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Sexpat Stereotype Takes Toll on Daughters and Fathers

Chris Minko and his daught Anya, who is half Thai, discuss being stereotyped with Khmer Times reporters

PHNOM PENH – After listening to diners at the table next to hers speculate about how her father had found “such a young prostitute,” Anya Minko snapped. “He’s my dad, you perverts!” she yelled.

Anya is half-Thai. Her father, Chris Minko, is white.

Christopher Minko shown with his 20 year old daughter

In Phnom Penh, a city renowned for sex tourism and almost weekly pedophilia scandals, many people are swift to connect the dots when they see a middle-aged white man with a young girl of Asian descent. Sex tourists are so common that the term “sexpat” is commonly used throughout Southeast Asia, the Khmer Times reports.

“We’re victims of this sexpat cliché,” Ms. Minko told the Khmer Times. “You can tell from the way people look at you. You’re eating peacefully with your dad, and you see people whispering and staring at you.”

Sometimes the criticism is subtle – like customers who fall silent and stare at fathers and daughters when they walk into restaurants. But often it is more overt, with vigilantes who photograph them while they walk along the Riverside threatening to report them to the police, or accusing the father point-blank of pedophilia.

Sometimes, NGOs who fight child prostitution even have informants stalk them.

“The western press’s manic fixation on abusive sex in Cambodia has made the country’s name synonymous with pedophilia, unfairly and inaccurately so,” wrote long-time Cambodia resident Casey Nelson in a blog post in 2011. While the Cambodian sexpat stereotype is often accurate, it also affects innocent fathers and daughters, forcing them to change their lifestyles to avoid harassment.

Pointing Fingers

According to the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, Asian sex tourists outnumber Western sex tourists in Cambodia. But white men continue to be the main targets of suspicion.

Alan Parkhouse is Australian and is the chief sub-editor of the Sunday Bangkok Post, as well as the former editor-in-chief of the Phnom Penh Post. He said he had given little thought to the sex-tourist stereotype until arriving in Phnom Penh on a visit with his teenaged Thai step-daughter.

“We were standing on the Riverside. My step-daughter hadn’t been outside Thailand before, so she was shy and holding my hand. Western people walked by and kept whispering or giving me or her dirty looks. We didn’t understand why. Then it dawned on me – I’m a western man with a 14-year-old girl hanging on him.”

The harassment is not always so subtle. Casey Nelson has lived in Phnom Penh for more than 20 years, and in a 2011 blog post, he wrote about walking on the riverfront with his daughters, aged seven and nine at the time.

According to Mr. Nelson’s account, a female Italian tourist started snapping photos of him and his daughters. “Photo you, Internet, you pedo…for police,” she said. Mr. Nelson confronted her and demanded that she delete her photos, but the woman refused. “I was accused of being a pedophile,” he wrote, “for absolutely no other reason than being a white male in the company of brown children – my son and daughter.”

Mr. Minko, who has raised Anya alone after the death of his wife, faces this sort of harassment regularly.

“This whole fucking pedophilia industry gets on my nerves,” he said. “When I’m walking around with my daughter, wherever we go, people make the assumption that I’m an old sexpat and she’s a hooker.”

Do No Harm?

The tourists accusing these fathers and daughters of sex crimes usually have good intentions – they see themselves as crusaders against child prostitution. When they arrive in the country, they are greeted with billboards and ads on tuk-tuks that urge “responsible tourists” to report possible human trafficking, and they oblige.

These publicity campaigns are usually funded by the country’s legion of anti-sex trafficking NGOs. As part of its 2014 “Child Safe Tourism” campaign, World Vision distributed 120,000 stickers with a hotline to call if tourists see “a child who you believe is at risk of abuse.”

These programs cause some tourists to jump to conclusions about who is a sex predator and who is not. International media coverage of pedophiles in Cambodia feeds into the perception of rampant sexual abuse of minors.

“From their exposure to the press, tourists… think that pedophiles are as common as cockroaches,” Mr. Nelson wrote in his blog post. “Any white man with an Asian-looking child must be a pedo who can simply waltz through tourist areas in broad daylight with a prepubescent child on each hand.”

Informants

Along with enlisting tourists, NGOs use a network of Cambodian informants – many of them tuk-tuk drivers or scooters – to get information about child prostitution rings. Some expats who have lived in the country for more than a decade have been tailed by these informants as they drive through the city with their daughters.

Stories abound on popular expat forum Khmer440.com about motodops who followed fathers home, snapped photos of them walking into their apartment, and questioned their gatekeepers or neighbors.

“We train tuk-tuk drivers as informants, and in addition, we have established a larger network of people at restaurants for the same purpose, to report suspicion of child abuse,” said Seila Samleang, executive director of anti-human trafficking NGO APLE. In 2014 alone, APLE trained 109 tuk-tuk drivers and 61 informants to report suspicious men.

Mr. Samleang denied allegations that his organization trained informants to photograph or follow suspected pedophile sex tourists. He did confirm, however, that other NGOs have trained informants to photograph white men with girls suspected of being underage prostitutes.

Sometimes the investigations uncover child prostitution. But other times, the truth is more innocuous – the suspected sex predator and child prostitute are just a father and daughter, taking a walk to buy ice cream along the Riverside. For these families, the surveillance is taxing. “I get really paranoid, because people take random photos of me walking with [my dad],” Ms. Minko said.

On the Defensive

When she and her father were eating at a Riverside restaurant, they heard German tourists at the neighboring table claiming that Anya was a prostitute. She was 14 at the time. Her father could not tolerate it. “I finally answered the guy in German. I said, ‘Stop making assumptions,’ and slammed his head into the table,” Mr. Minko recalled.

Fathers and daughters who face this sort of daily harassment develop ways to deal with it. Sometimes they confront their accusers directly. “But we can’t walk along the street being aggressive every day,” Mr. Minko said.

The constant judgment has forced them, they say, to behave like they are, in fact, guilty of a crime. They eat only at certain restaurants where the staff and patrons all know them well. They have stopped taking walks on the Riverside. They shop at only certain markets, and rarely go out together. Ms. Minko said she no longer rides on the back of her dad’s motorcycle.

“We tend to stick to a Khmer circle of friends, at one restaurant and at the market,” Mr. Minko said.

Mr. Parkhouse said his daughters figured out from a young age how to avoid harassment. “I would make sure people heard me call him ‘Dad’ so they would realize I was his daughter,” said Michelle Parkhouse, Alan’s half-Thai daughter who currently lives in Sydney.

“It’s so sad that Anya can’t go with her father to certain places,” Mr. Minko said. “It’s sad the way it’s impacted our family.”

Prejudice Without Borders

Ms. Minko wrote a post about this problem on Facebook, and it was immediately flooded with comments by others – mainly Eurasian girls – who have faced the same stereotype in Thailand, Vietnam, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. “It’s really getting on my nerves that they are looking down on you and your family without knowing you at all,” wrote one commenter.

Mr. Parkhouse said Phnom Penh is not the only city with a “sexpat” stereotype. When he was in Bangkok, a city notorious for its red light district, he got into a taxi with his daughter Michelle, who was 14 at the time. “The taxi driver asked us if we’d like to go to a short-time hotel,” he said, referring to the hotels where rooms can be rented by the hour for sex.

“Michelle went ballistic on him in two languages. But [the cab driver] was unrepentant – he just said it’s a common sight, an Asian girl with a western man,” Mr. Parkhouse said.

Despite the complex mix of races and ethnicities in Southeast Asia, the simplistic assumption persists that a white man and a Eurasian girl cannot be related, leading tourists to assume the worst. “Things are such a melting pot here,” Ms. Minko said, “but still there are these racist assumptions.”

By Jonathan Cox – Khmer Times

Jonathan Cox is presently a reporter at the Phnom Penh daily Khmer Times. Formerly a staff writer at hyperlocal news sites DavidsonNews.net and CorneliusNews.net, and a contributing editor at Charlotte Magazine. I have bylines in the New York Times India Ink Blog and WFAE.org.

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Trudeau’s Gun Grab Could Cost Taxpayers a Whopping $7 Billion

Trudeau plans to purchase 2,063 firearm from legal gun owners in Canada - Rebel News Image

A recent report indicates that since Trudeau’s announcement of his gun buyback program four years ago, almost none of the banned firearms have been surrendered.

The federal government plans to purchase 2,063 firearm models from retailers following the enactment of Bill C-21, which amends various Acts and introduces certain consequential changes related to firearms. It was granted royal assent on December 15 of last year.

This ban immediately criminalized the actions of federally-licensed firearms owners regarding the purchase, sale, transportation, importation, exportation, or use of hundreds of thousands of rifles and shotguns that were previously legal.

The gun ban focused on what it termed ‘assault-style weapons,’ which are, in reality, traditional semi-automatic rifles and shotguns that have enjoyed popularity among hunters and sport shooters for over a century.

In May 2020, the federal government enacted an Order-in-Council that prohibited 1,500 types of “assault-style” firearms and outlined specific components of the newly banned firearms. Property owners must adhere to the law by October 2023.

Trudeau’s Buyback Hasn’t Happened

“In the announcement regarding the ban, the prime minister stated that the government would seize the prohibited firearms, assuring that their lawful owners would be ‘grandfathered’ or compensated fairly.” “That hasn’t happened,” criminologist Gary Mauser told Rebel News.

Mauser projected expenses ranging from $2.6 billion to $6.7 billion. The figure reflects the compensation costs amounting to $756 million, as outlined by the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO).

“The projected expenses for gathering the illegal firearms are estimated to range from $1.6 billion to $7 billion.” “This range estimate increases to between $2.647 billion and $7 billion when compensation costs to owners are factored in,” Mauser stated.

Figures requested by Conservative MP Shannon Stubbs concerning firearms prohibited due to the May 1, 2020 Order In Council reveal that $72 million has been allocated to the firearm “buyback” program, yet not a single firearm has been confiscated to date.

In a recent revelation, Public Safety Canada disclosed that the federal government allocated a staggering $41,094,556, as prompted by an order paper question from Conservative Senator Don Plett last September, yet yielded no tangible outcomes.

An internal memo from late 2019 revealed that the Liberals projected their politically motivated harassment would incur a cost of $1.8 billion.

Enforcement efforts Questioned

By December 2023, estimates from TheGunBlog.ca indicate that the Liberals and RCMP had incurred or were responsible for approximately $30 million in personnel expenses related to the enforcement efforts. The union representing the police service previously stated that the effort to confiscate firearms is a “misdirected effort” aimed at ensuring public safety.

“This action diverts crucial personnel, resources, and funding from tackling the more pressing and escalating issue of criminal use of illegal firearms,” stated the National Police Federation (NPF).

The Canadian Sporting Arms & Ammunition Association (CSAAA), representing firearms retailers, has stated it will have “zero involvement” in the confiscation of these firearms. Even Canada Post held back from providing assistance due to safety concerns.

The consultant previously assessed that retailers are sitting on almost $1 billion worth of inventory that cannot be sold or returned to suppliers because of the Order-In-Council.

“Despite the ongoing confusion surrounding the ban, after four years, we ought to be able to address one crucial question.” Has the prohibition enhanced safety for Canadians? Mauser asks.

Illegally Obtained Firearms are the Problem

Statistics Canada reports a 10% increase in firearm-related violent crime between 2020 and 2022, rising from 12,614 incidents to 13,937 incidents. In that timeframe, the incidence of firearm-related violent crime increased from 33.7 incidents per 100,000 population in 2021 to 36.7 incidents the subsequent year.

“This marks the highest rate documented since the collection of comparable data began in 2009,” the criminologist explains.

Supplementary DataData indicates that firearm homicides have risen since 2020. “The issue lies not with lawfully-held firearms,” Mauser stated.

Firearms that have been banned under the Order-in-Council continue to be securely stored in the safes of their lawful owners. The individuals underwent a thorough vetting process by the RCMP and are subject to nightly monitoring to ensure there are no infractions that could pose a risk to public safety.

“The firearms involved in homicides were seldom legally owned weapons wielded by their rightful owners,” Mauser continues. The number of offenses linked to organized crime has surged from 4,810 in 2016 to a staggering 13,056 in 2020.

“If those in power … aim to diminish crime and enhance public safety, they ought to implement strategies that effectively focus on offenders and utilize our limited tax resources judiciously to reach these objectives,” he stated.

Millennials in Canada Have Turned their Backs on Justin Trudeau

Millennials in Canada Have Turned their Backs on Justin Trudeau

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Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding, But Still Accounting 48% Search Revenue

Google is so closely associated with its key product that its name is a verb that signifies “search.” However, Google’s dominance in that sector is dwindling.

According to eMarketer, Google will lose control of the US search industry for the first time in decades next year.

Google will remain the dominant search player, accounting for 48% of American search advertising revenue. And, remarkably, Google is still increasing its sales in the field, despite being the dominating player in search since the early days of the George W. Bush administration. However, Amazon is growing at a quicker rate.

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

Amazon will hold over a quarter of US search ad dollars next year, rising to 27% by 2026, while Google will fall even more, according to eMarketer.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report on the forecast.

Lest you think you’ll have to switch to Bing or Yahoo, this isn’t the end of Google or anything really near.

Google is the fourth-most valued public firm in the world. Its market worth is $2.1 trillion, trailing just Apple, Microsoft, and the AI chip darling Nvidia. It also maintains its dominance in other industries, such as display advertisements, where it dominates alongside Facebook’s parent firm Meta, and video ads on YouTube.

To put those “other” firms in context, each is worth more than Delta Air Lines’ total market value. So, yeah, Google is not going anywhere.

Nonetheless, Google faces numerous dangers to its operations, particularly from antitrust regulators.

On Monday, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that Google must open up its Google Play Store to competitors, dealing a significant blow to the firm in its long-running battle with Fortnite creator Epic Games. Google announced that it would appeal the verdict.

In August, a federal judge ruled that Google has an illegal monopoly on search. That verdict could lead to the dissolution of the company’s search operation. Another antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Google of abusing its dominance in the online advertising business.

Meanwhile, European regulators have compelled Google to follow tough new standards, which have resulted in multiple $1 billion-plus fines.

Pixa Bay

Google’s Search Dominance Is Unwinding

On top of that, the marketplace is becoming more difficult on its own.

TikTok, the fastest-growing social network, is expanding into the search market. And Amazon has accomplished something few other digital titans have done to date: it has established a habit.

When you want to buy anything, you usually go to Amazon, not Google. Amazon then buys adverts to push companies’ products to the top of your search results, increasing sales and earning Amazon a greater portion of the revenue. According to eMarketer, it is expected to generate $27.8 billion in search revenue in the United States next year, trailing only Google’s $62.9 billion total.

And then there’s AI, the technology that (supposedly) will change everything.

Why search in stilted language for “kendall jenner why bad bunny breakup” or “police moving violation driver rights no stop sign” when you can just ask OpenAI’s ChatGPT, “What’s going on with Kendall Jenner and Bad Bunny?” in “I need help fighting a moving violation involving a stop sign that wasn’t visible.” Google is working on exactly this technology with its Gemini product, but its success is far from guaranteed, especially with Apple collaborating with OpenAI and other businesses rapidly joining the market.

A Google spokeswoman referred to a blog post from last week in which the company unveiled ads in its AI overviews (the AI-generated text that appears at the top of search results). It’s Google’s way of expressing its ability to profit on a changing marketplace while retaining its business, even as its consumers steadily transition to ask-and-answer AI and away from search.

google

Google has long used a single catchphrase to defend itself against opponents who claim it is a monopoly abusing its power: competition is only a click away. Until recently, that seemed comically obtuse. Really? We are going to switch to Bing? Or Duck Duck Go? Give me a break.

But today, it feels more like reality.

Google is in no danger of disappearing. However, every highly dominating company faces some type of reckoning over time. GE, a Dow mainstay for more than a century, was broken up last year and is now a shell of its previous dominance. Sears declared bankruptcy in 2022 and is virtually out of business. US Steel, long the foundation of American manufacturing, is attempting to sell itself to a Japanese corporation.

Could we remember Google in the same way that we remember Yahoo or Ask Jeeves in decades? These next few years could be significant.

SOURCE | CNN

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The Supreme Court Turns Down Biden’s Government Appeal in a Texas Emergency Abortion Matter.

(VOR News) – A ruling that prohibits emergency abortions that contravene the Supreme Court law in the state of Texas, which has one of the most stringent abortion restrictions in the country, has been upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States. The United States Supreme Court upheld this decision.

The justices did not provide any specifics regarding the underlying reasons for their decision to uphold an order from a lower court that declared hospitals cannot be legally obligated to administer abortions if doing so would violate the law in the state of Texas.

Institutions are not required to perform abortions, as stipulated in the decree. The common populace did not investigate any opposing viewpoints. The decision was made just weeks before a presidential election that brought abortion to the forefront of the political agenda.

This decision follows the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ended abortion nationwide.

In response to a request from the administration of Vice President Joe Biden to overturn the lower court’s decision, the justices expressed their disapproval.

The government contends that hospitals are obligated to perform abortions in compliance with federal legislation when the health or life of an expectant patient is in an exceedingly precarious condition.

This is the case in regions where the procedure is prohibited. The difficulty hospitals in Texas and other states are experiencing in determining whether or not routine care could be in violation of stringent state laws that prohibit abortion has resulted in an increase in the number of complaints concerning pregnant women who are experiencing medical distress being turned away from emergency rooms.

The administration cited the Supreme Court’s ruling in a case that bore a striking resemblance to the one that was presented to it in Idaho at the beginning of the year. The justices took a limited decision in that case to allow the continuation of emergency abortions without interruption while a lawsuit was still being heard.

In contrast, Texas has been a vocal proponent of the injunction’s continued enforcement. Texas has argued that its circumstances are distinct from those of Idaho, as the state does have an exemption for situations that pose a significant hazard to the health of an expectant patient.

According to the state, the discrepancy is the result of this exemption. The state of Idaho had a provision that safeguarded a woman’s life when the issue was first broached; however, it did not include protection for her health.

Certified medical practitioners are not obligated to wait until a woman’s life is in imminent peril before they are legally permitted to perform an abortion, as determined by the state supreme court.

The state of Texas highlighted this to the Supreme Court.

Nevertheless, medical professionals have criticized the Texas statute as being perilously ambiguous, and a medical board has declined to provide a list of all the disorders that are eligible for an exception. Furthermore, the statute has been criticized for its hazardous ambiguity.

For an extended period, termination of pregnancies has been a standard procedure in medical treatment for individuals who have been experiencing significant issues. It is implemented in this manner to prevent catastrophic outcomes, such as sepsis, organ failure, and other severe scenarios.

Nevertheless, medical professionals and hospitals in Texas and other states with strict abortion laws have noted that it is uncertain whether or not these terminations could be in violation of abortion prohibitions that include the possibility of a prison sentence. This is the case in regions where abortion prohibitions are exceedingly restrictive.

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which resulted in restrictions on the rights of women to have abortions in several Republican-ruled states, the Texas case was revisited in 2022.

As per the orders that were disclosed by the administration of Vice President Joe Biden, hospitals are still required to provide abortions in cases that are classified as dire emergency.

As stipulated in a piece of health care legislation, the majority of hospitals are obligated to provide medical assistance to patients who are experiencing medical distress. This is in accordance with the law.

The state of Texas maintained that hospitals should not be obligated to provide abortions throughout the litigation, as doing so would violate the state’s constitutional prohibition on abortions. In its January judgment, the 5th United States Circuit Court of Appeals concurred with the state and acknowledged that the administration had exceeded its authority.

SOURCE: AP