JUNK ALERT: Disney Sweatshops.

This one is sadly typical for those `junk message' or the `useless
information overload' of which this list is presently suffering and where
Gunder and others are rightly complaining about. So let's dissect this one
by way of example:

First: if they are accurate why should these facts be of special interest
rather than millions of other titbits of information ?

Yes - I'm sure obtaining clean water is a big problem in the Punjab - so
what ? It's in a myriad other places too - what does that message tell us -
except that there are rich and poor people in the world, which we all knew
already ?

Why should it be of any interest to somebody in Holland, Ghana or Belgium
(yes - there ARE readers from those countries of this list) to know where
Disney-presents are being made ? Much sportswear made by underpaid women in
Jamaica is sold in Holland by the C&A chain - is that fact of any relevance
to you in the US, should I send it to this list ?

And yes - it's undoubtebly the mores in India that some women keep silent if
men speak. So what ? And I can certainly recall most men kept silent if mrs.
Indira Gandhi spoke - so does this titbit really tells us  anything about
`women politicians in India' - what WAS Indira Gandhi after all?

And sadly second: you would require these titbits then at least be accurate.
But this one really infuriates me:

>EUROPE: Women from Poor nations Victims Of Modern Slavery
>According to the Geneva-based International Office on Migration, some
>500,000 East European women are currently forced to practice
>prostitution on the streets of Western Europe. Experts add to that
>figure at least another half a million women from South America, Africa
>and South East Asia, who through very simple schemes are drawn into
>modern female slavery in Western Europe.
>
Now, in Amsterdam (which is one of the main centers of prostitution in
Europe - after all, the Red Light District is one of our main curiosities)
we have about 20.000 registered prostitutes and perhaps some 2.000 - 3.000
un-registered prostitutes - note also that the number of women `who work on
the streets' here is less than a few hundred. (And there is a BIG difference
between working in a licensed brothel and working on the streets). In the
Netherlands as a whole I recall the number of registered prostitutes is
something like 40.000 - and perhaps 10.000 unregistered ones. Of these only
a few thousand (perhaps 3-4.000) are from Eastern Europe and since walking
the streets is illegal outside of `special permission-zone's', and most of
the women from Eastern Europe don't have papers the LAST thing they're going
to do is walk the streets.

For this country (the only one where prostitution is legal, so if there's
any place you would expect them to go it is Holland) I would guess no more
than a few dozen really `walk the streets'. And note that 20.000 is
relatively speaking a VERY HIGH figure for you're obviously not a prostitute
your entire life: most are only prostitutes for one or up to four years (at
the utter limit).

So, if this figure were true it means that something like 4-5 million women
in Eastern Europe illegally walked the streets in Western Europe at some
moment in their lifes which should make even the numerically illiterate in
Geneva ponder.

Hence, this figure of 500.000 is no more than a `panic' figure; something
like that `panic' figure of our ministry of foreign affairs which expects 5
million asylum seekers to this country (16 million inhabitants) in the next
twenty years

It means nothing: the only intention is to scare people.

Second - and that makes me even more furious - it is simply not true that
these women "are forced into prostitution by very simple means", meaning
that all of them are presumably victims of `women-trade'. They are NOT: in
Amsterdam women are not `forced' into prostitution - it's a job: they simply
become prostitutes since they can't find any other job and/or need to make
very much money very quickly. What else can you do if you're, say, a thirty
year old woman without any education in the Netherlands having to support a
family of five in Nigeria ? Mine or the bureaucrats at the International
Office on Migration may not condone this - but that's nothing but imposing
your morality-standards on the `underclass': you don't like it, therefore
the girls don't like it (remember: these girls have a choice between
extremely dangerous work in factories or becoming prostitutes), THEREFORE
`somebody must force them' (as if these women don't have a will of their
own). And also note besides that many girls were already prostitutes in
their homeland.

But these `fear figures' have a function and that makes me furious: for the
result of all the EU pressure (like the figure above) has been to force the
Amsterdam Police to regularly search brothels and throw girls without valid
papers in prison. Therefore, the girls without valid papers (and these are
mostly from Nigeria, Brazil and the Dominican Republic and NOT from Eastern
Europe) are forced to work illegally. It's the only work which owns
sufficiently so they'll do it anyway - no matter what police-control.
Illegal entails there's no medical care for them (that is obligatory for
girls working in brothels, mind you), they have to be satisfied with half
the legal price (brothels fall under collective wage-agreements) and they
don't have any protection (brothels have police-protection and often their
own guards).

All in all, the result of such `panic' messages has therefore only been that
the position of prostitutes from the Netherlands has improved and that that
of prostitutes from Africa or South America has deteriorated. Thus, while
professing to help women from the poor countries such `panic message' only
make their position more difficult.


And I even find the heading rubbish: for if `Eastern Europe', let's say
Poland is `poor' - it is `poor' relative
to WHAT ? Is Poland really in the same league as Chad or Burkina Faso ?

Now - can anybody see any connection between this critical discussion of
working-standards in the `sex-industry' in the Netherlands and World System
Research, I'll be hard put to discern it: if not - what does this stuff do
on this list at all ?

And YES - since I'll be abroad for a very long time - without computer -
very soon I'm going to unsubscribe from this list next month.