29/01/2009By PATSINEE KRANLERT
Bangkok Post
Sunshine and rainbows don't always follow a shower of rain, yet this man, laid low by a land mine almost two decades ago, has managed to piece together a new life for himself.
A soldier in the Cambodian army until he lost both hands during a mine-clearing operation in 1990, Tok Vanna spent the next 12 years living in dire poverty.
In 2002 he moved to Siem Reap with his family in search of a job, but his disability proved a major obstacle and he only managed to eke out an existence by begging on the streets. The following year his luck finally turned when he was spotted by a staff member from ILO, the United Nations agency.
After finishing a vocational training course, during which he also learned basic English, he received a small sum in seed capital from the ILO, sufficient to buy a pushcart and some books and set himself up in business.
Today his streetside stall boasts a large and interesting selection including an impressive number of non-fiction titles on Cambodia, mostly dealing with the devastation wreaked on that country by decades of conflict and the depredations of the Khmer Rouge.
As I stood there flipping through books with harrowing names like Welcome to Hell, Stay Alive My Son and First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, he drew my attention to a tome with a red cover which he was holding against his chest with a truncated limb: "This is the best I have," he said in a gentle voice, "I recommend it to everybody."
I left carrying a copy of Survival in the Killing Fields, an account of life under the Khmer Rouge by Dr Haing Ngor, who later won an Oscar for his role in 1984's The Killing Fields.
A soldier in the Cambodian army until he lost both hands during a mine-clearing operation in 1990, Tok Vanna spent the next 12 years living in dire poverty.
In 2002 he moved to Siem Reap with his family in search of a job, but his disability proved a major obstacle and he only managed to eke out an existence by begging on the streets. The following year his luck finally turned when he was spotted by a staff member from ILO, the United Nations agency.
After finishing a vocational training course, during which he also learned basic English, he received a small sum in seed capital from the ILO, sufficient to buy a pushcart and some books and set himself up in business.
Today his streetside stall boasts a large and interesting selection including an impressive number of non-fiction titles on Cambodia, mostly dealing with the devastation wreaked on that country by decades of conflict and the depredations of the Khmer Rouge.
As I stood there flipping through books with harrowing names like Welcome to Hell, Stay Alive My Son and First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, he drew my attention to a tome with a red cover which he was holding against his chest with a truncated limb: "This is the best I have," he said in a gentle voice, "I recommend it to everybody."
I left carrying a copy of Survival in the Killing Fields, an account of life under the Khmer Rouge by Dr Haing Ngor, who later won an Oscar for his role in 1984's The Killing Fields.
6 comments:
Dear Tok Vanna,
Thank you very much for your bravery!! You have invested your life for our nation till you lost your physical ability. And now, you are setting a good example for the rest us to struggle with poverty. I believe all this difficulty makes you stronger!!! Although you are struggling, in my heart, you are very good and much better than many of us!!!
Thanks
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The Bangkok Post is running a Khmer story? What a friendly sign.
Are we genuinely moving forward and closer to establishing a true, peaceful and "brotherly" neigborhood that yields good & mutual interest to both people?
This, if so, will gradually and eventually eradicate and bury the historical animosity the Khmer and the Thai have held in their memories all these centuries.
Of course, true peace can be feasibly achieved with the absence of bogusness. But an unchangeable fact to be kept in mind is genuine and conterfeit will inevitably & subsequently manifest its true nature through all deeds committed as time passes by.
Word is cheap. And as a saying goes "actions speak louder than words".
Quariam
yes friendly thai, thai push khmer on to land mine at phnom dangrek,preah vihear and recently torture and push muslim refugees to open sea to die. action speak louder than words.
Vannak
It is so true, Vannak, during those horrific moments of unprecedented era the Thai authority reportedly had dumped, by the truckloads, the Khmer refugees who were frighteningly escaping the horror of war into the mind fields back in Khmer soil.
So many of them were killed instantly and many were seriously wounded that left friends and relatives to carry a new & heavy burden and care for them.
And the horror, physical pain and suffering and spiritual sorrow were just beginning & mounting to the stars. It was an actual and deeper level of hell the Khmers had fell into, a world of the living dead.
And I have heard of the indescribable acccounts of Thai citizens, or personnel armies, who would take advantage of such a malicious time the defenseless Khmers were in to rob and rape and kill countless of us.
And the sorrow after sorrow continued to mount to the stars.
Those Khmer victims who are now still alive should come forth and tell tales and seek justice against those Thai authorities who were then accountable for the negligence of curbing the crime and bringing those culprits to face justice.
The agencies of the United Nations should reopen and look into these horrific accounts and heal the deep wounds of these hapless Khmers by searching and bringing to justice those who committed the crimes and the (then) Thai authorities who turned their blind eyes and allowed the crime to go unpunished.
Both parties were and are guilty of the transpired criminal deeds directly or indirectly committed.
Thus far, the present Thai government has proven itself untrustworthy in solving any problem with its neighbor(s). Their words are counterfeit as usual, i.e. their repeated transgression of the border agreements.
Yes, all actions speak louder than words. That include the actions of the present Thai government, the Khmer's and the actions of the U.N. in pursuing justice for those hapless men, women and children whose blood is still crying to the Heaven above.
Quariam
mine fields
mine fields
mine fields
my bad
Qm
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