Tuesday, December 03, 2013

Kindness One: In Cambodia, a collision with evil


Leon Logothetis at the killing fields in Phnom Penh,
Cambodia. (Greg Pappas)


By Leon Logothetis, Loas Angeles Times
December 2, 2013

Sometimes, words aren’t enough to describe the emotions the seize you. That’s what happened to me in Cambodia.

I left Los Angeles on Aug. 10 in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe on my trusty yellow motorcycle with the help of generous people who are housing me, feeding me and giving me money for gasoline for the bike, which I call Kindness One.

After visiting the enchanting temples at Angkor Wat, I arrived in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, energized by that visit. Although I certainly knew about Cambodia’s tragic past, I was unprepared for coming face to face with it.

Cambodia's infamous killing fields are exactly that: open spaces where the murderous Khmer Rouge took innocent people to be slaughtered. The Geneocide Studies Program at Yale University estimates there are more than 300 such mass gravesites in Cambodia. As I got closer to this place of death, my heart started racing. When I arrived I encountered a pagoda filled with human skulls, countless graves and other things too painful to describe.
My trip is all about connecting and kindness, yet here I was at an epicenter of evil. One local man told me that the Khmer Rouge killed his uncle, one of 1.5 million or more people slain by the regime from 1975 to 1979. As he wept, his sorrow still fresh after more than three decades, I tried to hold back my own tears. We must never forget.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do Not believe what are you seeing ,
this is a set up from master mind Vietnam s invaders to convert Cambodia to Vietnam. The Vietnam set up by the Vietminh whom can fluently speak Khmer and secret Vietnam s agents killing Cambodians make up the scenes and shift the blame to Cambodians killing it own people.

Anonymous said...

2:37am, you must be on cracks! get your head check by a psychiatrist, would you! stop trying to confuse tourists with your hate! i think he is smarter then to buy into your hate!

Anonymous said...

6:41 AM, you are one of Vietnamese dog eaters hiding in Cambodia. Where are your Vietnamese dog eating parents hiding right now?

2:37am is absolutely right.

You are one of killer Vietnamese dog eaters who has been trying to play nice and kind, but you should be uncovered anytime.

Yes, you sound very nice, but very dishonest.

If you are Khmer, then shut up.