Terrible Terrible Ideas

BBC

With the 2010 World Cup coming to South Africa, politicians are trying to come up with ways to encourage soccer fans to come and enjoy themselves. Most of the issues are pretty evident, reduce the horrendous crime rate, clean up the cities, improve the infrastructure, etc. However, this idea seems a bit out there. After seeing the "success" of the German sex industry during the 2006 World Cup, some politicians think it's a good idea to legalize prostitution during the 2010 World Cup.

Some people might balk at this idea because actually the German brothels did relatively poorly during the 2006 World Cup. Most articles I can find on the subject from during and after the 2006 World Cup, show only lukewarm business. Most people going to World Cup games aren't going for the prostitutes or come in a group and can't just go to a brothel when they please.

Of course, what I hope most people think about is HIV. It is believed that nearly 11% of South Africans have HIV. I imagine that for people looking to engage in sexual activities, Sub-Saharan Africa is pretty low on their places to go. Assuming that South Africa puts in safeguards to make sure that the prostitutes don't have HIV, where are they going to find them? I'm guessing prostitutes could be brought down from other countries, but hopefully not from the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa. This then begs the question, which prostitutes, assuming they have choice, are willing to risk working in a country with such a high prevalence of HIV?

It really just seems like a bad deal all around. Soccer fans are not going to flood brothels. Most potential customers will likely be scared off by the high HIV prevalence. Most potential prostitutes would also be scared off for the same reason. So in the end no one would win with legalized prostitution in South Africa.