Mongers – The Blame Game
Having recently reviewed some of the past articles in the Stickman archives about moral blame and the attitudes towards monging, I would like to offer my thoughts on this matter, looking at it from a very different prospective.
Attitudes will always vary and it is impossible to quantify but blame can reasonably be apportioned to the various parties involved.
So, if I was a monger, what amount of blame can reasonably be put on my shoulders as I step off that plane in Bangkok. Should it be a simple case of 50 / 50 between me and the bargirl that I meet up with later that night, or should it be
completely all my fault. It would be totally unfair to blame me 100% and not to blame the bargirl whatsoever. So, if you agree with that statement, then it must follow that blame in this instance can be apportioned to more than one party!
Right then, let's rewind back a bit! Before I get on that plane to LOS I am going to seriously consider the rules and regulations that a country has in place and what ramifications there will be to me if I break any of them. There is no way I am
going to go to Saudi Arabia on a bar crawl or fly in and out of Brazil with drugs on my person but as it happens there is no real problem if I am monging in Thailand (notwithstanding that prostitution is technically illegal in this country!).
Does this government have the use of massive resources including tens of thousands of standard police employees, the tourist police, the army, the different tiers of government that have the ability to make and change laws, and the will of the
people using the power of the vote? The answer is “yes” but for whatever reason not much is done. Therefore I elect to apportion some blame to the government for being complicit by not doing anything, especially since Thailand has
been renowned as a monger’s paradise since the Americans turned up in the 1960’s.
So, I have now arrived in LOS and decide to get a taxi to a hotel in Pattaya. As I am checking in, out of courtesy I enquire if it is ok to bring girl back to my room later on that night. “No problem” is the reply “but
you must pay supplement of 500 baht”. I now elect that the hotel trade is complicit in monging and bargirl activity, and therefore apportion some blame to them. I then take a shower and off to Walking Street I go. Enticed by the bright
neon lights and a bunch of girls grabbing my arm pulling me into a club, I am persuaded to enter one of these establishments. Under dimmed lights, bass beating music, I am directed to a seat, shown the drinks menu and the mamasan comes over to
ask if any of the girls interest me. These clubs and the people employed by them are also complicit in monging as they are clearly making money (if not exploiting!) from these “poor girls from Issan” and must have some blame attached
to them.
An attractive “hottie” soon comes over and we get chatting. She soon tells me that I am “very hamsum” and that she wants me to barfine her. Being eluded by her charms, her sexy hot body and my own carnal desires
I tell her that I am interested. She offers her terms of contract by enquiring if I want “short time or long time” and an indication of the fee involved. From my own observations I can clearly see that she is not under any duress
to make this deal and I can see no evidence that she is a victim of human trafficking, so I agree to her contract and leave the premises with her. Here again, I must apportion blame to this girl as well as she is the one selling herself!
Back at the hotel, after the contract has been fulfilled, I hand over the fee and as she slips it in her purse, I notice a picture of her Thai boyfriend / husband. I fully know that she is more likely supporting her Thai boyfriend as the
lazy ass is more likely pimping her out to support his gambling and drug habits. Also I would naturally assume that she is under constant demands from her family back up north to finance them as well, who know that she is whoring in Pattaya (and
so do the rest of the village!) but choose not to even let it enter their minds as it does not suit any purpose, especially as flashing gold purchased from ill-gotten gains around to their neighbours gives them great face! So, once again I apportion
some of this blame to the TB and family.
To sum up, we have the government, the hotels (plus other supporting industries), the clubs, the family and boyfriend / husband of the bargirl and the bargirl herself, all to have a level of blame shared with the monger. If we start off by
saying that the six parties (including the monger) all start off with equal blame then that equates to all parties having approx 16.6% blame each.
Then if we look at the government's role more closely and compare it to the monger’s role we see that the government should shoulder a bit more blame than the monger as they should hold a higher moral standing than a foreign monger
coming to their country. They have massive resources to help stop monging but choose to do little, instead benefit from it economically. Therefore I only think it is fair to up their blame from 16.6% to say 19%.
If we look at the hotels (plus other supporting industries) we find that they are directly benefitting from the mongers economically. I would almost say that they might have roughly equally blame as the mongers but for the fact that they
are complicit by taking an opportunist approach and turning a blind eye to foreigners coming to their country and monging with their poor country folk. Therefore I raise their blame up to 17%.
The clubs actively promote and if not actually exploit these Issan girls for direct benefit. Basically they sell the services of these girls to mongers (they even have the cheek to charge these girls when they don’t want to work) and
when they have exerted all they can from these country girls they are just moved on. No pensions are given, no medical plans are implemented, no counciling is forth coming, not even a gold watch for years of faithful service! For this exploitation
and indifferent behaviour, these clubs must at least take on 18% of the blame.
Next we are on to the Thai boyfriend / husband and the family. I cannot believe that the TB / husband could ever have only equally blame as a monger. He is only interested in pimping his girlfriend / wife out to numerous mongers so he won’t
have to work and to fund his own vices. Talk about a complete uncaring, self centred ba***rd! As for the family back up country, they know dammed well what their off spring are doing but still have their hands constantly out for the monthly payouts.
It is just illicit indirect pimping of their daughters. As these people should really be the ones to have a moral responsbility to look after these Issan girls, I would say they would share at least 25% of blame.
As for the bargirl herself, she should have at least 20% of the blame. She is mainly working in this industry for the large amounts of money she can earn. She dosen’t want to work back home in the rice fields or in a factory in Bangkok
for the average wage but wants to earn considerable more by monging herself out to numerous men. She is quite ready to extract as much money as she can from as many farangs as she can. More often than not the bargirl is quite willing to commit
fraud by have numerous farangs sending her money so she can give up working (any sort of work!) and telling each one that they are the only one, meanwhile keeping the Thai boyfriend / husband happy and doing a bit of freelancing on the side.
So far we are up to 99% of the blame apportioned, which leaves a whole 1% for the monger group. Considering that this group is the only one that actually spends money and is set apart from the other groups that are all receiving payment,
one can start to see the prominence of the other parties in the blame game league table. A lot of farangs are mongers because they love women and love sex and when they actively go to LOS to fulfil their desires, they are targeted by the other
groups to make as much money out of them. When a monger wants to start dating a bargirl he has to pay for the pleasure to the club group in the form of a fine, meanwhile the hotel group want their pound of flesh every time he takes her back to
him room, unless he gives the bargirl unfettered access to him room (and belongings) by signing her a key.
If a monger falls in love with a bargirl he is then seen as having a target on his back. It is highly likely that the BG will lie and cheat on him, and will demand payment to be his girlfriend, which is then filtered to some of the other
groups. If he wants to marry her and give her a better way of life then the family group want paying for that privilege and continued payments to support them so they don’t have to work. If he wants to buy a marital house then he is virtually
forced by the government group as they don’t trust him, to put that asset in the wife’s name.
Obviously this is a simplistic view but does demonstrate that other groups should collectively hold more blame for monging than the mongers themselves! And as for guilt, all the Thai groups mentioned, never demonstrate the slightest bit,
so it’s not surprising that the monger group don’t either! …Long live the mongers!
