Over 10 years ago I went to a hotel in Thailand with my wife for a vacation. We stayed at a relatively nice hotel..perhaps 4 stars class with beautiful lobby, large room, restaurants, etc. As part of the foreign country adventure, we decided to go to the spa/massage center. We were each assigned a lady and on to a separate room...it didn't take too long until my massage got waaaay too uncomfortable, with various sexual advancement and I had to pretty much pay and run out.
I share this because I want you to know that child trafficking and brothel in hotel is not so uncommon in various countries in Asia. Sometime it's hidden, and sometimes very openly. I guess I was too naive to realize what kind of place I was entering.
This past June (2010), a Hilton Hotel in China got busted and shut down by the police indefinitely for prostitution (see article). After this news, there were public outcry by the anti-Human Trafficking community, and I know many people called and wrote to the hotel headquarter.
A friend of mine forwarded me a wonderful news today (issued 10.31) that Hilton is responding to the Child Trafficking problem by rolling out a new policy world wide.
"Hilton is moving forward with discussions with ECPAT-USA and other organizations about steps to prevent child prostitution and human trafficking, and we continue to engage in and evaluate methods for prevention" - Jennifer Silberman, Hilton’s vice president of corporate responsibility
Now, I do not know what type of policy they are issuing nor how they are going to enforce it... and understand that those are the real issues.... but never-the-less, I am happy to see that something we advocated resulted to an action by a large corporation... Thank you to everyone who responded to the call, and looking forward to the positive results that this new policy would bring.
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