[Trinidad]

I thought that this news bit might show how values, ethics and culture are different within the Western world. (It's nothing major in the Dutch news, only a sideliner that doesn't shock anybody.)

Quote

The city of Amsterdam is going to start a consumer panel for customers of prostitutes. This will help the city in reducing prostitution abuse.

To place this in context: Prostitution is legal in The Netherlands, as is visiting a prostitute (they are often called "sex workers"). Disabled people can get government money to pay for a sex worker making a "house call".

Typical examples of "Prostitution abuse" would be: under age prostitutes, or forced prostitution (e.g. as a result of trade in women).

Rik

[Winstonm]

Have you no sense of shame - printing the f$#king "P" word in public where children may read it accidentally?

[Trinidad]

Winstonm, on Nov 22 2009, 03:57 PM, said:

Have you no sense of shame - printing the f$#king "P" word in public where children may read it accidentally?

I apologize.

But the City of Amsterdam picked the term "Consumer P.". I agree with you that "Consumer Forum" would have been a better choice.

Rik

[Rain]

Already booked flight to AMS last week. Really!

[helene_t]

Me too, if we arrive at the same time I could show you the red light district.

[kenberg]

I guess I can, sort of, understand why some men in some situations might use a prostitute and I guess I can, sort of, understand why some women in some situations might be prostitutes.

There is a perhaps interesting series of films related to the American view. Waterloo Bridge, in 1940 with Vivien Leigh, is worth the look. It deals seriously and sensitively with the choices made. It is a remake of a 1931 movie which I would very much like to see, based on a play by Robert Sherwood. I have seen a later remake. It has a different name and I can't say I even remember it. Awful.

Perhaps of interest, despite the claims of increasing sophistication in our culture, the third version was ridiculously sentimentalized and my understanding is that the 1931 version is by far the most substantial. Here is a review, concentrating on the 1931 version:

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/116064/Wat...Bridge/overview


Mae Clarke had the best role of her career as the heroine of Waterloo Bridge, the first of three filmizations of Robert L. Sherwood's play. Douglass Montgomery (here credited as Kent Douglass) plays a young American soldier who, while on leave from World War I, meets Myra (Clarke) during an air raid in London and falls in love with her, unaware she is a prostitute. Directed with a delicate mixture of realism and impressionism by James Whale, the 1931 Waterloo Bridge is head and shoulders above its heavily laundered 1940 remake -- which in turn is vastly superior to the 1956 re-remake, Gaby. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide