Cambodia is a farming country, why do Cambodians face food shortage?

ខ្មែរ​ជា​ប្រទេស​កសិកម្ម ហេតុអ្វី​ពលរដ្ឋ​ជួប​ហា​នីភ័យ​ខ្ពស់​ក្នុង​ការ​ខ្វះ​ស្បៀង?

Thursday, 27 October 2011 12:01
សូ វិសាល
The Phnom Penh Post

Synopsis: Even though the Cambodian government announced about increasing rice export overseas from year to year, the majority of Cambodians are still facing food shortage. Is it because the Cambodians are lazy to plot crops or is it because the government development plan is out of target? In the past several years, the government gave out state land as social concessions to families of veterans, but this is minor in comparison to the land it gave out to private companies as economic concessions. It could be that the government wants to control the population through its policy “Khlean, Khlach, Khloa” (hungry, scared and ignorant) so that it can better control them.

បើ​ទោះ​បី​ជា​រដ្ឋាភិបាល​កម្ពុជា បាន​ប្រកាស​ពី​កំណើន​នៃ​ការ​នាំ​អង្ករ​ចេញ​ទៅ​ក្រៅ​ប្រទេស ដែល​មាន​ការ​កើនឡើង​ជា​បន្តបន្ទាប់​ពី​មួយឆ្នាំ​ទៅមួយ​ឆ្នាំ​ក៏​ដោយ ក៏​ប្រជា​ពលរដ្ឋ​ភាគច្រើន​ នៅ​តែ​ប្រឈម​នឹង​ហា​និភ័យ​ខ្ពស់​ ក្នុង​ការ​ខ្វះខាត​ស្បៀង​អាហារ។

វា​ស្ទើរតែ​ក្លាយជា​ទម្លាប់​ទៅ​ហើយ​ នៅ​ពេល​ដែល​មន្ត្រី​ជាន់ខ្ពស់​ ជា​ពិសេស​លោក​នាយក​រដ្ឋ​មន្ត្រី​ ហ៊ុន សែន​ ចុះ​ទៅ​ជួប​ប្រជា​ពលរដ្ឋ គេ​តែងតែ​ឃើញ​នាំយក​អំណោយ ជា​ពិសេស​អង្ករ​ និង​គ្រឿង​ឧបភោគ​ បរិភោគ​ផ្សេងៗ​ ទៅ​ចែក​ជូន​ប្រជា​ពលរដ្ឋ​ ហើយ​នៅ​ក្នុង​រយៈពេល​ប្រមាណ​ជា​ពីរ​ខែ​មក​នេះ ទាំង​កាកបាទ​ក្រហម​កម្ពុជា គណៈ​កម្មាធិការ​ជាតិ​គ្រប់គ្រង​គ្រោះ​មន្តរាយ អាជ្ញាធរ​ពាក់ព័ន្ធ​របស់​រដ្ឋាភិបាល និង​អង្គការ​ដៃគូ​នានា កំពុង​តែ​មាន​ភាព​មមាញឹក​យ៉ាងខ្លាំង​ក្នុង​ការ​ចុះចែក​អំណោយ​ជូន​ប្រជា​ពលរដ្ឋ​ដែល​រងគ្រោះ​ដោយ​ទឹក​ជំនន់។

បើ​ទោះបី​ជា​យើង​ពុំមាន​តួលេខ​ផ្លូវការ​ច្បាស់លាស់​ ថា​តើ​មាន​ប្រជា​ពលរដ្ឋ​ចំនួន​ប៉ុន្មាន ដែល​ប្រឈម​នឹង​ហា​និភ័យ​ខ្ពស់​ ក្នុង​ការ​ខ្វះ​ស្បៀង​អាហារ​ក៏ដោយ​ ក៏​តាម​រយៈ​សកម្មភាព​ដែល​តែងតែ​ចុះចែក​អំណោយ​ របស់​ក្រុម​មន្ត្រី​ និង​ភាព​តោកយ៉ាក ​រយីក​រយាក ​របស់​ប្រជា​ពលរដ្ឋ​ជាច្រើន​ ដែល​យើង​អាច​មើលឃើញ​នៅ​គ្រប់​ច្រកល្ហក គ្រប់​ខេត្ត​ក្រុង ដោយ​ផ្ទះ​ប្រជា​ពលរដ្ឋ​ជាច្រើន ​រខេក​រខាក មើល​ពីមុខ​ធ្លុះ​ទៅ​ដល់​ក្រោយ មាន​ត្រឹម​ឆ្នាំង​ពីរ ចាន​បាយ​បួន​ ១០ និង​ផ្ទះ​ខ្លះ​ ពុំមាន​អង្ករ​សូម្បី​តែ​២០​គីឡូ​ក្រាម​នៅ​លើ​ផ្ទះ​ផង​នោះ វា​ស​បញ្ជាក់​ឲ្យ​ឃើញ​យ៉ាង​ច្បាស់​ថា ប្រជា​ពលរដ្ឋ​ខ្មែរ​ច្រើន​ណាស់ ដែល​ប្រឈម​នឹង​ហា​និភ័យ​ខ្ពស់ ខ្វះខាត​ស្បៀង​អាហារ។

Cambodian Daughters Suffering in Malaysia (Part 1 of 3) due to Joblessness and Dire Poverty in Hun Xen's Cambodia

This is one of three part series highlighting the challenges faced by young women in the Cambodian countryside who wish to work as maids in Malaysia. VOA Khmer's Pich Samnang reports.

Cambodian women look to Malaysia for work

Sun, 21 Nove 2010
By Brian Calvert
VOANews.com

PREAH VIHEAR: Cambodian women are increasingly finding work as domestic labour in Malaysia. But in their rush to employment, some are finding little protection from abuse at work. Like many developing countries, Cambodia is trying to find ways to protect its migrant workers.

A team of oxen pulls a cart into the rice fields in northern Cambodia, where a rural way of life means few opportunities for work.

Now, young women in Preah Vihear province say they are finding opportunity as maids in Malaysia. But some of them are finding more trouble than they bargained for.

Sao Orn and her husband, Ros Chheoun, spend weeks at a time out here in the fields, harvesting what little rice grows in the hard ground. When their daughter, Champei, came to them with the idea of working in Malaysia, they had misgivings.

Sao Orn says she asked her daughter not to go, even though the family is poor. But Champei insisted.

Sao Orn's worst fears were realized, when Champei came back seven months later, traumatized from severe sexual and physical abuse. Her daughter was not the same as when she had left.

These days Champei stays at home, taking care of the family pig, unable to work. And unable to trust people. "Now, people no good. People very bad, can beat me. No good also," she said.

Like many developing countries, Cambodia needs jobs for its growing population. And Malaysia wants maids to serve a growing class of professionals.

The number of Cambodians sent to Malaysia nearly quadrupled in the past year, to around 20,000. The surge comes after Indonesia banned its workers from going because of abuses.

Lured by promises of good pay, women sign up with local recruiters. But there are few safeguards for them in place and little communication back home.

No system in place

E Saro, the governor of Champei's home district, Rovieng, says the government does not yet have a protective system in place.

The national government is drafting a new law that will aim to protect young women from dishonest recruiters and establish a fund to help them if they get in trouble in Malaysia.

But that is little consolation for Champei's parents, who now must worry for their daughter on top of everything else.

Champei's father says he is still angry with the recruiters who promised his daughter wealth but abandoned her when she was in need.

If I see them again, he says, I'll cut their throats.

Bars girls of Phnom Penh

Net is a bar girl working in Phnom Penh. A peep into her life and her home. Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 22/10/2010. Images here taken February 2010.

 

Net is a bar girl working in Phnom Penh. A peep into her life and her home. Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

22/02/2010

Demotix

S is a sex worker in Phnom Penh. Her working soubriquet is Net. She lives in a 3 x 3 m cell on the highest floor of a shared enclave in a Phnom Penh slum. I use the word slum accurately, as her accommodation meets many of the internationally agreed markers defining a slum dwelling.

Access is through a gloomy passageway off a main street, vibrant with street vendors. Climbing the two cracked and slippery staircases to her room, I ascend passed her neighbours filthy living spaces, too small to sit in so they sit in the passageway playing cards and chatting. It’s impossible to avoid placing your feet in the pools of oily wastewater or stepping onto the discarded detritus.

Her room is a roughly nailed plank construction, a wooden coffin, the bamboo topped bed occupying one third of the space. No toilet. No shower. No washbasin. A small clothing rack to store her sexy work clothes, a blaring TV prominent on a shelf above the few treasured personal items she keeps - photo albums of her baby and mother, a clear HIV-STD certificate and a few bottles of perfume which are mostly empty. A rusty fan recirculates the hot mosquito infested air.

Net is 26 and originates from the poor rural provinces in northern Cambodia. Her only child is now three years old and lives with her mamma in her own home town, where her brother and his family also live. Her estranged husband lives with a “new girlfriend” in Thailand. Tall and snake thin, her cheekbones protrude deeply into her dark facial skin. She is no classic beauty queen just charmingly pretty with a pleasant smile. Chatting fluently in bar girl English, she does however, command the English language better than most of her co-workers, a real asset when advertising herself adjacent to her beautiful and highly competitive friends. She tells me “after leaving my husband I try to live for more [than] one year in the provinces with my baby”. She struggled to earn enough money to live and to support her offspring. Someone in the village tells her that she should go to Phnom Penh to “make lots of money”. The streets are paved with gold farang in Phnom Penh! Telling her family that she is going to the capital to work in a “tourist restaurant”, which she did for a while, she uprooted herself from her family and moved into a shoe box room in the capital city.

As a daughter her Asian culture demands that she earns money, not only for her baby but also as a social welfare system for her parents. In a region without state care for the elderly, adults have children with the expectation that they will care for them when they are ageing, although perhaps not when they are old as life expectancy in Cambodia is only 59.5 years, middle age in Western society.

Net was not sold by her family as a young virgin girl to a rich man in Phnom Penh or to a wealthy Chinese businessman. She was not beaten, raped and coerced - broken - as a novice brothel worker like so many young girls in Cambodia. She found herself, in her mid-20s, with few choices; she had no money to support her family and was totally estranged from her errant and promiscuous husband. He wanted to keep her as a second wife, a mia-noi, an offer she tearfully declined believing that to be unacceptable and morally repugnant. He gives her no money to support his child. Little education, lacking formal employment skills other than house work, she tried the one option she believed would make her “big luy [money]” -milking the farang as a bar girl in Phnom Penh.

Net does not find acclimatisation into the sex industry at all easy. Her first employment is in one of Phnom Penh's infamous walking street saloons. She struggles to “wet kiss” the “farang” [Western male tourists] as instructed by the Mamasan boss. Chat to her and it’s obvious that sex work is not her first career option but it is lucrative; the bar pays her around $60 a month, $15 of which goes to rent her shared room. Clients, if she can secure one, pay maybe $25 or more for a night with her, depending on the work. “Best work”, nights in Sinhouville or Siem Reap, acting as an Asian trophy girlfriend for an “old man”; this is the work she “enjoys” and it’s a bonus as she gets a holiday in a nice room, clean showers and free food. They “pay bar fine” for the time she is away from her work and she still gets paid by the bar.

Five weeks into her new role at this bar she is dismissed by the manager because she blatantly refuses to “wet kiss” the sex tourists in the bar, as demanded by the boss. She tells me "It's not good. No do wet kiss in bar".

At 26 Net is quite old to become a bargirl. This combined with her apparent inaptitude for sex work, her unwillingness to let go of her morality and her plain looks, means that she struggles to find a new job in a different ladybar. Restaurant work is physically very hard and she tells me that she “does not want to work hard” to earn money when she sees pretty young girls [cash] “rich” from the “easy work” with western sex tourists.

What are her options now I ask? Slightly confused she replies “she may move to Sinhouville to earn more money”. The streets are lined with gold farang in Sihanoukville, the beach resort of Cambodia similar to Pataya in Thailand. To tap into this gold rush though net knows she must crush her innate morality, totally destroying her belief that some things are not for sale. Prostitute herself fully. It appears to be a seriously challenging option for Net, even though she cannot face the routine demands of traditional employment in a restaurant, in a clothing factory or as a rice worker in the provinces.

What does she do now? She tries to freelance. Disguised in working girls clothing she emerges from her shoebox home, ventures into the night, onto the pulsating streets and into the seedy bars and nightclubs of Phnom Penh to try to earn her living by entertaining a paying western man. Her sex tourist clients never venture into the hidden backstage of her life. She acts out her roles for them- lover, sex toy, girlfriend - on the sanitised stage of their hotel rooms. Rooms cheap at $20 a night or less, cleaned daily. They never see or understand the real side of her life. She leaves them after they pay her and returns on foot, or maybe side sitting on a moto, to the dark staircase which climbs up to her room. To her life watching TV, playing cards in the alleyway and cuddling her childhood teddy bears. Until the late evening when she dresses and the game starts again.

I have withheld Net's full name in this article in the hope that she finds less painful employment in the future.

PIME missionary: What keeps me in Prey Veng [-Another letter from Prey Veng by Fr. Alberto]

Fr. Alberto Caccaro, 10 years in Cambodia, writes about a day in the life of his mission: the hydrocephalus child, the superstition of her relatives, the strength and the presence of Jesus who heals the whole person. Yesterday Fr. Albert received a gold medal from the government for work he is ...

Monday, October 04, 2010

By Asia News

Spero News

Prey Veng, October 1, 2010,

Memorial of St. Therese of Lisieux

"There are no distances with heaven. (...) And even in blood, absurd death there are no unspoken intentions, There is no reason that it is not Love".[1]

A few weeks ago we were called by a family that lives in open paddy fields, 40 miles northeast of Prey Veng. When these calls reach us we already know that the situation involves a sick person or a particular need. So I asked Sister Marie to go to in my stead. She is a nurse and has the expertise to evaluate these cases.

On arriving at the village, she was met with a baby girl of eight months, suffering from hydrocephalus. The grandparents and a handful of other children were with the baby. It seemed however that her parents, according to the grandparents, had gone abroad in search of work, in order to provide for their child. But we do not know if they are in Thailand or Malaysia and in any case, so far, we have had no news, no help. The baby was fine; it was just the weight of her head, too big for her little body.

Thank God there is a lay missionary in Phnom Penh, Paola, who is always willing to respond to our requests. We then brought the girl to her for further tests. Who knows for what strange and yet probably common natural phenomenon that it had not rained in the village for some time. The farmers were anxiously waiting for water so they could begin to cultivate the rice fields. No sooner had the baby girl been brought to Phnom Penh, then it began to rain in the village.

Inevitably that people associated the coming of the rains with the baby girl’s departure from the village. Perhaps she was the cause of the curse that kept the rain in the sky. I will not dwell on the meaning of such an interpretation, the result of a still widespread animism, where things often carry bad luck or there are often punishments to be served, and I will not judge that from the standpoint of theology or science. My level is much more visceral, my impulse moves from the heart, the heart in all its immediacy, crying along with all the poets, the one essential truth: "There is no reason that it is not Love."

This cry, this deep impulse of my heart is my evangelisation. In the absurd death. Or in the absurd birth, as we could perhaps say of that baby girl, "there are no unspoken intentions; there is no reason that it is not Love”.

It is all I have to say to those two grandparents and the people of the village, "there are no unspoken intentions; there is no reason that it is not Love." And I would encourage them to take care of the child, indicating a deeper level, beyond contempt, resignation or condemnation of them or, worse still, the child: "Do not ask why / there is pain or evil. ”./ Something happened in the beginning, of which / God himself does not speak. / He sent his son to heal it. / This is sufficient. / No one will ever know[2].

I would like to be able to say that Jesus did not explain or erase pain or evil, but suffered it and came to fix it. This is why he never tired of saying, "Do not be afraid, do not be afraid, do not cry, do not despair. ". Your faith has saved you Read the Gospels. It is all so clear. Jesus did not explain evil. He began by remediating and always intervened to treat and, sometimes, to heal. Evangelization is taking care of others.

What keeps me here in Prey Veng, in fact, are not only the theological statements about Jesus as the only Savior and that there is no salvation outside of Him. I believe all of this. But what convinces me to stay is that I am continually moved by the very real way that Jesus exalts man, heals man, the whole man. Even our little girl, who stops the rain, but not his Grace. And in her helpless silence she speaks to us.

At times my head, my heart and my thoughts short-circuit. I run out of explanations for things that happen, I run out of energy to resist in the face of contradictions large or small, personal or collective. It is then that I have to put it all in writing. Stop talking and start writing. And when I write, it is no longer I who speak or command, instead it is Prey Veng that begins to speak. The many stories that I encounter, the people with whom I live, they begin to talk. Only when I really decide to remain silent. Otherwise I manipulate reality, others, just to speak about me. This greatly reduces our vision... It I said as much to the young people who came from Italy as part of the Youth and Mission: “Be patient, give yourselves and give time to things, places, take a break from yourselves, then Prey Veng will begin to talk to you, it will trust ". you. And slowly you will find that the reality already holds your dreamBut it takes time. I like what Herta Muller says, 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature: "Every time I write it is because I reached the point where I do not know what to do, what to do with myself and with my surroundings. "Yes, sometimes I'm sick of my senses. I'm sick of my senses. I'm sick of my brooding. Everything is so messed up that I do not know where external things begin or end. If they are in me or I in them. Pieces of the world begin to break off as if it had swallowed all that I can not carry. I do not know if that child or that story is in me and I in them. It 's like a common destiny.

So here, I become a beggar. I am silent, I confess I kneel and beg for His presence. It is the moment of faith that saves, and I understand that "we are called to look upon all things with a Presence in our eyes. "Since having this Presence in our eyes does not reduce our visual field that has as its object the other, but it is a different and comprehensive way of seeing 'all' of the other.[3]

A few days ago chatting with a confrere about the sense of mission for us priests, I said that we just have to worry about being 'fathers'. This in fact is what they call us. Not only fathers in the church. Fathers also outside. Fathers in society. Fathers for all God's children

I commend to your intercession and the intercession of our dearly beloved who have already preceded us to God, our little community, the church of Saint Benedict, the asylum, school, the many beautiful stories that God tells me. This morning we attended the official opening ceremony of the new school year with all schools in Prey Veng. The authorities have given me a public honor for the work done so far. I am very grateful for this but also a little concerned: Power always does as much. It promotes you, rewards you, it enlists you. But no matter. We must walk together, "everything is patience and waiting / that the Pascal stone will overturn / revealing on one side the tomb / and on the other side the true design / his face bright / the kingdom the kingdom, the kingdom" (Bartolo Cattafi)

Therefore I will hang onto him: "His presence and his company thus decide the perception one has of oneself and of reality”.[4]

Best regards, Father Alberto

-------------

[1]Giuseppe Centore, Ladro d’eternitá, Panda, Padova 1986, p. 51.

[2]Renzo Barsacchi, Marinaio di Dio, Nardini, Florence 1985, p. 73.

[3] Luigi Giussani, Alla ricerca del volto umano, Rizzoli, Milano 1995, p. 76.

[4] Idem , p. 72.

CWS: 'Clean Water Scarce in Rural Cambodia'

Church World Service
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Water as human right hasn’t reached rural Cambodia, CWS tells Geneva consultation

GENEVA, Switzerland –Sept. 17, 2010 -- Cambodia has made strides over the past two decades in providing clean water and sanitation to its urban areas. But those gains have yet to reach the majority of rural Cambodians, according to Cambodian humanitarian agency water program specialist Mao Sophal.

Sophal, senior staff member for Church World Service Cambodia, spoke on the issue of affordability of clean water and sanitation for Cambodia’s poorest, during a consultation earlier this week in Geneva between international civil society representatives and Catarina de Albuquerque, United Nations independent expert on issues of access to safe drinking water and sanitation as a human right.

Sophal and Agneta Dau Valler, Country Representative for CWS Vietnam and Cambodia, attended the consultation after last week’s World Water Week summit in Sweden, where this year’s Stockholm Industry Water Award was given to the Phnom Penh Water Supply authority for its achievement in providing water to nearly 90% of the city’s population.

“We applaud Cambodia’s advances in making clean water accessible to so many more people in Phnom Penh,” said Dau Valler. “However, the situation is still completely different in the countryside.”

In rural Cambodia -- where 80 percent of the country’s population resides -- UNICEF estimates that only 16 percent of people have access to adequate sanitation and 65 percent to safe water.

The overall lack of clean water and sanitation is costing Cambodia around half a billion dollars every year in poor health and loss of tourism.

But for clean water and sanitation to become a reality for all in Cambodia and the rest of the world’s poorest countries, water and sanitation infrastructure and management also have to be accessible and affordable to all, says CWS’s Sophal.

“There also has to be equal focus on civil society’s advocacy at government and world body levels and cooperative engagement with local and regional authorities,” she said.

Sophal was one of 19 civil society panelists from developing countries and from the U.S. selected from some 50 applicants to present at the Geneva consultation, based on their responses to de Albuquerque’s questionnaire on good practices in water, sanitation and human rights programs.

In her presentation, Sophal said that CWS has focused its sustainable development work in rural Cambodia in great part to align with the country’s stated rural water and sanitation strategy—that, by 2025, every person in rural communities will have “sustained access to safe water supply and sanitation services” and will be living in “a hygienic environment.”

Specifically, CWS aims to help the “poorest of the poor” in rural Cambodia.

To realize that goal, CWS had to develop a valid, consistent and inclusive method of “ranking wealth” among residents, so communities can identify who will receive clean water and sanitation facilities and training in the villages CWS serves in Svay Rieng, Kompong Thom and remote Preah Vihear Provinces.

Mao said the agency’s team follows the humanitarian “do no harm” approach, with a participatory appraisal process in each village that engages district and provincial authorities, village chiefs, commune development leaders and water user groups to establish their own criteria to identify residents as “poorest of the poor,” “poor” or “better-off poor.”

In one village, “better-off poor” families may be identified as having a wooden house with a zinc roof, a certain number of draft and livestock animals, a small amount of land, agricultural income sources, and just enough food to make it through the year, and “poorest of the poor” families as having no draft or livestock animals beyond a few poultry, no land, no income source beyond their own labor, living in a tiny cabin, and insufficient food seven to ten months of the year.

Families selected for assistance receive priority facilities such as upgraded wells, latrines, or bio-sand water filters for safe drinking water.

To promote ownership, CWS said the Cambodian beneficiaries contribute labor and resources as possible and appropriate to their situations. The program also provides water and sanitation resources for health centers, commune offices and primary schools.

Sophal said the CWS approach requires a lot of NGO staff time and energy, but the benefits have been significant. Communities served now experience less water-borne disease, rarely have diarrhea, and households, schools and community centers have improved sanitation and hygiene. With community guidance, households are assisted in growing and maintaining productive home gardens for better food supply and income-generation.

She said the process promotes the human right to water and sanitation among community members and authorities, promotes community solidarity, accountability and honesty, and empowers women in decision-making.

On July 28, the UN General Assembly approved an historic non-binding resolution recognizing "the right to safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right.” On Monday, de Albuquerque told the Geneva civil society gathering that her mandate from the UN is to clarify the content of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation and to make recommendations that could help reach Millennium Development Goals, particularly the goal relating to safe water and sanitation.

The UN water expert has held related consultations with governments, private sector leaders and other stakeholders.

Worldwide, an estimated 884 million people lack access to safe drinking water, more than 2.6 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation, and some 1.5 million children under the age of five die each year from water- and sanitation-related diseases.

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He’s 56, he had sex with a teen, he lied and tried to set up the victim’s father … and, oh, he’s the pagoda chief

Scandal at Kampong Chhnang’s Wat Preah Ream Raingsey Pagoda

Monday 02 August 2010
By K.K.
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Jean Oss Srok
Click here to read the article in French

A monk was defrocked for having sexual relationships with a minor. Pregnant, the young teen had to have an abortion during her 7th month pregnancy.

Since 2009, 56-year-old Chan Tuon, Kampong Chhnang’s Wat Preah Ream Raingsey Pagoda chief, had an affair with a 16-year-old girl. It was fine until she became seven month pregnant and decided to tell the whole affair to her mother.

The case took a new turn when both mother and daughter demanded that Chan Tuon pay for her abortion. The monk then gave them 900,000 riels (~$225), but he denied all responsibility in the affair. The monk went on to claim that the pregnancy was caused by the teen’s own father.

The claim was not accepted by Sao Pheareak, the children’s rights investigator for Licadho in Kampong Chhnang. “In May, our headquarters received a letter allegedly from the victim. She accused her father of raping her and she asked him to have an abortion. Following the investigation and expertise from the department of fight against traffic and protection of minors, it turned out the monk was the real culprit.”

Nevertheless, even with all the proofs available, the victim’s family decided not to complaint about the case, arguing that the monk would financially provide for their needs. Thus, the case cannot be taken to court. “Immediately after the investigation, the teenager insisted that the monk write a letter to her father to make him confess to the crime,” Sao Pheareak indicated. “In fact, she was too sacred that her father would send her to work in Thailand and that she would be separated from a man whom she claimed she love.” To date, the monk is still charged by the department for the protection of minors.

The Great Divide

First of all, thank you to KI Media for the reminder for us to be more civil and constructive in our postings. Of my periodical perusal of these comments, I am at once encouraged and dismayed. Encouraged, by the lively engagement which is a welcoming developing step of democracy; dismayed, by the quality of this engagement.

The not-so-uplifting, not-so-constructive comments (regarding me or Madam Mu Sochua or Mr. Sam Rainsy, etc.) reminded me of a sermon I heard once, that the phrase "I don't like Mozart" says everything about the person making the utterance than anything about Mozart.

Of course, no one of us is claiming to be Mozart, and we know no one is perfect. And, God only knows how we all need humility (particularly as public voices with the unabashed goal to lift up society to a higher plane and quality of discourse and living) to heed constructive criticisms seriously. Dr. Mark Strom speaks of leadership requiring simultaneously humility and nobility which everyone of us can take heed.

The Great Divide, first published in May 2008 in The Phnom Penh Post as part of the Voice of Justice columns, still has resonances for us today.
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The Great Divide:
Opportunity costs of living in year 1008 when in 2008

Every time I ride through Oddar Meanchey from Samrong to Anlong Veng or cut through the hills and villages of Ratanakkiri, Mondolkiri, Stung Treng or weave through rice paddies of Svay Rieng, Prey Veng, Takeo, I am constantly taken aback by the changelessness and timelessness of the villages, lifestyles and mentality of my countrymen. It is as if I have been thrown back in lime to the dark ages or the year 1008; as if there is a great divide between my life in Phnom Penh and the rest of Cambodia: in Phnom Penh, I live in the year 2008; when I step outside of Phnom Penh, I am in the year 1008.

Historians have noted this frozen-in-time Cambodian setting; casual visitors (traditionally Westerners) have romanticized this timelessness as bucolic beauty to be preserved (of course, for the culture and traditions of the Cambodians, never for their enjoyment!). Rural Cambodia is one of the few places left where modem visitors can insert themselves into another millennium for a moment of their choosing in a manufactured manner, well-oiled with sunscreen and their Cafe Lattes in hand.

Without vs. within perspectives

The without perspective is beautiful and romantic because it is sanitized and temporary; running water, electricity to run the air conditioner, CNN and fresh sheets are awaiting us (be it in guesthouses, riverside apartments or suites at Le Royal) after our excursion from venturing into another millennium of 1008.

But what is it like to be trapped within the year 1008 while the rest of Phnom Penh and the world live in 2008? The within reality is often times Hobbesian - where there is "continual fear, and danger of violent death" and life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short". I am fortunate (or cursed!) to have the without and within perspectives, even if the within perspective of living in grinding poverty is now only a distant memory, but nonetheless still strong enough to know that I want to live in 2008 with the educational, health, material benefits and comfort that this affords. I can say with great certainty that my relatives in rural Svay Rieng, the villagers I met in Oddar Meanchey and elsewhere would also like the choice to live in the year 2008 with all its comforts and opportunities.

Opportunity cost

For me, the issue is best framed by asking, what are the opportunity costs of living in the year 1008 when in 2008? Well, let's first define "opportunity cost".

Scarcity of resources (including ideas!) underpins the basic concepts of economics. Scarcity requires trade-offs; trade-offs lead to an opportunity cost. While the cost of a good or service often is thought of in monetary terms, the opportunity cost of a decision (or idea!) is based on what must be given up (the next best alternative) as a result of the decision. Any decision that involves a choice between two or more alternatives has a sacrifice or opportunity cost.

An opportunity cost differs from an accounting cost in that accounting costs do not factor in foregone opportunities. Consider the case of an MBA student who pays US$5,000 per year in tuition and fees. For a two-year MBA program, the cost of tuition and fees would be US$10,000. This is the monetary (accounting) cost of the education.

However, in making the decision to return to school, a person is confronted with the opportunity cost of the income that the student would have earned from the alternative decision of remaining in a job. If the student had been earning US$20,000 a year, then US$40,000 in salary would be foregone as a result of the decision to return to school. This amount combined with the educational expenses results in the cost of US$50,000 for the degree.

Opportunity cost is useful when evaluating the costs and benefits of choices. It often is expressed in nonmonetary terms - the real cost of output foregone, lost time, pleasure or any other benefit that provides utility. It expresses the tension between scarcity and choice; it is the choice between desirable, yet mutually exclusive results. Stated differently, opportunity cost is expressed in relative price, the price of one choice relative to the price of another.

Back to the Great Millennial Divide

The concept of opportunity cost has a wide range of applications, including consumer choice, production possibilities, cost of capital, time management, career choice, analysis of comparative advantages. Here, I want to relate the application of opportunity costs to governance and public administration and management, and how poor governance and mismanagement - of government and civil society alike - contribute to the widening of the great millennial divide, whereby Cambodia lives simultaneously in the years 1008 and 2008, with the majority in a Hobbesian existence.

Every action has an opportunity cost. With one million dollars, Leader A builds 100,000 schools. With the same one million dollars, Leader B builds 1,000 schools of the same quality and size. What is the opportunity cost of poor leadership? 99,000 schools.

The opportunity costs of poor governance and mismanagement are the relegation of a people, of a nation to living in the year 1008, while the Phnom Penh elites and much of the rest of the world live in the year 2008 and use their knowledge and opportunities afforded by 2008 to exploit and suppress those limited by the opportunities and knowledge of 1008.

In sum, the opportunity costs of living in the year 1008 when in 2008 are education, health, culture, identity, dignity, grace and soulfulness foregone. The costs are lives and quality of life.

Theary C. SENG, former director of Center for Social Development (March 2006—July 2009), founded the Center for Justice & Reconciliation (www.cjr-cambodia.org) and is currently writing her second book, under a grant, amidst her speaking engagements.

Rising rice prices are threatening Cambodia's poor despite the country's economic progress

For many impoverished Cambodian families, food prices are prohibitively high (Photo: WFP Cambodia)
A map of Cambodia highlighting the 10 provinces identified by WFP as having critically high levels of malnutrition (Photo: ReliefWeb)

CAMBODIA: Mapping food security to target the needy

PHNOM PENH, 26 March 2008 (IRIN) - Rising rice prices are threatening Cambodia's poor despite the country's economic progress.

New buildings are shooting up all over Phnom Penh, modern shopping malls are opening, and more and more cars are crowding the streets of the capital city as the country’s economy continues to grow.

But even in the capital there are numerous street children and families who have to scavenge and beg to make ends meet.

In Cambodia's rural areas the situation is even worse.

"It is absolutely appalling in the countryside, where poverty and unemployment are omni-present," Thomas Keusters, director of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) in Cambodia told IRIN.

"It strikes me if you drive around Phnom Penh you see a lot of development and improvement in the living conditions of the people in the urban areas. There is a definite economic boom in Cambodia. But drive 20km outside the capital city and you are in areas of very dire poverty," he said.

Online food security map

WFP recently launched an online updated food security map of Cambodia help identify the areas most vulnerable to food scarcity.

"The atlas gives a clearer picture of where we need to target our assistance," Keusters said. "It will also help track how successful our efforts have been, and document this improvement over the coming years."

Malnutrition is the agency’s key indicator of poverty and food scarcity - and the picture for Cambodia remains grim even though there has been substantial improvement over the past 10 years.

According to UN figures, except for East Timor, Cambodia has the highest rate of malnutrition in the region.

Almost four out of every 10 Cambodian children suffer from stunted growth or are underweight – both key symptoms of malnutrition. This is 10 percent less than it was five years ago.

Government efforts

Aid officials say the government has backed co-ordinated efforts to combat Cambodia's poverty and boost development in the country's most vulnerable areas.

"The situation reports done by the UN and various development consultants are usually sponsored by the government with forewords written by the relevant minister," Keusters said.

"The atlas is merely a means to coordinate the information gathered and strengthen existing processes," he added. "It's in the spirit of the government and the donors' harmonisation and alignment policy, and more importantly the straightforward principle of: if you have many people who are targeting the same areas the effect of the assistance would be multiplied."

The web atlas is designed to function with simple browsers, small size screens and lower speed internet connections (56kb) to make it more accessible to people in Cambodia's rural areas.

It can be reached through the Council for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD), a focal point for assistance to the Cambodian government for the development of the agricultural and rural development sectors.

"The site is well presented and consolidates an expanse of useful information," said independent development specialist Robert Vokey, who is also a regular visitor to Cambodia.

"But I think that the site would benefit from a regularly updated 'Market Watch' feature which tracked the prices of basic staples from the point of view of consumers."

Need for assessment

Unfortunately much of the information in the atlas is outdated. The latest health information is from 2005 and the socio-economic survey was conducted in 2004.

"We plan to add information from the national census currently being conducted by the government with substantial financial assistance from UNFPA [the UN Population Fund] and others," Keusters said.

The results of that census will be known in early 2009 and should significantly upgrade the atlas and broaden the scope of the map.

"Food security goes far beyond the production of sufficient food production, and is affected by poverty, maternal health, access to clean water and health services, as well as shocks such as natural disasters," the WFP official added.

The map has identified 10 hot spots – the provinces of Kampong Spueu, Kampong Thum, Mondol Kiri, Odar Mean Chey, Pursat, Preah Vihear, Prey Veang, Rotanakiri, Siem Reap and Stung Treng – where malnutrition levels are critically high.

"I hope the atlas will improve the handling of hunger in Cambodia by providing an important reference point in formulating future interventions," Keusters said. "As Cambodia faces new challenges such as climate change, changes in food availability and prices, high energy prices, globalisation and many more, we all need to plan better."

The UN and development community in Cambodia have worked with the government, especially CARD, on the Strategic Framework for Food Security and Nutrition Policy.

"Improving food security and nutrition is a development priority of the Royal Government of Cambodia," said Tao Seng Huor, a senior minister and Vice Chairman of CARD.

"Our challenge is to have good cooperation and efficient coordination mechanisms linking a wide range of stakeholders. The online atlas will be one of the useful tools to help us guide the process."

A number of actions have already been recommended to help improve the food security situation in Cambodia. These involve improving agricultural production – improved inputs, diversification of crops, better irrigation, education and technical skills training and attention to water and sanitation.

"I'm very optimistic about the future," Keusters said. "These recommendations are not going to be taken up in a week, or month or even a year. But I'm certain that in three, four or five years, we will see progress."