Anyone out there wondering where their Christmas Cards are, should take a look at the Email I got from VSO Cambodia today:
***
-----Original Message-----
From: Ngin Pisit
Sent: 30 December 2005 12:11
Dear All,
Just to announce that those who sent mail by VSO courrier from 12th - 23rd Dec 05 was burned down because of fire caused by electric explosion on 24th night at the room keeping mail of the Courrier Company in Phnom Penh.
If you would like claim from the company what you lost please list it and send it to me.
Thanks
Pisit
**********************************************************************
VSO is an international development charity that works through volunteers.
http://www.vso.org.uk
Friday, December 30, 2005
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Cambodia Using Courts to Restrict Free Speech, blah, blah, blah
As recently as 1997 opponents to Sam Rainsy and the SRP tried to stifle political debate by throwing hand grenades at him during a rally; this year all that is landing in his lap are court summons.
Personally, I would call that progress.
Ho Hum.
Still, here is the recent Bloomberg Article:
***
Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Cambodia is using its law courts to stifle free speech and political activity, United Nations envoy Yash Ghai said, citing last week's jail sentence imposed on opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who lives in exile.
Criminal prosecutions, such as the defamation case against Sam Rainsy, are being brought under laws introduced in 1992 when the UN was overseeing the peace process in Cambodia, Ghai, the special representative for human rights, said in a statement yesterday, according to the UN's Web site. The laws are out of date and should be repealed, Ghai said.
``Space for political discourse and public debate is being increasingly challenged, including through the courts,'' Ghai said. ``This deeply worrying trend is a serious threat to freedom of expression and political pluralism in Cambodia.''
Sam Rainsy fled to France in February and another opposition lawmaker, Cheam Channy, was sentenced to seven years in jail in August for organized crime and fraud. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused the Cambodian government of trying to silence the opposition, including the Sam Rainsy Party, by last year accusing members of forming an illegal armed force.
Cambodia's government isn't using the courts to dismantle the opposition such as the case against Sam Rainsy, Agence France-Presse cited Khieu Kanharith, a government spokesman, as saying two days ago in the capital, Phnom Penh.
``The issue is that his accusations affect the reputation of others,'' Khieu Kanharith said. ``Politicians should be careful when speaking.''
Human Rights
Cambodia's transitional legislation, known as the UNTAC laws, were introduced before the country adopted its new constitution and signed international human rights treaties, Ghai said.
``The UNTAC law was enacted as a temporary measure and under very particular circumstances, which no longer reflect the situation in today's Cambodia,'' he said.
Cambodia's new criminal code, currently being prepared, is an opportunity to make laws compliant with the constitution and human rights obligations, Ghai said.
The U.S. State Department last week condemned the 18-month prison sentence imposed on Sam Rainsy, saying it reflected ``the continuing deterioration of democratic principles such as free speech and expression in Cambodia.''
Sam Rainsy, 56, was sentenced in absentia for defaming Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh, AFP reported last week.
The defamation suit involved alleged comments by Sam Rainsy accusing Hun Sen of involvement in a 1997 grenade attack on an anti-government rally that killed at least 19 people and Prince Ranariddh of taking bribes for joining a coalition government led by Hun Sen, AFP said.
Coalition Government
Cambodia was without a government for more than a year after political parties failed to agree on forming a coalition after elections in June 2003.
Hun Sen formed a government in July 2004 with the royalist Funcinpec party led by Prince Ranariddh. Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party won 73 of the 123 National Assembly seats in the 2003 election, short of a two-thirds majority needed to form a government on its own. Funcinpec won 26 seats and the Sam Rainsy Party took 24 seats.
Sam Rainsy won't appeal the jail sentence, AFP reported two days ago, citing his lawyer Som Chandya. Sam Rainsy flew to France and another deputy, Chea Poch, went to the U.S. after their parliamentary immunity was lifted, AFP reported in February.
Personally, I would call that progress.
Ho Hum.
Still, here is the recent Bloomberg Article:
***
Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Cambodia is using its law courts to stifle free speech and political activity, United Nations envoy Yash Ghai said, citing last week's jail sentence imposed on opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who lives in exile.
Criminal prosecutions, such as the defamation case against Sam Rainsy, are being brought under laws introduced in 1992 when the UN was overseeing the peace process in Cambodia, Ghai, the special representative for human rights, said in a statement yesterday, according to the UN's Web site. The laws are out of date and should be repealed, Ghai said.
``Space for political discourse and public debate is being increasingly challenged, including through the courts,'' Ghai said. ``This deeply worrying trend is a serious threat to freedom of expression and political pluralism in Cambodia.''
Sam Rainsy fled to France in February and another opposition lawmaker, Cheam Channy, was sentenced to seven years in jail in August for organized crime and fraud. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have accused the Cambodian government of trying to silence the opposition, including the Sam Rainsy Party, by last year accusing members of forming an illegal armed force.
Cambodia's government isn't using the courts to dismantle the opposition such as the case against Sam Rainsy, Agence France-Presse cited Khieu Kanharith, a government spokesman, as saying two days ago in the capital, Phnom Penh.
``The issue is that his accusations affect the reputation of others,'' Khieu Kanharith said. ``Politicians should be careful when speaking.''
Human Rights
Cambodia's transitional legislation, known as the UNTAC laws, were introduced before the country adopted its new constitution and signed international human rights treaties, Ghai said.
``The UNTAC law was enacted as a temporary measure and under very particular circumstances, which no longer reflect the situation in today's Cambodia,'' he said.
Cambodia's new criminal code, currently being prepared, is an opportunity to make laws compliant with the constitution and human rights obligations, Ghai said.
The U.S. State Department last week condemned the 18-month prison sentence imposed on Sam Rainsy, saying it reflected ``the continuing deterioration of democratic principles such as free speech and expression in Cambodia.''
Sam Rainsy, 56, was sentenced in absentia for defaming Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly President Prince Norodom Ranariddh, AFP reported last week.
The defamation suit involved alleged comments by Sam Rainsy accusing Hun Sen of involvement in a 1997 grenade attack on an anti-government rally that killed at least 19 people and Prince Ranariddh of taking bribes for joining a coalition government led by Hun Sen, AFP said.
Coalition Government
Cambodia was without a government for more than a year after political parties failed to agree on forming a coalition after elections in June 2003.
Hun Sen formed a government in July 2004 with the royalist Funcinpec party led by Prince Ranariddh. Hun Sen's Cambodian People's Party won 73 of the 123 National Assembly seats in the 2003 election, short of a two-thirds majority needed to form a government on its own. Funcinpec won 26 seats and the Sam Rainsy Party took 24 seats.
Sam Rainsy won't appeal the jail sentence, AFP reported two days ago, citing his lawyer Som Chandya. Sam Rainsy flew to France and another deputy, Chea Poch, went to the U.S. after their parliamentary immunity was lifted, AFP reported in February.
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Friday, December 23, 2005
Postcard from Battambang
This is Mr Kim Long or Kum Mien as he is known to his friends in the small and peaceful village of Kompong Ambril which nestles on the bank of the River Sangker not so far away from Battambang in Cambodia’s north east.
Mr Kim Long is an unusual man for a number of reasons. Firstly, in a country where the average life expectancy is 52 he has managed stay in robust, rude health to the grand old age of 77 and still does a full time job of work.
What, however, makes Mr Kim Long more remarkable is the fact that he is one of a tiny number of Khmer survivors from the French colonial army of Indochina. Having joined the French military in 1947 he was posted to Hanoi and then spent the subsequent seven years soldiering and seeing action fighting against Ho Chi Minh’s Communist troops in Northern Vietnam until the demoralised, tired and beaten French eventually pulled out of the region in 1954 and Mr Kim Long was discharged and left to his own devices.
By the early 1970’s when the Maoist Khmer Rouge began to threaten his village Mr Kim Long was already too old for active military service in Lon Nol’s army. Nevertheless, he knew a thing or two about killing communists and so picked up his rifle again to serve in Kompong Ambril’s village militia. He modestly admits that his best friend who is also still alive at the age of 78 and lives in the next village along the river was always the better shot.
Mr Kim Long kept his past history very much to himself during the Marxist Khmer Rouge years between 1975 and 1979 for to have served in the French Army would have made his immediate execution a certainty had the fact been discovered. Nevertheless and sadly his wife and children did not survive the Pol Pot period and this has left him alone with no family.
He is grateful though that, having been used as storage space by the KR, his village pagoda was spared from destruction and is therefore one of the very few wats in the province not to have been rebuilt since 1979.
It’s a lovely low squat building in the older Battambang style and quite unlike the newer more gaudy pagodas that have been built in recent years. The Buddha life scenes within the Wat also escaped intact and are less stereotypical than newer images of the Buddha’s life to be found elsewhere.
These days Mr Kim Long, whose military bearing remains intact, lives next to his beloved pagoda and serves as its diligent guardian and caretaker.
Sometimes he wonders if the French, for whom he risked his life, might owe him some sort of a military pension.
Maybe it has been assumed that nobody of his generation survived to ask for one.
Mr Kim Long is an unusual man for a number of reasons. Firstly, in a country where the average life expectancy is 52 he has managed stay in robust, rude health to the grand old age of 77 and still does a full time job of work.
What, however, makes Mr Kim Long more remarkable is the fact that he is one of a tiny number of Khmer survivors from the French colonial army of Indochina. Having joined the French military in 1947 he was posted to Hanoi and then spent the subsequent seven years soldiering and seeing action fighting against Ho Chi Minh’s Communist troops in Northern Vietnam until the demoralised, tired and beaten French eventually pulled out of the region in 1954 and Mr Kim Long was discharged and left to his own devices.
By the early 1970’s when the Maoist Khmer Rouge began to threaten his village Mr Kim Long was already too old for active military service in Lon Nol’s army. Nevertheless, he knew a thing or two about killing communists and so picked up his rifle again to serve in Kompong Ambril’s village militia. He modestly admits that his best friend who is also still alive at the age of 78 and lives in the next village along the river was always the better shot.
Mr Kim Long kept his past history very much to himself during the Marxist Khmer Rouge years between 1975 and 1979 for to have served in the French Army would have made his immediate execution a certainty had the fact been discovered. Nevertheless and sadly his wife and children did not survive the Pol Pot period and this has left him alone with no family.
He is grateful though that, having been used as storage space by the KR, his village pagoda was spared from destruction and is therefore one of the very few wats in the province not to have been rebuilt since 1979.
It’s a lovely low squat building in the older Battambang style and quite unlike the newer more gaudy pagodas that have been built in recent years. The Buddha life scenes within the Wat also escaped intact and are less stereotypical than newer images of the Buddha’s life to be found elsewhere.
These days Mr Kim Long, whose military bearing remains intact, lives next to his beloved pagoda and serves as its diligent guardian and caretaker.
Sometimes he wonders if the French, for whom he risked his life, might owe him some sort of a military pension.
Maybe it has been assumed that nobody of his generation survived to ask for one.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Is it Christmas ???
You would not even know that it is almost Christmas here in Happy Buddhist Cambodia…
- No lights (other than the miles of multicoloured fairy lights on every Khmer beer garden)
- No Christmas trees, except the sad looking plastic one just inside the ex-pat supermarket (i.e. slightly enlarged corner shop with grossly inflated prices for tins of baked beans)
- No 24/7 bombardment and besieging of our ears by that git Phil Spectre and his Christmas album
- Oh, no Slade either
- No snow, just the sunny but low 30C of the Khmer winter.
- No houses turned into a mini Disneyland of plastic Santa’s, sponge foam snowmen, or wall mounted reindeer.
However will I survive…
Seasons Whatnots and like Yuletide Thingies
Ho, Ho, Ho
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
My New Khmer Street; Same as the Old Khmer Street ?
Snapshots from my window
Having recently moved into my new home, I have spent several early evenings sat on my new, large, L-shaped balcony. Just watching the world go by and musing on my new location and new neighbours. (I really must buy a television soon)
Diagonally opposite is a small building site where a small office with flats above is being built, a bright, shiny, new blue building of seriously geometric design. Last weekend a surly looking Frenchman turned up to survey his new office building and flat, his Khmer girlfriend was decked head to toe in western clothing and was glinting even in the distance with expensive looking gold and jewellery.
To the left is a small wooden house with a lean-to wooden shop at the front, which sells the usual assortment of shampoo, toilet roll, cigarettes, soft drinks and blocks of ice. At any given time there are usually half a dozen people milling around outside or pulling up on moto’s to buy things.
To the right is another large house which seems to have a constant stream of expensive looking 4x4’s coming and going, some with NGO license plates, some with military police license plates. Yesterday lunchtime I came home to find a shiny new Jaguar S-Type parked outside my side door and one very smug looking Khmer guy leaning against it grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
At the end of my short road, on the corner is a small wooden shack restaurant serving plates of rice and noodles, outside which one usually finds several motodop’s hanging around should one need transport anywhere.
Opposite my door is a small Khmer concrete town house, in the evening around a dozen small children, 8 to 12 years of age, usually gather in the front room to learn English, from my balcony I can hear them reciting:
A is for apple; apple ply_pomm;
B is for book; book seal_pow
C is for car; car laan
And so on…
Underneath on the ground floor, with a completely separate set of entrances and stairwells is my paranoid, highly security conscious, landlord and his family. They have a shop a few road up in P’sar Olympic selling gold and jewellery
During the course of the day, up until the early evening a stead procession of street vendors’ cycle along touting their wares buy shouting out the name of the goods or service they offer; fresh bread, shoe repairs, key cutting and knife sharpening.
As well as these cycling vendors there are the usual assortment of people selling food from wooden or steel handcarts that they push around; Chinese dumplings, papaya salad bok la’hong, rice pork bai suh_ch’rook, or whatever the current seasons fruits are.
Towards the end of the day, as traffic grows light, but before daylight totally abandons us, it is quite common to see several kids playing badminton, without a net, in the middle of the road, just bating the shuttlecock back and forth for fun, elsewhere, street children are sifting through the rubbish outside peoples houses looking for empty cans or bottles that can be resold for recycling – two empty drinks cans (coke, beer, et cetera) sell for 100riel - that is 2.5cents or just over 1 shiny new British penny.
These are scenes that anyone living in Cambodia, especially Phnom Penh, will be familiar with. After all the stress and hassle of moving house, they are strangely reassuring.
Having recently moved into my new home, I have spent several early evenings sat on my new, large, L-shaped balcony. Just watching the world go by and musing on my new location and new neighbours. (I really must buy a television soon)
Diagonally opposite is a small building site where a small office with flats above is being built, a bright, shiny, new blue building of seriously geometric design. Last weekend a surly looking Frenchman turned up to survey his new office building and flat, his Khmer girlfriend was decked head to toe in western clothing and was glinting even in the distance with expensive looking gold and jewellery.
To the left is a small wooden house with a lean-to wooden shop at the front, which sells the usual assortment of shampoo, toilet roll, cigarettes, soft drinks and blocks of ice. At any given time there are usually half a dozen people milling around outside or pulling up on moto’s to buy things.
To the right is another large house which seems to have a constant stream of expensive looking 4x4’s coming and going, some with NGO license plates, some with military police license plates. Yesterday lunchtime I came home to find a shiny new Jaguar S-Type parked outside my side door and one very smug looking Khmer guy leaning against it grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
At the end of my short road, on the corner is a small wooden shack restaurant serving plates of rice and noodles, outside which one usually finds several motodop’s hanging around should one need transport anywhere.
Opposite my door is a small Khmer concrete town house, in the evening around a dozen small children, 8 to 12 years of age, usually gather in the front room to learn English, from my balcony I can hear them reciting:
A is for apple; apple ply_pomm;
B is for book; book seal_pow
C is for car; car laan
And so on…
Underneath on the ground floor, with a completely separate set of entrances and stairwells is my paranoid, highly security conscious, landlord and his family. They have a shop a few road up in P’sar Olympic selling gold and jewellery
During the course of the day, up until the early evening a stead procession of street vendors’ cycle along touting their wares buy shouting out the name of the goods or service they offer; fresh bread, shoe repairs, key cutting and knife sharpening.
As well as these cycling vendors there are the usual assortment of people selling food from wooden or steel handcarts that they push around; Chinese dumplings, papaya salad bok la’hong, rice pork bai suh_ch’rook, or whatever the current seasons fruits are.
Towards the end of the day, as traffic grows light, but before daylight totally abandons us, it is quite common to see several kids playing badminton, without a net, in the middle of the road, just bating the shuttlecock back and forth for fun, elsewhere, street children are sifting through the rubbish outside peoples houses looking for empty cans or bottles that can be resold for recycling – two empty drinks cans (coke, beer, et cetera) sell for 100riel - that is 2.5cents or just over 1 shiny new British penny.
These are scenes that anyone living in Cambodia, especially Phnom Penh, will be familiar with. After all the stress and hassle of moving house, they are strangely reassuring.
Monday, December 12, 2005
The Divided Heart - Movie Premier
Sunday the 11th
Movie Premier and Heng’s Screen Debut
The day started very early, about 06:30. For some reason the invite-only grand opening was taking place at 08:30 on a Sunday morning. Of course, the fact that I had been out the night before handing out free VIP invitations to the opening to various friends of mine in various bars did not help the fact that my head felt like there was Khmer wedding marquee being erected within it.
Arriving around 8 we hung around outside the cinema waiting for the red ribbon cutting ceremony for nearly an hour – yes, we were on Khmer time.
All the while the TV cameras were rolling and the young freshie girl presenter from TVK was interviewing people in the crowd, as well as the actors and actresses, who were just hanging around in the crowd with us. Somewhat more relaxed than their Hollywood counterparts would be at an LA opening of their new movie.
Eventually we had the ribbon cutting and we all filtered into the cinema, as we started to enter the auditorium we were handed fruit and water by the ushers.
Thankfully inside was well air-conditioned and a blessed relief from the sun that we had been standing in for so long.
As the last few people were taking their seats an announcer gets up on stage and introduces:
The stuntmen and martial arts crew; who after taking a bow launch into a quick enactment of a fight. After this the actresses get up on stage and take a bow and a round of applause. Then the director, producers, technical crew and assorted odds and ends get up to take theirs.
Finally with curtain up around 09:30 we were besieged with adverts for beer, phones and makeup taking us up to about 10:00 for the grand premier of…
The Divided Heart
A teenage love story and rights of passage movie set mostly in Phnom Penh. It tells the story of a beautiful girl who goes off to school and has two boys fall in love with her. One a nice guy from a rich urban family, the other an equally nice, but poor, kid from the provinces with his oddball sidekick acting as a scaramouch. Neither of them is really the villain of the piece, that role falls to the rich kids highly jealous, psycho, ex-girlfriend; who between causing a scene in a burger bar, trying to bribe Miss Beautiful to leave town and arranging for her to be kidnapped (along with telling the kidnappers to rape her) fulfils the obligatory ‘baddie’ position quite enough for a Sunday morning family movie.
Although the movie is all in Khmer, I could easily manage to follow it with my modest language skills and the fact that such a narrative is almost universal in storytelling around the world gives the viewer a sense of ease with the plot.
At this point I would like to give a special thanks to my western, non-Khmer speaking friends who turned up, slight warily, to support us all, they also found it reasonably easy to follow and enjoyed the morning greatly.
One of the refreshing things about this Khmer movie was the fact that it was just a simple love story, or love triangle, set against life in modern Phnom Penh, with pretty much only the obstacles that you face in everyday life. The fact that it did not contain; men with snakes for hair, or giant super snakes, or bouncing zombie vampire monsters with white squares of paper on their foreheads was also very much a bonus for us non Khmers and does, I feel, give a sense of hope that the industry here is not just going to keep churning out schlock horror gore laden B movies forever.
I will not give away too much of the ending, but it will suffice to say that, as one would suspect, all turns out well in the end, the guys survive, the girl escapes with her honour and virtue intact and the wicked get ‘a right royal arse kicking’, to quote a friend of mine. Having watched them film various scenes from the movie over the last six months and seeing the finished project, I would have to say that the stuntmen and martial arts crew certainly earned their money in the final showdown, especially as I know that they used no protective clothing and were working for peanuts, when they filmed that ‘right royal arse kicking’.
Movie Premier and Heng’s Screen Debut
The day started very early, about 06:30. For some reason the invite-only grand opening was taking place at 08:30 on a Sunday morning. Of course, the fact that I had been out the night before handing out free VIP invitations to the opening to various friends of mine in various bars did not help the fact that my head felt like there was Khmer wedding marquee being erected within it.
Arriving around 8 we hung around outside the cinema waiting for the red ribbon cutting ceremony for nearly an hour – yes, we were on Khmer time.
All the while the TV cameras were rolling and the young freshie girl presenter from TVK was interviewing people in the crowd, as well as the actors and actresses, who were just hanging around in the crowd with us. Somewhat more relaxed than their Hollywood counterparts would be at an LA opening of their new movie.
Eventually we had the ribbon cutting and we all filtered into the cinema, as we started to enter the auditorium we were handed fruit and water by the ushers.
Thankfully inside was well air-conditioned and a blessed relief from the sun that we had been standing in for so long.
As the last few people were taking their seats an announcer gets up on stage and introduces:
The stuntmen and martial arts crew; who after taking a bow launch into a quick enactment of a fight. After this the actresses get up on stage and take a bow and a round of applause. Then the director, producers, technical crew and assorted odds and ends get up to take theirs.
Finally with curtain up around 09:30 we were besieged with adverts for beer, phones and makeup taking us up to about 10:00 for the grand premier of…
The Divided Heart
A teenage love story and rights of passage movie set mostly in Phnom Penh. It tells the story of a beautiful girl who goes off to school and has two boys fall in love with her. One a nice guy from a rich urban family, the other an equally nice, but poor, kid from the provinces with his oddball sidekick acting as a scaramouch. Neither of them is really the villain of the piece, that role falls to the rich kids highly jealous, psycho, ex-girlfriend; who between causing a scene in a burger bar, trying to bribe Miss Beautiful to leave town and arranging for her to be kidnapped (along with telling the kidnappers to rape her) fulfils the obligatory ‘baddie’ position quite enough for a Sunday morning family movie.
Although the movie is all in Khmer, I could easily manage to follow it with my modest language skills and the fact that such a narrative is almost universal in storytelling around the world gives the viewer a sense of ease with the plot.
At this point I would like to give a special thanks to my western, non-Khmer speaking friends who turned up, slight warily, to support us all, they also found it reasonably easy to follow and enjoyed the morning greatly.
One of the refreshing things about this Khmer movie was the fact that it was just a simple love story, or love triangle, set against life in modern Phnom Penh, with pretty much only the obstacles that you face in everyday life. The fact that it did not contain; men with snakes for hair, or giant super snakes, or bouncing zombie vampire monsters with white squares of paper on their foreheads was also very much a bonus for us non Khmers and does, I feel, give a sense of hope that the industry here is not just going to keep churning out schlock horror gore laden B movies forever.
I will not give away too much of the ending, but it will suffice to say that, as one would suspect, all turns out well in the end, the guys survive, the girl escapes with her honour and virtue intact and the wicked get ‘a right royal arse kicking’, to quote a friend of mine. Having watched them film various scenes from the movie over the last six months and seeing the finished project, I would have to say that the stuntmen and martial arts crew certainly earned their money in the final showdown, especially as I know that they used no protective clothing and were working for peanuts, when they filmed that ‘right royal arse kicking’.
Thursday, December 08, 2005
Cambodian border town bets on vice
With no gambling regulations, Poipet is crowned casino capital of Southeast AsiaBy Benjamin PaukerSpecial to the TribunePublished December 7, 2005
POIPET, Cambodia -- The noonday sun does not discriminate. It scorches old men wheeling ragged, homemade carts stacked high with sandals and baskets to market across a bridge at the Thai border.
Korean tourists sweat while waiting in line for Cambodian visas. Young beggars take shelter in the shade, or retreat to the creek beneath the bridge, which runs gray and frothy amid mountains of trash.Yet, as the sun sets and neon signs flicker to life, Poipet comes alive.
This dusty border town, not far from where the remnants of the Khmer Rouge holed up before finally surrendering in 1999, is the new gambling capital of Southeast Asia.It is home to nine glitzy casinos and sprawling high-rise hotels that beckon thousands of Thai and East Asian travelers willing to try their luck at baccarat, blackjack and fighting-cock-themed slot machines.
The casinos, with such names as Tropicana and Golden Crown, are in a roughly quarter-mile-wide special administrative zone between the Thai border and the official entry point to Cambodia.
Star Vegas, the most luxurious of the properties, boasts elegant VIP rooms, a nightclub and an 18-hole golf course. Greens fees are less than $8.
"And no more land mines," assures Adoon Sradindam, a front office manager.
Owned by publicity-shy Thai, Sino-Cambodian, Malaysian and Indonesian investors, the casinos have sprouted like rice in the rainy season, unburdened by national gaming laws or registration.
The oldest, Holiday Poipet, is just six years old. Already, their existence is threatened by the planned $3 billion construction of two mega-casinos in Singapore, which recently repealed its 40-year ban on gambling. Thailand's prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, also has floated the idea of building casinos to bring tourism back to the tsunami-ravaged resorts in the south.
Anti-gambling religious beliefs among Thailand's Buddhists and Singapore's Muslims have long prevented state-sanctioned casinos, but the tide is turning.Gamblers, but on the sly"Thais gamble like everyone else," says Mam, who would not give his full name and once worked in an illegal casino in Bangkok's On Nut neighborhood.
"They just don't like to be seen doing it." Temporarily unemployed, he has come to Cambodia.
At Holiday Poipet, an understated Chinese-themed casino, he plays fantan, a popular table game.People slurp from bowls of noodles as the bored teenage dealer cups dozens of yellow plastic beads in a ceramic rice bowl, then puts the pile on the table. A second dealer divides the beads into groups of four.
Before the parsing, bets are placed on the number that can't be divided into groups of four.
Mam, like the other 20 people at the table, is keeping count of the results, as if a winning pattern might be divined. "I have a system," he said. "In one hour, I won 100,000 baht [about $2,400] at roulette.
"It is a fortune in Poipet, where casino employees regularly earn 4,000 baht (about $95) a month.Though technically within Cambodia, the casinos deal solely in Thai currency. Bets, salaries, winnings and losses are paid in baht, not the Cambodian riel.
Poipet is a notorious border town: dirty, dangerous, and until six years ago, not a good place for an overnight stay. It is on the road from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and Siem Riep, where the jungle temple complex of Angkor Wat draws tens of thousands of visitors annually.
Most Westerners passing through Poipet come from Bangkok to renew tourist visas or are budget backpackers who make the overland journey to Angkor, a cheap but back-wrenching trip. Small Toyota pickups offer transit for $6, an 8-hour ride between Bangkok and Angkor Wat along one of the worst major roads in Asia. The potholes are monstrous.`Armpit' of Cambodia
The border itself is notorious. Numerous Internet discussion boards for travelers warn of beggars, touts and pickpockets who roam the dusty streets. Brothels line the main road out of town toward Cambodia's central plains. The Lonely Planet guidebook, a bible for independent travelers, writes, "If Cambodia were a body, Poipet would be the armpit."
The glitzy gambling palaces are the town's sole economic engines. When the Thai government closed the border in 2003 to protest the attack of its embassy in Phnom Penh by angry Cambodian mobs, daily revenue losses were estimated at roughly $7-10 million
Asian governments are taking note of the flourishing casino industry in Macau, a former Portuguese colony now under Chinese control, where gambling revenues reached $5.1 billion in 2004. According to the American Gaming Association, Las Vegas recorded $5.33 billion in revenue last year.
Regional governments are relaxing similar restrictions on gaming, prompting analysts at Merrill Lynch to predict this October that there will be at least 50 new casinos in East Asia by 2012, and that gaming revenues will triple to $44.8 billion.
Singapore, a city-state off the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula known for its strict ordinances on public speech and moral rectitude, is positioning itself to be on the vanguard of this boom.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has promoted the creation of two massive "integrated resorts," with hotels, shopping, restaurants, theme parks, museums and casinos.
"We cannot stand still," he told parliament in April. "We are at serious risk of being left behind by other cities." Singapore intends to tax those who go to casinos $60 to ensure that the youth and impoverished will not be corrupted. Officials hope to attract a high class of clientele.
If Thailand moves to keep pace with the casino market, Poipet's glory days will soon be gone.
But for now, gambling in Thailand is still illegal, except at racetracks and the state lottery. It is a short day trip from Bangkok to the Cambodian border. And because the casinos are in a no-man's land between the Thai border and the official Cambodian entry point, Thais don't need a visa. Express buses leave just after dawn from downtown Bangkok's Lumpini Park.
"Today, I am supposed to go to church, but I go to casino," says Dala Paleebut as the bus leaves Bangkok. The journey is three hours in air-conditioned comfort. Overdubbed American movies, gory Thai martial arts flicks and bubble-gum pop videos play on the video screens."
I am addicted to gambling," she says with a wide smile, "like drugs, like a man loves a woman." As the bus stops at Aranyaprathet, on the Thai side of the border, she jumps out, dodging the gathering beggars, touts and motorcycles to be first in the long queue of Thais waiting to test their luck.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512070207dec07,1,6120070.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true&coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
POIPET, Cambodia -- The noonday sun does not discriminate. It scorches old men wheeling ragged, homemade carts stacked high with sandals and baskets to market across a bridge at the Thai border.
Korean tourists sweat while waiting in line for Cambodian visas. Young beggars take shelter in the shade, or retreat to the creek beneath the bridge, which runs gray and frothy amid mountains of trash.Yet, as the sun sets and neon signs flicker to life, Poipet comes alive.
This dusty border town, not far from where the remnants of the Khmer Rouge holed up before finally surrendering in 1999, is the new gambling capital of Southeast Asia.It is home to nine glitzy casinos and sprawling high-rise hotels that beckon thousands of Thai and East Asian travelers willing to try their luck at baccarat, blackjack and fighting-cock-themed slot machines.
The casinos, with such names as Tropicana and Golden Crown, are in a roughly quarter-mile-wide special administrative zone between the Thai border and the official entry point to Cambodia.
Star Vegas, the most luxurious of the properties, boasts elegant VIP rooms, a nightclub and an 18-hole golf course. Greens fees are less than $8.
"And no more land mines," assures Adoon Sradindam, a front office manager.
Owned by publicity-shy Thai, Sino-Cambodian, Malaysian and Indonesian investors, the casinos have sprouted like rice in the rainy season, unburdened by national gaming laws or registration.
The oldest, Holiday Poipet, is just six years old. Already, their existence is threatened by the planned $3 billion construction of two mega-casinos in Singapore, which recently repealed its 40-year ban on gambling. Thailand's prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, also has floated the idea of building casinos to bring tourism back to the tsunami-ravaged resorts in the south.
Anti-gambling religious beliefs among Thailand's Buddhists and Singapore's Muslims have long prevented state-sanctioned casinos, but the tide is turning.Gamblers, but on the sly"Thais gamble like everyone else," says Mam, who would not give his full name and once worked in an illegal casino in Bangkok's On Nut neighborhood.
"They just don't like to be seen doing it." Temporarily unemployed, he has come to Cambodia.
At Holiday Poipet, an understated Chinese-themed casino, he plays fantan, a popular table game.People slurp from bowls of noodles as the bored teenage dealer cups dozens of yellow plastic beads in a ceramic rice bowl, then puts the pile on the table. A second dealer divides the beads into groups of four.
Before the parsing, bets are placed on the number that can't be divided into groups of four.
Mam, like the other 20 people at the table, is keeping count of the results, as if a winning pattern might be divined. "I have a system," he said. "In one hour, I won 100,000 baht [about $2,400] at roulette.
"It is a fortune in Poipet, where casino employees regularly earn 4,000 baht (about $95) a month.Though technically within Cambodia, the casinos deal solely in Thai currency. Bets, salaries, winnings and losses are paid in baht, not the Cambodian riel.
Poipet is a notorious border town: dirty, dangerous, and until six years ago, not a good place for an overnight stay. It is on the road from Bangkok to Phnom Penh and Siem Riep, where the jungle temple complex of Angkor Wat draws tens of thousands of visitors annually.
Most Westerners passing through Poipet come from Bangkok to renew tourist visas or are budget backpackers who make the overland journey to Angkor, a cheap but back-wrenching trip. Small Toyota pickups offer transit for $6, an 8-hour ride between Bangkok and Angkor Wat along one of the worst major roads in Asia. The potholes are monstrous.`Armpit' of Cambodia
The border itself is notorious. Numerous Internet discussion boards for travelers warn of beggars, touts and pickpockets who roam the dusty streets. Brothels line the main road out of town toward Cambodia's central plains. The Lonely Planet guidebook, a bible for independent travelers, writes, "If Cambodia were a body, Poipet would be the armpit."
The glitzy gambling palaces are the town's sole economic engines. When the Thai government closed the border in 2003 to protest the attack of its embassy in Phnom Penh by angry Cambodian mobs, daily revenue losses were estimated at roughly $7-10 million
Asian governments are taking note of the flourishing casino industry in Macau, a former Portuguese colony now under Chinese control, where gambling revenues reached $5.1 billion in 2004. According to the American Gaming Association, Las Vegas recorded $5.33 billion in revenue last year.
Regional governments are relaxing similar restrictions on gaming, prompting analysts at Merrill Lynch to predict this October that there will be at least 50 new casinos in East Asia by 2012, and that gaming revenues will triple to $44.8 billion.
Singapore, a city-state off the southern tip of the Malaysian peninsula known for its strict ordinances on public speech and moral rectitude, is positioning itself to be on the vanguard of this boom.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has promoted the creation of two massive "integrated resorts," with hotels, shopping, restaurants, theme parks, museums and casinos.
"We cannot stand still," he told parliament in April. "We are at serious risk of being left behind by other cities." Singapore intends to tax those who go to casinos $60 to ensure that the youth and impoverished will not be corrupted. Officials hope to attract a high class of clientele.
If Thailand moves to keep pace with the casino market, Poipet's glory days will soon be gone.
But for now, gambling in Thailand is still illegal, except at racetracks and the state lottery. It is a short day trip from Bangkok to the Cambodian border. And because the casinos are in a no-man's land between the Thai border and the official Cambodian entry point, Thais don't need a visa. Express buses leave just after dawn from downtown Bangkok's Lumpini Park.
"Today, I am supposed to go to church, but I go to casino," says Dala Paleebut as the bus leaves Bangkok. The journey is three hours in air-conditioned comfort. Overdubbed American movies, gory Thai martial arts flicks and bubble-gum pop videos play on the video screens."
I am addicted to gambling," she says with a wide smile, "like drugs, like a man loves a woman." As the bus stops at Aranyaprathet, on the Thai side of the border, she jumps out, dodging the gathering beggars, touts and motorcycles to be first in the long queue of Thais waiting to test their luck.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512070207dec07,1,6120070.story?page=1&ctrack=1&cset=true&coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
Cambodian PM warns land seizures could spark 'revolution'
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen says land seizures involving government officials, business people and the military are destabilising the country.
He says there will be no tolerating cases of land grabbing.Land seizures in Cambodia have left thousands of poor families destitute and sparked recent unrest.
Hun Sen has warned a revolution could erupt among rural Cambodians if the practice does not cease.
"...it is time to stop before the people lose their patience," he said. "I warn you, a revolution will take place".
At least six villagers were killed in March when they fought their eviction by security forces following a court order handing the land to a village chief in northwest Banteay Meanchey province.
In August, a court dropped charges against more than 120 police, soldiers and others accused of involvement in the eviction.
The Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 destroyed land registries as part of its drive for an agrarian utopia.
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1526365.htm
He says there will be no tolerating cases of land grabbing.Land seizures in Cambodia have left thousands of poor families destitute and sparked recent unrest.
Hun Sen has warned a revolution could erupt among rural Cambodians if the practice does not cease.
"...it is time to stop before the people lose their patience," he said. "I warn you, a revolution will take place".
At least six villagers were killed in March when they fought their eviction by security forces following a court order handing the land to a village chief in northwest Banteay Meanchey province.
In August, a court dropped charges against more than 120 police, soldiers and others accused of involvement in the eviction.
The Khmer Rouge regime that ruled Cambodia from 1975-79 destroyed land registries as part of its drive for an agrarian utopia.
http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1526365.htm
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
UN officials due in Cambodia to discuss preparations for Khmer Rouge trials
A team of U.N. officials was set to arrive in Cambodia Tuesday to look into preparations for a tribunal to prosecute surviving leaders of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, a spokeswoman said.
The seven-member U.N. delegation will meet with the government's Khmer Rouge trial team, diplomats and representatives of civil society to discuss logistics and staffing, and look at the condition of the tribunal site, said Anne-Marie Ibanez, the spokeswoman for the team.
The Khmer Rouge was responsible for the death of some 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution during its four-year dictatorial reign over Cambodia in late 1970s. Its leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998, but several of his top deputies, aging and infirm, still live freely in Cambodia.
The trials _ for genocide and crimes against humanity _ will be carried out under the jurisdiction of the Cambodian court system with help from the international community.
Attempts to open the trials before the remaining leaders die of old age have been hampered by Cambodia's inability to find donors to help finance its US$13.3 million (£á11.4 million) share of the US$43 million (£á36.4 million) tribunal costs.
The U.N. was expected to select foreign judges for the tribunal this week. Cambodia has not yet announced its selection of judges, but once that is done, "we will move along" with the trials, Ibanez said.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=33267
The seven-member U.N. delegation will meet with the government's Khmer Rouge trial team, diplomats and representatives of civil society to discuss logistics and staffing, and look at the condition of the tribunal site, said Anne-Marie Ibanez, the spokeswoman for the team.
The Khmer Rouge was responsible for the death of some 1.7 million people from starvation, disease, overwork and execution during its four-year dictatorial reign over Cambodia in late 1970s. Its leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998, but several of his top deputies, aging and infirm, still live freely in Cambodia.
The trials _ for genocide and crimes against humanity _ will be carried out under the jurisdiction of the Cambodian court system with help from the international community.
Attempts to open the trials before the remaining leaders die of old age have been hampered by Cambodia's inability to find donors to help finance its US$13.3 million (£á11.4 million) share of the US$43 million (£á36.4 million) tribunal costs.
The U.N. was expected to select foreign judges for the tribunal this week. Cambodia has not yet announced its selection of judges, but once that is done, "we will move along" with the trials, Ibanez said.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/i_latestdetail.asp?id=33267
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
A Life in the Day: Somaly MamInterview
The 34-year-old Cambodian leads the AFESIP association, which rescues girls and young women from brothels in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. She is separated from her husband and lives near Phnom Penh with her children: Melissa, 14, Adana, 9, and Nicolai, 3
"I wake with the sound of birds at 5. As soon as I open my eyes I think of the things I have to sort out. I have a shower, no breakfast. I get lunch for my children, then spend time on e-mails before setting out at 7. My house isn't far from Phnom Penh, but the drive can last five minutes or half an hour, depending on the rain and the state of the road.
I go first to our shelter where the girls we've rescued live. They can be hard to manage — they want to break everything — but I take them in my arms and we understand each other. In Cambodia, parents sell their children when they're five or six for as little as £60. Girls prostitute themselves for less than £1.
It's what I've been through that gives me the strength to fight back. I don't know who my parents are. As a child I remember being cold all the time. I was abandoned and raped when I was 12. Two years later I was sold off and forced to marry. My husband would get drunk, he beat me and raped me, he'd fire bullets which passed just by my head or my feet. I took the gun and shot him in the foot. I was 15. I didn't want to kill him, just hurt him as he had hurt me. I'm more of a Buddhist now, and I try to be reasonable. But when I see rapists I see red. I'm not perfect.
My husband sold me to a brothel. I had to accept five or six clients a day. Once a client called me and another girl; he said he was with just one other man. In fact, there were 20 of them; they treated us so badly I wanted revenge. I wanted to kill the man who called us. Then I thought his family would suffer, so I left him alone.
People laugh about prostitution being the oldest job in the world, but I've seen so many awful things. Girls are chained up and beaten with electric cables; one had a nail driven into her skull for trying to escape. Another, Thomdi, was sold to a brothel when she was nine. When I saw her in the street she was 17 and sick with Aids and TB. She had lots of abscesses and the people at the hospital insulted her and refused to take her in. So I took her home and washed her.
She started to get better. Then I had to go abroad. She told me she would die without me, but I had to go. I was buying presents for her when I got the call that she had died. I still feel guilty about her death.
Around mid-morning I go to the offices. I'm back on the computer and I check on the girls' health, and how they are doing at their jobs. The association has a staff of 134, including doctors, psychologists and teachers. Since we set it up eight years ago, we've saved over 3,000 girls and found them normal work.
Our job is dangerous. Once this man who ran a brothel put a gun to my temple; he was angry that I'd talked to his girls. He told me I was a bitch, that he was going to kill me. I talked to him — I knew he wouldn't kill me. People with a gun kill you or they don't — they don't pretend.
After, I got him arrested. I don't have bodyguards — I want to be free.
For me, meeting a politician or a donor is much worse than having a gun pointed at me. I didn't go to school, I don't find it easy to talk and behave properly with a bureaucrat. I have to say the truth, which hurts, but if you don't tell the truth, nothing changes.
I'm usually too busy to have lunch, but if I eat something it'll be boiled white rice and fried vegetables. Around 2pm, we hold meetings, we talk about the girls who are ill or have difficulty finding a place in society. And there are always e-mails — I get 200 to 300 a day.
The hardest thing for me to cope with is corruption. I filmed a police raid on a brothel — there was cocaine there. But then in the courts the judge said it wasn't cocaine, it was flour. We once caught a German paedophile on camera, but the courts let him off with a £4,000 fine. He went back to his country. Is that fair?
Last December we rescued 89 women and children in a police raid on a big hotel. But the pimps went to our shelter and grabbed them back. The next day they threatened to come back with grenades. I phoned everyone I could for help, but I was told I'd gone too far — I had bothered powerful people. I make a point of going to see the criminals who threaten me. I have to show them I'm not afraid by talking to them.
I get desperate at times; I tried to commit suicide two or three times. When things are overwhelming, I try to be alone somewhere dark and quiet. I can be bad company; everything makes me angry. I'm separated from my husband and I don't think I'll have another relationship. I'm not young any more; I don't want to make a man unhappy.
One or two nights a week I meet girls in brothels or on the streets. I talk to them and tell them what we could do for them. But usually I go home at 7 to cook for my children. They are in bed by 10, then it's quiet and I go back to my e-mails.
I can be at the computer until 2am.
I don't sleep well. Especially when I have to meet journalists and they ask me about my past.
When I close my eyes I feel raped and dirty. I'm very weak. At night when I don't sleep, I think that right at that moment many children are being raped. The pills I used to take don't work any more. But I can get by with two or three hours' sleep. I don't know what being happy means. But I like seeing the girls smile. That makes me feel good."
The Road to Innocence, by Somaly Mam, will be published by Virago next year.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-1891955,00.html
"I wake with the sound of birds at 5. As soon as I open my eyes I think of the things I have to sort out. I have a shower, no breakfast. I get lunch for my children, then spend time on e-mails before setting out at 7. My house isn't far from Phnom Penh, but the drive can last five minutes or half an hour, depending on the rain and the state of the road.
I go first to our shelter where the girls we've rescued live. They can be hard to manage — they want to break everything — but I take them in my arms and we understand each other. In Cambodia, parents sell their children when they're five or six for as little as £60. Girls prostitute themselves for less than £1.
It's what I've been through that gives me the strength to fight back. I don't know who my parents are. As a child I remember being cold all the time. I was abandoned and raped when I was 12. Two years later I was sold off and forced to marry. My husband would get drunk, he beat me and raped me, he'd fire bullets which passed just by my head or my feet. I took the gun and shot him in the foot. I was 15. I didn't want to kill him, just hurt him as he had hurt me. I'm more of a Buddhist now, and I try to be reasonable. But when I see rapists I see red. I'm not perfect.
My husband sold me to a brothel. I had to accept five or six clients a day. Once a client called me and another girl; he said he was with just one other man. In fact, there were 20 of them; they treated us so badly I wanted revenge. I wanted to kill the man who called us. Then I thought his family would suffer, so I left him alone.
People laugh about prostitution being the oldest job in the world, but I've seen so many awful things. Girls are chained up and beaten with electric cables; one had a nail driven into her skull for trying to escape. Another, Thomdi, was sold to a brothel when she was nine. When I saw her in the street she was 17 and sick with Aids and TB. She had lots of abscesses and the people at the hospital insulted her and refused to take her in. So I took her home and washed her.
She started to get better. Then I had to go abroad. She told me she would die without me, but I had to go. I was buying presents for her when I got the call that she had died. I still feel guilty about her death.
Around mid-morning I go to the offices. I'm back on the computer and I check on the girls' health, and how they are doing at their jobs. The association has a staff of 134, including doctors, psychologists and teachers. Since we set it up eight years ago, we've saved over 3,000 girls and found them normal work.
Our job is dangerous. Once this man who ran a brothel put a gun to my temple; he was angry that I'd talked to his girls. He told me I was a bitch, that he was going to kill me. I talked to him — I knew he wouldn't kill me. People with a gun kill you or they don't — they don't pretend.
After, I got him arrested. I don't have bodyguards — I want to be free.
For me, meeting a politician or a donor is much worse than having a gun pointed at me. I didn't go to school, I don't find it easy to talk and behave properly with a bureaucrat. I have to say the truth, which hurts, but if you don't tell the truth, nothing changes.
I'm usually too busy to have lunch, but if I eat something it'll be boiled white rice and fried vegetables. Around 2pm, we hold meetings, we talk about the girls who are ill or have difficulty finding a place in society. And there are always e-mails — I get 200 to 300 a day.
The hardest thing for me to cope with is corruption. I filmed a police raid on a brothel — there was cocaine there. But then in the courts the judge said it wasn't cocaine, it was flour. We once caught a German paedophile on camera, but the courts let him off with a £4,000 fine. He went back to his country. Is that fair?
Last December we rescued 89 women and children in a police raid on a big hotel. But the pimps went to our shelter and grabbed them back. The next day they threatened to come back with grenades. I phoned everyone I could for help, but I was told I'd gone too far — I had bothered powerful people. I make a point of going to see the criminals who threaten me. I have to show them I'm not afraid by talking to them.
I get desperate at times; I tried to commit suicide two or three times. When things are overwhelming, I try to be alone somewhere dark and quiet. I can be bad company; everything makes me angry. I'm separated from my husband and I don't think I'll have another relationship. I'm not young any more; I don't want to make a man unhappy.
One or two nights a week I meet girls in brothels or on the streets. I talk to them and tell them what we could do for them. But usually I go home at 7 to cook for my children. They are in bed by 10, then it's quiet and I go back to my e-mails.
I can be at the computer until 2am.
I don't sleep well. Especially when I have to meet journalists and they ask me about my past.
When I close my eyes I feel raped and dirty. I'm very weak. At night when I don't sleep, I think that right at that moment many children are being raped. The pills I used to take don't work any more. But I can get by with two or three hours' sleep. I don't know what being happy means. But I like seeing the girls smile. That makes me feel good."
The Road to Innocence, by Somaly Mam, will be published by Virago next year.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-1891955,00.html
Monday, December 05, 2005
Documenting Cambodia's Genocide, Survivor Finds Peace
As the director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh, Youk Chhang has spent the last ten years cataloguing the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge regime three decades ago.
A survivor of the "killing fields," Chhang lost scores of family members in the genocide. He says he came to his work "to get revenge."
What he found was salvation.
"They say that time heals all wounds," he said. "But time alone can do nothing. You will always have time. To me, research heals. Knowing and understanding what happened has set me free."
An affable man whose eyes stir with emotion, Chhang speaks with precise purpose. He has no problem sharing his own history, which he does because it is part of Cambodia's collective memory.
"I'm no different from everyone else," he said. "Most people here lost a family member in the genocide, and everywhere you look there is a story."
Frayed Documents
Led by dictator Pol Pot, the communist Khmer Rouge regime undertook a radical experiment to create an agrarian utopia in Cambodia. The regime reigned from 1975 to 1979, and its policies were responsible for the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, disease, overwork, and execution.
Yet little has been done to heal the trauma. Only a couple of the old regime leaders have been arrested. A war crimes tribunal is still in the planning stage. On the busy streets of Phnom Penh, not a whisper is heard about the country's darkest days.
But the sordid details can be found inside an anonymous colonial building near Independence Square. This is the home of the documentation center, which this year marks its tenth anniversary since it was founded by Yale University's Cambodian Genocide Program.
The filing cabinets in here contain more than a million pages of frayed documents detailing executions, tortures, incarceration orders, forced confessions, and memorandums to and from top Khmer Rouge officials.
"The Khmer Rouge [officials] were meticulous record keepers," said Chhang, sitting in his office on the center's third floor. "They didn't realize that writing everything down would come back to haunt them."
One of the center's goals is to compile and organize the information so that it can serve as potential evidence in court. Its other objective is to simply record and preserve the brutal history of the regime.
"We don't make judgments," Chhang said. "We are only recording who did what to whom, so the puzzle can be put together."
Written documents make up only one part of the archive. The center also houses some 20,000 photos, as well as many films. Staff have conducted more than 20,000 interviews with both victims and perpetrators.
There is also the physical information gathered from more than 19,000 mass graves. During the interview, Chhang said his office had just received word that another mass grave containing 60 bodies had been found. The suspected killer had apparently come back to the grave to loot it for gold.
Selfish Crimes
Most Cambodians are extremely reluctant to talk about the genocide. In classrooms, almost nothing is taught about the Khmer Rouge. Chhang describes one textbook that has a short paragraph on Pol Pot, which says "a lot of people were killed" when the dictator's government was in power.
Chhang lost two sisters and tens of other relatives during the Khmer Rouge era, and he came close to losing his own life.
As a 14-year-old boy working on a communal farm, he was caught picking a vegetable to eat, an act banned by the Khmer Rouge as selfish. Soldiers tortured him in front of his mother.
"She couldn't cry, because that was considered a crime, so she turned around and walked away," he said. "For years I didn't understand how she could do that. Now I know that it saved our lives."
When the Khmer Rouge regime collapsed in 1979, Cambodia's economy was completely shattered, and widespread starvation continued.
Chhang says his mother gave him the equivalent of a dollar and told him to walk to neighboring Thailand. After staying in a Thai refugee camp, Chhang made his way to Dallas, Texas, where he later worked on crime prevention.
He returned to Cambodia in 1992 to begin the work of documenting the atrocities committed during the genocide.
"This work must be done," said Chhang, who still has a big scar on his leg where a guard cut him with an ax. "We can't bring back what we lost. But without legal proceedings, we would give impunity to those who cultivate genocide."
Into Court
Meanwhile, the United Nations war crimes tribunal for Cambodia, similar to those established for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, has been delayed for years. There are concerns that many of those responsible for the atrocities will never set foot in court.
Pol Pot died of a reported heart attack in Cambodia in 1998. Only two major figures from the old regime are in custody. Some believe the current government could even block a tribunal, because many of its officials were themselves members of the Khmer Rouge.
Chhang, however, says the public has benefited a lot just from the debate surrounding the tribunal.
"As long as people stay engaged, everyone benefits," he said.
A survivor of the "killing fields," Chhang lost scores of family members in the genocide. He says he came to his work "to get revenge."
What he found was salvation.
"They say that time heals all wounds," he said. "But time alone can do nothing. You will always have time. To me, research heals. Knowing and understanding what happened has set me free."
An affable man whose eyes stir with emotion, Chhang speaks with precise purpose. He has no problem sharing his own history, which he does because it is part of Cambodia's collective memory.
"I'm no different from everyone else," he said. "Most people here lost a family member in the genocide, and everywhere you look there is a story."
Frayed Documents
Led by dictator Pol Pot, the communist Khmer Rouge regime undertook a radical experiment to create an agrarian utopia in Cambodia. The regime reigned from 1975 to 1979, and its policies were responsible for the deaths of up to two million people from starvation, disease, overwork, and execution.
Yet little has been done to heal the trauma. Only a couple of the old regime leaders have been arrested. A war crimes tribunal is still in the planning stage. On the busy streets of Phnom Penh, not a whisper is heard about the country's darkest days.
But the sordid details can be found inside an anonymous colonial building near Independence Square. This is the home of the documentation center, which this year marks its tenth anniversary since it was founded by Yale University's Cambodian Genocide Program.
The filing cabinets in here contain more than a million pages of frayed documents detailing executions, tortures, incarceration orders, forced confessions, and memorandums to and from top Khmer Rouge officials.
"The Khmer Rouge [officials] were meticulous record keepers," said Chhang, sitting in his office on the center's third floor. "They didn't realize that writing everything down would come back to haunt them."
One of the center's goals is to compile and organize the information so that it can serve as potential evidence in court. Its other objective is to simply record and preserve the brutal history of the regime.
"We don't make judgments," Chhang said. "We are only recording who did what to whom, so the puzzle can be put together."
Written documents make up only one part of the archive. The center also houses some 20,000 photos, as well as many films. Staff have conducted more than 20,000 interviews with both victims and perpetrators.
There is also the physical information gathered from more than 19,000 mass graves. During the interview, Chhang said his office had just received word that another mass grave containing 60 bodies had been found. The suspected killer had apparently come back to the grave to loot it for gold.
Selfish Crimes
Most Cambodians are extremely reluctant to talk about the genocide. In classrooms, almost nothing is taught about the Khmer Rouge. Chhang describes one textbook that has a short paragraph on Pol Pot, which says "a lot of people were killed" when the dictator's government was in power.
Chhang lost two sisters and tens of other relatives during the Khmer Rouge era, and he came close to losing his own life.
As a 14-year-old boy working on a communal farm, he was caught picking a vegetable to eat, an act banned by the Khmer Rouge as selfish. Soldiers tortured him in front of his mother.
"She couldn't cry, because that was considered a crime, so she turned around and walked away," he said. "For years I didn't understand how she could do that. Now I know that it saved our lives."
When the Khmer Rouge regime collapsed in 1979, Cambodia's economy was completely shattered, and widespread starvation continued.
Chhang says his mother gave him the equivalent of a dollar and told him to walk to neighboring Thailand. After staying in a Thai refugee camp, Chhang made his way to Dallas, Texas, where he later worked on crime prevention.
He returned to Cambodia in 1992 to begin the work of documenting the atrocities committed during the genocide.
"This work must be done," said Chhang, who still has a big scar on his leg where a guard cut him with an ax. "We can't bring back what we lost. But without legal proceedings, we would give impunity to those who cultivate genocide."
Into Court
Meanwhile, the United Nations war crimes tribunal for Cambodia, similar to those established for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, has been delayed for years. There are concerns that many of those responsible for the atrocities will never set foot in court.
Pol Pot died of a reported heart attack in Cambodia in 1998. Only two major figures from the old regime are in custody. Some believe the current government could even block a tribunal, because many of its officials were themselves members of the Khmer Rouge.
Chhang, however, says the public has benefited a lot just from the debate surrounding the tribunal.
"As long as people stay engaged, everyone benefits," he said.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
November 2005 in Cambodia
Tuesday the 1st
Those crazy Philippines
Dull Bank Holiday Tuesday evening, just lounging around at home watching some television, when there is a knock at the door (a very rare occurrence here) it was my (slightly crazy) Philippine neighbours, it seems that they were having yet another party at their place, and as usual the neighbour gets the invite to remove the risk of complaints about the noise – they can get pretty rowdy when full of that Philippine rum !
So I figure I would pop round for an hour or so, show my face and then slip back home to watch the season one finale of Deadwood on HBO (sad, sad, sad, I know!)
Wednesday the 2nd
To Holiday, or not to holiday?
Technically today is not a holiday, however as part of the bank holiday fell over the weekend, I know for a fact that a lot of my colleagues would simply not come in today so that they did not miss out on a bank holiday just because it feel on a Saturday or Sunday
I went into the office in the morning and was on my own until 10 o’clock, when I decided that I could just as easily finish the presentation I was working on at home.
Thursday the 3rd
Book Launch at Friends Restaurant
A friend of a friend has written a new book about Cambodia. She is an anthropologist, who was here to help my friend raise money for a free school that he was building.
The launch was held at Friends Restaurant, which is an overpriced, pretentious, NGO-elite hang out that normally I would not go to, but as Dickon is a friend and as he has worked so hard for the last two years trying to build a new school, I felt I should go and support him (plus it was free food and drinks)
The book is called ‘The Monk, The Farmer, The Merchant, The Mother’ by Anne Best.
It contains the life stories of 4 people (a monk, farmer, merchant and a mother; oddly enough) all of them are from Battambang province and are all in their 70’s or 80’s so they can remember King Sihanouk, the Lon Nol coup, the Thai invasion of Battambang, the Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot, the Vietnamese invasion/liberation/occupation of Cambodia and the UN fiasco after that. In short, they have lived through rougher, harder and shittier times than most people [me included] are realistically capable of imagining. I found it an interesting read for several reasons; having been here for a year and a half now and having many Khmer friends, I have heard similar stories about parts of these times but it was interesting to read four peoples recollections and thoughts on all these events without the associated worries or guilt.
Well, in order for Dickon to raise money for the building of his free school, he did not follow the usual route of writing proposals and beseeching NGO and other Aid agencies for cash, he simply got out his address book and wrote to all his family, friends and former colleagues. Of course, it helps that Dickon is an old Etonion and former Wall Street Banker – am sure that if I tried to raise US$250,000 in such a manner I would not manage much more than £3.50 !
Anne however is not one of his old public school/wall street crowd, and as such could not ‘just pop a cheque in the post’ so she decided to come to Cambodia for a month and give her time. After much discussion and thought she decided to write a book about the lives and history of some of the ordinary Khmer people. Funding was available to publish the book and then all profits from sales would go to the School Fund.
The crowd at the party was quite an eclectic mixture, from Khmer rice farmers to the Australian Ambassador there were approximately 50 people milling around sipping wine and congratulating themselves on a job well done. Dickon was rushing around greeting everyone, making sure that the restaurant did not run out of things and generally spent the night making sure that things ran smoothly for everyone else – poor guy.
Friday the 4th
Not a Bank Holiday, but still a day off
No electricity for half the morning and all of the afternoon.
I decide to take an early lunch and go to P’sar tool tom poung – also known as the Russian Market – where I relax in the shade with an iced coffee and a bowl of chicken fried rice.
After which I decide to treat myself to some new DVD’s - as a way to reduce expenditure in bars and restaurants over the weekend!
7 disc boxed set of The West Wing: Season 5 for US$12 (£7) yes, that should keep me busy over the weekend :-)
Wednesday the 9th
Independence Day
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/09/content_3754020.htm
Yes, 52 years ago today wirily old King Sihanouk finally managed to kick out the French colonists from Cambodia – he probably just told them that they had just invented the croissant in Vietnam and they all stormed over there in outrage, then got lost looking for the road back.
Today, his son King Sihamoni, lit the flame in the Independence Monument (a huge pineapple looking monument atop a series of steps in the middle of one of the few traffic roundabouts here in Cambodia)
While all this was going on, I had lunch with Nicky, Peter and Margaret – the volunteers that all arrived at the same time as me. Today is Nicky’s last day in Cambodia, at 18:30 this evening she is flying back to the UK for good.
Unfortunately, for some reason best known to herself, she chose to have this farewell lunch at Café Java, which is a horribly overpriced restaurant that seems to cater for horribly over paid NGO or diplomatic staff, the food is nice, very nice. But the portions are tiny and the prices large. After we had said our goodbyes I arrived back home and had a sandwich !
Thursday the 10th
Crunch time for cash
10AM this morning I have a meeting with the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFiD) I have to try and gauge the mood of the main man during it as afterwards I intend to try and hit him up for a job when my volunteer contract finishes next year. This could be tricky...
Sat in the embassy waiting room for 45 minutes until a receptionist came out and told me that the person I was meeting was not in the office today, ho hum. Guess that I will have to reschedule all this then…
Saturday the 12th
Getting Ready for a week of madness
Driving up the riverside this evening, we can see that the preparations for the water festival seem to have started, there are some dragon boats on the river already, some of which seem to be lit up with fairy lights…
A shudder runs over me as I recall the last two water festivals I have been here for. Approximately 1 million extra people travel in from the Provinces to watch the boat races and visit ‘the big city’
Traffic comes to a stand still. Police block off all roads near the river, and those leading to the riverside, so you are forced to walk shoulder to shoulder through the crowd like sardines – or in my case Khmer shoulder to my hip.
Any expat with an ounce of sense who has been here for one of these heads out of the city to the beach, or Bangkok, or Saigon, or anywhere that is not Phnom Penh.
I, of course, have no sense (and more importantly no cash) so I will be staying locked up here, unable to drive anywhere, go anywhere, do anything, etc.
One day during it all I will get dragged down to the river by everyone and will spend 4 hours walking along the one mile of riverside. As I stare and watch the multicoloured boats paddling like fury along the river in their heats, so to will all the slack jawed provincial Khmers fresh in from the rice paddies stare at me – ooo barang, ooo barang – will be there cry. A foreigner, a foreigner !
Oh well, I am convinced at times that my only purpose for being here in Cambodia is to amuse the natives. Ho hum.
Sunday the 13th
Glad I am in Cambodia and not the Philippines
Early evening there is a knock on my door – very unusual again – it is my Filipino neighbour, Dr Phil. He sponsors a basketball team here in Phnom Penh and today they had their very first win (55 to 54) so he is throwing a small party; this is, I think, the tenth party in 2 months he has had, they only need the slightest reason!
So we pop over to the next balcony, to have a beer and a bite to eat, just to be sociable you understand.
Along with the usual, BBQ chicken, BBQ pork, peanuts, et cetera, they hand me a dish of what they say is a great Filipino delicacy. It looked like some sort of pasta – a short relation of tagglieteli – but it was crispy and fried, also it seemed to be meaty rather than pasta, its texture was in parts like elastic and in parts like gravel. The whole thing had clearly been marinated in some sort of industrial strength chilli (or possibly hydrochloric acid).
After a couple of very unpleasant mouthfuls I asked ‘so what exactly is this?’
After a swift discussion in Tagalong a translation was rendered ‘deep fried strips of pigs face, cheeks and ears.
My next beer was very, very, swiftly finished.
Monday the 14th
Ooo, those Damn Filipinos.
My head hurts again.
Getting into the office for 07:00 was a struggle this morning. Although I could have easily had another hour in bed as hardly anyone was in this close to a big Khmer festival.
Around 8 I went out for breakfast with a few of the boys and by the time that we had gotten back to the office (08:20) the boss had already gone home, so everyone that had come in was starting to pack up and think about leaving as well !
At 10 I there was only me and the cleaner in the office, ho hum, guess it is time to start the holiday.
The Water Festival – Bon Omn Thouk: the 15th to the 17th
First day of bon omm thouck
The water festival here in Cambodia is a unique event. The Country is very flat and has a six month monsoon season. By the end of the rainy season, roughly November, the country is very water-logged, the water table rises so high that the Tonle Sap River actually reverses its direction and starts flowing back into the Tonle Sap Lake, this also happens in November. This is what the water festival celebrates, the end of the rains, the reversal of the river and the start of the growing and harvest season. Also, it is the only Khmer festival that is not family orientated; all of the other big Khmer festivals see a desertion of Phnom Penh with most of the Khmers returning to their home towns and home provinces to hold family celebrations. The water festival sees the opposite, the population of Phnom Penh is roughly 1.3 million, during the week of the water festival an extra 1 million Khmers come to the city to celebrate, to watch the boat races, to compete in the boat races and generally party. This, near, doubling of the city’s population usually causes complete gridlock and havoc on the cities roads, making it virtually impossible to travel by car or motorbike, with tens of thousands of people walking everywhere blocking the roads and setting up roadside barbeques, refreshment stalls and even sleeping.
Tuesday the 15th
Enjoyed a leisurely day at home and then thought in the evening that we should head up to the river to see what was going on.
After several attempts it was declared hopeless. An extra million visitors are estimated to be in Phnom Penh this week.
Most of them seem to be on foot and standing in the roads around the city, along with all the extra; vans, cars, tuk-tuk’s, cyclos, motos, bicycles, et cetra.
In addition to this everybody and their uncle seems to have set up stalls on every square inch of pavement (and several back roads) selling everything from BBQ chicken to red silk stuffed elephants to fake Birkenstocks
Wednesday the 16th
Chaos out there!
Attempting a different route to the river side this evening was just as bad. However with a little perseverance and a lot of honking and aggressive driving, it only took me 35 minutes to travel the 4 kilometres to Dave’s new bar.
The idea was to leave the bike at Dave’s bar (with his guard keeping an eye on it) and then walk the last 3 or 4 blocks to the river. However, I was feeling, hot, harassed and tired when I got there, so I stayed and had a drink with Dave, Brian, Paul and few other that we there.
Thursday the 17th
Last (official) day of the water festival
I am struggling to find a parking space in several impromptu parking lots that have been set up outside peoples houses. Eventually finding one the guy whose house it was tells me how much it will cost, roughly four times the usual cost; plus he would not be staying open all night. So I head back into the night looking for another space, when I realise that I am only a couple of blocks away from Paul, (a friend of mine) house. Now Paul is out of the country at the minute (smart guy) but I know his security guard and he works all through the night, so a quick word with him and my bike is safe and sound inside the compound and we all start walking, or rather trying to walk through the sheer mass of people.
Khmer government officials say that an extra 1 million people have descended on the city. Most of which will be congregating in a ten block area by the riverside. Oh what fun…
Friday the 18th
Back to work
In a way I am almost glad to be back in the office, at least here I am not surrounded by millions of screaming people and melting to death drip by drip.
As expected there are only two of us in the office by 08:00, but I have several things that I can happily finish on my own, in peace and quiet and in the cool, cool, air-conditioned building
Monday the 21st to Friday the 26th
A quiet week, with just work and no nights out – saving money for the house move!
Sunday the 27th
For one time only, USA band DENGUE FEVER is playing the Peace Pub. Everyone who knows their music tells me that this will be an awesome gig. Without doubt, the first real non expat rock’n’ roll band to play in PP.
Tickets are $5 and entitle the customer to two draft beers or soft drinks. Tickets are available from Peace Pub or can be purchased on the door if available.
“I live in Southern California. I have seen and talked to the band several times. If you get a chance, go and see this group. They are simply awesome. The guys in the group are some of the best musicians you will see anywhere. They sound like they were dropped right out of the sixties. “ Shasta
‘’multicultural pop featuring the vocals of Cambodian-American Chhom Nimol (all the vocals are sung in Khmer). Retro surf guitar, the throwback psychedelic tone of the Farfisa organ, rhythms on songs like ‘Pow Pow’ that conjure visions of James Bond dancing the Swim in a Hong Kong nightclub, as well as the absence of any post-punk or disco residue, create a sense of time displacement.'’ Dengue Fever review in local paper.
Not quite sure what the reviewer is saying there, but he seemed to like them!?!?
The concert was due to start at 8:30 that evening, so I decided to get there early to make sure I got a good seat, 7:30 and the bar was already starting to fill up!
Dengue Fever - the gig that never was...
Monday the 28th
Boxes, boxes, boxes.
Damn, I hate moving house! Spent the day surrounded by boxes and packing things. It is amazing how much stuff I have managed to accumulate in nearly two years here !
Down stairs with boxes, back up stairs, et cetera. Damn, I hate moving house!
Tuesday the 29th
Pickup Truck, more boxes, hired Khmer labour and lots and lots of steps.
I had to go into work this morning for an (allegedly) important meeting. So I left the final box packing Figuring that after lunch I and the couple of Khmer guys I had hired could load the furniture, cooker and heavy stuff.
Arrived back at lunch to find that the van could not get here until 4:30pm…
8PM finally in my new flat (10 minutes up the road) just the unpacking to do !
Did I mention that, damn I hate moving house ?
Wednesday the 30th
Mobile again at last !
Vay phoned me last night to say that my bike was ready to be picked up from his bike shop. Turns out that the problem was the clutch plate, it had been replaced before I bought the bike, but the moron fixing the bike did not know the difference between a clutch plate and a brake plate…
Anyway, all fixed and for the princely sum of US$20 – (including an oil change, just for the fun of it)
Almost finished the unpacking, hampered slightly by the lack of a few things – like a wardrobe!
Ho hum.
Remember back when I was all keen and enthusiastic about being a volunteer, and recommending to some of you to do it… mmm?
Those crazy Philippines
Dull Bank Holiday Tuesday evening, just lounging around at home watching some television, when there is a knock at the door (a very rare occurrence here) it was my (slightly crazy) Philippine neighbours, it seems that they were having yet another party at their place, and as usual the neighbour gets the invite to remove the risk of complaints about the noise – they can get pretty rowdy when full of that Philippine rum !
So I figure I would pop round for an hour or so, show my face and then slip back home to watch the season one finale of Deadwood on HBO (sad, sad, sad, I know!)
Wednesday the 2nd
To Holiday, or not to holiday?
Technically today is not a holiday, however as part of the bank holiday fell over the weekend, I know for a fact that a lot of my colleagues would simply not come in today so that they did not miss out on a bank holiday just because it feel on a Saturday or Sunday
I went into the office in the morning and was on my own until 10 o’clock, when I decided that I could just as easily finish the presentation I was working on at home.
Thursday the 3rd
Book Launch at Friends Restaurant
A friend of a friend has written a new book about Cambodia. She is an anthropologist, who was here to help my friend raise money for a free school that he was building.
The launch was held at Friends Restaurant, which is an overpriced, pretentious, NGO-elite hang out that normally I would not go to, but as Dickon is a friend and as he has worked so hard for the last two years trying to build a new school, I felt I should go and support him (plus it was free food and drinks)
The book is called ‘The Monk, The Farmer, The Merchant, The Mother’ by Anne Best.
It contains the life stories of 4 people (a monk, farmer, merchant and a mother; oddly enough) all of them are from Battambang province and are all in their 70’s or 80’s so they can remember King Sihanouk, the Lon Nol coup, the Thai invasion of Battambang, the Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot, the Vietnamese invasion/liberation/occupation of Cambodia and the UN fiasco after that. In short, they have lived through rougher, harder and shittier times than most people [me included] are realistically capable of imagining. I found it an interesting read for several reasons; having been here for a year and a half now and having many Khmer friends, I have heard similar stories about parts of these times but it was interesting to read four peoples recollections and thoughts on all these events without the associated worries or guilt.
Well, in order for Dickon to raise money for the building of his free school, he did not follow the usual route of writing proposals and beseeching NGO and other Aid agencies for cash, he simply got out his address book and wrote to all his family, friends and former colleagues. Of course, it helps that Dickon is an old Etonion and former Wall Street Banker – am sure that if I tried to raise US$250,000 in such a manner I would not manage much more than £3.50 !
Anne however is not one of his old public school/wall street crowd, and as such could not ‘just pop a cheque in the post’ so she decided to come to Cambodia for a month and give her time. After much discussion and thought she decided to write a book about the lives and history of some of the ordinary Khmer people. Funding was available to publish the book and then all profits from sales would go to the School Fund.
The crowd at the party was quite an eclectic mixture, from Khmer rice farmers to the Australian Ambassador there were approximately 50 people milling around sipping wine and congratulating themselves on a job well done. Dickon was rushing around greeting everyone, making sure that the restaurant did not run out of things and generally spent the night making sure that things ran smoothly for everyone else – poor guy.
Friday the 4th
Not a Bank Holiday, but still a day off
No electricity for half the morning and all of the afternoon.
I decide to take an early lunch and go to P’sar tool tom poung – also known as the Russian Market – where I relax in the shade with an iced coffee and a bowl of chicken fried rice.
After which I decide to treat myself to some new DVD’s - as a way to reduce expenditure in bars and restaurants over the weekend!
7 disc boxed set of The West Wing: Season 5 for US$12 (£7) yes, that should keep me busy over the weekend :-)
Wednesday the 9th
Independence Day
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/09/content_3754020.htm
Yes, 52 years ago today wirily old King Sihanouk finally managed to kick out the French colonists from Cambodia – he probably just told them that they had just invented the croissant in Vietnam and they all stormed over there in outrage, then got lost looking for the road back.
Today, his son King Sihamoni, lit the flame in the Independence Monument (a huge pineapple looking monument atop a series of steps in the middle of one of the few traffic roundabouts here in Cambodia)
While all this was going on, I had lunch with Nicky, Peter and Margaret – the volunteers that all arrived at the same time as me. Today is Nicky’s last day in Cambodia, at 18:30 this evening she is flying back to the UK for good.
Unfortunately, for some reason best known to herself, she chose to have this farewell lunch at Café Java, which is a horribly overpriced restaurant that seems to cater for horribly over paid NGO or diplomatic staff, the food is nice, very nice. But the portions are tiny and the prices large. After we had said our goodbyes I arrived back home and had a sandwich !
Thursday the 10th
Crunch time for cash
10AM this morning I have a meeting with the British Government’s Department for International Development (DFiD) I have to try and gauge the mood of the main man during it as afterwards I intend to try and hit him up for a job when my volunteer contract finishes next year. This could be tricky...
Sat in the embassy waiting room for 45 minutes until a receptionist came out and told me that the person I was meeting was not in the office today, ho hum. Guess that I will have to reschedule all this then…
Saturday the 12th
Getting Ready for a week of madness
Driving up the riverside this evening, we can see that the preparations for the water festival seem to have started, there are some dragon boats on the river already, some of which seem to be lit up with fairy lights…
A shudder runs over me as I recall the last two water festivals I have been here for. Approximately 1 million extra people travel in from the Provinces to watch the boat races and visit ‘the big city’
Traffic comes to a stand still. Police block off all roads near the river, and those leading to the riverside, so you are forced to walk shoulder to shoulder through the crowd like sardines – or in my case Khmer shoulder to my hip.
Any expat with an ounce of sense who has been here for one of these heads out of the city to the beach, or Bangkok, or Saigon, or anywhere that is not Phnom Penh.
I, of course, have no sense (and more importantly no cash) so I will be staying locked up here, unable to drive anywhere, go anywhere, do anything, etc.
One day during it all I will get dragged down to the river by everyone and will spend 4 hours walking along the one mile of riverside. As I stare and watch the multicoloured boats paddling like fury along the river in their heats, so to will all the slack jawed provincial Khmers fresh in from the rice paddies stare at me – ooo barang, ooo barang – will be there cry. A foreigner, a foreigner !
Oh well, I am convinced at times that my only purpose for being here in Cambodia is to amuse the natives. Ho hum.
Sunday the 13th
Glad I am in Cambodia and not the Philippines
Early evening there is a knock on my door – very unusual again – it is my Filipino neighbour, Dr Phil. He sponsors a basketball team here in Phnom Penh and today they had their very first win (55 to 54) so he is throwing a small party; this is, I think, the tenth party in 2 months he has had, they only need the slightest reason!
So we pop over to the next balcony, to have a beer and a bite to eat, just to be sociable you understand.
Along with the usual, BBQ chicken, BBQ pork, peanuts, et cetera, they hand me a dish of what they say is a great Filipino delicacy. It looked like some sort of pasta – a short relation of tagglieteli – but it was crispy and fried, also it seemed to be meaty rather than pasta, its texture was in parts like elastic and in parts like gravel. The whole thing had clearly been marinated in some sort of industrial strength chilli (or possibly hydrochloric acid).
After a couple of very unpleasant mouthfuls I asked ‘so what exactly is this?’
After a swift discussion in Tagalong a translation was rendered ‘deep fried strips of pigs face, cheeks and ears.
My next beer was very, very, swiftly finished.
Monday the 14th
Ooo, those Damn Filipinos.
My head hurts again.
Getting into the office for 07:00 was a struggle this morning. Although I could have easily had another hour in bed as hardly anyone was in this close to a big Khmer festival.
Around 8 I went out for breakfast with a few of the boys and by the time that we had gotten back to the office (08:20) the boss had already gone home, so everyone that had come in was starting to pack up and think about leaving as well !
At 10 I there was only me and the cleaner in the office, ho hum, guess it is time to start the holiday.
The Water Festival – Bon Omn Thouk: the 15th to the 17th
First day of bon omm thouck
The water festival here in Cambodia is a unique event. The Country is very flat and has a six month monsoon season. By the end of the rainy season, roughly November, the country is very water-logged, the water table rises so high that the Tonle Sap River actually reverses its direction and starts flowing back into the Tonle Sap Lake, this also happens in November. This is what the water festival celebrates, the end of the rains, the reversal of the river and the start of the growing and harvest season. Also, it is the only Khmer festival that is not family orientated; all of the other big Khmer festivals see a desertion of Phnom Penh with most of the Khmers returning to their home towns and home provinces to hold family celebrations. The water festival sees the opposite, the population of Phnom Penh is roughly 1.3 million, during the week of the water festival an extra 1 million Khmers come to the city to celebrate, to watch the boat races, to compete in the boat races and generally party. This, near, doubling of the city’s population usually causes complete gridlock and havoc on the cities roads, making it virtually impossible to travel by car or motorbike, with tens of thousands of people walking everywhere blocking the roads and setting up roadside barbeques, refreshment stalls and even sleeping.
Tuesday the 15th
Enjoyed a leisurely day at home and then thought in the evening that we should head up to the river to see what was going on.
After several attempts it was declared hopeless. An extra million visitors are estimated to be in Phnom Penh this week.
Most of them seem to be on foot and standing in the roads around the city, along with all the extra; vans, cars, tuk-tuk’s, cyclos, motos, bicycles, et cetra.
In addition to this everybody and their uncle seems to have set up stalls on every square inch of pavement (and several back roads) selling everything from BBQ chicken to red silk stuffed elephants to fake Birkenstocks
Wednesday the 16th
Chaos out there!
Attempting a different route to the river side this evening was just as bad. However with a little perseverance and a lot of honking and aggressive driving, it only took me 35 minutes to travel the 4 kilometres to Dave’s new bar.
The idea was to leave the bike at Dave’s bar (with his guard keeping an eye on it) and then walk the last 3 or 4 blocks to the river. However, I was feeling, hot, harassed and tired when I got there, so I stayed and had a drink with Dave, Brian, Paul and few other that we there.
Thursday the 17th
Last (official) day of the water festival
I am struggling to find a parking space in several impromptu parking lots that have been set up outside peoples houses. Eventually finding one the guy whose house it was tells me how much it will cost, roughly four times the usual cost; plus he would not be staying open all night. So I head back into the night looking for another space, when I realise that I am only a couple of blocks away from Paul, (a friend of mine) house. Now Paul is out of the country at the minute (smart guy) but I know his security guard and he works all through the night, so a quick word with him and my bike is safe and sound inside the compound and we all start walking, or rather trying to walk through the sheer mass of people.
Khmer government officials say that an extra 1 million people have descended on the city. Most of which will be congregating in a ten block area by the riverside. Oh what fun…
Friday the 18th
Back to work
In a way I am almost glad to be back in the office, at least here I am not surrounded by millions of screaming people and melting to death drip by drip.
As expected there are only two of us in the office by 08:00, but I have several things that I can happily finish on my own, in peace and quiet and in the cool, cool, air-conditioned building
Monday the 21st to Friday the 26th
A quiet week, with just work and no nights out – saving money for the house move!
Sunday the 27th
For one time only, USA band DENGUE FEVER is playing the Peace Pub. Everyone who knows their music tells me that this will be an awesome gig. Without doubt, the first real non expat rock’n’ roll band to play in PP.
Tickets are $5 and entitle the customer to two draft beers or soft drinks. Tickets are available from Peace Pub or can be purchased on the door if available.
“I live in Southern California. I have seen and talked to the band several times. If you get a chance, go and see this group. They are simply awesome. The guys in the group are some of the best musicians you will see anywhere. They sound like they were dropped right out of the sixties. “ Shasta
‘’multicultural pop featuring the vocals of Cambodian-American Chhom Nimol (all the vocals are sung in Khmer). Retro surf guitar, the throwback psychedelic tone of the Farfisa organ, rhythms on songs like ‘Pow Pow’ that conjure visions of James Bond dancing the Swim in a Hong Kong nightclub, as well as the absence of any post-punk or disco residue, create a sense of time displacement.'’ Dengue Fever review in local paper.
Not quite sure what the reviewer is saying there, but he seemed to like them!?!?
The concert was due to start at 8:30 that evening, so I decided to get there early to make sure I got a good seat, 7:30 and the bar was already starting to fill up!
Dengue Fever - the gig that never was...
Monday the 28th
Boxes, boxes, boxes.
Damn, I hate moving house! Spent the day surrounded by boxes and packing things. It is amazing how much stuff I have managed to accumulate in nearly two years here !
Down stairs with boxes, back up stairs, et cetera. Damn, I hate moving house!
Tuesday the 29th
Pickup Truck, more boxes, hired Khmer labour and lots and lots of steps.
I had to go into work this morning for an (allegedly) important meeting. So I left the final box packing Figuring that after lunch I and the couple of Khmer guys I had hired could load the furniture, cooker and heavy stuff.
Arrived back at lunch to find that the van could not get here until 4:30pm…
8PM finally in my new flat (10 minutes up the road) just the unpacking to do !
Did I mention that, damn I hate moving house ?
Wednesday the 30th
Mobile again at last !
Vay phoned me last night to say that my bike was ready to be picked up from his bike shop. Turns out that the problem was the clutch plate, it had been replaced before I bought the bike, but the moron fixing the bike did not know the difference between a clutch plate and a brake plate…
Anyway, all fixed and for the princely sum of US$20 – (including an oil change, just for the fun of it)
Almost finished the unpacking, hampered slightly by the lack of a few things – like a wardrobe!
Ho hum.
Remember back when I was all keen and enthusiastic about being a volunteer, and recommending to some of you to do it… mmm?
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Cambodian film festival
Vampire and ghost stories top the bill as Cambodian film festival opens.
Cambodia's struggling film industry -- undergoing a revival after being obliterated by communist rule in the 1970s -- opened its second national film festival Monday with vampire and ghost stories dominating the competition entries.
Nine of the 22 entries were horror movies, but government leaders told local stars and producers gathered for the film festival preview that if they want to succeed, they must steer away from superstition and move toward realism.
Filmmakers should choose themes "more relevant to reality in Cambodia," if they want to succeed, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An said in the festival's opening speech.
Cambodia's film industry was destroyed by the communist Khmer Rouge, whose brutal 1975-79 rule is blamed for the deaths of at least 1.7 million people by starvation, execution, overwork and disease.
The Khmer Rouge, trying to create an agrarian utopia, believed that artistic, educational and intellectual pursuits were corrupt practices.
The film industry has struggled to revive itself since the late 1980s, when a couple of hundred production companies had sprung up to churn out scores of amateurish videos.
However, an influx of higher quality foreign movies has reduced the number of Cambodian production houses to just a handful today, as broadcasters opt for more professionally produced programs.
Beside the scary movies, the entries included "Decho Domden" -- an epic about a 12th-century Cambodian hero who led his warriors to drive out invaders from neighboring Thailand.
The five-day festival is the second after one held in 1990, organizers said. A nine-member judging panel will view all 22 entries before announcing the winner on Dec. 2.
A preview of the entries was held at Chaktomuk Theater in the capital Phnom Penh
Cambodia's struggling film industry -- undergoing a revival after being obliterated by communist rule in the 1970s -- opened its second national film festival Monday with vampire and ghost stories dominating the competition entries.
Nine of the 22 entries were horror movies, but government leaders told local stars and producers gathered for the film festival preview that if they want to succeed, they must steer away from superstition and move toward realism.
Filmmakers should choose themes "more relevant to reality in Cambodia," if they want to succeed, Deputy Prime Minister Sok An said in the festival's opening speech.
Cambodia's film industry was destroyed by the communist Khmer Rouge, whose brutal 1975-79 rule is blamed for the deaths of at least 1.7 million people by starvation, execution, overwork and disease.
The Khmer Rouge, trying to create an agrarian utopia, believed that artistic, educational and intellectual pursuits were corrupt practices.
The film industry has struggled to revive itself since the late 1980s, when a couple of hundred production companies had sprung up to churn out scores of amateurish videos.
However, an influx of higher quality foreign movies has reduced the number of Cambodian production houses to just a handful today, as broadcasters opt for more professionally produced programs.
Beside the scary movies, the entries included "Decho Domden" -- an epic about a 12th-century Cambodian hero who led his warriors to drive out invaders from neighboring Thailand.
The five-day festival is the second after one held in 1990, organizers said. A nine-member judging panel will view all 22 entries before announcing the winner on Dec. 2.
A preview of the entries was held at Chaktomuk Theater in the capital Phnom Penh
Monday, November 28, 2005
Dengue Fever - The gig that never was
Sunday the 27th
For one time only, USA band DENGUE FEVER is playing the Peace Pub. Everyone who knows their music tells me that this will be an awesome gig. Without doubt, the first real non expat rock’n’ roll band to play in PP.
Tickets are $5 and entitle the customer to two draft beers or soft drinks. Tickets are available from Peace Pub or can be purchased on the door if available.
“I live in Southern California. I have seen and talked to the band several times. If you get a chance, go and see this group. They are simply awesome. The guys in the group are some of the best musicians you will see anywhere. They sound like they were dropped right out of the sixties. “ Shasta
‘’multicultural pop featuring the vocals of Cambodian-American Chhom Nimol (all the vocals are sung in Khmer). Retro surf guitar, the throwback psychedelic tone of the Farfisa organ, rhythms on songs like ‘Pow Pow’ that conjure visions of James Bond dancing the Swim in a Hong Kong nightclub, as well as the absence of any post-punk or disco residue, create a sense of time displacement.'’ Dengue Fever review.
Not quite sure what the reviewer is saying there, but he seemed to like them!?!?
The concert was due to start at 8:30 that evening, so I decided to get there early to make sure I got a good seat, 7:30 and the bar was already starting to fill up!
Dengue Fever - The gig that never was
Well, Sunday evening turned out to an entertaining night at the Peace Pub; but not for the reasons billed.
A crowd of some 80 strong people had turned up to see the band Dengue Fever play its live funky brand of Khmer American popular music.
Unfortunately, the band did not turn up until about 20 minutes after they were due to start playing, they spent five minutes making their way through the crowd to find the owner, whereupon they told him that they did not like the look of it all, plus the lead singer was feeling ‘a bit under the weather’ so they then walked out leaving the poor owner to deal with a crowd of very annoyed people.
The deal was, US$5 for entry to see the band, but your ticket got you two free drinks ($3 worth) now, most of the crowd had been there for a while and had had their free drinks. So poor Dave (the owner) gets up on stage, tells everyone that the band had refused to play. He then offers everyone in the bar another free drink (so we are now up to $4.50 in drinks per head)
On top of that, Dave has had to have the stage built, hire equipment, print posters and tickets, pay people to distribute flyers and had extra staff in for the night.
So I think that it is fair to say he is seriously out of pocket on all this!
Of course, not everyone in the crowd was happy about this solution. One guy was so angry and screaming so loudly, that at one point Dave leaned over the bar to me and said ‘psst, Darren, get out side and fetch my security guards, quick!’
So while poor Dave was trying to deal with this guy, and several others who had appeared to back him up, another disgruntled customer, a youngish woman of the American persuasion, was standing near my end of the bar screaming at the poor young Khmer girl, Som Nang, working behind the bar that she was very upset and where the hell was her free gin and tonic. In that time honoured method, when the foreigner did not understand what the English speaker had said, she just started repeating it louder and slower; because as we all know, if you speak loud enough and slow enough, the natives will finally understand you.
A small irony of the woman screaming, shouting and raving at the defenceless Khmer barmaid is that the American woman in question works here for an NGO that is supposed to be addressing gender equality in impoverished rural communities.
So it was a lose ~ lose situation for the Peace Pub. Screwed over by the band, upset customers are always the loudest, out of pocket; but the behaviour of the worst of the customers really was appalling to watch.
As for my friends and myself, we just sat back and watched the pantomime characters work themselves into an ulcer or coronary. While simultaneously offering the US$1 for their unused tickets (3 beers for a dollar works for me :-)
Ho Hum
For one time only, USA band DENGUE FEVER is playing the Peace Pub. Everyone who knows their music tells me that this will be an awesome gig. Without doubt, the first real non expat rock’n’ roll band to play in PP.
Tickets are $5 and entitle the customer to two draft beers or soft drinks. Tickets are available from Peace Pub or can be purchased on the door if available.
“I live in Southern California. I have seen and talked to the band several times. If you get a chance, go and see this group. They are simply awesome. The guys in the group are some of the best musicians you will see anywhere. They sound like they were dropped right out of the sixties. “ Shasta
‘’multicultural pop featuring the vocals of Cambodian-American Chhom Nimol (all the vocals are sung in Khmer). Retro surf guitar, the throwback psychedelic tone of the Farfisa organ, rhythms on songs like ‘Pow Pow’ that conjure visions of James Bond dancing the Swim in a Hong Kong nightclub, as well as the absence of any post-punk or disco residue, create a sense of time displacement.'’ Dengue Fever review.
Not quite sure what the reviewer is saying there, but he seemed to like them!?!?
The concert was due to start at 8:30 that evening, so I decided to get there early to make sure I got a good seat, 7:30 and the bar was already starting to fill up!
Dengue Fever - The gig that never was
Well, Sunday evening turned out to an entertaining night at the Peace Pub; but not for the reasons billed.
A crowd of some 80 strong people had turned up to see the band Dengue Fever play its live funky brand of Khmer American popular music.
Unfortunately, the band did not turn up until about 20 minutes after they were due to start playing, they spent five minutes making their way through the crowd to find the owner, whereupon they told him that they did not like the look of it all, plus the lead singer was feeling ‘a bit under the weather’ so they then walked out leaving the poor owner to deal with a crowd of very annoyed people.
The deal was, US$5 for entry to see the band, but your ticket got you two free drinks ($3 worth) now, most of the crowd had been there for a while and had had their free drinks. So poor Dave (the owner) gets up on stage, tells everyone that the band had refused to play. He then offers everyone in the bar another free drink (so we are now up to $4.50 in drinks per head)
On top of that, Dave has had to have the stage built, hire equipment, print posters and tickets, pay people to distribute flyers and had extra staff in for the night.
So I think that it is fair to say he is seriously out of pocket on all this!
Of course, not everyone in the crowd was happy about this solution. One guy was so angry and screaming so loudly, that at one point Dave leaned over the bar to me and said ‘psst, Darren, get out side and fetch my security guards, quick!’
So while poor Dave was trying to deal with this guy, and several others who had appeared to back him up, another disgruntled customer, a youngish woman of the American persuasion, was standing near my end of the bar screaming at the poor young Khmer girl, Som Nang, working behind the bar that she was very upset and where the hell was her free gin and tonic. In that time honoured method, when the foreigner did not understand what the English speaker had said, she just started repeating it louder and slower; because as we all know, if you speak loud enough and slow enough, the natives will finally understand you.
A small irony of the woman screaming, shouting and raving at the defenceless Khmer barmaid is that the American woman in question works here for an NGO that is supposed to be addressing gender equality in impoverished rural communities.
So it was a lose ~ lose situation for the Peace Pub. Screwed over by the band, upset customers are always the loudest, out of pocket; but the behaviour of the worst of the customers really was appalling to watch.
As for my friends and myself, we just sat back and watched the pantomime characters work themselves into an ulcer or coronary. While simultaneously offering the US$1 for their unused tickets (3 beers for a dollar works for me :-)
Ho Hum
Friday, November 25, 2005
More Kampot Euthanasia News ???
Well, this crackpot American has had his first court appearence
*** *** *** ***
A Californian man accused of defaming a sleepy Cambodian province by promoting it as the perfect place to commit suicide has defended himself on Thursday, saying he meant nobody any harm.
"I am an old man in a small town in Cambodia. I don't want to cause any trouble for anybody. But I do have my own beliefs which, if I can, I will tell people about," Roger Graham, 57, told Reuters after appearing in court in Kampot, a coastal town.
Graham, who runs the Blue Mountain Coffee and Internet Cafe, was answering a lawsuit lodged against him by Kampot's provincial governor Puth Chandarith over of his Web site www.euthanasiaincambodia.com.
"If they want to throw me out of the country, they can. All I want to do is to run a little cafe and live the rest of my life in peace. I intend to die here," he said.
Still emerging from decades of war, including the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s in which 1.7 million people died, Cambodia has no laws governing euthanasia or assisted suicide, and the issue does not rank as a high priority in what is one of Asia's poorest nations.
Despite this, the government has come under pressure to close the Web site after the suicide of a 47-year-old British woman whose relatives believe its message -- "You're going to die anyway, so why not in Cambodia?" -- influenced her decision.
Since the controversy blew up a month ago, Graham said nearly half a million people had visited his Web site, which reopened two weeks ago after a temporary closure, compared to a paltry 1,600 per month before.
"Saying euthanasia harms Cambodia's tourism does not make sense. Around 450,000 visitors have looked at my Web Site and some of those will come here," he said with a smile.
He also stood by his convictions that individuals had the right to choose the time and place of their death, and, given the absence of any relevant laws, Cambodia made sense as a location.
"This is a good place for them to choose if they want to do," Graham told Reuters in his small cafe, overlooking a river.
"Kampot is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I get to see the sun rise and the sun set. I get people coming by and saying hello with smiling and happy faces."
Prosecutors who questioned Graham said they had not filed any charges against Graham and needed more time to make a decision.
*** *** *** ***
A Californian man accused of defaming a sleepy Cambodian province by promoting it as the perfect place to commit suicide has defended himself on Thursday, saying he meant nobody any harm.
"I am an old man in a small town in Cambodia. I don't want to cause any trouble for anybody. But I do have my own beliefs which, if I can, I will tell people about," Roger Graham, 57, told Reuters after appearing in court in Kampot, a coastal town.
Graham, who runs the Blue Mountain Coffee and Internet Cafe, was answering a lawsuit lodged against him by Kampot's provincial governor Puth Chandarith over of his Web site www.euthanasiaincambodia.com.
"If they want to throw me out of the country, they can. All I want to do is to run a little cafe and live the rest of my life in peace. I intend to die here," he said.
Still emerging from decades of war, including the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s in which 1.7 million people died, Cambodia has no laws governing euthanasia or assisted suicide, and the issue does not rank as a high priority in what is one of Asia's poorest nations.
Despite this, the government has come under pressure to close the Web site after the suicide of a 47-year-old British woman whose relatives believe its message -- "You're going to die anyway, so why not in Cambodia?" -- influenced her decision.
Since the controversy blew up a month ago, Graham said nearly half a million people had visited his Web site, which reopened two weeks ago after a temporary closure, compared to a paltry 1,600 per month before.
"Saying euthanasia harms Cambodia's tourism does not make sense. Around 450,000 visitors have looked at my Web Site and some of those will come here," he said with a smile.
He also stood by his convictions that individuals had the right to choose the time and place of their death, and, given the absence of any relevant laws, Cambodia made sense as a location.
"This is a good place for them to choose if they want to do," Graham told Reuters in his small cafe, overlooking a river.
"Kampot is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I get to see the sun rise and the sun set. I get people coming by and saying hello with smiling and happy faces."
Prosecutors who questioned Graham said they had not filed any charges against Graham and needed more time to make a decision.
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
New Toy - Links away from my Blog !?!?
Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls,
After what seems an eternity, I have managed to work out how to put links into the side bar.
Yes, I am a Luddite.
Cheers
D
After what seems an eternity, I have managed to work out how to put links into the side bar.
Yes, I am a Luddite.
Cheers
D
Monday, November 21, 2005
Fish long way from home ?
the start of this news article starts like a bad joke...
***
A Cambodia-flagged ship on Friday bumped into a Bulgarian hooker near the Black Sea port of Burgas, injuring two people and leaving one missing, Sofia News Agency reported Saturday.
The Bulgarian boat sank with three fishermen aboard on Friday evening.
Two were rescued by the crew of another ship sailing nearby, but one person went missing, said the report.
The Cambodian boat had attempted to leave Bulgarian territorialwaters, but was seized by a police patrol boat, it said.
The Fishery and Aquaculture Agency said fishing is forbidden inthe area where the accident happened.
***
A Cambodia-flagged ship on Friday bumped into a Bulgarian hooker near the Black Sea port of Burgas, injuring two people and leaving one missing, Sofia News Agency reported Saturday.
The Bulgarian boat sank with three fishermen aboard on Friday evening.
Two were rescued by the crew of another ship sailing nearby, but one person went missing, said the report.
The Cambodian boat had attempted to leave Bulgarian territorialwaters, but was seized by a police patrol boat, it said.
The Fishery and Aquaculture Agency said fishing is forbidden inthe area where the accident happened.
Friday, November 11, 2005
Changing the face of crime-fighting in Cambodia
Six years since this project / report, and no changes at all to report...
***
The Criminal Justice Assistance Project, funded by the Australian government, is helping to turn around a dysfunctional force. James East reports
A Cambodian Buddhist monk is behind bars for murder thanks to the gift of fingerprint test kits donated to the country's cash-strapped police. It may not seem much of a gift, but it is, in a Southeast Asia nation where policing is little more than basic. While Cambodia's police force has a core of well-trained and disciplined officers, the remainder have few skills and almost no equipment. This is due to decades of civil war and the havoc wrought by the 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot in which lawyers, police officers and judges were executed.
International criminal justice experts from Australia are now helpingthe Royal Cambodian Police to build a force that can keep pace with crime syndicates that are increasingly using the country as a base from which to traffic drugs, arms and to organise the kidnappings of wealthy businessmen to be held for ransom.
In the three years that the team has been working it has helped put in place basic operating procedures and an appreciation of the value of human rights as part of an overall drive to change the culture of policing. The Cambodia Criminal Justice Assistance Project, funded by the Australian Government to the tune of US$8.75 million, is a wide-ranging programme designed to improve the quality of justice across the board. In five provinces, including the capital Phnom Penh, investigating judicial police, the courts and prisons are receiving support and advice from the team of 10. The advisers have their work cut out.
The 67,000-strong national and 6,000-strong judicial police forces are massively bloated thanks, in part, to an influx of former Khmer Rouge and militia officers, given jobs in a government amnesty to end civil war. Not all police are independent. Many senior officers are alleged to be linked to Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party. Officers earn a paltry $10-20 and corruption and bribery is so rampant that it has turned most Cambodians against those supposed to enforce the law.
To top it all, Cambodians have been so brutalised by years of war that the modus operandi of police officers when dealing with a suspect has typically been to extract a confession with a beating and then submit the paperwork to a judge. A conviction is secured with little or no corroborating evidence.
One of the advisers sums up the difficulties as:
A lack of trust in the police, some of whom are linked to powerful criminals
Senior positions being taken by party men with no policing experience
A lack of forensic gear, vehicles, and equipped police stations
Political infighting among government ministers resulting in confusion.
'We are trying to take the police out of politics but this is an old problem and will not change overnight. It is not just a question of planning but of changing the mindset of senior officers,' the adviser said. Against this backdrop the Australian team is working with officers to change the way they view their jobs, to restructure the top-heavy force, and to bring in ranking based on merit.
Eventually some 20,000 police will be retrenched - through a retraining and resettlement programme - over a five-year period. Future selection, promotion and retirement of officers will be based on guidelines currently being reviewed by the advisers and police chiefs.
Senior officers and Interior and Justice Ministry chiefs have already put in place reforms to ensure investigations are better handled and that suspects and criminals are dealt with fairly in courts and prisons. The team has also embarked on an ambitious programme to upgrade police stations, prisons and courts, rebuilding crumbling offices and cell blocks and supplying such basic equipment as tables and chairs as well as vehicles. So far two new provincial police stations have been built and one upgraded at a cost of US$185,000.
Around US$1.6m has been spent on courts and prisons.The advisers are also training police instructors in everything from crime scene investigation to obtaining arrest warrants and from suspects' rights to filing a proper court report. The project has led to the formal training of in excess of 450 officers and on-the-job training is now underway. Eventually 25 police instructors will be trained on how to share their skills and on what to teach.
Police adviser Stephen Woodall says the new operations manual is the key document in laying the foundation for future reforms. Drawn up after consultations with senior officers it has been sent out to officers across the country. The project is also helping to improve record keeping.
Basic database and indexing systems are being implemented. In addition, there has been a massive fingerprinting exercise of prison inmates and suspects with records being kept on cards at national police headquarters. More than 4,000 prints have been taken in 12 months.
Establishing a simple paper-based system is a priority, but Mr Woodall is also looking to bring in computers, helping officers to leapfrog into the 21st century. With training, officers will eventually be able to access a database of crime information and even create photofit pictures of suspects. Naturally not everyone is happy with the reforms.
A more independent force challenges traditional party political strongholds and corrupt practices. But the Australians are careful to steer clear of politics. They believe, in the long term, that the adoption of the operating procedures will change the culture of policing. Mr Woodall said: 'We have deliberately remained apolitical. It is really the only way that we could remain here. Putting the procedures in place and educating top down provides a pretty sound basis for the future and creates an awareness of good policing practice at all levels.'
Training tailored to the local environment is also key to officers understanding the need for the operation procedures. Mr Woodall said: 'I use the comparison of buying a new motorbike and introducing new ways of doing things.
To look after the motorbike you need to look at the operations manual.' He also encourages officers to talk about policing issues in small groups. They are nervous at first but soon open up. The approach is very different from the Cambodian way where subordinates do not question their seniors and from previous training sessions run by some Western block countries who lectured their audiences.
Improved case file management and training already seems to working its way through the system. Judges have praised the police for an improvement in the quality of case files presented to the courts. The number of convictions has also risen as police enforce the laws.
In the last 12 months the number of prisoners has risen by more than 500. The pace of the implementation of the reforms depends, for the most part, on the will of the country's political leaders, but the Australian team says establishing relationships is key to winning over senior officers.
Now police officers are hungry for the training sessions and are begging the Australians to pump in more funds and assistance and a further three-year project is being considered. Although the advisers are working in only five provinces the operating procedures and training have so impressed police chiefs that it is now filtering out to more remote regions and there are plans to establish three regional training centres.
Colonel Monh Kamsan, deputy director of the Scientific and Technical police, is frank about the help the Australians have given. 'Before the project came we did not have any professional skills at all. We were not active because we did not have any equipment and our officers had not been trained,' he said.
***
The Criminal Justice Assistance Project, funded by the Australian government, is helping to turn around a dysfunctional force. James East reports
A Cambodian Buddhist monk is behind bars for murder thanks to the gift of fingerprint test kits donated to the country's cash-strapped police. It may not seem much of a gift, but it is, in a Southeast Asia nation where policing is little more than basic. While Cambodia's police force has a core of well-trained and disciplined officers, the remainder have few skills and almost no equipment. This is due to decades of civil war and the havoc wrought by the 1975 to 1979 Khmer Rouge regime of Pol Pot in which lawyers, police officers and judges were executed.
International criminal justice experts from Australia are now helpingthe Royal Cambodian Police to build a force that can keep pace with crime syndicates that are increasingly using the country as a base from which to traffic drugs, arms and to organise the kidnappings of wealthy businessmen to be held for ransom.
In the three years that the team has been working it has helped put in place basic operating procedures and an appreciation of the value of human rights as part of an overall drive to change the culture of policing. The Cambodia Criminal Justice Assistance Project, funded by the Australian Government to the tune of US$8.75 million, is a wide-ranging programme designed to improve the quality of justice across the board. In five provinces, including the capital Phnom Penh, investigating judicial police, the courts and prisons are receiving support and advice from the team of 10. The advisers have their work cut out.
The 67,000-strong national and 6,000-strong judicial police forces are massively bloated thanks, in part, to an influx of former Khmer Rouge and militia officers, given jobs in a government amnesty to end civil war. Not all police are independent. Many senior officers are alleged to be linked to Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party. Officers earn a paltry $10-20 and corruption and bribery is so rampant that it has turned most Cambodians against those supposed to enforce the law.
To top it all, Cambodians have been so brutalised by years of war that the modus operandi of police officers when dealing with a suspect has typically been to extract a confession with a beating and then submit the paperwork to a judge. A conviction is secured with little or no corroborating evidence.
One of the advisers sums up the difficulties as:
A lack of trust in the police, some of whom are linked to powerful criminals
Senior positions being taken by party men with no policing experience
A lack of forensic gear, vehicles, and equipped police stations
Political infighting among government ministers resulting in confusion.
'We are trying to take the police out of politics but this is an old problem and will not change overnight. It is not just a question of planning but of changing the mindset of senior officers,' the adviser said. Against this backdrop the Australian team is working with officers to change the way they view their jobs, to restructure the top-heavy force, and to bring in ranking based on merit.
Eventually some 20,000 police will be retrenched - through a retraining and resettlement programme - over a five-year period. Future selection, promotion and retirement of officers will be based on guidelines currently being reviewed by the advisers and police chiefs.
Senior officers and Interior and Justice Ministry chiefs have already put in place reforms to ensure investigations are better handled and that suspects and criminals are dealt with fairly in courts and prisons. The team has also embarked on an ambitious programme to upgrade police stations, prisons and courts, rebuilding crumbling offices and cell blocks and supplying such basic equipment as tables and chairs as well as vehicles. So far two new provincial police stations have been built and one upgraded at a cost of US$185,000.
Around US$1.6m has been spent on courts and prisons.The advisers are also training police instructors in everything from crime scene investigation to obtaining arrest warrants and from suspects' rights to filing a proper court report. The project has led to the formal training of in excess of 450 officers and on-the-job training is now underway. Eventually 25 police instructors will be trained on how to share their skills and on what to teach.
Police adviser Stephen Woodall says the new operations manual is the key document in laying the foundation for future reforms. Drawn up after consultations with senior officers it has been sent out to officers across the country. The project is also helping to improve record keeping.
Basic database and indexing systems are being implemented. In addition, there has been a massive fingerprinting exercise of prison inmates and suspects with records being kept on cards at national police headquarters. More than 4,000 prints have been taken in 12 months.
Establishing a simple paper-based system is a priority, but Mr Woodall is also looking to bring in computers, helping officers to leapfrog into the 21st century. With training, officers will eventually be able to access a database of crime information and even create photofit pictures of suspects. Naturally not everyone is happy with the reforms.
A more independent force challenges traditional party political strongholds and corrupt practices. But the Australians are careful to steer clear of politics. They believe, in the long term, that the adoption of the operating procedures will change the culture of policing. Mr Woodall said: 'We have deliberately remained apolitical. It is really the only way that we could remain here. Putting the procedures in place and educating top down provides a pretty sound basis for the future and creates an awareness of good policing practice at all levels.'
Training tailored to the local environment is also key to officers understanding the need for the operation procedures. Mr Woodall said: 'I use the comparison of buying a new motorbike and introducing new ways of doing things.
To look after the motorbike you need to look at the operations manual.' He also encourages officers to talk about policing issues in small groups. They are nervous at first but soon open up. The approach is very different from the Cambodian way where subordinates do not question their seniors and from previous training sessions run by some Western block countries who lectured their audiences.
Improved case file management and training already seems to working its way through the system. Judges have praised the police for an improvement in the quality of case files presented to the courts. The number of convictions has also risen as police enforce the laws.
In the last 12 months the number of prisoners has risen by more than 500. The pace of the implementation of the reforms depends, for the most part, on the will of the country's political leaders, but the Australian team says establishing relationships is key to winning over senior officers.
Now police officers are hungry for the training sessions and are begging the Australians to pump in more funds and assistance and a further three-year project is being considered. Although the advisers are working in only five provinces the operating procedures and training have so impressed police chiefs that it is now filtering out to more remote regions and there are plans to establish three regional training centres.
Colonel Monh Kamsan, deputy director of the Scientific and Technical police, is frank about the help the Australians have given. 'Before the project came we did not have any professional skills at all. We were not active because we did not have any equipment and our officers had not been trained,' he said.
Kompong Cham - Small town Cambodia
We're sitting under a great old tree, on plastic chairs by the slick stirring waters of the Mekong.
To our right the brilliantly lit, Japanese-funded Kasuma Bridge spans out into the darkness. On the far bank we can see the faint outline of the old French-era guard tower. Nearby a gaggle of sampans are tied to the river's edge, bobbing and bumping in the current.
A moonrise breaks on the horizon, bathing the river in a ghostly hue. It's midnight in Kompong Cham and we have the entire place to ourselves.
Kompong Cham had its heyday back in the 1930s and '40s, when the town was a cosmopolitan Indochinese river port supporting the sprawling French-administered rubber plantations that once patchworked across much of this part of Cambodia. Many of these plantations were destroyed during the American war and those that survived the bombing languished in disrepair during the Khmer Rouge period. Today, moves are afoot to resuscitate the business and one can easily visit a plantation.
The name Kompong Cham refers to a sizeable population of Chams who took up residence after being chased out of Vietnam when the Kingdom of Champa collapsed. These people, distinctive in their religion, dress, customs and language, were picked out for particular attention by the Khmer Rouge, who decimated their population during the Khmer Rouge period. Today, with its plentiful Chinese-script signs, Kompong Cham feels more like a Chinese trading town than the Cham agrarian centre it once was.
While precious little remains to bear evidence to the Cham period, Kompong Cham has a wealth of French colonial relics. The ever-watchful guard tower on the far bank of the Mekong sits in direct line of sight to the mayor's house in the centre of Kompong Cham. In time's past, guards would light a furnace atop it to warn the town that invaders were on the way. Until recently in a state of disrepair, the tower was recently restored - supposedly with a French expat's money - and painted pink.
The town also has its fair share of French-influenced buildings and trader shopfronts, which while often badly dilapidated, retain an austere grace so totally lacking from the more modern concoctions that flank them. While not nearly as beautiful as Phnom Penh, Kompong Cham retains enough urban points of interest for at least a pleasing stroll through town, and given its small size it's no challenge to explore the back lanes on foot.
Many think of the Mekong River as a singular mammoth waterway twisting its way down from Cambodia's northern frontier with Laos before pouring itself out and across Vietnam's delta. It's also a river of many tributaries, and exploring some of these by boat from Kompong Cham is what easily justifies a longer stay than your guidebook may suggest. Cruising up a narrow tributary is like dropping back 100 years in time. Unadulterated village life is on full display here, intermingled with forest and bamboo, with the occasional rundown colonial mansion - once home to plantation overseers and their families - poking out above the trees.
Wat Maha Leap is one of Cambodia's largest remaining wooden temples and sits towards the border with Prey Veng Province, a 40-minute boat ride along the Tonle Thoit (small river) tributary to the south of Kompong Cham. When the Khmer Rouge seized power, many temples were pillaged and burnt to the ground, but superstition, it seems, protected Wat Maha Leap.
Believed to be over 100 years old, the temple's exterior is bland and unappealing, but the interior reveals towering gilded teak columns (each requiring an entire tree) supporting a beautifully-painted sky blue roof. We found it to be eerily reminiscent of Wat Phra That Lampang Luang in northern Thailand.
Sadly, while the temple survived the Khmer Rouge, it is slowly losing a long-running battle with termites burrowing through the slender columns.Upon leaving the wat, continue along the river to the renowned weaving village of Prey Chung Kran.
Jump out of the boat to the familiar click clack, click clack of villager's looms, and visit house after house where weavers fashion an excellent range of Khmer kramas and a variety of other fabrics. Buying off the loom here will guarantee yourself a better price than in Phnom Penh - in fact many stores in Phnom Penh travel here to buy their stock - and you're also supporting a worthwhile cottage industry.
When you're done at the temple and village, return to the Mekong and head back towards Kompong Cham. En route be sure to stop off at the island of Ko Paen, which sits towards the west bank of the Mekong just to the south of Kompong Cham.
When the Mekong is low, you can cycle or walk to the island by a small bamboo bridge, but when the river is high, the bridge disappears under the muddy brown waters and a boat becomes a requirement rather than an option.
A small agrarian island, Ko Paen is a terrific spot to observe typical Khmer rural life. Watch out for the fishermen standing by the river's bank with huge badminton-racket-like hand-held white fishing nets. They stand by the river's edge scooping the net through the river, drawing a slow but steady catch. In the late afternoon light, these nets really glisten - don't forget your camera.
Kompong Cham has a seemingly disproportionate number of really friendly motorbike guys who speak amazing English and know the town like the back of their hand. Combine a chat to these guys with an evening at Mekong Crossing with Joe, who harks from Pennsylvania and has forgotten more about Kompong Cham than most ever knew, and you'll have enough activities to keep you busy here for a month.
After all there's still Khmer ruins, hilltop temples, more boat trips and even an abandoned air base - all requiring your attention.
And don't forget to fit in a few midnight drinks under the shade of the big tree on the Mekong's bank.
To our right the brilliantly lit, Japanese-funded Kasuma Bridge spans out into the darkness. On the far bank we can see the faint outline of the old French-era guard tower. Nearby a gaggle of sampans are tied to the river's edge, bobbing and bumping in the current.
A moonrise breaks on the horizon, bathing the river in a ghostly hue. It's midnight in Kompong Cham and we have the entire place to ourselves.
Kompong Cham had its heyday back in the 1930s and '40s, when the town was a cosmopolitan Indochinese river port supporting the sprawling French-administered rubber plantations that once patchworked across much of this part of Cambodia. Many of these plantations were destroyed during the American war and those that survived the bombing languished in disrepair during the Khmer Rouge period. Today, moves are afoot to resuscitate the business and one can easily visit a plantation.
The name Kompong Cham refers to a sizeable population of Chams who took up residence after being chased out of Vietnam when the Kingdom of Champa collapsed. These people, distinctive in their religion, dress, customs and language, were picked out for particular attention by the Khmer Rouge, who decimated their population during the Khmer Rouge period. Today, with its plentiful Chinese-script signs, Kompong Cham feels more like a Chinese trading town than the Cham agrarian centre it once was.
While precious little remains to bear evidence to the Cham period, Kompong Cham has a wealth of French colonial relics. The ever-watchful guard tower on the far bank of the Mekong sits in direct line of sight to the mayor's house in the centre of Kompong Cham. In time's past, guards would light a furnace atop it to warn the town that invaders were on the way. Until recently in a state of disrepair, the tower was recently restored - supposedly with a French expat's money - and painted pink.
The town also has its fair share of French-influenced buildings and trader shopfronts, which while often badly dilapidated, retain an austere grace so totally lacking from the more modern concoctions that flank them. While not nearly as beautiful as Phnom Penh, Kompong Cham retains enough urban points of interest for at least a pleasing stroll through town, and given its small size it's no challenge to explore the back lanes on foot.
Many think of the Mekong River as a singular mammoth waterway twisting its way down from Cambodia's northern frontier with Laos before pouring itself out and across Vietnam's delta. It's also a river of many tributaries, and exploring some of these by boat from Kompong Cham is what easily justifies a longer stay than your guidebook may suggest. Cruising up a narrow tributary is like dropping back 100 years in time. Unadulterated village life is on full display here, intermingled with forest and bamboo, with the occasional rundown colonial mansion - once home to plantation overseers and their families - poking out above the trees.
Wat Maha Leap is one of Cambodia's largest remaining wooden temples and sits towards the border with Prey Veng Province, a 40-minute boat ride along the Tonle Thoit (small river) tributary to the south of Kompong Cham. When the Khmer Rouge seized power, many temples were pillaged and burnt to the ground, but superstition, it seems, protected Wat Maha Leap.
Believed to be over 100 years old, the temple's exterior is bland and unappealing, but the interior reveals towering gilded teak columns (each requiring an entire tree) supporting a beautifully-painted sky blue roof. We found it to be eerily reminiscent of Wat Phra That Lampang Luang in northern Thailand.
Sadly, while the temple survived the Khmer Rouge, it is slowly losing a long-running battle with termites burrowing through the slender columns.Upon leaving the wat, continue along the river to the renowned weaving village of Prey Chung Kran.
Jump out of the boat to the familiar click clack, click clack of villager's looms, and visit house after house where weavers fashion an excellent range of Khmer kramas and a variety of other fabrics. Buying off the loom here will guarantee yourself a better price than in Phnom Penh - in fact many stores in Phnom Penh travel here to buy their stock - and you're also supporting a worthwhile cottage industry.
When you're done at the temple and village, return to the Mekong and head back towards Kompong Cham. En route be sure to stop off at the island of Ko Paen, which sits towards the west bank of the Mekong just to the south of Kompong Cham.
When the Mekong is low, you can cycle or walk to the island by a small bamboo bridge, but when the river is high, the bridge disappears under the muddy brown waters and a boat becomes a requirement rather than an option.
A small agrarian island, Ko Paen is a terrific spot to observe typical Khmer rural life. Watch out for the fishermen standing by the river's bank with huge badminton-racket-like hand-held white fishing nets. They stand by the river's edge scooping the net through the river, drawing a slow but steady catch. In the late afternoon light, these nets really glisten - don't forget your camera.
Kompong Cham has a seemingly disproportionate number of really friendly motorbike guys who speak amazing English and know the town like the back of their hand. Combine a chat to these guys with an evening at Mekong Crossing with Joe, who harks from Pennsylvania and has forgotten more about Kompong Cham than most ever knew, and you'll have enough activities to keep you busy here for a month.
After all there's still Khmer ruins, hilltop temples, more boat trips and even an abandoned air base - all requiring your attention.
And don't forget to fit in a few midnight drinks under the shade of the big tree on the Mekong's bank.
Former inmate imparts lessons
One day during his 20-month prison term, Thea Som realized it was time to change.
"I woke up and looked in the mirror and said, 'I'm not going to take this any more. I'm going to live life with a passion. I'm not going to live life so paranoid,'" Som, now 24 and a youth outreach worker in Springfield, told a group of students at the Florence Learning Center yesterday.
He spoke as part of a school-year-long effort by the Veterans Education Project at the center, which is an alternative public school for high school-age students.
Rob M. Wilson, project director, said speakers are brought in who provide a wide perspective on the effects of war.
"We want to bring in voices from our community, men and women who have gone through hardship and challenges, made some pretty serious mistakes, confronted violence in war and on the streets and come through the experience with insight and lessons that can be valuable to young people to help them develop better critical thinking skills," Wilson said.
Som told the students how he once beat people up and sold drugs, and how after he was released from jail, he was picked up by immigration authorities who imprisoned him for another two years.
He was threatened with deportation to Cambodia, a country his mother fled from to a refuge camp in Thailand where he was born. He knows no one in Cambodia.
In this country, his mother had never told him what had happened to her in Cambodia, how she watched as his older brother was shot in front of her. He learned this after his incarceration, when he interviewed his mother to learn about her life.
Som said he "grew up in silence." Filled with anger, he barely managed to graduate from Amherst-Pelham Regional High School and got arrested repeatedly. Finally, he was sentenced to 2½ years in jail, 20 months of which he served.
When he got out, he was a changed person. In jail, he had begun to write about his experiences and became involved with the Performance Project, a theater group made up of present and former inmates.
"I used to be scared to show how I felt. I didn't want to be vulnerable. People were going to think I'm soft," said Som, who works for the Anti-Displacement Project in Springfield and lives in Amherst.
Students at the Florence Learning Center told Som about their own experiences that relate to his. In interviews, they said his experiences put their lives in perspective.
"It makes you look on the positive side. When I'm having a bad day, I think that guy had it way worse than I did. It changes everything around," said Rich A. Morin, 18, a student at the center.
"I woke up and looked in the mirror and said, 'I'm not going to take this any more. I'm going to live life with a passion. I'm not going to live life so paranoid,'" Som, now 24 and a youth outreach worker in Springfield, told a group of students at the Florence Learning Center yesterday.
He spoke as part of a school-year-long effort by the Veterans Education Project at the center, which is an alternative public school for high school-age students.
Rob M. Wilson, project director, said speakers are brought in who provide a wide perspective on the effects of war.
"We want to bring in voices from our community, men and women who have gone through hardship and challenges, made some pretty serious mistakes, confronted violence in war and on the streets and come through the experience with insight and lessons that can be valuable to young people to help them develop better critical thinking skills," Wilson said.
Som told the students how he once beat people up and sold drugs, and how after he was released from jail, he was picked up by immigration authorities who imprisoned him for another two years.
He was threatened with deportation to Cambodia, a country his mother fled from to a refuge camp in Thailand where he was born. He knows no one in Cambodia.
In this country, his mother had never told him what had happened to her in Cambodia, how she watched as his older brother was shot in front of her. He learned this after his incarceration, when he interviewed his mother to learn about her life.
Som said he "grew up in silence." Filled with anger, he barely managed to graduate from Amherst-Pelham Regional High School and got arrested repeatedly. Finally, he was sentenced to 2½ years in jail, 20 months of which he served.
When he got out, he was a changed person. In jail, he had begun to write about his experiences and became involved with the Performance Project, a theater group made up of present and former inmates.
"I used to be scared to show how I felt. I didn't want to be vulnerable. People were going to think I'm soft," said Som, who works for the Anti-Displacement Project in Springfield and lives in Amherst.
Students at the Florence Learning Center told Som about their own experiences that relate to his. In interviews, they said his experiences put their lives in perspective.
"It makes you look on the positive side. When I'm having a bad day, I think that guy had it way worse than I did. It changes everything around," said Rich A. Morin, 18, a student at the center.
Friday, November 04, 2005
'Euthanasia tourism' sparks outrage!
This story has been front page news in the Cambodia Daily 'newspaper' all week, oddly enough the only online reference to it is in the Hindustan Times ?!?!
***
Websites advocating 'euthanasia tourism' allegedly posted by a US national from a sleepy Cambodian town have sparked outrage and confusion as businesses and the government debate what action to take.
The family and friends of a British national have already alleged that the twin sites were directly linked to a 47-year-old woman's suicide in September in Kampot, about 180 km from the capital, following the break-up of a relationship.
At least 20 business owners in the tourist town have signed a petition and forwarded it to the provincial government demanding the sites be closed because they damage the reputation of Cambodia and its developing tourism industry.
The provincial police, the ministry of interior and the ministry of tourism all said this week they were aware of the problem but were confused about what they could do as the problem was so unusual and new to Cambodia.
One of the euthanasia websites carries the banner "You are going to die anyway, so why not in Cambodia?" and both sites actively urge people considering suicide or euthanasia to visit the country, claiming there is no law against these practices in the kingdom.
"The websites say that whoever wants to kill themselves, it is easy in Kampot," a deputy provincial police chief in Chiva said.
"They tell people that if a foreigner wants to kill himself, he should come here. This is not good for the reputation of our province."
But he added that although he had completed a report and sent it to the ministry of interior, he had no idea at this stage what action he could take or what criminal charges he might be able to bring against the sites' author.
The ministry is reviewing its options and had not decided how to proceed. But it said the websites were undesirable and not welcome.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7242_1536173,00180008.htm
***
Websites advocating 'euthanasia tourism' allegedly posted by a US national from a sleepy Cambodian town have sparked outrage and confusion as businesses and the government debate what action to take.
The family and friends of a British national have already alleged that the twin sites were directly linked to a 47-year-old woman's suicide in September in Kampot, about 180 km from the capital, following the break-up of a relationship.
At least 20 business owners in the tourist town have signed a petition and forwarded it to the provincial government demanding the sites be closed because they damage the reputation of Cambodia and its developing tourism industry.
The provincial police, the ministry of interior and the ministry of tourism all said this week they were aware of the problem but were confused about what they could do as the problem was so unusual and new to Cambodia.
One of the euthanasia websites carries the banner "You are going to die anyway, so why not in Cambodia?" and both sites actively urge people considering suicide or euthanasia to visit the country, claiming there is no law against these practices in the kingdom.
"The websites say that whoever wants to kill themselves, it is easy in Kampot," a deputy provincial police chief in Chiva said.
"They tell people that if a foreigner wants to kill himself, he should come here. This is not good for the reputation of our province."
But he added that although he had completed a report and sent it to the ministry of interior, he had no idea at this stage what action he could take or what criminal charges he might be able to bring against the sites' author.
The ministry is reviewing its options and had not decided how to proceed. But it said the websites were undesirable and not welcome.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/7242_1536173,00180008.htm
Friday, October 28, 2005
Private Killing Fields
The rare, half intelligent, article on Cambodia in the international press...
Follow above link to full story.
Cambodia has become a self-devouring nation in which just about everything seems to be for sale or lease: forests, fisheries, mining concessions, air routes, ship registrations, toxic dumps, weapons, women, girls, boys, babies...
Follow above link to full story.
Cambodia has become a self-devouring nation in which just about everything seems to be for sale or lease: forests, fisheries, mining concessions, air routes, ship registrations, toxic dumps, weapons, women, girls, boys, babies...
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Government Resort to Recourse on Defamation
The Royal Government of Cambodia has taken strong action against allegations on territorial issue, viewed as political attack against the ruling parties, especially the prominent Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen.
For years now, opposition politicians and some NGO activists have repeatedly made either direct or indirect allegations against the government over border issue with neighboring countries including Viet Nam, Laos and Thailand.
Such allegations are apparently utilized as a political tool , rather than real intention to find a solution, to degrade the popularity of the Prime Minister and to win heart and mind of the Cambodian people.
To eliminate doubts over the territorial issue, the Royal Government of Cambodia has resorted to legal recourse to bring those who make allegations to court where, as claimed by Samdech Hun Sen, they can tell the truth and help the government pin-point any parts of the territory lost during the tenure of the Prime Minister.
As a result, seven people have been sued and taken to court although some of them managed to flee the country to avoid inquiries and investigations.
However, Mom Sonando, a border-issue critic who is the owner of FM105 Radion Station and Rong Chhun, president of Independent Teachers' Association have been detained on warrants by Phnom Penh Court prosecutor.
At last but not least, Prince Sisowath Thomico, a royal family member fled the country on October 18, 2005 only one day after pledging to wage a hunger strike and confront defamation charges filed by the government. The prince is one of the seven people who have been charged on defamations over territorial issue.
On his arrival from the 2nd ASEAN-China Expo in China in the afternoon of October 19, 2005, Samdech Hun Sen mocked at the prince by saying "Prince Thomico disappoints (Cambodian) citizens. He should have stayed and lived up to his pledge ".
On Friday this week, the government is scheduled to meet, discuss and approve a number of projects including the document pertaining to the signing of the additional treaty on October 10 between Cambodia and Viet Nam.
The document needs to be adopted by the National Assembly and ratified by the King.(ends)
For years now, opposition politicians and some NGO activists have repeatedly made either direct or indirect allegations against the government over border issue with neighboring countries including Viet Nam, Laos and Thailand.
Such allegations are apparently utilized as a political tool , rather than real intention to find a solution, to degrade the popularity of the Prime Minister and to win heart and mind of the Cambodian people.
To eliminate doubts over the territorial issue, the Royal Government of Cambodia has resorted to legal recourse to bring those who make allegations to court where, as claimed by Samdech Hun Sen, they can tell the truth and help the government pin-point any parts of the territory lost during the tenure of the Prime Minister.
As a result, seven people have been sued and taken to court although some of them managed to flee the country to avoid inquiries and investigations.
However, Mom Sonando, a border-issue critic who is the owner of FM105 Radion Station and Rong Chhun, president of Independent Teachers' Association have been detained on warrants by Phnom Penh Court prosecutor.
At last but not least, Prince Sisowath Thomico, a royal family member fled the country on October 18, 2005 only one day after pledging to wage a hunger strike and confront defamation charges filed by the government. The prince is one of the seven people who have been charged on defamations over territorial issue.
On his arrival from the 2nd ASEAN-China Expo in China in the afternoon of October 19, 2005, Samdech Hun Sen mocked at the prince by saying "Prince Thomico disappoints (Cambodian) citizens. He should have stayed and lived up to his pledge ".
On Friday this week, the government is scheduled to meet, discuss and approve a number of projects including the document pertaining to the signing of the additional treaty on October 10 between Cambodia and Viet Nam.
The document needs to be adopted by the National Assembly and ratified by the King.(ends)
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Khmer Vampires ???
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Black magic may have driven a Cambodian couple to bite off their daughter's thumb nails and suck her blood, officials said Sunday.
Chheng Chhorn, 46, and Srun Yoeung, 37, attacked their 12-year-old child before dawn on Thursday while she was still asleep, biting off her thumb nails and a small part of her nose to drink her blood, said Keo Norea Phy, a police official in Kampong Cham province where the incident occurred.
Neighbours rushed to the couple's house and rescued the girl after hearing her screams.
After treatment at a hospital in Kampong Cham, about 50 miles east of Phnom Penh, the girl was placed in the custody of other villagers. Relatives had taken her parents to a black magic healer to chase away the evil spirit that was believed to have possessed them, the police official said.
"We, the police, just have no idea what offence to charge them with," Keo Norea Phy said.
Preap Nhim, a local official, said the couple sold noodles in their village and had never before acted in a strange manner. He said they may have been driven by the spirit guarding the altar they kept inside their house.
Cambodia is a Buddhist country, but many people in the countryside are deeply superstitious. Some claim the ability to communicate with the dead and cure the sick by exorcising evil spirits from their bodies.
Chheng Chhorn, 46, and Srun Yoeung, 37, attacked their 12-year-old child before dawn on Thursday while she was still asleep, biting off her thumb nails and a small part of her nose to drink her blood, said Keo Norea Phy, a police official in Kampong Cham province where the incident occurred.
Neighbours rushed to the couple's house and rescued the girl after hearing her screams.
After treatment at a hospital in Kampong Cham, about 50 miles east of Phnom Penh, the girl was placed in the custody of other villagers. Relatives had taken her parents to a black magic healer to chase away the evil spirit that was believed to have possessed them, the police official said.
"We, the police, just have no idea what offence to charge them with," Keo Norea Phy said.
Preap Nhim, a local official, said the couple sold noodles in their village and had never before acted in a strange manner. He said they may have been driven by the spirit guarding the altar they kept inside their house.
Cambodia is a Buddhist country, but many people in the countryside are deeply superstitious. Some claim the ability to communicate with the dead and cure the sick by exorcising evil spirits from their bodies.
Friday, October 07, 2005
Friday the 30th September
Philippine Birthday Party No. 2
Regular readers may recall me attending my Philippine neighbour’s birthday party a couple of months back. Today is his brother-in-laws birthday (he was 22) and so they are having a party next-door. And so as good neighbours, they invite me – presumably to cut of any objections J
Despite only living 6 inches away I was late to the start of the party and it was kicking off with the food when we got there, the food was excellent, it had been prepared by my neighbours mother-in-law, an 80 year old Philippine woman who speaks surprisingly good English, for her sons birthday she had been slaving away in the kitchen all day preparing:
Stir fry noodles with pork, veg and chillies
Barbequed King Prawns
Shrimp paste spring rolls
Roast chicken
And of course the ubiquitous Boiled Rice
Halfway through us grazing the buffet the main dish for the food arrived, having been prepared by the only Philippine restaurant in Phnom Penh. It was a traditional Philippine dish made for parties - it was a suckling pig that had been barbequed whole. I have to say, it was fantastic.
An hour or so into it some more guests arrive a mixture of young Philippine guys and young Khmer guys turn up, friend of the birthday boy, I move out onto the balcony to join them for a drink – that was were things started to go wrong.
While having a few beers with them they started playing some Philippine drinking games, some semi frozen rum and fruit juice concoction was involved – in addition to the beers – after an hour or so of that a few more of their friends turned up, but we had run out of Philippine rum to make the punch needed for the drinking game, oh no, luckily they had brought with them a couple of two litre bottles of Johnny Walker… aghhhh.
I think that I managed to crawl into my bed next-door at around 3AM
Saturday the 1st of October
There is a power drill inside my head
Oh my head hurts.
Never, ever, ever, get into Philippine drinking games involving Philippine rum.
Regular readers may recall me attending my Philippine neighbour’s birthday party a couple of months back. Today is his brother-in-laws birthday (he was 22) and so they are having a party next-door. And so as good neighbours, they invite me – presumably to cut of any objections J
Despite only living 6 inches away I was late to the start of the party and it was kicking off with the food when we got there, the food was excellent, it had been prepared by my neighbours mother-in-law, an 80 year old Philippine woman who speaks surprisingly good English, for her sons birthday she had been slaving away in the kitchen all day preparing:
Stir fry noodles with pork, veg and chillies
Barbequed King Prawns
Shrimp paste spring rolls
Roast chicken
And of course the ubiquitous Boiled Rice
Halfway through us grazing the buffet the main dish for the food arrived, having been prepared by the only Philippine restaurant in Phnom Penh. It was a traditional Philippine dish made for parties - it was a suckling pig that had been barbequed whole. I have to say, it was fantastic.
An hour or so into it some more guests arrive a mixture of young Philippine guys and young Khmer guys turn up, friend of the birthday boy, I move out onto the balcony to join them for a drink – that was were things started to go wrong.
While having a few beers with them they started playing some Philippine drinking games, some semi frozen rum and fruit juice concoction was involved – in addition to the beers – after an hour or so of that a few more of their friends turned up, but we had run out of Philippine rum to make the punch needed for the drinking game, oh no, luckily they had brought with them a couple of two litre bottles of Johnny Walker… aghhhh.
I think that I managed to crawl into my bed next-door at around 3AM
Saturday the 1st of October
There is a power drill inside my head
Oh my head hurts.
Never, ever, ever, get into Philippine drinking games involving Philippine rum.
Cambodia is an affordable paradise
Sihanoukville, Cambodia - I hop on the back of the little motor scooter without an ounce of trepidation. After two days in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's rapidly bustling little capital, I now view my regular trips on this country's taxis with two parts adventure and one part economic relief.
A moto is a cheap way to see Cambodia and cool in more ways than one. There's nothing like beating the heat of a hot Southeast Asian night by flying through traffic on the back of a scooter - even going the wrong way down a one-way street.
But this is different. I'm not in the city anymore. I'm far from it, far from any sense of what people view as Cambodia. Pounding along a bumpy dirt road, we pass a tiny village of six wooden structures where a man sleeps in a hammock and a child pulls a crude, wooden wagon.
A little boy and his brother wave and smile at me. We swerve to avoid a goat.
This road into the real Cambodia ends at a spectacular beach. I hop off the back and forget to pay the driver as I stare open- mouthed at an expansive stretch of fine, white sand, nary a single hotel, souvenir stand or bar in sight. The only signs of civilization are two small, wooden shelters, serving only as protection from a rainstorm.
Full Article here:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/travel/ci_3089811
A moto is a cheap way to see Cambodia and cool in more ways than one. There's nothing like beating the heat of a hot Southeast Asian night by flying through traffic on the back of a scooter - even going the wrong way down a one-way street.
But this is different. I'm not in the city anymore. I'm far from it, far from any sense of what people view as Cambodia. Pounding along a bumpy dirt road, we pass a tiny village of six wooden structures where a man sleeps in a hammock and a child pulls a crude, wooden wagon.
A little boy and his brother wave and smile at me. We swerve to avoid a goat.
This road into the real Cambodia ends at a spectacular beach. I hop off the back and forget to pay the driver as I stare open- mouthed at an expansive stretch of fine, white sand, nary a single hotel, souvenir stand or bar in sight. The only signs of civilization are two small, wooden shelters, serving only as protection from a rainstorm.
Full Article here:
http://www.insidebayarea.com/travel/ci_3089811
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Ministry of Fish P’chum Ben party
Friday the 23rd
Ministry of Fish P’chum Ben party
P’chum Ben is a Khmer festival of the dead which lasts for 15-day in which people remember their past relatives, ancesters, loved ones that have passed on, et cetera.
17:30 we all meet up in the Ministry car park, I decide to follow them on my bike as I prefer the freedom to make a run for it from office parties here. (usually once the karaoke starts)
Following the cars is a challenge. The combination of rush hour traffic and standard suicidal Khmer driving tactics results in my losing sight of them.
Luckily Buntha had told me yesterday that it was at the same restaurant that we went to for the office Khmer New Year party.
Leaving Phnom Penh I drive over the Japanese Friendship Bridge, a narrow, steeply humped concrete bride crossing the wide and fast flowing Tonle Sap River, on the banks I can see the piles of cargo containers at the city’s commercial port. As well as, wooden fishing boats plying their trade in the waters below beneath a setting red sun and purple sky... Although the fast and densely packed traffic on the bridge does not allow time to enjoy the view.
Once over the bridge the next 5 Km contain about 50 restaurants. The restaurant I am thinking of is about halfway along, if I remember correctly.
Stopping at half a dozen places mid route I am unable to see the restaurant, or any of their cars. So I pull over to the side of the road to call Buntha. Alas, my phone has no credit left on it. Mobiles here are pay-as-you-go, but once you are under US$1 you can not make calls. You can however still send text messages - (.03c for a local text, .43c for an international one). So I send one to Buntha asking for the name of the restaurant.
A minute later my phone rings and it is Vuthy, our boss. However, I only manage to get as far as ‘hello’ before my phone cuts off – flat battery, damn !
So I decide to do another back and forth of the restaurants. After another 20 minutes pulling up and down restaurant driveways, looking at parked cars and asking various waiters if The Ministry of Fish are in their restaurant I pull over again and decide to see if I have enough credit and battery left for another text message – thankfully I do, I explain that the battery is flat on the phone and that I am driving up and down lost. Just as the message confirms the phone dies completely!
Deciding on one last sweep of the restaurants, over a wider search area I put the bike into gear and… - clunk, shudder, crack. It lurches wildly forward, shudders and I am almost flung off. The clutch cable has just snapped. I am over 5km from Phnom Penh, on an unlit, and busy, main road - well, that is to say; dirt track with no tarmac, mud, gravel, potholes the size of a water buffalo and HGV’s hurtling past at breakneck speed.
Finding a slight incline, I get the bike moving downhill and slip (crash, bang, wallop) the bike into second gear. At which point I just have to prey I do not need to stop, slow down or do anything that is not crawl along in second for the trip back to town.
Halfway along the road back to the bridge, the bike again starts to shudder, damn, running low on petrol! Fortunately there is a large Caltex petrol station up ahead and I pull into there – stalling the bike to a stop next to a slightly nervous looking 12 year old Khmer girl petrol pump attendant.
Slipping a few dollars worth of petrol into the bike I push it over to one side as I have spotted a small wooden stall at the side of the road which is the Cambodian equivalent of a payphone – basically you use the old woman’s mobile phone, she checks the length of the call on the display and charges you about double what it costs her.
Getting through to Buntha’s phone, Kimtek answers it (he works with Buntha and myself) between his pigeon English and my pigeon Khmer I establish that Buntha is not there and that the restaurant has in fact been changed, it is no longer the one over the bridge that we went too before, but one back in the centre of Phnom Penh. Not being able to get any answers out of him (in any language) as to the name of the restaurant or its location I give up.
Crash, bang, wallop, the bike is back in second gear and I am crawling back to home – 5km to the bridge and the another 4 or 5 to the south end of town where I live. Half an hour later I arrive home in a slightly peevish mood (to say the least) I plug my phone in on charge, have a shower (it started raining halfway home) and slip into some dry clothes.
At this point my phone rings again, sighing as I see Buntha’s name and number come up I answer the phone
“Bong Darren, where you now? We wait you long time. You come now or not?”
NB Language point - Bong in this context means Sir, or respected elder. (even if I am younger than Buntha…)
Explaining the catalogue of disaster that had befallen me this evening I said that I could not make it. He swiftly said that was not a problem and that he would be at my house in 10 minutes to pick me up. Before I could get another excuse out for my new antisocial mood he had hung up.
Sighing again, I head back into my room to get changed again for an evening out with the boys from work, and our boss.
True to his word, Buntha was outside in ten minutes, sounding his horn and waving frantically up at my flat. Ten minutes after that I am at the tiny Khmer BBQ restaurant joining my intoxicated colleagues (yup, they had had a second beer while waiting for me) and being handed plates of barbequed king prawns and glasses of ABC Stout (9%ABV)
So I set about eating some very good food, during which every 30 seconds, my colleagues keep going ‘cheers’ clanking glasses with me and shouting ‘finish’ (Special memory jogger there for Glen and Paul!)
Then, of course, the karaoke starts…
Now, Khmers take their karaoke very seriously and after a few songs they start asking me ‘Darren, Darren you sing a song, you sing a song’ as always in this situation I stall them as long as possible. But it gets to a point where if you do not sing, they start to think that you are not happy, that you are not enjoying yourself and that upsets them, they start to think that they are bad hosts because you are not happy and singing!?!
So, my lungs powered by the strength of ABC Stout (9%ABV) I join Kimchhea in a duet of ‘I just called to say I love you’ (do not ask, hell, do not even try to understand it, and for the love of all that is holy, do not try and imagine it !)
Halfway through the song I start improving and singing some of the songs lyrics in Khmer, my colleagues start falling of their chairs they are laughing so hard.
Thankfully, 10 o’clock rolls around and the party wraps up. Heading outside Buntha, Kimtek, Kimchhea and Bunna inform me that we are going to another bar to carry on the party (now that the boss, et cetera have left)
So driving a dozen blocks North (rather than the few south and to home) we pull up outside the Tip Top VIP Karaoke bar… aggghhhhh.
Making a swift set of excuses about having to meet some friends, I jump on a moto-taxi outside the hotel and leave them to it. Thankfully the karaoke bar is only a couple of blocks away from the new Peace Café and I call in there for a couple of drinks and some peace and quiet.
Arriving home at 11:30, I find that all of Heng’s girlfriends had left and that she was just watching TV, looking up from the sofa as I come in she asks, with a big grin on her face, ‘we go out now? No work tomorrow, I want to go out’…
Ten minutes later I am heading back up to the Peace Café and a couple more drinks…
Just as we are getting ready to leave, Pete comes in and I need to catch up with him regarding various issues we have with the new Khmer440 website, so it is back to the barstool and a few more drinks.
As 03:30 rolls around I am very glad that my moto-taxi driver is still waiting outside for us, even if he is laying flat on his back, legs over the handlebars, fast asleep on the Honda Dailim 50cc he drives !
Ministry of Fish P’chum Ben party
P’chum Ben is a Khmer festival of the dead which lasts for 15-day in which people remember their past relatives, ancesters, loved ones that have passed on, et cetera.
17:30 we all meet up in the Ministry car park, I decide to follow them on my bike as I prefer the freedom to make a run for it from office parties here. (usually once the karaoke starts)
Following the cars is a challenge. The combination of rush hour traffic and standard suicidal Khmer driving tactics results in my losing sight of them.
Luckily Buntha had told me yesterday that it was at the same restaurant that we went to for the office Khmer New Year party.
Leaving Phnom Penh I drive over the Japanese Friendship Bridge, a narrow, steeply humped concrete bride crossing the wide and fast flowing Tonle Sap River, on the banks I can see the piles of cargo containers at the city’s commercial port. As well as, wooden fishing boats plying their trade in the waters below beneath a setting red sun and purple sky... Although the fast and densely packed traffic on the bridge does not allow time to enjoy the view.
Once over the bridge the next 5 Km contain about 50 restaurants. The restaurant I am thinking of is about halfway along, if I remember correctly.
Stopping at half a dozen places mid route I am unable to see the restaurant, or any of their cars. So I pull over to the side of the road to call Buntha. Alas, my phone has no credit left on it. Mobiles here are pay-as-you-go, but once you are under US$1 you can not make calls. You can however still send text messages - (.03c for a local text, .43c for an international one). So I send one to Buntha asking for the name of the restaurant.
A minute later my phone rings and it is Vuthy, our boss. However, I only manage to get as far as ‘hello’ before my phone cuts off – flat battery, damn !
So I decide to do another back and forth of the restaurants. After another 20 minutes pulling up and down restaurant driveways, looking at parked cars and asking various waiters if The Ministry of Fish are in their restaurant I pull over again and decide to see if I have enough credit and battery left for another text message – thankfully I do, I explain that the battery is flat on the phone and that I am driving up and down lost. Just as the message confirms the phone dies completely!
Deciding on one last sweep of the restaurants, over a wider search area I put the bike into gear and… - clunk, shudder, crack. It lurches wildly forward, shudders and I am almost flung off. The clutch cable has just snapped. I am over 5km from Phnom Penh, on an unlit, and busy, main road - well, that is to say; dirt track with no tarmac, mud, gravel, potholes the size of a water buffalo and HGV’s hurtling past at breakneck speed.
Finding a slight incline, I get the bike moving downhill and slip (crash, bang, wallop) the bike into second gear. At which point I just have to prey I do not need to stop, slow down or do anything that is not crawl along in second for the trip back to town.
Halfway along the road back to the bridge, the bike again starts to shudder, damn, running low on petrol! Fortunately there is a large Caltex petrol station up ahead and I pull into there – stalling the bike to a stop next to a slightly nervous looking 12 year old Khmer girl petrol pump attendant.
Slipping a few dollars worth of petrol into the bike I push it over to one side as I have spotted a small wooden stall at the side of the road which is the Cambodian equivalent of a payphone – basically you use the old woman’s mobile phone, she checks the length of the call on the display and charges you about double what it costs her.
Getting through to Buntha’s phone, Kimtek answers it (he works with Buntha and myself) between his pigeon English and my pigeon Khmer I establish that Buntha is not there and that the restaurant has in fact been changed, it is no longer the one over the bridge that we went too before, but one back in the centre of Phnom Penh. Not being able to get any answers out of him (in any language) as to the name of the restaurant or its location I give up.
Crash, bang, wallop, the bike is back in second gear and I am crawling back to home – 5km to the bridge and the another 4 or 5 to the south end of town where I live. Half an hour later I arrive home in a slightly peevish mood (to say the least) I plug my phone in on charge, have a shower (it started raining halfway home) and slip into some dry clothes.
At this point my phone rings again, sighing as I see Buntha’s name and number come up I answer the phone
“Bong Darren, where you now? We wait you long time. You come now or not?”
NB Language point - Bong in this context means Sir, or respected elder. (even if I am younger than Buntha…)
Explaining the catalogue of disaster that had befallen me this evening I said that I could not make it. He swiftly said that was not a problem and that he would be at my house in 10 minutes to pick me up. Before I could get another excuse out for my new antisocial mood he had hung up.
Sighing again, I head back into my room to get changed again for an evening out with the boys from work, and our boss.
True to his word, Buntha was outside in ten minutes, sounding his horn and waving frantically up at my flat. Ten minutes after that I am at the tiny Khmer BBQ restaurant joining my intoxicated colleagues (yup, they had had a second beer while waiting for me) and being handed plates of barbequed king prawns and glasses of ABC Stout (9%ABV)
So I set about eating some very good food, during which every 30 seconds, my colleagues keep going ‘cheers’ clanking glasses with me and shouting ‘finish’ (Special memory jogger there for Glen and Paul!)
Then, of course, the karaoke starts…
Now, Khmers take their karaoke very seriously and after a few songs they start asking me ‘Darren, Darren you sing a song, you sing a song’ as always in this situation I stall them as long as possible. But it gets to a point where if you do not sing, they start to think that you are not happy, that you are not enjoying yourself and that upsets them, they start to think that they are bad hosts because you are not happy and singing!?!
So, my lungs powered by the strength of ABC Stout (9%ABV) I join Kimchhea in a duet of ‘I just called to say I love you’ (do not ask, hell, do not even try to understand it, and for the love of all that is holy, do not try and imagine it !)
Halfway through the song I start improving and singing some of the songs lyrics in Khmer, my colleagues start falling of their chairs they are laughing so hard.
Thankfully, 10 o’clock rolls around and the party wraps up. Heading outside Buntha, Kimtek, Kimchhea and Bunna inform me that we are going to another bar to carry on the party (now that the boss, et cetera have left)
So driving a dozen blocks North (rather than the few south and to home) we pull up outside the Tip Top VIP Karaoke bar… aggghhhhh.
Making a swift set of excuses about having to meet some friends, I jump on a moto-taxi outside the hotel and leave them to it. Thankfully the karaoke bar is only a couple of blocks away from the new Peace Café and I call in there for a couple of drinks and some peace and quiet.
Arriving home at 11:30, I find that all of Heng’s girlfriends had left and that she was just watching TV, looking up from the sofa as I come in she asks, with a big grin on her face, ‘we go out now? No work tomorrow, I want to go out’…
Ten minutes later I am heading back up to the Peace Café and a couple more drinks…
Just as we are getting ready to leave, Pete comes in and I need to catch up with him regarding various issues we have with the new Khmer440 website, so it is back to the barstool and a few more drinks.
As 03:30 rolls around I am very glad that my moto-taxi driver is still waiting outside for us, even if he is laying flat on his back, legs over the handlebars, fast asleep on the Honda Dailim 50cc he drives !
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