Posted on 05/11/2006 11:40:19 AM PDT by NYer
WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Polish nuns, anticipating an increase in human trafficking and prostitution during the World Cup in Germany, have issued anti-prostitution leaflets in multiple languages for circulation during the competition.
"Our resources are extremely limited, but we're doing what we can," said Ursuline Sister Jolanta Olech, president of Poland's Conference of Superiors of Female Religious Orders. "We're deeply concerned at reports that men's lives are to be made nicer by importing 100,000 young women from Europe's poorest countries."
Plans for the leaflets were approved in late April, and in a May 5 interview with Catholic News Service, Sister Jolanta said the Union of European Conferences of Major Superiors had asked national organizations to campaign against prostitution during the World Cup, the world's largest soccer tournament, which will be held in 12 German cities June 9-July 9.
Sister Jolanta said the leaflets were being supported by Caritas in Poland and would be circulated in Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Russian and other languages and would list telephone numbers for women seeking help.
"We don't have contacts with those directly engaged in this trade, but there are signs the message is getting through," Sister Jolanta said. "A woman at risk who has a few seconds to memorize the number can get in touch with us, while those going for the work may think twice. But the leaflets should also affect prostitutes' clients, so they'll know some of these women have been forced into sex by criminals."
In February, international nongovernmental organizations and the German police union launched a campaign, "Red Card for Forced Prostitution," against human trafficking during the World Cup. The event is expected to attract 3 million sports fans.
Germany's National Council of Women, a co-sponsor, said national players will be asked to support the initiative in the country, where prostitution is legal.
Meanwhile, the president of the German Police Union, Konrad Freiberg, told Germany's international broadcaster Deutsche Welle that anti-trafficking measures will be coordinated with other European forces as part of general security.
In 2005, the German government passed legislation to increase penalties for crimes related to human trafficking.
German newspapers have reported that wooden "sex huts," equipped with condoms and showers, had been erected for the World Cup in Dortmund and Cologne, which already houses a 12-story brothel, Europe's largest, with 120 rooms for rent. The newspapers reported that a $4 million brothel had recently opened in Berlin to accommodate up to 100 prostitutes and 650 male clients.
A background memorandum prepared for a U.S. congressional committee hearing on the World Cup and human trafficking said that "Germany is generally viewed as one the leading countries in combating human trafficking."
The memo, prepared in part by members of the Congressional Research Service, said that, since prostitution is legal in Germany, European governmental, nongovernmental and church officials have expressed concern that prostitutes from other countries will come to Germany in large numbers during the World Cup.
The memo said the German government has said some estimates of the number of expected prostitutes were wildly exaggerated and said the number 40,000 had been "plucked from the air." It said some experts and officials believe the human trafficking numbers might actually be lower than during other periods due to the heightened security and preventive measures by Germany and its neighbors.
whew ! I'm glad nuns are against prostitution. Otherwise, it would be a vow breaker.
Europe.....
Does it strike anyone else on reading this quote that this is a sort of an odd formulation to express distress about prostitution, especially, coming as it does from a woman of the cloth? I might have expected, given the Sister's holy orders, that she would see it as an old-fashioned matter of sin.
As a woman, she might have expressed concern for the harm done to these 100,000 women. Instead, she focuses on the improvement in mens lives as if the whole affair is rendered more corrupt (beyond the harm to women) because men benefit.
Finally, it seems important for her to note that the women will be coming from "Europe's poorest countries." Does she mean to explain that the women can be exploited because they are poor, or does she mean that the exploitation is all the more reprehensible because they are poor?
Maybe I am reading too much into the good sister's words. Maybe I have just become too cynical and too curmudgeonly an old anti-Communist.
Can we get pictures of said nuns?
Go, sisters, go!
They quoted just one sentence. Do you think she spoke just one sentence? Highly unlikely. She probably spoke for 5 minutes and they cherry-picked one sentence out of 40. That's inevitable, of course, but she's not to be blamed for the sentence they picked.
I think she's probably trying to appeal to people who don't think the whole thing is wrong to begin with, but who are "socially conscious" and aware of the exploitation of Eastern European women. Of course, I also read that a liberal but official German Catholic women's group is supporting the prostitution huts; Germans have a serious problem with sex. They have the highest child-sex-tourism participation in the world, and in fact a few years ago, a German company was giving its top salesmen trips to Thailand to experience these delights.
We think we're bad, but compared to Europe, we're way ahead - at least most Americans would agree that this is wrong. Well, except for feminists, who are cool with prostitution and, in league with gay men, are steadily dropping the age of consent.
Actually, the Germans are sexually retarded. What's their birthrate, about 1.2? If sexual love is a living spring, Germany is the Dead Sea.
"But the leaflets should also affect prostitutes' clients, so they'll know some of these women have been forced into sex by criminals."
I suspect that might just improve many whoremasters' opinion of slavery. Once you're paying for part of the body, paying for the whole seems less of a line in the sand.
Thanks for the photo! God bless her!
Sister Jolanta Olech is a TRUE human rights fighter. The feminists support promiscuity and prostitution enslavement.
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