Abigail Haworth, in The Guardian, draws attention to a devastatingly sad but very real state of affairs in Cambodia - the trade in virgins. Work that seeks to simplify the issue, even if it is does bring in donor money, as demonstrated by the recent Somaly Mam story, fails to provide long term solutions, because it fails to tackle underlying causes. In a society in which poverty and destitution is high (three quarters of the population live on the poverty line), especially among women (who earn 27 cents for every dollar earned by a man, despite often doing equal or more amounts of work), rule of law is weak, corruption is rife especially among powerful men and where culture and attitudes dictate that children exist for their parents' benefit, women exist for men's benefit and sex with a virgin increase male vigour and gives them magical powers to ward off illness, there are many interwoven social, economic and cultural factors that play into the situation and progress is slow. But let's keep making sure there is some.
It can be hard to understand why Cambodia receives so much aid when it is so clear that so much of it is misappropriated and when the country shows itself to be so uncommitted to making life better for anyone other than the top few percent. n fact, human rights and corruption levels have reportedly worsened. It was hard to see this spelled out in black and white in this article as a fact of nothing more than American politics (it looks only at America as a source of aid), as Cambodia (and all its people) is reduced simply to a pawn in the battle for power between the U.S. and China.
Phnom Penh has changed a lot in the last few years - more shopping malls, more restaurants and coffee shops, more high rise apartment blocks, more cars, more goods, even Burger King! But what's also changed is the gulf between the rich and the poor - it gets wider and wider. And what hasn't changed is public services - health care, education, access to electricity or sanitation, roads, law enforcement. Things I used to (and to a lesser extent still do) take for granted. Even between the rich and the emerging middle class, many of whom, with the expendable income to think about choice but without choices available to them in Cambodia, see no option but to leave the country, especially when they think about how to educate their children. And that is a sure barrier to long term change. An interesting article that highlights a phenomenon that one encounters more than you'd hope here in Phnom Penh. While a lack of red tape can provide the space for people to do wonderful things (and there is a lot of wonderful work being done here in lots of sectors and in lots of ways). the flip side seems to be that the lack of checks and balances often results in people losing their sense of what is good conduct. Sometimes that turns into downright illegal, but there is also a greyer area of questionable conduct - ways of being and behaving that aren't so clear cut in terms of right or wrong, but that wouldn't be tolerated in other places/ societies.
Some of the students on the conservation Masters course that FFI facilitate at Royal University of Phnom Penh are off to do their dive training next week so they can do coral reef surveys. Problem is - they can't all swim. So I've been at the Olympic Stadium early in the mornings trying to help them learn.
I've really loved going to the Olympic Stadium each morning. It's such a Phnom Penh experience as it is a hotspot for Cambodians who like to come here before it gets hot and play tennis, jog round the track, swim, walk, do dance aerobics or martial arts classes and generally move around (in their gentle Cambodian way of exercising). By the time I get here (which is still pretty early) there is already evidence of the earlier action wrapping up - people buying their breakfast from vendors who've set up on location (fruit, pork and rice, noodles, fried insects); the detritus of palm sugar juice that's been squeezed and served; discarded plastic cups and bottles that will be collected and sold for recycling, providing someone's livelihood. It's also a stark reminder of what happened to the country - the fact that in the 60s Phnom Penh was so wealthy and fashion-conscious that they built a world-class Olympic Stadium for public use. It may not be in all its former glory, but it is still a national treasure and one of my favourite places in Phnom Penh. There may be buses but it takes more than that to convince Cambodians to ride them. As this article states: The last time Phnom Penh had public buses was for a brief period in 2001, but the service was cancelled after two months due to lack of interest from the public. Let's hope equal investment goes into changing attitudes (cars=status/ motos=convenience) and developing a service which actually serves the people of this city - as opposed to ticking the boxes of an aid grant or being yet another foreign "solution" to a Cambodian "problem". Money might be better invested in developing and enforcing driving and traffic regulations if you want to improve congestion. There are so many great people doing so many great things in this beautiful world. People beating the odds inspire me! Great photos of life in Cambodia
Brief summary by Ruom Collective (in words and images) putting some of the events of the last few months together in context.
While I am desperate for their to be an opposition party to end an otherwise almost dictatorial reign of nearly 20 years - has this opposition party got what it takes? Such change needs to live up to its promise ina country like this?
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