Girls For Sale -By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

One thinks of slavery as an evil confined to musty sepia photographs. But there are 21st-century versions of slaves as well, girls like Srey Neth.
I met Srey Neth, a lovely, giggly wisp of a teenager, here in the wild smuggling town of Poipet in northwestern Cambodia. Girls here are bought and sold, but there is an important difference compared with the 19th century: many of these modern slaves will be dead of AIDS by their 20's.
Some 700,000 people are trafficked around the world each year, many of them just girls. They form part of what I believe will be the paramount moral challenge we will face in this century: to address the brutality that is the lot of so many women in the developing world. Yet it's an issue that gets little attention and that most American women's groups have done shamefully little to address.
Poipet, 220 miles on bouncy roads from Phnom Penh, is a dusty collection of dirt alleys lined with brothels, where teenage girls clutch at any man walking by. It has a reputation as one of the wildest places in Cambodia, an anything-goes town ruled by drugs, gangs, gambling and prostitution.
The only way to have access to the girls is to appear to be a customer. So I put out the word that I wanted to meet young girls and stayed at the seedy $8-a-night Phnom Pich Guest House -- and a woman who is a pimp soon brought Srey Neth to my room.
Srey Neth claimed to be 18 but looked several years younger. She insisted at first (through my Khmer interpreter) that she was free and not controlled by the guesthouse. But soon she told her real story: a female cousin had arranged her sale and taken her to the guesthouse. Now she was sharing a room with three other prostitutes, and they were all pimped to guests.
''I can walk around in Poipet, but only with a close relative of the owner,'' she said. ''They keep me under close watch.They do not let me go out alone. They're afraid I would run away.''
Why not try to escape at night?
''They would get me back, and something bad would happen. Maybe a beating. I heard that when a group of girls tried to escape, they locked them in the rooms and beat them up.''
''What about the police?'' I asked. ''Couldn't you call out to the police for help?''
''The police wouldn't help me because they get bribes from the brothel owners,'' Srey Neth said, adding that senior police officials had come to the guesthouse for sex with her.
I asked Srey Neth how much it would cost to buy her freedom. She named an amount equivalent to $150.
''Do you really want to leave?'' I asked. ''Are you sure you wouldn't come back to this?''
She had been watching TV and listlessly answering my questions. Now she turned abruptly and snorted. ''This is a hell,'' she said sharply, speaking with passion for the first time. ''You think I want to do this?''
Another girl, Srey Mom, grabbed at me as I walked down the street. She wouldn't let go, tugging me toward the inner depths of her brothel -- but she looked so young and pitiable that I couldn't help thinking that she really wanted me to tug her away.
So I did. I paid the owner $8 to spring her for the evening and then took her away for an interview. (Photographs of both girls are at www.nytimes.com/kristof.)
The owner let Srey Mom go out unsupervised, it turned out, partly because she had been a prostitute for several years and was trusted to return -- and partly because her dark complexion meant that she was of little value anyway. The brothel sold her to men for just $2.50, compared with the $10 commanded by the lighter-skinned Srey Neth.
I asked Srey Mom what her freedom would cost. Payment of about $70 in debts to her brothel owner, she said. Two girls in her brothel had been freed after they found boyfriends who paid their debts, she said, and she spoke of her longing to see her sisters and the rest of her family in her village on the other side of Cambodia.
''Do you really want to leave the brothel?'' I asked.
''I love myself,'' she answered simply. ''I do not want to let my life be destroyed by what I'm doing now.''
That's when I made a firm decision I'd been toying with for some time: I would try to buy freedom for these two girls and return them to their families. I'll tell you in my column on Wednesday what happens next.

How to Make Quick Money and Keep it - The Best of Two Worlds

Do you feel that you are you going the route of the rags-to-riches-to-rags story? This is an exaggeration, admittedly. However, it seems that regardless of how often you heed the guides on how to make quick money, you still find yourself in the familiar territory of financial quicksand.
Maybe you know how to make quick money, but do not know how to keep it! Indeed, making quick money share similarities with spending money, quick. It feels like you have holes in your pockets such that as soon as you put in money in them, the money just slides down into the holes.
Here is how to make quick money, and actually keep and save it.
Ideas to Make Money
You can have a job, first and foremost. Or, make that "jobs." Most jobs will provide you with regular income and employee benefits, plus an assurance that retirement benefits can be had in the future.
You can engage in a home business. You can either quit being an employee and instead become an employer, or be the one-man show of your fledging business. You can also engage in your home business while holding down your job. It all depends on your financial capability, risk tolerance, goals, and personality, among other factors.
You can capitalize on your passions and hobbies or on your talents and skills, and throw in capital and determination. Admittedly, having a home business might not be the best guide on how to make quick money per se, but it definitely can be a big-time money earner.
As to your home business, there are many opportunities over the Internet that you can take advantage of. There are data entry jobs, article writing projects, web design and development, blogging, and selling stuff online, to name a few business opportunities.
Ideas to Keep (And Save) Quick Money
Now that you have ideas how to make quick money, it is time for ideas on how to keep quick money. You need not fall into the vicious cycle of quick money in, quick money out at the click of your fingers (or more like, at the click of the mouse in these web-driven times).
First, change your psychological approach towards quick money. Always remember that your quick money is still your money, which means that squandering it will be fooling yourself. If the source for your quick money is a secondary job, then you can save this money as your primary job should cover your regular expenses. If it is your exclusive source of income, then saving is all the more necessary.
Second, be a diligent saver. As soon as you get your quick money, set aside a fixed percentage or a fixed amount as savings. Do not make an exception since you might make savings procrastination as recurring habit.
Third, stop using your estimated quick money as buffers for future expenses and debts. Unlike a regular job with regular wages, quick money from businesses can suffer from cyclical variations. If you use this quick money to guarantee debts, you might just find yourself in debt (and deep) trouble.
Fourth, follow all other advice on how to save money like never use your credit cards unless necessary, set savings goals within an attainable time frame, and stay within budget.
Ultimately, you decide how to make the most and the best out of religiously following guides on how to make quick money. Just remember, quick is as quick can.