Once upon a time, a grand old lecturer of mine boldly announced in class one day: “you(we) are all prostitutes”…well, how’s that as a way to grab the attention of a class of hoodlums that wasn’t attentive at all?

Professor X – was not one of our favorites. He was too old and we’d heard many stories about him – about how he used old anthologies to teach; how he was stingy with his grades (stories that we were later to discover were facts rather than fiction). How he became our professor is still unknown. When we signed up for our classes, we usually also looked at who would be the professor. And it was the same for this particular course - where we saw that it would be Professor Z – who was fun and gave easy marks J and we quickly signed up, only to be shocked when Professor X hobbled into the lecture room with his rather beaten briefcase and 1960s suit in a 2002 world!

Anyway, Professor X forced his way in to teach this group – Parallel students, i.e privately sponsored students whom he had no love for, and we in return did not show him any love either! Would you believe, that he set us a CAT (Continuous Assessment Test) in which we used the very same examples he’d shared with us in class. He proceeded to give us strange marks like 1.75, 0.25, per point made in the essays. Eventually, some of us had like 7.5/30 marks – many even less. Only one student managed to get a respectable enough grade – and when we compared our papers, her answers were just the same as ours. So, we concluded that Professor X was just crazy – and we complained and petitioned for the papers to be re-graded or to be given another cat. As luck would have it, Professor Z was the one to help ease us out of the misery of these results.

Back to the prostitution. Now, our understanding of the word “prostitute” is similar – i.e a person (usually a woman) who earns money by having sex with other people. So, we were all Miffed! Insulted! Transmogrified even that this grand old Professor man had decided to tell us quite casually, that we are “prostitutes”…But, in his defence (today, but back then I wouldn’t have tried to take his explanation), I came to discover another non-sexual way in which that term could be applied.

1) Somebody who degrades talent for money – somebody who uses a skill or ability in a way that is considered unworthy, usually for financial gain.

2) The word "prostitution" can also be used metaphorically to mean debasement or working towards an unworthy cause

For several years I’d refused to accept the explanation that Professor X gave us – because I was angry at him for being such a hypocrite as it were. He would force us to have make-up classes on Sunday, rather than Saturday because he had to go to “Church!” Imagine that – having to go to a classroom on a SUNDAY – and that too for a lesson with a teacher we did not like at all and one who assumed that his religious day was more important than ours! So we had to negotiate amongst ourselves as students – should it be Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon? I think we finally agreed on some mid-morning hour for these classes.

Professor X’s explanation was simply that – we are all selling something, in order to gain something – and that in itself is a kind of prostitution if we go by the non-sexual definition of the word. Back then, his statement and explanation didn’t make sense. But 2 years or so ago, an old trend re-emerged. Clearly, he must have been a good teacher since this is one of the things that I remember soo clearly. He explained that he too was selling his expertise and at the end getting a salary. We in turn will pay him to give us knowledge – which we would in turn sell to some big corporation or agency in order to earn money.

Now, this money is a very scarce commodity – well, it’s always been scarce, but the situation seems much worse today. Very few have it and very many more need it (even desire it) – so…forcing people to engage in behaviours that can be defined as “prostitution”…

- want to get out of paying a fine – you bribe someone

- want to misuse your authority for the sake of it – you ask for a bribe

- want to get some money to fund your activities – hell, “bribe” by employing the donors friends, relatives, country people… and place them in position of authority as well so that you can appease them

- want to get your policies adopted by someone – then go along and hire their sister, or brother or daughter – or country person and place them in position of authority as well so that you can smooth things over to gain what you want. Etc etc…you get my drift.

And so it has become of the world…organizations, governments, friends, strangers etc…There is no more good will in the world – and of course I’m not suggesting that we don’t get compensated for our services because at the end of the day, we still need money to meet our survival needs.

But what’s trending now? We are blatantly employing and relating with people based on how we can gain financially while also touting the principles of Human rights and equality – and it really sickens me. So one’s father is not a bigshot somewhere and neither are they related to or knowing someone big somewhere or, their country is not a DEVELOPMENT PARTNER….does that mean that the other person - who’s parent is CEO of some Fortune 500 company or who’s husband is some gazillionaire or who’s country has billions of dollars to spare is better than the one who’s not? Even with friendships – we also seek out friendships that will bear fruit – mostly money..that when we are in a fix, our “friends” should be financially able to step in and help out; same thing with relationships – we want spouses that are “financially stable” – gone is the “we will grow together and build each other up”…lovey dovey stuff.

In the process, we lose values of honour, truthfulness, and integrity just so that we can access a few hundred bucks…seriously? Are those the values that we want to teach our children? Is there no value for meritocracy any more in this world? How then can condemn that man/woman selling their body in order to make ends meet, and in the same vein, claim that what we are doing in our places of work, or social relations, etc is not akin to PROSTITUTION ? Are we not also selling ourselves? And at the end of the day, we end up acquiescing to their every whim and desire – even when we know they are not workable or sustainable deals, and which also sets off another chain of lies, deceit, trickery, forgery – just to realize these unworkable deals and make people happy!

Eff it! We are all soooo prostituting!