Cambodia, a land with a dark and troubled past. Colonised by the French, a few years respite after which civil war, then a period under one of the worst dictators in human history, then invaded by the Vietnamese, refugee camps just over the Thai border, thousands living in them for years.
It was not until the UN sponsored elections in 1993 that the Country had any form of stability.
Even now foreign aid runs at nearly double the Country’s own GDP. It natural resources – rice and fish – go mostly on feeding its own population.
The only potential cash cows it has are timber and a few gemstones, which have mostly been looted over the years by criminals or foreign powers. Any potential revenue from these thus lost to the public coffers.
Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia. Home to over 1 million of Cambodia’s 12 million citizens’. Its streets awash with a chaotic flow of traffic, pedestrians, street vendors and the odd stray animal. A tide of beggars including street children, orphans, the disabled, amputees and mothers with babes in arms.
March and April, the hottest months in the Khmer calendar, temperatures in the mid 40’s °C even at night the temperature only drops to around 30°C
Just strolling around the city is hard work, every sense being assaulted by the heat, sights, sounds and smells.
Yet despite the history, the heat, the dirt, the poverty and the apparent hopelessness of it all, the Khmer people smile and laugh at the drop of a hat. If you stumble in the street they will help you up, ask if you are okay and if you need any help getting to where you are going.
If you are ever a guest of a Khmer family you will be feed and watered as if they were entertaining royalty.
Despite all that has happened, and is happening, to them they are a proud and happy people. They revere their king who freed them from the French. They deeply honour the hundreds of Buddest monks that live in the capital. They remember when the Khmer nation covered Thailand, Laos and most of Vietnam, when it built the great temple city of Angkor Watt .
A land of great contrasts and my home for the next 2 years.
D
Management Advisor to the Royal Government of Cambodia
VSO Professional Services
www.vso.org.uk
