병원응급차로 사용됐다가 수명을 다하고, 다시 제 2의 주인에게 팔려간 앰블런스차가 Brothel로 개조되여, 그곳에서 손님을 맞아 들이고 있다. 이렇게 된 주목적은 폭력의 위험과 부당하게 착취당하는것으로 부터의 위험을 덜수 있다는 것으로, 덴마크의 Social Entrepreneur의 아이디어에서 시작됐다고 한다. 섹스가 상품화 되는곳에는 항상 범죄가 연결되기에, 이러한 부득히한 변형된 Brothel이 창조됐다(?).
우리 인간들의 생각은 목적과 환희가 맞아 떨어지면, 상상을 초월한 Idea가 그방법으로 이용되는것은 어제 오늘 일어나는 새로운 것은 아닌것 같다. 인류가 존재하는한 이지구상에는 ......
Michael Lodberg Olsen invites me into an old ambulance, long out of service.
"So what happens in here?" I ask.
"Sex," he quickly answers, eyes flashing with laughter.
It's not very inviting as I step inside. It still looks very medical - grey walls, blue seat. And it's cold - it's -1C and snowing outside.
But this old ambulance - called "Sexelance" - is a safe space for Copenhagen's sex workers. They can bring clients here with the knowledge that volunteers are around to step in if things get ugly.
"코펜하겐"시내에서 몸파는 여자들이 섹스하기에 안전한곳,소위 말하는, Sexelance로 고객을 데리고 오면, 그주변에는 만약의 경우를 대비해서 봉사자들이 항상 대기하고 있다는것을 알고있기때문이란다. 덴마크에서 몸파는 여성들은 실제로 약 45% 이상이 신변위협과 공갈에 시달리고 있는데, 창녀촌의 통계는 겨우 3%로 나타나 있다고 한다.
As well as human volunteers for protection, inside there is a notice on the wall saying police will be called at the first sign of violence and another encouraging sex workers to get in contact if they are victims of human trafficking.
And there are other items to help too. Wipes for cleaning after sex, three condom options, lube, even a heater run on electricity from a generator outside. All these suggestions came straight from sex workers.
"These people are my neighbours and friends so I listen to them, they have the best ideas for what they need," Michael says. For instance, the sex workers told him they often get sore knees.
"So we came up with this", he says, waving a rainbow-coloured chunk of polystyrene at me.
When Sexelance started operating in November 2016, Michael wasn't sure it would work. People were initially reluctant to use it, particularly clients. But now it has been used 45 times and Michael says people are becoming more comfortable with the idea.
"If the sex workers think it's a good idea then they will ask the customers to come here and tell them, 'It's a safe place, there are all the condoms we need, and there's heat!'" Michael laughs.
He offers his ideas with a light, humorous touch, like his description of how sex workers would like to "pimp" up the ambulance with curtains, mirrors and red carpet on the walls.
But in his actions Michael is entirely serious. It's not the first time he has used an old ambulance to help what he calls Copenhagen's "street minorities", and his first initiative got people listening.
It was similar to Sexelance - a repurposed old ambulance, this time a German one from the 1990s called Fixelance. It provided drug addicts with a space to take drugs, with an on-site doctor and nurse, equipped with clean needles and Naxalone, an antidote for heroin overdose.
Unlike Sexelance, uptake for this one was quick. Eight people used it to inject heroin in the first three hours.
Also unlike Sexelance, Michael encountered a lot of resistance from the authorities. Two separate plans for permanent drug rooms were stopped by the authorities.
But it went ahead in 2011 with 100 volunteers involved and despite nerves on the first day, Fixelance achieved what Michael wanted.
It spurred the government to change Danish drug policy in 2012 and there are now five permanent facilities - "fixerums" or "fix rooms" - across Denmark. One based in Copenhagen is the largest in the world and the original Fixelance ambulance is now exhibited at the National Museum of Denmark.
There have been no fatal overdoses reported in any organised "fix room" anywhere the world.
World Hacks is a new BBC team looking at global problems.
We meet the people fixing the world.
As well as the two ambulance schemes, Michael created a magazine called Illegal! which hit the streets in Copenhagen in 2013. It's sold by drug addicts and in fact the explicit aim of the magazine, produced by volunteers, is to provide money to the addicts so that they can get their fix. It's an idea that again met resistance from some citizens, Michael says.
His aim with the magazine is to challenge what he says are people's preconceived ideas that drug users are just people who should be locked up for their habit.
"The consequences of our current political system is that drug users often have to steal to fund their habits," he says. "We are trying to make these people, who have addictions, less criminal. Yes, they may buy drugs with the money but that is real life."
The aim is to give the sellers more dignity by providing a magazine that people actually want to buy. The production quality therefore is very high, the art all original and the sellers take $2.50 (£2) commission.
Rikke Lauritzen from the municipality in Copenhagen says Illegal! is doing an important job on the streets of of the city.
"It's naive to think people will stop using drugs. What's important is that the authorities offer help and treatment for those who want to stop using. The only way we can do that is to see the human, not the addiction," she said.
And Copenhagen police support her stance saying they do not have a problem with the magazine, as long as it is legal.
Illegal! was sold in east London too for the first time two years ago, and there are plans for a bigger rollout in the UK's capital. But the Metropolitan Police said they "discourage anyone from giving money to someone that states they want to use it to commit crime."
And if he wasn't busy enough, Michael has also dedicated his time to making life easier for Copenhagen's bottle collectors.
There is a return scheme in most cities in Denmark where deposits are paid on bottles and cans to encourage recycling - consumers return the containers to supermarkets to collect their money.
Like in many places with container deposit schemes, homeless people and struggling pensioners rummage through through bins to get cans and bottles that others - who don't care about collecting the small deposit - have thrown away. Michael's simple idea was to place shelves on bins. They're now on 1,000 bins out of 5,000 in Copenhagen and the idea has spread to four other cities in Denmark.
Again, this idea is to give dignity back to Copenhagen's "street minorities", Michael explains. "Instead of thinking of these people as poor or homeless, we think of them as environmental workers who do an important job," he says.
So far there hasn't been any negative reaction to Sexelance - the police are engaging with Michael to suggest the best places to park it - and he hopes ultimately that the idea will go the same way as Fixelance, a permanent facility manned by doctors and nurses for Copenhagen's sex workers.
"It's about safety first and foremost, but it's also about better health and dignity," Michael says. "You can see how cold it is outside, and think normally these women are seeing clients on a bench, or in a car. It's not right that they should be out there with no support."
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39236978
No comments:
Post a Comment