Pets in Cambodia and Booze

Drinks Dog

This is a true story about the recent misadventures of Sok-Sok, a scrawny off license dog, now “ Scrawny off license dog" is not an officially recognised Crufts breed, but it is one that will be instantly recognisable to anyone in Cambodia.

Sok-Sok hangs out all day at Khmer Booze stall near my house, the equivalent of my neighbourhood off license. She belongs to Chea, the store manager.

(Actually, no one would mistake Sok-Sok for a purebred. She is comically two-toned, with a completely black-velvet snoot and a completely blond body, as though a black dog had been held by the nose, Achilles'-heel style, and dipped into a vat of peroxide.)

Sok-Sok's best dog buddy is Tec, who also lives nearby. My theory is that Sok-Sok likes hanging around Tec for the benefit of physical comparison -- the way ugly girls always seem to hang around a hot one, if you get my drift. Tec appears to be a cross between a hyena and a wildebeest.

Sok-Sok and Tec are personable dogs, and everyone loves them. So it became a neighbourhood crisis when word spread that Sok-Sok was missing. She had been in Tec's house on a sort of food stealing mission; unexpectedly, someone opened the front door, and Sok-Sok pondered her options.

Option One: Remain in the house and in the custody of people who love you and provide you a comfortable, stimulating life, nourished in body and mind by ample food and exciting adventures.

Option Two: Bolt for the street and run like a lunatic, becoming a homeless cur in boiling temperatures in an inhospitable city where you will die of exposure and/or starvation in agony, or, if you are lucky, get squashed by a car into a pile of doggy based goo.

Sok-Sok was gone in an instant, of course.

I am not making fun of Sok-Sok's brain. Sok-Sok has a fine brain, for a dog. She is, for example, vastly more intelligent than any dog I have ever owned. But then again, I have always had cats.

Once it became clear that Sok-Sok was good and lost, Chea and his wife, Peakt, leapt into action. Peakt is a take-charge type -- a practical woman, a Khmer woman, rational, prudent, chief-financial-officer, executive-boss type. Peakt telephoned a psychic magic woman in Prey Veng province.

(Have you ever lost a dog? I did not think so. Let us cut Peakt some slack here. )

The psychic -- a renowned expert in "interspecies telepathy," according to many members of her family -- offered many observations, for a fee of 60,000r. None of them were right.

At this point, Peakt knew she had to take some additional, even more serious action. So she called another magic woman

(Does anyone happen to have any extra slack? My inventory seems to be running short.)

Thus, Peakt and Chea learned many more vital facts about where Sok-Sok might be, all of which, for some reason, proved wrong. By this time, more than a week of rainy weather had passed. Posters had been hung on the nearby tree and a small battalion of Concerned fellow stall owners combed the area. Nothing.

Deep in their hearts, Chea and Peakt understood how bleak things looked. They sensed what they had to do. Sometimes you have to Just Let Go.

So they decided to let go of an additional 20,000r. They called in a pet detective. Well actually it was the local guy who comes round to remove poisonous snakes found in poor peoples houses but lets not get fussy here.

Pith Bunna, professional animal (man)handler and canine detective, hopped on his moped and headed over to BKK.

Bunna worked tirelessly, but it made no difference. Two weeks to the day after Sok-Sok disappeared, a Good Samaritan phoned Peakt to say he'd spotted a dog matching Sok-Sok's description on the street corner opposite from when the Drinks Stall was. Chea and Peakt raced over the road calling Sok-Sok's name, until they came to a wooden shack from which Sok-Sok emerged, skinny but fine.

Sok-Sok approached them in that slap-happy, semi apologetic dog-who-has-done-something-wrong manner, where the tail is wagging but the dog appears to be simultaneously attempting to wipe the ground with its butt. Sok-Sok seemed to be saying,

"Hi. whattookyousolongI'msorryIloveyoudoyouhaveanyfood?" only in Khmer of course.

The next day, I brought Sok-Sok a welcome-back present of three dog biscuits and a dried pig ear, tied up with a ribbon and bow. She ate the bow, too.

The return of the (abdicated) king

The return of the (abdicated) king

King Sihanouk has sent an 'open letter' to the parliaments and governments of Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, calling on them to stop nibbling away the villages, lands, seas and islands belonging to Cambodia

When King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia abdicated in October 2004, the political elite in Phnom Penh promptly celebrated and felt that at last they were going to be able to continue their activities without the old monarch bothering them through his daily postings on his website condemning the corruption of the elite, the lack of good governance, illegal logging and the dire poverty in which most ordinary Cambodians live.

They hastily passed legislation in the National Assembly proclaiming King Sihanouk ''The King-Father of Independence and National Reconciliation'' together with a budget to enjoy his retirement.

But they were in for a surprise.The king-father had already planned a retirement which includes making sure that Cambodia's borders remain as they were back in 1969, respected and recognised as they were by most countries, including the United States, with the exception of Thailand, Laos and the then Republic of South Vietnam.

The king-father, who has been in Beijing since January this year treating a recurrent stomach cancer, has long been concerned by bilateral border agreements signed by the former People's Republic of Kampuchea with Vietnam, when that country's army occupied Cambodia after overthrowing the Pol Pot regime.

He has said that he will never recognise those agreements which are contrary to formal promises made to him by the Vietnamese leadership to respect Cambodia's territorial integrity after the re-unification of South and North Vietnam.

The former monarch says Thailand profited from a treaty it signed with Vietnam in August 1997, delimiting the waters of the Gulf of Thailand, while Cambodia lost some 30,000 square kilometres of its maritime territory.

He also alleges that Thailand took over border areas that were controlled by the Cambodian resistance during Vietnam's occupation of the country.Laos is alleged by King Sihanouk to have taken parcels of land belonging to Cambodia in the border province of Stung-Treng, preventing the renovation of an old road built during the French Protectorate, which China has agreed to finance.An ancient Khmer prediction suggested in olden days that the Khmers would have to choose one day between being eaten by the tigers or swallowed by crocodiles.

Following the signing of the Paris Agreements of 1991, many believed that the agreements would end any territorial problems as they were signed by all of Cambodia's neighbours and also because the then State of Cambodia engaged itself to revoke any treaties that were incompatible with Cambodia's sovereignty.

On March 31, six months after his abdication, King Sihanouk began what amounts to a new royal crusade to preserve Cambodia's territorial integrity.

He issued an ''open letter'' to the parliaments and governments of the Kingdom of Thailand, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the DPR of Laos, that called on them to stop nibbling away the villages, lands, seas and islands belonging to Cambodia.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, who maintains close relations with Vietnam, is reported to have been furious with the king's open letter, as he does not wish the special relationship with Vietnam to be disturbed by border issues.

However, following the advice of calmer voices in his cabinet, he hastily decided to follow up one of King Sihanouk's recent suggestions: the establishment of a non-partisan body to tackle the thorny issue of Cambodia's borders.On May 9, 2005, King Norodom Sihamoni signed a decree establishing the Supreme National Council of Border Affairs, which brings together one representative each of the king, the chairmen of the Senate and National Assembly and of the three political parties sitting in the Cambodian National Assembly.

King Sihanouk's strategy forced the government to tackle an issue that the government did not want to touch. He had successfully used the same tactics to get the succession issue resolved last year, when he suddenly abdicated, leaving the government with no alternative but to hastily pass legislation setting up the Council of the Crown and get a new monarch elected.

But the newly and grandly named Supreme National Council of Border Affairs is a tiger without teeth. Indeed, the royal decree signed by King Sihanouk's son, King Sihamoni, but drafted solely by senior government officials without the participation of the royal palace, does not give the council any real power to solve the border issue but only to research and assess questions pertaining to the land and sea borders of Cambodia, to advise the government, as well as to pay on-spot visits to border areas where incidents may have occurred.

The council is not empowered to negotiate with foreign countries when problems arise in the border areas.King Sihanouk had planned the activities of the Supreme National Council of Border Affairs with gusto and haste, calling for a meeting of the council the afternoon after his scheduled return to Cambodia, on May 8, immediately after a press conference, the first he would have given in at least five years.

But fate threw his arrangements into chaos. On May 1, Chinese doctors informed the king that the cancer treatment he had been following in Beijing was not working and that it was necessary for the retired monarch to follow a course of chemotherapy. Disappointed but undeterred, the king called a meeting of the Border Council in Beijing. This took place on May 11 and 12 in the Chinese capital but as its deliberations are supposed to remain confidential, not much was known of what transpired at the Beijing meeting.

This was until it was leaked to the press that during the meeting, Princess Norodom Vacheahra, vice president of the border council representing the chairman of the Cambodian National Assembly and half-sister of the king-father, proposed the amendment of the royal decree establishing the council in order to give more power to the council and its president.

Critics of the way the border council was created say that it should have been established by legislation passed by parliament and proclaimed by the king in order to have a legal competence properly recognised and not just by a royal decree. The decree gives the border council president no executive power but holds King Norodom Sihanouk responsible for the country's border disputes.

Since the first meeting of the border council and following an appeal by King Sihanouk, volunteers, students and other concerned citizens have been paying visits to the border areas and reporting back to the king-father on their findings.The former monarch has posted them on his website in Khmer but without the names of the authors in order to protect their identity.

Phnom Penh newspapers have reported that Prime Minister Hun Sen, angered by Princess Vacheahra's draft amendment of the role of the border council, has asked Prince Norodom Ranariddh, chairman of the National Assembly, to replace her with someone who would follow the instructions of the ruling parties and speak the same language at meetings of the council.

It is not known when the next meeting of the border council will take place, and much depends on King Sihanouk's health.

Beer Promotion Women

Beer girls Rebranded by Bored Bints

Okay, okay. I tried to ignore it. I tried to say nothing and not get up on my soapbox and rant. But I failed, but hey, I managed to do that for a whole 2 days now, which is a record for me.

Wednesday, the US Based NGO Care International went public and started bleating on about beer girls, or to give them their freshly laundered politically correct name, ‘beer promotion women’ like a change in name is all that is needed to change peoples thoughts. They feel that the issue of indirect sex workers is ‘about sensitising the stakeholders’ which roughly translated from the NGO-masturbation-ese means that they blame the companies that make the beer - remember folks, business is bad, profit is evil, it is always the fault of the company, never the individual employee.

For the time being we will leave aside their own argument that all women are indirect sex workers, the only difference is the type of currency being used; dinner, flowers, chocolates and champagne …

But you may all rest easy in your beds at night knowing that Care Int. is on the case, they are going to … wait for it … wait for it … they are going to redesign the dresses that they wear!

Yes, with longer skirts and higher necklines, drunken Khmer men will suddenly stop thinking about having sex with attractive women, especially when we stop calling them ‘beer girls’ and start calling them ‘empowered, non-gender specific, sales representatives entitled to wear long and high clothing only’ well, actually, that phrase alone is enough to cool my ardour.

So as my ardour is cooled what do I do?

What I do, in true free market fashion, is take my arse down to another beer garden, which has not been emancipated by this nonsense.

Their aim is a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on girls being harassed. But what is harassment? Is it just flirting and attention from somebody whom you do not find attractive ?

Okay, forget Cambodia for a moment, I have worked in London, New York, Paris, Milan and many other cities around the world, I have holidayed in even more. A common underlying thread to all of these is that every so often I will go to a bar, I will drink beer and if I am given half a chance, I will flirt and laugh with a pretty waitress or two. Quick, you had better throw me in jail, I feel a bout of this coming upon me for this weekend...

The trouble with this blanket of nonsense is that it draws attention away from honest to goodness cases of assault, which by the way, there are already laws in place against, it defocuses the general public from real problems and issues. It also serves to reinforce the concept that NGO’s are useless and self-serving.

What is that noise in the background? Is it a gecko laughing ??

School siege in Siam Reap

with thanks to BBC World News
DC

***


Boy dies as Cambodia siege ends

Police said the child was shot by the hostage takersA Canadian two-year-old boy has been killed at an international school in Cambodia where gunmen had taken dozens of pupils and teachers hostage.

Police ended the siege by storming the school in Siem Reap, near the tourist site of Angkor Wat, officials say.

They say they have arrested four captors who had demanded $1,000, arms and a vehicle to take them to Thailand.

The children, aged between two and six, who come from the UK, US and countries in Asia, are now free.

Siem Reap is popular with tourists for the ancient monument of Angkor Wat.

The town is relatively prosperous, compared to most of Cambodia - one of the poorest countries in South East Asia.

Kindergarten captives
Masked men armed with shotguns were said to have stormed the Siem Reap International School at about 0930 (0230 GMT).

We heard two gunshots from inside the school which obviously made us very concerned about the safety of our children

They seized two kindergarten classes, one of which was later released.
About 30 pupils and staff were held for several hours.

The children are reported to have come from Japan and several other Asian countries, Australia, the US and across Europe. One British child was among the hostages.

The Canadian child had been shot by captors before forces moved in, police said.

The attackers killed him when officials declined to meet all demands, the information minister told the Associated Press.

"They also threatened to kill the children one by one," Khieu Kanharith said.

But parents at the school said they saw armed officers enter the compound during the afternoon - and then they heard gunfire.

Eyewitnesses spoke of chaotic scenes as pupils emerged and were reunited with anxious parents.

Initial reports said there were six hostage-takers and two had died in the shoot-out. The motive for their attack is still unclear.

Diplomatic sources believe Thursday's incident may have been a robbery that had gone wrong.
Acts of terrorism are extremely unusual in Cambodia, the BBC's Guy Delauney reports from the capital, Phnom Penh

The Kep and Sihanoukville Crab Industry.

Crab Peelers: The Kep and Sihanoukville Crab Industry.

A lot of ex-pats here often ask me about crabs and shrimp, probably because we like to eat them ourselves, but the industry here in Cambodia is much more than selling a few whole crabs to a bunch of barang.

Coastal crab peelers (and shrimp peelers) constitute an important group of working Khmers, containing some of the poorest workers in Cambodia

These workers are mostly made up of women and children (30% of labourers are under 15 and female) receiving low pay for hard labour under insecure terms and unhealthy conditions.

Crab peeling is a form of employment with which woman and children can earn money but it is inconsistent, it depends on crab resources. Khmer men prefer not to do this work; as traditionally they consider this work only fit for women and children.


Work in the crab and shrimp industry consists of:

- Peeling the fresh product in frozen factories; or,
- Peeling the boiled product [at home or in a factory] ; or,
- Peeling the boiled product and then processing into a number of dried products

A healthy woman, or teenage child, working a full 8 or 9 hour day can peel 10Kg of crab, producing 3Kg of meat and earning up to 5,000 riel for a days work; that is to say, US$1.25.

It is mostly the smaller or medium sized crabs that are used for processing. Larger crabs are usually exported whole to Thailand – or occasionally snapped up at the fishers landing port by rich locals – or we jolly ex-pats after a bargain.

However, over the past few years there have been some noticeable changes within the crab and shrimp catches, so noticeable, that even we ex-pat gourmands have noticed.

Although there is some guidance relating to the fishing and processing of crab and shrimp - for the purpose of managing fisheries resources in sustainable manner - because of the high market demand, and the fact that fisheries are poorly managed, smaller crabs and shrimp are being caught every day.

The fisheries department and the coastal provincial fisheries offices have issued prohibitions about small or juvenile crab catching, transporting, and selling, as well as also other aquatic animals, but they are not followed.

In reality this relates to the market demand. If crab collectors buy/collect only large, adult, crabs or their meat then the smaller crabs should not be caught.

However, nowadays small crabs [as in thumb-sized or 140+ crabs/Kg] are caught and peeled to produce processed Crabmeat for sale.

The fisheries department and provincial fisheries offices still do not have disciplinary measures to control Crabmeat crab production and retail.

Nowadays, at least 5 species of crab (local names: K'dam Nhe, K'dam Prolet, K'dam Kantray, K'dam Pkor Lorn and K'dam Ses) are collected and peeled to produce crabmeat for export and sale to Thailand by local collectors.

In the case where we have companies investing in the marine fisheries sector; such as fish processing, they have an obligation to accurately control the quality of products, thus helping to reduce the catching of immature crabs and shrimp, additionally, this can help the local economy by providing extra employment through these companies.

Clearly, the frozen factories in Sihanoukville and Kep have accurate control over the quality and quantity of their products and do not buy smaller crabs or shrimp, these companies also provide valuable employment in the area.

Some of the larger existing companies’ collect crabmeat in Cambodia and then transport the catch to Thailand for processing/stuffing/packaging before exporting it to the European market, where it is labelled ‘Product of Thailand’

If Cambodian companies collected and packaged Crabmeat in Cambodia and where then able to export it to Europe et cetera, then this would not only increase Cambodian export revenues, but would also create additional employment along the coastal areas.

Crabmeat (Flower crab) from Cambodia is of the highest quality, is tasty and aromatic, if it is packaged in Cambodia and labelled as a Cambodian product then this will create more interest among foreign consumers and has the potential to gain additional benefits for Cambodia.

Unfortunately, the many agencies pouring money into this Country are not interested in, or concerned with, or mandated to, helping the Country develop a stable trade base or increasing local trade and industry, which are the only true ways of helping this Country become self-sustaining in future years.

One Night in Phnom Penh

One Night in Phnom Penh

A smiling middle aged man with just a touch of paunch is walking out as we are nearing the entrance. He is joking with the man at a small structure which looks like a s ticket booth. The jovial man is handed a long silver machine pistol from the ticket booth, takes a few steps away from the booth, lines his sights, and fires three shots into the night sky. “Yup, still works,” he chuckles to the weapons attendant.

My host, Kimtek, is non-plussed as he leads me towards the entrance. In an unusual twist, I, a foreigner, am frisked for weapons while my Khmer companion is waved through, despite the fact that (as I found out last week) he is carrying a handgun. We are walking down a long series of wide wooden steps towards a huge barge moored at the side of the river. A flashing light display that could hold its head up high in Las Vegas announces in English letters that we are approaching the Chaktamok Floating Dancing Restaurant.

A look up and down the river reveals three other barges similarly huge and similarly draped in lights. There are working girls leaning and sitting on the railing of the staircase down to the riverbank, as well as on the deck of the boat. They are all Khmers less than 25 years old and maybe 3/4 are teenagers. Most are quite stunning. They are smartly dressed, sexy but not necessarily slutty, and go for $20 to $40 for a night depending on the beauty of the girl and the wealth of the customer. Given that the city’s cheaper brothels offer services for $2, these sums are quite a premium for the class of a nightclub girl.

We walk down the stairs, up the gangplank, then into the dance hall. In contrast to the visible-from-space light display outside, the dance hall is completely dark. With my eyes adjusted to the dimness after a few seconds, I can make out a huge room, about half the size of a football field, crowded with tables and customers. The dance floor is small by comparison; an upper middle class living room - plus half again that size for the band’s raised platform stage. It’s pitch dark because we arrived during a slow dance. This is the Khmer appropriation of ‘slow dance’ and is exactly what you did at junior school birthday parties.

One of the most wonderful aspects of many Khmer love songs is that in between two of the verses, where we might put a guitar solo, the singer will literally sob into the microphone as the music plays in the background:

“. . .oh baby {sniff}, when you left me, I {choked sob} I thought I would die {sniff}. I will {sob, sniff} I will always love you, and {sob} never forget you. . .”
. . .and then on to the next verse.

Admittedly, it is corny and over the top, but it works.

My appreciation of the music is interrupted by a waiter shining a small flashlight who leads UK to our table. Immediately, a host of ‘marketing representatives’ from different beer companies swarm to the table, inviting UK to order their particular brand of beer. These women are pretty and are employed by the beer companies to promote their brands in nightclubs and restaurants.

Each company has its own uniform, from Tiger Beer’s modern dark blue jumper and yellow vest, to Angkor Beer’s classic Khmer dress which is just tight enough to be sexy.

After we order our beers, Kimtek asks if we should order a girl as well. This can be arranged through a nightclub employee, or can be done independently. Either way, as soon as a nightclub girl sits at your table, you are liable for what is straightforwardly called a “girl charge”. This is between $4 to $6 at most of the nightclubs and appears right on your bill. I still remember my surprise on first seeing such a bill. Translated from the Khmer, it read:

• Beer $4
• Juice $2
• Girl $4
  

This money goes to the house with the girl getting a percentage, and covers only sitting with you for a drink. I am told that any further activity is negotiated independently between the two parties.

The question of a table companion is deferred because the dance floor suddenly lights up for the rom wong.

The music, unlike anything we commonly hear in the UK, is perhaps best described as Islamic or Jewish prayer chants mixed with calypso music.

Dancing to it is as beautiful as it is simple. The foot movement is basically slow, small steps around a circle. The real action is in the hands. You move your hands up and down, curling and uncurling your fingers, and turning your hands inward and outwards, rotating them around your wrists. One can think of it as a slow belly dance with one’s hands. Depending on the song, this can be done very relatively slowly or quickly, but always incredibly gracefully.

One song has a relatively quick tempo and a heavy beat, and lasts quite a while. With the disco lights, the music, and the sight of all of these men (at least a few of whom had to check their grenades or pistols at the door) and women (who when they dance define the meaning of grace) moving around slowly in a circle as they wave and rotate their hands, I have but two sips of beer in me, but I feel thoroughly intoxicated.

All too soon, the music cycle rotates to disco, and we sit down. It’s about 10-15 minutes each of slow, ram wong, and disco. To while the time in between rom wongs, Kimtek is chatting up a beer girl, and he calls for a nightclub girl to sit and keep me company. Sovanna, as she is named, is of course young and beautiful, and she attempts to speak Khmer clearly so that I can follow along.

An hour passes pleasantly; beer is consumed, the rom wong is danced, Sovanna teaches me some Thai she picked up in her native province in the Northwest, and Kimtek and the beer girl are laughing away. At 11:00, Kimtek calls for the check, apologises to Sovanna for leaving her unemployed for the rest of the evening, but softens the blow with a nice tip.

We head out back up the stairs towards Kimtek’s car. Kimtek is an army officer, and his nominal salary is just over $63 per month. His $25,000 Toyota is either the result of extremely careful saving of his salary for the past 26 years, or is a consequence of corruption in the Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. I know that he is stationed in an area of the country where there is illegal logging, but I inquire no further than that.

We wait in his car for a minute and the beer girl he was talking to appears as well. At $40 a month, beer girls’ salaries are comparable to those of army officers. Occasional tips make it conceivable to subsist with the job, but hardly live comfortably. Many live with their families and so have no expenses to speak of.

Others supporting themselves end up “adopted” by someone like Kimtek. I soon find out that this has been the case with Kimtek and Mom, as I am introduced to her, for the past couple of months. The “o” in Mom’s name is pronounced somewhere between “mom” and “moan”.

We are nearing my house, and I prepare to get dropped off. These Khmers are certainly a hospitable bunch. Last week when Kimtek and I went out, we retired to Kimtek’s house for some drinks after the nightclub closed. At about 1:00 AM, I told him I should be going home. Mentioning the late hour, he pulled out a pistol from his waistband and asked if I would like to borrow it for the ride home. Tonight, instead of offering me his pistol, he offers me his mistress.

As I understood it, he was to lend me his pistol, but the mistress; he wants to transfer to me outright. “She can be your girlfriend and wash your clothes and clean your room and cook for you. All you have to do is keep her fed and housed,” he says, as if explaining the obvious.

Mom, meanwhile, begins crying quietly in the back seat - I guess this is as much a surprise to her as it is to me.

Although this is certainly the most exceptional gift anyone has ever offered to me, I find that I am not Khmer enough to accept it. I explain that although Mom is quite lovely, I have a girlfriend. In try not to disappoint this man who is so eager to find a friend for his mistress and mistress for his friend. Although he is confused by my strange reaction, Kimtek seems satisfied. Mom, still sniffling, manages a brave smile. As I notice once again how pretty she is, I realise that I should get out of the car before I change my mind.

“I’ll see you tomorrow at noon,” Kimtek promises. I thank him, nod good-bye to Mom, and step out of the car. I shut the door firmly, as if confirming my decision not to take up Kimtek’s offer of a lover as well as a maid. Standing at the gate outside my yard, I watch as the car disappears into the darkness of Phnom Penh.

Khmer Folk Tales

Why oxen do not have upper front teeth and the tiger has black stripes

Once upon a time, there was a tiger that left the forest to look for food. At the edge of the forest, he was surprised to see a farmer whipping his oxen while ploughing the fields.

This made the tiger curious, so he waited and watched. When the farmer released his oxen to gaze on grass during his lunch break, the tiger took the opportunity to approach them and asked:

“Brother Oxen, I am curious why you let that man beat you while you work very hard for him. Why don’t you kick him and run away and be free like me?”

“Oh no, Brother Tiger,” responded the oxen, “the human being has his intelligence, which he can use to make us do what he wants.”

“What is this ‘intelligence’?” asked the tiger.

“We cannot explain. You have to ask him yourself,” replied the oxen.

The tiger, considering himself the most powerful animal on earth, impatiently went to the man and arrogantly ordered: “Farmer, show me your intelligence; otherwise, I will bite your head off.”

The farmer calmly responded, “Oh Brother Tiger, in coming to work in the field, I left my intelligence at home.”

“Go and get it then,” demanded the tiger.

“No I won’t, because you will eat my oxen,” said the farmer.

“No, I will not,” the tiger assured him.

But the farmer maintained, “I don’t believe you.” “What do you want me to do to make you trust me?” asked the tiger.

The farmer replied, “I have to tie you up.”

The tiger agreed saying, “Okay, do it and go fast to get me your intelligence.”

The farmer tied the tiger as tightly as he could. Instead of going home, however, he collected dead leaves and branches, piled them up on the tiger and burned them.

The tiger screamed in pain. The oxen laughed and laughed, pointing to the tiger with their front legs and exclaimed: “We warned you, he has his intelligence!”

They laughed until they fell down and hit the ground with their mouths and broke all their upper front teeth, which have never grew back.

The tiger screamed until the rope burned up and broke. He then escaped back into the forest.

The burning parts gave him black stripes forever

Longing for home yet ???

A fellow English ex-pat, recently arrived here in Phnom Penh, asked me last night what I missed most about living in England.

Having given the question about ten seconds thought, I quickly banged out the following list, also including a few of the things that I do not miss.

What I Miss:

• Family and Friends
• The overall cleanliness of everything.
• Knowing I can cross a street without placing my life in jeopardy.
• Burger Kings double bacon cheese burger – with large fries
• The Clock Restaurant in Hanwell; The Swan in Mountsorrel
  New Years Eve
  
• BBC, ITV, Channel 4, the depth and variety of British TV.
• Spending hours perusing my favourite new and used book stores.
  
• The variety of great ethnic food – Indian, Thai, Indian, Mexican, Indian, French, Italian, Chinese, Indian, et cetera
  

What I Do Not Miss:

• The lack of free time.
• The high cost of everything.
• Seeing half of your income eaten up by a combination of; Income tax, mortgage payments, transport to work costs, et cetera.
• Paying more than US$2 for a new DVD
• The thought that you can probably never truly quit working and retire.
• Morons hanging out at Costa Coffee with laptop computers – esp. on Maddox St, London, W1… yes, you know who you are !
• The Congestion Charge – and other idiot regulations

I am sure that if I put some effort into it, I could come up with a much more comprehensive list; maybe later …

Top business gripe in Cambodia

Top business gripe in Cambodia

Bribes - "unofficial payments" in polite-speak - and when have I ever been polite?

Bribes forced on business ranked as the top complaint by industry leaders in a World Bank report on Cambodia's investment climate released last month.

The report, Cambodia Seizing the Global Opportunity, found "unofficial payments" as a share of total business revenue were twice as high as in Bangladesh and by far the highest among countries benchmarked in the report.

Bangladesh is ranked as the most corrupt of all the countries assessed annually by the organisation Transparency International - which does not yet assess Cambodia.

Other gripes included minimum capital requirements and the costs of incorporating a business, which are among the highest in the world in terms of relative income levels.

It noted that Thailand, Nepal, Uganda and Vietnam have no minimal capital requirements for establishing a business.

Adding to the burden were red tape and a lack of institutions capable of absorbing risk, which has resulted in rural Cambodian firms holding the world's highest inventory stocks when measured against sales.

Clearing an import shipment could require the completion of 45 separate documents.

As a consequence of these impediments, labour productivity of Cambodian firms surveyed is 62 percent below China and 10 percent below Bangladesh.

"Today's report notes that as a consequence of these perceptions, foreign direct investment has fallen consistently since 1999."
Commerce minister Cham Prasidh said the report had exposed the problems, constraints and challenges of business operating in Cambodia.

"Now that we know the symptoms and the disease, we know what is needed is the political will to take the necessary actions and implement the reform program to help business survive, increase competitiveness, and prosper," he said.

Economic and Finance Minister Keat Chhon vowed to implement reforms aimed at improving Cambodia's investment climate and delivering a public and financial management system of international standards by 2015.
He said this would be achieved through a raft of policies designed to bolster public and financial management announced by Prime Minister Hun Sen at his first cabinet meeting for the new government on July 16.

"The government agrees that we must do more to improve the investment climate by tackling the high cost of business, bureaucratic red tape and corruption," he said. "With respect to unofficial costs we need to work on both fronts, to reduce the costs of business and to increase tax revenue."