The first day of the "Pchum Ben" festival, also known as "Festival of the Dead", at a temple in Phnom Penh, September 15, 2008.

A woman prays during the first day of the "Pchum Ben" festival, also known as "Festival of the Dead", at a temple in Phnom Penh, September 15, 2008. Cambodians throughout the country visit temples during the 15-day festival to offer prayers to loved ones who have passed away.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)

Buddhists monks look on as people offer rice during the first day of the "Pchum Ben" festival, also known as "Festival of the Dead", at a temple in Phnom Penh, September 15, 2008. Cambodians throughout the country visit temples during the 15-day festival to offer prayers to loved ones who have passed away.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)

Women light incense during the first day of the "Pchum Ben" festival, also known as "Festival of the Dead", at a temple in Phnom Penh, September 15, 2008. Cambodians throughout the country visit temples during the 15-day festival to offer prayers to loved ones who have passed away.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)

Women light incense during the first day of the "Pchum Ben" festival, also known as "Festival of the Dead", at a temple in Phnom Penh, September 15, 2008. Cambodians throughout the country visit temples during the 15-day festival to offer prayers to loved ones who have passed away.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)

A woman lights incense during the first day of the "Pchum Ben" festival, also known as "Festival of the Dead", at a temple in Phnom Penh, September 15, 2008. Cambodians throughout the country visit temples during the 15-day festival to offer prayers to loved ones who have passed away.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)

Thai soldiers leave Cambodian Ta Krabey temple

www.chinaview.cn

2008-09-15

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- After a tense two-day stand-off, Thai soldiers have withdrawn from Cambodia's Ta Krabey temple and are now stationed some 200 meters from the cliff-top sanctuary, national media reported Monday.

"Both (Thailand and Cambodia's) armed forces have withdrawn their troops from the temple," Ho Bunthy, deputy commander of Border Military Unit 402, was quoted by the Phnom Penh Post as saying.

On Wednesday last week, 145 Thai soldiers occupied the temple, which had been controlled by Cambodia for years, and refused to leave.

"The temple has always been under our control but when the Thai soldiers refused to leave we guarded the temple next to them," Ho Bunthy was quoted as saying.

The withdrawal came after meetings between Thai and Cambodian military commanders held this weekend, during which both sides agreed to withdraw all soldiers to their respective bases approximately 200 meters from the newly-contested site to "avoid armed confrontation", Ho Bunthy said.

Editor: Bi Mingxin

A guide to saving and investing

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Trevor Keidan
Tuesday, 16 September 2008

ANALYSIS

By Trevor Keidan

• PHNOM PENH - One only has to drive along Norodom Boulevard to see that Cambodia's banking sector is thriving ... and growing. It seems that almost every week a new bank or banking branch is being opened, built or planned.

Many Cambodian and Cambodia-based banks are now offering retail banking services such as checking accounts, savings accounts, loans, debit cards and credit cards. And, while most of us are familiar with everyday banking services, some of us are less familiar with saving and investment.

To begin with, it is important to differentiate between saving and investing. Put simply, saving is the act of putting aside a portion of our income or earnings now to accumulate an amount that we can spend later.

Most of us save because we either want to buy or achieve something. For example we might want to save to buy a car. Or, we might want to save to start our own business.

However, our first priority should really be to save for a ‘rainy day' or an emergency.Setting up an emergency fund is simple. It is merely a savings account that offers easy access and (preferably) a high rate of return. Such accounts are offered by most high-street banks, and it is just a matter of choosing which account suits us best. Here are some of the features we must look at when looking for a savings account:

• Interest Rate What is the amount of money the bank will pay us as an interest rate on our money? This is usually stated as an annual yield in percent.

• Fees What fees and/or penalties will the bank charge us for transactions and/or if our balance falls below the minimum balance requirement?

• Balances What balance earns what interest? Often banks will pay different interest rates for different balances.

• Payments How will our interest be paid? Some banks calculate payments based on a daily balance while others will use the average of all the daily balances in the month.

Armed with the correct information, we should be able to choose which savings account suits our objectives. And with that in mind, we can now turn to investing.

" OUR INVESTMENTS SHOULD BE AIMED AT FINANCING OUR LONGER-TERM GOALS. "

It is important to realise that investing can earn significantly higher returns than those achieved from standard interest rates in ordinary savings accounts. It is also important to realise that there is an element of risk when it comes to investing. This risk, however, can be managed through the use of careful research and diversification of investments.

As a general rule, we should invest for the long term as opposed to the "quick fix" in the knowledge that investments can go up as well as down. Our investments should be aimed at financing our longer-term goals such as a house purchase, children's schooling or our retirement.

As any financial adviser will tell you there are literally thousands of different types of investments geared to suit each and every type of investor. So to begin with, we will focus on the most common - funds, stocks and bonds:

• Funds When we buy into a fund we are effectively "pooling" our financial resources with those of others. This "pooling" of resources enables the fund to own thousands of different types of investments from stocks to bonds to property and even cash. This allows us to diversify our portfolio and spread the risk amongst the fund's numerous investments. We can also choose a managed fund that has a professional adviser tracking and managing our investment.

• Stocks When we buy stocks, we are actually buying into a share of a company's profit, losses and assets. Many (but not all) stocks pay out a dividend, which is a share in the company's profits that is divided among the company's stockholders and paid to us quarterly. In addition, should the price of the stock go up, we would stand to make a profit by selling our stock on the stock market. However, there are many factors influencing a company's stock (or share) price, so it is advised that investors obtain the advice of a professional financial adviser or stockbroker.

• Bonds The principle of bonds is as follows: We effectively loan our money to an agency or company for a set period of time. In return for using our money for the agreed amount of time the agency or company pays us interest on the amount we have lent. This interest can be paid out as a fixed interest or fixed income - hence the expression fixed-income investments. In addition to the income payments we will also receive the full-amount of our loan upon maturity of the bond. As a general rule we should plan to hold bonds until they mature.

Trevor Keidan is managing director of Infinity Financial Solutions. Infinity Financial Solutions provides impartial, tailor-made personal financial advice to clients in Cambodia and Southeast Asia. Should you wish to contact Trevor, please send an email to tkeidan@infinsolutions.com
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
. Trevor welcomes comments and questions about his articles or any other financial matters.

S’ville needs deep-water harbour, port official says

NGUON SOVAN; A loader manoeuvres containers at the Sihanoukville port.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Nguon Sovan
Tuesday, 16 September 2008

The Sihanoukville Autonomous Port chief says Cambodia doesn't need more than one port, and he has a good idea which one should survive

THE lack of a deep-water harbor for large cargo ships in Sihanoukville is costing the port US$50 million in lost revenues each year, Lou Kim Chhun, chairman and CEO of the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port (SAP), told the Post last week.

He added that too many ports in Cambodia have weakened the national economy by spreading out larger shipments in smaller parcels throughout the Kingdom.

"Based on its economy of scale, Cambodia only needs the Sihanoukville Autonomous Port," Lou Kim Chhun said.He said large shipments must currently arrive at larger ports in Singapore or Vietnam and then get separated into smaller shipments for transport to Cambodia, adding as much as $500 in extra fees per container.

"If we had one deep-water port, and if we couldincrease our throughput to one million containers, ships carrying large cargo shipments would dock in our port," he said.

He said with other ports in Sihanoukville, as well as those in Phnom Penh and the forthcoming Kampot port, capacity is diminished by being spread over a larger area that can handle only small amounts of cargo.

"If larger ships could dock at our port, the economy would be able to compete with our neighbours," he said. "Without that ability, we're not able to process as many containers and will lose as much as $50 million a year in revenues."

Lou Kim Chhun said he faces mounting competition from Sihanoukville's Oknha Mong port, which deals primarily in goods coming in from Thailand.

Tann Monivann, vice president of the Oknha Mong port, said Lou Kim Chhun's comments were motivated by self-interest.

"He is simply trying to protect the advantage of his port," he said. "If Lou Kim Chhun wants a deep-water port, he should build one and enjoy the advantages, but it makes no sense to say Cambodia needs only one port.

"Lou Kim Chhun said the SAP will eventually include a deep-water harbor, along with several other planned improvements to take advantage of growing annual revenues.

"This year, we expect to increase throughput to 2 million tonnes, with revenues of $28.8 million," he said.

The SAP will add a Special Economic Zone in 2009 on 70 hectares of land adjacent to the port, he said, adding that he hoped the port would match the quality and capacity of regional ports in the next four years. Other projects include a 13.5-metre-deep port for heavy cargo and a shallower 7.5-metre-deep port for a new oil supply terminal projected to begin construction in 2011. "We are building in anticipation of demand rather than letting the demand wait on the port," he said.

Beware hidden prejudices

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by David Peters
Tuesday, 16 September 2008

Dear Editor,"Proselytising amid the Poverty" by Sebastian Strangio was an informative, fair and balanced inquiry into the activity of Christian and other non-Christian missionary efforts in Cambodia. However, Sophan Seng's recent letter (dated September 9) to the editor entitled "Not-so Christian charity" is anything but. His response is misinformed and dangerously imbalanced.

For example, Mr Seng asserts that the church has "adapted its strategies to limit the changes of the world with the intent of keeping the status quo, of continuing to spread the Christian doctrine as well as civilising others". The unfounded nature of this assertion and of his paranoia about Christian methods and motives is boldly underscored by the work of groups [who] are focused on helping people break the cycle of poverty ... regardless of whether those they serve ever convert to Christianity or not.

Mr Seng demonstrates either an unwillingness or inability to consider counter-examples against his thesis when he equates Christian missionary work with the colonising work done in the past by the Catholic church, or with those who appropriated Hobbesean philosophy as a part of their missionary impetus. These are simply not representative of contemporary Christian missionary work, no matter how "academically" one tries to dress up the assertions.

Certainly ignorance and colonialist hubris have been characteristic of some missionary work historically, and those should be acknowledged, condemned and prevented from repeating. Indeed, the appropriate place for the "dead, white European male", with his "white man's burden", is somewhere in a crypt in Paris or London. However, many current missionaries are more aware of the evils committed in the name of God than critics like Mr Seng, and are eager to avoid those evils.

Mr Seng has succeeded only in attacking a straw man. It is easy to knock down straw men. It is much more difficult to acknowledge your own prejudices and to admit the atrocities which can be born from them. It is much harder to find fault with, for example, those missionaries who are eager to communicate love, value, and worth to young girls sold against their wills into prostitution - again, regardless of whether those same girls ever become Christians or not. Stone-throwing from ivory towers should not be permitted to hinder such worthy work.

Cambodia's heritage of religious tolerance is commendable, and right. It implicitly gives credit to the discernment and intelligence of the Cambodian people, and provides a context in which good examples can shine and proliferate and bad ones be shamed and eliminated.

Cambodia's history provides some sobering lessons about what happens when intolerance runs amok. As the government of Cambodia contemplates the balance between religious freedom and regulation of religious activity (Christian or otherwise), I urge it to recognise prejudicial intolerance like Mr Seng's for what it is, and to leave it out of their consideration.

David Peters
Philosophy professor,
Florida Christian College

Saving Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains, one frog at a time

JEREMY HOLDEN; A child in the Cardamom Mountains holds aloft a Hoplobatrachus frog.

Voyage TO THE WILDERNESS, IN STYLE
When conservation group Fauna & Flora International started working in Cambodia in 1996, the Cardamom Mountains were a heavily mined, malaria hot zone still occupied by Khmer Rouge soldiers. Now, FFI is intent on paving new tourism channels to the Cardamoms, aided by an improved road network that has cut the commute from Phnom Penh to Pramaowee – the site of the organisation’s headquarters in Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary in Pursat – from a day to a few hours. A road under construction on the Thai side of the border connecting to Thmor Da in Koh Kong province should also improve road access to the area. Their plan is to shuttle tourists from Phnom Penh to the Cardamoms for weeklong trips of hiking in the mountains and kayaking in the Pursat River. “We couldn’t have done this before, the area was too unstable.… Finally, the Cardamoms are starting to open up,” said David Bradfield, head of FFI’s work in Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary. A percentage of profits will go into conservation efforts in the area.

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Brendan Brady
Tuesday, 16 September 2008

Cambodia is home to one of the largest intact swaths of forest in Southeast Asia that owes its relatively pristine nature, in part, to the Khmer Rouge and local animist beliefs

AN abundance of land mines and Khmer Rouge fighters had until recently made Cambodia's Cardamom Mountains hostile ground for the last three decades. But the very isolation that cut the region off from visitors and developers has helped shield its habitats.

Often referred to as the Southwest Elephant Corridor, the Cardamom Mountains contain the largest and most intact evergreen rainforest remaining in mainland Southeast Asia, covering more than 1.5 million hectares. They also form one of only a handful of places in the world where a hiker can trek from sea level to above 1,700 metres - the peaks of Phnom Aural and Phnom Samkos - under a continuous forest canopy.

Since the area opened up at the turn of the century, it has gained the attention of wildlife conservationists, naturalists and biologists globally. The mountains have been identified as "one of the most important areas for biodiversity conversation in Asia" by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and as a Global Biodiversity Hotspot by Conservation International.

The mountains also contain hundreds of endemic species that occur nowhere else in Cambodia or the rest of the world, including unique mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects and plants, according to Jenny Daltry, a conservation biologist for Fauna & Flora International.

"For the scientific community, the Cardamom Mountains represent not only a relatively pristine ecosystem for study... but a rare opportunity for many new and exciting discoveries," Daltry said.

Unexplored territory

Fauna & Flora International are holding an exhibition of photographs, "Fauna and Flora in the Cardamom Mountains", at the Foreign Correspondents' Club from September 15 to 25. The conservation group is also hosting a book launch of the first Field Guide to the Amphibians of Cambodia on September 16 at the FCC.

The mountains were virtually unexplored by researchers prior to the first joint FFI-government surveys in 1999, and even now, only about 10 percent of the range has been explored by professional biologists, Daltry said.

" THE CARDAMOM MOUNTAINS REPRESENT [A] RELATIVELY PRISTINE ECO SYSTEM FOR STUDY. "

"When we find a new discovery, it's essential we send it out to international experts for research," said Jeremy Holden, a wildlife photographer with 15 years' experience in the region whose photographs are featured in the amphibian book and are the focus of the FCC photography exhibit. He has been shooting in the Cardamoms for nearly a decade.

"What we are finding more and more with plants and animals in the Cardamoms is that it's a new species," he said, citing as an example a new variety of the carnivorous Pitcher plant as one that is "currently being looked at by the world's leading plants experts... (who) still don't know what it is".

Featured in the amphibian field guide are several species unique to the Cardamoms, including Chiromantis Samkosensis, or the Samkos tree frog. The latest marquee discovery in the area, it has been spotted only three times since 2007. Green blood and turquoise bones distinguish it from all other frog species, which have white bones and red blood.

Other highlights in the book are the Gheckos Cyrtodactylus Intermedius and Chemaspis Neangthyi, the latter being named after the amphibian field guide's author, Cambodian conservationist Thy Neang, who has worked in the Cardamoms for five years with the Ministry of Environment and Fauna & Flora International.

Struggling to conserve

"Conservation in Cambodia is very difficult. It's always very slow, you can only succeed a little bit at a time. There has been some damage but if there wasn't conservation work it might be destroyed," Thy Neang said, naming logging, hydroelectric developments and land clearing for property sales as the biggest threats.

FFI has advocated a localised approach to conservation in the Cardamoms since most poaching there has been committed by "community people who may see it as an advantage to make a buck here or there" and not by relentless, heavily armed bands like those made notorious in parts of Africa, according to David Bradfield, head of the organisation's work in Mount Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary.

In recruiting rangers, FFI sought local villagers with extensive experience in the forest, even if they were former poachers. "These people know the area exceptionally well, and we've turned their skills around," he said.

He rejected the view that Cambodia is too poor to prioritise conservation. The Cardamoms' massive forest cover is essential for the watershed process that feeds the country's agriculture and is essential even for developers, since "otherwise the hydroelectric dams will be clogged by silt", he said.

In addition to possessing a unique habitat, the Cardamom Mountains also support around 60 species that are classed as globally threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, such as the Asian elephant, banteng, pileated gibbon, white-winged wood duck, hairy-nosed otter and the Siamese crocodile.

Having been aggressively hunted for its coveted leather, this latter species was thought to be effectively extinct in 1992 but was rediscovered in 2000 in the Cardamons. A population of a couple hundred has since been found in Southeast Asia.

The unusually shy variety compared to its larger, ferocious cousins has benefited from unusual sources of help in the Cardamoms.

The Khmer Rouge who ruled over the area imposed a moratorium on hunting large game, including the big reptile. And the cult worship of an animist minority group living there, the Chhong, has helped preserve local populations of the species.

"In their culture, if you catch or harm a crocodile, it can bring bad luck to the whole village. That's gone a long way to protecting these crocodiles," explained Boyd Simpson, FFI's crocodile specialist.

He said little-known species, like the Siamese crocodile, could hold tremendous value to the larger scientific community.

"Anti-microbial properties have been discovered in the blood of some crocodile species, ones that have been effective in killing kinds of bacteria that have otherwise proved very difficult to kill," he said. "We still don't know the potential of what the Siamese crocodile has to offer in this regard."

New regulations concerning evacuation procedures and the right to keep and bear weapons

Cambodge Soir

15-09-2008

Presided by Prime Minister Hun Sen, the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers on Friday 12 September resulted in the ratification of three new sub-decrees.

Presided by Prime Minister Hun Sen, the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers on Friday 12 September resulted in the ratification of three new sub-decrees.

The first sub-decree concerns the evacuation procedures of the residents living in danger zones. Composed of three chapters and ten articles, it guarantees the safety of goods and people in case of natural disaster. The Ministers of National Defence and Interior will have the responsibility to lay out the evacuation procedures in areas facing an imminent danger.

The second sub-decree determines rules concerning the right to keep and bear firearms and other explosive products within the police and army forces. It also concerns all employees and is composed of five chapters and 22 articles.

Finally, the last sub-decree relates to the introduction of the logo of the Minister of Parliamentary Relations and Inspection. It is composed of four articles.

Cambodia considers filing a complaint against Thailand

Cambodge Soir

15-09-2008

Following last Wednesday’s intrusion of Thai soldiers in the Dongrek Mountains, Prime Minister Hun Sen considers bringing the case before an international court.

On Friday 12 September, at a meeting of the Council of Ministers, Hun Sen requested his government to thoroughly arrange all necessary documents in order to file a complaint against Thailand before an international tribunal, or even before the UN Security Council.

The intrusion of Thai soldiers on the territory, Wednesday 10 September, has indeed once more stirred up the tensions between both countries regarding the temples located near the Thai border. The dispute started on the 15th of July in Preah Vihear after the invasion of the site by Thai troops. At that time Cambodia had sent a letter to the UN Security Council but had deferred the demand in order to start bilateral negotiations with Thailand, at the request of the latter. Besides the withdrawal of troops in Preah Vihear these negotiations only brought some limited results.

Thai soldiers leave Ta Krabey

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Thet Sambath
Tuesday, 16 September 2008

AFTER a tense two-day stand-off, Thai soldiers have withdrawn from Ta Krabey temple and are now stationed some 200 metres from the cliff-top sanctuary.

"Both [Thailand and Cambodia's] armed forces have now withdrawn their troops from the temple," Ho Bunthy, deputy commander of Border Military Unit 402, told the Post Sunday.

On Wednesday, 145 Thai soldiers occupied the temple - which has been controlled by Cambodia for years - and refused to leave for two days, instead standing side by side with the Cambodian military.

"The temple has always been under our control but when the Thai soldiers refused to leave we guarded the temple next to them," Ho Bunthy said.

The withdrawal comes after meetings between Thai and Cambodian military commanders held this weekend, during which both sides agreed to withdraw all soldiers to their respective bases approximately 200 metres from the newly-contested site to "avoid armed confrontation", Ho Bunthy said.

Despite the compromise on Ta Krabey, the situation at nearby Preah Vihear, where a standoff over disputed land is stretching into its second month, remains the same, said Yim Phim, commander of Brigade 43.

"Nothing has changed," Yim Phim told the Post Sunday, adding that troops from both sides were still at their posts.

Govt to take temple row to the UN

The Phnom Penh Post

Written by Vong Sokheng
Tuesday, 16 September 2008

As talks yield few results, UN intervention will be sought

PRIME Minister Hun Sen will again seek international arbitration in Cambodia's ongoing dispute with Thailand over contested border territory adjacent to Preah Vihear temple, according to government officials.

Hun Sen told his Cabinet Friday that he plans to take the issue back to the UN Security Council and to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Phay Siphan, spokesman for the Council of Ministers, quoted Hun Sen as saying the council should prepare documentation and evidence in the likely event it needed to return to the Security Council, following delays in talks with the beleaguered Thai government.

"Thai soldiers have continued their invasion of Cambodian territory, threatening the Kingdom's security. Now we are compiling more documents and evidence of this invasion," Phay Siphan said.

On July 22, Cambodia made an appeal to the Security Council during its military standoff with Thailand at the World Heritage-listed temple, but withdrew the complaint two days later after Thailand agreed to hold immediate talks on the issue. But discussions over a full troop withdrawal have stagnated, with the Thais requesting a postponement due to political tensions in Bangkok.

Union leader Rong Chhun told the Post Sunday that he had written to King Norodom Sihamoni, requesting that the monarch submit the border dispute to the UN Security Council and the International Court of Justice.

"We see that the invasion by Thai soldiers is getting more serious and the government has no clear political will over the issue," Rong Chhun said.

He added that the ruling Cambodian People's Party was delaying the border dispute to boost its popularity.

The row erupted after Cambodia's arrest of three Thai nationalist protesters on July 15, whom authorities allege crossed illegally into Cambodia close to the disputed temple site.

Since then, Thailand and Cambodia have been building up their forces near the temple and tensions have escalated, spreading to other temple sites along the border.

Cambodia approves two new sub-decrees to manage weapon use

www.chinaview.cn

2008-09-15

PHNOM PENH, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Council of Ministers of Cambodia has approved two related sub-decrees that allow the Ministries of Interior and Defense to manage people's weapons and evacuate areas deemed dangerous by their proximity to suspected explosives, national media reported Monday.

The sub-decrees are aimed at protecting the public and preventing danger that could harm lives or property, the Cambodia Daily newspaper said, citing a Council of Ministers statement.

The new sub-decree, which allows relevant authorities to evacuate both public and private land, will help provide people with security, Defense Minister Tea Banh was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

"In case of emergency, we will evacuate people, people who are living close to the Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) zone or an old weapons warehouse that could be dangerous," he said.

Tea Banh said the other sub-decree is aimed at controlling the proliferation of arms within Cambodia.

The Interior and Defense Ministries will jointly spearhead efforts to collect unauthorized arms and register all the weapons in Cambodia, he added.

Editor: Bi Mingxin

Piracy of movie discs killing Cambodian cinema says official

M&C Asia-Pacific News
Sep 15, 2008

Phnom Penh - Cambodian cinematographers are turning more and more towards making shorter, less expensive karaoke videos because of rising production costs and poorly enforced laws against movie piracy, an official said Monday.

Cambodia joined the World Trade Organization in 2003 and because of its Least Developed Country status has been given until 2013 to comply with the body's strict intellectual property regulations and eliminate bootlegging.

However Cambodia's DVD and CD industry is currently almost entirely built on pirating, and despite raids commencing last week aiming at stamping out sales of copied Cambodian and Thai products, even officials admit the problem will take years to tackle.

'We get far more requests for permission to make karaoke videos than movies now,' director of the Cinema and Cultural Diffusion Department responsible for giving official permission to original local productions, Kong Kantara, said in an interview.

'Requests for permits for both movies and karaoke clips are very much down in recent years, but cinema is losing badly to karaoke.'

He said so far this year the department had only had a handful of requests for movie production permits, all from foreigners and mostly for documentaries and karaoke permits were much more common, although he could not immediately give exact figures.

Cambodian movie directors and producers have said pirating is so rampant that they stand little or no chance of recouping the production costs for a full-length feature before cheap bootlegs hit the markets and wipe out all chance of profits.

Karaoke videos are cheaper and have a faster turnaround time, making them a better bet for investors, according to industry observers.

Thailand testing Cambodia's patience, says government

M&C Asia-Pacific News
Sep 15, 2008

Phnom Penh - Last week, Cambodia said it was content to be patient with Thailand over disputed border areas, but claims Thai troops had moved into a third border temple area over the weekend have freshly irked Cambodia, the government said Monday.

Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said by telephone that claims Thai troops had moved into an area close to Ta Krabey temple, close to the Ta Moan temple complex which is also in dispute, had angered the government and Cambodia was preparing to appeal to a 'third international party' to intervene.

'We are preparing our documents. We will see if Thailand changes its character or not. If not, we will go to an international agency to mediate,' Kanharith said.

Thai troops moved into what Thailand says is disputed territory and Cambodia says is sovereign around the 11th century Preah Vihear temple in July, just a week after UNESCO awarded the temple World Heritage listing over Thai objections.

Ta Moan, 150 kilometres to the west, soon also drew Cambodian complaints, with claims of Thai encroachment, and now Ta Krabey.

Thailand says the claims are baseless and it has always had troops stationed near the latter two temples.

Last week Kanharith said Cambodia was prepared to give Thailand time to sort out its turbulent political affairs before delayed bilateral border talks, several rounds of which have so far failed to reach an agreement, were resumed.

However local media, including Khmer-language Rasmei Kampuchea daily, reported over the weekend that Prime Minister Hun Sen's patience has been tested over the latest developments and he had called for all relevant authorities to prepare a case to take to an international mediator which Cambodia has not yet identified.

Living with Land Mines exhibit opens today at CBU

Photographer V. Tony Hauser holds a portrait of a young Cambodian man named Srei who lost parts of his limbs as the result of an exploding land mine. Hauser was hanging his exhibit, Living with Land Mines, Portraits of Cambodians, in the halls of Cape Breton University, Sunday. The photos will be on display beginning today. Steve Wadden - Cape Breton Post

14/09/08

The Cape Breton Post

SYDNEY — Sixteen life-size portraits of Cambodian children who have survived land mine accidents will be on display this week at Cape Breton University.

Opening today, Living with Land Mines, will be on exhibit in the Great Hall extension until Sept. 25. Photographed by Toronto-based photographer V. Tony Hauser, the exhibit is produced in collaboration with the Hon. Lloyd Axworthy, president of the University of Winnipeg.

The official opening of the exhibit will be held Tuesday at 1 p.m. Garry Leech, a long-time journalist and a professor in political science department at CBU will speak about Victims of Landmines: A View from Affected Communities in Columbia.

The aim of the exhibit is to educate viewers and confront them with the devastating consequences that land mines have on the world. Currently, one-third of the world’s nations are affected by land mines.

Hauser travelled to Siem Reap, Cambodia, in May 2006 to document 16 children who are currently living at the Cambodia Land Mine Museum. One of the most compelling aspects of the museum is that it serves as a rescue centre for the land mine amputee children. Along with providing a dormitory and a school, the museum also has a medical clinic that serves as a rehabilitation centre and a training facility for land mine accident prevention and safety.“After spending three weeks documenting how people in India and Cambodia cope with HIV/AIDS, I sought to photograph the human accomplishments and beauty of the historic ruins of Angkor Wat,” said Hauser. “Naturally, I was impressed by the artistry of the ancient temples and thought their magnificence to be uplifting. But in the shadows of the temples, on a side road to Angkor Wat, I found a different kind of beauty: the dignity of these young victims of landmines.”

To date, the exhibit has been on display in 15 universities in Canada and it has also had two showings in Europe.

Hauser is best known as one of Canada’s leading portrait photographers. During his 35-year career he has honed his craft as a specialist in black and white printing. Outside of his professional work, Hauser is an original member of PhotoSensitive, a non-profit volunteer organization exploring how photography can contribute to social justice. PhotoSensitive’s goal is to harness the power of the camera to enrich, enlighten and educate Canadians on issues of social significance.

More Cambodians die from lightning than landmines

M&C Asia-Pacific News
Sep 15, 2008

Phnom Penh - Often armed with little more than a sprig of mistletoe and some magic words to ward off lightning, superstitious Cambodian farmers annually venture into flat, flooded rice paddies to work, and each year dozens get struck dead, officials said Monday.

The problem is so bad that for the past two years at least, lightning has killed far more Cambodians than landmines, despite it remaining one of the most heavily mined nations in the world.

According to official statistics quoted in the English-language Cambodia Daily Monday, 77 people have died from lightning strikes so far this year compared to nine landmine deaths through to July. In 2007 the paper said lightning killed 45 Cambodians and landmines claimed 26 lives.

Bu Ky, a farmer in central Kampong Thom province, said lightning is a constant fear, but most locals have little knowledge about why it strikes. Victims are often stigmatized as having 'bad karma.'

'More than 60 per cent of farmers here believe a necklace blessed with magic words will protect them,' he said. 'Mistletoe is a very popular lightning charm.' The majority of Cambodia's population of 13.4 million farm.

Director of the Cambodian Meteorology Department, Long Savuth, said a lack of funding and plain ignorance was also a problem.

Last year the department found funds to print a scant 8,000 copies of a leaflet educating farmers about lightning dangers, but then found it lacked the money to distribute them.

By comparison, aggressive landmine awareness campaigns by the government and international aid groups mean few Khmers are ignorant of that danger, but still lack awareness of the natural danger of lightning.

'If someone is struck by lightning, people believe covering them with a white cloth will cure them. Of course CPR would be better, but nobody knows how to do it or even what it is,' Savuth said. 'Everyone thinks about landmines. Few donors think about lightning.'

Development evicts 4,000 in Cambodia

Opposition MP Son Chhay says the Hun Sen Government must make public reports into the Boeung Kak Lake development site. [AFP]

ABC Radio Australia
September 15, 2008

Developers have forced more than 4,000 residents around Boeung Kak Lake in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, to leave their homes.

Radio Australia's Connect Asia program reports the lake is being filled with sand to make way for development, forcing water into surrounding homes.

A $US79 million contract gave the green light for Shukaku Inc to develop a 133 hectare commercial property on the lake and its surrounds in February 2007.

International non-government organisation, Bridges Across Borders, says if the development goes continues without the agreement of Boeung Kak residents, it will cause the largest forced eviction in Cambodia since 1975.

David Pred, Cambodian country director of Bridges Across Borders Southeast Asia, told Radio Australia work began two weeks ago and has already had a dramatic impact.

"The waters of the lake are rising as the sand is going in and this is starting to flood people's homes," Mr Pred said.

"So the people who are living in and around the area where the sand is being pumped are basically being forced out, drowned out, of their homes.

"Almost all of them in that vicinity have accepted the compensation that's been offered to them basically under extreme force and intimidation," he said.

Opposition Sam Rainsy Party MP Son Chhay says it's not just the flooding that is causing immediate grief for residents.

He says people are also concerned about a shocking smell coming from the water.

"The families who live nearby have come together and complained to the governor's office for a few days now, but have no solution to the problem," he said.

Need for transparency

Son Chhay says the government must make public any documents that assess the potential impact of filling the lake.

"We have tried to question the officials from the ministry of environment and according to our regulations any kind of lake filling must have some approval from the ministry of environment but so far we have not seen any document or report," Mr Son said.

David Pred maintains the lease agreement between the the Municipality of Phnom Penh and Shukaku Inc. is illegal under Cambodian law.

He says there's currently a court case underway, filed by community plaintiffs, requesting the court to issue an injunction to stop the filling of the lake.

Mr Pred says there's widespread anger at the development.

"This is wholesale theft, grand theft what's happening in Phnom Penh today."

The rich and the powerful seem to think they can get away with this type of massive injustice because there's no rule of law in Cambodia.

"But the people who are living in Boeung Kak and many of us who live in Phnom Penh and support them are standing together in solidarity and saying no, you can't get away with this, we're not going to let this happen."

Son Chhay agrees and says the compensation plan has fundamental flaws.

He says some families who agreed to the compensation offer, which involves being resettled to the outskirts of Phnom Penh, have now changed their minds.

"The place that they moved to has no electricity, no water, no school and when it rains there's water all over the place," Mr Son said.

"The families in the area are very unhappy, they didn't get a good deal from the government.

"More and more people are willing to join in and fight this project," he said.

Angkor Wat: scale and majesty

ENSNARED: The roots of a tree engulf a building at Ta Prohm, a temple at Angkor.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4693361a34.html

The Southland Times Monday, 15 September 2008

Queenstown-based Southland Times reporter Will Hine, working in Cambodia for three months, details what tourism means in a country bereft of bungy jumps, but teeming with temples.

Living in Queenstown, and for that matter New Zealand, it is easy to forget that tourism drawcards extend beyond untouched wilderness and adventure activities.

Indeed, the modus operandi of Southern Lakes operators — take money from person, make them scream, receive their thanks, move on to next person — seems quite bizarre when viewed from afar.

Here in Cambodia, tourism is temples. Specifically, the ancient temples of Angkor, which draw about 1 million people a year.

I became one of the horde (a hordee?) last weekend, when I visited Angkor, and the nearby city of Siam Reap.

A four-hour bus ride north-west of the capital Phnom Penh, the temples formed the heart of a Khmer empire which comprised 1 million people, and are spread over 700 square miles of jungle.

Actually, tropical forest might be a slightly more suitable description than jungle, but there are snakes, and I saw one, and it was thrilling, so it's jungle. Okay? The many hundreds of structures, some built 1200 years ago, range from small ruins to the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat.

Even today, in the age of malls and airports and the base building at Coronet Peak, Angkor Wat is large; back in the 12th century when it was constructed, it must have been gargantuan.

The wat's moat alone, 200m wide, puts those of medieval castles to shame, while its stone walls stretch for 3.6km.

However, the temple is not only notable for its scale; up close, the walls of the inner sanctum are decorated with intricate relief carvings which stretch for hundreds of metres.

Set in the middle of such sweeping grounds, and of a design which fails to age, the central temple has a presence and beauty that postcards cannot easily do justice to.

While a visit to Angkor Wat would be worth the effort alone, other temples at Angkor are just as mesmerising in their own ways.

At Ta Prohm, towering jungle engulfs the ancient ruins in enormous sinewy root systems.

Half of Japan rolled up in buses for a gander while I was visiting, and though the group was annoying with its incessant chatter and pushiness, it was easy to see what they had come for.

L IKE a sea of anacondas strangling their prey to death, a forest of trees ensnared the temple in a deathly vice over centuries of neglect, only to be rediscovered by explorers in the middle of the 19th century.

The effect is gob-smacking.

Indeed, so perfectly arranged are the vines, flying buttresses and temple masonry that a scene from the movie Tomb Raider was filmed there.

At another temple, Bayon, 216 large faces carved into 54 columns eerily peer down on visitors from all angles.

Angkor is not without its flaws.

There are large crowds throughout the year, but they can be avoided if a trip is well-planned and well-timed.

And for those less agile or brave, some of the temples will be inaccessible — near-vertical and uneven steps mean a foot out of place could easily result in a visit to the mortuary.

There are also large numbers of children hawking souvenirs and drinks, who border on being pushy, but a healthy dose of patience should be enough to survive them.

Pushing all that aside however, you would be hard-pushed to find a destination more extraordinary in its ambition, scale and majesty than Angkor.

For me, the visit delivered a realisation of sorts.

Queenstown should enjoy its years revelling in bungy jumping and jetboating and skiing, and appreciate its ephemeral popularity for what it is.

Because in 900 years, it will be but a speck in history, while Angkor and her temples continue to endure.

Day in Pictures : Phnom Penh City

The Asian century still a long way off

smh.com.au
Joshua Kurlantzick
September 15, 2008

So much for the Asian century. The Thais are bickering with themselves, and when they're done doing that, they'll bicker with the Cambodians - again. China may be Japan's biggest trading partner, but they hate each other anyway. And Malaysia and Indonesia are two countries divided by the same language.

I've spent a lot of time in Asia and the place is a geopolitical mess. Hogtied by nationalism and narrow self-interest, the countries of the East won't be banding together to replace the West as the seat of global power anytime soon.

An Asian version of the European Union is not out of reach, but the continent battles a kind of split personality. Many cultural, economic and political trends suggest Asian nations are more integrated. But a virulent nationalism is spreading that feeds on reinterpreted or imaginary history to stir up hatred and push small-minded agendas.

Elites in Asia understand the benefits of integration, and businesses and officials are promoting the trend. Chinese yearly trade with the 10 South-East Asian nations is likely to surpass $US200 billion ($243 billion) by 2010, while the expansion of satellite television, Asian airlines and regional hiring by Asian conglomerates mean businesspeople watch the same news and cool their heels together at cocktail parties and pan-Asian business summits. Fads that start in Tokyo or Seoul, such as drinking red wine or dying hair blond, sweep through the region.

Despite all that love, most of the region's multilateral institutions do little more than meet for the sake of meeting, and calls to nationalism and an obsession with sovereignty are drowning out calls for co-operation.

The passage of time since World War II, when nationalism led to catastrophe, has allowed politicians to wield it more freely for short-term gain. "The Chinese are ignorant, so they are overjoyed," the Tokyo governor, Shintaro Ishihara, quipped after China launched a manned spaceship in 2003. "That [spacecraft] was an outdated one. If Japan wanted to do it, we could do it in one year."

This sort of nationalism is not the stuff of a few firebrands. Across the continent populist politicians have scrubbed school textbooks, whether to minimise Japan's atrocities in South Korea and China during World War II, or to erase the memory of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia - perhaps because the Prime Minister, Hun Sen, was an officer in the genocidal regime before he turned against it.

In Cambodia I meet teenagers who know practically nothing about what happened in their country in the 1970s. China, too, has whitewashed the memory of the Tiananmen Square crackdown of June 4, 1989. When a Frontline documentary crew went to Beijing University a few years ago and showed students the iconic 1989 photograph of the man who stopped a tank in its tracks, no one recognised it.

The internet allows Asian nationalists to air their vitriol unchecked. On Chinese online bulletin boards such as the "Strong Nation Forum," which is run by the People's Daily, respondents ridicule Chinese leaders for compromising on issues such as relations with neighbouring countries or Tibet or Taiwan.

In Japan the blogosphere helped spark sales of the manga comic book Hating the Korean Wave. And in Indonesia online writers helped fuel anger at Malaysia for the use of a supposedly Indonesian jingle in a tourism campaign, and for the mistreatment of an Indonesian karate referee. These are petty grievances, but the internet amplifies even the smallest outbursts, and reactions can be fierce.

Whenever I visit Asia, I meet young people who detest neighbours they barely know. "The Thais, all they care about is money, nothing else," one Burmese acquaintance told me in Rangoon, despite never having been to Thailand. In one study taken last year by a leading Japanese non-governmental organisation, two-thirds of the Chinese polled said they had either a "very bad" or "relatively bad" impression of Japan.

Even countries with little history of animosity can be swept into a rage by the new nationalists. In 2006 thousands of Thais marched to the Singapore embassy in Bangkok to protest against the purchase of a telecommunications giant by a Singapore state investment company, leaving Singaporean diplomats flat-footed.

An entire industry has developed around predictions that the Asian century will replace the American one. And maybe it will - a few centuries from now.

Joshua Kurlantzick is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy. This is an edited version of an article which first appeared in The Washington Post.

The internet allows Asian nationalists to air their vitriol unchecked. On Chinese online bulletin boards such as the "Strong Nation Forum," which is run by the People's Daily, respondents ridicule Chinese leaders for compromising on issues such as relations with neighbouring countries or Tibet or Taiwan.

In Japan the blogosphere helped spark sales of the manga comic book Hating the Korean Wave. And in Indonesia online writers helped fuel anger at Malaysia for the use of a supposedly Indonesian jingle in a tourism campaign, and for the mistreatment of an Indonesian karate referee. These are petty grievances, but the internet amplifies even the smallest outbursts, and reactions can be fierce.

Whenever I visit Asia, I meet young people who detest neighbours they barely know. "The Thais, all they care about is money, nothing else," one Burmese acquaintance told me in Rangoon, despite never having been to Thailand. In one study taken last year by a leading Japanese non-governmental organisation, two-thirds of the Chinese polled said they had either a "very bad" or "relatively bad" impression of Japan.

Even countries with little history of animosity can be swept into a rage by the new nationalists. In 2006 thousands of Thais marched to the Singapore embassy in Bangkok to protest against the purchase of a telecommunications giant by a Singapore state investment company, leaving Singaporean diplomats flat-footed.

An entire industry has developed around predictions that the Asian century will replace the American one. And maybe it will - a few centuries from now.

Joshua Kurlantzick is a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a fellow at the Pacific Council on International Policy. This is an edited version of an article which first appeared in The Washington Post.

Cambodian minister for better links with North-east

The Asian Tribune

Monday, September 15, 2008

Surajit khaund GUWAHATI, Sept 14 – Senior Minister of Commerce, Cambodia, Cham Prasidh, has suggested better linkage between North-east India and Cambodia to boost trade activities. Talking to this correspondent here today, Prasidh, said that road and air linkage should be established between Cambodia and the region so that traders of both the countries can reap the benefit.

“We have very close historic links with the North East and therefore we are keen to develop our business relations with the region, but to increase our bilateral trade , we have to develop the existing communication system,” he said, adding that he had already invited Ministry of DoNER to make an in-depth study in Cambodia to explore business opportunities.

The senior minister of Cambodia arrived in Guwahati yesterday to participate in the 4th North East Business Summit beginning from tomorrow.

Providing more information on trade, Prasidh informed that the volume of trade between India and Cambodia has been gaining momentum. “ The present volume of trade can be doubled by way of opening up more road and sea routes,” he added. In this context, he said that a direct air link between North East and Cambodia should be established so that traders can explore the markets and share their business views as well. “Since tea is the main industry in the region, traders can explore our market. Moreover, we are very keen to bring tea technology to our northern region in which tea is cultivated,” he added.

Asked about his future plans, He said that Cambodia is eager to increase the volume of trade with India. “Since India has emerged as a major economic power in Asia, we are keen to boost our trade ties with it. Moreover, as far as trade is concerned, India can export pharmaceutical, tea and electronic products to our country and similarly we can export rice to India. We have already invited Indian companies to invest in our country,” he stated.

Prasidh also laid emphasis on cementing the cultural relations between North East and Cambodia.

MK Saharia, Chairman, North Eastern Regional Council, ICC, who accompanied the Minister, said that ICC has been making efforts to turn the region into an investment friendly destination. “The North East Summit is aimed at bringing more investments into the region,” he added.

Book Review: The Road to Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam

BC Blogcritics Magazine

Written by Carole McDonnell
Published September 14, 2008

I am often amazed at human nature and how cultural differences such as education, religion, and culture affects it. Rousseau, for instance, believed in the noble savage. I have read so many memoirs of missionaries in far-off lands, histories of the wild west, and war stories that I have come to believe that innate human nobility is a rare find. Sure there are those one-in-a-million tribes and countries where everyone in the clan is like a living saint but usually it’s not that way with we humans. Especially when power and money is involved.

In The Road to Lost Innocence, Somaly Mam’s account of her life in Cambodia before and after the Khmer Rouge, we see this kind of savagery. Now, I’m not an expert in Southeast Asian history and born even before the war it seemed that certain cultural cruelties were pretty ingrained, as if they were a part of a thousand-year culture. Specifically, the oppression of women, racial prejudice against dark women and dark tribes.

Somaly belongs to the Phnong, a dark tribe that lived in the deep forests of Cambodia. Unlike the Khmer, who were lighter, the Phnong were considered savage, stupid, dirty. Yes, yes, I know. Sounds familiar, but as Somaly Mam writes, all these Asian countries like light or white skin. War and poverty, of course, only made these racial prejudices and the oppression against women even more cruel.

After a harrowing childhood of whippings, cruelty, and abuse, the author’s “grandfather,” a Muslim man who has been abusing her, sells her into a brothel. He had originally sold her to an abusive husband to pay off a debt but when the soldier didn’t return from a battle, the grandfather came by and sold her to a Muslim woman, a meebon, a keeper of a brothel. Somaly then became a srey kouc, a “broken woman” who could never be fixed.

I don’t know much about American prostitutes, their johns, their drug addictions, or their pimps but it seems to me – from American movies, anyway — that American prostitutes don’t suffer as horribly as their Asian counterparts. They aren’t thrown into dark sewage pits, for instance with snakes crawling over them. They don’t have cruel men beating them or murdering them. They don’t have Chinese men renting their services then taking them to a room somewhere to service twenty other Chinese men. They weren’t forcibly aborted. And generally, the mothers of American prostitutes aren’t prostituting their daughters. Neither do American johns seek young virgins to sleep with in order to be cured of AIDS. The trouble is that after war ends, and sophistication and education supposedly arrives, prostitution still exists.

Somaly Mam tells about how she gradually lost all her heart and soul as an abandoned child and sex slave. Slowly, through the help of barang, “foreign” men, she began to gain her heart. This rebirth of her heart began through her compassion toward other sufferers like herself and through her contact with other foreign men who perhaps used her but who were not as bad as the men she knew as a child when she was working off her grandfather's debts. Through contacts at Doctors without Frontier, she stumbled into her life's work: preserving women from prostitution and rehabilitating them.

In the end, I came from this book with two strong opinions. The first was truly a painful one, but it’s a truth I have always somewhat known. I suppose I only had to be reminded of it again. It is this: that humans need to be spiritually, emotionally, and psychologically trained to love their neighbors — and even their children — as themselves. When one reads of women selling their own daughters into sex-slavery or fathers raping their own daughters to “hurt their mother” (because “the woman carried the child, not me”) one has to shake one’s head. Perhaps living in the United States where the US media continue to train its viewers how to live in the shoe of the other — other races, other sexes, other religions, and even others in our family — has contributed to the opening of the human mind.

The second truth is that humans can be emotionally healed of anything and after they are healed, they can help to heal others. Somaly Mam became a great hero and is the cofounder and preident of AFESIP (Acting for Women in Distressing Situations) in Cambodia. Under her inspiration and leadership, she has saved, rehabilitated, and restored many former victims of secual slavery in Southeast Asia.

We get a glimpse of the history of Cambodia, of course. But that isn’t what is important. We in the west are too used to studying war as the strategies of good men versus evil men. That may or may not be true, but here is a war from the point of view of those indirectly involved – non-combatants in a war-torn country where the old evil mixes with the new evil. And aside from the specifics of a particular war, we see the ongoing eternal war in which the powerful oppress the weak.

Highly recommended.

Hun-SEN chairs the ministerial cabinet meeting

The festival of the moon