WEDNESDAY NIGHT LIVE!

Killer on the loose

Davide lives in Ipswich and has a young daughter: “It worries me an awful lot.”

James: “It’s almost like it’s brought on a Winter effect. It’s tragic that we should be looking over our shoulders every minute.”

Joy: “Personally I can’t go out on my own much now. It’s quite scary.”

James: “It’s not too large a town to be impersonal. We’ll pull together and get through it.”

Imogen: “We need to go down the line of other European cities. I know someone who lives in the red light district of Ipswich and she doesn’t like it.”

Joy: “Legalising it will just make it more acceptable so I think we should help them get off the streets. Get them off drugs and back to a normal life really.”

Imogen: “It’s the oldest profession in the world. We need to not stigmatise people. He’s only going for prostitutes because they have to go into men’s cars. If it was legalised then the women would have more control.”

Dawn is a former Escort girl and knows the law in the UK: “We need to think about safety foremost. We’ll never get rid of it so we might as well accept it. I’d say he has some sort of grudge against women, I don’t the law or the police could stop this. But we could make things a lot less opportunist for people.”

Some texts just in:

Sam from Ghana
“Please tell the media not to stress that the victims are prostitutes as if their murder is a lesser crime. “

Jimmy in Monrovia
“Stop prostitution and be safe from all forms of danger. Their trade is very immoral.”

Dawn: “take pimps and drugs out of the equation and the vulnerability of the girls would decrease.”

Sebastian Horsley, artist, writer and prostitute user: “What’s happened is an aberration. There are hundreds and thousands of people working in prostitution. I don’t think you can do anything about this. It’s the texture of life for suffering to occur. Prostitutes are murdered because they are available to this sociopathic individual.”

Some texts and e-Mails just in:

An e-Mail from Bruce, Washington, DC:
“I seem to recall four young women being found near the seedier side of Atlantic City a few weeks ago, they too had their line of work questioned. No matter what their line of work, chosen or not, may be, being found dead in a ditch is no way for a person to go. Governments need to back off their puritanical ways and protect all its citizens.”

Sebastian: “I applaud anything that makes it safer. Attitudes have changed to a certain extent. Prostitution is the mirror of man. Some of us sell our souls, some of us sell our minds and some sell our bodies.”

Tarro from the U.S.
“Sympathies and regards to the Ipswich community from the US. It is unfortunate that attitudes towards prostitutes, on both sides of the Atlantic, makes the oldest profession a more dangerous one.”

Ben
“Why is it that the police have put the onus on these young women to stay off the streets? Why hasn't anyone told the johns to give up trolling for prostitutes until this killer is found? Someone is out there killing women and there are still other men on the streets desperate enough for sex that they won't spare the prostitutes several nights till the killer is caught.“
Nacole in Dallas, TX
“These women may not have been on drugs, just desperate and without work skills. Many of these women are misguided and afraid that’s why they have pimps for protection. It is wrong for someone to take a life of another person regardless to weather they feel their job is morally right or not.“
Joan: “Everybody is very concerned. People are frightened and that in it’s way is very helpful. It needs to be managed.”

Rachel: “Everyone’s talking about it and taking more precautions. It’s making people think.”

Joan: I was living in Yorkshire when the Ripper was active. Even then I thought prostitutes were vulnerable. They egt into strange cars because it’s part of the way they work.”

Rachel: “The sad thing is when the first one went missing a lot of people didn’t take much notice.”

Dawn: “The whole issue of prostitution has come to the fore.”

Messages are flying in on this topic:

John, Nairobi:
“Why can't these women take heed to the warning given by the police department? It seems they are just challenging death and getting murdered. Why don't the police round up these prostitutes and keep in some safe havens?”

A text from Roger in Prague:
“If drug money is the cause of prostitution, society could lower the risk by providing free drugs to them. Catch 22 is that you can't stop non prostitutes taking advantage of this when you can’t formally identify someone in an illegal profession. Time for a change in the law re drugs and prostitution.”

And one from Berlin:
A. Green
“I would like to point out that prostitution is already legal in Britain; it is soliciting which is unlawful.”

We’re back from the news and the texts are still coming:

MA'ARUF in Nigeria
STREETWALKERS SHOULD BE PREVENTED FROM WALKING TO DARKNESS,PERIOD!

Adam from Uganda
Prostitution should not be legalised because selling your body is immoral and a bad example for young girls who are stil in school.

Obi from Nigeria.
Murder is a crime and I urge the British police to bring the individual to book for this evil. Don't legalize prostitution.

Tony, Washington, D.C. has e-Mailed:
“It is astounding for to hear one of the individuals you were talking to state that prostitution should be legalized so that it becomes safer for these young women. These young women were participating in acts that drive some men (look at the men in prison and show me one man who is accused of murder who doesn't have a sexual problem and I will believe you) to the extremes of taking the life of someone else in a search for gratification. Legalizing prostitution just like pornography will perpetuate the problem. Making a vice legal doesn't make the problems go away it just makes the road that much wider to travel. “

The Saan of Botswana

Smith is part of the Baswara tribe: “It should be a lesson to indigenous people worldwide. It’s not an easy war. You have to fight for it.”

Goitseone is in Botswana: “They were afraid to just say the truth.”

Matambo: “It means a lot. It’s not a concern on our part for them to take an appeal.

Kiletsko is from Botswana and is on work experience here in London with the BBC. She is opposed to the ruling: “We cannot afford for people not to be educated. I am being sponsored by the government here today. Don’t be a specimen for the West to hunt and gather.”

Matambo: I can use a computer but I’m still part of the bush.”

Kiletsko: “I don’t mind maintaining your culture but nobody can cheat me out of anything ‘cos I’m educated. It’s not practical for Botswana as a whole.”

Matambo: “The government is being selfish. The state has to understand how the people want to progress in life. 500 years ago we were mainly herders and arable farmers.”

Kiletsko: “I love the Bushmen culture. I am saying as a fellow African. We are all under the pressure of looking to the West. I’m not saying you should get a laptop. When healthcare is given to you and you deny the next generation that . . . we are a whole. You are a Basarwa and a Botswana.”

Matambo: “Some groups are down some groups are up. Groups have ways of looking after themselves. ”

Cameron: “About 40 years ago the Rev Mike Scott helped Namibia to put it’s case to the UN and that the SA governments could not tell Namibians what to do.”

Kiletsko: “Can you afford to have your children to depend on tribal medicine?”

Weaver Mumba,LSK,ZAMBIA.
The Bushmen should be integrating not isolating themselves. We all left the bush a long time ago.

Majid in Nigeria
The ruling today in Boswana clearly shows that wat Africa can manage is poverty

Milimo Malambo in Zambia
The Kalahari game reserve is an illegal entity. Long live the Saan people.

Shootin’ blind

Kirby: “There’s a need for legislation to allow people with physical challenges to participate and be a part of the outdoors. You have to be safe. All hunting has to be safe.”

Rabiyah is curious: “How does a blind person shoot?”

Kirby: “Kids who shoot blind have very smooth hands. They’re in touch with their surroundings . . . more than we are. You put them in a safe position and you mentor them in terms of hunting safety. Once they are in position you get them squared away with the rifle in the right position and they put then head over on one side and you put your chin on the rifle for them and say a little bit left or a little bit right.”

Simon is visually impaired: “I don’t see how they will get pleasure from this. Blind people need tactile things.”

Francesco: “I think this is hilarious. All of all of the activities to make inclusive hunting would not be high on my list.”

Simon: I wouldn’t like to be in a field with another blind person with a gun

Kirby: “We have lots of folks that are blind and it’s a unique way for them to experience the outdoors.”

Simon: “You can experience the outdoors without shooting a gun. I don’t see the pleasure.”

Kirby: “It’s an incredible experience. And folks we’ve worked with have told us this. This is all part of being just a regular person and being part of the regular community.”

Cheree is in Nevada: “I find the concept unsporting. I’m part native American. We don’t shoot things just for fun. We shoot them to eat them.”

Kirby Brown of the Texas Wildlife Association: “I agree.”

Francesca: “I would rather nobody used guns. The Texas state has a mentally challenged man in the White House so I’m not surprised.”

A great set of debates tonight folks. I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Apolgies to all who were due to come on but didn't - we were short of time. I’ll leave you with some more texts and e-Mails we had on tonight’s topics:

Smuts in Botswana
All people of the world were at one time hunters and gatherers but have since changed and embraced civilization. Basarwa or Bushmen should move with time.

Chinedu in Nigeria
The Judgement shows that the judiciary is indeed the last hope of the masses.

Michael in Prague
The blind should not be allowed to hunt for the simple reason that hunting is an act of cruelty and insensitivity towards animals. No matter what you think of the necessity to eat meat or not, in our century we should be humane to animals as much as we can - why then do we protect so much our dogs? And how can we condone when someone has FUN when hunting an animal to death?! We must help the blind, but they remind us of suffering, and animals shouldn't suffer, too.

Albert - Ghana
Legalise it, register them put them in a special district and let them each carry a sort of intelligent chip on their bodies which will register their activities and everything going on.