Praise for Cambodia's 'old goats' policies

via CAAI

Published on March 20, 2011

Re: "No country for old men and poor men," World, March 19.

I applaud the Cambodian government's new laws to protect foreign men from predatory Cambodian women.

One law prohibits foreign men aged 50 or older from marrying local women. I'm not familiar with conditions in Cambodia, but I'm told there's a large population of impoverished young women. One can easily imagine that some of them might get jobs in bars and seek out ancient foreign sugar daddies to marry in a desperate attempt to escape poverty. Should a young woman succeed in capturing such a foolish old goat, he will find to his sorrow that she will quickly develop spending habits designed to reduce him to penury, compounded by the incessant demands of her family, relatives, assorted leeches and hangers-on, possibly her entire village, and even the surrounding province.

This new law will protect elderly foreign men from such depredations. Such men are usually lonely, hungry for love, and easy prey for calculating young vixens. I counsel such men to buy a dog. A young woman's love will be entirely simulated and dependent on continued affluence, whereas a dog will provide true and unconditional love and a loyalty that will never fail.

A second law requires a foreigner under the age of 50 to have a monthly income of Bt75,000 before he can marry a Cambodian woman. Earlier it was only suspected that local ladies married foreigners for their money. This new law will guarantee it. But this law also has the effect of protecting foreign men, because I doubt that there are many expats in Cambodia who earn Bt75,000 a month, especially if they're English teachers.

I warmly commend the Cambodian government for its altruistic and compassionate concern for the well-being of its population of foreign men.

Horace Beasley (Mr)

Bangkok