A few months ago the Reuters wire ran a touching story of love lost, and then found again in South Africa. JoJo, the mature female gorilla at the Johannesburg Zoo, had lost her partner for life, her soul-mate, her lover, in some horrific monkey-business-gone-wrong a few years before. While the loss was devastating, JoJo and her handlers felt it was time to move on, to find a new mate.

The problem, however, was that there were no mature male gorillas in the Jo-berg zoo. So her keepers did what any compassionate keeper would do, they mail-ordered a man for JoJo. A couple of weeks later, Washo, a strapping stud of a silverback from some zoo in Germany arrived to put the sparkle back in the eye of JoJo. They got along famously, and are still together to this day.

A touching story about gorillas. You see, gorillas need help because they can't read the personal ads or afford vibrators. Evolution has bestowed only on homo-sapiens the ability to use sports cars, binaca, and the internet to find lovers and plastic wonders, though.

I'm relating this story for a reason. My good friends (and consummate news professionals) over at the stellar English-language papers have run a couple of stories that bear a slight similarity to the aforementioned tale of long-distance primate love rekindled, but instead of being heartwarming, these stories are almost vomit-inducing.

The most recent article was about a matchmaking agency that helps lonely Malaysian men get hooked up with Vietnamese women. Foxy, young, virginal Vietnamese women. "The agency charges between RM28,000 and RM100,000 for its services, depending on the beauty and educational qualifications of the potential brides," explained the caption for the picture of Charlie's Angels arrayed for perusal and potential poking.

The cost of a blow

RM100,000 is a lot of money. So much so that people ought to be asking questions. But to aid the reader, let me put this in a prurient, but fundamentally equivalent perspective for you. In my neighborhood there's a street just behind Jalan Pudu where the going rate for a blowjob is RM40 (my friend told me so).

Some quick calculations show us that RM100,000 will buy 2,500 blowjobs at the standard rate, (which is about 2,499 more blowjobs than any of these guys are going to get after the wedding). It's a blowjob a day for almost seven years. Base, obscene, yes, but no more base than buying a bride. If you're shocked, disgusted, or offended with my little analogy, ask yourself why, and then please continue reading this column.

Another story featuring the same firm, this one from late last year, describes the process in more detail. The RM28,000 package "...includes passage to and from Vietnam, dowry, marriage, registration fee, the bride's passport, photography session, hotel accommodation, meals, sight-seeing tour, gowns, wedding reception, and even presents."

The story goes on to describe how the 54-year old businessman from KL narrowed down the choices and finally chose his bride. "Like any typical teenager, [name withheld] listed her hobbies as reading and said Vietnamese male pop star, Ly Hai, was her favourite music artist." Before the marriage the businessman ordered a virginity test and agreed to send his new bride's parents RM200 per month. The story goes on to provide the address of the matchmaking company.

My old man once said to me, "Keith, if it looks like [crap] and smells like [crap], well, it's a safe bet it's [crap]." There's definitely some [crap] going on in these stories. Let me put the old redneck adage a different way: if it looks like human trafficking and smells like human trafficking, well, it's a safe bet it's human trafficking. And although one of the local "advocacy" organizations that I contacted for this article asked that I not use the term "trafficking" (though they wouldn't provide any comment), I think it's pretty clear. Consider the following comments from "a source familiar with the industry" featured in a related article:

"Taiwanese men are the most popular because they pay the most for Vietnamese brides, at about US$10,000 (RM38,000) for the bride's dowry alone. Singaporeans pay about US$12,000 (RM45,458) per bride However, from experience, we find that many Vietnamese wives in Taiwan and Singapore are treated as cheap farm labour or housekeepers who also warm their husbands' beds at night."

The definition of trafficking

In my opinion, it doesn't get much more damming than that. No comment on this from the newspaper of course; the articles are written like advertisements. The striking thing is that some of the adverse affects are documented in the article itself, by people in the business, but it is still going on.

The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children defines trafficking thusly:

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation

Exploitation is further defined in part as "...practices similar to slavery, [and] servitude". Clearly from this definition the relationship described above is trafficking because of the payments made to the family of the bride. The young lady's father, in this case, is "...a person having control over another person." But semantics aside, this practice is all about money, or lack of it.

I've written about asymmetric relationships before. The world is full of interactions in which one party has leverage over the other party. Usually the leverage is the result of economic conditions, and this wife-buying phenomenon is no different. Some might argue that these young women and girls (many of them are girls) are entering into these relationships by their own volition. The same could be said for drug addicts. And hookers.

Under normal circumstances, does anyone really choose to become a hooker or a drug addict? Abnormal circumstances lead people down these paths. The same thing is happening to these poor girls.

"This is nothing short of modern-day slavery," explained Elizabeth Wong, Secretary-General of the National Human Rights Society (Hakam). "This brings home the real status of the majority of women in Asia, i.e. a mere object or means of production and reproduction."

The Svengali

Let's examine the dynamics of the relationship closely. Even under the best circumstances the relationship is condemned to exist on an unequal footing. For example, take Mr X, client of the matchmaking firm. Whether he's looking for love or just to get laid on a regular basis, circumstances have convinced him that money can buy him his happiness.

Thus he forks out his RM28,000 to RM100,000 for the woman of his dreams. The new Mrs X accompanies her husband back to Malaysia, a land completely alien to her. More than likely she doesn't speak the languages and has no skills to speak of (otherwise she wouldn't have to sell herself into virtual slavery).

Her experience with the world and her personal development is completely dependent on her new husband, who is determined to get what he paid for. In addition to this leverage, the husband exercises control over the woman's immigration status. Even if Mr X turns out to be loving and benevolent, it does not change the fact that the relationship is based on power and privilege, and that one party holds all the cards.

The scenario just described is optimistic. A more realistic scenario resembles what the inside source described above. Asymmetric relationships often include abuse, be it mental or physical. Furthermore, "buying" a bride commodotizes the relationship.

The buyer feels as though he has purchased a product or service. He has certain expectations and preconceptions. He is also forever in the position of patron. In addition, the expense involved in the matchmaking game suggests that a wife is something to be attained, a symbol of status. One wonders if the matchmaking service has a volume discount.

Consider the following passage from a report on the phenomenon from the Philippines, which, along with Russia, has been a leading supplier of mail-order brides:

Mail order brides are a modern manifestation of arranged marriages and may constitute trafficking when the girl is pressured by her family and ends up in servile or exploitative conditions... While some young women who have become wives through this process end up in successful marriages, others have reported working like a slave in the home of her new husband and his parents, with long hours and no salary and not being treated as a member of the family. In some of the more notorious examples, women are forced by their husbands into the sex industry or sold outright to a brothel.

Or the following, excerpted from an Immigration and Naturalization Service (US INS, now renamed Bureau of Citizen and Immigration Services) report on marriage brokers to the United States Congress:

The male customers are generally financially secure, yet they frequently seek relationships with women from impoverished countries where women are often denied equal education and employment opportunities. The fact that the male customer is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident [LPR] makes him more attractive to a foreign-born bride, who may come from a society in which women are pressured to take steps that are not beneficial to them as individuals (e.g. to become a prostitute, overseas domestic worker, or mail-order bride) in order to support family members. As a citizen or LPR, the male customer holds both real and imagined power to allow a bride to enter the United States lawfully and to threaten deportation once she is in the United States.

Asian values

I was discussing this subject with a Malaysian friend of mine, who informed me that I don't understand Asian values. Well, maybe not, but I am beginning to understand how Asians are valued. But this isn't an "Asian Values" thing, because it's a universal problem. Furthermore, the actual commoditization of a human being represents the worst of so-called Western-capitalist decadence.

For example, the GABRIELA Network (A Philippines-based advocacy organization) in New York estimates that around 5,000 Filipinas enter the US annually as mail-order brides. Studies have shown that brides in arranged and brokered marriages are more likely to suffer abuse that those in traditional marriages. But buying and selling of women has been going on for ages, and has become so ingrained and accepted that the women who are sold enter into the new relationship superficially under their own volition.

There is a lot of potential for abuse in this business. I spoke with Jaclyn Kee, a feminist activist working on violence against women issues. She admitted that there is of potential for matchmaking to become trafficking of women across borders instead, but lamented most the dilemma facing the women that are recruited by matchmakers: "It's sad that the only way they can find something better is through marriage."

She also mentioned that the men choosing the bride are using their privileged locations, and that once women leave their country for their new husbands' home they can be "... isolated and cut offthere is no social support and they can be very vulnerable to abuse."

"They aren't familiar with the language or the legal system," she continued, "and so it's hard for them to get out of difficult situations." Jaclyn suggested that the practice reveals some fundamental problems with society: "You have to think that you can own a woman as a sort of property or commodity already" to enter into this sort of relationship.

It's business baby

"There is a high likelihood that it [the marriage] will remain unequal.We need to change the idea that women can be a mistress, and the idea that you can shop for a bride." She also pointed out, as most people familiar with the issue do, that arranged marriages are as old as society itself.

"What's new is the professionalization of the practice," she explained. "I would like to see the company be scrutinised and held accountable [for the outcomes of these relationships]."

I called one the matchmaking companies in Kuala Lumpur to find out more about the business. The manager told me that the service, currently provided only to Chinese men [though they hope to expand to serve the needs of lonely Malays and Indians as well], is much needed because the men are "hardworking" and have a "personal dream" (whatever that means), hence they don't have time for a girlfriend or a traditional relationship.

The company advertises locally in Chinese dailies, screens all the clients to make sure they are financially secure. He was proud of the fact that they had facilitated over 80 marriages in the 1.5 years they had been in operation. Then I started asking about the issues raised in my research for this article.

"Is there any sort of follow-up to track the progress of the relationship?" I asked.

"Well, we call once a week for two weeks, and then once a month for two months," explained the manager. He told me that after the initial two months they may call once every two to three months.

"What about the isolation, the language barrier?"

"We give all of the girls a language VCD and a dictionary, and we tell the husbands they have to spend time with their new brides."

These responses were somewhat predictable, and while they don't reflect any malicious neglect, it seems obvious that the actual hooking-up is the primary concern of the matchmaker; the long-term happiness and health of its clients are not part of the business plan.

Then the manager described some details of the business that suggest a sort of Wild West aspect. He told me that they work with a recruiter in their source country, but he didn't know how the recruiter operated; under what circumstances were the women recruited and what standards their partner has. He also told me that the business was growing in Malaysia because there was a high demand.

Cowboy town

However, when he went to file an application for a license last year, the government didn't know how to respond. There are no laws on the books and no regulation of this industry, which seems somewhat remiss given the potential for abuse. So the government of the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur basically threw its bureaucratic tentacles in the air and said, "Who could possibly be harmed by this? Good luck, guys!"

Thus the company can basically do whatever it wants, as long as it stays in compliance with immigration laws. And many companies take advantage of the laws, or lack of them. Furthermore, the lack of monitoring and regulation facilitates abuse by unscrupulous human traffickers. Says Elizabeth Wong, "Now that the laws have tightened (a little) in the Philippines and Australia, these rapacious tentacles have turned their sights to Vietnam."

What sorts of laws are needed? Last November Dr Mohammad Matter, co-founder of the Protection Project at Johns Hopkins University visited the Russian Duma and provided advice as to how the Russians could monitor match-making organizations. Russia is a big source for mail-order brides because, in the words of Matter, "...with a reputation for being more attached to family values and less career-oriented that their Western counterparts, Russian women attract many foreign men."

Matter's recommendations included requiring the matchmaking organisation to provide criminal background checks for grooms and native-language immigration information to prospective brides, as well as information as to the potential husband's marital history and whether he is currently married. Matter also commented on the issue of demand, which is really at the heart of trafficking.

According to his remarks at the Duma, Matter, who has also testified before US Congressional Committees on trafficking, believes that laws on trafficking should adequately address the demand that creates a market.

Although there has been some progress made against the scourge of human trafficking, this sanitized version that goes under the guise of matchmaking is probably going to increase, especially in Asia, where there are more men than women. This demographic feature is most striking in countries like China and Pakistan, and is curious because under completely natural circumstances for humans, women outnumber men.

End of story

It is a fact that more boys are born than girls, but the under-five mortality is so much greater for boys than it is for girls that five years from any baseline, that girls outnumber boys, with numbers ranging from around 103 to 108 girls for every 100 boys. However, things are changing in Asia. In China, India, and Pakistan there are about 108 boys for every girl in the younger generations.

Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen addressed this issue some years back in an academic paper. In 1990 he put forward the idea of "Missing Women"; from his demographic studies he concluded that there were 100 million fewer women in the world than there should be.

The culprit was presumably death due to sex-selective abortion, neglect, discriminatory treatment, or abandonment (although another hypothesis floated in February suggests Hepatitis B may be a contributing factor as well; factoring in Hep B deaths the researchers found there to be 33 million "missing women".)

It's interesting how all these social problems tie into one another like a big Gordian Knot of misery. Most reports on trafficking explain the root causes of trafficking, which are low levels of education, perceptions of women's roles, asymmetric status and power, historic precedents of bonded labor, traditions of early marriage, corruption, and gender-biased policies and laws (reports are easy to find on the web; a good introduction is the US State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons Report, downloadable at http://www.state.gov).

It's also interesting to see how most of these problems are exacerbated by government neglect or even, in the very worst of cases, tacit approval for "worker migration". Some experts argue that poor governments turn a blind eye because they crave the foreign exchange that comes in the form of remittances.

It is a shameful aspect of globalization, and a sad commentary on the nature of humans, corporations, and governments. It seems that the situation is going to get worse before it gets better. The tone of the newspaper articles shows us that.

KEITH BETTINGER is a Fulbright Scholar living in Kuala Lumpur. He is currently completing his research on Malaysian national parks. He also writes for regional publications. Email him at kisu1492@hotmail.com.