The website name is contradictory and that, imo, sums up the site.
Robyn would like some of the stuff, I think.
http://www.prettyhate.de/htdocs/home.php
http://www.web-laun.ch/microz/bushmustgo.html
an older article but ummmmmmm
Lion Mutilates 42 Midgets in Cambodian Ring-Fight
Spectators cheered as entire Cambodian Midget Fighting League squared
off against African Lion. Tickets had been sold-out three weeks before
the much anticipated fight, which took place in the city of Kâmpóng
Chhnãng.
The fight was slated when an angry fan contested Yang Sihamoni,
President of the CMFL, claiming that one lion could defeat his entire
league of 42 fighters.
Sihamoni takes great pride in the league he helped create, as was
conveyed in his recent advertising campaign for the CMFL that stated
his midgets will "... take on anything; man, beast, or machine."
This campaign is believed to be what sparked the undisclosed fan to
challenge the entire league to fight a lion; a challenge that Sihamoni
readily accepted.
An African Lion (Panthera Leo) was shipped to centrally located
Kâmpóng Chhnãng especially for this event, which took place last
Saturday, April 30, 2005 in the city’s coliseum.
The Cambodian Government allowed the fight to take place, under the
condition that they receive a 50% commission on each ticket sold, and
that no cameras would be allowed in the arena.
The fight was called in only 12 minutes, after which 28 fighters were
declared dead, while the other 14 suffered severe injuries including
broken bones and lost limbs, rendering them unable to fight back.
Sihamoni was quoted before the fight stating that he felt since his
fighters out-numbered the lion 42 to 1, that they “… could out-wit and
out-muscle [it].”
Unfortunately, he was wrong.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4600399.stm
Published: 2003/12/30 14:22:11 GMT
© BBC MMV
**
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1115416214663&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home&DPL=IvsNDS/7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes
http://makeashorterlink.com/?K5B52290B
May 7, 2005. 09:00 AM
Sex & City Hall
The city has licensed more than 200 holistic centres that operate as
brothels.
Now it's powerless to stop them
ROBERT CRIBB AND DALE BRAZAO
STAFF REPORTERS
Minutes after she arrived for a job interview at a holistic health
centre last fall, Michelle found herself naked from the waist up,
giving a customer a full body massage in a back storage room filled
with mops, dirty laundry and cigarette butts.
"I had no idea what it was going to be like," the petite 22-year-old
recalls. "I kind of had to learn on the job."
Michelle learned quickly. By the end of the day, she had earned $300
providing services routinely offered in most of Toronto's
city-licensed holistic centres — "nude reverses," "body slides" and
"hand releases."
The City of Toronto licenses more than 200 brothels under the banner
of holistic health centres, a Toronto Star investigation has found.
Licensed to offer alternative health treatments such as shiatsu,
reflexology and aromatherapy, about three-quarters of the city's
holistic centres operate as sex dens.
Almost as fast as the city hands out holistic licences, public
complaints bring visits by inspectors from the same city department
that investigates and lays bylaw charges — a license-and-prosecute
revolving door that costs taxpayers $2.5 million a year.
To anyone scanning newspaper classifieds, telephone directories or
adult websites, where advertisements with sexually charged pictures
offer "erotic massage by young sexy ladies," this may not be a
surprise.
But the explosive growth of illicit holistics has created a kind of
trap for the city.
Politicians want sex-oriented holistic centres closed, but seem
powerless. City staff believe the majority of holistics are
bylaw-breakers, but they keep issuing new licences. Customers who see
those licences in an illicit holistic may assume its sexual services
are inspected and regulated. And the operators stay one step ahead of
everyone.
Legitimate holistic practitioners, meanwhile, complain that their
businesses are becoming unfairly associated with the sex trade.
City officials admit the rapid spread of bogus holistic clinics poses
a public safety and health risk in many neighbourhoods, while
supporting prostitution and exploitation.
They also admit their approach is lending an aura of legitimacy to
this part of the sex trade.
"When a member of the public walks in and they see a municipal licence
on the wall," says Pam Coburn, director of the city's municipal
licensing system, "there's a sense that that means something — in
terms of somebody keeping an eye out for the public good."
Since the first holistic licences were handed out six years ago, the
city has licensed more than 300 operations. The number of individuals
licensed to work in holistic centres has spiked from 1,200 the first
year to about 2,660 today.
City inspectors admit most licences have been handed to operators and
practitioners whose idea of holistic treatments amounts to
masturbation, oral sex and intercourse.
"Seventy to 75 per cent of all the holistic centres across the city
are illegitimate operations offering sexual services," says James
Slocum, a city inspector who investigates the facilities.
City staff are so overwhelmed with applications, there is little time
to evaluate them. Some applicants with prior convictions have been
handed new licences. In one case, a holistic owner who had pleaded
guilty to charges of operating in breach of city bylaws was
re-licensed by the city for a new holistic venture she opened shortly
after.
"We can't keep up with the volume of applications that come in," says
Slocum, acting manager for the east district of the city's municipal
licensing department.
City inspectors have laid more than 1,600 bylaw charges against
operators and employees of holistic centres since 1999. Last year they
laid 266 charges. In the first three months of this year, 140 charges.
The inspectors lay charges against owners or employees based on
municipal bylaw offences, ranging from missing licences to infractions
such as failing to provide receipts, failing to wear proper clothing,
or offering "unauthorized services."
Municipal inspectors don't lay serious criminal charges, although they
sometimes partner with police, who can lay prostitution-related
criminal charges.
It can take months for bylaw charges to work their way through the
court system, often requiring several appearances by inspectors and
city lawyers. To date, the city has won 591 convictions.
Visits to six city-licensed holistic centres by Star reporters in
recent weeks showed enforcement tactics haven't slowed illegal
activity. Four of the six had previous charges or convictions. All
offered reporters sexual services, among other breaches of city
regulations.
Toronto Police Det. Howie Page says the proportion of holistic centres
operating as brothels is overwhelming.
In December, Page led a five-week undercover investigation targeting
10 city-licensed holistic centres in the city's 14 Division, bounded
by Spadina Ave. to the east, Lansdowne Ave. to the west, the railway
along Dupont St. to the north and the lake to the south.
All 10 were offering sexual services, he says. Police arrested 38
people and laid 52 criminal charges — including operating a common
bawdy house — as well as 55 city bylaw infractions. The charges are
still before the courts.
"They were operating as fronts for holistic centres, but were really
offering sexual gratification to the clients or to the undercover
officers," says Page. "These were in fact brothels in disguise."
While Toronto's holistic problem is the biggest in Ontario, other
municipalities have found themselves struggling with the same issues.
"There's plenty of body rub establishments operating as holistics
across the province," says Don Reid, a Collingwood-based reflexologist
and governmental affairs representative with the Reflexology
Registration Council of Ontario.
"If (a municipality) hasn't encountered the problem, they will sooner
or later. Body rubbers are well aware of the fact that they can call
themselves holistic practitioners and get away with it for a long
time."
Cities including Windsor, Markham, Guelph and Kitchener have all
adopted holistic or alternative health care licences that have
attracted illegitimate operators, says Reid.
The transformation of brothels into holistic health centres is a
continental phenomenon. In Los Angeles, after authorities cracked
down, practitioners took to calling themselves chiropractors.
The sheer volume of illegal city-licensed holistic operations in
Toronto has also become a financial burden.
It costs an average of $10,000 for each investigation and court action
to expose and punish wrongdoing by operators, city records show.
Last year the city spent $3.1 million licensing, inspecting and
prosecuting holistic centres for flouting bylaws. Licensing fees
charged to owners and practitioners, which are supposed to cover the
city's administrative costs, brought in only $600,000 — a $2.5 million
shortfall. Any fines the city may win through successful prosecutions
— generally only a few hundred dollars in each case — go into
provincial coffers.
Politicians admit this expensive cat-and-mouse game has failed to
control illicit operations.
"The wool was pulled over our eyes, as lawmakers, to allow this
holistic operation to come into place as it did," says Councillor Bill
Saundercook (Ward 13, Parkdale-High Park).
But sex worker Valerie Scott says the city issues holistic licence
with full knowledge of what takes place inside.
"City councillors know these holistic centres are brothels, but they
pretend they don't know," says Scott, a Toronto prostitute and
president of the Sex Professionals of Canada, a lobby group for sex
workers.
"By licensing them they are, in effect, back door pimps ... this is a
sneaky, slimy way of doing it."
Rules and rubs
The dramatic growth of this new side of the sex business is driven by
simple economics.
The city has set the rate for holistic licences at a fraction of the
cost for body rub parlour licences that allow greater hands-on contact
with patrons.
A holistic business licence in Toronto is $232 with an annual renewal
fee of $115.
Body rub parlour owner/operators are charged $10,174 with renewal fees
of $9,809. (Individual workers in both body rub parlours and holistic
centres pay licence fees of $262 to start, and $149 for renewals.)
Even if a holistic operator was willing to pay the hefty fees for a
body rub licence, you can't get one in Toronto. The city has capped
the number of body rubs at 25.
Enter the holistic licence.
Born in 1998 and first issued in 1999 following consultation with the
legitimate alternative health care community, the holistic designation
was intended to establish basic municipal oversight for clinics
offering shiatsu, reflexology and other such services. Unlike more
established health care disciplines, such as registered massage
therapy, alternative health care disciplines are not governed by
provincial regulations.
The city's Pam Coburn, who wasn't involved in creating the licence,
says abuse by illegitimate operators wasn't considered at the time.
But it has become a problem, she concedes.
"What I am concerned about is the perception that it's been
legitimized in some way by the authority."
Deputy mayor Sandra Bussin agrees.
"We shouldn't be licensing them," says Bussin, (Ward 32, Beaches-East
York). "I'd prefer they weren't there, period. But once you license
them, then they become your problem."
With hundreds of licensed holistic centres operating and more seeking
licences all the time, Coburn says her department doesn't have the
resources to police them. The city employs 172 licensing inspectors,
but they keep watch on a range of businesses, from holistic centres to
rental housing and building permits.
"We're just running around with a leaking roof with a bucket trying to
catch the raindrops," she says.
Last year, city staff proposed raising licence fees for all holistic
facilities to $10,000 to recoup some of the cost of cracking down on
holistic offenders.
But city council rejected the idea after hearing from legitimate
operators who said the increase would put them out of business.
Victoria Lorient-Faibish, whose office wall is filled with degrees and
diplomas in such disciplines as reiki and polarity therapy, is among a
group of holistic practitioners consulting with the city on a new
approach.
`Ten out of 10 want some form of sex. They're scum.
I hate them.'
Michelle, a holistic centre worker, talks about her male clients
"Our profession, based on 2,000 years of Chinese, Indian and Western
roots, is being usurped," says Lorient-Faibish. "It's created a haven
for the body rub world. "
Practitioners like Lorient-Faibish want the city to tighten licensing
rules, or establish more rigorous professional qualifications, to weed
out the sex peddlers.
Currently, holistic practitioners seeking a licence must show evidence
of a post-secondary certificate of accreditation from a recognized
school in their field of treatment.
But there are easy ways over that hurdle, says city inspector Slocum.
"The inspectors are finding phony certificates submitted with
applications.... Anybody with a colour printer or a photocopier can
make one of these things and attach a photo to it. You can buy one of
these certificates at the dollar store. Some of the people we've
charged don't have a clue about the difference between aromatherapy
and reflexology."
City staff are looking at the experience of Markham, where officials
attacked a similar problem with phony holistic centres last year. The
city now requires holistic operators to be members of a professional
self-regulatory body that governs their practice. Since Markham set up
that hurdle last year, only five new centres have been licensed.
Legitimate holistic practitioners in Toronto want a similar system.
Behind closed doors
Many of the city's illicit holistic centres — licensed and some
unlicensed — are found in strip malls on busy thoroughfares, often
with dark tinted windows and generic neon "open" signs. Their names
generally include words like "wellness," "health centre" or "spa" — in
imitation of legitimate centres — and they often advertise services
such as massage or aromatherapy.
Once a client is inside, though, the list of services is quite
different.
The average cost for a visit to a sex-oriented holistic centre is
about $40 a half-hour, paid at the front desk. Most, if not all, of
that money goes to the establishment. In some cases, attendants get a
small portion — between $5 and $15 — of that up-front fee.
That leaves the women to earn most of their income from "extras" they
negotiate once they're in private rooms with their clients.
The most lucrative "extra" is intercourse, known in the industry as
"full service."
Posing as a customer in holistic centres as part of undercover
investigations, city inspector Slocum says he's been offered sexual
intercourse more than 20 times. He declined the offers.
"The going rate is $140 and up. It isn't offered everywhere. But if
they really want to make money, they'll offer it."
Wendy, a 21-year-old former prostitute and body rub parlour worker who
quit the industry in 2003, agrees.
"I'd expect at least $120 for sex," she says.
Women inside holistic and body rub operations know they're expected to
provide sexual services, she says.
"Owners often pressure the girls to provide services, but will always
deny they know what's going on in their premises."
An ad for Bella Spa in the back pages of eye magazine pitches "erotic
massage by young sexy ladies." The holistic centre at 1410 Danforth
Ave. was charged last year by city officials and convicted and fined
$150 last July for failing to post its licence.
On a recent visit, the licence was posted on the wall.
A practitioner named Trishe, dressed in a black slip and bra, escorted
a reporter down a narrow hallway and into a private room with mauve
walls, a small shower, a chair and a massage bed covered with a paper
sheet.
Nearby was a bottle of baby oil and some baby powder. On another stand
were lollipops and cards that entitle clients to one free massage
after 10 visits.
After accepting a $50 bill, Trishe locked the door to the room.
"This is an exotic massage," she began. "These are the extras ...
Topless is $20 extra. Nude is $60. And nude reverse is for $80."
Asked what a nude reverse entails, the 31-year-old said, "You can
touch me and get involved with me."
When the reporter asked for a regular massage instead, she laughed.
Most clients come for the extras, she said.
"You mean nobody comes in for just a regular massage?" the reporter
asked.
"Not really. You can get a regular massage anywhere."
The spa's owner, who would only identify himself as Alex, said his
operation offers only legitimate holistic services.
"If there's any suspicions of one of the attendants doing more than
she is allowed, she would be fired.... Is something like (offering
sexual services) possible? Yes. I'm not inside the room. But I don't
think so because I'm choosing my personnel very, very carefully."
Michelle, who agreed to speak with the Star on condition of anonymity,
says she had no licence when she started in the business. Her first
employer never asked.
She says she was constantly pressured to provide sex.
"(The owner) would always tell me, `This customer wants sex. Go into a
room with him.'"
She says she has never given "full service" to clients. But she says
she does provide enough "extras" to bring in up to $500 a day. Those
extras include masturbation, topless massages and nude reverses.
"Ten out of 10 want some form of sex. Once they get in that room they
ask you for everything."
It's a job that Michelle says has lowered her opinion of men.
"They're scum. I hate them," she says.
The industry has its dark side, too.
"Most of the girls, I'd say 70 per cent, are addicted to drugs and
working to support their habit," says Michelle. "Some have mental
problems or just plain psychotic. Some are living out of duffle bags.
It's not a safe place to work."
`The system is not working'
Faced with hundreds of holistic operations, city licensing inspectors
draw up lists of targets for enforcement based on tips and complaints
from the public. But it's not easy to close down licensed holistics,
as city councillors have learned.
In July of last year, Chi-Ping Feng-Jong was charged criminally with
keeping a common bawdy house at Ginger Wellness and with possession of
property under $5,000 obtained by crime.
Ginger Wellness, a licensed holistic at 1331 Warden Ave., has also
been charged 16 times by city inspectors for bylaw offences.
A woman who would only identify herself as Irene told the Star she is
the manager of Ginger Wellness.
"The holistic business is always very ambiguous because we touch
people's bodies," she said in an interview inside the modest
strip-mall location. "Very often if there is just one single
complaint, it could be a neighbourhood lady, whatever, it could lead
to trouble.... We did have a little bit of trouble last year and till
today it hasn't been settled, not because we have any wrongdoing, but
because there's somebody, the neighbours, the curiosity, try to
slander us."
Both bylaw and criminal charges against Ginger Wellness remain before
the courts.
Last week, five city bylaw officers went to court for the 11th time in
the proceedings against Ginger Wellness. For the 11th time, the case
was put over by a justice of the peace.
Councillor Michael Thompson, who represents the area, was livid as he
left court.
"How much longer can we afford to wait?" says Thompson (Ward 37,
Scarborough Centre). "This place is next to a school. I've got parents
who walk their kids to school who have been propositioned by clients
of Ginger Wellness ... I fail to understand why the system is not
working."
Councillor Peter Li Preti says it took a four-year campaign to shut
down a holistic centre in his ward.
Finch Holistic Health Centre at 1270 Finch Ave. W. finally closed down
after it was charged 116 times.
Nearly half the charges were filed against the owner for hiring
unlicensed practitioners. The centre was convicted on 18 counts
between 2002 and 2004 and fined $7,050.
Sara Banyasz, registered as the owner in city records, refused to
comment when contacted by the Star.
Li Preti (Ward 8, York West) says his ward still has a problem with
holistic centres.
"They're masking as prostitution houses," says Li Preti "We should not
take their money. The moment we take their money is the moment we
automatically give them the ability to continue."
Valerie Scott is convinced that no matter what holistic centres call
themselves, they are simply brothels.
"In the '60s they were massage parlours. Then they were body rub
parlours. Now they are holistic centres.
"In China they call them beauty parlours. We can call them flower
shops if we want to, but the fact remains they are brothels, and they
will always be brothels."
Copyright Toronto Star Newspapers Limited
--
Contempt of Congress meter reading-offscale.
Hello, theocracy with a fundamentalist US Supreme
Court who will ensure church and state are joined
at the hip like clergy and altar boys.
America 1776-Jan 2001 RIP
Religion is the original war crime.
-Michelle Malkin (Feb 26, 2005)
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