When he has a little bit of time, he would sit on a chair and wait for customers. Photo courtesy: Cambodian Sin Chew Daily.
He repairs bicycles on the outside his house. Photo courtesy: Cambodian Sin Chew Daily.
Some of the pigs he keeps at his backyard. Photo courtesy: Cambodian Sin Chew Daily.
Yong's shabby hut is situated beside a large drain. Photo courtesy: Cambodian Sin Chew Daily.2008-10-04
Sin Chew Jit Poh (Malaysia)
"I've never asked a single cent from friends or relatives. Their school fees have been financed entirely from my meagre income accumulated bit by bit over the years."Having gone through years of wars and turbulence, Cambodia has lost millions of its citizens.
While some might have been lucky enough to keep their lives, they have nevertheless lost their limbs or been permanently disabled.
The heinous wars might have been over for some time now, yet the landmines which have since remained have generated countless of tragedies up to this day.
According to statistics, about 200,000 Cambodians, or approximately 2% of the country's population, are disabled--some were born disabled, while the disability of others has been caused by illnesses, wars, or landmines.
55-year-old Yong Lincang has served in the army for more than a decade.
In 1995, he accidentally stepped on a landmine in Koh Kong province near the Thai border, and lost his right leg. His life has since been changed for good.
All that is left of his right leg is but a meaty lump, and he needs a pair of clutches to help him walk around.
He and his wife and three grown-up daughters are living in a dilapidated hut beside a drain in the village, on a land that belongs to someone else.
There are a few holes on the wall, which cannot shield them from the scorching sunlight or the storm.
When the reporter reached out to Yong, he looked squarely gloomy, as if he had a lot of dissatisfaction with his life.
He earns a living by repairing motorcycles and bicycles, a skill which he picked up at the disabled centre in 1996, and which he has been living on since 1997.
Other than this livelihood, Yong is also keeping ten pigs at his backyard, and the money he gets from selling the animal allows him to lessen the burden of his children's school fees.
He said his three daughters are still schooling--the eldest daughter pursuing a master's degree in marketing in Phnom Penh, the second daughter doing a course in banking, while the youngest still in a high school.
The reporter was curious how he had managed to raise the school fees for his three children. Yong reacted in an unexpectedly exaggerated manner, "If not fighting hard on your own, are you going to wait for the money to fall from the sky?
"I've never asked a single cent from friends or relatives, their school fees have been financed entirely from my meagre income accumulated bit by bit over the years."
His two eldest daughters are currently working part-time to pay for their school fees, and this has helped reduce the family's burden a little.
Yong said, "Life is like a duel. We must persist in our fight through the toughest times, and work hard to explore a world that belongs to ourselves.
"Our life will only become more glorious and meaningful if we have experienced life ourselves."
(Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Cambodia Sin Chew Daily)
5 comments:
"Our life will only become more glorious and meaningful if we have experienced life ourselves."
I love this quote!
Wish them good luck.
Insurgents kill two soldiers in South
(BangkokPost.com) - Insurgents opened fire at an army patrol in the southern province of Pattani on Saturday morning, killing two soldiers.
Six troops were patrolling on a local road when an unknown number of insurgents started firing at them at around 6am.
The two groups then exchanged fire before insurgents broke off the engagement and retreated.
whoever say that cambodian people are lazy is so ignorant and perhap have mental illness as well. khmer people are not lazy people like the french colonial master used to say about khmer people when they colonized us, and they would compare us to the viet. i say, khmer people are not any different like any other asian people, e.g. viet, siem, chinese, et..., maybe cambodia lack of technology and education due to poor or sickness so what have you, however,to say that all khmer people are lazy is so dump and ignorant of those people who said such opinion! i see many lazy viet and lazy siem people, so, does that make all of them lazy? get the point, here! don't stereotype people, especially khmer people!
Please don't listen to Ah Kwak-Oversea. They can't see further than the roach infested government housing that they are in.
poor and lack of opportunity is more like it, not lazy. to label that all khmer people are lazy like the old colonial french used to do on khmer people is so ignorant of them, to say the least. talk about stereotyping cambodia. how stupid of those people!!!
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