CAMBODIA: Better days on horizon
The Florida Times-Union (USA)
For three decades, Cambodia has been a terrible place.
At least 1.5 million people died in Pol Pot's infamous "killing fields." Then came the Vietnamese occupation and 13 years of civil war.
Just when it looked as if there would be a return to normalcy, in 2002, a new crisis developed: Hambali - the so-called "Asian Osama bin Laden" - showed up, apparently intent on using Cambodia as a staging ground for terrorist attacks throughout the region.
Fortunately, things have improved.
Pol Pot is dead, his followers vanquished and the Vietnamese troops gone.
Hambali is in U.S. custody, at Guantanamo Bay.
And while Cambodia still has some problems, at least it has peace and a rudimentary democracy.
Also, although still impoverished, it could conceivably become the next "Asian economic tiger," following the steps of Taiwan, China and maybe Vietnam.
The economy - propelled by textiles, tourism and agriculture - has averaged more than 8 percent growth this decade, according to the Financial Times.
And, with the discovery of offshore oil there in 2005, The Christian Science Monitor says, Cambodia could emerge as a "petrostate."
Maybe, at last, the long nightmare is about over.
At least 1.5 million people died in Pol Pot's infamous "killing fields." Then came the Vietnamese occupation and 13 years of civil war.
Just when it looked as if there would be a return to normalcy, in 2002, a new crisis developed: Hambali - the so-called "Asian Osama bin Laden" - showed up, apparently intent on using Cambodia as a staging ground for terrorist attacks throughout the region.
Fortunately, things have improved.
Pol Pot is dead, his followers vanquished and the Vietnamese troops gone.
Hambali is in U.S. custody, at Guantanamo Bay.
And while Cambodia still has some problems, at least it has peace and a rudimentary democracy.
Also, although still impoverished, it could conceivably become the next "Asian economic tiger," following the steps of Taiwan, China and maybe Vietnam.
The economy - propelled by textiles, tourism and agriculture - has averaged more than 8 percent growth this decade, according to the Financial Times.
And, with the discovery of offshore oil there in 2005, The Christian Science Monitor says, Cambodia could emerge as a "petrostate."
Maybe, at last, the long nightmare is about over.
6 comments:
Nightmare is waiting around the corner for Cambodia. That's quarranteed.
True, but only for you and your
kind. So stay the fuck out of our
holly soil if you know what is good
for ya.
Get rid of the Vietcong and the vietcong's crooners, if America wants to clean out Cambodia from this nightmare.
Here those stories about The sultan or King of Brunei visiting Cambodia? and miilions of dollars donation that King Sihanouk refused to acept and one of the Hun Sen's Minister gladly acepted. Better look out!!!and watch those involved with the money. Don't thinkit was a good news at all and don't like it.
There won't be an end to Cambodia's suffering. That's quarranteed!
To end Khmer suffering is only the people of Khmer are be a master of themselves in their own house.
True, but that won't be happening
anytime soon in Long Beach. You
will be in a roach infested
government housing for the next
few millenniums, I would easily
say. So learn to live with it,
buddy.
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