Study: Why do men visit prostitutes?

Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Julie Bindel (The Guardian); Hillary Duff

Why men use prostitutes: The reasons why many men pay for sex are revealed in the interviews that make up a major new piece of research.
 

"I don't get anything out of sex with prostitutes except for a bad feeling," says Ben. An apparently average, thirtysomething, middle-class man, Ben had taken an extended lunchbreak from his job in advertising to talk about his experiences of buying sex. Shy and slightly nervous, he told me, "I am hoping that talking about it might help me work out why I do it."

Julie Bindel

I, too, was hoping to understand his motives better. Ben was one of 700 men interviewed for a major international research project seeking to uncover the reality about men who buy sex. The project spanned six countries. And of the 103 customers we spoke to in London -- where I was one of the researchers -- most were surprisingly keen to discuss their experiences.

The men didn't fall into obvious stereotypes. They were aged between 18 and 70 years old; they were white, black, Asian, eastern European; most were employed, and many were ­educated beyond [high]school level. In the main they were presentable, polite, with average-to-good social skills. Many were husbands and boyfriends; just over half were either married or in a relationship with a woman.

 

Science: 700 men were interviewed for the research project, which aimed to find out why men solicit and buy sex (Christina Griffiths/Getty Images/Flickr RM).

 

Research published in 2005 found that the numbers of men who pay for sex had doubled in a decade. The ­authors attributed this rise to "a greater acceptability of commercial sexual contact," yet many of our ­interviewees told us that they felt ­intense guilt and shame about paying for sex.

"I'm not satisfied in my mind" was how one described his feelings after paying for sex. Another told me that he felt "disappointed -- what a waste of money," "lonely still," and "guilty about my relationship with my wife." In fact, many of the men were a mass of contradictions. Despite finding their experiences "unfulfilling, empty, terrible," they continued to visit prostitutes.

 

Call to legalize World Cup sex trade

I interviewed 12 of the men, and found it a fascinating experience. One told me about his experience of childhood cruelty and neglect and linked this to his inability to form close ­relationships with anyone, particularly women.

Alex admitted sex with ­prostitutes made him feel empty, but he had no idea how to get to know women "through the usual routes." When I asked him about his feelings ­towards the women he buys he said that, on the one hand, he wants ­prostitutes to get to know and like him. On the other hand, he is "not under ­delusions" that the encounters are anything like a real relationship. More

• READ: Research report on men who buy sex (PDF)
• COMMENTS (334)

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China: Tiananmen 25th anniversary

Amber Larson, Seth Auberon, Wisdom Quarterly; Massoud Hayoun (Al Jazeera America)

Artist/activist's rendition of the famous "Tank Man," the brave Chinese citizen who stood up to state and corporate power by famously placing his body between a tank and Tienanmen.

China tightens security in Beijing on Tienanmen [massacre's] 25th anniversary

Police state cameras, Tienanmen today

Human rights advocates say it’s only a matter of time before government recognizes killings of pro-democracy protesters.

Human-rights advocates reported unprecedented security measures at China’s Tienanmen Square on Wednesday that barred Chinese from marking the 25th anniversary of pro-democracy protests there that ended with a government crackdown killing hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians.
 

Gearing up for Tiananmen 2.0

Eyewitnesses in Beijing reported that access to the square, a symbol of the Chinese Communist Party’s nearly 65-year rule, had been restricted. Walking from Beijing’s Wangfujin shopping district a little over half a mile to Tienanmen, Twitter user Ban Yue Ban posted photos of three checkpoints he had to pass, with law enforcement officials checking his identification and searching his bag.

The human rights monitoring organization Amnesty International reported that 48 known dissidents -- including activists, lawyers, and artists -- had disappeared or been detained by authorities ahead of the June 4 anniversary. [The U.S. government's spying apparatus known as] Google and a number of other websites were blocked ahead of the day.
 
Chinese youth reflect on Tienanmen Square 25 years later 

Al Jazeera America News, June 3, 2014

Comrade, are you wearing eyeliner? - Maybe.

Renowned Chinese human rights advocate Hu Jia told Al Jazeera, while under detention in his Beijing home, that he hoped Chinese would still “return to the square” to achieve what he believes are China’s inevitable objectives of democracy and rule of law.
 

NRA calls open-carry gun demos foolish

But by late afternoon in Beijing, it appeared that access to the site had been so heavily restricted that there would be no mass movement reminiscent of the one in 1989, despite attempts by New York-based dissident blogger Wen Yunchao to have people “Return to Tiananmen.”

Wen had mounted a long-distance campaign to return the ideals of democracy and transparency for China to the nation’s public and international media. More

• Beijing crushing West China's Uighur separatists
• China clamping down on Taiwanese Buddhists
• China oppresses its Tibetan Buddhists daily
• China does not believe in human rights that stand in the way of business
• NSA pulls in "millions of images" every day to aid its homeland spying facial recognition on Facebook and other social media
• American toddler in coma after SWAT's stun grenade lands in crib
• Earth heading toward another mass extinction
• Arctic ice melt to release trillion pieces of plastic in sea 
• "Tiananmen" happened in US' Kent State University
• "Friday of martyrs" 2013 brings fear of new showdown in Egypt

A Coup in Thailand?: Bangkok Rising (video)

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; VICENews.com, 4-7-14)

 

Look, mom, I'm in a coup! (nytimes.com)

(VICE) For almost a decade, Buddhist Thailand has been trapped in a bloody conflict between Red Shirt supporters and Yellow Shirt opponents of the billionaire-tycoon-turned-politician Thaksin Shinawatra (and the subsequent Thai PM, his sister Yingluck Shinawatra).

Ousted Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra

During his time as prime minister, Thaksin improved life for the poor and the working class.

But his autocratic tendencies and crony capitalism led his opponents, mainly made up of conservative royalists and the upper middle class, to rise up and overthrow him.

Thaksin was ousted in a military coup in 2006 for alleged abuse of power and corruption. Since then Thaksin's opponents -- widely known as the Yellow Shirts -- and his avid supporters, the Red Shirts, have taken turns instigating mass street protests to topple their opponents.

CNN/CIA coverage has been superficial

While attempting to clear her brother's name of corruption charges in November 2013, Thaksin's sister and Thailand's latest PM [ousted by the court two weeks ago] Yingluck Shinawatra triggered a new Yellow Shirt uprising that has so far killed a reported 23 people and injured hundreds.

Yingluck Shinawatra tried to diffuse the protests by dissolving Thailand's parliament and calling for new elections. But the Yellow Shirts, determined to overthrow her, began a shutdown of Bangkok on January 13th, bringing the Thai capital to a standstill.

Huh, what coup? This has happened before.

Since the election was annulled on March 31st, Red Shirts are mobilizing and intensifying their threats of starting a civil war.

VICE News was on the ground to capture Thailand's state of emergency as the long-running battle for the country is coming to a head.

There are other people, ethnic minorities like these beautiful mountain village girls from the north, often seen selling trinkets in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-city (Max_Drukpa/flickr).

 

Commentary

Wisdom Quarterly
 

We're Red Shirts, but we're tourists.

Who's right, who's wrong? It is easy to support the revolutionary Red Shirts. But the person they entrusted their future to may have been, could likely have been, a corrupt billionaire. He made all the right promises...as did Obama. These "populist" leaders say the right things. They don't follow through. They sell out their followers. Then the Red Shirts succeeded again by electing the fabulous Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, sister of ousted and exiled PM Thaksin Shinawatra.

A People's Coup 2013 (nation.com)

But Yellow Shirts accused her of continuing her brother's populist/corrupt policies. Was she great, or was she a hypocrite? Should Thaksin been allowed back into the country, or had he offended the establishment too much? How could he, a billionaire tycoon, be the "people's hope"? He was the one making all the right promises, offering help to the poor. This is what so many would-be dictators begin by saying. Even if they are sincere, clandestine forces come in to convert or assassinate them. (Why is explained in John Perkin's Confessions of an Economic Hitman).

 

Surely the Shinawatras were a better alternative to the status quo -- but an even better option is what Red Shirts are actually fighting for: a citizens' committee to rule the country. The military will not stand for it. The military-industrial complex (government police+private corporations = military+industry) have a plan for that kind of talk: Game over, time out, military coup, police state, "I'm taking my ball and going home," as Cartman would put it.

People's Coup vs. Military Coup 

Thitinan Pongsudhirak (The Nation, Dec. 13, 2013)

Bangkok, Thailand protest rally for the people, Red Shirts vs. Yellow Shirts (AP).

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Woman sells statues, talismans (Ska09/flickr)

Never has Thai politics degenerated so quickly from uneasy accommodation to outright insurrection.

It started a month ago [Nov. 2013] with broad-based opposition to an expansive amnesty legislation that would have absolved former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from convictions for corruption and abuse of power.

It ended up as a civilian putsch by anti-Thaksin forces, led by the Democrat Party and its erstwhile heavyweight MP Suthep Thaugsuban. On an anti-corruption crusade and intent on uprooting what they call the “Thaksin Regime,” these forces incorporate the royalist “Yellow Shirts” and other anti-Thaksin groups from recent years who constitute one side of Thailand’s polarization.

Whether they succeed in removing the government of PM Yingluck Shinawatra, Mr. Thaksin’s younger sister, from power and installing their own government will determine the direction of Thai democracy. More

• VIDEO: Thai Royalists: "For King and Country" 
• VICE News on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook
• Coup in Thailand: Military seizes control of country Thailand's army is now running the country. Two days after declaring martial law -- and saying it was not staging a coup -- the military has [staged a coup]...
• Thai military says it's taken over the country in a coup (CNN) The Thai military has taken control of the government in a coup, the country's military chief announced in a national...

• 

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  Thai Army declares coup, citing need to "reform" nation (NY Times) The Thai military seized control of the country on Thursday in a coup, the culmination of months of maneuvering by the Bangkok...
• Thailand military seizes power in coup (BBC) ...Thailand's military has announced it is taking control of the government and has suspended the constitution. In a TV statement, army chief Gen...
• Thailand's army just announced a coup. Here are 11 other Thai... (Washington Post)

Singapore haze; Indonesia forest slash-n-burn

Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Rujun Shen from Singapore (Reuters.com, 5-21-14)

Smoke haze obscures building under construction, Singapore March 2014 (Tim Wimborne)

  
Singapore braces for worst smoke "haze" as Indonesia slashes-and-burns forests
Singapore is approaching its yearly "haze" [dense air pollution] season, when smoke from forest clearing in Indonesia chokes the air, with this year likely to be worse than 2013's record pollution thanks to lack of action in Jakarta and an expected El Nino weather pattern.

The prosperous city-state, which prides itself on its clean air, was shrouded in heavy smog from slash-and-burn clearances on the neighbouring Indonesian island of Sumatra last June which sent its air pollution index to a record high.

Is America better than Asia about polluting?

One year on, and an election-distracted government in Indonesia has still not ratified the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) 2002 Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, and fires continue to burn in Sumatra.

That is despite outrage in Singapore as well as environmental groups putting pressure on Jakarta. Fires are used to clear land on plantations and can burn for weeks because of peat deposits below the surface.

There is also a growing likelihood of an El Nino weather pattern this year, meaning Singapore, as well as parts of Indonesia and Malaysia, could be set for months of intense haze with a knock-on effect on health and business, especially tourism. More

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• Column: How far can Modi take India?
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Chilling documentary: Koch Brothers Exposed!

Ashley Wells, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Amy Goodman, Gonzalez (DN!, 5-21-14)

There is a chilling new documentary about the billionaire Koch Brothers (focusing on David and Charles although there are five). And some Republicans do not want people to see it.

On Monday, Republican Rep. Candice Miller of Michigan tried to block an event at the Capitol unveiling the film, "Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition." 

Miller claimed the documentary could violate House rules and "cross the line into partisan politics." She unsuccessfully argued that showing the documentary was an inappropriate use of taxpayer-funded facilities.

Group helps fund right wing agenda

On Tuesday evening, the film event proceeded as planned. The updated documentary shows how the Koch Brothers have used their vast [multi-billion dollar] fortunes to oppose government programs such as: Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, as well as obstruct efforts to raise the minimum wage, tackle climate change, and expand voting rights.

Director Robert Greenwald, founder and president of Brave New Films, appeared on Democracy Now! to discuss the film. More

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• VIDEO: Guantanamo suicides revisited: Did CIA hide deaths of tortured prisoners?
• VIDEO: "Dirty Wars" filmmaker Jeremy Scahill on Drone President, NSA cover up
• VIDEO: Death By Metadata: NSA role in overseas assassinations (Jeremy Scahill, Glenn Greenwald) 
• REPORT: Doctors designed, helped U.S. torture of prisoners at Gitmo, secret prisons 
• India elects hard-right Hindu Nationalist as new Indian prime minister -- a poor Indian Everyman -- backed by corporate interests

• 2 MINS HATE: Suspected Boko Haram bombing kills 118
• U.S. vows to halt fake CIA vaccinations, health ruses
• Federal judge strikes down Penn. same-sex marriage ban
• Missouri Death Row prisoner wins stay of execution!
• Republicans defeat Tea Party challenges in primary votes
• Oregon counties vote to ban GMO crops
• V.A. widens probe of clinics in cover-up of veteran deaths
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• Video shows Israeli killings of unarmed Palestinian youths
• NYU apologizes for harsh treatment of workers in Abu Dhabi
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Behind the Koch Brothers: Secrets of US’s Most Powerful Dynasty

Heat wave hits Los Angeles

Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Seven, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; BGR

Beautiful Los Angeles: desert coast as seen from the air...as we smolder (latimes.com)

Hiking in a cool woodland grove above LA, San Gabriel foothills (Liu/Wisdom Quarterly)

 

Guardian, Wat Thai, L.A.

LOS ANGELES, California - LAX just broke a record. L.A. is experiencing a freak spring heat wave. The beach is as hot as the valley and foothills.

 

The asphalt jungle is getting squishy. It was so hot in Pasadena yesterday (93 degrees) that there was no sense in running to the beach. But the beach is now the same temperature. This never happens.

Los Angeles County (laalmanac.com)

It's always at least ten degrees cooler on the coast no matter how miserable it is inland in the desert City of Angels. That's why tourists clear out of town and end up on the Venice Boardwalk and Santa Monica Pier, Hermosa and Malibu.

What's the cause? Sure there's a red blip on the Doppler 5000 radar weather satellite map, but the larger reason is climate chaos. Of course there is global warming; no one denies that. What some deny is whether or not humans are causing it. We aren't helping.

 

People's Guide (UC Press)

If all the planets in our solar system -- and one of featured writers thinks there are more than 30 -- are heating up, is it a good idea to keep pouring heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere? Right wing readers might say, "A volcano puts up more trouble in the sky than we do!" but the fact remains: We have to do something about it. The fake answer of trading "carbon credits" is capitalist exploitation progressives have been tricked into backing. Carbon is not the problem. Carbon is mild and recycles.

Like climate change, let's be UNSTOPPABLE

We need to worry about methane (from animal raising and slaughter, deforestation (from animal raising and slaughter), diesel fumes (from transporting animals to raise and slaughter them), from pollution (a result of industrial ranching and industrialization in general). There is a lot we can do! A lot needs to be done. We can't gag sincere right-wing men. The Koch Brothers are paying good money to muddy the waters, pay off scientists to stir up doubts and delay action, like they did historically with nicotine and cigarettes. We now say "everyone knew" but then why were we so slow to act to curb cancer and other diseases? Industry paid to keep the debate raging in the face of overwhelming evidence and common sense. The same thing is happening right now.

• SoCal Heat Wave: Beach temps reach 90s, 100s in valley
• The hottest day ever, L.A. 2010 (Los Angeles Times) Ever notice that right-leaning people say, "The red line on the graph doesn't go only up (incline), so 'global warming' must be a fantasy!"? A peak temp was in 2010, yet, we have climate chaos. Colorado has a blizzard today. We have climate chaos. Average temp will go up AND go down. But because is TRENDING up, we have warming, we have change, we have climate chaos:

Southern California heat wave, May 13, 2014 (nbclosangeles.com)

 
Problem in the Himalayas: Our Roof is on Fire

Himalayas melting (guardian.co.uk)

(Henry Chu/LATimes.com) In the Himalayas ["the roof of the world"], a climate-change calamity builds. High in the Himalayas, above this peaceful valley where farmers till a patchwork of emerald-green fields, an icy lake fed by melting glaciers waits to become a "tsunami from the sky." The lake is swollen dangerously past normal levels, thanks to the global warming that is causing the glaciers to retreat at record speed. But no one knows when the tipping point will come... More
 

Irreversible collapse of Antarctic glaciers

Antarctic glaciers are melting irreversibly as big business pays lobbyists to keep doubt going

 

Science calls attention; business does nothing

(Scott Gold) "Glaciers are past 'point of no return'" read the front page story of the [paper version of the] Los Angeles Times yesterday (May 13, 2014).
 
A slow-motion and irreversible collapse of a massive cluster of glaciers in Antarctica has begun. And it could cause sea levels to rise across the planet by another 4 feet within 200 years, scientists concluded in two studies released Monday.
 

Far to the north: Greenland melting (ANN)

Researchers had previously estimated that the cluster in the Amundsen Sea region of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would last for thousands of years despite global climate change. But the new studies found that the loss is underway now as warming ocean water melts away the base of the ice shelf, and it is occurring far more rapidly than scientists expected.
 
The warming water is tied to several environmental phenomena, including a warming of the planet driven by emissions from human activity and depleted ozone that has changed wind patterns in the area, the studies found. More + VIDEO

• Long Beach (L.A.) is on fire as are
• Carlsbad is on fire, Camp Pendleton
• Rancho Bernardo (San Diego) is on fire
• Lompoc (Santa Barbara) is on fire
• And the "roof of the world" is on fire (see above)

But what can I do?

What if we were to OCCUPY capitalism?

"I'm just one person out of 7 billion+!" This planet can sustain twice as many people as we have now, but it cannot keep going with half as many IF we keep going like this. Our waste and the incentives capitalism offers us ruin. Each of us can turn around.

• Go vegan.
• Or go vegetarian.
• Chose sustainable options.
• Get conscious and go green.
• Start your own green business.
• Protest corporate environmental polluters.
• Volunteer to clean up corporate toxins for free...

What Sakka (Indra, Archangel Michael) sees from space -- an environment in decline.

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Climate Change?

Nearby space is our environment

For years, Democracy Now! has been closely following the issues of global warming and climate chaos. It has reported live from U.N. Climate Change Conferences in Warsaw, Doha, Durban, Cancún, and Copenhagen. They attended the World Peoples’ Summit on Climate Change hosted by Bolivia in 2010. They interviewed many of the world’s top scientists, policy makers, activists, academics, and indigenous leaders who focus on these issues.

We agree with Edgar Cayce (reborn as David Wilcock, divinecosmos.com) and [the reluctant prophet] Stephen Quayle (stevequayle.com) that the solar system is heating up. But that means the Earth is, too. Moreover, we are making it worse! The effect of 7 billion humans and countless earthlings (animals, insects, sea creatures, unseen beings, ET visitors, titans, devas, angels, "demons," reptilians, Greys, etc.) is contributing. And even if the human impact were negligible, we are guilty of inaction for not doing something when something could be done to save this world.

We must follow the movement to save the planet locally and globally, environmentally and atmospherically (in space), to directly confront the root causes of the problem, advocate for justice, and provide sustainable alternatives.

 

Climate chaos caused by first world industries leads to drought, starvation, slavery, sex trafficking, and early death in the third world. Save people! (BuddhistGlobalRelief.org).