. Pretty funny to meet a nekkid "chick" at a hotel room and talk about the latest news. But I guess this is how some people imagine it:

No prostitution, please

Sometimes reality is stranger than fantasy. This is one such day. In fantasy, more exactly in movies, there is one movie called "No sex please, we are British". (I haven't seen it, but I liked the title.) But in reality - such as it is - the new slogan would be: "No prostitution please, we're Norwegian".

It's been on the news broadcasts all day. A high-ranking Sexual Equality Advisor has proposed that Norwegians stop purchasing sex abroad. In particular, she wants it to be the responsibility of employers to ensure that their employees do not enlist the services of prostitutes while on work-related travel. To enforce this, government grants and subsidies should not be given to any agency (such as humanitarian aid organizations) whose employees buy sex abroad.

***

OK, I know I'm above average intelligence. But it really should not be necessary. Any sane adult should find this proposal ridiculous. But on the freak chance that some politician stumble across this site, I shall explain. Slowly and carefully.

First off, I'm not a great admirer of prostitution. As a police officer pointed out on the news, 70% of the money goes to the local crime lords. That was in Murmansk, but I feel sure similar things happen in most countries. If you want to help women who cannot afford decent clothes, this is not the way to go.

The problem is in the idea that employees are fully controlled by their employer. This is not so. The worker is sent to do some work. As the day's work is done, he is on his own. This is his own time. No one can make him believe otherwise. In his own time he does what he pretty well chooses. It matters not to him if his employer wants him to pray, play solitaire, sing in the bath or eat sushi. He could not care less. This is the truth. This is the whole truth. This is nothing but the truth.

There is no male born who would inform his employer about his visits to the local whores. There will not be any such male born this year, this century, the next thousand years or until the sun sprouts wings and flies away, leaving us all behind in the dark. (Where some people evidently are, already.)

***

Of course you can make each employee sign a paper on leaving for travel abroad, in which he promises to not buy sex abroad. The worker will either resent it or find it ridiculous, but he will not respect it. This much is certain. It's none of their darned business what a man does on his own time and with his own money. And it will cost him nothing to sign the worthless scrap of paper when he goes, and a similarly worthless scrap of paper when he comes home, stating that he has not bought any sex abroad.

You believe people think it is OK to sleep with whores, but not to lie about something that's their own business and which they resent even being asked about? Hello reality. Nice to see you, from a distance.

***

We already have a problem with workers coming home with HIV or various other sexually transmitted diseases. We already have a problem with these people not seeing a doctor in time, but instead infecting their spouse / girlfriend / boyfriend / coworker / random stranger. This new initiative is not going to help. Most men who do this are already in denial. It is not a particularly ego-boosting thing, to buy sex, instead of getting it for free. Most prefer to forget it. Now you will have them solemnly declare that it never happened? This will not help. People will die because of this.

Forgive them, for they know not what they do.