Cambodia: A pride shrouded in problems - កម្ពុជា៖ មោទនភាព​ដែល​ស្រោប​បញ្ហា​ប្រឈម​ជាច្រើន

ទីកន្លែង​ប្រជុំ​​​ជំនួបអាស៊ាន​នៅភ្នំពេញ - ASEAN meeting venue (RFI/Siv Channa)

សៅរ៍ 07 កក្កដា 2012
ដោយ ប៉ែន បូណា
Radio France Internationale

មោទនភាព​នេះ​គ្រាន់តែ​ជា ​គ្រឿង​កំដរ​ចិត្ត​មួយ​ប៉ុណ្ណោះ ប្រសិនបើ​គេ​ក្រឡេក​មើល​ទៅ​មុខ​ពីព្រោះ កម្ពុជា​ពេលនេះ កំពុង​ស្ថិតនៅ​ដាច់​ឆ្ងាយ​ពី​គេ​យ៉ាង​ខ្លាំង

ចាប់ពី​ចុង​សប្តាហ៍​នេះ​រហូតដល់​ថ្ងៃទី១៣កក្កដា រាជធានី​ភ្នំពេញ​កំពុង​រៀបចំ​ទទួល​កិច្ចប្រជុំ ថ្នាក់​រដ្ឋមន្ត្រីការបរទេស​អាស៊ាន វេទិកា​អាស៊ី​បូព៌ា និង​កិច្ចប្រជុំផ្សេងៗមួយចំនួនទៀត។ ពី​ទីក្រុង​ខ្មោច​ស្ងាត់ជ្រងំ មក​ជាទី​ណាត់ជួប​រប​ស់​ថ្នាក់ដឹកនាំ​ជាន់ខ្ពស់​ មកពី​បណ្តា​ប្រទេស​ជិត​ខាង និង​ក្នុង​ពិភពលោក គឺជា​របត់​នយោបាយ​ដ៏​សំខាន់​ដែល​គួរ​ជាទី​មោទនភាព។ ប៉ុន្តែ នៅលើ​ទិដ្ឋភាព​មួយ​ជ្រុង​ទៀត កម្ពុជា​ជា​ប្រទេស​ក្រីក្រ​ជាងគេ​យ៉ាងខ្លាំង​នៅឡើយ។ តើ​មាន​កិច្ចការ​ចំពោះមុខ​អ្វីខ្លះ​ដែល​រដ្ឋាភិបាល និង​ប្រជាពលរដ្ឋ​កម្ពុជា​ត្រូវបំពេញ​ដើម្បី​តាម​ឲ្យ​ទាន់​គេឯង​ក្នុង​តំបន់?

ចាប់តាំងពី​ថ្ងៃ​ម្សិលមិញ​មក យន្តហោះ​ដែល​ដឹក​ថ្នាក់ដឹកនាំសំខាន់ៗក្នុង​បណ្តា​ប្រទេស​អាស៊ាន និង​ពី​បណ្តា​ប្រទេសធំៗផ្សេងទៀត​រាប់ទាំង​មហាអំណាច​អាមេរិកាំង​ផង​បាន​បើក​តម្រង់​មក​ចុះចត​នៅ​ទីក្រុង​ភ្នំពេញ​សា​ជា​ថ្មី​​ម្តងទៀត។ ឥស្សរជន​ទាំងនោះ​បានមក​ជួបជុំគ្នា​ក្នុង​រាជធានី​របស់​កម្ពុជា​ ដើម្បី​ចូលរួម​ព្រឹត្តិការណ៍​អន្តរជាតិ​ដ៏​សំខាន់​ដែល​កម្ពុជា​ធ្វើជា​ម្ចាស់ផ្ទះ នោះ​គឺ​កិច្ចប្រជុំ​ថ្នាក់​រដ្ឋមន្ត្រី​ការបរទេស​អាស៊ាន​លើក​ទី៤៥,វេទិកា​តំបន់​អាស៊ាន កិច្ចប្រជុំ​កំពូល​ថ្នាក់​រដ្ឋមន្ត្រី​ការបរទេស​អាស៊ី​បូព៌ា និង​កិច្ចប្រជុំ​មួយ​ចំនួន​ទៀត។

UBC researchers tackle ‘hidden hunger’ in rural Cambodia [-30 years of CPP rule and Cambodia still suffers hunger?]

The project led by UBC researchers Tim Green and Judy McLean aims to increase and diversify food production and nutrition for small, rural households in Cambodia, largely headed by women farmers.

June 25, 2012
By TARA CARMAN
Vancouver Sun

University of B.C. researchers are spearheading a unique program aimed at ending chronic malnutrition among women and children in rural Cambodia.

Rural Cambodians tend to get around 80 per cent of their calories from rice, which is widely grown as a cash crop, explained Judy McLean of UBC’s faculty of land and food systems, who is leading the study with colleague Tim Green.

This over-reliance on rice has meant people don’t get enough animal protein and nutrient-rich vegetables, which are key sources of vitamins and minerals, McLean said. These deficiencies, particularly common in women and children, can result in anemia and make children less resistant to potentially fatal respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses. Such deficiencies also reduce children’s ability to learn, she said.

Street children at risk

A boy sells kramas along Sisowath Quay in Phnom Penh last night. Photograph: Derek Stout/Phnom Penh Post

Thursday, 14 June 2012
Khoun Leakhana and Xiaoqing Pi
The Phnom Penh Post

Street children in Cambodia were in danger of sexual abuse, human trafficking and traffic accidents when they peddled or begged, and their own families were often the perpetrators, NGOs yesterday told a conference aimed at focusing media and public attention to the issue.

“We are extremely sympathetic with the children who are forced to sell things on the streets by their parents,” Licadho’s Om Somath said.

Between 10,000 and 20,000 children work on the streets of Phnom Penh, according to a survey by local NGO Friends in 2001.

CPP who? ... Aaah, the party of the rich and powerful ... land-grabbers?

Homeless children stand as members of the ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) ride on their motorcycles during a local commune election campaign in Phnom Penh May 18, 2012. Cambodians will go to polls on June 3, 2012, to elect their local representatives called the commune councilors. A general election will be held next year. REUTERS/Samrang Pring

Families harming own children to beg

Meas Oun (centre), 45, sits with two of her four children (front) in Poipet town on Friday. Meas Oun and her children earn a living by begging in Thailand. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post

Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Sen David and Cassandra Yeap
The Phnom Penh Post

Dice roll and cards are dealt every day in the seven casinos along the Poipet-Thai border, but just five kilometres away in the ramshackle village of Kbal Spean, gamblers of a different sort are playing for much higher stakes: betting their and their children’s lives as they struggle to eke out a meagre living as beggars in Thailand.

The more than 100 families waiting there to cross the border hail from all over the country, says villager Mean Veasna, 36, rattling off Kampong Thom, Kandal, Kampot and Kratie provinces as some of the more common origin points.

Most of his neighbours came to work as beggars across the border, he says.

But while the stakes are high, the payoff is low – about 50 baht (US$1.60) per day.

Beer Girl's life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb-VLqkAeek

Cambodia must solve two big problems for takeoff

23 Apr 2012
By Martin Hutchinson
Reuters

(The author is a Reuters Breaking views columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

NEW YORK, April 23 (Reuters Breaking views) - Cambodia must solve two big problems to achieve the kind of rapid, sustained growth Asia's tiger economies have delivered. Opening its stock exchange on April 18 is a good start - it shows the country is relatively friendly to foreign investors and markets. But meeting the needs of a rapidly growing population will be expensive, and Cambodia's corruption is both dreadful and pervasive.

Cambodia's economic performance, at first glance, looks decent. It is expected by the Asian Development Bank to grow at 6.5 percent in 2012, around the same rate as in 2011. But with Cambodia's population growing 1.7 percent annually, GDP per capita is increasing at less than 5 percent. That means living standards are increasing more slowly than in richer Asian countries like Vietnam, India and China.

Feeding, educating and housing ever more Cambodians will be a challenge. Cambodia's population is increasing faster than the 1.1 percent annual growth in Vietnam and 1.3 percent in India, and will require large additional investments in infrastructure and services before growth can take off. The new stock market might assist at the margins by bringing in more foreign capital; more reliable pension provisions, making large families less of a necessity, would help too.

Corruption is the real enemy. Even for Asia, the country's property rights are poor, and it ranks with the worst global slums on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. The World Bank has ranked Cambodia one of the most difficult countries in which to start a small business, in terms of both time and cost. Solving the problem requires action at the top as well as a clean-up campaign throughout the various layers of state bureaucracy.

One day in the miserable life of garment factory worker Phav Chenda

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rT8NXOc8vQ

Only 2 percent are "thriving" in Cambodia ... guess who they are?

The 2 percent who are thriving in Cambodia

The remaining 98 percent who are struggling and suffering in Cambodia

Poll: 74 percent are 'thriving' in Denmark

WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- Worldwide, 24 percent say they are "thriving," from a high of 74 percent in Denmark to a low of 2 percent in Cambodia, surveys of 146 countries indicate.

The Gallup surveys involved face-to-face and telephone interviews of about 1,000 adults per country, age 15 and older, in 2011. Gallup classifies respondents as thriving, struggling, or suffering based on how they rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale with steps numbered from 0 to 10.

People were considered thriving if they rate their current lives a 7 or higher and their lives in five years an 8 or higher, Gallup officials said.

Life is not fair but it must be JUST

(Photo credit: M.)

ASEAN, welcome to Cambodia ... the most developed ASEAN country under Techo Hun Xen

Sam Rainsy Party Commits to Women in Local Politics – Ly Romdoul

Saturday, March 17, 2012
By Mu Sochua

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gYaJkBD6Ak

Ly Romdoul - Her story

First candidate on Sam Rainsy Party list for the June 3, 2012 local election.

"I am young but the Sam Rainsy Party has faith in me. I come from a poor family. I care for my grand-mother, my 5 siblings and manage house-work outside of school and farm work.

Like other villagers in my commune, I live off the fruit of the farm. From the small profits, I save for school. I must travel 40 kilometers each week-end to attend class at Battambang university.

Farming is hard work. When elected, I will organize the farmers who are mainly women to get higher price for our crops. I will not allow middle-men to give a low price to our beans, water melons and corn."

Sam Rainsy Party stays true to young women to find them place in politics.

Click here to contribute to Mu Sochua's Democracy Movement:

http://sochua.wordpress.com/donate/

CAMBODIA: A survival recipe -- attitude change, practice Buddha's teaching, engage in nonviolent action

This brings me to a recipe for Cambodians' survival: Cambodians need a change in attitude first and foremost, including a reexamination of Lord Buddha's teachings to make a new Cambodia. When enough Cambodians understand and follow Buddha's true path, a new society can be developed; successful dealings with expansionist neighbors to the East and aggressive neighbors to the West can be initiated; and the generalized fear of Cambodia's extinction may be assuaged.

15 March 2012
Source: http://www.humanrights.asia/opinions/columns/AHRC-ETC-009-2012

My article last month in this space brought comforting and kind words in e-mails from some Cambodian and non-Cambodian readers, to whom I am grateful. It's they who encourage me to have hope in Cambodians' abilities to find ways to effect change.

I continue to receive requests from readers in Cambodia to provide translations from English of my articles for "Lok Ta, Lok.Yeay, Pou, Mign" (the elders) to read. I was touched by taxi-driver Svang Huy, a graduate with a bachelor's degree in English literature, who asked permission to translate into Khmer my articles compiled in Loyola Marymount University Professor Sovathana Sokhom's book (2011), What is Your Ten Minutes Worth? I am heartened at the interest expressed by those who clearly want to learn. I encouraged Svang Huy not to get hung up with specific words translation, but to adapt my ideas into Khmer. If he does this, I have promised to go over his finished product one article at a time.

Arguments and counterarguments

Proponents of the "filled stomach" and "stability" perspectives supported by Hun Sen and the ruling Cambodian Peoples' Party which asserts that positive change will come only after the people are contented with "full stomachs" and a cessation of significant political dissent and provide data and photographs in support of their position. Similarly, regime opponents highlight areas that sorely need reform and improvement.

A "Cambodia observer" writes, "We must give peace and stability in Cambodia a chance, while helping to develop Cambodia in the 'appropriate' and ‘equitable' direction." A Cambodian elder scoffs: The current leadership has been in control "virtually solo" for 33 years, a period during which forced evictions, land-grabbing, deforestation, the sale of the country's natural wealth, among others degradations, have steadily increased; fear and intimidation are used to keep people cowed.

Taboo thesis topics

Of interest, Cambodians from around the world are engaged in an Internet discussion of a little publicized story from Cambodia's Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), which issued to its fourth year students a list of research topics that are prohibited. The list includes, among other topics, "drug problem in society," "the organization and the working of the Cambodian Red Cross," "the goal and the legal resolution of land dispute resolutions in Cambodia," "the resolution of land disputes by the authority in Cambodia." Oh, dear.

Discussions on the Cambodian Red Cross led by Bun Rany Hun Xen is a taboo

An employer wrote: "I used to interview many university graduates and I have rarely [been] satisfied with their skills and knowledge. I would say most of them are uncooked [sic] and equipped with poor quality. All in all, my top question is: How can Cambodia compete with others when ASEAN is integrated in 2015? Do we take pride of cheap labor cost compared to other members of ASEAN?"

(Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

Earlier this month, the Phnom Penh Post's "A tough place to call home" reported about a family from Prey Veng province living in Phnom Penh's cement pipes, circumstances they have called home for the past two years as they dream of "a better life." A Western visitor to Cambodia writes: "If you wander around the streets and parks of Phnom Penh, you will run into refugees from the stagnant and impoverished countryside like this all over the place. Apparently most of them feel that living in pipes, or even on the street, is better than returning to the hopeless situation that they left in Prey Veng, or wherever they came from."

The visitor spoke to a family at the base of Wat Phnom with belongings beside them still wrapped in a blanket: "They seemed to have no idea what they were going to do in Phnom Penh but hope that life in the city would be better than where they came from. It is a sad situation."

Skyscrapers as development

Images of bustling Cambodian metropolitan cities, adorned with high rises and skyscrapers, latest model vehicles, crowded markets and restaurants, and camera-toting tourists, are equated with progress and development.

Canadia Bank Tower (Photo: Flickr)

Last February 9, at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Prime Minister Hun Sen told the nation that the construction of high rises and skyscrapers should not occur only in Phnom Penh, but all over the country. Again, oh dear!

Inauguration of the Dreamland amusement park by Hun Manet, Hun Xen's son and possibly his heir

A young girl who will never set feet at the Dreamland amusement park.

My father died from hunger - A video by Oeurn Savann

My father died from hunger from savann.oeurm on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/31705917

Long line waiting to be admitted to the Kantha Bopha Hospital in Siem Reap

(All Photos Courtesy of Theary Seng)

Soeun Sam - a proud handicap bookseller in Phnom Penh: Interview by Theary Seng

Soeun Sam lost both of his hands from landmine when he was a former soldier fighting with the KR along Dangrek Mountain. Although he is handicapped, he refused to beg for a living, instead he sells books along Quai Sisowath in Phnom Penh. "Whether people want to by books from me or not, I don't mind, I have nothing to be disappointed with. I refuse to beg, I want to lead a dignified life!", Sam said. With his positive outlook on life, Soeun Sam only cares about the education of his children who still live in his village in Mesang district, Prey Veng province. As a veteran soldier, he owns no land and his family still live with other people while he earns a meager living in Phnom Penh. One cannot help but admire the courage and cheerfulness of this proud handicap man. If you meet him along Quai Sisowath or elsewhere in Phnom Penh, you can help him by buying books from him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Guv-Wt7Dsjc

Where is Mesang district, Prey Veng province:

Lakeside women turn entrepreneurs

Boeung Kak lakeside resident Tol Srey Pau makes a purse at the home of community representative Tep Vanny yesterday. (Photo by: Touch Yin Vannith)

Friday, 30 December 2011
Khouth Sophakchakrya
The Phnom Penh Post

Many women living in communities around the capital’s Boeung Kak lake who have lost employment after spending years shielding their homes from the impact of a real estate development have begun creating handicrafts in order to support their families.

About 30 women divided into four groups arrive daily to work in shifts on seven sewing machines in the house of former Village 22 representat-ive Tep Vanny, producing handbags for sale.

“We are hopeful and confident that our houses will not be lost. That is why we initiated to create some jobs for income,” Tep Vanny told the Post yesterday.

In 2007, local firm Shukaku Inc was granted a 99-year lease on 133 hectares of land around the lake for a real-estate development project.

Techo's economic policy? - Question by Anonymous

This handicap person sells flower to car drivers along a major thoroughfare in Phnom Penh. This is better than begging, but making a living this way is very dangerous because of the busy street. (Photo: Everyday.com.kh)

Toeur Kror Men Roeu? (Are you really poor?) - Poem in Khmer by Salen Sy

Pol Kror Dol Na? (How long will you say you are poor?) - Poem in Khmer by Salen Sy