By SANDRA E. CONSTANTINE
sconstantine@repub.com
The Republican (Mass., USA)
SOUTH HADLEY - Town Engineer Yem Lip will make the long trip back to Cambodia this November after 24 years in this country.
Lip, 37, said he is excited about the journey to visit relatives. He will make the trip with his mother and one of his five brothers. Lip and his family left his native country in 1979 for a U.N. refugee camp in nearby Thailand with the idea of eventually moving to this country. They wanted to escape the chaos in Cambodia as well as seek a better life in the United States, Lip said during a recent interview at his home on College View Heights.
Lip's father was a rice farmer in the village of Battambang near the Thailand border. Because his family was involved
in farming and was apolitical, it did not lose any members to the genocide perpetrated by Khmer Rouge, the Communists who controlled the country from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, were responsible for massacring more than a million people.
Farmers were not targeted during the regime of the Khmer Rouge, which promoted an agrarian society, according to Lip's wife, Shauna J. Cain.
If there were hardships during the three years his family was in the refugee camp in Thailand, Lip, a very quiet man, does not talk about them.
"It was tough, but as a kid you tend to make the best of everything," Lip said.
After three years in Thailand, Lip's family moved on to spend a year in another U.N.-run refugee camp in the Philippines. That camp was set up to prepare refugees for the countries in which they were to be resettled and was where Lip learned English.
With help from Lutheran Family Services in Amherst, the family lived first in Northampton and moved shortly to Easthampton, where Lip completed high school.
Lip got special help in English at Northampton's John F. Kennedy Middle School for four months before entering mainstream classes.
"At 13, you catch up pretty fast," Lip said. "I really don't remember it being hard at all, just the shock of a new culture."
After graduating from Easthampton High School in 1990, Lip went on to attend the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he started off as a landscape architecture major. However, he said he grew weary of the time spent making models and doing public speaking at presentations and switched to civil engineering.
"It's bricks and mortars," Lip said of engineering.
Part of the attraction of the field is that he can spend time outdoors, according to Lip.
After working in the Boston area, Lip and Cain moved back to this area about two years ago when Lip took an engineering position in the South Hadley Department of Public Works.
Lip and Cain have known each other since junior high school days in Northampton and have been a couple since their first year as college students in Amherst.
The couple lives with their three young sons in the house formerly occupied by Theodore B. and Laura J. Belsky. The Belskys have been very active in civic affairs over the years.
Lip, who speaks English without an accent, won a Khmer poetry award at the age of 11. The honor resulted from a competition that included adults, according to Cain, who describes her husband as calm and humble.
Lip said he maintains the Asian custom of being very family oriented. The town official also maintains some Buddhist traditions, something he said is not incompatible with his family's attendance of First Congregational Church of South Hadley.
Lip, 37, said he is excited about the journey to visit relatives. He will make the trip with his mother and one of his five brothers. Lip and his family left his native country in 1979 for a U.N. refugee camp in nearby Thailand with the idea of eventually moving to this country. They wanted to escape the chaos in Cambodia as well as seek a better life in the United States, Lip said during a recent interview at his home on College View Heights.
Lip's father was a rice farmer in the village of Battambang near the Thailand border. Because his family was involved
in farming and was apolitical, it did not lose any members to the genocide perpetrated by Khmer Rouge, the Communists who controlled the country from 1975 to 1979. The Khmer Rouge, under Pol Pot, were responsible for massacring more than a million people.
Farmers were not targeted during the regime of the Khmer Rouge, which promoted an agrarian society, according to Lip's wife, Shauna J. Cain.
If there were hardships during the three years his family was in the refugee camp in Thailand, Lip, a very quiet man, does not talk about them.
"It was tough, but as a kid you tend to make the best of everything," Lip said.
After three years in Thailand, Lip's family moved on to spend a year in another U.N.-run refugee camp in the Philippines. That camp was set up to prepare refugees for the countries in which they were to be resettled and was where Lip learned English.
With help from Lutheran Family Services in Amherst, the family lived first in Northampton and moved shortly to Easthampton, where Lip completed high school.
Lip got special help in English at Northampton's John F. Kennedy Middle School for four months before entering mainstream classes.
"At 13, you catch up pretty fast," Lip said. "I really don't remember it being hard at all, just the shock of a new culture."
After graduating from Easthampton High School in 1990, Lip went on to attend the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he started off as a landscape architecture major. However, he said he grew weary of the time spent making models and doing public speaking at presentations and switched to civil engineering.
"It's bricks and mortars," Lip said of engineering.
Part of the attraction of the field is that he can spend time outdoors, according to Lip.
After working in the Boston area, Lip and Cain moved back to this area about two years ago when Lip took an engineering position in the South Hadley Department of Public Works.
Lip and Cain have known each other since junior high school days in Northampton and have been a couple since their first year as college students in Amherst.
The couple lives with their three young sons in the house formerly occupied by Theodore B. and Laura J. Belsky. The Belskys have been very active in civic affairs over the years.
Lip, who speaks English without an accent, won a Khmer poetry award at the age of 11. The honor resulted from a competition that included adults, according to Cain, who describes her husband as calm and humble.
Lip said he maintains the Asian custom of being very family oriented. The town official also maintains some Buddhist traditions, something he said is not incompatible with his family's attendance of First Congregational Church of South Hadley.
13 comments:
It is not difficult to get good diploma in foreign countries.
I arrived in France when i was 11 years old and now I am now an engineer from the best engineer school of France.
Cambodia can easily create a good national university.
china just launched its first lunar probe. it soon take over the world. we khmer need to stop dealing with the white devils and work only with asian countries.
wow cool, there must be alot of Cambodian that are engineers in foreign country. I am also studying civil engineering in Australia but i am finding it quite hard
7:01PM,
Don't talk trash. If you think China is the best, why don't you go to live in China? Why live in the European countries or America? If you think China is the best, how many million of Khmer people died under China sponsored Khmer Rouge. Remember America can flip China upside down. China has a lot of things to catch up with Japan and the west. Don't think China is superior. China has a lot of mouths to feed. America can break China into pieces like Soviet Union. Personally, I don't like China, Vietnam, and Thailand. These three gang countries want to grab Cambodia as their own when we have stupid leaders like Hun Sen and Sihanouk.
I personally admire America who stand against all the devils. America finds democracy for the world, not finding socialist or communist. These two elements are America's enemies. When you have a dictator like Hun Sen, the world won't have peace and prosperity.
To 7:43pm,
I 100% believed what you said. The one who said otherwise, he is just speaking like no head. Do you believe him that Cambodia can create a great university easily?
It is stupid to regard the white as devils and to cooperate only with Asians. No one can live independently, We all need one another.
We do what we can do best, the west is focusing on research and innovation and the east is focosing on good manufacturing practice of the west.
We must all learn to live together as brother. OR We will all perish together as fools.
Do not be so arrogant.
From Australia
http://www.kkfyc.org/ “We Are Not Politicians We Are Human Rights Activists” The Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation Youth Committee (KKFYC) is an active committee of the Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF). The committee represents all Khmer Krom youth groups, clubs, and associations internationally that are recognized by the KKF. The Main Objectives of KKFYC Are: · To educate Khmer Krom youths about Khmer Krom’s identity and history. · To promote Khmer Krom’s values and prides among youths. · To assist KKF in achieving its goals. · To prepare younger generation for future KKF's leaderhip. · To empower the Khmer Krom youths through higher education and decent employment. · To network Khmer Krom youths internationally. · To fundraise in order to carry forward KKFYC’s daily activities. The Officers of KKFYC are nominated (or voted) by the KKF’s Board of Directors. The term of the KKFYC’s officers are expired upon the re-election of the KKF’s Board of Directors. President of KKFYC will represent for KKFYC in the KKF’s Board of Directors. The Active Officers of KKFYC: President: Serey Chau ( serey.chau@kkfyc.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )Vice-President in America: Samon Thach ( samon.thach@kkfyc.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )Vice-President in Asia Pacific (Australia, New Zealand, and Asia): Sothy Kien( sothy.kien@kkfyc.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )Vice-President in Canada: Jeffery Kim ( jeffery.kim@kkfyc.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )Vice-President in Europe: Romy Thach ( romy.thach@kkfyc.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )Secretary : Soda Huu ( soda.huu@kkfyc.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )Advisors: KKF Board of Directors , Dr. Joshua Cooper, Dr. Chang ThachThe Vice-President of KKFYC will be acting as a President in his/her region(s) and/or countri(es). He/She is a focal contacting point for all Khmer Krom Youths in that region(s) and/or countri(es) to contact KKFYC. If you would like to learn more about KKFYC, please donot hesitate to contact Vice-President of KKFYC in your country/region. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why Khmer-Krom Youth Overseas Need to be Involved? By a KK youth member It is fact that the majority of Khmer-Krom youths in our homeland, Kampuchea Krom, have no chance to obtain good education to better their life. However, n one can blame them for their failures i life, because they are not a lucky a the Khmer-Krom overseas who live freely and have all opportunities t be successful a an individual. The local Khmer-Krom youths i general are from poor family, too pre-occupied with finding a meal t pass the day, t even thinking about a better future. In Kampuchea-Krom (south Vietnam), the Khmer-Krom children who could not graduate an elementary education are in the majority today. As the consequences, these local youths are either becoming an alcoholic individual as a means to pass their hopelessness, or working in slave labor for the Vietnamese employers to help their poor family. The cycle of poverty affect the majority of Khmer-Krom families in our homeland, despite the Vietnamese government’s claims of their recent successes on poverty reduction in the country. Their claims are mostly focusing on the Vietnamese poor, while the Khmer-Krom’s poverty eradication effort remains a spoon-fed cause by the government. Khmer-Kroms are poorest of the poor in the Mekong delta region, because Khmer-Krom’s fertile farmlands are now in the Vietnamese’ greedy hands. The Vietnamese have made themselves the Masters, while turning Khmer-Krom into the Slaves on our own lands. Losing farmlands is one issue, while the case of extortions of Khmer-Krom’s sacred sites, temples, and monuments by the Vietnamese authorities and the Vietnamese people is persistent. This is fact that the Vietnamese from the north came to our land with nothing, but now they own everything that Khmer-Kroms used to possess. The Vietnamese citizens and authorities took over our Khmer-Krom lands, while the Vietnamese government of all levels and their judicial systems did nothing to protect Khmer-Krom’s rights. The case with a few Khmer-Krom youths that have barely managed to pursue higher education, in hope for a better employment, they now have met their false hope. I have spoken to quite a few back home. They all told me that they have no employment opportunity after graduation, because all good jobs are being taken up by the Vietnamese graduates. Few rare opportunities are available to them but they have to leave their hometown and accept low salary, in contrast to high-paying jobs taken up by the Vietnamese counterpart. And then Khmer-Krom’s way-of-life, where Khmer-Krom youths can stay and work in Khmer-Krom villages and towns. Khmer-Krom youths need a place where they can go to Buddhist temples to practice our beliefs and to nurture our cultures and customs, and most important of all is to study Khmer language. The only picture I am seeing right now is Khmer-Krom youths back home are leaving in mass to find odd jobs in the Vietnamese towns and centers. Who is there left in the village and town to carry on the Khmer-Krom traditions, when no youth is around? Also, the more Khmer-Krom youths go to work and live in the Vietnamese towns, the tendency that Khmer-Krom youths will start to speak only Vietnamese language, while sacrificing the longevity of Khmer language in our new generations. All the above-mentioned issues are real today for our youths back home. However, I still see hope in our Khmer-Krom youths in abroad. I believe we overseas youths have the power to change course in our homeland. The essence is by empowering yourself, through education. Education help attain your goals in life and to be a productive member in the society. With a decent employment and financial stability, you can help our community developed to the new level that other ethnic groups around you are already enjoying. All your collective efforts will lead our community to a better place in the 21st century, and hence the world will start to take notice of Khmer-Krom’s cause more seriously. I believe that it is our moral duty that Khmer-Krom youths should be involved in saving Khmer-Krom race from disappearing from the ancestral land of Kampuchea-Krom (south Vietnam).-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://khmerkrom.orgWeb LinksKhmer Krom Related Links and Information Human Rights Information and Documentation Systems, Internationa Khmer Krom OrganizationsCommunity, association, human rights group Khmer Kampuchea Krom Association Dallas-Forth Worth Khmer Krom Canada Khmer Krom Community Khmer Krom Temple in Canada Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation Youth Committee Khmers Krom Association of Ohio United Khmer Krom Non-profit Organization Inc. Culturewebsites relating to Khmer culture Crucial Events - Khmer Book Devaraja Khmer Books II Khmer Business Khmer Institute KhmerKrom Recipes by Mylinh Entertainmentmusic, videos, television Cambodian View Khmer Surin Video KKF TV Live Radio KhmerMidi Story of Khmer Empire Human RightsHuman links Amnesty International Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development Devaraja Khmer Books Human Rights Bodies Human Rights Research and Education Centre Human Rights Watch Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation Youth Committee UN Human Refugee Agency (UNHCR) United Nations Declaration on Human Rights (Khmer Version) United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues US State Department Indigenous OrganizationsIndigenous Groups Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) The Montagnard Foundation News & MediaNews and Media organizations Khemara Times KI Media Phnom Penh Post Radio Free Asia (khmer) Saigon Bao SBS Radio (khmer ) The Buddhist Channel Vietnam News Agency Voice of America Voice of Khmer Krom NGOsNon Governmental Organisations Cambodian Americans For Human Rights and Democracy The Radical Party Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) Online PetitionsAppeals and petitions Stop Human Rights Abuse by VN Government Towards KK People Free Khmer Krom People Petition against interference at the unpfii
Dream on, 7:43.
8:56, America loves PM Hun Sen.
9:42, we applaud America pioneer and innovation, but we condemn their moral value. Do you see the difference?
TO 9:52 PM
I am agree with you.
Every body know that Khmer Krom people and khmer overseas are Khmers.
But Khmer krom people have no help, no good school .
They can not improve their standard of living.
I hope that the international community will find a solution for this problem.
Yes, but Ah Khmer-Yuons are Khmer criminals. They don't belong in society.
America has her ups (when Clinton was President) and down (current president Bush is a major idiot).
However, for any Cambodian to bash America right now is just plain stupid. It's not China, nor the European countries that are KEEPING CAMBODIANS alive right now, it's America.
How? The Garment industry. 70% of Cambodia's economy depends on garments. If America didn't give Cambodia a "third world favor trading status", Cambodia's economy would sink overnight. Can China do that? NO. China is competing with Cambodia. Vietnam is competing with Cambodia. However, America protects Cambodia's economy. You can find lots of clothes in OLD NAVY made from Cambodia.
Until Cambodia diversify it's job market, the fragile Garment industry will depend on America.
Bullshit, you gave us the trade, and we keep you alive. Without us, you don't have enough money for food and starve to dead because you have to spend all your money to buy expensive US made underwear to keep your balls warm in the brutal winter.
Post a Comment