Child Prostitution

I've been hearing more news of late (since the tsunami incident) of the child prostitution trade. Readers' Digest January (or was it December) had an article on this trade in Vietnam. The author went under cover to discover the truth behind this heinous crime and his findings were truly shocking. One story told of a 6-year old girl who explained to her "client" that she would only do chum chum (BJ) and not boom boom (intercourse). It brought to my mind my boyfriend's little nephew who is now learning new words and his vocab inevitably includes baby talk like "mam mam" for eating, "bom bom" for bath-time and "ah-wat" for kiss. This little girl prostitue is no older than a baby and still learning about the adult world and language. And her first experiences are of painful intercourse and gagging on BJs. The thought absolutely sickens me.

2 days ago, Ricky Martin guested on Oprah and he told the story of a paedophile who paid USD10,000 to have sex with a 5-month-old baby! I thank God so much that the paedophile was arrested.

I fear so much for the little babies and girls in this world, especially in countries where legal and government protection is limited or not eagerly enforced. I mustn't exclude the little boys as well as there are stories of boys being solicited to satisfy the cravings of homosexual paedophiles.

I cannot imagine subjecting any child to such dangers, much less creating another child just so I can carry on the family name. I would rather adopt a child and shield it as much as my abilities allow from external harm. There's only so much one can do but I want to do my bit.

DNA testing - too costly for tsunami tragedy?

so it came out in the papers recently that DNA testing for about 10 cases cost RM1million. Now, I'm a CSI fan and the experts down at Las Vegas CSI lab only need a few minutes to place the swab in a test tube and set it to spin at I-don't-know how fast. Results are always available within 4 hours, whether negative or there's a match.

Would appreciate a real medical professional explaining to me how this actually works. Because if the Las Vegas guys in TV land can get results within the day at no apparent additional cost to the CSI operations, what are our Malaysian forensic lab doing wrong/ ineffectively? Is it because our labs are not best-in-class? I'm hesitant to follow this train of thought as I've heard that our government hospitals have some of the best equipment in the world...

While we can't expect the leading CSI labs in this world to lend us assistance to track down our murderers, rapists, etc., I'm wondering why I've not come across any news of first world countries offering forensic help to identify tsunami victims. The reports I've read, especially of Baby 81, explain that DNA testing is extremely costly and takes weeks to obtain results. Luckily for Baby 81, he has finally been reunited with his real parents after DNA tests prove conclusive. But what about the other babies or adults (dead) who are still unclaimed?