Arnon Grunberg

Nurse

Heritage

On sex workers, mass tourism and the summer of 2020 – Anne Backhaus in Der Spiegel:

‘De Vries was born and raised in Amsterdam, spending most of her adult life working as a nurse. "Many of the patients longed for physical contact, but hardly had an opportunity," she says. Nearly a decade ago, de Vries turned to an agency that hired out sex workers to customers who are physically disabled or mentally ill. For a while, de Vries worked both jobs, but then decided to dedicate herself full-time to sex work.
"I wasn't in it for the money," she says. "It was the appreciation. I can focus on a person's needs for an hour and that makes a big difference in their life."’

(…)

‘The most prominent advocate of a realignment of the red-light district is Femke Halsema, 54. The city's first female mayor, she has been in office since July 2018 and says she voted in parliament in the late 1990s to legalize prostitution nationwide. "Amsterdam has a very long tradition of protecting open spaces and being a tolerant city, and I really want to protect that," Halsema said in 2019. "But we do not want to be known for sex and drugs. We want to be known for our cultural heritage."’ (…)

‘These days, Bert Nap has to hop on the subway anytime he needs to buy a loaf of bread. "There's no bakery in the neighborhood, but there are waffles with Nutella and souvenirs everywhere," Nap says. "If the sex workers and clients came back, there would be no reason to complain. But if mass tourism returns, all hell will simply break loose again. We should focus on the real problem: the global tourism industry."
He's not alone in this view. In late April, European Commissioner Thierry Breton told a committee of MEPs: "We must find an answer to the excesses of mass tourism."
The absence of tourists in many major European cities has allowed residents to dream of a new -- or old -- quality of life. These include cities like Barcelona and Venice, where locals have long complained of being overrun by hordes of visitors.
The form tourism could take once countries around the world relax their lockdowns and lift travel restrictions will depend, not least, on economic interests. This is especially true now that many cities and businesses are starved for income. Indeed, it will likely be difficult to insist that tourists, with all their disposable income, not be allowed to come.
In Amsterdam's red-light district, financial considerations are hard to ignore: Sex sells, after all.’

Read the article here.

The alternative to mass tourism is tourism for the happy few. It might be an improvement, but this idea is relying on inequality.

Some people claim that you can outlaw prostitution and it will disappear. I’m doubtful, perhaps it will disappear in one place, it will disappear for a short period of time, but it won’t disappear altogether.

If you want sex workers to be better protected, you have to make sure that the sex worker will enjoy a higher social status. No real change is possible without this.

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