The Los Angeles Daily News posted a disturbing story yesterday about a Cal State Northridge professor who is the publisher of a web site that promotes sex tourism in Thailand. According to the
news article, the associate professor, Kenneth Ng, teaches economics at the California school and in his spare time runs the web site BigBabyKenny.com. Apparently CSUN doesn’t have a problem with Professor Ng’s “extracurricular activities” because he doesn’t utilize state or university resources.
After reading the LA Daily News article, I visited Mr. Ng’s web site. A brief look at the front page shows pictures of Thai women, images of Viagra and articles about how to send money to “Your Girl” in Thailand.
Some may joke that Mr. Ng, an economics professor, is merely promoting the oldest profession, and technically isn’t violating any laws. But as a woman and a taxpayer, I am disgusted that a public—or any—university would knowingly approve of Mr. Ng’s behavior.
Universities are institutions of higher learning, and because they are entrusted with the serious responsibility of teaching and training impressionable young adults, it is essential that professors be held to a higher standard of personal conduct.
Sex tourism and sex trafficking are a huge problem in Thailand. It’s estimated that worldwide over 4 million people are victims of the sex slave industry. This is a serious international problem and Mr. Ng’s website makes light of victims’ misery by promoting prostitution as lighthearted fun.
Not only has Mr. Ng violated his moral responsibility, he has violated the trust of citizens who pay his salary at a public university funded by taxpayers. Even if no public resources were used to fund his web site, Mr. Ng has demonstrated the type of personal behavior that brings into question his integrity and character. If CSUN wants to be regarded as a legitimate university that truly cares about human rights, it should investigate this matter and fire Mr. Ng.
This entry was posted
on Monday, April 19th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.
