I’ve been trying to figure out what makes a man hate a woman so much that he thinks nothing of selling (or even “giving”) her to someone else.

For it must be hatred and sheer contempt for the female sex – how else can one explain the fact that a man can exchange another human being for cold hard cash as if he were selling his second-hand car? Of course hatred implies a modicum of feeling, so perhaps a better word to use is indifference; an empty nothingness.  A total lack of human emotion towards women who are seen purely as a means to rake in money.

Malta is now apparently becoming a hub for human trafficking, a realisation which has shocked many but which has been met with a certain resigned inevitability by others.  It has long been felt that the influx of east European women on the island who are employed to dance in bars and strip clubs is, in fact, a cover up for a world which is even more sinister and depraved. I have a feeling we have only scratched the surface of what is really going on.

Of course, since the beginning of time, there have been women who have traded their bodies for whatever they can get – whether it’s to snare a rich husband or a visa to stay in Malta.

The Russian girls who were caught up in the ring of white slavery in Malta, which came to light last week, were reportedly brought here under false pretences, supposedly to work in restaurants. Little did they realise that there would be such a price to pay for having someone pay for their ticket and visa to bring them over to this sunny, laidback Mediterranean island.  Yet they still went ahead… perhaps because their prospects in Russia were even worse.  From the report it seems that a few of them knew that prostitution would be involved, but this  does not excuse the fact that they were duped. Prostitution, no matter how unsavoury, is one thing – but being locked up in a house and sold off to other men like cattle is another thing altogether.

As for the men involved, well some people will do anything for filthy lucre, and as the cliché goes, sex  sells.  Never has an expression been taken so literally as in this context.  I often find myself thinking that there is a general callousness and calculating ruthlessness in the underbelly of the island which makes a mockery of our many churches and festas. Who are these men who are sharing foreign girls between them as if they were pieces of candy? Do they have mothers, sisters, perhaps even wives who have no clue what they really do for a living? Are they so heartless and so without a soul that they do not stop to think that this poor girl is someone’s daughter or sister? And before someone says that the women are doing it out of their own free will, may I point out once again that they were locked up and coerced into becoming prostitutes.

Yes, these things have always existed, they happen the world over and human nature is what it is…after all it was Maltese pimps who ruled the Soho red light district in the 70s. Our own version of the red light district used to be limited to the once notorious stretch of Testaferrata street in Gzira. These days, however, as we learned from the court report about the Russian girls, the sordid goings on could be happening next door to you  for all you know.

Next to drugs, pimping is probably the easiest way for some men to make money. You have women doing all the work for you and you just kick back and collect the euros.  I just wonder whether these men ever stop and think about the implications of what they are doing and whether, before they sleep at night, it ever bothers them that the cash in their wallets is a result of the worse kind of human exploitation.

As we approach Women’s Day…

…and to keep to the subject of how men treat women, I’d like to say a word to young girls about self-respect.

It seems to me that another generation of men is emerging who treat women like scum. Misogyny is quite common and it seems to be growing; all you need to do is take a glance online at how young men speak about girls, casually calling them “bitches” and generally speaking about them in the most disgusting and sexist terms possible.

The girls are not helping themselves either in this department, as they go along with the “joke” and use similar banter right back at them, employing the same foul language.

I’ve always recoiled at the ease with which women are used as playthings and spoken of in terms of sexual objects. But as I get older, it just seems to sadden me even more as I realize that women have learned zilch, absolutely nothing.

With every degrading comment you accept as a matter of course, you are chipping away at your own dignity and self -esteem. With every Neanderthal comment you let slide by and laugh off, you are telling guys, “it’s OK to talk to me like that.”

I know it might seem like a minor thing, but the ill treatment of women always starts with language. Demand to be treated with respect, and if not, let the guy go and move on. Believe me, the “bad boy” image is only attractive for a short while and soon loses its charm when you need a real man to be there for you no matter what.

There are decent guys out there, but you won’t find them if you keep hanging around with losers who treat you like dirt.  As the saying goes, the only way someone can walk all over you is if you lie down first.