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| Veteran soothsayer San Vannak, 53, plies his trade outside the Royal Palace. According to the city’s “spirit guardians”, he says increased political stability is likely to be on the cards for 2011. (Photo by: Heng Chivoan) |
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Vong Sokheng and Adam Miller
The Phnom Penh Post
When a new calendar year approaches, many Cambodians look to fortune-tellers for a glimpse of what lies in wait for the year ahead. While not all cosmic news is good news, Phnom Penh’s leading soothsayers say that after a grim 2010, more prosperity is in the stars for next year.
After a year of predicted pestilence, famines and other misfortunes, 2011 – a traditional year of tevada (angels) – will apparently herald a growth spurt for the national economy, an increase in effective law enforcement and a decrease in violent conflicts.
Im Borin, director of the National Committee of Khmer Customs and Horoscopes at the Ministry of Cults and Religion, has published about 5,000 copies of a horoscope handbook in the run-up to the New Year. Im Borin, a long-time mystic, said his predictions are based on “geocentric planetary phenomena”, which he claims are reliable, a decent proportion of the time.
“I have read and analysed the characters of tevada as a traditional fortune-teller for about 10 years and about 80 percent of my predictions have been accurate,” he said.
While his most recent prophecies for 2011 augur an increase in this year’s spate of natural disasters – including flash floods and serious fires – he says that people across the country should generally remain in greater spiritual harmony than they did in 2010.
Im Borin’s cosmic predictions for 2010 were ominous at best, claiming that many people would be tragically killed in a year filled with famine, conflict and pestilence. He even goes as far as to say that his predictions foreshadowed last month’s tragic stampede at the Diamond Island bridge, which killed 353 people.
“The prediction became accurate if you compare it with the Koh Pich bridge stampede, which caused the deaths of hundreds of poor people, many of whom were working in factories,” he said.
Luckily, however, Im Borin’s darker premonitions for the past year – including a prediction of falling crop yields and a rash of human casualties as a result of declining “social morality” – have failed to come to fruition in 2010.
“The farmers must take care of the crops they have already harvested because crops this year will not be good,” he said in January, adding that “about half of the vegetable and fruit crops will be destroyed” by insects.
Window into the future
San Vannak, a 53-year-old “spirit guardian” fortune-teller who also plies his trade in front of the Royal Palace, said soothsayers are usually asked to divine the future on matters such as romance, finances, job opportunities, marriage plans, divorce and the outcome of illnesses.
He said that for generations, Cambodians have consulted fortune tellers to gain self-understanding and knowledge which could lead to personal power or success in some aspect of life.
“Individual people need to learn about their life when there are problems and they come and consult with a fortune-teller to help them make decisions,” he said.
San Vannak said his clients include government officials and business people who look to the stars to tell them “whether their rank or business will increase or decline”....
read the full story in tomorrow’s Phnom Penh Post or see the updated story online from 3PM UTC/GMT +7 hours.
9 comments:
i think personal believe such as astrology, prediction, superstition, etc are individual and private matter and shouldn't be allowed to infere into the professionalism of gov't institution, gov't entity, and other official matter, etc, really! leave them private and unofficial and individual only! that's all! that said, of course, it is the individual's rights to believe in whatever they believed in, etc!
1:31AM! in a dickhead goverment where avery thing decide by one person! only! How can they separate the person foolishness and sound decission?????
Do ma ak Kwack stupid motherfucker!
'Stability' without justice does not imply peace; it is rather enforced stability, characterised by a measure of 'growth' or 'prosperity' that has been (and will be) for the benefit of the selective and privileged elite only, often at the expense of the majority so long as social justice itself is denied them.
This would be the prediction of social scientists based upon their understanding of causal relations governing social events, i.e. the study of empirical dialectics.
OK, this is where I lost you!
'Stability' without justice does not imply peace; it is rather the creation of biger crisis! !!!!!!
Solidity and unity without justice,truth,and virtue mean nothings.
Hun Sen is dictator;the words that come out of his mouth are so effective.
There is no justice in Hun Sen country;There is nothing the truth,liar after liar;if he killed someone,he covered it up.Where is the truth?
The vrtue,did Hun Sen have affairs?
The girls who slept with him got killed or injured.
So,Can Hun Sen rule over Cambodia to the next 40 years?
4:13AM! if the corp (death body) could bull shit! then ah Kwack Hun Xen can rule for another 40 years!!!
Stupid khmers, always like to insult each other just for fun. All barks, no bites, useless shit. No wonder youns and thais look down on them and rightfully so.
these people who seemed to not know how to deal with others in general, need to learn the psychology of human, etc... yes, most people will go an extra mile to help, to bend over backward, etc for you if you know how to treat them well, how to deal with them, etc, so, keep cursing and name callings, etc, and you get nothing. that's the reality, whether you want to believe it or not. and it's true anywhere on the planet when you deal with people, really, not just in cambodia. believe me not, if you know human psychology, you can get a lot done from other friendly, law abiding citizens, etc, ok! get a hint! change your bad habit or take the long highway home, simple as that, really!
that said, doesn't mean one has to kiss asses to get what s/he wants, it just goes to say if you want other people to do you a favor, you must be courteous and give people the benefit of the doubt because not everyone you came across are evil or take advantage of you due to whatever bad experience you may have before, ok! always give people the benefit of the doubt first until they prove to you otherwise. be smart, ok! that's all!
6L49 AM,
You don't live in Cambodia, do you?
I live in Cambodia and would like to invite you to come and live here for a while. After that, I will ask you again if you still love the government of PM Hun Sen.
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