[Fwd: The Web, Where 'Pimps' Roam Free]

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> The Web, Where 'Pimps' Roam Free
> By Julia Scheeres
>
> 2:00 a.m. July 7, 2001 PDT
>
> PUERTO PLATA, Dominican Republic -- A slow tourist season has hurt the
> T-shirt and coconut milk vendors in this scenic beach town, but it
> hasn't put a dent in the body business.
>
> Evidence of the sex trade is everywhere as men in shorts and sandals
> duck into rent-by-the-hour "love motels" with Dominican women in
> bright dresses.
>
> [ ]
> [ ]
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> [ ]
> [ ]
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>
> "There is always a demand for sex," said one Dominican prostitute as
> she lounged at one of the town's waterfront bars. "Men will always pay
> for it, especially in here ... where they can get anything they want
> at a discount."
>
> Indeed, the Dominican Republic is one of the biggest sex tourism
> destinations in the world, thanks in part to Internet sites that extol
> the country as a "single man's paradise."
>
> When Christopher Columbus sailed into the bay here in 1493, the sun's
> reflection on the ocean made the water dazzle like silver coins, so he
> called it Port Silver. Nowadays, Puerto Plata still dazzles millions
> of vacationers looking for turquoise reefs and palm-strewn white sand
> beaches.
>
> But this sunny vacation mecca has a dark side: The area's thriving
> commercial sex industry has given it one of the highest HIV rates of
> any region in the country, according to the World Bank.
>
> The tourism boom didn't hit this island nation until the 1990s, when
> resorts gobbled up miles of virgin beachfront property. Today, men
> looking for local action can choose from customized love vacations
> that include room, board, 20 alcohol drinks a day and the company of
> one or more local women.
>
> That's hardly specific to the Dominican Republic. Plug "adult travel"
> into a search engine and you'll find dozens of membership-based sites
> where men around the world swap information on prostitutes, brothels
> and the price of oral sex in Brazil or Cuba.
>
> The pricing schemes vary, but the content is the same. It's a war of
> sex-oriented bragging: Members send in their R-rated travel reports in
> which they boast about the number of women they've "nailed," including
> naked photographs of their conquests. They share tips and warnings,
> such as this post from a tourist who visited Boca Chica, a beachside
> town in southern Dominican Republic:
>
> "If you go there, beware of a girl named Caroline. Bad, bad news:
> underage, pregnant and on drugs...."
>
> At TSM, one of the busier destinations, a man describing himself as a
> retired Canadian steel worker now living in Puerto Plata wrote: "(I)
> love the Latin lifestyle: one wife and as many girlfriends as you can
> handle.... I would like to pass on my report on these bars in the
> Puerto Plata area with photos of my favorite girls that work in them."
>
> Another popular site, the World Sex Archives, advertises discussion
> boards where "newbies learn from the experienced pros as to where they
> too can get 18-year-old girls for less than the price of a good
> steak."
>
> Among banner ads for Viagra, members can shuffle through pictures of
> dull-eyed prostitutes engaged in flagrante delicto with the
> members/amateur pornographers.
>
> The site owner, Mark -- who asked that his last name not be used --
> said World Sex Archives is successful, although he refused to give
> exact membership numbers.
>
> "WSA generates sufficient money from the sale of paid subscriptions
> that it will continue to operate as long as the Internet and the
> world's oldest profession exist," he said.
>
> The global reach of the Internet has resulted in a tremendous increase
> in the sex tourism industry, said Donna M. Hughes, a professor of
> Women's Studies at the University of Rhode Island.
>
> "The Web has broken the industry wide open," Hughes said. "The scope
> and detail of this exchange is without precedent. These women are
> viewed as objects and rated on everything from skin color to presence
> of scars and firmness of their flesh. The guys running these sites are
> pimps."
>
> In the Dominican Republic, as in many developing countries, many women
> are driven to sell their bodies by poverty and lack of alternatives.
> It is a profession that is illegal but tolerated by local authorities,
> who accept kickbacks to turn a blind eye to the seedier side of
> tourism.
>
> In Puerto Plata there are so many streetwalkers competing for the
> attention of vacationers that one hair stylist said she doesn't leave
> her home after dark because she doesn't want to be mistaken for a
> puta. In the town's discos, bars and restaurants, solitary women stare
> suggestively at male tourists or rub up against them like cats.
>
> "I don't have an education, and I've got two children," shrugged
> 15-year-old Belkis as she slinked along the busy beach promenade here
> in a hot pink Lycra dress. "Where else can I make such good money? To
> be a prostitute, you don't need schooling, all you need is your body."
>
> Belkis' rates start at $15 for oral sex, and she charges $5 extra if a
> man doesn't want to use a condom.
>
> "I don't need any more kids," she giggles, looking for an instant like
> a child instead of someone who aspires to turn "five to six tricks a
> night."
>
> Its reputation for cheap and easy sex has given the Caribbean the
> second-highest AIDS rate in the world after sub-Saharan Africa,
> according to the World Bank, which recently announced plans to devote
> $150 million to fight HIV/AIDS in the region's islands.
>
> But that sobering statistic hasn't stopped the flesh trade on this
> sun-sparkled land. In some areas of the Dominican Republic, HIV
> infection rates among prostitutes top 12 percent, according to local
> activist groups.
>
> Public health campaigns exhort men to use condoms with prostitutes to
> protect their families from the disease, which is the primary cause of
> death among Dominican men under age 45.
>
> But this lesson seems to have been lost on some sexual tourists.
>
> "Do I worry about AIDS/HIV? No," quipped "Joe," a TSM member who
> described himself as a well-educated tech professional in his late
> 40s. "Quite frankly, (I) believe that heterosexual AIDS is hard for a
> man to contract."
>
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>
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Received on Mon Jul 23 10:40:31 2001