Show Page 10— The Herald Journal Logan uian sunaay oepiemoer 4 i ww Prostitution may thrive during Olympics By K Connie Kang San Francisco Examiner Japanese man” said SEOUL — When the sun goes k down the drab area near Yongsan Station full of n inns small grocery stores shoe repair shops and two-bloe- run-dow- eateries hole-in-the-w- Sook-j- a whose clientele is almost exclusively Japanese tourists hotels "I staying at first-clas- s want to settle down” But if Seoul’s prostitutes are looking to the Olympics as a chance to make money the foreign invasion during the Games has health and social workers worried about AIDS “I am telling the girls not to get involved sexually with foreigners if they can help it” said Dr Helen Chu director of the Public Health Center in Yongsan who has devoted her career to providing medical services and counseling to With the Seoul Olympics just around the corner prostitutes are gearing up for the nation’s biggest influx of foreigners since 24 transforms itself for the night Signs blase in blue and green neon and the aroma of barbecue beef and chicken from nighttime-onl- y “pojang macha” restaurants on wheels Alls the air Elderly men and women sit on chairs and stools on the sidewalks fanning themselves while urchins play in the street This could be a slice of evening life anywhere in Seoul — except that just around the corner in the back streets prostitutes in miniskirts and tight pants loiter and middle-age- d female pimps approach male passersby and tug at their arms asking "Why don't you come in for a snort visit?” About 300 prostitutes work this area out of tiny rooms in the inns which are disguised prostitutes “Abstention is the best thing but obviously we cannot force these girls to stop So we’re saying ’Be careful Use con- the Korean War 38 years ago Many regard the games as an unparalleled opportunity to strike it rich but health officials are warning about the dangers of AIDS effort to curb the spread of the disease The government is firmly opposed to the idea however saying such massive testing would be impossible as well as objectionable to many foreigners The law says AIDS carriers who have intercourse without using protection such as condoms face up to three yeara in prison and gives the government the power to isolate AIDS sufferers Doctors who fail to report cases face jail terms A coalition of civic and social organizations have scheduled a spokeswoman So S camdoms’” noting that most of the Koreans nationwide with AIDS are believed to have paign for Monday The English word "condom”’ during is becoming as familiar as contracted the disease from which a forum on the 'disease “aspirin” here because of the foreigners said all foreign visi- will be presented fear of AIDS but prostitutes tors coming to Korea during Eunice Kim general secre32 who works out the Olympic period should be tary of Asian Church Women’s like Soon-j- a ' of a rooming house near the required to show medical cer- Conference and a human rights tificates confirming they are activist says the root of the Yongsan train station complains that 70 percent of her AIDS-fre- e prostitution problem is eco"It is ridiculous to require nomic as "women’s boarding customers don’t want to use AIDS test only on hostesses “Most of these girls come houses” Yet they make up just one a fraction of the estimated "I just hope I'm not un- with frequent contacts with from troubled backgrounds of 500000 South Korean women lucky "she said foreigners" said So a social family problems physical and So 28 South far Koreans worker sexual abuse often combined for in sex sale engaged She maintains that South with poverty” she said With the Seoul Olympics just have contracted AIDS or have “The government needs' to around the corner prostitutes tested positive for the HIV Korea's stringent Prevention of are gearing up for the nation’a virus that causes it according Aids law which went into have a policy to provide jobs effect earlier this year is and welfare for these girls One biggest influx of foreigners to Ministry of Health figures Of the 28 four have died one discriminatory because it imof our biggest concerns is the since the Korean War 33 years poses mandatory AIDS tests migrant woman worker to ago Many regard the games as is hospitalised and the rean unparalleled opportunity to maining 23 including 10 only on local prostitutes and comes to the city looking (for) women — all either bar hostwork and eventually ends up as sailors strike it rich esses Under the law prostitutes a prostitute because she can to or prostitutes — are a lot of “I want make money during the Olympics under “surveillance” accord- - and female employees of make much more money selland get out of this kind of fifo" nightclubs bars and other ening her body than working in a ivic and social organisatertainment establishments are store” said Mi-j- a a prostitute who worts in Itaewon a tions including the Women’s required to undergo AIDS tests Sister Jean Maloney a favorite area for tourists who Hot Line are demanding every six months Sailors who Maryknoll nun from Syracuse frequent the shops by day and mandatory AIDS antibody tests serve on oceangoing ships must NY runs Magdalena House for all foreigners visiting Seoul be tested when they return an outreach program for the the bars and discos by night "What I want is to finaai rich during the Olympics in an home prostitutes who work the area Radiation study may alter Women’s Hot Line Mi-yo- ng anti-AID- L near Yongsan Station “Most of them wort in small inns with a madam and two to five other girls” she said “Old women act as pimps and bring in the customers A lot of them are just plain middle-age- d women trying to make a firing as best they can" In Korea where the majority of people still prefer arranged marriages based on social position wealth education and connectons marital infidelity by husbands is the norm Men can receive sexual services almost everywhere — in private rooms in expensive restaurants in music salons equipped with little booths in barbershops with rooms in the back and in aelect bathhouses Though there are periodic raids particularly on the arbershops the government does little to enforce the law x against prostitution If many social and health workers accuse the government of encouraging the sex trade to earn foreign exchange "My real concern is that these girls are not working by themselves but with hotel employers and the police forcer said Kim “I’m always receiving complaints from my foreign friends who say they receive phone calls from a Miss Part Miss Lee and Miss Kim as soon as they check into a hotel” Indeed one unfortunate consequence of all this is that Korean women seen with foreigners in public are taken for women of ill repute "My secretary always manages to fall behind me in public” said a British foreignI correspondent in Seoul know the reason I can’t blame her” Scripps Howard News Service any-thin- (&3 Dod Qress HELP HELP HELP Tho Kiwonis Club Needs Playground equipment for handicapped children Ages 4 to 8 If your family is grown up and gone and you would like to donate your equipment slides swings balls teeter-totter- s bikes etc Phone 752-742- 5 or coll any Kiwanis mombor ADO views By Lawrence Surtees Toronto Globe and Mail TORONTO — A new study on Bi&Efti&j&fil atomic bombs has turned up few inheritable genetic defects and suggests human chromosomea may be leu senaitive to ' radiation than previously thought US and Japanese re-- i searchers presented their study of 24000 members of families that have been medically followed for 43 years to the 16th International Congress on Genetics in Toronto last week “In this population the genetic effects of radiation are sufficiently small to show no solid difference between children of the exposed and children of the unexposed" said Dr James Neel Neel is a leading expert on the genetic effects of the two nuclear bombs which were dropped by the United States on the two Japanese cities on LAST Aug 9 and Aug 15 1945 He was sent to Japan in 1946 to begin a follow up study of survivors who lived within miles of the blasts 1-- The study has covered children born in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to one or both parents who lived within the radiation zone Children in a control group had parents who were elsewhere in the two cities when the bombs 'exploded The study has looked at both the incidence of genetic disease or mutations in the children of survivors exposed to increased radiation doses and the rate for other children The researchers also found few significant mutations in the recessive genes of survivors’ children That means any abnormalities due to Kinetic bombs will not be passed on the subsequent generations But Neel is cautions about the results He noted that earlier estimates of how much radiation the parents were 42-ye- ar to had been revised course of the study the during and said there is the chance that those who were not in the immediate area during the blasts had been exposed later d on to high amounts of exposed long-live- radiation With respect to infant deaths cancers before the age of 20 and early pregnancy loss Neel said there “are many many causes of which mutation in the preceding generation is one” Researchers cannot only Fashion Daywear Clearance In choice through September 10 Foundations Reg $11 $22 Teddies camisoles tap pants petticoats and more -- Shop Monday Labor Day 10 am to 9 pm de- termine whether a cancer or congential defect is attributable to radiation damage or some other cause Your ORDER BY PHONE: WITH YOUR SOEVSE ZCMI CHARGE ACCOUNT SAIT LAKE S21-M- M UTAH AND THE UNITED SWES |