And so Gary Glitter (aka Paul Francis Gadd) has been convicted of
abusing a 10 and an 11yr old girl in his home in Vietnam. I'm not
surprised.
Now I can't say whether he is innocent or whether he is guilty, but I
have to say I'm not surprised, given where he's chosen to live. Teaching two girls
English? oh please - English teachers are ten-a-penny and you just
don't earn very much doing it out there and teaching English to little
girls is just not something a grown man does for fun. So it's not
profitable and it's not fun, but it makes a passable alibi.
He is an
ex-pat male, so he will live in a posh part of town in a big house with
one (but most likely more) maids, a driver, a gardener and maybe a
security man, too. Any well-off Vietnamese 10 and 11 yr old girls are
going to go to a proper English school, any poor Vietnamese girls are
unlikely to have access to a rich ex-pats home, but they would be available
at the right price.
Anyway, this kinda brings me to another subject and that is ex-pat men
in Asia in general. Recently in particular the crop from Indonesia have been frothing at
the mouth over a new proposed anti-pornography law to be passed. The
reaction is the same I would likely show if there were plans to outlaw
chocolate.
I lived in Indonesia long enough to see ex-pat men up close and while
there are many decent, proper and respectable men there, Asia is also a
great place for those less virtuous to hide and indulge.
Read the blogs of just a few grown men who (especially the single ones) and you discover that too many
have the sexual development of a sixth former. I have my theories as to
what makes ex-pats in Asia sexual retards who seem to be obsessed with
prostitution (as consumers, not observers) and I guess I feel compelled
to write a little piece about these.
I ought to point out that my experience is really only that of
Indonesia, so most of my opinions will be based from there. but I am
sure the attitudes are widespread over much of southeast Asia. Sexual retardation is a common affliction around this region.
For a start, these men never really meet a proper woman who is
sexually attractive. By that, I mean they prowl for sexy girls, not a
sexy woman. The distinction is not one of age, it is one of power and
status. In the western world, men will meet many women in business who
are confident and on an equal standing with themselves. Female
colleagues will earn a comparable amount, have their opinions listened to,
in some cases will hold superior positions in the organisation.
In Indonesia, by contrast, it is unusual to have female colleagues
who
are of the same status, especially if you are an ex-pat. Sexism is
still very much rife, women being the receptionist, the
secretary etc but not the director. Higher positions tend (tend) to be
held by men. It doesn't help that ex-pats, by virtue of being white
(and nothing more) tend to be held to higher regard than their
Indonesian colleagues. They are expensive to employ, are thought to be
educated and powerful and being'imported' often thought of as of better
quality. I, as a western woman, was also treated with a higher regard
than I deserved based purely on my skintone. I remember a corporate
event I attended. I was just the admin assistant, but at the lunch
buffet I had all these Indonesians approaching me who were clearly
assuming I was someone important, some imported business brain. They
didn't seemto believe that I was there to take the minutes. A
westerner? Surely not.
I have seen how a westerner I met (I mention no names) of no especial
intelligence is flattered
and fawned to and treated like he knows his stuff and is important,
when I know full well back home he'd be a complete nobody and certainly
not to the position he is at. He is treated like someone important when
he'd have to stretch himself just to attain mediocrity. It infuriated
me that he would pretty much give my Indonesian colleagues (who I knew
to be far above his level in understanding and competence) a
condescending pat on the head and it infuriated me even further when
the Indonesian staff fed into his deluded picture of his own
self-importance. What I'm trying to say is that western men are given
too high a position based on their ethnic background in Asia which
makes them them think themselves deserving to be up there. Added to
that, the fact that they never really mix with Indonesian women on an
equal
basis or need to respect an female colleague and the only women they
meet
are those below them in status, this all adds to the skewed view they
hold of women, particularly Indonesian women. they only see the maid,
or the receptionist, or
the secretary, or the prostitute, or the kind of girl who hangs out in
ex-pat bars and flirts with westerners.
Many women play their part in this game. For one, Indonesians are
smaller
in
size than westerners. The bird like bone structure and thinner
physique makes them appear fragile and more feminine (they do gain
weight of course, but usually after having married and had kids and are
older and these are not the type to be hanging out in
Blok M looking
for an ex-pat to catch). They know the
western men are looking for the stereotypical asian girl and many are happy to play this game in exchange for some
attention and a few hundred thousand rupiah. The girls may not
necessarily embody the stereotype but they know how to play it. Listen
to some girls speaking in their native tongue and the sweet little
things can be really rather predatory. Two girls to each other: "You
want my bule (westener)? He's sweet if a bit stupid . He doesn't yet
know Rupiah (meaning he's fresh off the plane and still spends dollars
like he would at home, thinking that he needs to spend $30 to be
generous)" the behaviour of these girls feeds into men's skewed
perceptions and every one of their fantasies. Unfortunately, women may
hold all the power while they are being alluring, but as soon as he's
had her in his hotel room, that power has been reclaimed. Shame they don't know that.
Indonesian men often look disapprovingly at the western men.
Treespotter writes about it, and a comment in another entry comments
aneh memang... perek terus yang diomongin, taunya itu doang kali ya?
(strange indeed....talking about prostitutes all the time. Is that all they know, then?)
Business meetings involving ex-pats are rarely held in Indonesian.
Mostly they are held in English, which gives the westerner an instant
advantage: Any grammatical errors or limitation of vocabulary will make
himself feel superior to the Indonesians (who are speaking a foreign
language, remember). I am sure if more meetings were held in
Indonesian, many ex-pats would be forced to realise how stupid you can
come across through merely using the wrong word or even the wrong
intonation. It would tip the power balance slightly and hey, it might
force them to learn more than just the Indonesian necessary to order a
beer or take home a girl.
Many ex-pats think they speak Indonesian but it's either very limited
or it doesn't always capture the subtleties that are inevitably there
in Indonesian speech. Indonesian is not a tonal language but it has a
very simple grammar and surprisingly few words, and so to convey the
level of meaning intended, subtleties in intonation and pitch are key,
as are intended meanings through what is NOT said as much as what is.
Anyone who thinks Indonesian is simple isn't listening properly.
So give men an overblown sense of their own status, convince the other
men and women around them to feed into that, mix in girls at playtime who are poor
and treat the bule man as rich and powerful and don't expect much from him except maybe his money and you get a culture that
produces sexual retardation in the male, an inordinate obsession with
prostitues and a complete lack of respect for women (the only words of
admiration I hear from them in regards to women is on physical
attributes (legs, breasts, figure in general) or at a push, the courage to show
off these physical attributes (nude modelling, playboy, beauty pageants
or dancefloor exhibitionism, here is a
blog that claims to be about
Indonesian celebreties but take a guess, man or woman writing the
blog?). This kind of mindset I can expect from someone up to
(let's be generous) the age of about 24 but most men I know will have grown out
of this phase (or learned to keep their mouths shut) and yet ex-pats
men in Asia can continue to live this dream for many years, into their
fifties and sixties, partaking of the meat market.
On the whole, these guys can spend their time at
Blok M and I don't
much care, but it does bother me when they think that picking up a 14yr
old is ok. It bothers me when they
drive home drunk,
knowing they can
bribe themselves out of trouble, and then bitch about how backward
Indonesia is. It suits them like that and yet they complain. They're
getting
away with behaviour they would not even dare back home. But
simply, they do so because they can. The system allows it. You can buy
just about anything and anyone. It's sad but it's the way it is.
What makes it worse is the delusional state many men put themselves in.
They convince themselves that the girls adore them (even the ugly,
smelly ones with the hairy backs? you reckon? really? C'mon!) and in
their minds, this makes it all ok, no matter how old (or young) the girl
A nice little piece can be found
here.
entitled
A tale of unbridled debauchery, lustful excess, and a ripping good time
This
is a slightly edited version of Gary's email to the guys back home - a
few personal references have been taken out, and names have been
changed to protect the guilty.
and starts with
: OK, since
you poor losers with wives and live-in girlfriends didn't get to come
along to Blok M this trip, the least I can do is rub it in a little.
an extract includes
"30 minutes after he called, Ron knocked on my door, drunk, with two
in tow. Doorstep delivery. Just like a fucking pizza. They were both
“Ron Specials.” Skinny beautiful ABC’s whose apparent age would get you
thrown in jail in any civilized country on the planet, but not here.
Mine was named Rani which she pronounced with a sexy purring rolling R,
as in Rrrrrrrrrrrrani. She shook my hand, then hugged me and we both
began laughing over the fact that I had suddenly sprung a throbbing
woodie which was fighting to escape my OP shorts.
We
jumped in the shower together, a custom I really like about Blok M
girls, and by the time we hit the bed, I was somehow ready to pound it
again, the short nap and the pill having worked wonders. Rrrrrrrrani
was a dream. She spoke maybe 3 words of English, but intuitively knew
what to do and how to do it."
or later
Unlike the other straight black-haired Blok M beauties, Shirley Temple
had long curly hair and an infectious smile which made her look exactly
like a 1930’s Hollywood child movie star
and his remark
remember that I went home with a particularly nice “retread” two
consecutive nights in spite of Ron’s ragging me endlessly about letting
my standards slip and ending up with a 24 year old. Ron considers
anything over 18 a “retread.”
