Here I am, writing from the land of freedom, liberty and acceptance—and not in Tbilisi, of course. Just to be clear, it is not USA either. I am seating in the student dorm in Hague, Netherlands, attempting to finish this post while I’m still lucid. It’s December 25th, we have turned on the Christmas music, bought a miniature tree and hang mistletoe I ripped off a mistletoe bush somewhere by the peace palace in downtown Hague.

Being in Hague is interesting, as this country is implementing many practices that I preach in theory. Netherlands and Georgia are located on different planets in terms of how they approach many subjects, and I’ve been involved in one of them lately-- December 17th was the day to end violence against sex workers.

Last night I was walking around the Red Light District in Amsterdam, looking at the women in underwear behind the glass and thinking that maybe I was wrong, maybe legalization of prostitution means placing naked girls behind the windows like some objects under the glass in the market. On the other hand, no one forces those girls to be there, it is their work. What is right: that we own our bodies and we can do whatever we want with them, or that no person should be used as means? Is prostitution justified when it’s a choice or is it exploiting people in any case?

Honestly, I don’t know yet. I do know that situation in Georgia is intolerable and that it needs to change. Prostitution is illegal in Georgia and sex workers are criminals by default. Hence, she/he cannot rely on law enforcement against  abuse, violance, rape…The illegal status does not hinder the whole industry of sex in Tbilisi—buying and selling services of different price and quality. This includes a whole spectrum of illegal pleasure, from certain activity performed in car by an older woman one picks up by the circus, to elite bordello service with blond beauties. In every case, sex workers have no protection and are basically at the mercy of their pimps, who are interested to keep them safe in order to have a functioning money-making machine.  Clients are happy, law enforcers don’t interfere, and no one cares.

Apparently, some people in Georgia actually want to change this situation. As mentioned, December 17th was an international day to end violence against sex workers and an NGO “Identity” organized an event to demonstrate how frustrated we are with the current situation. Bunch of activists marched all over Tbilisi, starting from the circus territory and ending on the freedom square. Artists helped create wonderful posters that the activists carried; they had red umbrellas in their hands—symbol of that day. Activists staged a flash mob on the freedom square and tried to shake-up our dormant society. Finally, they marched to the “Identity” office to see an interesting exhibition on the topic--pictures of the women that an artist drew in a bordello.

On the next day, “Identity” organized a round-table discussion about the issues of legalization of prostitution. We--a lawyer, a psychologist (I was the shrink in this discussion), a gender specialist, a social worker and a journalist—talked about the problem, but couldn’t really come up with any solution. I voiced my main concern: no information available, no studies done, no statistics, no open talk about it.  In fact, people actually work hard to hide information. For example, an “Identity” employee was stopped by police when she tried to record interview with sex workers by the circus. During the walk on December 17th, a priest hit one of the activists. There is a certain taboo on the subject and I’m afraid public attitude is not the only determining factor here. In addition, when there is any discussion, ridiculous talk shows on TV do nothing but diminish the gravity of the problem. And everyday, an unknown, unseen world of illegal sex work is circulating tons of money, venereal diseases, broken jaws, unsatisfied sexual fantasies and conspiration.

Are the sex workers victims? Do they need help? Do they want to legalize their trade? Should this be regulated by the government? Should NGOs interfere? What are the statistics of AIDS and other diseases among sex workers? Who are the clients? Why do they prefer to pay for sex? Is legalization of prostitution the right way to solve the existing problem? Do we need women behind the glasses in special districts?

I have many questions and no answers. I have these questions because the dirty laundry is never aired. I can’t even justify that this is a problem--because I have no numbers to back up my argument.

I hope that soon enough Georgia transitions to a more open society; I hope that we can research problems like this and only after that we can think about solutions. I really don’t like the Georgian tendency of intervention before research, an experimental trial-and-error approach. Let’s put some effort into investigation and what’s most important, let’s ask the people involved, what they need, what they want. Let’s stop making decisions for them. Let’s wake up the society by poking people with red umbrellas (not literally), so we can stop closing our eyes every time there we see a challenge.

On this pathetic note, I wish you all Merry Christmas.  May the Christmas spirit remind you once more that it is more blessed to give than to receive and to further sadden you I offer you two videos to watch:

1. To get the point of giving, caring and love, find re-watch the Ebenezer Scrooge story again  I bet it’s been years seen you’ve seen the spirits of past, present and future scold the cold-hearted bastard. :-)
2. To hear bunch of us throw ideas about sex workers while attempting  to appear smart and dignified, check out the video on “Identity” E-magazine: http://www.idmag.info/3621

Now that I got everyone depressed, I can go back to decorating my brother-in-laws dorm: we bought a miniature Christmas tree that a kind Dutch person gave us almost for free.

The pic: activists on Dec. 17th, carrying red umbrellas, baloons and posters

Peace!