Pimps, Johns, Prostitutes, Police in Spain

BY NICK SNELLING

In 2003, Spain’s Institute of National Statistics (INE) showed that just over one in four Spanish men under the age of 49 had experienced sex with a prostitute – with one in fifteen having done so within the previous year.  This was backed up by Maribel Montano of the ruling PSOE party who claimed in 2007 that: ‘every day 1.5 million men pay for sex’ in Spain.  In fact, there are an estimated 300,000 prostitutes working in Spain possibly turning over around 40 billion Euros per year, which roughly equates to the country’s education budget.  For good reason, Spain is sometimes dubbed the ‘Brothel of Europe’.

Certainly, the openness and extent of prostitution can be a surprise to north Europeans who still cling to the myth of Spain as a prim and proper, old-fashioned, hard line, Catholic country.  This notion is swiftly dispelled as you drive at night along any main road out of a large town or city.  In the outskirts, and often close to industrial estates, you will come across brightly lit buildings that normally have a garish neon sign pronouncing ‘Club’.  These are brothels in all but name and house, sometimes, up to a hundred or more prostitutes.  Called Clubes de Alterne (socialising clubs) by the Spanish, their location and nature are openly known and tolerated by the police, authorities and local population.

The clubs, of course, vary hugely and span the whole spectrum of prostitution from its lowest depths to a brothel system that is reasonably fair and transparent within a deeply emotive industry.  At their worst, the Clubes de Alterne are controlled by criminal gangs who have trafficked women from Third World countries on the promise of conventional work.  Deprived of their passports and physically intimidated, the women are forced to work as prostitutes, whilst earning their bosses huge sums.  Indeed, the International Labour Organisation in 2005 calculated that a forced sex worker would earn 67,200 Euros a year in an industrialised country.

Cain accuser a prostitute?

Today a lady, Sharon Bialek, came out and made more specific accusations against Republican candidate Herman Cain. According to her story Cain's behavior showed that he considered her a prostitute, or some other sex worker. We certainly don't want have this sort of behavior going on in the White House by a president. However, I am sure many of the presidential and congressional candidates have done similar activities as Cain, but the accusations were not made public for various possible reasons.
I believe this woman has credibility, but the event is old and there were obvious mixed messages between the two. First, why would she fly in to meet Cain and stay in a room paid for by Cain, in order to ask him for a "job?"  She met Cain at night in a bar and had drinks (I find this unusual for a job 1st interview). Sharon Bialek calls Cain, Herman (I have worked for bosses for years and never called them by their first names - it is a sign of respect and acknowledgment of the employer/employee relationship). Then, she had a private dinner with Cain - why would this potential employer take Sharon out on an upscale dinner date? Next she consented to go off into the night to visit some vague empty restaurant offices. Why would she go to an empty building site late at night with a man she is asking for a job? She had no prior connection with Cain and Cain even asked her why she was there? We can only imagine her answer. She could remember all of Cain's remarks, but she left out her side of the conversations. She said she was sent to meet Cain that evening by her "boyfriend." Perhaps he is a pimp-like person.
Anyway, this lady has no common sense and seems like a "set-up," probably trying to get money from the event. She probably wanted the sexual advancements to occur in the Restaurant Association offices so she could sue for big bucks against Cain and the association. She says Cain took her home (the hotel room he paid for) the minute she protested (she never said how far they went before she protested).  Since they were not in the association's offices, Cain was not at work, Sharon Bialek was not an employee or client, she accepted a hotel room from him and they went out on a date (which she asked to fly in for at night), this becomes a bad date experience by a married man and a potential prostitute. I feel Cain was confused because she was acting like a prostitute. Cain actions can not be overlooked. If Cain is in a bad marriage, it will only get worse in the White House. Washington, DC is full of stories, going back generations, about political sex scandals and prostitutes. We need leadership, not more sex scandals.