G-L Community, This morning while I was reading the publication of the Daily Observer (Gambia's) of 08/27/99, I stumbled on a very shocking, disturbing and disheartening news about the alarming rate of prostitution among Gambian women in Sweden. This is because, they are dubbed "the new breed of whores" by the Press in Sweden and to say the least that phenomenon is far from being Gambian. I thought that it is pertinent to share the story with The Gambian Community at large so that together we ponder over this malignant situation. Below is the full text of the story as carried by the Daily Observer: The Swedish media has recently reported that Gambian women in Sweden are highly involved in prostitution rackets operating in Swedish cities. According to the Swedish Daily News of August 20, "Women from The Gambia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Kenya and Uganda are in the frontline of prostitution in Sweden." The report described Gambian prostitutes scouring Swedish streets as "the new breed of whores," young in their 20s and 30s and UNSKILLED. (My choice to lay emphasis on unskilled). The Daily News quoted a Tanzanian Sociologist, Sulusi Sjo, who spent 14 months interviewing African prostitutes, as saying, "the prostitutes are mostly divorced, but some of them are girls who have been forced onto the streets by want." Sjo continued, "they earn a lot of money which they take home to attract their friends and relatives." The Gambian prostitutes who talked to the Daily News Reporter told him that during the day, they take care of their children and use welfare dependency. "But, during the night, we wear our most beautiful dresses and get ready for the street customers," they said. According to the Reporter, Gambian prostitutes who are about sixty in number are highly sophisticated. "They go out with fully charged mobile phones. They take very good care of themselves. They are very careful not to bruise themselves and make every possible means to avoid HIV infection." The boom in sex trade between White men and African prostitutes follows the declaration last January by the Swedish Government that prostitution is illegal. The story concludes. On a personal note, I must admit that reading this story brought back to memory some of the "fanatical" reasons (atleast that is how most of us view them), why our elders were/are skeptical about sending girls/women abroad especially, the ones who are UNLETTERED, UNSKILLED and UNMARRIED. Simple and archaic as this reasoning may sound, the above story if accurate and let me hasten to say at this point that I have no reason to doubt its correctness until otherwise, proven wrong. Their ( the elders) skepticisms and arguments holds water and has been given a resounding vindication herein. Nonetheless, after all has been said and done, I urge our sisters in the diaspora and elsewhere, together with us (brothers) to take a critical look at ourselves and where we came from and what we subscribe to as far as our individual religions and cultures are concern and stay away/desist from such ungodly trade. Finally this is my narrow perception of the issue, no malice after all, everyone for him or herself but God Almighty for everyone. I just thought that we should be each others keeper. Good luck, OB Ps: Mistakes and omissions if any, are mine and unintended. OB ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------