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?
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
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
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