Nick Kristof's Brothel Problem

I'd gotten so used to Nicholas Kristof's January visits to prostitutes in Cambodia that it was something of a shock to find him this January in Calcutta's red-light district instead.

As readers of his New York Times columns in the past few years will know, around this time--a smart choice, weatherwise--Kristof heads to Southeast Asia to write about the scourge of child prostitution. One can hardly fault him for that, even though Kristof's bluff busybody prose is irksome, as he takes his pet peeve out for an annual saunter, the way A.M. Rosenthal did for years with female circumcision in Africa.

So far as I know, Rosenthal never actually bought a young African woman to save her from circumcision. Maybe they aren't for sale. In 2004 Kristof did buy two young Cambodian women--Srey Neth for $150 and Srey Mom for $203--to get them out of brothels in Poipet. There was something very nineteenth-century about the whole thing, both in moral endeavor and journalistic boosterism. In January 2005 Kristof was back in Cambodia to report that while Srey Neth was doing well, Srey Mom was back in the brothel, probably because she needed the drugs. Even in 2004 some of us had our doubts, since Srey Mom wouldn't leave the brothel until Kristof sprang not only for the $203 but also for extra cash for her cell phone and some jewelry she'd hocked.

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