EU Fish Ban Blamed on Cambodian-Flagged Vessels
A little too close to home - our Landlord is named in this article (he doesn't come out looking good). But what I've come closer to understanding is that corruption is a contextually-loaded term. While it is still not (and never will be) right in my eyes to accept massive amounts of money for something that you know is illegal and, by my measurements, wrong - in this case providing protection to ships performing all sorts of illegal practices (drugs, trafficking, illegal fishing) - I try to understand it from a perspective in which you've grown up with it just being the way things are. We all have to accept a certain amount of that right? Would I be doing it if I'd grown with up with that as just being what you do in life? I thankfully don't have to answer that question. Instead, I guess I should be asking myself are there parallels to things I do/ ways I think/ presumptions and views I hold that people in other parts of the world would see as wrong, but which I have grown up with as normal? Understanding borne out of different perspectives has to be the start to answering these sort of questions for ourselves right? The last few weeks have seen heavy rains and terrible flooding across Cambodia. With hundreds of thousands of homes ruined and families displaced, the damage can be devastating. This week, the school at which I have just started working was badly flooded. 8 classrooms were lost, with all children's work and equipment being destroyed. After 2 days of closure, the school will re-open tomorrow. But, despite 2 days of no rain, the flood waters are not receding. While many classrooms were not affected and enough clean up has been done to consider it safe for children to return, the grounds and surrounding area (see picture) remain flooded, with the additional dangers associated with stagnant water (dengue fever and gastrointestinal diseases). For many teachers and children, school will be disrupted for quite some time to come, although a collective team spirit and plentiful resources have eased the difficulties. And the real tragedy lies in the surrounding community, where people have lost everything - their homes and everything they own. Sadly, things look only set to get worse for those living in Phnom Penh, as the government pursues urban development policies that allow construction to happen with no regard to the infrastructure serving the local population, such as drainage or services. My thoughts go to those in need right now and I hope we continue to have some respite from the rain. When you live in a place a long time, it is easy to stop seeing the small things that are all around you that make the place the place that it is. Strolling round Phnom Penh is especially easy to skip - the heat, the dirt, the traffic, the noise, the pollution,the lack of pavements, the unpredictable and sudden downpours during rainy season. However, it is full of hidden gems, in terms of architecture, history, people and culture.
Inspired by our book Strolling around Phnom Penh, by Jean-Michelle Filippi, a colourful French historian who is an expert and professor of Khmer linguistics at the local university, we took one of his suggested walks round the city after Brunch in Feel Good Cafe (a great spot for brunch on Street 136). A little informed of the history of the area, we wandered the streets with fresh eyes, taking in the buildings and the streets, and enjoying life on the streets of Phnom Penh. One of the things I love about living in Cambodia is the things that just become part of your lifestyle here. Obviously, I speak as a hugely privileged expat - but I don't take that for granted. I love that on a weekend we can drive for 3 hours and spend the weekend in a beautiful lodge, surrounded by lush green scenery, hills and the sea in the distance. We can swim in the salt water pool, go for a run along farmyard tracks with Cambodian children shouting hello (and fighting off stray dogs), and cycle through villages, across rice paddies, along the coast into the nearest town and enjoy delicious cakes on a hill looking out to sea and small islands in the distance.
My husband has just returned from minor surgery in Singapore. It's his second operation in 6 months to remove a tumour (thankfully benign) in his foot, which keeps growing back. This time, due to the tumour's aggressiveness and the presence of scar tissue from the last operation, the surgeon had to remove an 8x2x2 cm section from the bottom of my husband's foot. He had to have a skin graft and 18 stitches and is on crutches with several months of recovery ahead and the likely prospect of it returning. It would be easy to be feeling sorry for oneself.
But yesterday we spent half an hour in our local market, in which time we saw a man with no leg, a woman who'd lost an arm and a leg and a woman whose face had been melted in what I can only presume was an acid attack. While I truly wish I didn't see any of this, and its prevalence here is shocking, it certainly gives you a sense of perspective. Since living here, I definitely feel I've been able to build a different view of life, one in which my sense of my own good fortune has become positively heightened, and in which the things I think are most important have changed. I realise the things that have often obsessed me in the past in a way that is often lost when living in more comfortable . This brilliant article beautifully and cleverly picks out some of Cambodia's most pressing and ongoing difficulties: a nation still traumatised by what happened; a continued forced exodus of Cambodians by Cambodians whereby land is taken from Cambodians and given to private business interests linked to the government; a government which almost solely exists to make money to line the pockets of the leaders; the exploitation of the poor to make a few rich. It can only get better - right?
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July 2014
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