I thought a previous article, Afghanistan’s only pig quarantined in flu fear, sounded like it was written by the fine staff at The Onion. I was wrong. I have a new entry for the “Sounds like a headline from The Onion, sad to say it’s real” category – U.S. Will Pay $2.6 Million to Train Chinese Prostitutes to Drink Responsibly on the Job.
In a time where the U.S. government is spending trillions – yes, trillions – trying to stimulate the economy, and in a time when the government is criticizing companies such as AIG for “wasting” tax payer money, how is it the government allows $2.6M to be spend on such activity?
The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAA), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will pay $2.6 million in U.S. tax dollars to train Chinese prostitutes to drink responsibly on the job.
Dr. Xiaoming Li, the researcher conducting the program, is director of the Prevention Research Center at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.
This is a wee bit odd (from my perspective). Take a read of the abstract….
“Previous studies in Asia and Africa and our own data from FSWs [female sex workers] in China suggest that the social norms and institutional policy within commercial sex venues as well as agents overseeing the FSWs (i.e., the ‘gatekeepers’, defined as persons who manage the establishments and/or sex workers) are potentially of great importance in influencing alcohol use and sexual behavior among establishment-based FSWs,” says the NIH grant abstract submitted by Dr. Li.
“Therefore, in this application, we propose to develop, implement, and evaluate a venue-based alcohol use and HIV risk reduction intervention focusing on both environmental and individual factors among venue-based FSWs in China,” says the abstract.
The research will take place in the southern Chinese province of Guangxi.
I can save the government $2.6M right now. Here is how. Talk to anyone who ever went to college and was a drinker.
Anyone who drank while in college can confirm this – alcohol can lead people to make REALLY poor choices. So, yea, if you have a female sex worker (I’ll use the trade term whore, thank you) who is crap-faced beyond their ability to know what is going on… I’m going to go out on a very short limb here and say they will not have the ability to insist that the “customer” user protection.
$2.6M saved, thank you very much.
Stuff like this really blows my mind.
Related posts:
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- The Chinese see their chance to build an auto dynasty, here it is – Hummer sold to Sichuan Tengzhong
- Symbol of American excess, Hummer, finally sold to Chinese manufacturer
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- Alcoholism takes a toll on everyone, but how you react to the disease is what matters