Late last week the New York Times ran an article on the sex-trade so nothing strange about that. It's one of those 'always there' kind of topics that can fill column inches on a slow day.

"The event covered was the annual West Coast conference of Amnesty International and three months earlier, at a meeting attended by about 500 delegates from 8, countries, Amnesty voted to adopt a proposal in favor of the “full decriminalization of consensual sex work,” sparking a storm of controversy." Personally I don't give a shit either way. I have no firsthand experience of prostitutes other than chatting to one or two of them over a lifetime. On those rare occasions the girls in question seemed perfectly fine to me. At one time I was selling welding rods for a living and the girl in question I was chatting to was selling her body so you could say that we were both in sales.

But it was the outraged reaction to the Amnesty vote that caught my eye. The article explains that, "Members of the human rights group in Norway and Sweden resigned en masse, saying the organization’s goal should be to end demand for prostitution, not condone it." How the hell do you end the demand for prostitution? Indeed, what prompts the demand in the first place? Surely you would have to get the answer to that before you could successfully bring it to an end?

I'll take a leap of faith here and presume that over ninety-five per cent of prostitution involves males paying females for sex of various kinds, (ahem!). In this situation, what are the lads thinking about, do you imagine? Could the point of the exercise be the big "O" that they hope will result? I'd guess that I'm not too far off the mark there. So, an induced orgasm for a specified amount of money may actually be what is causing the demand that the puritan branch in Scandinavia wants to end. 

Ah! I don't know how to put this to you lads. Ahem! Y'a see, it's the big "O" that ensures the propagation of the species. Whoever designed the underlying human reproduction mechanism had to come up with a compelling reason for people to use it and a thrilling shudder at the end of a sex act seemed like a compelling sales aid to them at the time. The puritans need to be told also that you don't need to be trying to make babies for this to happen. It's pretty much a feel good option for most blokes at any time, even when you are alone. Imagine that! They'll probably have to put an end to that too by somehow getting rid of the demand for it. Good luck with that quest!

But flippancy aside, there is huge difference between voluntary prostitution and forced prostitution. I'm not against the former but I'd crack down on the latter. I would penalize pimps and set up a prostitutes union to represent their trade. It's the oldest profession in the world and it's going nowhere despite the puritans. It's not the prostitutes or what they do that is a problem it is the abuse of them by fuckers living off them. The Dutch are a forward-thinking and practical people and they protect their prostitutes. It's a business because there is a demand for what they sell and the girls pay some tax on their earnings too. That is a common-sense solution that precludes subjective judgement. 

It is perfectly fine and understandable if you would not like to see your own daughter on the streets, but don't sit up there on your high horse and say the only way to prevent that happening is to put all of them out of business. It is not a line of work that suits every girl but some girls lucky enough to be born attractive but broke, may see it as a way to put themselves through college. I'd like to see those few join a union that would protect them from bodily harm and safeguard them in their work in the same way authority try to safeguard the rest of us at work. (There is probably somewhere a market for a prostitute in a hard hat). 

The puritans want to criminalize the so-called kerb-crawlers. This would be the window shoppers with money to spend or customers as they are known in other fields of commerce. Are these blokes to be stigmatized for their natural urges? Whose business is it anyway if two consenting adults get together for what mother-nature intended? Who are the busybodies who can't sleep at night because others are out enjoying themselves? 

I have my differences with Amnesty in other areas but I salute them on this one for their common sense. You cannot deny human desire anymore than you can turn back the tide.