*Perilous Times and Decaying Morality
Europe's brothel - in a corner of Spain*
Madam's is just one of a series of macro-brothels making prostitution a
growth industry
Giles Tremlett in Capmany
Saturday June 24, 2006
The Guardian
The small stone chapel that local people once used for baptisms, first
communions and weddings is now a storeroom and the sign that read Hotel
Mercéi has been replaced by a glowing piece of neon announcing that this
is now a busy brothel called Madam's.
Selling sex is, as this thriving, 50-room "macro-brothel" shows, a far
more lucrative business than catering for the family celebrations of a
scattered population of farmers and wine-growers in this north-eastern
corner of Spain.
Located on a main road just inside the Spanish border with France,
Madam's has a large sign reading Entrée.The yellow number-plates on the
Peugeots and Renaults in the car park are also mainly French. "Most of
the clients are from over the border," says Patricio, the muscle-bound,
tattooed manager of what is now one of the biggest businesses in the
small municipality of Capmany. "Things are a lot stricter over there."
Inside, several dozen scantily clad women in thongs and micro-skirts sit
at the neon-lit chrome bar. Others totter around on glittery platform
shoes or in thigh-length boots. Despite the ample display of flesh, they
are having trouble competing for the attention of a handful of early
evening punters with the World Cup football showing on a giant screen.
Occasionally, one walks off, a client in tow, to the lifts that take
them up to the four floors of bedrooms above.
Exploitation
Madam's is just one of more than a dozen macro-brothels to be found on
the outskirts of the small inland villages of a region known as the Alt
Empordà. "They are turning us into Europe's brothel," complains Ferran
Jarabo, the priest for four small village parishes. "We shouldn't
tolerate this sort of exploitation. Women are being reduced to mere
objects."
Dallas, Desiree and Baby Doll are a few of the names that shout out from
huge neon signs. On back roads, bikini-wearing prostitutes from Romania,
Nigeria or Colombia watch the cars going past, pimps discreetly in the
distance.
The brothels here, just a few miles from the tourist beaches of the
Costa Brava, are part of a nationwide growth industry that Spanish
politicians - immersed in a debate over whether to fully legalise and
regulate prostitution - are finally waking up to.
Although no proposals have yet emerged, Roman Catholic Spain already
rivals liberal Holland and Germany in its laissez-faire attitude.
Brothel-owners themselves claim that prostitution, and its spin-offs,
are now an €18bn (£12.4bn) business sector - equivalent to half of
Spain's education budget. The country's confusing prostitution laws mean
that running a brothel is neither fully legal, nor fully illegal. At the
moment, it is illegal only to live directly off prostituting other
people. That allows many brothel owners, like those who run Madam's, to
argue that they are hoteliers who only rent out rooms towomen who work
for themselves.
"I only make money on the rooms. The girls are free. We don't force them
to work a timetable, or fine them if they don't turn up - which is what
happens in other places," says Patricio. A doctor and a psychologist
are, he says, also on the payroll.
Regulation
Madam's has a licence from the regional government of Catalonia "to
gather people to practise prostitution". The government has decided the
only way to control prostitution is by regulating it.
Police say the number of prostitutes in Spain has doubled since 1999,
with one civil guard report from 2004 counting 20,000 in a region
containing a third of the country's population.
In reality, say campaigners, only a minority of brothels obey both the
spirit and letter of the law. Many are run by mafia outfits using women
trafficked from around the world or who are forced to pay off massive,
interest-bearing "debts" to those who brought them here. Apart from a
group of six priests who have lobbied for the brothels to close down,
local people have been quiet. One of the visitors to Madam's on the day
the Guardian called was Jesús Figa, the mayor of Capmany. "The town hall
is not allowed to ban a business for ethical or social reasons," said Mr
Figa, who was there to see Patricio. "That is up to the government of
Catalonia"
Claudia, 25, arrived from her home in the Transylvania region of Romania
two years ago. She escaped from the pimp who brought her to Spain but
continues to sell her body at Madam's.
"He has threatened to kill me and has even come here to the club," she
says. Three black-uniformed security guards, kitted with combat boots,
batons and walkie-talkies, man the doors.
She sends money home to her mother and the five-year-old son she has not
seen for two years. "It means they have three or four times as much
money as they would normally earn," she says.
Madam's even operates as a Western Union branch - and has posters in
Russian advertising its services - so the prostitutes can wire money home.
Just over a mile up the road, police this week raided a notorious club
called Lady's Dallas. A total of 143 prostitutes were working there,
including 38 illegal immigrants and one under-age Romanian girl. The
prostitutes came from 15 developing world and eastern European
countries. None was Spanish.
Spain's National Statistics Institute reported in 2003 that more than
27% of Spanish men under 49 had had sex with a prostitute during their
lives, and one in 15 over the previous year - "noticeably higher than
those in other surveys in Europe".
Arguments presented to a parliamentary committee investigating
prostitution vary from calls for abolition and the prosecution of male
customers to German or Dutch-style legalisation. All sides agree on one
thing. Whatever happens, Spanish men are going to keep paying for sex.
"What needs to be done is to educate men so they relate to women as
equals and respect them in all walks of life," argues Irene Boada, a
columnist in El País newspaper.|||It is absolutely wrong for any Government to legalize prostitution. Why are the Governments helping crime groups (Mafia, Hells Angels etc.,) get rich off the pain and suffering of innocent men, women and children?
Prostitution = Billion Dollar Industry
Billion Dollar Industry = Government Income
It is obvious that the Governments who have legalized Prostitution have done so for Government profits.
Each year, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across
international borders, and millions more are trafficked internally.
I do not believe that the Governments legalized prostitution for health care reasons alone. The Governments could have easily provided health care to prostitutes without legalizing prostitution.
Governments that legalize prostitution do not care about the laws of God.
Jesus said, "...For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murder, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and seriously defile a man” Mark 7:18-23
Jesus teaches that a lustful thought is as bad as adultery. (Mt. 5:28) "But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
Cultural prostitution by males or females was strictly forbidden. Deuteronomy 23:17 "No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute."
Exodus 22:21. "Thou shalt not molest a stranger, nor afflict him..."
Exodus 22:22. "You shall not hurt a widow or an orphan."
Leviticus 18 Lists unlawful Sexual Relations 29 "Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people..."
Yes, women and children are supposed to be protected by the Governments. The lack of protection for children in the world is deepening, and the doorway is widening to the normalization of pedophilia and the sexual abuse of the least powerful members of society.|||Making something illegal doesn't prevent it from happening and in many cases throughout history making them illegal actually makes the shady economy unaccountable and more dangerous than if it were regulated by an accountable group operating within the limits of the law.
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|||Worlds oldest profession, it isn't going anywhere.|||The only suggestion of "slavery" here was in the brothel that the police "raided": that is to say slavery is NOT condoned.
Most people have a clear idea of "slavery". I think that you know that and you know what that idea of slavery is. I also think that you know that:
- People think that slavery is a bad thing
- What you have described is NOT what people call slavery
However you have used the term slavery so that people will think what is happening is a bad thing, whereas they may not if you used the word how they used it. Your use of the word "slavery" is wholly dishonest. As you mention "God's commandment's" I will mention one:
"Thou shalt not bear false witness".
Now, onto the point at issue. Please come back with book, chapter and verse stating "Thou shalt supress brothels". Where is the commandment to governments that this government is breaking?|||The obvious answer to you question, "Why are some Governments ignoring God's Commandments?" is that not all governments follow the Christian God. Morality should not figure into laws at all. People should follow their beliefs ethically and morally, but the government has no place forcing a particular religion's ideas down the populace's throat.|||When prostitution occurs, both parties consent. What's wrong with that?|||Governments are made of men that only tell you they believe in God. They believe in their wallet!|||Simple exploitation.|||* Gobvernments are not christian, not even the U.S.*|||how did you put 3,000 character in a 1,000 character question?
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