NEWS
Sex with a mask on, boarded-up brothels and no work after 9pm… the reality of being a prostitute during Covid-19
Published
4 years agoon
The pandemic has hit sex work hard – getting intimate with a stranger is difficult under social distancing rules. But the trade has learned to adapt, as RT.com found out when it spoke to those involved in the scene in Barcelona.
It’s the oldest profession, so they say: selling your body for money. The threat of hellfire and eternal damnation, courtesy of the Catholic church, didn’t have much of an impact on it. A rich array of diseases, from gonorrhea to AIDS, couldn’t stop the sex trade either. Nor could the cops and the shifting sands of the world’s legal systems.
If any occupation has demonstrated the capacity to adapt and survive over the years, it’s prostitution. Covid-19, though, is biting hard. And as the long anticipated second wave crashes ashore, the working girls (and boys) are facing a tougher financial and physical test than most.
Never mind Dr Anthony Fauci or the boffins in Britain and the EU; these women are world experts at dodging diseases. It’s part of the game they’re in. But it’s tricky to be up close – close enough to touch – and maintain social distance. It’s tough to not breathe in a punter’s breath, mask or no mask.
A good case in point is what’s happening in the Spanish party city of Barcelona. The Catalonian capital has something of a reputation for its sexual nightlife, from brothels to swingers’ clubs. Lots of sex workers from Caracas to Krakow come to Barcelona because there’s plenty of opportunity to make money.
Or there was.
Sex work is key work? Morality aside, is Covid-19 the time to rethink the ‘vital’ public health role of prostitutes?
Barcelona has long been close to the top of the list for ‘stag-do’ bachelor parties – a destination for hordes of lads from across Europe, particularly the UK. They land at the airport in gangs of a dozen or more, usually already smashed, and all wearing the same stupid t-shirt with a picture of the happy groom-to-be ironed on the front.
Often, they have the words ‘what goes on tour, stays on tour’ written on the front of those dopey t-shirts. It’s an apt phrase because if their wives, fiancées and girlfriends knew what they so often get up to at night in the city while ‘on tour’, they’d all be single again when they got home.
Like any business, sex work is all about supply and demand. And the tourists aren’t coming. Because the hotels and guesthouses and Airbnbs are empty, so are the brothels.
Bars, restaurants and clubs have been closed for a couple of weeks. And, to make things even tougher for sex workers, there’s also a curfew in Catalonia from 10pm until 6am, the peak hours for this kind of work.
Prostitutes have long been adept at operating under the radar, though. It’s part of the game, and always has been.
Take Apricots, for example, a ‘knocking shop’ near the Nou Camp football stadium. Often the roar from the Barcelona fans rattles the shutters from the outside, while the groans from another satisfied customer do the same from within.
A Dutch plan to force contraception on female drug addicts ‘to protect children’ shows how liberal ideals can turn deeply sinister
“We’re closed right now due to the Covid restrictions,” one of the workers told RT.com. “But the girls have a flat not far from the stadium, and customers can go there. Get there before eight o’clock though, because they stop work at nine.”
A girl takes your temperature at the door and you must use alcohol to disinfect your hands. Oh, and you have to wear a face mask … at all times.
It’s not exactly what you’d call intimate.
For sure, there must be blokes out there who get a sexual buzz from a hazmat suit and a respirator – there’s a market for everything – but it’s not what most paying customers would want.
One young woman called ‘Raquel’ explained how she arrived in Barcelona a couple of years ago from Colombia and soon found herself in the sex game. It was very good, if not necessarily ‘easy’, money. Now she’s the ‘madam’– the manager, essentially – of a brothel.
“We’re a business like any other,” she told RT.com. “The collapse in tourism is probably the biggest problem. We’re a very large sector in this city, we should have the same rights and access to the same financial help as any other workers. But the Government doesn’t do anything for us.”
That’s not strictly true. Spain announced in April that prostitutes could access support services, emergency accommodation and claim a new social benefit. Even foreign women who are in the city without the correct paperwork – as many are – would have access.
“Look,” Raquel told RT.com. “The truth is that many regular clients keep coming anyway with the same frequency. But no girl is forced to do anything, it’s her choice. I don’t know of any girl who has caught Covid-19.
“There are also ways that girls can earn some money without touching, like doing an erotic dance at a distance or teleworking – doing a sexy dance on a webcam, etcetera.”
Another problem that has hit these girls recently in Catalonia is the fact that regional borders have been closed and movement restricted.
One of the wealthiest areas in Barcelona is a seaside suburb called Castelldefels. Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Philippe Coutinho and a host of other big football names all have houses on a hill overlooking the C-31 main road.
The UK ditching plans to allow trans people to ‘self identify’ their gender on their birth certificates is just common sense
Prostitutes often sit on the roadside in deckchairs down there, waiting to service truck drivers and the like. But not right now; there’s not much traffic.
And it’s not only prostitutes and paying customers who’ve been hit hard. Genuine couples who enjoy ‘recreational sex’ with total strangers have also had to find fresh outlets for their ‘hobby’. Barcelona has a thriving swingers’ scene, with couples visiting the beach and the tourist attractions by day, and getting down and dirty at night.
‘Training Pedralbes’, for example, is one venue that sees a lot of action. It may sound like a local gym, but it’s actually a swingers’ club where couples go to enjoy a far more intimate workout with total strangers. Another swanky swingers’ club nearby is called Oops. Both these venues are closed at the moment, and with no income to cover their bills in such an expensive part of town, they’re at real risk of going under.
I have a friend who enjoys this lifestyle with her husband. Each to their own: she says they’d have divorced a decade ago without this outlet in their lives. “We still ‘play’,” she said. “But we’ve been going to parties in country houses and stuff. Everyone uses alcohol on their hands, temperatures are checked, we wear masks – all of that. Same as people who play sport. What’s the difference?”
Fair enough. But what about the rest of us? Sex bubbles sound kinda fun. In the UK, the latest rules say couples who live apart can enjoy each other’s company at close quarters if they are in the same support bubble.
The Terrence Higgins Trust charity sticks by recommendations it made in the summer: don’t kiss, wear a face mask and choose positions that aren’t face to face. And, of course, the safest sex of all is to, well, just do it on your own.
Or there’s always the option of a nice cup of tea and Netflix.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
You may like
-
Israeli president comments on Lebanon pager attacks
-
German central bank issues warning on economy
-
China is raising its retirement age, now among the youngest in the world’s major economies
-
Gold price soars to all-time high
-
Russia warns NATO of ‘direct war’ over Ukraine
-
Thousands of EU automotive jobs at risk
NEWS
China is raising its retirement age, now among the youngest in the world’s major economies
Published
2 months agoon
September 14, 2024Starting next year, China will raise its retirement age for workers, which is now among the youngest in the world’s major economies, in an effort to address its shrinking population and aging work force.
The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the country’s legislature, passed the new policy Friday after a sudden announcement earlier in the week that it was reviewing the measure, state broadcaster CCTV announced.
The policy change will be carried out over 15 years, with the retirement age for men raised to 63 years, and for women to 55 or 58 years depending on their jobs. The current retirement age is 60 for men and 50 for women in blue-collar jobs and 55 for women doing white-collar work.
“We have more people coming into the retirement age, and so the pension fund is (facing) high pressure. That’s why I think it’s now time to act seriously,” said Xiujian Peng, a senior research fellow at Victoria University in Australia who studies China’s population and its ties to the economy.
The previous retirement ages were set in the 1950’s, when life expectancy was only around 40 years, Peng said.
The policy will be implemented starting in January, according to the announcement from China’s legislature. The change will take effect progressively based on people’s birthdates.
For example, a man born in January 1971 could retire at the age of 61 years and 7 months in August 2032, according to a chart released along with the policy. A man born in May 1971 could retire at the age of 61 years and 8 months in January 2033.
Demographic pressures made the move long overdue, experts say. By the end of 2023, China counted nearly 300 million people over the age of 60. By 2035, that figure is projected to be 400 million, larger than the population of the U.S. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences had previously projected that the public pension fund will run out of money by that year.
Pressure on social benefits such as pensions and social security is hardly a China-specific problem. The U.S. also faces the issue as analysis shows that currently, the Social Security fund won’t be able to pay out full benefits to people by 2033.
“This is happening everywhere,” said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But in China with its large elderly population, the challenge is much larger.”
That is on top of fewer births, as younger people opt out of having children, citing high costs. In 2022, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported that for the first time the country had 850,000 fewer people at the end of the year than the previous year , a turning point from population growth to decline. In 2023, the population shrank further, by 2 million people.
What that means is that the burden of funding elderly people’s pensions will be divided among a smaller group of younger workers, as pension payments are largely funded by deductions from people who are currently working.
Researchers measure that pressure by looking at a number called the dependency ratio, which counts the number of people over the age of 65 compared to the number of workers under 65. That number was 21.8% in 2022, according to government statistics, meaning that roughly five workers would support one retiree. The percentage is expected to rise, meaning fewer workers will be shouldering the burden of one retiree.
The necessary course correction will cause short-term pain, experts say, coming at a time of already high youth unemployment and a soft economy.
A 52-year-old Beijing resident, who gave his family name as Lu and will now retire at age 61 instead of 60, was positive about the change. “I view this as a good thing, because our society’s getting older, and in developed countries, the retirement age is higher,” he said.
Li Bin, 35, who works in the event planning industry, said she was a bit sad.
“It’s three years less of play time. I had originally planned to travel around after retirement,” she said. But she said it was better than expected because the retirement age was only raised three years for women in white-collar jobs.
Some of the comments on social media when the policy review was announced earlier in the week reflected anxiety.
But of the 13,000 comments on the Xinhua news post announcing the news, only a few dozen were visible, suggesting that many others had been censored.
Moscow’s envoy to the UN has reiterated where the Kremlin’s red line is
Granting Kiev permission to use Western-supplied long-range weapons would constitute direct involvement in the Ukraine conflict by NATO, Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, has said.
Moscow will treat any such attack as coming from the US and its allies directly, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, explaining that long-range weapons rely on Western intelligence and targeting solutions, neither of which Ukraine is capable of.
NATO countries would “start an open war” with Russia if they allow Ukraine to use long-range weapons, Nebenzia told the UN Security Council on Friday.
“If such a decision is made, that means NATO countries are starting an open war against Russia,” Moscow’s envoy said. “In that case, we will obviously be forced to make certain decisions, with all the attendant consequences for Western aggressors.”
Putin issues new warning to NATO
“Our Western colleagues will not be able to dodge responsibility and blame Kiev for everything,” Nebenzia added. “Only NATO troops can program the flight solutions for those missile systems. Ukraine doesn’t have that capability. This is not about allowing Kiev to strike Russia with long-range weapons, but about the West making the targeting decisions.”
Russia considers it irrelevant that Ukrainian nationalists would technically be the ones pulling the trigger, Nebenzia explained. “NATO would become directly involved in military action against a nuclear power. I don’t think I have to explain what consequences that would have,” he said.
The US and its allies placed some restrictions on the use of their weapons, so they could claim not to be directly involved in the conflict with Russia, while arming Ukraine to the tune of $200 billion.
Multiple Western outlets have reported that the limitations might be lifted this week, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited Kiev. Russia has repeatedly warned the West against such a course of action.
‼️🇷🇺🏴☠️ President's Response on the Potential Use of NATO Long-Range Weapons Against Russia
"This would mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European nations are at war with Russia. And if that is the case, considering the fundamental shift in the nature of this… pic.twitter.com/UO03dRUl44
— Zlatti71 (@Zlatti_71) September 12, 2024
NEWS
China makes its move in Africa. Should the West be worried?
Published
2 months agoon
September 11, 2024Beijing maintains a conservative economic agenda in its relations with the continent, while finding it increasingly difficult to avoid a political confrontation with the West
The ninth forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and the FOCAC summit held in Beijing on September 4-6 marked a significant phase in Africa’s relations with its global partners in the post-Covid era. China is the last major partner to hold a summit with African nations following the end of the pandemic; Africa summits were held by the EU and the US in 2022, and by Russia in 2023. The pandemic, coupled with rising global tensions, macroeconomic shifts, and a series of crises, underlined Africa’s growing role in the global economy and politics – something that China, which has undergone major changes (both internal and external) as a result of the pandemic, is well aware of.
It is clear that the relationship between China and Africa is entering a new phase. China is no longer just a preferential economic partner for Africa, as it had been in the first two decades of the 21st century. It has become a key political and military ally for many African countries. This is evident from China’s increasing role in training African civil servants and sharing expertise with them, as well as from several initiatives announced at the summit, including military-technical cooperation: officer training programs, mine clearing efforts, and over $100 million which China will provide to support the armed forces of African nations.
In the political arena, however, Beijing is proceeding very cautiously and the above-mentioned initiatives should be seen as the first tentative attempts rather than a systematic strategy.
While China strives to avoid political confrontation with the West in Africa and even closely cooperates with it on certain issues, it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. Washington is determined to pursue a policy of confrontation with Beijing in Africa – this is evident both from US rhetoric and its strategic documents.
Dirty tactics: How the US tries to break China’s soft power in Africa
A “divorce” between China and the West is almost inevitable. This means that Chinese companies may lose contracts with Western corporations and won’t have access to transportation and logistics infrastructure. Consequently, China will need to develop its own comprehensive approach to Africa, either independently or in collaboration with other global power centers.
An important sign of the growing confrontation between the US and China in Africa was the signing of a trilateral memorandum of understanding between China, Tanzania, and Zambia regarding the reconstruction of the Tanzania-Zambia Railway (TAZARA), which was originally built by China in the 1970s. If it is expanded, electrified, and modernized, TAZARA has the potential to become a viable alternative to one of the key US investment projects in the region: the Lobito Corridor, which aims to enhance logistics infrastructure for exporting minerals (copper and cobalt) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia by modernizing the railway from the DR Congo to the Angolan port of Lobito.
In inland regions such as Eastern Congo, transportation infrastructure plays a crucial role in the process of mineral extraction. Considering the region’s shortage of rail and road networks, even a single non-electrified railway line leading to a port in the Atlantic or Indian Ocean can significantly boost the operation of the mining sector and permanently tie the extraction and processing regions to specific markets.
It appears that China’s initiative holds greater promise compared to the US one, particularly because Chinese companies control major mines both in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia. This gives them a clear advantage in working with Chinese operators and equipment, facilitating the export of minerals through East African ports. Overall, this indicates that East Africa will maintain its role as the economic leader on the continent and one of the most integrated and rapidly developing regions for imports.
A former colonial European power returns to Africa. What is it after now?
The highlight of the summit was China’s pledge to provide $50 billion to African countries over the next three years (by 2027). This figure echoes the $55 billion commitment to China made by the US (for 3 years) at the 2022 US-Africa Summit and the $170 billion that the EU promised to provide over seven years back in 2021. Consequently, leading global players allocate approximately $15-20 billion annually to Africa.
In recent years, there has been noticeable growth in such promises. Nearly every nation is eager to promise Africa something – for example, Italy has pledged $1 billion annually. However, these large packages of so-called “financial aid” often have little in common with actual assistance, since they are typically commercial loans or corporate investments. Moreover, a significant portion of these funds is spent in the donor countries (e.g. on the procurement and production of goods), which means that they contribute to the economic growth of African nations in a minimal way.
As for China, it will provide about $11 billion in genuine aid. This is a substantial amount which will be used for developing healthcare and agriculture in Africa. Another $30 billion will come in the form of loans (roughly $10 billion per year) and a further $10 billion as investments.
The overall financial framework allows us to make certain conclusions, though it’s important to note that the methodology for calculating these figures is unclear, and the line between loans, humanitarian aid, and investments remains blurred. In terms of investments (averaging around $3 billion per year), Beijing plans to maintain its previous levels of activity – in recent years, China’s foreign direct investments (FDI) have ranged from $2 billion to $5 billion annually. Financial and humanitarian aid could nearly double (from the current $1.5 billion-$2 billion per year) while lending is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels (which would still be below the peak years of 2012-2018).
Can Africa seize control of its own energy?
China’s economic plan for Africa seems to be quite conservative. It’s no surprise that debt issues took center stage during the summit. During the Covid-19 pandemic, macroeconomic stability in African countries deteriorated, which led to challenges in debt repayments and forced Africa to initiate debt restructuring processes assisted by the IMF and the G20. Starting in 2020, a combination of internal and external factors led China to significantly cut its lending to African countries – from about $10-15 billion down to $2-3 billion. This reduction in funding has triggered economic reforms in several African countries (e.g. Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria), which have shifted toward stricter tax and monetary policies. While promises to increase lending may seem like good news for African nations, it’s likely that much of this funding will go toward interest payments on existing obligations and debt restructuring, since China wants to ensure that its loans are repaid.
Despite China’s cautious approach to Africa, its interaction with the continent will develop as a result of external and internal changes affecting both Africa and China. Africa will gradually become more industrialized and will reduce imports while the demand for investments and local production will increase. China will face demographic challenges, and its workforce will decrease. This may encourage bilateral cooperation as some production facilities may move from China to Africa. This will most likely concern East African countries such as Ethiopia and Tanzania, considering China’s current investments in their energy and transportation infrastructure. Additionally, with Africa’s population on the rise and China’s population declining, Beijing is expected to attract more African migrant workers to help address labor shortages.
Study and Schengen Visa in Europe! Discover everything you need to know to plan and complete higher education studies in Europe.
Israeli president comments on Lebanon pager attacks
German central bank issues warning on economy
China is raising its retirement age, now among the youngest in the world’s major economies
Gold price soars to all-time high
Russia warns NATO of ‘direct war’ over Ukraine
In Spotify, music listens to you: streaming platform wins patent to surveil users’ emotions to recommend music
How much YouTube pays for 1 million views, according to creators
Pentagon well aware of Ukraine’s corruption problem
Most Americans want to move on from Biden and Trump – poll
Finland officially joins NATO
Turkish minister escapes fire blast (VIDEO)
Trump savages pop star’s Super Bowl performance
Alec Baldwin sued by Ukrainian family of slain cinematographer
Duran Duran stumbles, Dolly Parton rolls into Rock Hall
Sweden probes possible plot behind Russian pipeline leaks
Study and Schengen Visa in Europe! Discover everything you need to know to plan and complete higher education studies in Europe.
Trending
-
NEWS2 months ago
China makes its move in Africa. Should the West be worried?
-
NEWS2 months ago
China is raising its retirement age, now among the youngest in the world’s major economies
-
NEWS2 months ago
Russia warns NATO of ‘direct war’ over Ukraine
-
INVESTMENTS2 months ago
Gold price soars to all-time high
-
FINANCE2 months ago
Thousands of EU automotive jobs at risk
-
FINANCE1 month ago
German central bank issues warning on economy
-
WAR1 month ago
Israeli president comments on Lebanon pager attacks