Olympic fans too busy for prostitutes

By Paul Majendie


ATHENS (Reuters) - Ellie is so proud to be Greek that she even closed her brothel so the girls could watch the opening ceremony at the Olympics.


But she draws the line at giving special rates to Olympic volunteers. "I don't do discounts -- and I didn't like him anyway," she said, scornfully spurning one bargain hunter.


As Greek prostitutes union president, she even decided not to advertise her wares while the Olympics are on.


"It gives the wrong image," she told Reuters, taking a cigarette break between clients in her bustling brothel.


So, when the world descended on Athens for the Games, the athletes and sports fans have not been beating a path to her door with its tell-tale light above the entrance.


"I have my clients and they are mainly Greek." she said.


Chortling at the idea, she said: "But wouldn't it have been nice if we girls had been invited into the Athletes' village. We would have turned it into an Olympic brothel!"


"We could have gone out and advertised but decided as true Greek patriots to stay low profile," said Ellie, the work name of Dimitra Kanelopoulo.


"I think the foreigners here are too busy thinking about the Olympics. Sex is not a top priority. None of the 10,000 athletes have come to my place. I think I would have been exhausted if they had," she said.


BLACK SARONG


She is a magnificently plump peroxide blonde, swathed in a diaphanous black sarong, one ample bosom peeping out as she pauses for a chat on a busy evening at the office.


Reporters politely sipping coffee in her opulent salon have to wait their turn to talk. Clients have priority. Time is money. The traffic is brisk.


Soft lighting, perfumed air, lush sofas, a statue of Eros, mirrors on the doors -- her brothel looks like every male fantasy of a decadent den of delights.


Wedged between a bakery and a garage in downtown Athens, her establishment is strictly legal in Greece.


Prostitutes pay taxes, social security, issue receipts and get health checks every month.


But "legals" make up only about 10 per cent of the profession in Greece. She estimates that illegal prostitutes number more than 60,000 across the country.


Hundreds of advertisements in the press offering a good time in bars or home visits from eastern Europeans hint at the mass of illegal immigrants who work in the underground sex trade.


Kerbside soliciting is illegal in Greece but a late-night walk around the capital's main Syngrou Avenue shows the law is widely ignored.


Proud to represent her profession as president of the Movement of Greek Prostitutes (KEGE), Ellie is certainly not a man-hater.


"Oh no," she said. "Our life would be so boring without them. I love my job. I do not belong to the Valkyries and I am not a feminist."


There is certainly nothing downtrodden and trapped about Ellie. "I am proud to be a prostitute," she said. "Can't you see that for yourself?"

link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040828/80/f1exj.html