Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining!
Bangkok Red Light District
Covid 19 has been with us for more than two years now, and I have not heard any predictions over that period that have come true. It was a new phenomenon for most of us, and for all of us when it is seen as a global plague, so there is little wonder that no-one could foresee any outcomes accurately.
Nevertheless, we all know that there have been consequences to the pandemic. Most people will point to the negative aspects like sickness, death, lockdowns and job loss, but there have also been positive outcomes too.
They are probably different depending on where you live and what you used to do for a living. I live in a small, remote mainly rice-farming village in northern Thailand, so I will tell you about that. Most working people here are farmers or farm labourers. It is a hard life with the long hours and lack of holidays that most farmers around the world are aware of.
Very few of the boys and none of the girls want to become farmers like their parents. University is a more realistic expectation now than ever before, but otherwise the youth has been flocking to the tourist destinations for decades.
Many ended up as shop or factory workers, and those who could handle it and were pretty enough often dabbled in the sex-tourism industry hoping to meet a 'rich foreigner', who would rescue them.
However, the constant flow of foreigners has dried up because of the Covid 19 restrictions on travel... You see, most 'rich foreigners' came from Europe or America. Consequently, the vast majority of the pretty girls in the tourist traps have lost their jobs and have had to return to their villages, where many of them have young children. This means that because of Covid 19, many children will enjoy the constant presence of their mother, which they would otherwise have missed out on.
This often means that the former bar girl (yes, and some boys) have to go back to school to learn a skill, which is great for their self-esteem and great for their children too, because it gives them a better role model.
Covid 19 has given many sex workers, several hundred thousand of them, and their families a new chance, and that has to be a good thing.
Behind The Smile
You can read a series of books that I wrote about a sex-worker returning home to her daughter, family and village by following the link below. It has nothing to do with Covid as I wrote it many years before the outbreak. BEHIND THE SMILE by Owen Jones.
