Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. – Rita Mae Brown
Twelve updates and four metaupdates.
Acting and Activism (January 8th, 2011)
Yet another actor tries to prop up a sagging career with a flying leap onto the “trafficking” bandwagon: Hong Kong action star Jackie Chan is going to Myanmar this week on a…mission to help combat child trafficking…UNICEF announced…that…Chan will…meet with officials of the Social Welfare Ministry and…police…
Backwards Into the Future (March 30th, 2011)
Add Vietnam to the list of countries which aren’t known for their spectacular record on human rights, yet are doing better on the issue than the US:
The Vietnamese National Assembly recently [voted to stop detaining] thousands of sex workers in so-called rehabilitation facilities where they were held without right of appeal and forced to work (including for private companies) without pay…justice advocates…are hoping that drug detention centers…will follow soon…
Saddest Story of the Month (May 17th, 2011)
Well, it’s not quite as bad as arresting someone for moving out of a dumpster...
A new law…is forcing convicted sex offenders to…move into tents. More than 40 sex offenders at the Hand Up Ministries in Oklahoma City had to move out of trailers on the ministry’s property. The new state law limits the number of sex offenders who can live in one dwelling. Ministry founder David Nichols said without a place to live, many offenders won’t register and could go back to prison…”I don’t think that it’s going to lessen crime any. I think it’s going to increase crime”…
Nichols is correct, but don’t expect the fanatics to listen.
A False Dichotomy (June 22nd, 2011)
So here’s a thing in the Guardian (I hesitate to call a short collection of captioned photos an “article”) about “sex trafficking” in Burkina Faso. Though the author claims that “thousands of girls and women are trafficked from Nigeria to the African hub of Ouagadougou,” and that “many are lured by promises of jobs as hairdressers or nannies,”I was struck by two things: one, that the pictures look to me like any pictures of street or brothel workers in poor countries; and two, that the captions belie the claims of “trafficking”. The caption for the third picture reads, “Juliette, also from Nigeria, has been working at Mercy’s for six years. The 45-year-old sends money home each week to support her four children who live in Benin City.” In other words, she has enough disposable income to support four children, and is free to send it home. The caption for the 12th (and last) picture tells us that “trafficking victims” are free to attend a church whose pastor lectures on the evils of the sex trade, and the one for the 5th is the most telling: “At Mercy’s, women work seven nights a week and pay 2,000 CFA (£2.60) each day to rent a room. Men pay the women 5,000 CFA. This Burkinabe girl has turned up at the brothel looking for work.” In other words the rooms cost these “victims” less than half the price of one call (similar to the rates paid by American hookers), and local girls view it as a worthwhile place to work without being “forced” into it.
If It Were Legal (June 26th, 2011)
Remember that bogus study who authors were so ignorant they equated an increase in ads with migrating whores, and claimed that 0.4% of something constitutes a major fraction? Well, partisan prohibitionists are using it to blame Republicans for “sex trafficking” despite a greater rise in ads during the Democratic convention:
…Huffington Post and Jezebel are running with stories claiming that GOP convention-goers are “hands down” the biggest clients at area strip clubs during political conventions. Along with strip club attendance, conventions also increase prostitution…and child sex trafficking…HuffPo continues…“A Baylor University study found that…conventions ‘increased the count of Craigslist sex worker ads by a substantial amount’”…researchers…found that sex ads increased by between 29% and 44% over their baseline level during 2008′s Republican convention in Minneapolis. Ads increased by between 47% and 77% in Denver, the site of the Democratic convention. Further, the study pointed out that a plurality of convention attendees are members of the media…
Dirty Amateurs (August 17th, 2011)
MTV had the good sense to protect itself against STD-based liability claims from the cast members of Jersey Shore; there oughta be a law that these damned dirty amateurs get checked weekly by a government doctor, and arrested if they test positive.
Higher Education (December 11th, 2011)
Something tells me that Professor Kubistant needs to find a regular escort:
A Western Nevada College student claims…that her human sexuality instructor required students to masturbate to pass his class, made them keep sex journals for class discussion, was obsessed with women’s orgasms and told the class “that he will increase their sexual urges to such a height that they won’t be able to think about anything other than sex”…Kubistant told the students that their final exam would be an assignment…which had to address such topics as early sexual exploration, sexual abuse, loss of virginity, homosexual experiences, promiscuity, cheating, arousal, climaxes, masturbation, sexually transmitted diseases and fetishes…
The Course of a Disease (February 16th, 2012)
While groups like the soi-disant “European Women’s Lobby” produce ridiculous “end demand” tripe, European sex worker groups are producing ads like this:
It’s also available in 16 other languages.
Feet of Clay (April 5th, 2012)
It’s nice to see the attacks on Nicholas Kristof continuously increasing:
…In a magnificent essay, “Be Aware: Nick Kristof’s Anti-Politics“, Elliott Prasse-Freeman…summarises Kristof’s oeuvre into a number of precise strokes: “By playing on his audience’s orientalist, classist and racist fantasies, Kristof fabricates legible narratives out of snapshots of distant worlds. He then crafts stunningly simplistic solutions to the seemingly irrevocable problems that plague those backwards places”…
And if you like that one, here are plenty more.
The Notorious Badge (April 9th, 2012)
Sarah Woolley’s excellent article from XOJane explains “Why I Wince Through Hollywood Sex Scenes and Not Porn”:
…if some actors exaggerate their distaste for nudity it’s because they’ve seen what happens to the women who enjoy themselves without penance…And so, a romantic, soft lit, topless scene from a chick flick can unsettle me in ways that a supposedly degrading, adult movie rarely manages to accomplish…I’m not saying that those who willingly participate in uncomfortable scenes are victims because…they get the last say on that matter. However, I would rather watch the person who isn’t trying to numb things out with a bottle of vodka. I’m not naive enough to think that sex workers are free from shitty days at the office but, given their job description, I’m less likely to be watching someone wary of getting their front bottom out, than if I were watching a mainstream actress in a sex scene…If a sex worker speaks out on slipping standards it is correct to condemn the appropriate parties but it is usually an entire industry that is maligned in the process. If a mainstream actor brings a drink on set in brown paper (keeping the latter to hyperventilate into later) we applaud her for her craft and possibly chuck an award her way…
First They Came for the Hookers… (June 5th, 2012)
Bubbles Burbujas on the problems with “pole taxes”:
…Connecting funding for victims of sexual assault to strip clubs is the primary reason I don’t like these taxes. It is absolutely offensive to have the government tell us that we—or, rather, our customers—are responsible for rape and domestic violence, and that we should be taxed specifically for that purpose…While strip clubs are certainly a luxury expense…There is…no guarantee that the taxes will be collected from patrons since the tax is on the clubs, not the customers. This means there’s a good chance that the fees dancers pay to work will go up to cover the club’s tax bill…Tracy Clark-Flory wrote about the latest round of state pole taxes at Salon, and spoke with anthropologist Judith Lynne Hanna…[who has criticized] the faulty “secondary effects” studies that blames strip clubs for increasing crime and breaks it down for the propaganda it is. I wrote about the myth of secondary effects here after the Texas Supreme Court’s decision came down, and it’s good they’re being exposed for the shoddy research they are…
The Widening Gyre (July 6th, 2012)
Even though the law’s supporters say “We simply cannot have drivers knowingly profiting from the sex trade, willingly taking prostitutes from john to john, job to job,” we’re also supposed to believe this:
Cabbies can pick up all the scantily clad women they want without worrying about being charged with promoting prostitution, Mayor Bloomberg declared…“There’s no penalty for transporting a prostitute or decoy, but only for knowingly engaging in a sex-trafficking operation”…the mayor said…City Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras…sponsor of the legislation, said such fears were overblown because her bill was targeted at a small number of cabbies involved in hooker rings…“It’s not the majority of drivers. However, when you have a young girl being driven to 30, 40, 50 johns a night, it is a very big problem.”
Obviously third-grade math skills and a sense of the size of one’s own city are not requirements for a position on the New York city council.
Metaupdates
Good News, Bad News in TW3 (#10) (March 10th, 2012)
As per my epigram, an example of governmental insanity in Western Australia:
…leading urban planning expert…Paul Maginn said the government’s …reform bill…would do little to move prostitution out of the suburbs. “If you look historically…the sex industry is quite adaptive…they’ll still continue, it’s not going to be eradicated”…Maryanne Kenworthy, owner of the Langtrees brothels in Perth and Kalgoorlie, supports Mr Maginn’s claim…”This government is trying to stamp out escorts, which no country in the world has successfully done…Instead, the industry is going to go completely underground…How many of WA’s 4000 sex workers are going to get a commercial industrial area to work out of? None, they can’t afford to, it costs half a million dollars just to get council approval”…
The More the Better in TW3 (#11) (March 17th, 2012)
Zahia Dehar isn’t doing too badly for a “trafficked child”: “There aren’t many fashion designers who can say they got their starts as underage prostitutes. But Zahia Dehar…first earned her fame as the center of a high-profile sex scandal involving three elite European soccer players in 2010…[then] crossed over into fashion, earning praise from Karl Lagerfeld and a cover shoot for V‘s Spain edition…”
Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs in
TW3 (#25) (June 23rd, 2012)
It’s good to see at least a few small countries standing up to Uncle Sam’s bullying:
The Guyana Government today denounced the latest installation of the US State Department report on trafficking in persons…“The Report fails to establish not one single fact. The Task Force notes several inaccuracies and misrepresentations in the Report that must be addressed. What is clear is that the architects of this Report have not made significant progress in improving the veracity, coherence and validity of their annual assessments. The Ministerial Task Force denounces the Report since it comprises unsubstantiated generalisations and repetitive uncorroborated claims. The Task Force strongly recommends that the US State Department seek to improve its methodology, establish proper baselines to guide comparisons, avoid use of anecdotal claims and develop a consistent, understandable, transparent and logical tier ranking system if countries are to benefit from these rituals…”
The Course of a Disease in TW3 (#26) (June 30th, 2012)
Wendy Lyon takes a detailed look at the report which inspired Norway’s minister for social affairs to call for the Swedish Model to be scrapped; she discovers that besides the problems we’ve already discussed, the model literally forces sex workers into the street and promotes pimping.
One Year Ago Today
“Imaginary Lines” argues in favor of loosened immigration restrictions, and points out how the current situation helps to drive “trafficking” hysteria.
Somehow I’m missing the part where they are doing better than us by simply giving up a practice of oppression against sex workers that I don’t think has ever existed in the U.S.
In any case – I knew several Vietnamese kids who were in the US Navy who had fathers imprisoned for political dissent by the Communist regime – so I’m glad to see any positive improvement in Vietnam, particularly for sex workers.
Concerning that European Sex Worker Rights video – IT IS AWESOME! I still tend to believe in the fundamental goodness of most citizens in just about any country and, for democratic countries – this is the way to change minds and change society!
LOL! Hyperbole for the win!! 😀
I had a girlfriend smile and tell me the next day … “It’s hard for me to walk today” … which was a complete fuckin’ lie but I loved it. However, I don’t think any girl who did FULL calls with 50 cats would be walking too much the next day – and that is NO lie. 50 dudes in 24 hours is more than 2 dudes per hour with NO SLEEP and no transportation time.
Politics – it’s the haven of those who fail at math!! 😛
Norway and prostitution. Norway is one of my favorite countries – not for their government or laws, but for their people – especially the big ole Viking dudes I work with when I visit and the beautiful ladies of all ages who work with us in the scientific lab or who attend to us with awesomely prepared food and drink for when we’re busting our asses out in the arctic ice. I work with real “frontier” Norwegians – not these pansy assed busy bodies who follow Sweden’s leash.
And – no I don’t engage any sex workers in Norway – the penalty for being caught there is too high for me. However, I DO research it and what I’ve found is that its version (as all versions) of the Swedish model DOES increase “trafficking” and “pimping”.
The “safest” alternative you have in Oslo – off the streets that is – is a Russian run stable of rotating honey’s flown into Oslo in “shifts” from mother Russia. They’re beautiful, expensive women and I have no doubt they require the services of Russian mobsters to get them in and out without legal hassle from Norway’s law enforcement. I don’t think they are coerced in any manner or form though – they’re highly paid women doing a highly dangerous job. The “danger” though – comes not from clients in Norway – but from law enforcement.
Whatever – the Swedish model has certainly opened up a stream of revenue for pimps that might not be so readily available if they simply decriminalized sex work in Norway. It’s also probably inflated the profits of those ladies who are brave enough to work there. Good Job to the busy bodies!!! LOL
Credit where it’s due. The US imprisons a larger fraction of its citizens for consensual crimes than Vietnam or any other communist country ever has, and Vietnam is trying to reduce its participation in that particular form of tyranny even more, while the US refuses to even acknowledge that there’s a problem and works to incarcerate ever-larger numbers for ever-more consensual crimes.
I don’t agree – on a proportional scale, that we are worse than Vietnam in the human rights area. Sorry, but human rights is more than simply rights for sex workers and Vietnam still holds a plethora of political prisoners behind bars. You’re basically applauding them for giving up a practice of holding thousands of women in camps in indentured servitude working for companies with no pay – not really something we’ve ever done here in the U.S.
Limiting human rights to how a nation treats “consensual crimes” kind of also places North Korea at the top of the “good guy” list – which is something I don’t think you meant to do.
We’re worse than Vietnam in the imprisoning people area, especially for consensual crimes:
Vietnam isn’t even on the chart.
We’ve the highest incarceration rate on the globe, with hundreds of thousands in prison for nothing more than having a larger quantity of drugs in their possession than some lawmakers think they can use. With the disproportionate rate of incarceration for black males and the heavy use of poorly- to not-at-all-compensated prison labor, we’ve effectively reinstituted slavery for a large number of our citizens.
Crowing about the fact that we don’t have political prisoners (something the Occupy crowd might disagree with) is rather like a mob hit man bragging that he’s only killed criminals.
I’m unaware of anyone in the Occupy movement who’ve been robbed of the right of habeas corpus. I’m unaware of any who are being detained for extended periods of time without being charged. I’m unaware of any of them being denied competent legal representation and I’m unaware of any of them being denied a right to a trial by a jury. They all will have their day in court and they will all have the right of appeal should they be convicted. NONE are being charged with “subversion” or “dissent”.
But … OWS does bring a point to mind here in that all of the recent polls show Americans to be extremely skeptical of the movement – which drives to my point that “attitude” is 80 percent of the message. Their message isn’t being embraced by the public and this has quite a few people pronouncing the movement dead … even Adbusters is now proclaiming the movement is on the ropes unless it changes. Of course – they’re still hailing Tahrir Square as something spectacular – which again kills their message with Americans who may sympathize with the OWS grievances but won’t associate with anyone delusional enough to believe that a revolution that produces an Islam-Fascist government is good thing.
The name of the game is CHANGE and to do it – you gotta do the hard work of changing hearts and convincing minds. You can pound the table and gripe how people are “sheeple” – but that’s not going to change reality – not in this universe it won’t. The elites KNOW how to lead the people … and until we get smart to the realities – we’re gonna spin our wheels and cry a lot.
First of all – I’m not debating the fact that US imprisons far too many people. Although – I’ll also note that SINGAPORE isn’t on that list even though they beat and imprison people for all kinds of stupid things – including, until recently – chewing bubble gum. It’s just that – in Singapore – the people generally follow the law no matter how stupid it is.
I’m not defending the U.S.’s record of tormenting people for committing consensual crimes.
What I’m commenting on here is you stating that Vietnam is doing “better” than the U.S. on “human rights”. Personally – I can’t name a single U.S. citizen being held as a political prisoner but there are many being held in Vietnam.
Right now Vietnamese farmers are facing widespread land-grabs by the Vietnamese government. You can do a YouTube search for some video on how the Vietnamese deal with those guys – and it’s not pretty. This isn’t just a case of a Vietnamese version of our own “kelo” decision either – this is a widespread grab by the government itself.
Vietnam is right now using drug rehab centers as forced labor camps. They routinely imprison religious activists – there is no freedom of religion at all in Vietnam. There is no right to freedom of speech and there is no right to freedom of assembly – and those who violate the law in those areas ARE imprisoned whether or not they show up on your chart, Maggie.
Vietnam is NOT an example to emulate wrt human rights.
I’m willing to meet you half-way here – and give Vietnam the “Most Improved Player” award. That was the trophy we gave out in pee-wee football to the kid who SUCKED at the beginning of the year and SUCKED less at the end of it – he still wasn’t up to competing with the other kids though.
You and I have the same goals – but to reach those goals – we need to make Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public feel more comfortable with sex workers and expose the lies of the establishment elite who consistently excite the public against you – and keep them voting the elites into power. You will not do that by holding up Communist repressive regimes as an example for emulation here.
Yes – I agree in applauding Vietnam for their improvement in the area of sex worker rights – but the comparison to the US really gives the whole point an immediate quick death with moderate people still under the spell of the elites. And WE NEED those folks (of which, I used to be one).
Remember this …
“And if you go carryin’ pictures of Chairman Mao … you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow.”
Just sayin! 🙂
I think you’re missing my point. If I’m watching a contest between two men, one a superb athlete and one a fat, weak slob, and the slob beats the athlete in even one or two contests, I’m not going to say how wonderful the athlete was for winning 8 or 9 out of 10; I’m going to ask how the hell a champion got so damned lazy, careless and unconcerned with his fans that he didn’t think it was important to try hard enough to beat a fat slob.
On that point – we can certainly agree! 🙂
Vietnam is a valued US partner in the Trans Pacific Partnership. Look for your next Xbox, iPad or DVD player to made by rehabilitated counter-revolutionaries at competitive wages… pennies on the dollar.
I think my Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars are made in Vietnam. 🙁
You are correct in what you say. I’m not against trade with Vietnam – I generally think free-trade produces positive cultural change on both ends of the trade and it certainly helps move some wealth to people who need it. It’s a very natural way to redistribute wealth. I’m a free trader so I don’t slight Vietnam on that count.
And – I genuinely DO applaud the fact that they’ve made an advancement in human rights on this one front. It should be applauded – positive reinforcement being a good thing and all.
The quote is also commonly attributed to Einstein.
Incorrectly, however. When I first saw it attributed to him I knew it was a false attribution; it doesn’t read like an Einstein quote. So I did some digging, and discovered the true source. The internet is the “misinformation superhighway”; a bogus attribution or false “fact” will spread like wildfire and be quoted in thousands of places within weeks or months, despite being demonstrably wrong.
I always thought it sounded out of character, too. Thank you for finally providing me with the true source.
I learn so much from you.
🙂
as far as the actors who get involved in the sex trafficking hysteria,the one that got on my nerves the most is Emma Thomson.she says that its the fault of the oversexualised advertisements,who sell the sexuality of women that people buy women in the streets and wants to make a moral appeal to the advertisers and tv executives.what about the film makers in her own industry then?why doesnt she appeal to them first and her colleagues who freely sell their own sexuality?even her,who is not even attractive,one of her most famous scenes is having the worst possible feighned orgasm and shaking the entire room in ”tall guy”.but the best part was ”the pharmasists should be careful,if many girls, who cant speak english come in to buy condoms they are probably trafficked”.i mean,bitch,please.what a self important hypocritical idiot.
Actors are frauds … the bigger the fraud the better the actor. I tend to believe that all the successful ones are more deeply emotionally flawed than even the most extreme fantasies floating about out there about the stereotypical “whore” caricature.
“A Baylor University study found that…conventions ‘increased the count of Craigslist sex worker ads by a substantial amount’”…
Any why are universities doing studies like this presumably with tax payer money? If not with tax payer money then who IS paying for these “studies”? Or are these studies even being done? Are they just made up numbers?
‘even her,who is not even attractive,one of her most famous scenes is having the worst possible feighned orgasm and shaking the entire room in ”tall guy”.’
I loved that scene. I thought it was hilarious.
“In other words, she has enough disposable income to support four children, and is free to send it home. ”
This is a big plot point in John Burdett’s Bangkok novels (which mostly are centered around a brothel called “The Old Man’s Club,” except for the first one Bangkok 8 where it hadn’t opened yet.. He did a lot of research for the novels by talking to actual Go Go Bar Girls (prostitutes) in Thailand, and because the differential in wealth between Thailand and the West is so great servicing farang customers for a few years can allow the girls to take care of their whole families (including their mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. One character sends her sister to medical school with the money she makes as a prostitute) and put together a sizable Nest Egg for retirement.
Of course, these are novels, but having an idea of how much prostitutes make I don’t find it too far fetched. Of course, if I were so foolish to believe that “every woman in sex work was forced into it by evil men” myth I’d probably have a harder time reading them.
Oh and Nicholas Kristof aside, most Thais don’t think our American post industrial utopia over here is anything to rave about. Did you know that in addition to its other famous industry (sex), Thailand is rapidly transforming into “The Detroit of Asia?”
Honest question, not trying to start an argument.
You give Jackie Chan a hard time for getting involved in trying to help trafficked children. Accepting what you say (you would know and I sure don’t) that allegations of sex trafficking are vastly overblown, isn’t it true that at least some children are forced into sex work or to join the army? If this is correct there isn’t anything wrong with trying to locate and help those kids, is there?
In a post a couple of days ago wrote about an FBI raid on traffickers, where the press release said the girls were as young as thirteen. You made the point that this could have been a reference to only a single girl. Well doesn’t this mean that they rescued at least one 13 year old girl from sex work? Hopefully we all agree, even if the girl thought she was acting voluntarily, that 13 is too young to be making that choice.
In other words, even if it’s a smaller problem than is generally believed, it’s still a problem, right?
From this article, it seems this may be more about child soldiers than it is about child prostitutes.
I’ll answer your question with a question.
Let’s say a man has skin cancer in his arm, but his doctor is a quack and says his arm is riddled with cancer. But isn’t it true that he might still have some cancerous cells in that arm? So there isn’t anything wrong with cutting big chunks out of that arm in order to get rid of the cancer, is there? And if we kill millions of healthy cells, well, even ONE cancer cell is too much, isn’t it? Even if it’s less of a cancer than generally believed, it’s still a problem, right?
Arguing by analogy is always tricky, we aren’t talking about cancer cells, we are talking about people, and some of the people are little girls.
But continuing the analogy, I think it is a false choice to say that we either go to a quack or just ignore the cancer. How bout we find an oncologist?
Right, and some of the destroyed cells are adult women. The false choice isn’t mine; it’s the one created by the prohibitionists who pretend that the correct way to solve problems is to ban everything you don’t like while ignoring the same problems in every other area.
Incidentally, knowing Jackie Chan’s reputation, I would be very, very surprised if he had never seen a prostitute.
Let’s just say he likes the ladies, and has never been accused of being a puritan in his sex life. (Quite the opposite, in fact, the word “player” springs to mind. He’s on this list of the Top 5 most notorious Asian womanizers. ) It makes sense because he’s tremendous athlete (acting was never really his thing, difficult stunts and physical comedy were. He usually plays “Jackie Chan” in the movies so he never exactly stretches himself for his roles.)
Of course, with a guy like him, especially after he got famous, he can get all the sex he wants just by being a demigod in Asia rather then having to do a lot of courting, so he probably wouldn’t need prostitutes for that. (I’d still be surprised if he never hires any though.)
Seems more like Jackie is pimping out kids for his own image and personal fulfillment, and the FBI is pimping them out for good PR. Also various organizations exploiting them for funding. Maybe something more than vague emotional appeals about a “hidden danger”?
Eighty sex slaves [I have a boner] “as young as 13” [well, this is awkward] rescued, and put into the care of organizations. Hurrah! But the alleged kidnappers aren’t even named, and the circumstances aren’t disclosed, though there is something about how dangerous the internet is.
Helping the girls in uncaring homes or legalizing pimps so that they will check employment eligibility before the girls become whores is not considered–doesn’t make for a good story, and what will law enforcement do if crime is reduced?
Zahia Dehar looks like
– A very sexually competent adult
– Likely cashing in big time on her sexual attraction
– Likely to be rich, if not now then soon enough.
I’d say: Born super hot, sexually confident at 15, making large sums of money cashing in on her youth and extreme beauty, and obviously in control of it all:
Exactly who is the victim here? I’d like a paint-by-numbers map, please.
One piece of advice for her:
You’re 18. Lay off the surgery.
It’s important to remember that some of the people jumping up on the “child trafficking” bandwagon actually believe the hype, and are doing what they believe to be the right thing. I don’t doubt for a second that, if Maggie thought that there really were a few million children a year being forced into prostitution or chimney sweeping or whatever that she would speak out against it.
I don’t know Jackie Chan. Having watched several of his movies and read his book doesn’t qualify me to state with any conviction that he believes the horror stories, or that he knows better. What I do know is that if I had a great deal of fame, I would want to use that to make a difference in the world, a difference for the better. And I would sure hope that I wouldn’t be exploited by somebody wanting to use my fame and the public’s tender-heartedness to line his own pockets or win an election.
Again, I don’t know that this is what’s happening with Jackie Chan, but it could be.