I found a random Blog the other day that was talking about me (maybe?)
Have no idea who this is, I was going to leave a comment on it, but it is one of those members only things, and I could not be bothered to sign up just for the sake of six words.
Does anyone know who he is ?
"DAMN YOU DARREN!! ... you have utterly and without question obliterated me in our contest of spectacular proportions.... or maybe I was the only one who thought he could win while STILL eating the spectacular proportions? I, Daniel Sarmiento, do hereby (or until further notice) forfeit Korean BBQ buffet in respect for Darren's conquest and in hopes that I will follow in his example ...someday."
http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=chojinn&tab=weblogs&uid=102976622
Friday, September 30, 2005
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Former Khmer Rouge official says Cambodia trials a waste of money
A second former prominent Khmer Rouge official in a week yesterday questioned the point of spending millions to prosecute aging and ailing former leaders of the movement, saying impoverished Cambodia has higher priorities.
While agreeing a trial should eventually be held, addressing issues such as poverty, land grabbing and environmental problems should be higher priorities, Suong Sikoeun, an official at the foreign affairs ministry during the Democratic Kampuchea regime and one of the movement's so-called intellectuals, said in an interview at his home in Malai in Cambodia's remote northwest.
Sikoeun, now 70, said the principle of a trial was good, if only because it may highlight issues and prevent crimes against humanity which occurred under the Khmer Rouge from happening again. But he said it was frivolous at this point to throw tens of millions of dollars at history, when the factors which allowed the infamous regime to rise in the first place remained unaddressed.
"There are two points to holding a trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders; to find justice for the dead, and to prevent those killings and bad things from happening again," Sikoeun said.
"I support a trial ... However for myself, I think the trial should not be the first priority for Cambodia now.
The first priority should be to solve the problems of the people not having enough food to eat, of droughts and floods, of land grabbing, etcetera."
Sikoeun, who held a senior position in the ultra-Maoist regime's foreign ministry in Phnom Penh between 1975 to 1978, has not been suggested as a candidate for trial.
According to the agreement between the UN and Cambodia, the international community was to pay US$43 million toward the proposed US$56.3 million budget for a trial of former top leaders of the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
Cambodia was supposed to cover the remaining US$13 million, but has since said it cannot afford more than US$1.5 million.
Its appeals for the international community to cover the shortfall has so far fallen on deaf ears, stalling progress toward an international-standard tribunal getting underway.
Advocates of a trial have said that justice for those responsible for the deaths of nearly 2 million Cambodians from starvation, disease, overwork, torture and execution under during the regime's rule will teach new generations of Cambodians accountability and is vital if the country is to move forward from its violent past.
They note that the movement's former leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 and that many other potential candidates are elderly and suffer from ill health, making it vital to hold a trial sooner rather than later or risk not having one at all.
However Sikoeun argued that a trial would use up vital funds for a country in which the majority still survive on less than a dollar a day that could instead be used to address the problems that sent people such as himself in search of political alternatives in the first place and brought him to ultra-Maoism and the Khmer Rouge.
While agreeing a trial should eventually be held, addressing issues such as poverty, land grabbing and environmental problems should be higher priorities, Suong Sikoeun, an official at the foreign affairs ministry during the Democratic Kampuchea regime and one of the movement's so-called intellectuals, said in an interview at his home in Malai in Cambodia's remote northwest.
Sikoeun, now 70, said the principle of a trial was good, if only because it may highlight issues and prevent crimes against humanity which occurred under the Khmer Rouge from happening again. But he said it was frivolous at this point to throw tens of millions of dollars at history, when the factors which allowed the infamous regime to rise in the first place remained unaddressed.
"There are two points to holding a trial of former Khmer Rouge leaders; to find justice for the dead, and to prevent those killings and bad things from happening again," Sikoeun said.
"I support a trial ... However for myself, I think the trial should not be the first priority for Cambodia now.
The first priority should be to solve the problems of the people not having enough food to eat, of droughts and floods, of land grabbing, etcetera."
Sikoeun, who held a senior position in the ultra-Maoist regime's foreign ministry in Phnom Penh between 1975 to 1978, has not been suggested as a candidate for trial.
According to the agreement between the UN and Cambodia, the international community was to pay US$43 million toward the proposed US$56.3 million budget for a trial of former top leaders of the Khmer Rouge, which ruled Cambodia between 1975 and 1979.
Cambodia was supposed to cover the remaining US$13 million, but has since said it cannot afford more than US$1.5 million.
Its appeals for the international community to cover the shortfall has so far fallen on deaf ears, stalling progress toward an international-standard tribunal getting underway.
Advocates of a trial have said that justice for those responsible for the deaths of nearly 2 million Cambodians from starvation, disease, overwork, torture and execution under during the regime's rule will teach new generations of Cambodians accountability and is vital if the country is to move forward from its violent past.
They note that the movement's former leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998 and that many other potential candidates are elderly and suffer from ill health, making it vital to hold a trial sooner rather than later or risk not having one at all.
However Sikoeun argued that a trial would use up vital funds for a country in which the majority still survive on less than a dollar a day that could instead be used to address the problems that sent people such as himself in search of political alternatives in the first place and brought him to ultra-Maoism and the Khmer Rouge.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Blog and Internet Anonymity
pactum officium preoccupo mihi ex respondeo
*** *** ***
Blog censorship handbook released
A handbook that offers advice to bloggers who want to protect themselves from recrimination and censors has been released by Reporters Without Borders.
The media watchdog said it gives people who want to set up a blog tips on how to do so, how to publicise it, as well as how to establish credibility.
It also offers advice about writing blogs from countries with tough media restrictions, such as Iran and China.The handbook was part-funded by the French government.
Key international bloggers, experts and writers helped to produce the guidelines, such as US journalist Dan Gillmor and Canadian net censorship expert, Nart Villeneuve.
"Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure," Reporters Without Borders said on its website.
"Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest."
Blog clamp-down
Included in the booklet, called The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents, is advice about how to blog anonymously, as well as how to identify the most suitable way to circumvent censorship.
Blogs - easy-to-set-up diary-like websites - are proving increasingly popular on the net as vehicles through which people can publish their own thoughts.
Technorati, a blog search engine, tracks more than 17 million blogs globally. Blogs can be anything from personal diaries, to technology news, and political comment. Many have turned to blogging in countries where mainstream media is restricted. But they are increasingly being targeted by strict authorities.
Iranian authorities have been clamping down on mainstream media for some time, but it has recently turned its attention to cyber-dissidents and bloggers.
Campaign groups say at least two dozen Iranian bloggers have been jailed as a result of the clamp-down. It is estimated that there are some 46,000 bloggers in the country.
The issue of blog censorship and freedom of speech is truly global, however.
In June, Microsoft's MSN Spaces site in China started to block blog entries which used words such as "freedom", "democracy" and "demonstration".
Microsoft said the company abided by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates.
China recently introduced regulations that required all blog owners to register their sites with the state by 30 June.And on Wednesday, two Chinese Singaporeans appeared in court charged with posting racist remarks about minority Malays on the net.
The blogger booklet can be downloaded from the Reporters Without Borders website in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Persian.
Just Follow the Title Link on this post.
*** *** ***
Blog censorship handbook released
A handbook that offers advice to bloggers who want to protect themselves from recrimination and censors has been released by Reporters Without Borders.
The media watchdog said it gives people who want to set up a blog tips on how to do so, how to publicise it, as well as how to establish credibility.
It also offers advice about writing blogs from countries with tough media restrictions, such as Iran and China.The handbook was part-funded by the French government.
Key international bloggers, experts and writers helped to produce the guidelines, such as US journalist Dan Gillmor and Canadian net censorship expert, Nart Villeneuve.
"Bloggers are often the only real journalists in countries where the mainstream media is censored or under pressure," Reporters Without Borders said on its website.
"Only they provide independent news, at the risk of displeasing the government and sometimes courting arrest."
Blog clamp-down
Included in the booklet, called The Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-dissidents, is advice about how to blog anonymously, as well as how to identify the most suitable way to circumvent censorship.
Blogs - easy-to-set-up diary-like websites - are proving increasingly popular on the net as vehicles through which people can publish their own thoughts.
Technorati, a blog search engine, tracks more than 17 million blogs globally. Blogs can be anything from personal diaries, to technology news, and political comment. Many have turned to blogging in countries where mainstream media is restricted. But they are increasingly being targeted by strict authorities.
Iranian authorities have been clamping down on mainstream media for some time, but it has recently turned its attention to cyber-dissidents and bloggers.
Campaign groups say at least two dozen Iranian bloggers have been jailed as a result of the clamp-down. It is estimated that there are some 46,000 bloggers in the country.
The issue of blog censorship and freedom of speech is truly global, however.
In June, Microsoft's MSN Spaces site in China started to block blog entries which used words such as "freedom", "democracy" and "demonstration".
Microsoft said the company abided by the laws, regulations and norms of each country in which it operates.
China recently introduced regulations that required all blog owners to register their sites with the state by 30 June.And on Wednesday, two Chinese Singaporeans appeared in court charged with posting racist remarks about minority Malays on the net.
The blogger booklet can be downloaded from the Reporters Without Borders website in English, French, Chinese, Arabic and Persian.
Just Follow the Title Link on this post.
Investment Incentives to Vietnamese Businessmen
Meus vox vocis silentium per pactum officium.
***
Cambodia has offered investment incentives in the areas of agriculture, communication infrastructure development, power generation, heavy industries and human resource development.
Officials from the Cambodian Ministry of Trade and Development Council made the announcement to Vietnamese investors doing business in Cambodia at a meeting in Phnom Penh on Sept. 23.
They further said that foreign investors in Cambodia will enjoy tax holidays for 3 and 9 years. The Investment Law of Cambodia also stipulates that imported items for domestic production shall be totally exempt from import tariffs and that foreign investors are allowed to transfer all their profit abroad.
Cambodian officials also replied to Vietnamese investors' queries on land leasing procedures and tariffs on imported materials and goods.
At the meeting, Vietnamese businesspeople shared their experiences in doing business in Cambodia with their colleagues who plan to invest in the country.
According to figures released by the Vietnamese trade representative to Cambodia, two-way trade grew at an average growth rate of 35 percent in the 1998-2004 period. The two countries expect two-way trade to reach 650 million USD in 2005 and 1 billion USD in 2010
***
Cambodia has offered investment incentives in the areas of agriculture, communication infrastructure development, power generation, heavy industries and human resource development.
Officials from the Cambodian Ministry of Trade and Development Council made the announcement to Vietnamese investors doing business in Cambodia at a meeting in Phnom Penh on Sept. 23.
They further said that foreign investors in Cambodia will enjoy tax holidays for 3 and 9 years. The Investment Law of Cambodia also stipulates that imported items for domestic production shall be totally exempt from import tariffs and that foreign investors are allowed to transfer all their profit abroad.
Cambodian officials also replied to Vietnamese investors' queries on land leasing procedures and tariffs on imported materials and goods.
At the meeting, Vietnamese businesspeople shared their experiences in doing business in Cambodia with their colleagues who plan to invest in the country.
According to figures released by the Vietnamese trade representative to Cambodia, two-way trade grew at an average growth rate of 35 percent in the 1998-2004 period. The two countries expect two-way trade to reach 650 million USD in 2005 and 1 billion USD in 2010
Khmer-language software
Do not worry, I will not be switching to using Khmer script here !
***
Khmer-language software chasing Microsoft market
Noy Shoung has a bold prediction: by the end of 2006, more Cambodians will be using open-source software applications in Khmer language than Microsoft software in English.
As deputy general of human capacity building at the government's National Information Communications Technology Development Authority (NIDA), Shoung said that Cambodia has the fastest growing number of open-source users in the world. The software makes the program's source code available to the general public to change and modify.
This is different than commercial software such as that produced by Microsoft, which carefully guards its code as a company secret. Since the beginning of this year, NIDA has been working with Open Forum of Cambodia's Khmer software initiative to translate into Khmer the Open Office software suite, the open-source equivalent to Microsoft Office.
Javier Sola, coordinator of Open Forum of Cambodia, believes the applications will be a hit with local computer users because they are the only provider of basic software applications in Khmer.
One ambitious goal is to have the entire government administration using Khmer-language software by the end of next year."We want Cambodians doing this in Khmer," Sola said.
"You can't computerise the government without doing it in its own language."
Having finished the software development, Khmer Open Forum began training around 350 teachers in August this year on how to use the technology, developing and revising training materials as they go.
After the 20-hour training, students are awarded a certificate from NIDA recognizing their ability to teach others how to use the Khmer software applications. "Now I can share my computer [knowledge] with children in the rural areas," said Tourn Chan Thear, a teacher from NGO Enfants des Mekong in Sisophon, Banteay Meanchey province.
"It is more interesting for us and much easier for the students to learn." He said the youths he teaches in grades 8 to 12 would have a much better chance of eventually finding employment after learning Khmer open office.
On September 28 Javier Sola travels to Slovenia for the annual open office convention to present the progress of open source software in Cambodia.
***
Khmer-language software chasing Microsoft market
Noy Shoung has a bold prediction: by the end of 2006, more Cambodians will be using open-source software applications in Khmer language than Microsoft software in English.
As deputy general of human capacity building at the government's National Information Communications Technology Development Authority (NIDA), Shoung said that Cambodia has the fastest growing number of open-source users in the world. The software makes the program's source code available to the general public to change and modify.
This is different than commercial software such as that produced by Microsoft, which carefully guards its code as a company secret. Since the beginning of this year, NIDA has been working with Open Forum of Cambodia's Khmer software initiative to translate into Khmer the Open Office software suite, the open-source equivalent to Microsoft Office.
Javier Sola, coordinator of Open Forum of Cambodia, believes the applications will be a hit with local computer users because they are the only provider of basic software applications in Khmer.
One ambitious goal is to have the entire government administration using Khmer-language software by the end of next year."We want Cambodians doing this in Khmer," Sola said.
"You can't computerise the government without doing it in its own language."
Having finished the software development, Khmer Open Forum began training around 350 teachers in August this year on how to use the technology, developing and revising training materials as they go.
After the 20-hour training, students are awarded a certificate from NIDA recognizing their ability to teach others how to use the Khmer software applications. "Now I can share my computer [knowledge] with children in the rural areas," said Tourn Chan Thear, a teacher from NGO Enfants des Mekong in Sisophon, Banteay Meanchey province.
"It is more interesting for us and much easier for the students to learn." He said the youths he teaches in grades 8 to 12 would have a much better chance of eventually finding employment after learning Khmer open office.
On September 28 Javier Sola travels to Slovenia for the annual open office convention to present the progress of open source software in Cambodia.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Tonle Sap Great Lake
A somewhat sensationalised account of things by a former colleague of mine.
***
Natural resource management revolutionized around Cambodia's 'Great Lake'For Cambodia's 'Great Lake' and the millions who depend on it, a new lease on life
When Patrick Evans first arrived at Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake eight years ago, there were days when it seemed more like a militarized zone than one of the world's most productive freshwater fishing grounds.
"You might see boats full of guys carrying automatic weapons, patrolling their fishing grounds. At times, the lake could look like an armed camp," the FAO development specialist recalls. Long the main source of sustenance and survival for the millions of people that live around its shores -- and even on its waters -- the rich resources of the Tonle Sap were being poorly managed.
Fish, and timber from surrounding forests, were harvested unsustainably, and a 100-year-old system of commercial fishing concessions, inherited from colonial times, was troubled by problems of unfair access, corruption and, occasionally, violent disputes.
"Under that system, after fishing rights were leased initially they were often sub-leased, and then sub-leased again, so people holding rights were under pressure to defend their piece of the pie," Evans explains. Overfishing and illegal fishing were taking their toll on fish stocks, also.
"People were using small-mesh mosquito nets to capture fish, taking too many small juveniles, or carrying out electro-shock fishing with car batteries," says Evans. Catch amounts, as well as the size of fish, were declining -- which meant that there was less food to go around.
FAO project helps government turn things around In light of these mounting problems, Cambodian authorities teamed up with FAO to establish a natural resource management programme in one of the lake's poorest provinces, Siem Reap. The programme, entitled Participatory natural resource management in the Tonle Sap region, began operations in early 1995, thanks to financial support from the Government of Belgium. Working closely with staffers from Cambodia's Ministry of Fish (MAFF), FAO conducted studies on the flora and fauna of the Great Lake while reaching out to communities to identify problems and prioritize needs.
The MAFF/FAO team also assessed the way that natural resources were used and began to draw up plans for strengthening resource management capacity in the lake communities.
Communities take on leading role Beyond overfishing, another key issue that became evident immediately was excessive clearing of the forested land that surrounds the lake.
"That forest is essential to productive fisheries on the lake," says Evans.
"Every year when the lake rises by some 7 to 9 metres in depth, hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest are flooded, which provides nutrients, food and habitat for the fish, upon which millions of people depend. Deforestation was affecting the productivity of the lake's fisheries."
The primary cause of forest loss was land clearing for agriculture, as the floodlands bordering the lake are highly fertile. A secondary cause was a high demand for fuelwood to support an expanding brick-making industry.
Fortunately, says Evans, there was already widespread awareness among Siem Reap's lake communities that forest clearing was hurting fishing.
In 1997, the project team began to help the villagers organize themselves into local resource management organizations, and by 2000 community-led planned management - integrating people's livelihoods with forestry and fishery sustainability concerns - was occurring on around 10 000 ha. of land.
The improved management, combined with a 1997 government ban on brick kilns in the region, stemmed excessive timber harvesting and today much of the cleared flood forest is growing back, says Evans. These developments so impressed Belgian aid authorities that they extended aid for the project until 2005. According to Evans, this kind of sustained donor support is crucial if projects like that on the Tonle Sap are to bring about real change.
**
For full story follow link:
http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0922-fao.html
***
Natural resource management revolutionized around Cambodia's 'Great Lake'For Cambodia's 'Great Lake' and the millions who depend on it, a new lease on life
When Patrick Evans first arrived at Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake eight years ago, there were days when it seemed more like a militarized zone than one of the world's most productive freshwater fishing grounds.
"You might see boats full of guys carrying automatic weapons, patrolling their fishing grounds. At times, the lake could look like an armed camp," the FAO development specialist recalls. Long the main source of sustenance and survival for the millions of people that live around its shores -- and even on its waters -- the rich resources of the Tonle Sap were being poorly managed.
Fish, and timber from surrounding forests, were harvested unsustainably, and a 100-year-old system of commercial fishing concessions, inherited from colonial times, was troubled by problems of unfair access, corruption and, occasionally, violent disputes.
"Under that system, after fishing rights were leased initially they were often sub-leased, and then sub-leased again, so people holding rights were under pressure to defend their piece of the pie," Evans explains. Overfishing and illegal fishing were taking their toll on fish stocks, also.
"People were using small-mesh mosquito nets to capture fish, taking too many small juveniles, or carrying out electro-shock fishing with car batteries," says Evans. Catch amounts, as well as the size of fish, were declining -- which meant that there was less food to go around.
FAO project helps government turn things around In light of these mounting problems, Cambodian authorities teamed up with FAO to establish a natural resource management programme in one of the lake's poorest provinces, Siem Reap. The programme, entitled Participatory natural resource management in the Tonle Sap region, began operations in early 1995, thanks to financial support from the Government of Belgium. Working closely with staffers from Cambodia's Ministry of Fish (MAFF), FAO conducted studies on the flora and fauna of the Great Lake while reaching out to communities to identify problems and prioritize needs.
The MAFF/FAO team also assessed the way that natural resources were used and began to draw up plans for strengthening resource management capacity in the lake communities.
Communities take on leading role Beyond overfishing, another key issue that became evident immediately was excessive clearing of the forested land that surrounds the lake.
"That forest is essential to productive fisheries on the lake," says Evans.
"Every year when the lake rises by some 7 to 9 metres in depth, hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest are flooded, which provides nutrients, food and habitat for the fish, upon which millions of people depend. Deforestation was affecting the productivity of the lake's fisheries."
The primary cause of forest loss was land clearing for agriculture, as the floodlands bordering the lake are highly fertile. A secondary cause was a high demand for fuelwood to support an expanding brick-making industry.
Fortunately, says Evans, there was already widespread awareness among Siem Reap's lake communities that forest clearing was hurting fishing.
In 1997, the project team began to help the villagers organize themselves into local resource management organizations, and by 2000 community-led planned management - integrating people's livelihoods with forestry and fishery sustainability concerns - was occurring on around 10 000 ha. of land.
The improved management, combined with a 1997 government ban on brick kilns in the region, stemmed excessive timber harvesting and today much of the cleared flood forest is growing back, says Evans. These developments so impressed Belgian aid authorities that they extended aid for the project until 2005. According to Evans, this kind of sustained donor support is crucial if projects like that on the Tonle Sap are to bring about real change.
**
For full story follow link:
http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0922-fao.html
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Avian flu - facts and fiction
In the next few weeks the annual flu vaccination campaign will begin against the backdrop of worldwide concern about bird flu.
It is feared that avian flu could jump the species barrier and cause a lethal pandemic of the illness, which could kill millions of people.
Health Editor Madeleine Brindley asked the Health Protection Agency to separate fact from fiction about avian flu and the risks to human health
Q What is avian flu?
A Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. While all bird species are thought to be susceptible to infection, domestic poultry flocks are especially vulnerable to infections that can rapidly cause epidemics in poultry.
Q What is the present situation?
A Since mid-December 2003, a growing number of south east Asian countries have reported outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in chickens and ducks. Infections in several species of wild birds and in pigs have also been reported. The rapid spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, with outbreaks occurring at the same time in several countries, is historically unprecedented and of great concern for human health as well as for agriculture.
Q Why is there a risk to human health?
A Of particular concern, in terms of risks for human health, is the detection of a highly pathogenic strain - known as H5N1 - as the cause of most of these outbreaks of bird flu. H5N1 has jumped the species barrier, causing severe disease in humans, on two occasions in the recent past - in 1997 and 2003 - and is now doing so again. In the last year, in gradually growing numbers, there have been cases in Vietnam, Thailand and, more recently, Cambodia.
Q Apart from H5N1, have other avian influenza viruses ever infected humans?
A Yes. Two other avian strains have caused illness in humans, but the outbreaks were not as severe as those caused by the H5N1 strain. The H9N2 strain, which is not highly pathogenic in birds, caused mild cases of illness in two children in Hong Kong in 1999 and in one child in mid-December 2003, also in Hong Kong. An outbreak of highly pathogenic H7N7 avian influenza in birds, which began in the Netherlands in February 2003, caused the death of one vet two months later, and mild illness in 88 poultry workers and members of their families. An outbreak of highly pathogenic H7N3 avian influenza also occurred in British Colombia, Canada in 2004 causing two cases of mild illness in humans.
Q Are all of the currently reported outbreaks in birds equally dangerous for humans?
A No. Outbreaks caused by the H5N1 strain are presently of the greatest concern for human health.
Q Can humans be infected by bird flu?
A Yes, but this occurs rarely. Human cases were described in Hong Kong in 1997 during a large outbreak of bird flu which affected the large live poultry markets in the country. Similar cases occurred again in Hong Kong in 1999, in the Netherlands in 2003 and in British Columbia in 2004. All human cases were probably infected through close contact with live infected poultry. There have been 55 cases of H5N1 flu in humans in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia since January 2004, causing 42 deaths.
Q How are humans infected?
A Humans are usually infected through close contact with live infected birds. Birds shed influenza virus in their faeces.
Q Why is there so much concern about the current outbreaks?
A Public health officials are alarmed by the unprecedented outbreaks in poultry for several reasons. Firstly, most - but not all - of the major outbreaks recently reported in Asia have been caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain. There is mounting evidence that this strain has a unique capacity to jump the species barrier and cause severe disease, with high mortality, in humans. A second and even greater concern is the possibility that the present situation could give rise to another influenza global epidemic - a pandemic - in humans. Scientists know that avian and human influenza viruses can exchange genes when a person is simultaneously infected with viruses from both species.
This process of gene swapping inside the human body can give rise to a completely new subtype of the influenza virus to which few, if any, humans would have natural immunity. Moreover, existing vaccines, which are developed each year to match presently circulating strains and protect humans during seasonal epidemics, would not be effective against a completely new influenza virus.
If the new virus contains sufficient human genes, transmission directly from one person to another - instead of from birds to humans only - can occur. When this happens, the conditions for the start of a new influenza pandemic will have been met. Most alarming would be a situation in which person-to-person transmission resulted in successive generations of severe disease with high mortality.
It is feared that avian flu could jump the species barrier and cause a lethal pandemic of the illness, which could kill millions of people.
Health Editor Madeleine Brindley asked the Health Protection Agency to separate fact from fiction about avian flu and the risks to human health
Q What is avian flu?
A Avian influenza, or bird flu, is a contagious disease of animals caused by viruses that normally infect only birds and, less commonly, pigs. While all bird species are thought to be susceptible to infection, domestic poultry flocks are especially vulnerable to infections that can rapidly cause epidemics in poultry.
Q What is the present situation?
A Since mid-December 2003, a growing number of south east Asian countries have reported outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in chickens and ducks. Infections in several species of wild birds and in pigs have also been reported. The rapid spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza, with outbreaks occurring at the same time in several countries, is historically unprecedented and of great concern for human health as well as for agriculture.
Q Why is there a risk to human health?
A Of particular concern, in terms of risks for human health, is the detection of a highly pathogenic strain - known as H5N1 - as the cause of most of these outbreaks of bird flu. H5N1 has jumped the species barrier, causing severe disease in humans, on two occasions in the recent past - in 1997 and 2003 - and is now doing so again. In the last year, in gradually growing numbers, there have been cases in Vietnam, Thailand and, more recently, Cambodia.
Q Apart from H5N1, have other avian influenza viruses ever infected humans?
A Yes. Two other avian strains have caused illness in humans, but the outbreaks were not as severe as those caused by the H5N1 strain. The H9N2 strain, which is not highly pathogenic in birds, caused mild cases of illness in two children in Hong Kong in 1999 and in one child in mid-December 2003, also in Hong Kong. An outbreak of highly pathogenic H7N7 avian influenza in birds, which began in the Netherlands in February 2003, caused the death of one vet two months later, and mild illness in 88 poultry workers and members of their families. An outbreak of highly pathogenic H7N3 avian influenza also occurred in British Colombia, Canada in 2004 causing two cases of mild illness in humans.
Q Are all of the currently reported outbreaks in birds equally dangerous for humans?
A No. Outbreaks caused by the H5N1 strain are presently of the greatest concern for human health.
Q Can humans be infected by bird flu?
A Yes, but this occurs rarely. Human cases were described in Hong Kong in 1997 during a large outbreak of bird flu which affected the large live poultry markets in the country. Similar cases occurred again in Hong Kong in 1999, in the Netherlands in 2003 and in British Columbia in 2004. All human cases were probably infected through close contact with live infected poultry. There have been 55 cases of H5N1 flu in humans in Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia since January 2004, causing 42 deaths.
Q How are humans infected?
A Humans are usually infected through close contact with live infected birds. Birds shed influenza virus in their faeces.
Q Why is there so much concern about the current outbreaks?
A Public health officials are alarmed by the unprecedented outbreaks in poultry for several reasons. Firstly, most - but not all - of the major outbreaks recently reported in Asia have been caused by the highly pathogenic H5N1 strain. There is mounting evidence that this strain has a unique capacity to jump the species barrier and cause severe disease, with high mortality, in humans. A second and even greater concern is the possibility that the present situation could give rise to another influenza global epidemic - a pandemic - in humans. Scientists know that avian and human influenza viruses can exchange genes when a person is simultaneously infected with viruses from both species.
This process of gene swapping inside the human body can give rise to a completely new subtype of the influenza virus to which few, if any, humans would have natural immunity. Moreover, existing vaccines, which are developed each year to match presently circulating strains and protect humans during seasonal epidemics, would not be effective against a completely new influenza virus.
If the new virus contains sufficient human genes, transmission directly from one person to another - instead of from birds to humans only - can occur. When this happens, the conditions for the start of a new influenza pandemic will have been met. Most alarming would be a situation in which person-to-person transmission resulted in successive generations of severe disease with high mortality.
Monday, September 19, 2005
Curriculum Vitate
Career History and Development
Management Advisor
February 2004 to Date
Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Farms and Fisheries, RGK
A volunteer ~ professional position arranged through VSO(UK) - Volunteer Services Overseas.
Advising on the management and operations of:
The Community Fisheries Development Office, DoF
The Planning and Finance Office, DoF and
The Technical Working Group on Fisheries, RGC
as well as contributing to their further development.
Management Advisor
February 2004 to Date
Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Farms and Fisheries, RGK
A volunteer ~ professional position arranged through VSO(UK) - Volunteer Services Overseas.
Advising on the management and operations of:
The Community Fisheries Development Office, DoF
The Planning and Finance Office, DoF and
The Technical Working Group on Fisheries, RGC
as well as contributing to their further development.
Capacity building of local staff in management techniques, project management, finance, project management and planning. Liaison with relevant IO’s, NGO’s and other organisations.
Management Consultant
February 2002 to February 2004
Freelance and Contract work for a wide range of organisations, involving; Business Analysis, Strategic Analysis and Implementation, Project and Programme Management,
A full listing of organisations and roles available upon request
Deputy Director (Europe and Asia)
July 1996 to February 2002
Sotheby’s Auction House Ltd
Creation and subsequent management of a new multifunctional international department responsible for; client, property, sales, marketing and financial data. Analysis and reporting. Strategic Planning. International Project Management and Problem Solving.
45 members of staff. Multimillion dollar operational and project budgets.
Full Time Student
August 1995 to August 1996
University of Sheffield
Master of Business Administration (MBA) 1st Class
Project Manager
August 1993 to August 1995
JVF Consultants
Project managed creation of new departments and subsequently managed operations for this PCB design and manufacturer.
Project Manager
August 1990 to August 1993
Swan Ventures
Set up new business venture, train staff and management, subsequent day to running of operations.
Project Team Leader
April 1990 to July 1990
Haymarket Publishing
Contract staff position assisting in the organisation of the worlds largest wine tasting; 4,500 wines with 250 judges over a week. Subsequent collation and publication of the tasting notes and results. Several magazine articles and 2 books.
Training Courses and Conferences
Many management training courses, including, but not being limited to:
- Project Management
- Management Accounting
- Client Relationship Management
- Data Protection Laws (Europe)
- Client Information Management
- Business Law
- Data Warehousing
- European Law
- Information Technology
- Strategic Planning
Computer Skills
- Competent to advanced user of all standard Microsoft applications; Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, MS Project, Visio, Outlook, Internet Explorer, et cetera.
- Familiar with SAP, Oracle, Siebel, Trillium
- Swift learner of new, in-house or legacy systems
Hobbies and Interests
Travel and the discovery of new cultures.
Photography, stemming from previous work as a part time professional.
Literature, both contemporary and classic. As well as the writing of several articles and contributions to several books about wine.
Additional Abilities
Full car and motorcycle licences
Intermediate Khmer language
References:
Available on Request
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Cambodian journalist beaten
Cambodian journalist seeks justice after being attacked by military officer
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing more than 500,000 journalists in over 110 countries, today condemned the violent attack on a journalist by a military officer in Cambodia and supports legal action taken against the officer.
On September 5, Nhen Sokha, from Kampuchea Thmei Daily newspaper, was allegedly punched in the face, neck and chest by a military intelligence officer. It is alleged the officer, who has been identified only as 'Mr Vong', then pointed a gun at Sokha.
Sokha filed a lawsuit against the officer the following day, alleging he was beaten and threatened in an effort to stop him from photographing and reporting an extortion and illegal loggers story.
"The attack on Nhen Sokha is a frightening example of security forces denying the rights of journalists and acting as if they are above the law," said IFJ President Christopher Warren.
"Justice must been clearly seen to be done in this case to give journalists and the public confidence that their rights will be respected and upheld," said the IFJ President.
According to IFJ sources, Sokha took legal action in a bid to ensure his continued safety.
The IFJ has condemned the attack as a gross violation of freedom of expression and journalists' safety.
"Journalists must be able to report without the fear of attacks by authorities who, as well as enforcing the law, should also be abiding by it," said IFJ President Christopher Warren.
"For the sake of Nhen Sokha and the future protection of journalists, Cambodian security forces and the justice system need to make it abundantly clear that the use of violence against journalists is unacceptable," said the IFJ President.
The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than 110 countries.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing more than 500,000 journalists in over 110 countries, today condemned the violent attack on a journalist by a military officer in Cambodia and supports legal action taken against the officer.
On September 5, Nhen Sokha, from Kampuchea Thmei Daily newspaper, was allegedly punched in the face, neck and chest by a military intelligence officer. It is alleged the officer, who has been identified only as 'Mr Vong', then pointed a gun at Sokha.
Sokha filed a lawsuit against the officer the following day, alleging he was beaten and threatened in an effort to stop him from photographing and reporting an extortion and illegal loggers story.
"The attack on Nhen Sokha is a frightening example of security forces denying the rights of journalists and acting as if they are above the law," said IFJ President Christopher Warren.
"Justice must been clearly seen to be done in this case to give journalists and the public confidence that their rights will be respected and upheld," said the IFJ President.
According to IFJ sources, Sokha took legal action in a bid to ensure his continued safety.
The IFJ has condemned the attack as a gross violation of freedom of expression and journalists' safety.
"Journalists must be able to report without the fear of attacks by authorities who, as well as enforcing the law, should also be abiding by it," said IFJ President Christopher Warren.
"For the sake of Nhen Sokha and the future protection of journalists, Cambodian security forces and the justice system need to make it abundantly clear that the use of violence against journalists is unacceptable," said the IFJ President.
The IFJ represents over 500,000 journalists in more than 110 countries.
Freedom of Speech, The Internet, Blog’s and The Law
If you publish your opinions in the public domain, not everyone who reads them will agree with you. They may even go as far as trying to prosecute you, or to advocate some other form of disciplinary action against you.
Fortunately, I have a close relationship with a lawyer here in Cambodia, should I ever have any such problems, also, I know a few international organisations who are very hot on internet and Bloggers rights.
Below, a cut and paste article linking back to the original source, I am registered with them, just in case …
*** *** ***
Whether you are a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you will have been seeing more and more stories appearing every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.
Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people do not want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that's under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.
The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you are doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law does not help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts have not yet decided how it applies to bloggers.
But here is the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies should not use the law to stifle legitimate free expression.
That is why the EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.
http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-overview.php
To be clear, this guide is not a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you are being threatened with a lawsuit, or disciplinary action. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.
http://www.eff.org/bloggers/
Fortunately, I have a close relationship with a lawyer here in Cambodia, should I ever have any such problems, also, I know a few international organisations who are very hot on internet and Bloggers rights.
Below, a cut and paste article linking back to the original source, I am registered with them, just in case …
*** *** ***
Whether you are a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you will have been seeing more and more stories appearing every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post.
Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people do not want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that's under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office.
The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you are doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law does not help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts have not yet decided how it applies to bloggers.
But here is the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies should not use the law to stifle legitimate free expression.
That is why the EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom.
http://www.eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-overview.php
To be clear, this guide is not a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you are being threatened with a lawsuit, or disciplinary action. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected.
http://www.eff.org/bloggers/
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Hubris and 'Certain People'
For the record, Hubris is the Greek word for the concept of over-reaching you station in life. Typically it is used with regard to the mortal heroes of Hellenic literature who decide that they have risen to the level of gods and neglected the duties and laws of mortal life. The gods are quick to remind you that you are human... or perhaps it is simply fait acompli that people who believe they are gods will walk straight into trouble?
In any case, it is word that gets thrown around a lot these days so I figured it would be good to define it accurately.
Hubris is decidedly different that simple arrogance. Hubris is the embodiment of the phrase: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When it does, that is the source of hubris.
The original Greek word means excessive pride or wanton violence.
When I apply it to certain people, or organisations, it can usually be defined as overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.
I suppose what I feel that the word relates to is the idea that a great undertaking is attributed to hubris.
Although, this is not necessarily the case. Hubris is often the underlying force behind great undertakings like the Tower of Babel or Icarus's first flight, but the two are not linked conclusively.
The gothic cathedrals of France would seem a great undertaking like the Tower of Babel, but the Tower of Babel was built for the glory of the builders to rival that of heaven and so it was built on hubris and struck down by the higher powers.
Icarus did not take that first flight alone. His father Daedelus also took wing with him to escape the labyrinth. Icarus became famous for deciding that a winged escape was not good enough for him and over-reaching the limits of his wings he tried to touch the sun. His father flew successfully to safety and lived on to bury his arrogant offspring.
So what is the difference? It is intention of course. To seek great things for your own glory and to deny the powers that grant you leave to do great things is hubris and punishable by divine retribution. To seek great things as a servant of a higher power is not hubris it is the exact state of mind that sits in opposition to hubris. It is the ideal mindset for the hero. He quests for the good of the world not for his own glory.
In any case, it is word that gets thrown around a lot these days so I figured it would be good to define it accurately.
Hubris is decidedly different that simple arrogance. Hubris is the embodiment of the phrase: power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When it does, that is the source of hubris.
The original Greek word means excessive pride or wanton violence.
When I apply it to certain people, or organisations, it can usually be defined as overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance.
I suppose what I feel that the word relates to is the idea that a great undertaking is attributed to hubris.
Although, this is not necessarily the case. Hubris is often the underlying force behind great undertakings like the Tower of Babel or Icarus's first flight, but the two are not linked conclusively.
The gothic cathedrals of France would seem a great undertaking like the Tower of Babel, but the Tower of Babel was built for the glory of the builders to rival that of heaven and so it was built on hubris and struck down by the higher powers.
Icarus did not take that first flight alone. His father Daedelus also took wing with him to escape the labyrinth. Icarus became famous for deciding that a winged escape was not good enough for him and over-reaching the limits of his wings he tried to touch the sun. His father flew successfully to safety and lived on to bury his arrogant offspring.
So what is the difference? It is intention of course. To seek great things for your own glory and to deny the powers that grant you leave to do great things is hubris and punishable by divine retribution. To seek great things as a servant of a higher power is not hubris it is the exact state of mind that sits in opposition to hubris. It is the ideal mindset for the hero. He quests for the good of the world not for his own glory.
Monday, September 12, 2005
Thailand dismisses gaming reports
The Thai Embassy has denied reports that Thailand will legalize gambling, a move that could decimate Cambodia's border town casinos. "Nobody expects that we will have a casino in Thailand soon.
On the contrary, this government tries to suppress gambling," said Nuttavudh Photisaro, Minister at the Thai Embassy. The prospect of legal gambling in Thailand was cited by Greek Mythology Entertainment Group (GMEG) as the reason for scrapping plans to build a $50 million resort and casino in Poipet.
"Because nearly 98 percent of the gamblers in Poipet come from Thailand, once the Thai government grants casino licenses over the next five years, Poipet will suffer from a fall in customers," said Michael Chan King-ming, vice chairman of GMEG, according to an August 31 story in the South China Morning Post.
In June, GMEG signed a memorandum of understanding with the Thai-based BOP Entertainment Group to build what would have been the largest casino in Cambodia, according to a press release from GMEG. The statement said that the Cambodian government granted a casino license - one of eight licenses in Poipet - to BOP, which had purchased a 42,000-square-meter plot of land.
The new casino was to have 600 gaming tables and 200 slot machines, as well as a five-star hotel, and was expected to take seven months to build, said the July 15 GMEG press release. But the big plans may have been shelved due to too few customers, said Photisaro, who doubted Poipet's gambling market could have sustained another competitor.
"I think in terms of investors, I'd wait for Las Vegas to invest in Macau rather than come over here," he said, referring to interest from US casinos in expanding the booming industry in the Chinese special administrative region.
GMEG invested more than $73 million in its Macau casino and in January unveiled an ambitious bid - worth up to $700 million - to build the first casino resort complex in Singapore. While Singapore undertakes its experiment with gambling and Macau reaps billions of dollars from its casino, the gaming industry in Poipet is reportedly sluggish. "In my opinion, things are going slow, not so much money," said a Cambodian government official working on casino issues, on condition of anonymity.
The official would not discuss how much money was being contributed to state coffers from operating licenses and monthly and annual tax collection, saying this information was "very sensitive."
Despite an estimated 3,000 Thai tourists crossing the border each day and twice that number arriving on the weekend, the official said that prospective investors in Poipet had recently shifted their interest from casinos to hotels.
Heng Chantha, governor of Banteay Meanchey, and his deputy, Sok Sareth, said they had not heard of plans to build a new casino or of Thailand legalizing gambling.
On the contrary, this government tries to suppress gambling," said Nuttavudh Photisaro, Minister at the Thai Embassy. The prospect of legal gambling in Thailand was cited by Greek Mythology Entertainment Group (GMEG) as the reason for scrapping plans to build a $50 million resort and casino in Poipet.
"Because nearly 98 percent of the gamblers in Poipet come from Thailand, once the Thai government grants casino licenses over the next five years, Poipet will suffer from a fall in customers," said Michael Chan King-ming, vice chairman of GMEG, according to an August 31 story in the South China Morning Post.
In June, GMEG signed a memorandum of understanding with the Thai-based BOP Entertainment Group to build what would have been the largest casino in Cambodia, according to a press release from GMEG. The statement said that the Cambodian government granted a casino license - one of eight licenses in Poipet - to BOP, which had purchased a 42,000-square-meter plot of land.
The new casino was to have 600 gaming tables and 200 slot machines, as well as a five-star hotel, and was expected to take seven months to build, said the July 15 GMEG press release. But the big plans may have been shelved due to too few customers, said Photisaro, who doubted Poipet's gambling market could have sustained another competitor.
"I think in terms of investors, I'd wait for Las Vegas to invest in Macau rather than come over here," he said, referring to interest from US casinos in expanding the booming industry in the Chinese special administrative region.
GMEG invested more than $73 million in its Macau casino and in January unveiled an ambitious bid - worth up to $700 million - to build the first casino resort complex in Singapore. While Singapore undertakes its experiment with gambling and Macau reaps billions of dollars from its casino, the gaming industry in Poipet is reportedly sluggish. "In my opinion, things are going slow, not so much money," said a Cambodian government official working on casino issues, on condition of anonymity.
The official would not discuss how much money was being contributed to state coffers from operating licenses and monthly and annual tax collection, saying this information was "very sensitive."
Despite an estimated 3,000 Thai tourists crossing the border each day and twice that number arriving on the weekend, the official said that prospective investors in Poipet had recently shifted their interest from casinos to hotels.
Heng Chantha, governor of Banteay Meanchey, and his deputy, Sok Sareth, said they had not heard of plans to build a new casino or of Thailand legalizing gambling.
Friday, September 09, 2005
A week Eating and Drinking at the Beach
Having recently spent a week down at the beach, Sihanoukville, here is a quick round up of eating and drinking establishments there.
***
Funny Restaurant; on Ochheuteal Beach
Yes, that is its real name. About halfway along the stretch of shacks on the southern end of the beach. I had an afternoon to myself before the work silliness started, so it was down to the beach for a spot of R&R and a sampling of the seafood.
I had a papaya and crab salad, bok la’hong, which was excellent, enough chilli to warm the mouth, but not so much as to totally kill the flavour of the crab or the prawns. Keeping to the seafood theme we also had, the almost obligatory, barbequed squid on a stick, with sweet chilli dipping sauce, also excellent and very, very, fresh (I know a thing or two now about fish you know) the salad was US$2, (8,000r), the squid US$1 (4,000r) for 10 - apologies to backpackers and tourists who usually pay US$1 for 4 or 5 squids-on-a-stick. Ha Ha.
Angkor Arms; Ekareach Street, downtown. www.angkorarms.com
The first free evening I have in K. Som I head over to the Angkor Arms to have a quiet, happy hour, glass of Angkor (or three). Bert the owner is nursing a hangover, with the aid of another beer and some of that soccer stuff on the telly (he is very enthusiastic about it). For my own part, I decide that rice is not going to be on the menu for the evening.
Opting for the Fishermen’s Basket I was not disappointed; calamari, battered prawns, bite size pieces of white fish in batter, served with a portion of chips (that would be French fried potatoes to those of you from outside the UK) all very tasty and for a reasonable US$4.
My friend selected a bacon cheese burger with fries, which I thought sounded tempting. Unfortunately, the ‘burger’ part of it looked like a sloppy half baked turd, which just crumbled into piles of mince meat when she picked it up. I am told that it tasted fine though, I just did not feel like sampling it myself. The seventeen chips that accompanied the burger looked a little bit lost nestling on the side of the plate, but they were not lost, indeed they were found and eaten in approximately three forkfuls.
The Emerald Bar; Sopheakmongkol Street, downtown
A first visit for me, several nights into my stay. The owners name was something like Rob, or Paul, or Rumplestiltskin; the accuracy of my memory and the beer laden napkin eludes me at that point, however, he was a charming wee fellow of thick Irish brogue, most friendly and accommodating. Furthermore, his cheese and ham toasties were an ideal mid-drinking-binge-snack, being neither too big, thus inducing the need to have a bit of a lie-down, nor being so small as to fool you into thinking you need a second one, thus inducing the need to have a bit of a lie-down. Both of which can be a problem when you have 2,000r Angkor happy hour from 5 to 8, which is where we had been prior to the Emerald at the -
Mash / Melting Pot; Weather Station Hill. Tel: 012 913 714
Yes, Happy Hour is 5pm until 8pm with Angkor draft at 2,000r (0.50c) after suffering the effects of that, the following evening I returned to sample the food (having completely forgotten to do so the evening before)
Ordering a generic ‘Chicken Curry’ and a pair of chapattis I was pleasantly surprised when the dish turned out to be a close relative of a chicken rogan josh, medium to hot in spiciness, pieces of white meat, tomatoes, onion and the odd bit of green capsicum. As well as the good chapattis it came with steamed rice and a more than ample side salad. Not wishing a repeat performance of the prior evening, I decided to go for a few cans of US$1 beer Lao to wash it down with.
A few days later I returned to Mash for the full English breakfast, double egg, bacon, chips, sausage, beans, tomato, mushroom, toast and coffee. A true transport café portion and the best hangover cure known to man. Much appreciated by a somewhat jaded trencherman like myself, rivalling even the fabled Rising Sun in Phnom Penh, it was well worth the 16,000r.
Fisherman’s Den; Sopheakmongkol Street, downtown. Tel: 012 702 478
Work was out of the way for a day or so, however the sudden change in the weather resulted in enough rain for me to consider sending Noah a text to put him on standby. Making the exceptionally short journey to John and Brian’s place I holed up here for a congenial evening with the host, more than several beers and what the menu describes as ‘the best fish and chips in town’. Well, having tasted said victuals I would go as far as to venture that it is one of the best in the Country; three medium sized fillets of flaky white fish, wrapped in a light crisp golden batter, a pile of freshly made, double fried, chips and a mixed salad on the side as a token nod towards something green and healthy. Not to mention an absolute snip at US$2.50. Carrying on with my ‘taste of home’ craving, I ordered up Cherry Pie with vanilla ice cream US$2.50 for dessert, mmm, puddings are not something that Khmers really understand, so you do not usually get them, unless it is some sort of fruit, or sweet rice wrap, or a combination of fruit and rice…
Espresso Kampuchea; Sopheakmongkol Street, downtown. Tel: 012 644 850
The following midmorning, with the memory of short crust pastry and cherry pie filling still fresh, I stop at a coffee bar to see if I can further indulge my sweet tooth.
Despite a large billboard advertising pastries and ice creams all that was on offer was various forms of coffee. I found the café latte to be more than acceptable however and manage to waste half an hour with a pair of them. The two Khmer girls working there seemed more than happy to sit chatting and share some of their barbequed banana with me. After a while the somewhat portly owner hoved into view and it seemed that he had been partaking of something other than caffeine as a stimulant, despite us being the only customers in there, he was not impressed with the staff not doing anything and immediately set about ordering then to rearrange the ‘untidy’ magazines on the bookcase… I left shortly thereafter.
Golden Sands Hotel. Tel: 012 622 229. www.hotelgoldensand.com
Of course, all this fun could not go unpunished, so it was back to the grindstone for me, with some workshop about something or another of no relevance, importance or meaning to anything known to mankind. Yes that is right, it was a facilitated participatory workshop run by an NGO working on Inclusion Advocacy… Just as I was losing the will to live I was saved by that most wonderful of inventions – the lunch break.
Dining en masse in the hotel restaurants buffet was not exactly high on my list of things to do, but having had a sufficient amount of my life force sapped by these idiots I was unable to summon up an excuse quick enough to get me out of the building.
Having said that, I was most pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the food on offer here, seven or eight different dishes to chose from, with an endless plate policy – just keep eating until you explode – just a tiny, wafer thin, mint sir? – I piled my plate high with the fresh squid, stir fried with fresh green pepper corns, it was spicy, it was tangy, the squid was not overcooked in the slightest, thus reluctantly I am unable to use my favourite description of badly cooked squid here – like rubber bands coated in snot; although the brains of some of the NGO facilitators might well have met that description.
Inside P’sar Leu, random market stall.
Having a ready made excuse the following day to escape the tedium of a lunchtime workshop post mortem and analysis I head on over to the local Khmer market. Nipping inside as swiftly as possible, lest I be seen I plonk myself down at one of the food stalls inside and am presented with; Fresh spring rolls and deep fried spring rolls, fish sauce for dipping, to which was added smoke flakes of dried garlic and a teaspoon of chilli paste. The fresh spring rolls contained rice noodles, lettuce, basil leaves and dried prawns; I am not entirely sure what the fried ones contained as they just crunched into flakes of fatty pastry when I bit them. The fresh ones however were delicious – ch’nang – and I managed to polish off a round dozen of them much to the toothless old crone’s surprise, washing the whole lot down with a near endless supply of jasmine tea, well worth the 5,000r
Te Lee Hon I Restaurant. Tel: 012 710 071
(Khmer Restaurant: opposite the West entrance to P’sar Leu)
Awaking exceptionally early the following morning I decide to have breakfast on my own, rather than with everyone else at the workshop (today’s theme was gender mainstreaming in rural areas…)
As I often do in Khmer breakfast restaurants, I had the rice~pork breakfast, bai suh ch’rook, it was very good, the pork lean and coated with some sort of flavouring that I could not quite place the taste of, the usual accompaniments of pickles, sweet chilli dipping sauce and fish broth were also above average, slightly above average at 3,000r.
I returned here the following lunchtime with some Khmer friends who were equally impressed with their sweet and sour prawns, chicken stir fried with ginger and spring onions and the Chinese vegetables stir fried with clear noodles. Lunch for the four of us, US$11
***
Funny Restaurant; on Ochheuteal Beach
Yes, that is its real name. About halfway along the stretch of shacks on the southern end of the beach. I had an afternoon to myself before the work silliness started, so it was down to the beach for a spot of R&R and a sampling of the seafood.
I had a papaya and crab salad, bok la’hong, which was excellent, enough chilli to warm the mouth, but not so much as to totally kill the flavour of the crab or the prawns. Keeping to the seafood theme we also had, the almost obligatory, barbequed squid on a stick, with sweet chilli dipping sauce, also excellent and very, very, fresh (I know a thing or two now about fish you know) the salad was US$2, (8,000r), the squid US$1 (4,000r) for 10 - apologies to backpackers and tourists who usually pay US$1 for 4 or 5 squids-on-a-stick. Ha Ha.
Angkor Arms; Ekareach Street, downtown. www.angkorarms.com
The first free evening I have in K. Som I head over to the Angkor Arms to have a quiet, happy hour, glass of Angkor (or three). Bert the owner is nursing a hangover, with the aid of another beer and some of that soccer stuff on the telly (he is very enthusiastic about it). For my own part, I decide that rice is not going to be on the menu for the evening.
Opting for the Fishermen’s Basket I was not disappointed; calamari, battered prawns, bite size pieces of white fish in batter, served with a portion of chips (that would be French fried potatoes to those of you from outside the UK) all very tasty and for a reasonable US$4.
My friend selected a bacon cheese burger with fries, which I thought sounded tempting. Unfortunately, the ‘burger’ part of it looked like a sloppy half baked turd, which just crumbled into piles of mince meat when she picked it up. I am told that it tasted fine though, I just did not feel like sampling it myself. The seventeen chips that accompanied the burger looked a little bit lost nestling on the side of the plate, but they were not lost, indeed they were found and eaten in approximately three forkfuls.
The Emerald Bar; Sopheakmongkol Street, downtown
A first visit for me, several nights into my stay. The owners name was something like Rob, or Paul, or Rumplestiltskin; the accuracy of my memory and the beer laden napkin eludes me at that point, however, he was a charming wee fellow of thick Irish brogue, most friendly and accommodating. Furthermore, his cheese and ham toasties were an ideal mid-drinking-binge-snack, being neither too big, thus inducing the need to have a bit of a lie-down, nor being so small as to fool you into thinking you need a second one, thus inducing the need to have a bit of a lie-down. Both of which can be a problem when you have 2,000r Angkor happy hour from 5 to 8, which is where we had been prior to the Emerald at the -
Mash / Melting Pot; Weather Station Hill. Tel: 012 913 714
Yes, Happy Hour is 5pm until 8pm with Angkor draft at 2,000r (0.50c) after suffering the effects of that, the following evening I returned to sample the food (having completely forgotten to do so the evening before)
Ordering a generic ‘Chicken Curry’ and a pair of chapattis I was pleasantly surprised when the dish turned out to be a close relative of a chicken rogan josh, medium to hot in spiciness, pieces of white meat, tomatoes, onion and the odd bit of green capsicum. As well as the good chapattis it came with steamed rice and a more than ample side salad. Not wishing a repeat performance of the prior evening, I decided to go for a few cans of US$1 beer Lao to wash it down with.
A few days later I returned to Mash for the full English breakfast, double egg, bacon, chips, sausage, beans, tomato, mushroom, toast and coffee. A true transport café portion and the best hangover cure known to man. Much appreciated by a somewhat jaded trencherman like myself, rivalling even the fabled Rising Sun in Phnom Penh, it was well worth the 16,000r.
Fisherman’s Den; Sopheakmongkol Street, downtown. Tel: 012 702 478
Work was out of the way for a day or so, however the sudden change in the weather resulted in enough rain for me to consider sending Noah a text to put him on standby. Making the exceptionally short journey to John and Brian’s place I holed up here for a congenial evening with the host, more than several beers and what the menu describes as ‘the best fish and chips in town’. Well, having tasted said victuals I would go as far as to venture that it is one of the best in the Country; three medium sized fillets of flaky white fish, wrapped in a light crisp golden batter, a pile of freshly made, double fried, chips and a mixed salad on the side as a token nod towards something green and healthy. Not to mention an absolute snip at US$2.50. Carrying on with my ‘taste of home’ craving, I ordered up Cherry Pie with vanilla ice cream US$2.50 for dessert, mmm, puddings are not something that Khmers really understand, so you do not usually get them, unless it is some sort of fruit, or sweet rice wrap, or a combination of fruit and rice…
Espresso Kampuchea; Sopheakmongkol Street, downtown. Tel: 012 644 850
The following midmorning, with the memory of short crust pastry and cherry pie filling still fresh, I stop at a coffee bar to see if I can further indulge my sweet tooth.
Despite a large billboard advertising pastries and ice creams all that was on offer was various forms of coffee. I found the café latte to be more than acceptable however and manage to waste half an hour with a pair of them. The two Khmer girls working there seemed more than happy to sit chatting and share some of their barbequed banana with me. After a while the somewhat portly owner hoved into view and it seemed that he had been partaking of something other than caffeine as a stimulant, despite us being the only customers in there, he was not impressed with the staff not doing anything and immediately set about ordering then to rearrange the ‘untidy’ magazines on the bookcase… I left shortly thereafter.
Golden Sands Hotel. Tel: 012 622 229. www.hotelgoldensand.com
Of course, all this fun could not go unpunished, so it was back to the grindstone for me, with some workshop about something or another of no relevance, importance or meaning to anything known to mankind. Yes that is right, it was a facilitated participatory workshop run by an NGO working on Inclusion Advocacy… Just as I was losing the will to live I was saved by that most wonderful of inventions – the lunch break.
Dining en masse in the hotel restaurants buffet was not exactly high on my list of things to do, but having had a sufficient amount of my life force sapped by these idiots I was unable to summon up an excuse quick enough to get me out of the building.
Having said that, I was most pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the food on offer here, seven or eight different dishes to chose from, with an endless plate policy – just keep eating until you explode – just a tiny, wafer thin, mint sir? – I piled my plate high with the fresh squid, stir fried with fresh green pepper corns, it was spicy, it was tangy, the squid was not overcooked in the slightest, thus reluctantly I am unable to use my favourite description of badly cooked squid here – like rubber bands coated in snot; although the brains of some of the NGO facilitators might well have met that description.
Inside P’sar Leu, random market stall.
Having a ready made excuse the following day to escape the tedium of a lunchtime workshop post mortem and analysis I head on over to the local Khmer market. Nipping inside as swiftly as possible, lest I be seen I plonk myself down at one of the food stalls inside and am presented with; Fresh spring rolls and deep fried spring rolls, fish sauce for dipping, to which was added smoke flakes of dried garlic and a teaspoon of chilli paste. The fresh spring rolls contained rice noodles, lettuce, basil leaves and dried prawns; I am not entirely sure what the fried ones contained as they just crunched into flakes of fatty pastry when I bit them. The fresh ones however were delicious – ch’nang – and I managed to polish off a round dozen of them much to the toothless old crone’s surprise, washing the whole lot down with a near endless supply of jasmine tea, well worth the 5,000r
Te Lee Hon I Restaurant. Tel: 012 710 071
(Khmer Restaurant: opposite the West entrance to P’sar Leu)
Awaking exceptionally early the following morning I decide to have breakfast on my own, rather than with everyone else at the workshop (today’s theme was gender mainstreaming in rural areas…)
As I often do in Khmer breakfast restaurants, I had the rice~pork breakfast, bai suh ch’rook, it was very good, the pork lean and coated with some sort of flavouring that I could not quite place the taste of, the usual accompaniments of pickles, sweet chilli dipping sauce and fish broth were also above average, slightly above average at 3,000r.
I returned here the following lunchtime with some Khmer friends who were equally impressed with their sweet and sour prawns, chicken stir fried with ginger and spring onions and the Chinese vegetables stir fried with clear noodles. Lunch for the four of us, US$11
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Deter-mined / At Arms Length
An Exhibition from Cambodia: 'To Be Deter-mined / At Arms Length' is a major joint exhibition mounted with cooperation between the Cambodian National Volleyball League (Disabled) (CNVLD), the European Union Assistance on Curbing Small Arms and Light Weapons in Cambodia (EU ASAC) and Peace Art Cambodia (PAC) with support from the Australian, Canadian and German governments as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross and Handicap International.
To Be Deter-mined / At Arms Length combines the themes of sport and art while raising awareness on the issues of landmines and small arms through the innovative mediums of over 100 hanging text / photo banners, photo essays, multi media projections, installations and peace art sculpture and furniture.
2000 people have visited in the first week of opening.
To find out more visit:
www.peaceartcambodia.org
www.standupcambodia.org
www.eu-asac.org
Friday, August 26, 2005
Monks attack after drink, drugs
Phnom Penh - A Cambodian Buddhist monk was in hospital and his colleague was under detention on Thursday at a pagoda after a drug and alcohol fuelled fight allegedly ended in one attacking the other with a machete.
Police chief of Kandaing district in the central province of Pursat, Pen Thun, said after a night spent binging on methamphetamines and rice wine, the pair had quarrelled over a 50 cent loan owed to Khieu Aen, 23, that fellow monk Van Chanthoeun, 19, said he would need time to repay.
"Khieu Aen became enraged, produced a machete and chopped Chanthoeun once in the shoulder, requiring him to be sent to hospital," Thun said. "It is unseemly behaviour for monks and it gives the police a headache dealing with such cases."
He said police were now waiting for the ministry of cults and religions to make a decision on the case as the police cannot arrest monks.
"We have to wait for the ministry to decide whether there is a case and if so to strip them of their robes before we can go any further," Thun said.
The ministry of cults and religions investigates cases where Buddhist monks may have acted in a way that brings the state religion, practiced by around 95% of Cambodians, into disrepute.
Police chief of Kandaing district in the central province of Pursat, Pen Thun, said after a night spent binging on methamphetamines and rice wine, the pair had quarrelled over a 50 cent loan owed to Khieu Aen, 23, that fellow monk Van Chanthoeun, 19, said he would need time to repay.
"Khieu Aen became enraged, produced a machete and chopped Chanthoeun once in the shoulder, requiring him to be sent to hospital," Thun said. "It is unseemly behaviour for monks and it gives the police a headache dealing with such cases."
He said police were now waiting for the ministry of cults and religions to make a decision on the case as the police cannot arrest monks.
"We have to wait for the ministry to decide whether there is a case and if so to strip them of their robes before we can go any further," Thun said.
The ministry of cults and religions investigates cases where Buddhist monks may have acted in a way that brings the state religion, practiced by around 95% of Cambodians, into disrepute.
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Cambodia: A Victim Of 'Aid'
From the air, there appeared to be nobody, no movement, not even an animal, as if the great population of Asia had stopped at the Mekong river.
Even the patchwork of rice paddies and fields was barely discernible; nothing seemed to have been planted or growing, except the forest and lines of tall wild grass.
On the edge of deserted villages, often following a pattern of bomb craters, the grass would follow straight lines; fertilised by human compost, by the remains of thousands upon thousands of men, women and children, it marked common graves in a nation in which as many as two million people, or between a third and a quarter of the population, were "missing".
That was Cambodia as I found it 26 years ago, in the wake of the Khmer Rouge, whose murderous rule had followed an inferno of American bombs. Shortly afterwards, Jim Howard, senior engineer and fireman for the British charity Oxfam, joined me and sent his first cable: "Fifty to eighty per cent human material destruction is the terrible reality. 100 tons of milk per week needed by air and sea for the next two months starting now repeat now."
Thus began one of the boldest aid operations of the 20th century, which surmounted an American and British-led embargo designed to punish Cambodia's liberator, Vietnam.
By the sheer ingenuity and political wisdom of its actions and domestic campaigns, Oxfam saved and restored countless people. Later, in demanding that the west stop supporting the Khmer Rouge in exile, Oxfam incurred the hostility of the Thatcher and Reagan governments and was threatened with the loss of its charitable tax-free status. This was clearly meant as a warning to the independent aid organisations, or "NGOs", lest they became too "radical".
Many have since embraced a version of corporatism and a closeness to the British government, whose neoliberal trade policies remain a source of much of the world's poverty. On 27 May, the watchdog ActionAid will publish an extraordinary, damning report, Real Aid: an agenda for making aid work. With the G8 meeting at Gleneagles in Scotland in July, and the Blair government (and other European governments) propagating the nonsense that it is on the side of the world's poor, the report reveals that the government is inflating the value of its already minimal aid to poor countries by a third, and that the majority of all western aid is actually "phantom aid", which means that it has nothing to do with the reduction of poverty.
The ActionAid study describes a gravy train of overpriced "technical assistance" and "consultancies", of careerism and scant accounting. Britain frequently exaggerates its aid figures (by including debt relief); and America binds its aid to trade and ideology and its "interests". In fact, real aid accounts for just 0.1 per cent of rich countries' combined national income. Set against the UN's minimum "target" of 0.7 per cent, this is barely a crumb.
Cambodia is a prime example. One of the poorest countries in the world, Cambodia was never allowed to recover from the trauma inflicted by Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Pol Pot. During the 1980s, with Pol Pot exepelled by the Vietnamese, an American and British-led embargo made reconstruction almost impossible. Instead, a "resistance" was invented by the Americans with the British SAS contracted to train the Khmer Rouge in secret camps in Thailand and Malaysia.
In 1990, when the United Nations finally arrived in Cambodia to organise "democracy", it brought corruption on an unprecedented scale, along with Aids and "aid".
This was misrepresented as a "triumph" for the "international community".
Cambodia today is a victim of this "aid". As in Africa, the "donors" (the west and Japan) have perpetuated the myths of a "basket case": that Cambodians cannot do anything for themselves and that genuine development aid and rapacious capitalism are compatible.
No finer symbol is Cambodia's fluorescent-lit sweatshops, making consumer goods for a fraction of their retail price in the west, overlooking hovels where children play in malarial cesspools. Of course, fake, or "phantom" aid and rapacious capitalism are compatible.
The ActionAid report quotes Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch:
"In the 1980s, there was a popular T-shirt satirising US army recruitment commercials with the slogan, 'Join the army. Travel to exotic, distant lands. Meet exciting, unusual people. And kill them'. In the new millennium, it could be rephrased, 'Join the aid community. Travel to exotic, distant lands. Meet exciting, unusual people. And make a killing'."
Roughly half of all aid to Cambodia is spent on "technical assistance", or TA.
Between 1999 and 2003, this amounted to 1.2bn dollars. What is TA? It is an invasion of "international advisors" on whom up to US$70millon was spent in 2003 alone.
Add to them "international consultants", who each cost more than 159,000 dollars.
By contrast, the cost of a genuine foreign aid worker in a truly independent NGO is less than 45,000 dollars, and the cost of recruiting a Cambodian expert is an eighth of this.
More than 740 foreigner advisers and experts earn nearly as much as 160,000 Cambodian civil servants, who get as little as 25 dollars a month.
In many ministries, the pay of foreign advisers exceeds the entire annual budget. It is more than twice the budget of the agricultural ministry and four times that of the justice ministry.
Foreign aid workers constantly complain about local corruption, often justifiably. But they rarely identify and measure their own legitimised corruption. "There has been no systematic analysis of the effectiveness of TA in Cambodia," says ActionAid. "Government of Cambodia officials [have] suggested that this is because donors don't want to recognise the ineffectiveness of their aid."
The Council for the Development of Cambodia says that the foreigners “create parallel systems to the government. They don’t transfer capacity. The experts just provide reports which no one reads... donors always complain about the lack of human resources [but] Cambodians are human beings..." The report cites a scheme to protect villagers from flood, in which Britain's Department of International Development is involved.
Even though it is promoted as "community-based", three-quarters of the budget is being spent on foreign consultants, offices and administration.
Cambodia has three separate national economic plans, each designed by a different foreign agency. One of the biggest donors is the American government agency USAID, notorious for its bloody political interventions throughout the world. USAID funds Cambodian opposition groups, "human rights advisers" and newspapers that are in line with Bush's idea of "good governance".
Even the most basic humanitarian aid is tied to American business. For example, oral rehydration salts, which are essential in the tropics, must be bought in the United States at five times the price of the same product made in Cambodia.
There are good people in the foreign NGOs in Cambodia, and there are a number of effective schemes. But "partnership" with local people is a word both governments and aid agencies abuse.
Cambodians get what they are given, such as World Bank and IMF "loans" with the kind of outrageous conditions that have damaged countries like Zambia. More than 600,000 Cambodians were killed by American bombs in the 1970s. As the CIA later admitted, the devastation provided a catalyst for the Khmer Rouge horror.
Thousands of child deaths were subsequently caused by an economic blockade which the British government backed.
I see that Tony Blair, like newsreaders and other celebrities, has been wearing the fashionable "Make Poverty History" wristband. How perverse. Like those nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America long plundered in the name of western "interests", Cambodia has a right to unconditional reparations so that it can meet the urgent needs of its people, not the demands of those claiming to care
Even the patchwork of rice paddies and fields was barely discernible; nothing seemed to have been planted or growing, except the forest and lines of tall wild grass.
On the edge of deserted villages, often following a pattern of bomb craters, the grass would follow straight lines; fertilised by human compost, by the remains of thousands upon thousands of men, women and children, it marked common graves in a nation in which as many as two million people, or between a third and a quarter of the population, were "missing".
That was Cambodia as I found it 26 years ago, in the wake of the Khmer Rouge, whose murderous rule had followed an inferno of American bombs. Shortly afterwards, Jim Howard, senior engineer and fireman for the British charity Oxfam, joined me and sent his first cable: "Fifty to eighty per cent human material destruction is the terrible reality. 100 tons of milk per week needed by air and sea for the next two months starting now repeat now."
Thus began one of the boldest aid operations of the 20th century, which surmounted an American and British-led embargo designed to punish Cambodia's liberator, Vietnam.
By the sheer ingenuity and political wisdom of its actions and domestic campaigns, Oxfam saved and restored countless people. Later, in demanding that the west stop supporting the Khmer Rouge in exile, Oxfam incurred the hostility of the Thatcher and Reagan governments and was threatened with the loss of its charitable tax-free status. This was clearly meant as a warning to the independent aid organisations, or "NGOs", lest they became too "radical".
Many have since embraced a version of corporatism and a closeness to the British government, whose neoliberal trade policies remain a source of much of the world's poverty. On 27 May, the watchdog ActionAid will publish an extraordinary, damning report, Real Aid: an agenda for making aid work. With the G8 meeting at Gleneagles in Scotland in July, and the Blair government (and other European governments) propagating the nonsense that it is on the side of the world's poor, the report reveals that the government is inflating the value of its already minimal aid to poor countries by a third, and that the majority of all western aid is actually "phantom aid", which means that it has nothing to do with the reduction of poverty.
The ActionAid study describes a gravy train of overpriced "technical assistance" and "consultancies", of careerism and scant accounting. Britain frequently exaggerates its aid figures (by including debt relief); and America binds its aid to trade and ideology and its "interests". In fact, real aid accounts for just 0.1 per cent of rich countries' combined national income. Set against the UN's minimum "target" of 0.7 per cent, this is barely a crumb.
Cambodia is a prime example. One of the poorest countries in the world, Cambodia was never allowed to recover from the trauma inflicted by Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Pol Pot. During the 1980s, with Pol Pot exepelled by the Vietnamese, an American and British-led embargo made reconstruction almost impossible. Instead, a "resistance" was invented by the Americans with the British SAS contracted to train the Khmer Rouge in secret camps in Thailand and Malaysia.
In 1990, when the United Nations finally arrived in Cambodia to organise "democracy", it brought corruption on an unprecedented scale, along with Aids and "aid".
This was misrepresented as a "triumph" for the "international community".
Cambodia today is a victim of this "aid". As in Africa, the "donors" (the west and Japan) have perpetuated the myths of a "basket case": that Cambodians cannot do anything for themselves and that genuine development aid and rapacious capitalism are compatible.
No finer symbol is Cambodia's fluorescent-lit sweatshops, making consumer goods for a fraction of their retail price in the west, overlooking hovels where children play in malarial cesspools. Of course, fake, or "phantom" aid and rapacious capitalism are compatible.
The ActionAid report quotes Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch:
"In the 1980s, there was a popular T-shirt satirising US army recruitment commercials with the slogan, 'Join the army. Travel to exotic, distant lands. Meet exciting, unusual people. And kill them'. In the new millennium, it could be rephrased, 'Join the aid community. Travel to exotic, distant lands. Meet exciting, unusual people. And make a killing'."
Roughly half of all aid to Cambodia is spent on "technical assistance", or TA.
Between 1999 and 2003, this amounted to 1.2bn dollars. What is TA? It is an invasion of "international advisors" on whom up to US$70millon was spent in 2003 alone.
Add to them "international consultants", who each cost more than 159,000 dollars.
By contrast, the cost of a genuine foreign aid worker in a truly independent NGO is less than 45,000 dollars, and the cost of recruiting a Cambodian expert is an eighth of this.
More than 740 foreigner advisers and experts earn nearly as much as 160,000 Cambodian civil servants, who get as little as 25 dollars a month.
In many ministries, the pay of foreign advisers exceeds the entire annual budget. It is more than twice the budget of the agricultural ministry and four times that of the justice ministry.
Foreign aid workers constantly complain about local corruption, often justifiably. But they rarely identify and measure their own legitimised corruption. "There has been no systematic analysis of the effectiveness of TA in Cambodia," says ActionAid. "Government of Cambodia officials [have] suggested that this is because donors don't want to recognise the ineffectiveness of their aid."
The Council for the Development of Cambodia says that the foreigners “create parallel systems to the government. They don’t transfer capacity. The experts just provide reports which no one reads... donors always complain about the lack of human resources [but] Cambodians are human beings..." The report cites a scheme to protect villagers from flood, in which Britain's Department of International Development is involved.
Even though it is promoted as "community-based", three-quarters of the budget is being spent on foreign consultants, offices and administration.
Cambodia has three separate national economic plans, each designed by a different foreign agency. One of the biggest donors is the American government agency USAID, notorious for its bloody political interventions throughout the world. USAID funds Cambodian opposition groups, "human rights advisers" and newspapers that are in line with Bush's idea of "good governance".
Even the most basic humanitarian aid is tied to American business. For example, oral rehydration salts, which are essential in the tropics, must be bought in the United States at five times the price of the same product made in Cambodia.
There are good people in the foreign NGOs in Cambodia, and there are a number of effective schemes. But "partnership" with local people is a word both governments and aid agencies abuse.
Cambodians get what they are given, such as World Bank and IMF "loans" with the kind of outrageous conditions that have damaged countries like Zambia. More than 600,000 Cambodians were killed by American bombs in the 1970s. As the CIA later admitted, the devastation provided a catalyst for the Khmer Rouge horror.
Thousands of child deaths were subsequently caused by an economic blockade which the British government backed.
I see that Tony Blair, like newsreaders and other celebrities, has been wearing the fashionable "Make Poverty History" wristband. How perverse. Like those nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America long plundered in the name of western "interests", Cambodia has a right to unconditional reparations so that it can meet the urgent needs of its people, not the demands of those claiming to care
Legacy of the Khmer Rouge: Untold Stories
His school peers used to maliciously tease Sinell about his lack of a father figure. They taunted him by yelling, "you have no father, you must be dumb kid, your daddy died, you're not good." Unfortunately for them, Sinell was not afraid to beat up anyone who teased him. There was one incident in which he stabbed a classmate in his head with a pencil. Despite his violent nature, teachers were lenient in disciplining him. The village children--the same children who were now Sinell's teachers--knew Sinell's father, who had been the equivalent of a mayor in the village, for giving money and sweets. Out of pity for Sinell and respect for his father, they often turned a blind eye to his antics.
In elementary school, Sinell learned math, French and Cambodian. The English language was taught one hour a week. His village did not boast a high school. Therefore, when he graduated from the village school, he left his mother and grandmother and traveled to Battambang to attend Preah Monivong High School, a prestigious high school in the area named after a Cambodian king who ruled from 1927 until 1941. He stayed with some relatives who lived a few miles outside of the city area. While living with them, he found out that he had distant relatives nearby. He visited them one day and met his ninth cousin, Sovanya Yin, who was fourteen at the time.
Sovanya Yin, or 'Ya' as she was called, grew up three miles outside Battambang city. She was the second daughter out of nine children. Her father, Bun Yin, worked as a bank manager; her mother, Loeub Ouk, was a housewife. Sovanya went to school, came home to do chores and worked on the family farm. Sometimes, when she didn't have school, she helped her neighbors in the rice field. She always "like[d] to see the field, the farm, the forest." Being one of the older children, and a daughter at that, she often had to take care of her little brothers and sisters.
In March of 1970, the prime minister at the time, General Lon Nol, launched a successful coup d'etat. The National Assembly was hastily convened and voted unanimously to depose Sihanouk as the head of state. This was the beginning of the Cambodian Civil War, which lasted for five years. This war began as a class war--Sihanouk and the peasants rioting against Lon Nol and the middle-class. Later, the war dragged Cambodia into the vortex of a wider struggle. The escalating conflict pitted government troops initially against the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong, well known for their role in the Vietnam War.
The year Sihanouk was overthrown, Sinell was in the 11th grade. When the Cambodian Civil War broke out, many of Sinell's classmates decided to join the army. Sinell had read Karl Marx and Mao Zedong's The Red Book and was turned off by the ideology these two men espoused. After all, the French had imposed its ideologies on the schools in Cambodia so Sinell's Western-inspired education promoted capitalism. He did not see how Communism could work in practice. As he says, "Then the lazy one...is equal to you. There is no incentive for them to work hard. Everything is equally distributed anyway."
He joined the army and was sent to Vietnam to train. Battle was "typical of Third World wars...no pity, no press coverage." He fought until 1973, then quit so he could finish high school.
In school, Sovanya learned math, American and Cambodian history, and as was standard, she learned how to read, write and speak in Cambodian and French. Once or twice a week, she was taught a little bit of English. She did well academically. However, outside circumstances dictated that she not graduate from high school.
On New Year's Day of January 1975 the Khmer Rouge launched what it hoped was the final assault on Phnom Penh. The now-fanatical Khmer Rouge, strengthened by a steady stream of supplies from Hanoi and emboldened by surviving years of sustained US bombardment, made their push into the Phnom Penh suburbs. Five days later, on April 17, 1975, Khmer Rouge forces marched unopposed into central Phnom Penh. At first the residents of the city celebrated - the siege was over, there would be no more fighting. But within hours, the joy would turn to horror as the Khmer Rouge began to implement their barbarous plan for a utopian communist society. April 17, 1975 was Day Zero for the new Cambodia - two thousand years of Khmer history were now meaningless.
The Khmer Rouge attempted to completely transform Cambodia overnight, by organizing the country into farming cooperatives, demanding total devotion to the state and wiping out any remnants of the old regime. That meant shutting off all contact to the outside world, eliminating loyalty to friends or family, emptying the cities, eliminating the Buddhist religion, and creating a fearsome central authority, the "Angka" or "organization," that punished any deviation with torture and death.
Right before Sinell could take his exit examinations and go to France to study medicine, the Khmer Rouge came to power. He and millions of other Cambodians were sent outside the city to work in farms constructed hastily by the Khmer Rouge. The only color they were allowed to wear was black, to symbolize unity and equalness. He was at times a construction worker, a tractor driver, a farmer--he did whatever they asked because "if you protest, they kill you." When the Khmer Rouge asked him about his background he lied and told them that he had quit school at an early age and became a taxi driver. If a person knew a foreign language, had worked for the French or Americans, or dared to express feelings of love, he or she was a target for execution. Sinell remarks that, "in their rhetoric, they always said...they don't want the intellectuals to survive. They take Karl Marx's theory to the extreme. They tell the farmers 'Look, these are the class that dominate[d] you for centuries. Now it's your turn'."
Sovanya was separated from her parents and sent to work on one of the many farms dotting the countryside. When they asked about her background, she lied and told them she dropped out of school early to work on her family's farm. "They asked me to multiply, and I said I didn't know." Because of her pretended ignorance, the Khmer Rouge ignored her and ordered her to leave home and work. The routine was simple but hard: get up at 4 am, work in the farm, eat one scoop of rice or porridge, work some more, and if she was lucky, sleep for a few hours. She never talked unless they asked her a question. She recalls, "You have to shut your mouth all the way. You have to pretend you don't know anybody. Mind your own business...work, work, work." She remembers the isolation she felt, surrounded by silent workers who were afraid to make eye contact. Sovanya didn't know what was going on. There were "no radio, no news, no journalism...nothing, we don't hear from anybody, any country."
She hardly ever saw her family, except on certain occasions. Every few months she would ask a Khmer Rouge farm manager if she could go home to visit. Depending on his mood that day, he would grant her wish or send her away. On one occasion, in 1978 she came home to find that her father had been taken away by the Khmer Rouge. She knew that she wasn't ever going to see him again because they had most likely killed him. "They told him to go get something and then he left...he didn't know. Then they killed him, he never came back." She cried for 15 days. When the Khmer Rouge saw her display an excess of emotion, they threatened to take her away too. "When I cry, they see me cry, they almost kill me. So I stopped crying." She was taken to another farm. Her oldest sister, who was living at home with her mom, died from starvation at 19 years of age. Sovanya became the eldest.
Sinell didn't have many friends and he didn't trust many people. He kept his mouth shut most of the time because if you "don't talk much, don't argue much, they leave you alone." He was part of the mobile team--a group of single men and women who were forced to move from one farm to another, as per the Khmer Rouge's orders. They allowed each person to bring one book bag. If you had too many belongings, they would kill you: "your mind is still capitalist." They would routinely pick ten men and ten women from the mobile team and have a huge wedding celebration, which they called en masse marriages. On these wedding days, everyone was given extra food, a handful more than the usual scoop of rice.
Sinell was asked if he wanted to marry. One of the Khmer Rouge soldiers was a young man who had dropped out of Sinell's high school. Although they could not show that they were friends, this man helped Sinell avoid marriage. He also sent Sinell on driving jobs all over the countryside so that the Khmer Rouge was more likely to forget about him.
The Khmer Rouge was a fractured group. In 1978, another Khmer Rouge group from the Southwest killed all the soldiers in the Northwest group. According to Sinell, the Southwest group was a lot "nicer." But the Khmer Rouge was struggling to keep their foothold in Cambodia. In 1979, the Vietnamese stormed in and suppressed the Communists. They installed a government controlled by exiled Cambodians.
The next few months was a blur of traffic as people from all over the countryside walked back to their hometowns, trying to locate loved ones on the way. Sinell stopped by Battambang on his way to Thmor Khol. While he was there, he ran into some of Sovanya's family, who told him that she was alive and not married. He was surprised because he thought the Khmer Rouge would have married her off already.
He asked her mother if he could marry her. He thought, "she seemed to be from a good family." Class was very important to his family--to his society, in general. He would never have been able to marry someone who was from a class lower than his. In a way, this value of marrying within class or marrying into a higher class was a practice the Khmer Rouge sought to abolish with their en masse marriages. However, Sinell and Sovanya saw nothing wrong with marrying in the same class. It had been ingrained in them since they were both very young. In August/September of 1979, Sinell and Sovanya got married.
He started a business transporting goods from one province to another by water. Local Cambodian officials, appointed by the Vietnamese, lacked clear rules and organization from the installed government and wrongly accused him of smuggling contraband. So he left Sovanya to go to the border of Thailand and Cambodia, where a temporary illegal camp was set up, called Chum Rum Tmei. Ironically, he started a smuggling business in order to make money. He smuggled medication, food, rice, and motorcycle parts. He had built a huge hut on top of a hill near the border and whenever someone wanted something, he would have to go to Sinell's hut, explain what he needed, then stay however many nights it would take for Sinell to go across the border and get the item. It was a lucrative business. Sinell was not stopped often because the commander who patrolled the border studied with him in the army. Eventually, Sovanya came to live with Sinell in the camp. She never felt safe there. "It's scary...there were robbery, fights."
Living alongside the smugglers was a group of freedom fighters--a pocket of resistance against the Vietnamese installed government. They fought with the Vietnamese and with the leftover Khmer Rouge. Sovanya remembers, "I saw a lot of bomb[s], all over the place. People didn't know where to go." In the midst of all the fighting, the Khmer Rouge burned Sinell's hut. It was time to move on. He had heard about a refugee camp deep in the heart of Thailand. He sent someone to get his cousin and his mother. When they arrived, they all jumped in the back of an open truck, which took them to Khao-I-Dang, which means 'white mountain' in Thai. Sovanya describes the camp as "a jungle. We have to build our own house from bamboo and some kind of grass to put on the top." The camp was divided into neighborhoods of about 3000-4000 Cambodian refugees. Sinell was elected to be the neighborhood leader because he did well on an English test the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) administered to those who could speak English. He had taken classes when he was in the army. Being a neighborhood leader meant that he gave out food, spoke with the UNHCR and the Thai authority on behalf of the residents. He also taught eight English classes a day and tutored English at night, making a lot of money in the process. At that time, Sovanya was expecting their first child. Unfortunately, she miscarried at eight months due to her anemia. Although she cried a little, she says she doesn't remember feeling too sad. Death became such a part of life that most people were desensitized to it. "We saw a lot of people dead, killed. It was normal."
Someone from an N.G.O. spread the word around the camp that certain countries were accepting refugees from Southeast Asia. Families rushed to fill out forms for resettlement. Sinell filled out forms for the U.S., Australia, France and Belgium.
Although the U.S. has a long-standing tradition of accepting people fleeing oppression in other countries, many Americans were not in favor of admitting numerous Southeast Asian refugees, most likely because it would remind them of the Vietnam War. However, President Gerald Ford and other public figures, including people who had been opposed to the war, strongly supported the refugees. Congress allocated resettlement aid and passed the 1975 Indochina Migration and Refugee Act which allowed refugees to enter the U.S. under a special migration and "parole" status.
Sinell and Sovanya knew nothing of the U.S. and actually wanted to go to France. But the U.S. was the only country that accepted their family, which consisted of Sinell, Sovanya, Sinell's mother, Sinell's cousin and Sovanya's cousin by marriage. They had no sponsor in the U.S. so the family flew to a Philippines processing camp in 1980, where they learned English and how to use the toilet. Besides Cambodian refugees, Sovanya remembers that there were also Vietnamese, Laotian and Hmong refugees. Since there was no one language uniting the different groups, each kept to themselves, sharing food and information only with those who knew how to speak their language. Each family had one house, which consisted of one room. For every twenty houses, there was one bathroom.
While in the camp, Sinell heard word from a friend in Australia. His friend's father was willing to sponsor him. So he sent another form to the Australia embassy. It took them 8 months to reject his request for resettlement. Meanwhile, the U.S. was still willing to grant asylum to Sinell and his family. Not knowing anyone made the decision to go hard, but they went anyway. A church agency from Rhode Island (World Relief) sponsored a few families, Sinell's being one of them. Father Dunning was their local sponsor. They arrived in the U.S. in August 1981. As they were filling out their forms to enter the U.S., one immigration officer misspelled Sovanya's name. So Sovanya became Sovanna. On December 2, 1981, their second daughter after the miscarriage was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. They named her Jennet.
In 1983 Sovanna had another daughter, whom they called Jenneen. Three months later, she applied for a job at the Providence School Department. She knew little English, but she said her co-workers were very nice people who were patient with her. She was placed at Asa Messer School, an elementary school, as a teacher's assistant. She would go to the classrooms and help the children. There were a lot of Cambodian children at this time--"three classrooms full!" Sovanna remembers.
Sinell had taken his G.E.D. to get the equivalent of a high school diploma. When Jenneen was born, he enrolled at the Community College of Rhode Island, School of Nursing. He became a full registered nurse and worked at the local hospital. However, he didn't like it much so after three years, he left to go work for New York City's Health Department. But the commute took considerable time away from spending time with his family. He then got a job at the Massachusetts Human Services Department, where he was a social worker.
In 1985, Sovanna and Sinell had another daughter, Jennella. A year later, their first son, Kennell was born. Sovanna worked for the school department for sixteen years. She left it to open an Asian fruit and produce market in 1997. Sinell, after trying a multitude of different jobs, finally found one to his liking. In 1994, he opened up a seafood exporter business in Maine. He lived above his business during the days and commuted to Rhode Island on the weekends. This put a strain on Sinell and Sovanna's marriage so in 1999, they filed for divorce, something that is virtually unheard of in the Cambodian community.
Sovanna is still working at the store. Sinell is still working in Maine, but he comes to visit his children and his mother often. Their children give them much joy and tribulation; hopefully more of the former than the latter. Sinell and Sovanna readily admits that Jennet, Jenneen, Jennella, and Kenny can be a handful but they'll keep them anyway.
In elementary school, Sinell learned math, French and Cambodian. The English language was taught one hour a week. His village did not boast a high school. Therefore, when he graduated from the village school, he left his mother and grandmother and traveled to Battambang to attend Preah Monivong High School, a prestigious high school in the area named after a Cambodian king who ruled from 1927 until 1941. He stayed with some relatives who lived a few miles outside of the city area. While living with them, he found out that he had distant relatives nearby. He visited them one day and met his ninth cousin, Sovanya Yin, who was fourteen at the time.
Sovanya Yin, or 'Ya' as she was called, grew up three miles outside Battambang city. She was the second daughter out of nine children. Her father, Bun Yin, worked as a bank manager; her mother, Loeub Ouk, was a housewife. Sovanya went to school, came home to do chores and worked on the family farm. Sometimes, when she didn't have school, she helped her neighbors in the rice field. She always "like[d] to see the field, the farm, the forest." Being one of the older children, and a daughter at that, she often had to take care of her little brothers and sisters.
In March of 1970, the prime minister at the time, General Lon Nol, launched a successful coup d'etat. The National Assembly was hastily convened and voted unanimously to depose Sihanouk as the head of state. This was the beginning of the Cambodian Civil War, which lasted for five years. This war began as a class war--Sihanouk and the peasants rioting against Lon Nol and the middle-class. Later, the war dragged Cambodia into the vortex of a wider struggle. The escalating conflict pitted government troops initially against the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong, well known for their role in the Vietnam War.
The year Sihanouk was overthrown, Sinell was in the 11th grade. When the Cambodian Civil War broke out, many of Sinell's classmates decided to join the army. Sinell had read Karl Marx and Mao Zedong's The Red Book and was turned off by the ideology these two men espoused. After all, the French had imposed its ideologies on the schools in Cambodia so Sinell's Western-inspired education promoted capitalism. He did not see how Communism could work in practice. As he says, "Then the lazy one...is equal to you. There is no incentive for them to work hard. Everything is equally distributed anyway."
He joined the army and was sent to Vietnam to train. Battle was "typical of Third World wars...no pity, no press coverage." He fought until 1973, then quit so he could finish high school.
In school, Sovanya learned math, American and Cambodian history, and as was standard, she learned how to read, write and speak in Cambodian and French. Once or twice a week, she was taught a little bit of English. She did well academically. However, outside circumstances dictated that she not graduate from high school.
On New Year's Day of January 1975 the Khmer Rouge launched what it hoped was the final assault on Phnom Penh. The now-fanatical Khmer Rouge, strengthened by a steady stream of supplies from Hanoi and emboldened by surviving years of sustained US bombardment, made their push into the Phnom Penh suburbs. Five days later, on April 17, 1975, Khmer Rouge forces marched unopposed into central Phnom Penh. At first the residents of the city celebrated - the siege was over, there would be no more fighting. But within hours, the joy would turn to horror as the Khmer Rouge began to implement their barbarous plan for a utopian communist society. April 17, 1975 was Day Zero for the new Cambodia - two thousand years of Khmer history were now meaningless.
The Khmer Rouge attempted to completely transform Cambodia overnight, by organizing the country into farming cooperatives, demanding total devotion to the state and wiping out any remnants of the old regime. That meant shutting off all contact to the outside world, eliminating loyalty to friends or family, emptying the cities, eliminating the Buddhist religion, and creating a fearsome central authority, the "Angka" or "organization," that punished any deviation with torture and death.
Right before Sinell could take his exit examinations and go to France to study medicine, the Khmer Rouge came to power. He and millions of other Cambodians were sent outside the city to work in farms constructed hastily by the Khmer Rouge. The only color they were allowed to wear was black, to symbolize unity and equalness. He was at times a construction worker, a tractor driver, a farmer--he did whatever they asked because "if you protest, they kill you." When the Khmer Rouge asked him about his background he lied and told them that he had quit school at an early age and became a taxi driver. If a person knew a foreign language, had worked for the French or Americans, or dared to express feelings of love, he or she was a target for execution. Sinell remarks that, "in their rhetoric, they always said...they don't want the intellectuals to survive. They take Karl Marx's theory to the extreme. They tell the farmers 'Look, these are the class that dominate[d] you for centuries. Now it's your turn'."
Sovanya was separated from her parents and sent to work on one of the many farms dotting the countryside. When they asked about her background, she lied and told them she dropped out of school early to work on her family's farm. "They asked me to multiply, and I said I didn't know." Because of her pretended ignorance, the Khmer Rouge ignored her and ordered her to leave home and work. The routine was simple but hard: get up at 4 am, work in the farm, eat one scoop of rice or porridge, work some more, and if she was lucky, sleep for a few hours. She never talked unless they asked her a question. She recalls, "You have to shut your mouth all the way. You have to pretend you don't know anybody. Mind your own business...work, work, work." She remembers the isolation she felt, surrounded by silent workers who were afraid to make eye contact. Sovanya didn't know what was going on. There were "no radio, no news, no journalism...nothing, we don't hear from anybody, any country."
She hardly ever saw her family, except on certain occasions. Every few months she would ask a Khmer Rouge farm manager if she could go home to visit. Depending on his mood that day, he would grant her wish or send her away. On one occasion, in 1978 she came home to find that her father had been taken away by the Khmer Rouge. She knew that she wasn't ever going to see him again because they had most likely killed him. "They told him to go get something and then he left...he didn't know. Then they killed him, he never came back." She cried for 15 days. When the Khmer Rouge saw her display an excess of emotion, they threatened to take her away too. "When I cry, they see me cry, they almost kill me. So I stopped crying." She was taken to another farm. Her oldest sister, who was living at home with her mom, died from starvation at 19 years of age. Sovanya became the eldest.
Sinell didn't have many friends and he didn't trust many people. He kept his mouth shut most of the time because if you "don't talk much, don't argue much, they leave you alone." He was part of the mobile team--a group of single men and women who were forced to move from one farm to another, as per the Khmer Rouge's orders. They allowed each person to bring one book bag. If you had too many belongings, they would kill you: "your mind is still capitalist." They would routinely pick ten men and ten women from the mobile team and have a huge wedding celebration, which they called en masse marriages. On these wedding days, everyone was given extra food, a handful more than the usual scoop of rice.
Sinell was asked if he wanted to marry. One of the Khmer Rouge soldiers was a young man who had dropped out of Sinell's high school. Although they could not show that they were friends, this man helped Sinell avoid marriage. He also sent Sinell on driving jobs all over the countryside so that the Khmer Rouge was more likely to forget about him.
The Khmer Rouge was a fractured group. In 1978, another Khmer Rouge group from the Southwest killed all the soldiers in the Northwest group. According to Sinell, the Southwest group was a lot "nicer." But the Khmer Rouge was struggling to keep their foothold in Cambodia. In 1979, the Vietnamese stormed in and suppressed the Communists. They installed a government controlled by exiled Cambodians.
The next few months was a blur of traffic as people from all over the countryside walked back to their hometowns, trying to locate loved ones on the way. Sinell stopped by Battambang on his way to Thmor Khol. While he was there, he ran into some of Sovanya's family, who told him that she was alive and not married. He was surprised because he thought the Khmer Rouge would have married her off already.
He asked her mother if he could marry her. He thought, "she seemed to be from a good family." Class was very important to his family--to his society, in general. He would never have been able to marry someone who was from a class lower than his. In a way, this value of marrying within class or marrying into a higher class was a practice the Khmer Rouge sought to abolish with their en masse marriages. However, Sinell and Sovanya saw nothing wrong with marrying in the same class. It had been ingrained in them since they were both very young. In August/September of 1979, Sinell and Sovanya got married.
He started a business transporting goods from one province to another by water. Local Cambodian officials, appointed by the Vietnamese, lacked clear rules and organization from the installed government and wrongly accused him of smuggling contraband. So he left Sovanya to go to the border of Thailand and Cambodia, where a temporary illegal camp was set up, called Chum Rum Tmei. Ironically, he started a smuggling business in order to make money. He smuggled medication, food, rice, and motorcycle parts. He had built a huge hut on top of a hill near the border and whenever someone wanted something, he would have to go to Sinell's hut, explain what he needed, then stay however many nights it would take for Sinell to go across the border and get the item. It was a lucrative business. Sinell was not stopped often because the commander who patrolled the border studied with him in the army. Eventually, Sovanya came to live with Sinell in the camp. She never felt safe there. "It's scary...there were robbery, fights."
Living alongside the smugglers was a group of freedom fighters--a pocket of resistance against the Vietnamese installed government. They fought with the Vietnamese and with the leftover Khmer Rouge. Sovanya remembers, "I saw a lot of bomb[s], all over the place. People didn't know where to go." In the midst of all the fighting, the Khmer Rouge burned Sinell's hut. It was time to move on. He had heard about a refugee camp deep in the heart of Thailand. He sent someone to get his cousin and his mother. When they arrived, they all jumped in the back of an open truck, which took them to Khao-I-Dang, which means 'white mountain' in Thai. Sovanya describes the camp as "a jungle. We have to build our own house from bamboo and some kind of grass to put on the top." The camp was divided into neighborhoods of about 3000-4000 Cambodian refugees. Sinell was elected to be the neighborhood leader because he did well on an English test the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) administered to those who could speak English. He had taken classes when he was in the army. Being a neighborhood leader meant that he gave out food, spoke with the UNHCR and the Thai authority on behalf of the residents. He also taught eight English classes a day and tutored English at night, making a lot of money in the process. At that time, Sovanya was expecting their first child. Unfortunately, she miscarried at eight months due to her anemia. Although she cried a little, she says she doesn't remember feeling too sad. Death became such a part of life that most people were desensitized to it. "We saw a lot of people dead, killed. It was normal."
Someone from an N.G.O. spread the word around the camp that certain countries were accepting refugees from Southeast Asia. Families rushed to fill out forms for resettlement. Sinell filled out forms for the U.S., Australia, France and Belgium.
Although the U.S. has a long-standing tradition of accepting people fleeing oppression in other countries, many Americans were not in favor of admitting numerous Southeast Asian refugees, most likely because it would remind them of the Vietnam War. However, President Gerald Ford and other public figures, including people who had been opposed to the war, strongly supported the refugees. Congress allocated resettlement aid and passed the 1975 Indochina Migration and Refugee Act which allowed refugees to enter the U.S. under a special migration and "parole" status.
Sinell and Sovanya knew nothing of the U.S. and actually wanted to go to France. But the U.S. was the only country that accepted their family, which consisted of Sinell, Sovanya, Sinell's mother, Sinell's cousin and Sovanya's cousin by marriage. They had no sponsor in the U.S. so the family flew to a Philippines processing camp in 1980, where they learned English and how to use the toilet. Besides Cambodian refugees, Sovanya remembers that there were also Vietnamese, Laotian and Hmong refugees. Since there was no one language uniting the different groups, each kept to themselves, sharing food and information only with those who knew how to speak their language. Each family had one house, which consisted of one room. For every twenty houses, there was one bathroom.
While in the camp, Sinell heard word from a friend in Australia. His friend's father was willing to sponsor him. So he sent another form to the Australia embassy. It took them 8 months to reject his request for resettlement. Meanwhile, the U.S. was still willing to grant asylum to Sinell and his family. Not knowing anyone made the decision to go hard, but they went anyway. A church agency from Rhode Island (World Relief) sponsored a few families, Sinell's being one of them. Father Dunning was their local sponsor. They arrived in the U.S. in August 1981. As they were filling out their forms to enter the U.S., one immigration officer misspelled Sovanya's name. So Sovanya became Sovanna. On December 2, 1981, their second daughter after the miscarriage was born at St. Joseph's Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. They named her Jennet.
In 1983 Sovanna had another daughter, whom they called Jenneen. Three months later, she applied for a job at the Providence School Department. She knew little English, but she said her co-workers were very nice people who were patient with her. She was placed at Asa Messer School, an elementary school, as a teacher's assistant. She would go to the classrooms and help the children. There were a lot of Cambodian children at this time--"three classrooms full!" Sovanna remembers.
Sinell had taken his G.E.D. to get the equivalent of a high school diploma. When Jenneen was born, he enrolled at the Community College of Rhode Island, School of Nursing. He became a full registered nurse and worked at the local hospital. However, he didn't like it much so after three years, he left to go work for New York City's Health Department. But the commute took considerable time away from spending time with his family. He then got a job at the Massachusetts Human Services Department, where he was a social worker.
In 1985, Sovanna and Sinell had another daughter, Jennella. A year later, their first son, Kennell was born. Sovanna worked for the school department for sixteen years. She left it to open an Asian fruit and produce market in 1997. Sinell, after trying a multitude of different jobs, finally found one to his liking. In 1994, he opened up a seafood exporter business in Maine. He lived above his business during the days and commuted to Rhode Island on the weekends. This put a strain on Sinell and Sovanna's marriage so in 1999, they filed for divorce, something that is virtually unheard of in the Cambodian community.
Sovanna is still working at the store. Sinell is still working in Maine, but he comes to visit his children and his mother often. Their children give them much joy and tribulation; hopefully more of the former than the latter. Sinell and Sovanna readily admits that Jennet, Jenneen, Jennella, and Kenny can be a handful but they'll keep them anyway.
Khmer Rouge Tribunal Stalled Again
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has thrown another log in the road to justice for citizens of the region's most abused country. The premier announced that while he, his government and parliament all had agreed to pay a share of the cost of a tribunal for former Khmer Rouge leaders, they just can't do it.
That throws another pall over the quickly dying hope that the main, surviving butchers of the Pol Pot era will pay for the crimes of the horrible days of Khmer Rouge rule. There is more than good reason to doubt Hun Sen's glib explanation that he can't fund a trial because the country is broke.
According to the prime minister's statement, Cambodia might be able to come up with about $1.5 million of the $13 million it promised to provide. That promise came after years of excruciating talks between Cambodia and foreign friends, with delay and dodge at every turn, on every point, by Hun Sen and his officials.
The talks frustrated even the United Nations, which simply walked out at one point. The US and Europe negotiated the UN's sceptical agreement to talk again.Last year, the UN and several concerned members thought they had reached agreement. The final hurdle, after evading hundreds thrown out by Hun Sen and his government, was over how to fund the tribunal.
The UN agreed to provide $43 million to help a three-year, Cambodian-controlled trial _ the equivalent of 1.8 billion baht, no small amount. Premier Hun Sen committed the rest.
Now, he says, he just doesn't have the money.In some cases, compassionate agencies and foreign friends might be sympathetic to the claim that Cambodia has run out of available cash.
But years of experience have produced different reactions _ vexation and suspicion. Corruption in Cambodia has become rife, including within the government.
In addition, there has long been doubt, spread over the years of discussion about a Khmer Rouge tribunal, that Premier Hun Sen has any desire to see such an event, which would surely see his own days as a Khmer Rouge commander brought up again.
Neither the international community nor the people of Cambodia have much choice in these events. The greatest fear among UN officials and diplomats in Cambodia is that even if they hold their noses and finance a tribunal, Hun Sen and his government supporters will torpedo it by delay, obfuscation and bringing only minor Khmer Rouge functionaries to the dock for many more years. Khmer Rouge leaders have already died of old age.
These include their odious leader Pol Pot and his heavily involved wife, Khieu Ponnary. The highest ranking living suspect, Ieng Sary, lives with his wife and accused murderess Ieng Thirith in a protected western Cambodia village, more happily and more prosperously than most Cambodian people.
As much as United Nations members would like to see payment of their debts by Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and other cold-blooded killers of between one and 3.5 million of their fellow Khmers, the Cambodian people deserve to see such a trial. No one who knows the country can doubt the huge damage to a population that has struggled for 25 years to deal with the after-effects of three and a half years of the most brutal rule in Southeast Asian history.
The superficial claim that the government can't come up with money for a tribunal was unconvincing. It ignored a hugely conciliatory offer by Japan to allow the government to use aid funds for its paltry share of the tribunal.
It also brushed aside all consideration of the importance of a tribunal to the Cambodian people.In short, it is fair to assume that the Cambodian government and Prime Minister Hun Sen have access to the needed funds for a tribunal that would benefit their people.
It is fair to speculate why the premier has pleaded poverty rather than attempt to find the funds. He may find it convenient to blame the world community. The truth is Hun Sen has no intention of allowing any meaningful tribunal to judge the Khmer Rouge crimes of excess, possibly due to his involvement with the Khmer Rouge at the time.
That throws another pall over the quickly dying hope that the main, surviving butchers of the Pol Pot era will pay for the crimes of the horrible days of Khmer Rouge rule. There is more than good reason to doubt Hun Sen's glib explanation that he can't fund a trial because the country is broke.
According to the prime minister's statement, Cambodia might be able to come up with about $1.5 million of the $13 million it promised to provide. That promise came after years of excruciating talks between Cambodia and foreign friends, with delay and dodge at every turn, on every point, by Hun Sen and his officials.
The talks frustrated even the United Nations, which simply walked out at one point. The US and Europe negotiated the UN's sceptical agreement to talk again.Last year, the UN and several concerned members thought they had reached agreement. The final hurdle, after evading hundreds thrown out by Hun Sen and his government, was over how to fund the tribunal.
The UN agreed to provide $43 million to help a three-year, Cambodian-controlled trial _ the equivalent of 1.8 billion baht, no small amount. Premier Hun Sen committed the rest.
Now, he says, he just doesn't have the money.In some cases, compassionate agencies and foreign friends might be sympathetic to the claim that Cambodia has run out of available cash.
But years of experience have produced different reactions _ vexation and suspicion. Corruption in Cambodia has become rife, including within the government.
In addition, there has long been doubt, spread over the years of discussion about a Khmer Rouge tribunal, that Premier Hun Sen has any desire to see such an event, which would surely see his own days as a Khmer Rouge commander brought up again.
Neither the international community nor the people of Cambodia have much choice in these events. The greatest fear among UN officials and diplomats in Cambodia is that even if they hold their noses and finance a tribunal, Hun Sen and his government supporters will torpedo it by delay, obfuscation and bringing only minor Khmer Rouge functionaries to the dock for many more years. Khmer Rouge leaders have already died of old age.
These include their odious leader Pol Pot and his heavily involved wife, Khieu Ponnary. The highest ranking living suspect, Ieng Sary, lives with his wife and accused murderess Ieng Thirith in a protected western Cambodia village, more happily and more prosperously than most Cambodian people.
As much as United Nations members would like to see payment of their debts by Ieng Sary, Khieu Samphan and other cold-blooded killers of between one and 3.5 million of their fellow Khmers, the Cambodian people deserve to see such a trial. No one who knows the country can doubt the huge damage to a population that has struggled for 25 years to deal with the after-effects of three and a half years of the most brutal rule in Southeast Asian history.
The superficial claim that the government can't come up with money for a tribunal was unconvincing. It ignored a hugely conciliatory offer by Japan to allow the government to use aid funds for its paltry share of the tribunal.
It also brushed aside all consideration of the importance of a tribunal to the Cambodian people.In short, it is fair to assume that the Cambodian government and Prime Minister Hun Sen have access to the needed funds for a tribunal that would benefit their people.
It is fair to speculate why the premier has pleaded poverty rather than attempt to find the funds. He may find it convenient to blame the world community. The truth is Hun Sen has no intention of allowing any meaningful tribunal to judge the Khmer Rouge crimes of excess, possibly due to his involvement with the Khmer Rouge at the time.
Monday, August 22, 2005
Food Shortage
Millions May Need emergency Food
Phnom Penh, August 19, 2005 AKP --
While several provinces are currently afflicted by flooding, officials fear that a long period of drought could leave about 2 million Cambodians depending on emergency food in 2006, according to the Cambodia Daily.
The lack of water has left farmers nationwide unable to plant more than 45 percent of their paddy fields, Nhim Vanda, first vice president of the National Committee for Disaster Management, said at a NCDM meeting on Thursday.
"If there is no rain by the end of August millions of Cambodians will need emergency food, "he said. "If is a serious problem. We need to find a solution."
Hunger could just be the first consequence if the drought continues. According to Cambodian Red Cross Director of Disaster Management Uy Samath, the drought could force a great deal of Cambodians to leave their lands.
"Eighty-five percent of Cambodians are farmers so they depend on the rain," he said in an interview Thursday.
In Prey Veng province only 40 percent out of 250,000 hectares of paddy fields had been planted and 20 communes were reported to suffer badly from the drought.
"The harvest for this year will not be good compared to last year's harvest, because a part of the province has been struggling with drought for so long," said Yous Mony, deputy director of the provincial agriculture department.
In several provinces along the Mekong River, however, high water levels have caused floods.
For three weeks nearly 10,000 hectares of paddy fields in Stung Treng, Kratie and Kompong Cham province have been under water, which are sill rising, Nhim Vanda said at the meeting.
In Kratie province, 21 km of road, 17 pagodas and 35 school building have been damaged, he said, adding that several locations along the Mekong have been or were close to being declared in a state of emergency
Phnom Penh, August 19, 2005 AKP --
While several provinces are currently afflicted by flooding, officials fear that a long period of drought could leave about 2 million Cambodians depending on emergency food in 2006, according to the Cambodia Daily.
The lack of water has left farmers nationwide unable to plant more than 45 percent of their paddy fields, Nhim Vanda, first vice president of the National Committee for Disaster Management, said at a NCDM meeting on Thursday.
"If there is no rain by the end of August millions of Cambodians will need emergency food, "he said. "If is a serious problem. We need to find a solution."
Hunger could just be the first consequence if the drought continues. According to Cambodian Red Cross Director of Disaster Management Uy Samath, the drought could force a great deal of Cambodians to leave their lands.
"Eighty-five percent of Cambodians are farmers so they depend on the rain," he said in an interview Thursday.
In Prey Veng province only 40 percent out of 250,000 hectares of paddy fields had been planted and 20 communes were reported to suffer badly from the drought.
"The harvest for this year will not be good compared to last year's harvest, because a part of the province has been struggling with drought for so long," said Yous Mony, deputy director of the provincial agriculture department.
In several provinces along the Mekong River, however, high water levels have caused floods.
For three weeks nearly 10,000 hectares of paddy fields in Stung Treng, Kratie and Kompong Cham province have been under water, which are sill rising, Nhim Vanda said at the meeting.
In Kratie province, 21 km of road, 17 pagodas and 35 school building have been damaged, he said, adding that several locations along the Mekong have been or were close to being declared in a state of emergency
Thursday, August 18, 2005
Hun Sen Criticizes Rich and Powerful Countries
Hun Sen Criticizes Rich and Powerful Countries for not Finding Remedies to Drug and Human Trafficking
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday criticized ‘’rich and powerful’’ countries which have not found remedies to drug and human trafficking problems within their own borders and scolded those nations for purportedly ‘’blaming small countries’’ like Cambodia.
His verbal attack on Western countries came in a speech at a graduation ceremony of medical students, and some two months after the U.S. State Department publicly criticized and formally reprimanded the Hun Sen government for its lack of action against human traffickers and the apparent complicity of some of its officials and police and military officials in human trafficking and human smuggling.
Hun Sen pointed out that more illegal drugs were consumed in ‘’those countries’’ than in Cambodia. He noted that ‘’hundreds of tons’’ of drugs were being trafficked into North America from countries such as Colombia, and that in the ‘’American continent’’ young girls routinely were ‘’tricked’’ into accepting ‘’good jobs’’ in large cities but instead ended up as ‘’sex slaves at hotels.’’ In some ‘’acts,’’ it’s one girl for three men, he said, adding people behave like ‘’animals.’’
U.S. Embassy spokesman in Phnom Penh, David Gainer, said he had no comment on Hun Sen’s statements.
Keo Remy, an opposition lawmaker, said Hun Sen ‘’should not get upset’’ and instead ‘’should accept’’ recent criticism from the U.S. ‘’constructively’’ and ‘’take action to stop’’ Cambodia’s growing problems with trafficking of drugs and humans. Keo Remy acknowledged that developed countries continue to struggle with the same problems but emphasized that they ‘’at least have the rule of law to deal with these issues.’’ He rapped Hun Sen for being ‘’pessimistic’’ and suggested he ‘’face problems in his own homeland.’’
Keo Remy said Western nations know well that Cambodia’s efforts to create a just society built on ‘’rule of law’’ are dragging slowly and that they periodically point out shortcomings of the Cambodian government to illustrate why reform is necessary.
Cambodia was ranked by the U.S. State Department along with 13 other nations as the worst afflicted by rampant human trafficking.
Prime Minister Hun Sen on Tuesday criticized ‘’rich and powerful’’ countries which have not found remedies to drug and human trafficking problems within their own borders and scolded those nations for purportedly ‘’blaming small countries’’ like Cambodia.
His verbal attack on Western countries came in a speech at a graduation ceremony of medical students, and some two months after the U.S. State Department publicly criticized and formally reprimanded the Hun Sen government for its lack of action against human traffickers and the apparent complicity of some of its officials and police and military officials in human trafficking and human smuggling.
Hun Sen pointed out that more illegal drugs were consumed in ‘’those countries’’ than in Cambodia. He noted that ‘’hundreds of tons’’ of drugs were being trafficked into North America from countries such as Colombia, and that in the ‘’American continent’’ young girls routinely were ‘’tricked’’ into accepting ‘’good jobs’’ in large cities but instead ended up as ‘’sex slaves at hotels.’’ In some ‘’acts,’’ it’s one girl for three men, he said, adding people behave like ‘’animals.’’
U.S. Embassy spokesman in Phnom Penh, David Gainer, said he had no comment on Hun Sen’s statements.
Keo Remy, an opposition lawmaker, said Hun Sen ‘’should not get upset’’ and instead ‘’should accept’’ recent criticism from the U.S. ‘’constructively’’ and ‘’take action to stop’’ Cambodia’s growing problems with trafficking of drugs and humans. Keo Remy acknowledged that developed countries continue to struggle with the same problems but emphasized that they ‘’at least have the rule of law to deal with these issues.’’ He rapped Hun Sen for being ‘’pessimistic’’ and suggested he ‘’face problems in his own homeland.’’
Keo Remy said Western nations know well that Cambodia’s efforts to create a just society built on ‘’rule of law’’ are dragging slowly and that they periodically point out shortcomings of the Cambodian government to illustrate why reform is necessary.
Cambodia was ranked by the U.S. State Department along with 13 other nations as the worst afflicted by rampant human trafficking.
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