it makes me sick

Steve reads the Drudge Report every day. I read it sometimes. I like Peggy Noonan; I think she's pretty smart. I don't know too many other writers - I try to read someone new every once in a while; yesterday I found a link to a funny t-shirt site. Figures I'd start out looking at the news and end up shopping. Two days ago Steve told me about one of the top stories on Drudge - 50 year old English women are going to Kenya and picking up young men on the beaches, wining and dining them, having their way with them, buying them some clothes, then saying good-bye. They interviewed one of the young men and here's a snippet of what the article said:

"Many of the visitors are on the lookout for men like Joseph.

Flashing a dazzling smile and built like an Olympic basketball star, the 22-year-old said he has slept with more than 100 white women, most of them 30 years his senior.

"When I go into the clubs, those are the only women I look for now," he told Reuters. "I get to live like the rich mzungus (white people) who come here from rich countries, staying in the best hotels and just having my fun."

At one club, a group of about 25 dancing men -- most of them Joseph look-alikes -- edge closer and closer to a crowd of more than a dozen white women, all in their autumn years.

"It's not love, obviously. I didn't come here looking for a husband," Bethan said over a pounding beat from the speakers.

"It's a social arrangement. I buy him a nice shirt and we go out for dinner. For as long as he stays with me he doesn't pay for anything, and I get what I want -- a good time. How is that different from a man buying a young girl dinner?"



Now, it's not the sex part that bothers me - I can understand that, but there's something about these poor young kids having gone through tough life circumstances (I'm assuming), then having to essentially be prostitutes to stay alive. How about these 50 year old women instead just giving the boys the dinners and clothes, to let them know that the world CAN be a kind, gentle, loving place, and not a place where people use others for their own pleasures, no matter what that other person has gone through?

It's been on my mind these past two days, and I can't seem to shake the sick feeling in my stomach that I get when I think of it. If you want to check the article out for yourself, here's the link: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN2638979720071126?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Why even write about this? I don't know for sure - there are a lot of other worse things going on out there, maybe I think women should be the spiritual leaders and not do this, maybe I'm surprised at how judgmental that last phrase sounds, but it's churned something inside me, and it's interesting to follow my feelings to see what's at the center. Would I ever do something like that? I don't think so. Would I be critical if I found out a friend of mine had done that? I'd first be curious - ask her why, and what it was like, but then yeah, I'd probably be judgmental, so maybe that's at the heart of all of this. If I seriously just let everyone make their own decisions, and believe that's their right, then I wouldn't be getting my panties in a bunch over this. So maybe I still have control issues, thinking MY way is the right way, the best way, and wishing that others would just ... be more like me? Horrifying thought, when I think of all those other not-so-spiritual thoughts and actions I have, so I guess I'll just have to keep spelunking my soul for more self-awareness.