VIEW IMAGE GALLERY OF FLOATING VILLAGE

The sense of time is different. “Hurry up” is a process of continual slow motion versus “normal” which is regularly punctuated with pauses for conversation, cold drinks, or simply moments of rest. In almost 14 years, Jon Morgan has adapted.

“Have you heard of CWA?” he asked.

“No matter how much you plan, how well you set it up, or how hard you push there is always CWA. Cambodia Wins Again.” He shrugged. It’s what you do afterward, he said, that matters; how you pick yourself up from the dust and go back to it. For Cambodia has changed him. (at right: Morgan on the slow boat to Moat Clas)

“I used to be a person who maintained all my relations because I never knew when I was going to be working with them again,” he went on. “But they have a saying over here; if you see a snake you kill it. Or you run away. Because if you don’t, it will kill you.”

Cambodia may win more often than not, but Morgan has shown that with tenacity, patience, and strategic alliances one can persevere. (at left: the town of Kampong Chleang. Rainy season flooding necessitates putting houses on stilts; even the road is under water making boats the only means of transport.)

Morgan and his wife Mieko returned in 1995 to Cambodia with the intention of staying for two years. One thing led to another and they’re still here. A nurse by training he has managed to reinvent himself several times. With each rebirth he has shaped himself anew, most recently in a transition from Director of the Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) to Director of the start-up NGO The Lake Clinic Cambodia (TLCC). The Lake Clinic will use a shallow draft boat to provide medical care and education to remote communities on the Tonle Sap lake, a body of water which grows four times its size in the wet season. (at right: a child runs over a bridge in the town of Kampong Chleang. in the rainy season this bridge is under 15-25 feet of water.)

During his tenure at AHC, Morgan saw a need for capacity building in outlying community health centers. If illnesses were caught early, they wouldn’t be as acute as the cases he was seeing in AHC. Once, when he was speaking on behalf of the hospital at a meeting of NGO and community leaders, the Moat Clas village leader looked at Morgan and said “This is what my village needs. I want you to help me.” Morgan replied he would and, years later, he is nearly there.

A floating village, in the dry season Moat Clas is three hours by boat to the nearest health center. It’s another hour by vehicle to a hospital in Siem Reap. It can cost $30 dollars (US) for a local just to get ot the city. With the daily wage in these fishing communities averaging less than $1 dollar, that is a fortune. Simple health conditions are allowed to languish until they become acute. But compounding the poverty is a lack of simple health education.

For instance, some locals know clean water is better for them but they wash their dishes in the same lake into which they urinate, defecate, do their laundry, dispose of their garbage, the list goes on. It is hardly hygienic. (at left: a coffee glass is washed in the lake with water that is filled with fecal bacteria.)

The village chief has three water filters donated by various NGO’s and yet I saw him brushing his teeth with lake water. It was where I’d peed. His wife washed the dishes in the water as did the visiting boats who served ice coffee and our breakfast the next morning. They know it’s good to brush and wash, and that the lake water may not be healthy, but they don’t know to boil or filter all water they ingest. To compound this, not everyone has filters and most stoves are open flame, wood-fired.

Visiting dentist and board member Hal Kussick ate the cooked fish and rice–because they were cooked–but shunned the tomatoes washed in river water. The next morning he turned down breakfast as well, for the sprouts that went in the soup were likely washed in the lake as were the dishes. He was trying to save himself numerous trips to “the thunder bucket.” I’m not sure what he ate, for I was slightly more adventurous but didn’t eat much. Travel on the lake is almost like desert camping; you must bring everything you will eat or use with you for food and water are suspect and the locals have barely enough for themselves (save for fish, which seems plentiful). We slept on a reed mat beneath a mosquito net, a position which could have benefited from a thermarest. And, surprisingly, it was cold enough by dawn that I was glad to have brought my jacket for I was fully clothed beneath my thin sheet.

Mieko, who does water quality analysis, took samples in our departure town Kampong Chleang and our destination Moat Clas. In Kampong Chleang the fecal contaminants were so profuse her equipment was unable to count the bacteria; she had to dilute it to 10 percent before she could confirm it was a toxic organic soup. In Moat Clas, the river water also exceeded World Health Organization specified healthy levels of fecal bacteria, but not as grossly. She is unable to test for petrochemicals, but other toxic chemicals were negligible. For an anecdote, I watched a naked kid defecate into the water while his friend practiced his flutter kick beside him. Then they both went swimming with the floaters. (at right: Mieko samples water while the village chief watches.)

“We’re going to disappoint them,” Morgan said. “There’s going to be someone who will come in here with something we can’t treat or don’t know how to treat. They know me as Angkor Hospital and are expecting that kind of care.”

But because he is just starting TLCC and lacks the funding and staff to provide extensive hospital services, his ambitions are more modest. He wants to start with basic dental care–largely pulling of teeth–for the nearly immediate relief will build local trust in the organization.

“There is not one person here who is not in need of my services,” Kussick laughed. And yet with each trip to Moat Clas and other outlying communities, patients will be screened to create baseline data and allow the Lake Clinic to bring other specialists out on the lake. (at left: at dawn the breakfast boat arrives with noodles and coffee.)

“It’s all about relationships,” Morgan said. Our visit was primarily fact-finding, photography, and supporting that relationship. In a few weeks Morgan will have his first boat which will sleep five. He is currently buying the engine. Once it is piloted up from Phnom Penh, the shallow draft vessel will be put to immediate use on the Tonle Sap. The Lake Clinic will be a very real entity for the villages on the lake; we could have provided some health care on this trip but as Kussick noted, the amount of equipment we’d have had to carry out there to serve one dental patient, never mind 20, would have been ridiculous.

Morgan is confident things will come together; the donors, the staff, the community and slowly, steadily he will reinvent himself once again. Captain Morgan will undoubtedly sail the Tonle Sap, providing the preventative health care and health education he sought to do years ago through AHC’s capacity building program. He takes his CWA in stride, something I will need to learn to do. (at right: the outskirts of the floating village of Moat Clas on the Tonle Sap Lake four hours from Siem Reap.)

VIEW IMAGE GALLERY OF FLOATING VILLAGE

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This is a cursory glance at the front entrances to a variety of brothels in the Toul Kork neighborhood of Phnom Penh. Many of these are wood-shack store fronts or residences where, at night, the red lamp is turned on and the girls gather at the entrance. At some, closer to the heart of town, the pimps stand out front calling to customers while the girls lounge inside.

Doing proper night photography, what with a tripod, bracketing, waiting for the right moment, is not exactly appropriate. So I sat on the back of a moto, driven by a trusted guy, sans-helmet, with the camera ISO jacked to the max (3200), at f2.8, the shutterspeed as fast as possible (around 15/sec), and no strobe. Snap snap snap away.

It’s not my favorite way to make pictures, especially when the girls figure out what you’re doing and turn away, as it’s pretty much against the way I like to build relationships, understanding, and trust. But the avenues I’ve been trying have yet to come through. With time ticking, I went for the moto ride. It’s also a safety thing for the pimps aren’t necessarily the nicest of people.

Brothel raids, particularly for underage and captive prostitutes, have pushed traffickers’ brothels out into the fringes of town, to the provinces, or to the other main tourist hubs of Sihanoukville and Siem Reap. It has also driven them underground into smaller brothels, massage parlors, and karaoke bars. However, for the Khmer men and the sex tourists, bar girls and more traditional brothels still exist.

Welcome to Toul Kork at night.

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VIEW MULTIMEDIA (3min)

Land ownership and development is taking off in Cambodia, but it is not without its problems. Take, for instance, this anecdote I was given as background: there’s a community that has lived on the Mekong River for years but the government is proclaiming eminent domain, intending to build a park. However, this person says it is very likely a land developer will put hotels on the river front property and someone, somewhere, will get a kickback.

Thus is the nature of land development in Cambodia.

Lower income people are having their homes razed and are being transported to sites 15-20km outside the city where they are plunked down with no utilities, even further from their place of employment, increasing their hardship and their vulnerability to exploitation.

That vulnerability may mean a teenage boy will head abroad on the promise of a good labor job, only to find himself exploited and unpaid on a Thai fish-processing factory boat. Or, a parent may lease a child to a begging gang, sell an adolescent girl to a brothel for her virginity, or the mother herself may turn to prostitution in order to feed her family.

I went out for an afternoon to see the Andoung Relocation Site. Here are some images and audio.

VIEW MULTIMEDIA (3min)

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Child Safe did an opening for their new public relations campaign. Some pretty cool imagery, snack ‘ems on the buffet table, cold beer, but more importantly, it’s another step forward in a national move to end child exploitation.

Learn more at:
Child Safe Cambodia

And read an interview with Marielle Lindstrom with CTIP at the Asia Foundation:
Lindstrom Interview

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Marielle Lindstrom, Chief of Party of the Asia Foundation Counter Trafficking in Persons (CTIP) Program, spent time in Moldova and in Turkey working for the International Office for Migration on counter trafficking; she was struck by the difference in methods in Southeast Asia. In eastern Europe there was a lot of organized crime trafficking women for prostitution but in Cambodia there are a myriad of means, from labor for fishing or construction, to child begging gangs, to sex work, to illegal adoption.

“One other difference between Cambodia–southeast Asia–and southeastern Europe is the fact that here we are dealing a lot more with children who are victims of trafficking and exploitation. In southeastern Europe the youngest person that we assisted was around the age of 14. But here in Cambodia, the children are as young as zero, essentially, as they are sold for illegal adoption. And there are many many children in the shelters who are victims of sexual exploitation. That to me is striking. “

“A large part of this is due to the acceptance that life is difficult, life is tough,” Lindstrom said. “Trafficking is not welcomed, but people feel that…what other choices do they have? And so we have families that rent out their children for begging or for work, and they may or may not understand that this actually is trafficking. The children are better off in school and those children, if they don’t attend school, have no economic future.”

“I think it’s been difficult for Cambodia to find its own voice,” Lindstrom said of the international community coming to the Cambodia over the decades. “Although they very much needed and welcomed the aid that came to Cambodia, I find in some instances it’s made them lose their way a little bit. They have accepted the image that has been given to them as victims.”

Working within a memorandum of understanding between USAID and the Cambodian Ministry of the Interior, The Asia Foundation, under Lindstom’s guidance, is the implementing party for a USD $4.5 million CTIP grant by USAID. One of the strategies Lindstrom is using is a national public relations and information campaign.

“The fight against trafficking in Cambodia has been going on for a very very long time,” Lindstrom said. “Most of the messaging, particularly in the beginning, has been negative messaging. ‘Beware of traffickers, you will die, sex with children is a crime.’

“It’s true. They are very valid points. But after more than a decade people become deaf to the message if it doesn’t change. Cambodia has been portrayed as a victim of many many crimes, and exploitations, tragedies, etc. In order for the population to feel that they have any hope for the future, we wanted to go back into what is Khmer, what is a positive Khmer value, and based on that open up a new dialog on trafficking and rejuvenate the anti-trafficking debate. From a different perspective, from a different angle. A more positive one.”

Lindstrom believes she is seeing a change in what is has been typified by many as a bureaucraticaly lethargic and often corrupt government.

“I think now with the change, at least in the anti-trafficking sector, we feel a much stronger voice and commitment to their own priorities and ideas. I’ve seen a complete switch in the government….I think they’ve been waiting for this opportunity for a long time because they don’t want to be victims anymore.”

And yet, for all the change she is trying to affect within the Cambodian populace, she acknowledges it still comes down to what the international community–the tourists–do when they visit Cambodia.

“I cannot comprehend why people would want to come to Cambodia and continue to exploit this population,” Lindstrom said, with more than a touch of frustration in her voice. “Haven’t they had enough? That’s the first thing. The second thing is that every single tourist that comes to this country should be aware of Child Safe practices. They need to take this responsibility themselves.”

“If they come as tourists to a developing country they need to make sure they are not making this situation worse. That means they should not give to any children any money or any food on the streets because that just creates a culture of dependency. They should look around, for example in Cambodia they have Child Safe and the Friends Network, they should look around for organizations operating in a more sustainable and proactive fashion to stop child sexual exploitation and abuse of children.

“It’s all very well and nice to come to Cambodia, to see this place and to look at the history, etc. but just stay away from the children and do not perpetuate this culture of dependency because the Cambodian government itself doesn’t want to see it.”

At the end of the interview she groaned and, for a moment, buried her head.

“What can you say? We just see the dark side of the world.”

Child Safe Cambodia

Friends International

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NOTE: Be warned this post mentions graphic sexual acts and the reality of sex tourism.

I pulled out my notebook as soon as I’d made it into the cramped bathroom, the man’s quotes echoing fresh in my head. He said he’d come to Sihanoukville for “drinking, drugs, fucking.” He’d shrugged, lifted his glass from the table, and said it was mostly the drink. He was Scottish, but hadn’t been home for years. (at right: the sex tourist)

I’d been spending the evening with John and Charis, checking out the Sihanoukville “scene” and were on sex-pat hill–otherwise known as Victory Hill. It used to be a seedy dive strip, but now it simply reminded me of working-girl bars I’d seen in Chiang Mai, Thailand, or Phnom Penh. $3 well drinks, nothing fancy, $1 beers, and quasi-western food; a good enough place to hang out for drinks if you don’t mind some of the conversations. Like the one I’d been having, nodding and smiling, joking, and listening to the pointers. All while wanting to throttle the man.

“Oh, you’re going to the Chicken Farm,” he said knowledgeably. We were. It is another dirt strip down near the deep water port, but more trash-covered and run down than the relatively upscale Victory Hill.

“Don’t pay more than $8 dollars, $10 max,” he advised. I nodded and smiled. “I got a girl, fucking gorgeous. $10 dollars. Had to give her a dollar for the moto home the next morning. I totally abused her. I woke up in the night and said ’suck!’ just to see if I could.”

I’d seen him when we walked into the Corner Bar, sitting alone with his drink, back to the street watching the TV. We’d sat near him; he’d listened to our conversation, sometimes stealing a sideways glance. Charis bounce between conversations with our waitress, who may have been a working girl, and the man. I took pictures of this, with my large camera, steading it on top of beer bottles, but it wasn’t until Charis pulled out a point and shoot that he protested. Half-heartedly. (at left: john and charis at victory hill)

Sometimes there are people who care, and sometimes there are those so grossly engaged in their debauchery that it blinds them. Blinds them to human decency, to the respect or recognition of anything but their own self pleasure. I think this was a case in point. For before we left he bragged about how, in 2003, he and three friends were able to negotiate seven women at $2 dollars each. $14 for an eleven-person orgy.

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John, Charis and I ended up at the Chicken Farm, in the only upscale club, where the bar girls danced with expressionless faces. A few caucasian men sat in the shadows, arms draped around smaller Asian women. A few tables were occupied solely by Khmer.

The three of us ordered our Anchor beers and watched. At first intolerable, the Khmer dance music became more and more appealing. Then the hulking, pale figure of Steve Morrish, a counter-trafficking investigator emerged from the shadows. High-fives and shoulder slaps were exchanged; he was ‘undercover’ and I was playing my American tourist part. Poorly.

He was investigating the sale of two 14 year-olds that night. They were virgins, going for $1200 each.

Earlier in the day I’d talked with Steve about virgin sales. His NGO, sisha.org, does investigations with a well-trained, predominantly Khmer staff on a shoestring budget. Only weeks before in Siem Reap, for $1050, he’d rescued nine girls from a Vietnamese brothel, arrested the mama-san, and done buy-busts with two other mama-sans rescuing two more virgins. Tonight was the set up for another buy-bust, just like they do with drug deals on the cop shows in the States. Except for Steve and his NGO, all they can do is investigate. They must call in the Khmer Anti-Trafficking Police to do the actual arrest. (at right: our ‘tourist’ photo while the baton-wielding guards watch outside the club)

“We’re never going to stop it,” Steve said, “but at least it’s not open. It’s not a lollijob. They’re going to sweat a little!”

In the last three months, he said he’d helped rescue some 59 people. But it’s “bang one, two more come up. Bang another, another two come up.”

He pointed out the one of the 14 year-old girls to us. One was serving us ice in our beer.

As he returned to his table he called me over, to meet the other girl. Loudly, he asked if I could take a picture; the staff consented. I was shocked, I couldn’t believe I looked like a tourist or “john” but recovered and pulled out my brick of a camera, attached the strobe, and put the thing in Program mode. It would be a deer-in-the-headlights look; it was so dark I could hardly see. I felt I could only make one, maybe two frames or I’d give myself away.

Steve later used the images I made to help with the arrest of the mama-san. His success didn’t end there for a brothel raid followed, freeing another several girls. Now I’m sitting on pictures of two virgins who were on the sales block; ethically, I’m not willing to release them, for their privacy, and also in concern that it may incite others to come. And yet, in writing this I’ve provided a guide map for sex tourists and pedophiles. A google search will turn up my website. (at left: i didn’t feel comfortable enough to stop and photograph the chicken farm brothel fronts–so it’s a little blurry)

However, with the upcoming campaign by the Cambodian government, the next strategy with investigators like Steve might focus less on the supply and more on the demand side. I’ve ridden with APLE, following American pedophiles around Phnom Penh, just waiting for them to do something bad enough for a prison sentence. Investigations already net successful arrests and convictions; maybe in the not too distant future it will be nearly impossible, without a lot of money and the right connections, to exploit children. The Cambodian government is working hard to change its reputation.

But they say the US Navy intends to put a base in Sihanoukville sometime in the next few years; it is likely to bring a boom to the sex industry, creating more chaos and vulnerable women and children. A lot of the sexual exploitation by foreigners started after UNTEC came into Cambodia with Vietnam’s withdrawal. Peace keeping forces and NGO’s are what has fueled the sex trade in the Balkans. I can’t imagine if this American base goes in it will be any different.

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I don’t know Tiang’s story except to say she’s Vietnamese, her mother works in a Phnom Penh brothel, and she was recently repatriated. In this part of Asia lighter skin, which being of more ‘pure’ Chinese descent begets, is viewed with greater beauty. Unlike the Khmer and Thai, whose genetics are influenced by the darker skinned Indians, the Vietnamese are of fairer complexion. This is another influence on an already complex trafficking network.

In an example of big and small non governmental organization (NGO) miscommunication, the International Office of Migration (IOM) had an existing protocol for repatriation. It wasn’t being used by many smaller NGO’s who had found, while working on their original mission (healthcare, economic development, etc.), that they were starting to address human trafficking as well.

This prompted James Pond to develop a protocol to help the small fry work with IOM and, in particular, the Vietnamese. And so, with a Cambodian IOM representative, a case worker with the Ministry of Social Affairs, James, Surin, a Transistions social worker fluent in Khmer and Vietnamese, myself (the photographer “friend”), and finally Tiang, we drove 3 bumpy hours to and from the Vietnamese border. Our driver, in spite of his competence, nearly killed about three moto riders and played chicken with larger vehicles too many times to count. Thus is the nature of the road.

Not really much to say about the process except it works. There was a lot of protocol, some posturing, and plenty of pleasantries. What I think is most important, though, is that a young Vietnamese woman–a trafficking victim–was able to go home. Legally.

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Since she was trafficked her family had moved from Phnom Penh to a coastal town. She was rescued during a brothel raid, then cycled through the ’standard’ process of assessment and placement in an aftercare center. Along with others, she provided testimony in the trial of the brothel mama-san, a notoriously exploitive woman who was sent to prison. (at right: “srey bo”)

About two years later, nearly half spent with Transitions Cambodia, the young woman I will call “Srey Bo” left her closest friends–girls who had similarly traumatic experiences–and headed home. These teens, together, have been finding their voice again. They are learning to dream, to believe in themselves, to begin to think of a future–like any other teen–except they came of age through utterly brutal and psychologically incapacitating experience.

Her first family visit, in preparation for a possible reintegration, was pivotal. Trafficking victims are often shunned by their community. It is suspected that through inaction her mother may have been partially complicit in her trafficking. Her father had no idea. (at left: shopping with TCI center director Jhaya)

And so the two stood, merely feet apart, her father solemn, head bowed. Srey Bo was hesitant, eyes downcast. The NGO staff and Ministry of Social Affairs social workers watched, for this moment could go two ways. But then her father reached out, quickly pulling her close, and wept.

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While with Transitions Cambodia, Srey Bo studied English and apparel design. Transitions encourages its girls to reach beyond traditional aftercare ‘retraining’ programs like apparel design and try careers such as computer IT, translation, and social work. Still, Srey Bo wanted to design garments and return to her family. (at right: a tearful moment at the TCI center)

While she lived at the center she was treated like most teens: free to come and go as long as it was within curfew, watch movies, sing karaoke, do the necessary chores of group living, attend school or work, and to continue working with the center’s four social workers.

It is not uncommon for trafficking victims, or those subjected to rape, domestic violence, or incest–all of which are very prevalent here–to stay “stuck” in a state of trauma and victimization. With destroyed self esteem and the burden of their recent past, many become re-victimized and return to sex work. (at left: tears with James Pond, her “second father,” on the way home)

However, if Srey Bo were to regain her sense of self, the risk must be taken and her voice must be heard. So the ponderous wheels of bureaucracy were set in motion; during her nearly year-long residency with Transitions, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior worked on her case, assigning the multiple tiers of support to ensure Srey Bo had every opportunity to succeed.

———————————————-

With two younger siblings, Srey Bo’s return means five people will cram into a one-room apartment. For $20 USD per month this gives the family a tile floor, locking doors, communal cooking space and shared bathroom, likely a squat toilet with a bucket of water and hose beside it. Her father is an independent businessman; he sells a neuget-like candy with peanuts from the back of a bicycle. It’s kind of like a Baby-Ruth candy bar without the chocolate. For this he earns maybe $100 per month. Her mother, in poor health, doesn’t work. (at right: her sewing machine and the one-room apartment she’ll share with her family)

Srey Bo brings an extra mouth to feed, but she also brings her skills and a pedal-operated sewing machine provided by Transitions. They will also give limited financial support and, at James’ insistence, will provide school uniforms, books, and supplies for her younger siblings. They are not currently enrolled in school, which increases their vulnerability. With her own hard work, help from the government, Transitions, and luck (or faith, in Srey Bo’s case) she should do well. (at left: the street out front her home)

———————————————-

After picking up her father and younger brother, and having her mother sign papers with a thumb print, we went back to the Ministry of Social Affairs where more papers were signed, thank you’s professed, and then some down time at the guest house. (at right: stacks of files at the regional Ministry of Social Affairs)

Unable to communicate, her father and I strolled the beach together while her younger brother played in the surf. Later we all went to dinner at a Khmer place where bountiful seafood was had. Early in the meal James leaned over and told me to spoon extra shrimp into the boy’s bowl. Doing so, he later said, would let his Srey Bo’s father relax and enjoy himself. In short order he ordered some beers and began packing it away, including the fish head. The boy and I, stuffed, played footsie and did tricks with our hands. (at left: Jhaya helps Srey Bo’s father sign with a thumbprint)

For me the entire day had been a fairly expected process but it wasn’t until we drove the father and brother home that I realized just what Srey Bo was going home to. The trash-filled dirt road was lined with wood and tin shacks which, in the daytime, looked like many rural Cambodian homes or storefronts. But by night the red lights came on and the girls came out. Srey Bo’s home can’t be more than 100 feet from a brothel. (at right: in the evening surf)

I asked her if she was concerned; she was. It scared her. Just as being away from her friends, out of the center, on her own trying and something new scared her. Like the brothels weren’t a greater concern than any other. James shrugged; it’s Asia. It’s Cambodia. It’s the way it is. You do what you can and work with the rest. (at left: brothels from a passing car)

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Apparently Prosecuting Attorney Scott Leist rarely asks for the maximum. But, he says, this was a particularly brutal crime. The story:
He’s from Seattle.
He served in Iraq.
He is alleged to have raped a woman while stationed at Ft. Lewis while partying.
She wouldn’t testify.
He was discharged, time went by. (Leist, zoned out post-trial)

He was partying with friends at a bar in Pioneer Square.
He offered to drive the friends home, a man and a woman.
He dropped the man off first, even though they lived in the same apartment complex.
The woman then says he picked up two more men and drove into an alley.
There she says she was held down while he beat her and raped her.
She fought.
When he was finished, one of the other men took his turn beating and raping her while the defendant held a gun to her head. (Abby during testimony)

It looks like a .45, but it was an air pistol.
She didn’t know. She felt so much shame, she told him to kill her.
When the second man was done she was pushed out of the car, her pants followed.
Hours later she went to Harborview for a sexual assault exam.
He was arrested shortly after.
Nearly three years later, after a two week trial, he was found guilty.
Then he was sentenced. Maximum. (Jama, for sentencing)

His attorney says he will appeal; he says not all the facts line up and there is a reasonable doubt. (Womack, in his office)

This story is for the FEAR Project.

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PBS Frontline has a feature on the trafficking of young East European women for the sex trade titled “The Price of Sex” that the author, documentary photographer Mimi Chakarova, hopes will do more than inform. She hopes it will move people to find out what they can do.

Also, you can watch the slideshow as Chakarova produced it. It is longer and without the PBS commentary.

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Stern Magazine called upon my return from Southeast Asia. “Oh, you’re home now,” Angelika Hala, my favorite editor said. “I called a few times before but your message said you were out of the country.”

In my absence I had missed some editorial assignments critical to my cash flow. It is Murphy’s Law: whenever I exercise the “freedom” of self employment by taking a weekday off I end up missing an assignment.

What Angelika had to offer this time was a dream job for an outdoor photographer. Last time it was several days on the big stone of documenting a documentary on the Huber brothers. This time it was four days in Whistler to shoot a “travel lifestyle” piece as part of the German magazine’s pre-2010 Olympics coverage.

Things were kind of vague until “all of a sudden” the writer was going to be in Whistler and he needed me up there immediately. Trustingly, which is something I value immensely, Angelika and her fellow editor Sue Lapsien left me with a general request for images and my discretion of how to achieve them. The weather was forecast to be terrible but the writer wanted me up there; I didn’t want to miss something important to his part of the story so off I went.

As forecast, it rained most of the way up the mountain. The second day was broken clouds and beautiful heavy powder on the top; unfortunately the writer and I were vying for time from the athlete who was forming the narrative thread of the story. I wanted off-piste shots in the sun in powder, he wanted to tour the piste. We negotiated a compromise and the athlete, an ever-patient Dana Williams, helped us both.

During the rain and in the evenings I spent time with the locals asking what they thought was the “essential” Whistler and then made the photos. You might be thinking “cool, Tim got to play” but it really is work–fun work–but still work; making pictures of people eating when you’re in need of dinner, unable to dance to the best ’80s mix I’ve heard in years, relax in the hot tub, have that cocktail, or sitting alone at the pub wishing one of my good friends was there.

I still live with the mindset of the impoverished (because I am) so saving money is important–for me and, I feel, for my clients. With a poor forecast I left the writer to finish his trip, returning to Seattle to come back later with a better weather window. But during this wait my friend Lara Kellogg died in a climbing accident in Alaska; just before her husband’s return from China and her funeral the weather opened up at Whistler. I had to go and I wanted to take some friends with me; the hotel had a spare bed, a kitchen, and floor space. It would be cheap for them. But no one could go and so I spent my remaining two days of assignment time enjoying the skiing and atmosphere as best I could with my mind elsewhere.

Still, I must reflect on having an experience at Whistler I have never afforded myself. I have skied the back country, because it’s cheap, but never the lift area; there is some amazing terrain! Village life is also pretty fun in a Disneyland sort of way. It reminded me of my brief time doing resort work in college and that of my friend Marshall’s in Aspen where you have the inside scoop, the cool places, best food, best ski runs, and people you know wandering amongst the “tourists.” This is how I tried to photograph Whistler, with the eyes of a “local” showing off the best the ski town has to offer.

However, one thing was very clear. Like in Seattle, winter weather is fairly unpredictable and you do have to be a local to get the most out of the powder–or bluebird–days.

(Note: You’re not getting the best pics, the magazine gets them first)

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“Of Laughter and Forgetting” a Multimedia Essay (7min).

Human trafficking is the transportation of persons for sexual exploitation or forced labor and can occur within a country and across international borders. The victims of this global trade, whose criminal revenue now rivals that of drugs and weapons, are often the vulnerable people found in developing countries, conflict zones, or recent conflict zones.

In the south east asian countries of Thailand and Cambodia, as around the globe, victims tend to be impoverished, uneducated, and in search of a better life. In many cases, particularly when considering the filial piety inherent in asian culture, parents will send their children to areas of promising economic opportunity to earn money to send home. Often times there is an agent who will arrange for the job, the transport, and the visa (if any). Once the victim arrives at the destination the traffickers, for coercion, will strip the victim of a passport (if any) and may beat, rape, threaten with death or death of family. In other cases the parents will sell their child outright; victims can be as young as infants.

It appears that immediate responses to human trafficking are undertaken by local and international non governmental organizations. These NGO’s have intentions ranging from freeing victims to legal advocacy and policy change, housing, psychological counseling, retraining, education, and repatriation.

This project provides cursory reporting on parts of the south east asian sex industry and anti human trafficking agencies. These components are:

DEPDC, Combatting Human Trafficking with Education in Mae Sai, Thailand
Development and Education Program for Daughters and Communities Center (DEPDC), a Thai NGO providing housing and education for youth at risk of being trafficked. DEPDC also works with the Mekong Regional Indigenous Child Rights Home, essentially a halfway home for victims of trafficking from northern Thailand’s hill tribe communities.

Sub-story on University of Wisconsin, Steven’s Point, students volunteering at DEPDC during their winter break and currently trying to find funding for four undocumented teenage women, who have State Department approval, to attend the university free of charge.

VGCD, Working with Street Children and Sex Workers of Chiang Mai, Thailand
The Volunteer for Children’s Development Foundation (VGCD) works with street youth of Chiang Mai, Thailand, to help keep youth from being sexually exploited or indoctrinated into the sex industry.

Mplus, a Community for Gay, Transgender, and Male Sex Workers in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Mplus works with adult gay, transgendered, and male sex workers in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to promote community and HIV/AIDS awareness. Mplus hopes to change mainstream social norms associated with gay/tg/msm.

Sex Workers of Empower Chiang Mai, Thailand
Empower is a Thai NGO with offices in Bangkok, Pattaya, Mae Sai, and Chiang Mai. Empower has a political voice advocating for recognition of sex work as an industry and career. It also provides education and resources for sex workers. Empower hopes to change mainstream social norms associated with sex workers.

Freelance Sex Workers in a Chiang Mai Karoake Bar, Thailand
An evening preparing for work with the women of the Violin Bar in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Older Expats and Their Thai Girlfriends
Caucasian ex-patriots relocating to Thailand often marry or have domestic partnerships with Thai citizens. This work is with a group of predominantly Canadian men 55+ years of age and their substantially younger Thai girlfriends and wives.

Anti Sex Trafficking Agency AFESIP in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Acting for Women in Distressing Situations (AFESIP) is a Cambodian NGO based in Phnom Penh founded by trafficking victim and ex-prostitute Somaly Mam. Providing “A-Z” services, AFESIP conducts outreach, provides follow up care to victims including housing, retraining, education, psychological services, and repatriation.

UCKRR, Khmer Rouge Legacy
Cambodian society was brought to its knees by the brutal reign of the Ultra Communist Khmer Rouge Republic (UCKRR) from 1975 to 1979. With a poor and traumatized population, courtesy of the UCKRR, Cambodia became a fairly lawless destination for child sex tourists.

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See Related Posts from the Field:
Human Trafficking: MRICRH
Human Trafficking: DEPDC
From Senjai, a Tale of Trafficking

Founded by Sompop Jankatra, who is now working to develop sister organizations in more vulnerable communities throughout the Mekong region, the Development and Education Program for Daughters and Communities Center (DEPDC) is a Thai NGO providing housing and education for youth at risk of being trafficked. (at left: Jankatra gives a lecture on trafficking)

Recruitment is made through community networks, largely in hill the surrounding hill tribe communities where lack of Thai citizenship increases poverty and vulnerability. Most children attend a half-day school on the DEPDC campus while some, mostly girls, live on the campus and attend nearby public schools–which is not free.

The University of Wisconsin, Steven’s Point, happened to have a winter break bridge-building program where a dozen art department students spent roughly ten days teaching classes at DEPDC and touring the countryside including some of the Akha hill tribe villages DEPDC recruits from. In its second year, the program is now trying to raise funds to provide four DEPDC students with American college educations free of charge. They have already negotiated the immigration barriers for the chosen girls who have no identifying papers or official nationality and are left with raising close to $170,000 by the fall of 2007 to send these students to UWSP. (at right: UWSP students are guests on the DEPDC radio station)

In the town of Senjai, which only received electricity five years ago, is a woman named Ayee. Trafficked as a young girl by a German, she returned to Thailand months later to find her sister Booka living and studying at DEPDC where her risk of being trafficked like Ayee was minimized. Soon Ayee moved to the DEPDCfacility where she learned how to cope with her experience; today as a woman in her mid-thirties she is an advocate for women’s and children’s rights works in her 50,000 person municipality to end human trafficking. In spite of today’s awareness, says Ayee, 40 to 50 children were trafficked from her municipality in 2006. (at right: Ayee at right, sister Booka, and nephew Nalin)

In Mae Sai, where the main DEPDC campus resides, is an OTOP store where Soo Lang, a past resident and student of DEPDC, works as a buyer and retail sales person. The OTOP network buys and sells traditional hill tribe garments and accessories. Soo Lang credits Sompop Jankatra and DEPDC for helping her find a well-paying profession. (at left: Soo Lang at work)

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Keyword Search: night, child sex tourism, chiang mai

The Volunteer for Children’s Development Foundation (VGCD)works with street youth of Chiang Mai, Thailand, to help keep youth from being sexually exploited or indoctrinated into the sex industry. (at left, a volunteer who once lived on the streets)

Many of the volunteers are past or current sex workers; several young men who hang out at the Chiang Mai gay bars catering to foreign clients looking for ‘dates’ also keep an eye out for children who are selling their bodies to get by. These volunteers often were once child prostitutes themselves. (at right: a young girl begs late at night; her mother and infant sibling are also begging across the street)

In Chiang Mai it is not uncommon to see seven year-old children selling flowers or begging into the wee hours of the morning. Often they are put to the task by their parents but they may also be worked by another adult. According to VGCD, for these children who spend so many late hours around the sex bars and foreign tourists, it is not much or a leap for the children to move from flower sales to sexual favors, especially when they learn how lucrative it can be. (at left: Oahn, a street child who volunteers believe is autistic, exhibits his hyper-sexualized behavior)

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Keywords: Mplus, male sex worker, chiang mai

Mplus works with adult gay, transgendered, and male sex workers in Chiang Mai, Thailand, to promote community and HIV/AIDS awareness. Mplus staff and volunteers are often recruiting and conducting outreach even on their off-hours as they socialize or purposely visit bars to spread awareness of the organization. (at right: program director monthian)

According to Drop-In Clinic Manager Pad Thepsai, many main-stream doctors and nurses don’t understand or accept the gay/transgender/male sex worker lifestyle; Mplus has become a ’second home’, he says, to this client base. Once a month they have a Gay Movie Night, they have a free internet cafe, mini gay-centric library, and a free drop in clinic for sexually transmitted infection (STI) and HIV screening. Pad also states researchers from 50+ countries have visited Mplus to learn about their client base.

A 2005 study conducted with the Thai Ministry of Public Health and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimate in that in Chiang Mai the prevalence of HIV amongst men who have sex with men (MSM) was 15.3 percent, transgendered (TG) was 17.6 percent, and for male sex workers (MSW) it was 11.4 percent. Mplus estimates 95 percent of male sex workers in Chiang Mai are heterosexual. (at left: a client gives a blood sample for HIV screening)

Mplus, and data collected by the Thai Ministry of Public Health in 2003, seem to indicate that roughly half of Chiang Mai male sex workers are immigrants of which more than half are Shan from Myanmar. Along with being in an economically depressed region, the Shan are one of the groups being persecuted by the Myanmar government; many illegally immigrate to the more prosperous Thailand.

In spite of the illegal status of prostitution in Thailand, according to a study by the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Anthropology, in Chiang Mai the number of establishments catering to gay clientele, where male sex workers often find clients, has grown from eight in 1994 to approximately 35 today. (at right and below: Mplus staff out with the boys at a karaoke bar)

Along with HIV/AIDS education and outreach in parks and bars, Mplus also hopes to be a resource for heterosexuals; through this they hope heterosexuals will be exposed to the the gay/transgendered/male sex worker lifestyle which will result in normalization of this lifestyle for heterosexuals.

Mplus is looking to partner with an International NGO to grow and be a source for research.

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