View from a Rhino House: sex, politics & hypocrisy

On Wednesday Brazil’s health ministry cancelled a just-starting (before the World Cup cash starts pouring-in) information campaign urging sex workers to use condoms, after coming under pressure from conservative lawmakers.

“I’m happy being a prostitute” was the slogan on the web-based campaign for International Prostitute Day (I wonder if there is a special greetings card for that?) that also encouraged sex workers to not be “ashamed to seek medical treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.”

The campaign was launched on the health ministry’s website, Facebook & Twitter over the weekend, instantly provoking a wave of criticism, especially from evangelical legislators in Brazil’s congress (hard to believe, I know).

“We are fighting childhood prostitution & here comes a campaign encouraging it,” federal deputy Liliam Sá said in a congressional committee meeting. (The campaign offered free cartoons, ice-cream, balloons & condoms? How cool is that?)

Health Minister Alexandre Padilha an ambitious, if slippery, politician in the ruling Workers’ Party said in a Twitter post late on Tuesday evening that the campaign had gone ahead without his authorization (of course it did Alex, of course it did).

Twittering Padilha said the decision to scrap the campaign “came before any protests for or against it.” A true politician, down to the soles of his (expensive) shoes.

To sum up, Brazil has exclusively female, child prostitutes & the politicians don’t care if they all die horribly, or maybe they do – it depends how far into the week you are. Thank God there are no adult or male prostitutes & that only women spread STDs. Maybe they could go the whole extra mile & just rename the country “Iran”.

"I know, even Carnival was a washout this year. I guess the World Cup gig is no-hoper?" — “I know, even Carnival was a washout this year. I guess the World Cup gig is no-hoper?”

View from a Rhino House: the beautiful game

Many of the prostitutes in the city of Belo Horizonte, in Brazil, are signing up for free language classes in order to be ready to do business with foreign fans during the 2014 soccer World Cup.

“When all this chatter about being ready for the World Cup started last year, we decided the working girls needed to be prepared for it too,” Cida Vieira, president of the Minas Gerais state Association of Prostitutes, said to reporters this week.

The group has recruited volunteers to teach English, Spanish & even Portuguese, she said, explaining that some of the city’s sex workers are immigrants or members of the indigenous tribes, who needed to learn Brazil’s main language in order to “handle domestic demand,” as well as more “international services” provision.

Vieira said she believed that demand for the classes would surpass the 300 women who originally expressed interest, with calls coming in from as far away as Sao Paulo, about 500 km from Belo Horizonte.

“This is important for the dignity of the work, the women need to be able to negotiate a fair price & defend themselves,” she said. (Grammar as a martial art?)

Good to see the whole nation coming together in the interests of sporting glory.