Prostitution is slavery

THE EDITOR: Everyone abhors prostitution and its long-lasting effects on the ethics and morals of our children and the nation.

TT has a long history of slavery and its corresponding ills, such as prostitution. This week’s prostitution bust brought the issue front and centre in the headlines. Why did it take Venezuelan activist Yesenia Gonzales, working alone, to guide the police’s rescue of the Venezuelan girls who came here looking for a better life?

With such a ubiquitous trade, shouldn’t the experts already be aware of its existence? Indeed, with the proliferation of “spas” across the nation, the authorities would have known about their illegal services and the young girls trapped in that sordid business.

William Wilberforce, a British politician who fought to end slavery in the 18th century, said, “A trade founded in iniquity and carried on as this was, must be abolished. Let the policy be what it might, let the consequences be what they would. I from this time am determined that I would never rest till I had effected its abolition.”

The same argument can be used for prostitution today.

As a nation that closely follows the example set by America – the good, the bad and the ugly – TT has now seen the proliferation of guns, gangs, gambling casinos, known locally as members’ clubs, and prostitution, all of which have led us down the slippery slope of immorality and the primitive consequences that follow. And still we shake our collective heads and wonder where we went wrong.

Why would TT, a country run by people born of slavery, even tolerate the injustice of prostitution on its soil? Instead of welcoming, embracing and protecting migrants fleeing poverty and the iron fist of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, we have enslaved and brutalised them into modern slavery.

We even support Maduro as the legitimate leader of Venezuela when Russia, China and Cuba, three totalitarian countries, are his main allies.

So, these starving people arrive on our shores seeking a better life and find themselves worse off because of the iniquity of sex-starved men in our society who use them in unmentionable ways, many of these girls too young to be considered adults.

TT is on a fast track to becoming the modern Sodom and Gomorrah, which were destroyed because of the people’s iniquity. Like those cities, TT still has righteous people who must stand up against this criminality if we are to hold our heads high and proudly proclaim to the world that we will not defend the indefensible actions of the unrighteous in our land.

We, the people, are citizens of the beautiful nation of TT and will defend and protect the poor and the hungry that come to our shores seeking our assistance. May justice and freedom be our watchwords as we work to end prostitution in our beloved nation.

REX CHOOKOLINGO

rexchook@gmail.com