Zurich Goes Out of its Way to Please its Hungarian Prostitutes

Local officials have decided that Zurich’s expanding legal sex industry needs to be better organized. Its municipal authorities have proposed a series of changes to existing prostitution regulations that would allow prostitutes to continue plying their trade, but only in three specific zones — including one equipped with new booths to welcome their clients.

The proposed measures, which need the city council’s approval, include forbidding street prostitution along the Sihlquai riverbank and in the busy Langstrasse area. In exchange, the activity will be allowed between Aargauerstrasse and Würzgrabenstrasse, outside the city center, where booths will be built to accommodate sex workers and their customers.

Street prostitutes will still be allowed to work in the city’s pedestrian nightlife area, the centrally located Niederdorf, and solicit vehicle-driving clients in Allmend Brunau. TheZurich city council expects the new laws will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2012.

the city council’s goal in introducing the measures was to combat human trafficking, offer appropriate response to victims, minimize the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and protect both sex workers and the population at large from violence.

At peak hours, when up to 120 sex workers can operate at the same time, street solicitation can be a real disturbance to ordinary people — thus the need to channel the activity to designated areas.

The number of female sex workers in Zurich in 2010 had increased significantly over recent years, with many of the new workers arriving from Hungary. Nielsen said that the rise in the number of workers also increased pimping and human-trafficking risks. The new measures were not so much anti prostitution as anti trafficking.

As sex workers often didn’t have information about their rights, the council was looking to advise prostitutes by establishing direct lines of communication.

Once the new regulations are in place, sex workers — whether or not they work the streets — will also need to obtain licenses.

Introducing ‘Sex Boxes’
Other developments include creating a special commission in which representatives of local NGOs will also sit and measures to insure that resources are allocated as effectively as possible.

The council initially plans to build 10 booths, popularly known as sex boxes, in Altstetten — more to be built if the amount of activity warrants it. Resources presently allocated to Sihlquai will be switched to the new area, so the only additional costs, anticipated at $2.8 million, will be those of constructing the boxes.

The new Altstetten prostitution area will be easy to monitor, control and protect, council members say. It will be operated and maintained by social services. Residents of the area have been informed of the plan. Plans for the design and construction of the sex boxes, scheduled to be ready by the spring of 2012, are already under way.

Hoodbhoy Calls Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons Ultimate Weapon of Blackmail

by the Anita Joshua/ Hindu

If the first quarter of the year laid bare the extent of intolerance in Pakistani society following two high-profile assassinations over the blasphemy law, the month of May 2011 forced the nation to look at itself. Many have turned away from the reflection — blaming the mirror for what it shows up — but some have redoubled their efforts to question the choices that Pakistan has made over the past several decades, bringing the nation to the point where its very existence as a functional state has come into question.

No doubt,Pakistanhas had more than its fair share of upheavals since 1947. But no one can recall a time when the system seemed so shaky as it is today with terrorism, sectarianism, rising intolerance, an economy that grew at 2.4 per cent in the outgoing fiscal, widespread and increasing poverty amid pockets of plenty bordering on profligacy, power and gas shortages, crippling inflation, little or no investment, high unemployment levels, flight of capital — ironically, enough, in some cases to Bangladesh — a fledgling democracy plagued with a hand-to-mouth existence… And, now, a security establishment exposed to the core by the events of May 2011.

It was as if the last façade had crumbled. Not so much by the biggest news of the decade — the quiet finale of the most extensive manhunt of history on May 2 in Abbottabad — but by the attack on the naval airbase, PNS Mehran, 20 days later. Six terrorists penetrated a high-security facility of the Pakistan Navy, destroyed two aircraft and held out against the elite forces of the armed services for well over 12 hours with two of them even managing to escape, ripping apart the painstakingly cultivated legend of the invincibility of Pakistan’s men in uniform.

While the U.S. use of superior stealth technology was cited as a reason for its helicopters flying in and out of the country unnoticed to take out al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, the armed forces had no explanation for how such a high-security facility housing crucial assets of the Navy could have been breached so easily. They were left fumbling for answers, issuing clarifications stating that someone as senior as the Chief of Naval Staff had been misquoted by the media — a rarity in a country where the media are not known to take too many liberties with the armed forces. And, again, it was the civilian government which had to come up to do the fire-fighting vis-à-vis the public perception for something which has always been so out of its domain.

Though the budget of the military and intelligence agencies is beyond parliamentary scrutiny — a point flagged repeatedly by the former Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif — Parliament and the Defence Committee of the Cabinet were invoked to reiterate confidence in the capacity of the armed services and intelligence agencies to meet all threats to national security at a time when they were coming in for considerable ridicule. They were the butt of post-Abbottabad jokes — again a first — and the sarcasm got sharper after the PNS Mehran attack with people taking digs galore at the “specialized businesses” that the armed services have diversified into over the years including property, cement, fertilizers, bakeries and cornflakes; the message being these preoccupations leave them with little time to defend themselves, let alone the country!

But these jokes and caustic remarks like that of leading rights activist Asma Jehangir — who called the generals “duffers” and urged them to return to their barracks with whatever they have amassed and let people decide the destiny of this country — do not take away the reality that Pakistan has some hard choices to make. Some of this open criticism may tone down following the chilling murder of journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad — widely believed to have met his death at the hands of intelligence agencies for knowing too much — but the hard choices staring Pakistan in the face will not go away. And, even if addressed, they will take a long time to show some results as the need of the hour is to “re-engineer Pakistan” that has been built into a security state driven by a systematically manufactured hatred for India.

According to former Chief of Naval Staff Fasih Bokhari,Pakistan has interpreted the word “security” only in military terms. And “strategic depth” has always meant getting more territory while it should have essentially meant expansion of the economy. Stating that the blame game will not get the nation anywhere, he observed at a public discourse that Pakistan needs to review its national identity, figure out its national purpose — take it away from hatred for India — and identify vital national interests.

Pointing out thatPakistanopted to be an Islamic Republic, his question was “does that make us first Pakistani or Islamic?” More critically this, in his opinion and that of lawyer Basharat Qadir, constitutionally sanctioned religious discrimination in Pakistan and created two categories of citizens; one category more equal than the other.

Drawing attention to the muddle that has been created in the Constitution, a columnist says:

“For starters, Article 25 in its Part II titled ‘Fundamental Rights and Principles of Policy’ guarantees equality of citizens while Article 20 guarantees the freedom to profess and practise a religion of your choice. Article 17 guarantees the freedom of association and Article 26 promises non-discrimination. And yet in the Constitution’s Part I, titled ‘Preamble,’ Article 2 declares only one faith, Islam, to be the state religion while Articles 42 and 91(3) dealing with the oaths of the offices of President and Prime Minister mandate them to be only Muslims. This despite Article 8 guaranteeing that laws inconsistent with or in derogation of fundamental rights to be void.”

Now this is a fundamental question that is unlikely to be addressed in the near future. Truth be told, it is way too much of a hot potato to be even touched at the moment. Why, even speaking about it publicly has become a life-threatening issue, so much so that the Jinnah Institute — an Islamabad-based think tank — kept the Pakistani media out of a function organised this week to launch its report on the status of religious minorities in Pakistan.

In fact, the PNS Mehran attack has shown how deep and widespread the malaise is. It is now no longer a matter of speculation that the terrorists had inside help. Such an attack would not have been possible without it. As a reaction, the armed services have apparently banned the activities of ‘Tableeghi jamats’ (Islamic preaching groups) in cantonments. But, even if cantonments are insulated from their influence, they are deeply entrenched in Pakistani society and the rank and file of the services are exposed to them everywhere. Then there is the use of “Islamic motivation” within the forces. “What are we preparing the Army for? To defend Islam orPakistan?” And, this conditioning runs through entire society; brought up as it is on a curriculum of doctored history, a never-ending search for strategic depth in Afghanistan and the “obsession” with “Enemy No. 1”India.

Given the ground realities in Pakistan, voices of reason — which say abandon Kashmir, give up dreams of making Afghanistan a Pakistani protectorate, let’s rebuild Pakistan brick-by-brick — can at best flag these issues but taking on a radical ideology popularised by the state is not something civil society can do alone. This transformation has to be led by the state but, from all indications, it is still unwilling to make that course correction.

India remains the ‘Enemy No. 1;’ providing the rationale for Pakistan having the fastest-growing nuclear programme in the world even as global concerns of it falling into the hands of terrorists is used by the propaganda machinery to whip up the spectre of the Hindu-Christian-Zionist axis tightening the screws on the country to take away the lone ‘Muslim bomb.’

According to Pervez Hoodbhoy, Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme has become the ultimate weapon of blackmail. Even if Pakistanis at the tipping point, there are far too many weapons for even theU.S.to take out. “It can do little to take them out because that would mean a full scale war with a nuclear power. Pakistan knows this and is using its nuclear weapons as an instrument of blackmail. Pakistan knows that other countries will rush in to pump money into this country to prevent it from collapsing for fear of its nuclear weapons.” And, terrorists — of varied hue and nationality — know this, too, as they seek safe havens in Pakistan.

US Democratic Representative Anthony D. Weiner Admits Sending Lewd Photos to Young Women

Representative Anthony D. Weiner, a rising star in Democratic politics who many believed would be the next mayor ofNew York City, admitted on June 6 to having had inappropriate online exchanges with at least six women, and repeatedly lying about sending a sexually suggestive photograph to a young woman over Twitter in May 2011.

After a week of sometimes indignant public denials and insistence that he was the victim of an Internet hacker, a weeping and stammering Weiner, 46, acknowledged at a news conference that he had sent the photo of himself in his underwear to the woman, a college student inSeattle.

The six-term congressman fromBrooklynsaid he had broken no laws and would remain in office, calling the matter an “aberration from which I’ve learned.”

During an extraordinary 27-minute appearance, Weiner went on to describe a side of his life that he had kept secret from his closest confidants and family members, befriending young female admirers over the Internet and engaging in intimate sexual banter with them, sometimes sending them racy self portraits taken with his BlackBerry.

In one of the photographs, he is sitting bare-chested at his home computer, with a row of personal pictures behind him.

“Over the past few years, I have engaged in several inappropriate conversations conducted over Twitter, Facebook, e-mail and occasionally on the phone with women I had met online,” Weiner said.

The congressman said he had never personally met the women with whom he had corresponded. “I don’t know what I was thinking,” he said. “This was a destructive thing to do. I’m apologetic for doing it.”

Weiner’s political standing appeared in grave danger after his news conference. There was a striking absence of public expressions of support from his colleagues, and the House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi ofCalifornia, called for an ethics investigation into his conduct. “I am deeply disappointed and saddened about this situation,” she said.

House ethics rules state that members should conduct themselves “at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House.”

Weiner’s public confession was prompted on June 6 when Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger and provocative critic of the left, followed through on a vow to publish photographs Weiner had sent to a woman online. As Breitbart began to unveil the photos one by one, from midmorning until early afternoon, Weiner’s staff seemed paralyzed, failing to answer questions or challenge the authenticity of the images.

In one of them, the congressman is pictured holding up a handwritten sign reading “it’s me.” He had sent it to a 26-year-old woman inTexasafter she had expressed skepticism that she was exchanging personal messages with Weiner.

In his remarks to reporters, he declined to characterize any of the specific exchanges with the women, saying he was respecting their privacy. “This isn’t anyone else’s fault,”  Weiner said. His news conference at a Midtown Manhattan hotel was a singular spectacle: the House’s most pugilistic liberal, known for skewering his rivals in YouTube-ready bursts of righteous anger, appearing on live television as a penitent, teary figure behind a spare wooden lectern.

He explained, in a soft, clinical tone, that the online relationships with the women had begun three years ago and that several of them began after he was married in July to a Muslim woman Huma Abedin, a longtime aide to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in an elegant ceremony officiated by former President Bill Clinton. Huma said that she did not see a problem with her husband such photographs and wondered what was the big deal about it.

While he emphasized his failings, Weiner strained to point out that there were lines he had not crossed. He stressed that he did not have physical contact with any of the six women and that he believed they were all adults.

Pressed about their ages, he responded: “Well all I know is what they publish about themselves on social media. Someone could theoretically could be — have been — fibbing about it, and that’s a risk.”

Weiner said he owed his most profound apology to his wife, who, unlike spouses of other misbehaving male politicians, did not appear at his side. “ “We have been through a great deal together, and we will — we will weather this,” he said. “I love her very much, and she loves me.”

The congressman said his wife had known about some of his previous online connections with the women. But it was not until June 6 morning that he told her that he had lied about the most recent incident, and had in fact sent the photo to the woman in Seattle.

It was a day of severe diminishment for Weiner, who has emerged as a hero of the left and a relentless troublemaker to the right.

As the event wore on, the members of the media grilled him about seemingly intimate topics like phone sex and whether he had used his government computer to compose his sexually charged messages.

Weiner, always a voluble figure, could not seem to stop talking, as if the questioning was somehow therapeutic.

The episode, with its hints of digital danger, echoed the swift political fall of Weiner’s fellow House member, Christopher Lee, a New York Republican, who e-mailed a shirtless photo of himself to a woman online. Mr. Lee resigned.

David Birdsell, dean ofBaruchCollege’sSchoolofPublic AffairsinNew York City, said it would be hard for Weiner to argue that his conduct was any less damning. “By the Chris Lee standard, these are offenses that merit resignation,” he said.

Weiner has long been dogged by questions about his temperament and maturity: Former aides have complained that he could be a bully, and the New York tabloids eagerly chronicled his dating life.

Even if Weiner remains in office, political consultants said his ultimate ambition, to succeed Michael R. Bloomberg as mayor, has very likely been extinguished.

“There is zero chance today of a Mayor Weiner,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political analyst. “Mayors don’t do these things. It’s too much already.”

Weiner’s ordeal began two Fridays ago, on May 27, at 11:35 p.m., when he sent the now infamous photo of him in his gray boxers to the college student over Twitter, assuming it would remain private.

When it appeared publicly on his Twitter account, Weiner, a technophile, panicked, went online and tried to delete the photo. It was too late: the image had been copied and distributed across the Internet.

Now powerless to erase an embarrassing image of his groin, with a slight erection, from the all-seeing eyes of the Web, Weiner instructed his staff to tell the public that somebody had broken into his account.

On Sunday, May 29, a spokesman told the news media that “Anthony’s accounts were obviously hacked” and that the congressman had asked a lawyer to advise him on how to proceed.

But he declined to answer basic questions about the origins of the photo, first in a testy exchange with reporters on Capitol Hill, and then in a series of increasingly fraught interviews with major news outlets.

Later, Weiner surprised reporters when he conceded that he could not say with “certitude” whether he was the man in the photo.

The next day, Weiner said that he would no longer discuss the matter.

Throughout this period, Weiner misled even those closest to him.

Over the weekend, he hunkered down at his home, skipping a Salute to Israel Parade upFifth AvenueinManhattan. Weiner had enjoyed marching in the parade for years and had pledged to participate in this year’s.

By June 6 morning, he simply staggered under the weight of the media attention, the impending revelations from Mr. Breitbart and his own deceit. He began placing calls to the closely knit team that has guided him through years of political campaigns and calculations.

He told them that he had lied to them, and everyone else, and had to make it right.

When Bill Clinton officiated at the Gatsbyesque wedding of Representative Anthony D. Weiner and Huma Abedin at Oheka Castle on Long Island last summer, the former president reportedly joked that marrying a politician can be difficult, because it is “easy to distrust them, whatever their religion.”

Less than a year later,Clinton’s warning has proved to be prescient.

The incident seemed all the more striking, given the congressman’s elaborate courtship of Ms. Abedin and her Muslim family, whose blessing he sought when he proposed marriage.

During his press conference June 6, Weiner seemed most choked up as he apologized to Ms. Abedin, 35, a deputy chief of staff to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose own marriage has been rocked by her husband’s sexual peccadilloes.

Abedin did not appear alongside Mr. Weiner, 46, during his news conference; instead, she put in a full day of work for the State Department.

“My wife is a remarkable woman,” Weiner said. “She’s not responsible for any of this. This was visited upon her. She’s getting back — getting back to work. And I apologize to her very deeply.”

Weiner and Abedin have seemed an unlikely couple from the start. They come from very different backgrounds — he is a Jewish man from Brooklyn, she a Michigan-born Muslim-American raised in Saudi Arabia by an Indian father and a Pakistani mother. And Weiner and Abedin have very different personalities.

He is a fiery, publicity-craving wisecracker with a reputation as a Romeo and a habit of turning up in the tabloids. He can be overbearing and intense and pushes his staff and himself unrelentingly.

She is calm, private and glamorous, with a sense of elegance that has earned her attention from fashion magazines. Her close friend Oscar de La Renta designed her chiffon wedding gown, likening her to Scheherazade, the beautiful queen from “One Thousand and One Nights.”

But they complement each other well, said friends of the couple, who described Weiner as a sweet, supportive partner. Abedin, a practicing Muslim who speaks fluent Arabic, does not drink, and Weiner has given up alcohol in solidarity with her, they said. He sometimes fasts with her during Ramadan, and often meets her at the airport when she returns from long trips, even in the early morning hours.

Friends say that Abedin had been courted by “a lot of very successful, important people,” but it was Weiner’s persistence and tenacity, as well as his confidence and sense of humor, that eventually won her over.

“I kept on hearing stories of how adoring he was of her and how much he cared about her, and over time it became clear that this was something he was focused on, and it was for real,” said a friend of Abedin. Ms. Abedin got her start in politics in 1996 as an intern in Ms. Clinton’s White House office, and has been her aide since. She and Weiner met when Ms. Clinton ran for the Senate in 2000, but did not start dating until Ms. Clinton ran for president 2008.

At their wedding, Weiner’s robust premarital dating life was the subject of considerable roasting, and Weiner made it clear June 6 that Abedin knew about his rakish past, including his use of social media for sexual communication.