More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

[touchring]

N. Korean women becoming commodity in China: activist

SEOUL -- Young female refugees from North Korea are increasingly becoming a commodity in China, where they are sold to farmers for up to US$1,500 a head, according to a Seoul campaigner.

The human trafficking is far from new but has become more prevalent as prices soar amid a shortage of Chinese women in the countryside, said Reverend Chun Ki-Won, head of the Durihana Association, which offers aid to refugees.

Chun, who has helped more than 900 North Koreans escape from China, said women are forced to live “like animals” because of Beijing's policy of repatriating the refugees as economic migrants.

“China is now a responsible nation. It should care about national prestige through solving human rights issues,” he told AFP.

If the women were not in danger of being sent back “they would not have to live such an inhumane life as this” in China, he said.

Men escaping the impoverished hard line North increasingly fall victim to tighter border controls or to bounties offered to Chinese for turning them in.

Women can find safer shelter across the border because of their economic value. Nowadays they make up around 80 percent of the tens of thousands of North Koreans hiding in China, Chun said.

More than 90 percent of them fall victim to human trafficking, he said.
The process starts at the border, where Chinese brokers bribe the North's border guards to let the women through, the 53-year-old pastor said — usually between 500 and 1,000 yuan (US$75 to US$150) for each.

One of two fates awaits the women who make it through: marriage to a farmer, often elderly or disabled, or taking their clothes off for Internet sex shows.

About 20-30 percent are destined for marriage and are resold to another broker for about 2,000 yuan. They are then sold to farmers, normally for 5,000-10,000 yuan, but the trafficking does not necessarily end there.

If the customer does not like his wife, he can resell her and add about 2,000 yuan to the original price. Some women are sold seven or eight times, Chun said.
The women rarely know what is in store for them, Chun said. “Most of the time, they are just told they will get a good job in China and will be able to earn a lot of money.”

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/kor...5/N-Korean.htm

[hayekvindicated]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

N. Korean women becoming commodity in China: activist

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/asia/kor...5/N-Korean.htm

The joys of Communism.

[touchring]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

The joys of Communism.

Why communism? Shouldn't it be capitalism?

These people trade everything. I won't be surprised if nokes are for sale if there's someone who can pay the price. Has anyone watched the Unthinkable?

[hayekvindicated]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

Why communism? Shouldn't it be capitalism?

These people trade everything. I won't be surprised if nokes are for sale if there's someone who can pay the price. Has anyone watched the Unthinkable?

North Korea was communist and the population on the brink of starvation last time I checked.

[cjppjc]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

Communism, capatalism. It's Humanity. Where is the progress of the species? Nowhere, that's where. I want to throw up.

[touchring]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

Communism, capatalism. It's Humanity. Where is the progress of the species? Nowhere, that's where. I want to throw up.

There's only a fine line dividing unchecked capitalism and anarchy.

[Rajiv]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

I don't see what communism has to do with sex slave labor -- it has more to do with extreme poverty. Tell me where communism is involved here.

Girls Rescued from Nepal's Child Trafficking for Sex Slave Trade

In Nepal, between 10,000 and 15,000 women and girls around the age of 9 years old are abducted or sold into sexual slavery in India, according to the US State Department. Nepal and Bangladesh provide the main supply of trafficked children in South East Asia and the practice is possibly the busiest slave traffic in the world. Human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing and most lucrative industries in the world.

Commercial Sex and the Daughters of Nepal

Many of the girls of Nepal have been trapped in India's booming sex industry, and the sex trade is expanding as the poor get poorer, writes Bertil Lintner in the hilltop village of Ichok.

Prostitution? Girls from here going to work in brothels in Bombay? Never heard of it. Any question, even a discreet and indirect one, about the local sex trade is met with an awkward smile and silence. Yet, Ichok in Sindhupalchok district, 80 kilometres northeast of Kathmandu, is known locally as Sano Bambai, or "Little Bombay".

The contrast between this hilltop village at the end of a five-hour, steep climb along a winding mountain path and Bombay's infamous, sleazy, red-light districts of Kamathipura and Falkland Road 2,000 kilometres away could not be more striking. But that's where local social workers say at least 200 girls out of Ichok's total population of a few thousand, work.

A young man literally ran away when the subject was broached in Ichok. A woman in her late 30s was somewhat more forthcoming. She said that although she knew nothing about prostitution, some of her relatives worked on road construction sites in northern India. "I was there myself for a while, that's where my children were born," she smiles, displaying a couple of gold teeth.

Many Nepalese do work on such sites, but it is a subsistence job. Road construction doesn't explain signs of prosperity, not usually seen in a village as isolated as Ichok.

There is no electricity here, and water is scarce. But a 12-year-old girl shows off her new, beautiful necklace and boys with wristwatches play on dusty village paths. And a surprisingly large number of houses have new tin roofs which gleam in the sun as evidence of the fact that there must be a local income other than coarse hill paddy, a few vegetables--and supposed remittances from poorly-paid road construction workers in India.

Tanka Gajurel, a district NGO worker who has spent years in the hills, says that Ichok--and many other villages in the area--have been sending their girls to Bombay's brothers for more than 20 years. Human Rights Watch Asia states in a recent report that there are "hill districts where the flesh trade has become an almost traditional source of income".
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[hayekvindicated]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

There's only a fine line dividing unchecked capitalism and anarchy.

You said it comrade. We need the iron fist of Chairman Mao back.

This forum feels like a meeting place of Third International. I hadn't expected this when I signed up. We learn from our mistakes.

[touchring]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

You said it comrade. We need the iron fist of Chairman Mao back.

This forum feels like a meeting place of Third International. I hadn't expected this when I signed up. We learn from our mistakes.

The iron fist of Mao had never left China to begin with.

I call it capitalistic autocracy where the state itself is the enterprise and makes business decisions for the entire country.

[medved]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

The iron fist of Mao had never left China to begin with.

I call it capitalistic autocracy where the state itself is the enterprise and makes business decisions for the entire country.

Comrade, you need to re-read Marx, otherwise you will keep getting it backwards. Communism is, by definition, the public ownership of the means of production. If you get rid of rose-colored glasses (which most libs will never do), you will realise, “public” means “government”.

Capitalism is private ownership of the means of production. As a simple logical consequence, capitalism creates *multiple* owners and therefore competition (with unavoidable wolf-eats-wolf excesses, corruption etc.)

Socialism (transitional period between capitalism and communism) works to concentrate the ownership in fewer hands by way of limiting and overregulating independent business activity (Central Banking is a good example).

China is just as much capitalist as the USSR in 1925 (OK, it is slightly more capitalist and tied to the international markets). But the next turn caused by the crisis is the same: comeback of the Party hardliners and tightening of the screws.

There is no need to invent fancy concoctions like “capitalistic autocracy”, just re-read Marx and Lenin. ;)

[touchring]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

There is no need to invent fancy concoctions like “capitalistic autocracy”, just re-read Marx and Lenin. ;)

Why capitalistic autocracy? Because China is now a capitalist society, probably even more so than the USA and the EU in certain respect. Autocracy because China is not a democracy.

Capitalist autocracy isn't new to China. Imperial China had a modern banking system almost 1000 years before Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy...e_Song_Dynasty

The economy of China under the Song Dynasty (960–1279) of China was marked by commercial expansion, financial prosperity, increased international trade-contacts, and a revolution in agricultural productivity.

Under the Song dynasty there was also a notable increase in commercial contacts with the outside world, with merchants engaging in overseas trade through investments in trading vessels, which undertook trade at ports as far away as East Africa. This period also witnessed the development of the world's first banknote, or printed paper money (see Jiaozi, Huizi), which was established on a massive scale.

During the Song Dynasty, the merchant class became more sophisticated, well-respected and organized than in earlier periods of China. Their accumulated wealth often rivaled that of the scholar-officials who administered the affairs of government. For their organizational skills, Ebrey, Walthall, and Palais state that Song Dynasty merchants:

...set up partnerships and joint stock companies, with a separation of owners (shareholders) and managers. In the large cities, merchants were organized into guilds according to the type of product sold; they periodically set prices and arranged sales from wholesalers to shop owners. When the government requisitioned goods or assessed taxes, it dealt with the guild heads.[14]

The world's first paper money
Huizi currency currency, issued in 1160.

The central government soon observed the economic advantages of printing paper money, issuing a monopoly right of several of the deposit shops to the issuance of these certificates of deposit.[1] By the early 12th century, the amount of banknotes issued in a single year amounted to an annual rate of 26 million strings of cash coins.[57] By the 1120s the central government officially stepped in and produced their own state-issued paper money (using woodblock printing).[1]

[medved]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

Why capitalistic autocracy? Because China is now a capitalist society, probably even more so than the USA and the EU in certain respect. Autocracy because China is not a democracy.

Hilarious
You definitely need to read this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Economic_Policy .

Implementing a version of NEP does not make a country "capitalist". Capitalism implies private property rights that were not granted by the gov't and cannot be taken away.

True, situation is changing, the gov't is taking over and undermines private property even in the West, but China has never become "capitalist" just by allowing some relative freedom of doing business. "Capitalism" in the West is a cultural phenomenon, it took ages to develop. There is nothing equivalent in China (or Russia for that matter). Capitalism by gov't decree is an oxymoron. ;)

[blazespinnaker]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

Yeah, unchecked capitalism is doing the Gulf of Mexico a lot of good.

Imagine if nuclear power plants could be built unchecked by government?

Seriously, the only thing I know about economics, is that there are no simple answers.

[medved]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

Yeah, unchecked capitalism is doing the Gulf of Mexico a lot of good.

Imagine if nuclear power plants could be built unchecked by government?

Chernobyl power station was absolutely checked by government. That's why it was and is absolutely safe.
The same applies to Fannie Mae and Federal Reserve.
Face Palm

[touchring]

Re: More profitable than gold, Chinese farmers cash in on the latest commodity.

Implementing a version of NEP does not make a country "capitalist". Capitalism implies private property rights that were not granted by the gov't and cannot be taken away.

Yes, of course there are various forms of capitalism. Capitalism in a democratic society cannot be exactly the same as in an autocracy. I am also aware that there is an association of capitalism with democracy, which in my opinion is incorrect. They are mutually exclusive.

China had the longest history of capitalism, but had never been a democracy. In fact, for the last 2000 years or so, almost all dynasties in China are based on capitalism. Merchants form the most powerful class in the Chinese society - not religion or the military as was the case in the West from Rome to Medieval age.

Some clues can be found in the writings of ancient travelers that visited China hundreds of years ago:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/polo-kinsay.html

Marco Polo returned to Venice, his hometown, in 1295 after an absence of twenty-five years in the East. He claimed to have spent seventeen years in the service of Kublai Khan, ruler of the Mongols and of the largest empire in the world. He had many stories to tell. These stories were eventually written down by Rustichiello of Pisa, who heard them while sharing a Genoese prison with Polo, sometimes after 1298. Here is the account in the book of Hangchow, called "Kinsay". Although Kublai Khan's capital was in the north, at the city later called Beijing, Hanchow had served as the capital of the Southern Song dynasty until 1279 and was a major cultural and political center.

Description of the Great City of Kinsay, which is the Capital of the Whole Country of Manzi

1. Kinsay is the modern Hangchow

The document aforesaid also went on to state that there were in this city twelve guilds of the different crafts, and that each guild had 12,000 houses in the occupation of its workmen. Each of these houses contains at least 12 men, whilst some contain 20 and some 40, - not that these are all masters, but inclusive of the journeymen who work under the masters. And yet all these craftsmen had full occupation, for many other cities of the kingdom are supplied from this city with what they require.

The document aforesaid also stated that the number and wealth of the merchants, and the amount of goods that passed through their hands, were so enormous that no man could form a just estimate thereof. And I should have told you with regard to those masters of the different crafts who are at the head of such houses as I have mentioned, that neither they nor their wives ever touch a piece of work with their own hands, but live as nicely and delicately as if they were kings and queens. The wives indeed are most dainty and angelical creatures! Moreover it was an ordinance laid down by the King that every man should follow his fatber's business and no other, no matter if he possessed 100,000 bezants [note: a Byzantine coin, often used as a standard coinage].

The people are Idolaters; and since they were conquered by the Great Kaan they use paper-money. Both men and women are fair and comely, and for the most part clothe themselves in silk, so vast is the supply of that material, both from the whole district of Kinsay, and from the imports by traders from other provinces. And you must know they eat every kind of flesh, even that of dogs and other unclean beasts, which nothing would induce a Christian to eat.

They also treat the foreigners who visit them for the sake of trade with great cordiality, and entertain them in the most winning manner, affording them every help and advice on their business.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choe_Bu'

Choe Bu of the Jeonju Choe clan[1] was born in 1454 in the prefectural town of Naju in Jeollanam-do, Korea.[2]

Although this was perhaps a damper on their travel affair, Choe was impressed with the sights of Hangzhou, writing:

It truly seems a different world, as people say ... Houses stand in solid rows, and the gowns of the crowds seem like screens. The markets pile up gold and silver; the people amass beautiful clothes and ornaments. Foreign ships stand as thick as the teeth of a comb, and in the streets wine shops and music halls front directly each on another.[17]

Choe Bu observed that, despite Hangzhou's greatness, it was no competition for Suzhou, while the former was merely a supplemental commercial feeder that served to enrich the Jiangnan region.[21] After visiting Suzhou on March 28, Choe Bu remarked on this economic hub of the southeast:

Shops and markets one after another lined both river banks, and merchant junks were crowded together. It was well called an urban center of the southeast ... All the treasures of land and sea, such as thin silks, gauzes, gold, silver, jewels, crafts, arts, and rich and great merchants are there [and] ... merchantmen and junks from Henan, Hebei, and Fujian gather like clouds.[22][23][24][25]

Choe found that people all across China, and in nearly every social strata, participated in business affairs.[15] He wrote that even Chinese scholar officials—who were traditionally scorned if they took part in any private business venture—[28] would "carry balances in their own sleeves and will analyze a profit for pennies".[15]