Monday, 10 March 2008
Volunteers going overseas for Operation Smile
Monday, March 10, 2008
Dr. Alice Smith of Coralville will be among more than 50 volunteers traveling to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday to March 21 with Operation Smile to provide free treatment to children born with facial deformities.
The volunteer team consists of more than 50 medical and non-medical volunteers from Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore and the United States.
Founded in 1982, Operation Smile is a worldwide children's medical charity dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults.
Dr. Alice Smith of Coralville will be among more than 50 volunteers traveling to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Thursday to March 21 with Operation Smile to provide free treatment to children born with facial deformities.
The volunteer team consists of more than 50 medical and non-medical volunteers from Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Italy, the Netherlands, Peru, the Philippines, Singapore and the United States.
Founded in 1982, Operation Smile is a worldwide children's medical charity dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults.
Canadian pedophile suspect Christopher Neil goes on trial in Thailand
Canadian pedophile suspect Christopher Paul Neil at criminal court in Bangkok, Monday, March 10, 2008. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Apichart WeerawongMarch 10, 2008
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANGKOK, Thailand - A Canadian pedophile suspect arrested last year in a worldwide manhunt after Interpol unscrambled his swirled digital images from Internet photos went on trial Monday in Thailand, accused of sexually abusing a nine-year-old boy.
Christopher Paul Neil, a 32-year-old schoolteacher who worked in several Asian countries, was arrested in Thailand on Oct. 19, 2007 after Interpol issued an unprecedented global appeal to help apprehend him.
Shackled and smiling, Neil waved to a friend and said "How's It Going" as he entered Bangkok's criminal courthouse ahead of the trial. He was wearing an orange prison uniform, barefoot and chained to another prisoner.
"I hope there will be justice in Thailand," he told The Associated Press.
Neil has pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing a nine-year-old Thai boy, who contacted police after seeing Neil's face on television following his arrest. The child claims Neil paid him the equivalent of between $15 to $30 to perform oral sex in 2003, while he was living in Thailand.
He faces up to 20 years in prison for charges that include sexually abusing a minor and videotaping the alleged abuse, taking a child without parental consent and holding him against his will.
"We've got the evidence and we have the victim," said prosecutor Sontus Singhapus. "He's guilty."
Prosecutors plan to introduce some 70 photographs that allegedly show Neil engaging in sexual acts and playing with young naked and partially clothed young boys, said Sontus.
They also plan to put the nine-year-old victim on the stand along with his parents and another boy who recruited the youngster for Neil.
Sontus said Neil could face additional charges if police can track down other Thai victims whom he allegedly abused.
Neil's opening hearing was quickly adjourned after the court assigned him a lawyer and set the next session for June 2.
Interpol's public call for help was based on the discovery of some 200 Internet photos believed to show Neil sexually abusing at least a dozen Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, some as young as six.
The photos were found online in 2004, but the face of the perpetrator was digitally obscured as a swirling shape. After three years of searching, the international police agency was able to unscramble the images with the help of German police computer experts. Interpol circulated the pictures publicly and received hundreds of tips that led them to identify Neil as the suspect.
Neil was arrested 11 days after the appeal was launched after flying into Bangkok on a one-way ticket from South Korea, where he was working as an English teacher. He was caught at the house of his boyfriend identified as Ohm in Nakhon Ratchasima province located in the country's northeast.
Ohm, who refused to provide his full name, was at the hearing Monday and insisted Neil was innocent.
"How can this be him?" Ohm said. "When I stayed with him, there was nothing like this. I don't believe (the charges)."
Neil had taught at various schools in South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam since 2000. Previously, Neil worked as a chaplain in Canada, counselling teens.
Neil lived in Thailand from 2002 to early 2004, according to police.
Since Neil's arrest, Interpol has said it will allow wider use of public appeals to track suspected pedophiles, trying to build on the success it had tracking down the Canadian.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANGKOK, Thailand - A Canadian pedophile suspect arrested last year in a worldwide manhunt after Interpol unscrambled his swirled digital images from Internet photos went on trial Monday in Thailand, accused of sexually abusing a nine-year-old boy.
Christopher Paul Neil, a 32-year-old schoolteacher who worked in several Asian countries, was arrested in Thailand on Oct. 19, 2007 after Interpol issued an unprecedented global appeal to help apprehend him.
Shackled and smiling, Neil waved to a friend and said "How's It Going" as he entered Bangkok's criminal courthouse ahead of the trial. He was wearing an orange prison uniform, barefoot and chained to another prisoner.
"I hope there will be justice in Thailand," he told The Associated Press.
Neil has pleaded not guilty to sexually abusing a nine-year-old Thai boy, who contacted police after seeing Neil's face on television following his arrest. The child claims Neil paid him the equivalent of between $15 to $30 to perform oral sex in 2003, while he was living in Thailand.
He faces up to 20 years in prison for charges that include sexually abusing a minor and videotaping the alleged abuse, taking a child without parental consent and holding him against his will.
"We've got the evidence and we have the victim," said prosecutor Sontus Singhapus. "He's guilty."
Prosecutors plan to introduce some 70 photographs that allegedly show Neil engaging in sexual acts and playing with young naked and partially clothed young boys, said Sontus.
They also plan to put the nine-year-old victim on the stand along with his parents and another boy who recruited the youngster for Neil.
Sontus said Neil could face additional charges if police can track down other Thai victims whom he allegedly abused.
Neil's opening hearing was quickly adjourned after the court assigned him a lawyer and set the next session for June 2.
Interpol's public call for help was based on the discovery of some 200 Internet photos believed to show Neil sexually abusing at least a dozen Vietnamese and Cambodian boys, some as young as six.
The photos were found online in 2004, but the face of the perpetrator was digitally obscured as a swirling shape. After three years of searching, the international police agency was able to unscramble the images with the help of German police computer experts. Interpol circulated the pictures publicly and received hundreds of tips that led them to identify Neil as the suspect.
Neil was arrested 11 days after the appeal was launched after flying into Bangkok on a one-way ticket from South Korea, where he was working as an English teacher. He was caught at the house of his boyfriend identified as Ohm in Nakhon Ratchasima province located in the country's northeast.
Ohm, who refused to provide his full name, was at the hearing Monday and insisted Neil was innocent.
"How can this be him?" Ohm said. "When I stayed with him, there was nothing like this. I don't believe (the charges)."
Neil had taught at various schools in South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam since 2000. Previously, Neil worked as a chaplain in Canada, counselling teens.
Neil lived in Thailand from 2002 to early 2004, according to police.
Since Neil's arrest, Interpol has said it will allow wider use of public appeals to track suspected pedophiles, trying to build on the success it had tracking down the Canadian.
New Zealand Rider Wins TOTAL Motocross 2008 Championship in Cambodia
James Robinson (L) of New Zealand and Pierre Yves-Catry of France take part in the Total International Motocross Championship on the outskirts of Phnom Penh March 9, 2008 . REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea2008-03-09
Xinhua
New Zealand motor rider James Robinson on Sunday won the TOTAL International Motocross 2008 Championship in Cambodia in Class A with the cash prize of 400 U.S. dollars.
Meanwhile, in Class A, Cambodian-French rider Pierre Yves Catry won second place with the cash prize of 250 U.S. dollars, and Siam Tiencharoenphol from Thailand won third place with the award of 150 U.S. dollars.
In addition, Cambodian rider Khan Chove won first place with the cash award of 250 U.S dollars in Class B, while another Cambodian rider Lim Pheng won first place in Class C with the cash prize of 150 U.S. dollars.
TOTAL, the major fuel driller and vendor from France, hosted this motorcycle field race, which was divided into series of Class A, B and C.
Some 20 riders from Cambodia, Indonesia, France, Australia, the U.S., Thailand, Canada and New Zealand joined the race.
TOTAL is one of the main fuel vendors in Cambodia and already hosted two motorcycle field races for the kingdom.
Xinhua
New Zealand motor rider James Robinson on Sunday won the TOTAL International Motocross 2008 Championship in Cambodia in Class A with the cash prize of 400 U.S. dollars.
Meanwhile, in Class A, Cambodian-French rider Pierre Yves Catry won second place with the cash prize of 250 U.S. dollars, and Siam Tiencharoenphol from Thailand won third place with the award of 150 U.S. dollars.
In addition, Cambodian rider Khan Chove won first place with the cash award of 250 U.S dollars in Class B, while another Cambodian rider Lim Pheng won first place in Class C with the cash prize of 150 U.S. dollars.
TOTAL, the major fuel driller and vendor from France, hosted this motorcycle field race, which was divided into series of Class A, B and C.
Some 20 riders from Cambodia, Indonesia, France, Australia, the U.S., Thailand, Canada and New Zealand joined the race.
TOTAL is one of the main fuel vendors in Cambodia and already hosted two motorcycle field races for the kingdom.
Thailand, Cambodia To Set Up Joint Development Areas
BANGKOK, March 10 Asia Pulse - Thailand and Cambodia plan to set up joint development areas (JDA), covering 26,000 square kilometers of overlapping sea border areas, to facilitate the exploration of natural gas and crude oil, Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said.
FM Noppadon said the Thai and Cambodian foreign ministries would hold talks on the establishment of the JDA to manage the overlapping border areas which are rich in natural gas and crude oil.
Thailand's Foreign Ministry would join its Energy Ministry in talks with Cambodia as soon as possible on the issue, FM Noppadon was cited by the Bangkok Post as saying.
FM Noppadon said the Thai and Cambodian foreign ministries would hold talks on the establishment of the JDA to manage the overlapping border areas which are rich in natural gas and crude oil.
Thailand's Foreign Ministry would join its Energy Ministry in talks with Cambodia as soon as possible on the issue, FM Noppadon was cited by the Bangkok Post as saying.
Force and Fraud
lewrockwell.com
March 10, 2008
by P.M. Lawrence
Technically, tax isn't theft and slavery. But the technical side is all about how you do the taxing, not about what happens to the person and property being taxed. Some of these technicalities do matter to us, the taxpayers, on the principle of "know thine enemy" so we can accommodate ourselves better to the load, but they just aren't on the same wavelength as the ethical question or the personal experience.
A lot of tax advocates retreat into the area they know to try to justify it, though. They just don't realise that they are building in their assumptions and addressing the wrong question, any more than the shopkeeper in the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch did when he admired the plumage and forgot the dying bird – a bird that was, in actual fact, dead. It's the same way a Vietnam War spokesman was missing the point when he pointed out that, technically, the USA had not invaded Cambodia, it was only an incursion. That was something that made a great deal of difference to the military operation, but practically nothing to the people in Cambodia.
In the same way, another of the usual suspects, Zahi Hawass, trotted the same sort of thing out, explaining how – technically – the pyramids weren't built by slave labour: "The name of Khufu and his pyramid is always attached to a popular notion that the pyramid was built by slaves. But that was not the case... They were also paid by the king, or worked instead of paying tax." Well, even if you are going to be technical, it's still wrong; they hadn't invented money in those days, so it couldn't have been tax, could it? As though it made a difference to the people involved if they were obliged to hand over crops or labour instead of currency. If you want to see how the technicalities weren't the point for the people, look at the Old Testament. Sure, the children of Israel were forced to work for the Pharaoh, but look – when they fled, they had all sorts of possessions they could take with them and homes of their own to mark with blood, so they weren't really slaves, were they? Technically, they weren't taxed to build Solomon's Temple either, for the same reason that money hadn't been invented, but try reading the description of just how that was done.
And so on down to our own age. We get a clearer picture of just what tax is when we aren't so close to it, and when the people involved had previously had a different alternative we can compare it with. One case is what the French did when they colonised Madagascar, just over a century ago.
Not that there had been a golden age before, of course. The independent kingdom that was overthrown had relied on something more overt, though – slavery, and forced labour from "free" peasants, a corvée. But look and see just what happened in reforming these things, how the burden was simply rearranged in a technically more convenient way but the burden if anything increased.
Governor-General Gallieni implemented a hybrid corvée and poll tax, partly for revenue, partly for labour resources and partly to move away from a subsistence economy. The last feature involved paying small amounts for the forced labour; that way, not only did it create a demand for money to get out of the corvée, money trickled into the system to close the loop. It's actually better for the victims than a straight corvée or a straight poll tax, since they don't get trapped by impossible demands so often – it's more "progressive" for people who are either feeble or cash poor, "only" destroying people who are both...
"There was the introduction of equitable taxation, so vital from the financial point of view; but also of such great political, moral and economic importance. It was the tangible proof of French authority having come to stay; it was the stimulus required to make an inherently lazy people work. Once they had learned to earn they would begin to spend, whereby commerce and industry would develop.
"The corvée in its old form could not be continued, yet workmen were required both by the colonists, and by the Government for its vast schemes of public works. The General therefore passed a temporary law, in which taxation and labour were combined, to be modified according to country, the people, and their mentality. Thus, for instance, every male among the Hovas, from the age of sixteen to sixty, had either to pay twenty-five francs a year, or give fifty days of labour of nine hours a day, for which he was to be paid twenty centimes, a sum sufficient to feed him. Exempted from taxation and labour were soldiers, militia, Government clerks, and any Hova who knew French, also all who had entered into a contract of labour with a colonist.
Unfortunately, this latter clause lent itself to tremendous abuses. By paying a small sum to some European, who nominally engaged them, thousands bought their freedom from work and taxation by these fictitious contracts, to be free to continue their lazy, unprofitable existence. To this abuse an end had to be made.
"The urgency of a sound fiscal system was of tremendous importance to carry out all the schemes for the welfare and development of the island, and this demanded a local budget. The goal to be kept in view was to make the colony, as soon as possible, self-supporting. This end the Governor-General succeeded in achieving within a few years." ~ The Drama of Madagascar, Sonia E. Howe, pp. 331–2. Methuen & Co. ltd. London, 1938.
See how open and honest the governors can be, when they don't realise just what it is they are confessing? They could do that then because it seemed so clear that they were improving on slavery and forced labour, while bringing the benefits of civilisation to primitives as well. They conveniently forgot that by arranging the burden better they were just making it easier for them to pile on more, and that those "primitives" had been interacting with the outside world for generations, quietly and incrementally reforming and civilising themselves all along. The same applies to our situation, only the governors muddy the waters by not realising that they are doing it, since they think they are us and that it is we who are doing it to ourselves. If you want to be technically accurate, tax isn't theft. But tax is still just a proxy for burdens, forced labour, taking of property without consent and so on – it is just more convenient than coming right out and doing it just like that. Fraud before force, but force after all. A technicality, not a justification.
March 10, 2008
by P.M. Lawrence
Technically, tax isn't theft and slavery. But the technical side is all about how you do the taxing, not about what happens to the person and property being taxed. Some of these technicalities do matter to us, the taxpayers, on the principle of "know thine enemy" so we can accommodate ourselves better to the load, but they just aren't on the same wavelength as the ethical question or the personal experience.
A lot of tax advocates retreat into the area they know to try to justify it, though. They just don't realise that they are building in their assumptions and addressing the wrong question, any more than the shopkeeper in the Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch did when he admired the plumage and forgot the dying bird – a bird that was, in actual fact, dead. It's the same way a Vietnam War spokesman was missing the point when he pointed out that, technically, the USA had not invaded Cambodia, it was only an incursion. That was something that made a great deal of difference to the military operation, but practically nothing to the people in Cambodia.
In the same way, another of the usual suspects, Zahi Hawass, trotted the same sort of thing out, explaining how – technically – the pyramids weren't built by slave labour: "The name of Khufu and his pyramid is always attached to a popular notion that the pyramid was built by slaves. But that was not the case... They were also paid by the king, or worked instead of paying tax." Well, even if you are going to be technical, it's still wrong; they hadn't invented money in those days, so it couldn't have been tax, could it? As though it made a difference to the people involved if they were obliged to hand over crops or labour instead of currency. If you want to see how the technicalities weren't the point for the people, look at the Old Testament. Sure, the children of Israel were forced to work for the Pharaoh, but look – when they fled, they had all sorts of possessions they could take with them and homes of their own to mark with blood, so they weren't really slaves, were they? Technically, they weren't taxed to build Solomon's Temple either, for the same reason that money hadn't been invented, but try reading the description of just how that was done.
And so on down to our own age. We get a clearer picture of just what tax is when we aren't so close to it, and when the people involved had previously had a different alternative we can compare it with. One case is what the French did when they colonised Madagascar, just over a century ago.
Not that there had been a golden age before, of course. The independent kingdom that was overthrown had relied on something more overt, though – slavery, and forced labour from "free" peasants, a corvée. But look and see just what happened in reforming these things, how the burden was simply rearranged in a technically more convenient way but the burden if anything increased.
Governor-General Gallieni implemented a hybrid corvée and poll tax, partly for revenue, partly for labour resources and partly to move away from a subsistence economy. The last feature involved paying small amounts for the forced labour; that way, not only did it create a demand for money to get out of the corvée, money trickled into the system to close the loop. It's actually better for the victims than a straight corvée or a straight poll tax, since they don't get trapped by impossible demands so often – it's more "progressive" for people who are either feeble or cash poor, "only" destroying people who are both...
"There was the introduction of equitable taxation, so vital from the financial point of view; but also of such great political, moral and economic importance. It was the tangible proof of French authority having come to stay; it was the stimulus required to make an inherently lazy people work. Once they had learned to earn they would begin to spend, whereby commerce and industry would develop.
"The corvée in its old form could not be continued, yet workmen were required both by the colonists, and by the Government for its vast schemes of public works. The General therefore passed a temporary law, in which taxation and labour were combined, to be modified according to country, the people, and their mentality. Thus, for instance, every male among the Hovas, from the age of sixteen to sixty, had either to pay twenty-five francs a year, or give fifty days of labour of nine hours a day, for which he was to be paid twenty centimes, a sum sufficient to feed him. Exempted from taxation and labour were soldiers, militia, Government clerks, and any Hova who knew French, also all who had entered into a contract of labour with a colonist.
Unfortunately, this latter clause lent itself to tremendous abuses. By paying a small sum to some European, who nominally engaged them, thousands bought their freedom from work and taxation by these fictitious contracts, to be free to continue their lazy, unprofitable existence. To this abuse an end had to be made.
"The urgency of a sound fiscal system was of tremendous importance to carry out all the schemes for the welfare and development of the island, and this demanded a local budget. The goal to be kept in view was to make the colony, as soon as possible, self-supporting. This end the Governor-General succeeded in achieving within a few years." ~ The Drama of Madagascar, Sonia E. Howe, pp. 331–2. Methuen & Co. ltd. London, 1938.
See how open and honest the governors can be, when they don't realise just what it is they are confessing? They could do that then because it seemed so clear that they were improving on slavery and forced labour, while bringing the benefits of civilisation to primitives as well. They conveniently forgot that by arranging the burden better they were just making it easier for them to pile on more, and that those "primitives" had been interacting with the outside world for generations, quietly and incrementally reforming and civilising themselves all along. The same applies to our situation, only the governors muddy the waters by not realising that they are doing it, since they think they are us and that it is we who are doing it to ourselves. If you want to be technically accurate, tax isn't theft. But tax is still just a proxy for burdens, forced labour, taking of property without consent and so on – it is just more convenient than coming right out and doing it just like that. Fraud before force, but force after all. A technicality, not a justification.
Cambodia to form committee to check on quality of medicines
chinaview.cn
2008-03-10
PHNOM PENH, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Around 30 leaders from Cambodia's various pharmaceutical organizations have agreed that a Pharmacy Accreditation Committee must be formed this year to keep check on the quality and validity of medicines sold through the kingdom's growing number of pharmacies, local media reported Monday.
"Among our many challenges are keeping check on the quality of medical products sold and an overall improvement in the quality of health services, so a Pharmacy Accreditation Committee is needed," Yim Yann, president of the Pharmacist's Association of Cambodia, was quoted by the Mekong Times as saying.
The Pharmacy Accreditation Committee, to be supervised by the Health Ministry's Department of Drugs and Food, will assess whether pharmacies reach a standard called "Good Pharmacy Practice," said Yim Yann, with those up to scratch receiving of facial accreditation.
The rapidly increasing circulation of medicines is hampering efforts to control the sector, Sok Pheng, Under Secretary of State for the Health Ministry, said, adding that drug traders with no medical knowledge often conspire with dishonest traders to circulate fake medicines.
Although relevant laws are enforced, most pharmacies are substandard so contraband, counterfeit, inferior, unregistered and expired drugs still sit on pharmacy shelves, he said.
Mao Dareth, deputy president of the Pharmacist Association of Cambodia, said that there are about 1,300 pharmacies throughout the country, nearly 500 of which are in Phnom Penh.
Editor: Jiang Yuxia
2008-03-10
PHNOM PENH, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Around 30 leaders from Cambodia's various pharmaceutical organizations have agreed that a Pharmacy Accreditation Committee must be formed this year to keep check on the quality and validity of medicines sold through the kingdom's growing number of pharmacies, local media reported Monday.
"Among our many challenges are keeping check on the quality of medical products sold and an overall improvement in the quality of health services, so a Pharmacy Accreditation Committee is needed," Yim Yann, president of the Pharmacist's Association of Cambodia, was quoted by the Mekong Times as saying.
The Pharmacy Accreditation Committee, to be supervised by the Health Ministry's Department of Drugs and Food, will assess whether pharmacies reach a standard called "Good Pharmacy Practice," said Yim Yann, with those up to scratch receiving of facial accreditation.
The rapidly increasing circulation of medicines is hampering efforts to control the sector, Sok Pheng, Under Secretary of State for the Health Ministry, said, adding that drug traders with no medical knowledge often conspire with dishonest traders to circulate fake medicines.
Although relevant laws are enforced, most pharmacies are substandard so contraband, counterfeit, inferior, unregistered and expired drugs still sit on pharmacy shelves, he said.
Mao Dareth, deputy president of the Pharmacist Association of Cambodia, said that there are about 1,300 pharmacies throughout the country, nearly 500 of which are in Phnom Penh.
Editor: Jiang Yuxia
Cambodia Property Boom Enriches, Divides
Construction workers cut steel for building a new apartment complex in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Jan. 11, 2008. Cambodia is embracing a thriving real estate market, where land and housing prices in the capital city skyrocket with no sign of letting up. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) Mar 9, 2008
By KER MUNTHIT
Associated Press Writer
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- An old hospital was razed to make way for Phnom Penh's tallest building - a 42-story twin condominium tower. A garbage-strewn slum became prime real estate after police evicted its dwellers to a parched rice field outside the capital.
Cambodia is experiencing a construction boom fueled by foreign investment, particularly by South Koreans, and buying and selling among the country's few nouveaux riche - while leaving the poor majority behind.
Shopping malls and tall apartment buildings are sprouting up, transforming the capital's landscape that once bore the charm of colonial French-styled villas but resembled a ghost town at the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime nearly 30 years ago.
Political stability and robust economic growth of nearly 10 percent have lured investors to the real estate market that has seen prices surge over the last few years - though they are still lower than in neighboring Vietnam or Thailand.
"Cambodia was sleeping for many years and now it's waking up," said Claire Brown, managing director of Britain-based Claire Brown Realty, who began buying and selling property in Phnom Penh two years ago.
"Everybody wants to get a piece of the action," she said by phone. "The time to get in is now because soon it's going to be too late."
Prime city land prices have tripled over the last two years to $3,000 per square meter ($279 per square foot). Those kinds of returns have drawn rich and middle-class Cambodians, as well as those living abroad.
"In buying and selling land, they could get profit 100 or 200 percent a year, if they make the right bet on the right location," said Dith Channa, the sale manager of CPL Cambodia Properties Ltd., a Phnom Penh-based real estate agency.
But the soaring real estate market is also widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
"Phnom Penh city is getting modern every day - of course for the wealthy," said Chhorn Et, a former slum dweller now living with hundreds of others in a village in the middle of rice field about 12 miles from the capital.
"The government swept us away because they regarded us as very unpleasant for their eyes," said the 34-year-old woman who scavenges for discarded cans and bottles to sell for a living.
The flourishing property market is also happening in the shadow of problems of land rights disputes that, in recent years, have often pitted the poor against wealthy developers with link to the Cambodian political establishment.
"We're moving toward possibly about 10 percent of the population owning 90 percent of the land in Cambodia," said Naly Pilorge, director of the nonprofit human rights group Licadho.
That could fan social and political unrest, she and others have warned.
The biggest projects are being funded by South Korean investors and companies, which have been the leading investors in Cambodia following the resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1997. Investment and tourists from South Korea have surged following a 2006 visit to Cambodia by former President Roh Moo-hyun.
World City Co., of South Korea, is investing $2 billion to build a "satellite" urban complex called Camko City on a 300-acre area on the northwest side of Phnom Penh. The project, the single biggest foreign direct investment in Cambodia to date, will include residential, commercial and public facilities - villas, condos, trade and financial centers, office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, schools and hospitals.
Meanwhile, at a busy corner leading up to the city's landmark Independence Monument, an old government hospital has been torn down to make way for a 42-story condominium and shopping complex worth about $250 million. That's going to dramatically change Phnom Penh's skyline, where the tallest building now is a 15-story hotel.
It is going to be the first luxury residential building and tallest structure in Cambodia, said Kim Tae-Yeon, chairman of Yon Woo Inc., a South Korean developer.
Kim said the towers will have about 500 units of apartments, office space and retail shops with price tags ranging from $112,000 to $1.8 million a unit. Construction will start next month and take 3 1/2 years to complete, but Kim said nearly half of the units have already been bought.
In recent years, Siem Reap, a northwestern town near the famed Angkor Wat ruins, also has seen frenzy of hotel and guesthouse construction for the growing numbers of tourists.
Thrilled with the boom, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said it has been made possible by the political stability he has brought. In a recent speech he warned that if he isn't re-elected in July elections, property prices could nosedive.
"It was a threat, a dirty trick to gain votes," said Son Chhay, an opposition party lawmaker.
Son Chhay and some human rights workers, including Pilorge of the human rights group Licadho, believe that the boom is partly fueled by people laundering money from illegal logging, drug trafficking and tax evasion by plowing the cash into the real estate market.
"This is not going to be healthy for the Cambodian economy," Son Chhay said.
There are also concerns that the rapid price gains are creating a bubble that will eventually pop.
Eric Sidgwick, senior economist at the Asian Development Bank office in Phnom Penh, said the real estate market has been "driven by a combination of genuine demand for business-related and residential construction," as well as a growing population, increased urbanization and speculation.
Still, there were "reasons to be concerned about the recent increase in real estate prices and the dangers of further inflating a speculation-led bubble," he said in an e-mail. He declined to comment about any possible link between money laundering and the property market boom.
Meanwhile, the poor like Chhorn Et, the former slum dweller who was moved outside the capital, are left to cope with a stark reality in their new village, which has no running water or sewage system.
Although each family has been given a small piece of land to live on, they complained of the lack of means to support their livelihoods. They have to travel daily to the capital to do odd jobs as motorbike taxi drivers, in construction or scavenge for bottles and cans to sell to buy food.
Many of them are even too poor to afford a latrine and have to use a nearby rice field as toilet, said 37-year-old Mom Somaly, a mother of five children.
Pointing to a distant land-for-sale sign, she said "soon they may not even have a field to use as toilet any longer."
By KER MUNTHIT
Associated Press Writer
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) -- An old hospital was razed to make way for Phnom Penh's tallest building - a 42-story twin condominium tower. A garbage-strewn slum became prime real estate after police evicted its dwellers to a parched rice field outside the capital.
Cambodia is experiencing a construction boom fueled by foreign investment, particularly by South Koreans, and buying and selling among the country's few nouveaux riche - while leaving the poor majority behind.
Shopping malls and tall apartment buildings are sprouting up, transforming the capital's landscape that once bore the charm of colonial French-styled villas but resembled a ghost town at the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime nearly 30 years ago.
Political stability and robust economic growth of nearly 10 percent have lured investors to the real estate market that has seen prices surge over the last few years - though they are still lower than in neighboring Vietnam or Thailand.
"Cambodia was sleeping for many years and now it's waking up," said Claire Brown, managing director of Britain-based Claire Brown Realty, who began buying and selling property in Phnom Penh two years ago.
"Everybody wants to get a piece of the action," she said by phone. "The time to get in is now because soon it's going to be too late."
Prime city land prices have tripled over the last two years to $3,000 per square meter ($279 per square foot). Those kinds of returns have drawn rich and middle-class Cambodians, as well as those living abroad.
"In buying and selling land, they could get profit 100 or 200 percent a year, if they make the right bet on the right location," said Dith Channa, the sale manager of CPL Cambodia Properties Ltd., a Phnom Penh-based real estate agency.
But the soaring real estate market is also widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
"Phnom Penh city is getting modern every day - of course for the wealthy," said Chhorn Et, a former slum dweller now living with hundreds of others in a village in the middle of rice field about 12 miles from the capital.
"The government swept us away because they regarded us as very unpleasant for their eyes," said the 34-year-old woman who scavenges for discarded cans and bottles to sell for a living.
The flourishing property market is also happening in the shadow of problems of land rights disputes that, in recent years, have often pitted the poor against wealthy developers with link to the Cambodian political establishment.
"We're moving toward possibly about 10 percent of the population owning 90 percent of the land in Cambodia," said Naly Pilorge, director of the nonprofit human rights group Licadho.
That could fan social and political unrest, she and others have warned.
The biggest projects are being funded by South Korean investors and companies, which have been the leading investors in Cambodia following the resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1997. Investment and tourists from South Korea have surged following a 2006 visit to Cambodia by former President Roh Moo-hyun.
World City Co., of South Korea, is investing $2 billion to build a "satellite" urban complex called Camko City on a 300-acre area on the northwest side of Phnom Penh. The project, the single biggest foreign direct investment in Cambodia to date, will include residential, commercial and public facilities - villas, condos, trade and financial centers, office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, schools and hospitals.
Meanwhile, at a busy corner leading up to the city's landmark Independence Monument, an old government hospital has been torn down to make way for a 42-story condominium and shopping complex worth about $250 million. That's going to dramatically change Phnom Penh's skyline, where the tallest building now is a 15-story hotel.
It is going to be the first luxury residential building and tallest structure in Cambodia, said Kim Tae-Yeon, chairman of Yon Woo Inc., a South Korean developer.
Kim said the towers will have about 500 units of apartments, office space and retail shops with price tags ranging from $112,000 to $1.8 million a unit. Construction will start next month and take 3 1/2 years to complete, but Kim said nearly half of the units have already been bought.
In recent years, Siem Reap, a northwestern town near the famed Angkor Wat ruins, also has seen frenzy of hotel and guesthouse construction for the growing numbers of tourists.
Thrilled with the boom, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said it has been made possible by the political stability he has brought. In a recent speech he warned that if he isn't re-elected in July elections, property prices could nosedive.
"It was a threat, a dirty trick to gain votes," said Son Chhay, an opposition party lawmaker.
Son Chhay and some human rights workers, including Pilorge of the human rights group Licadho, believe that the boom is partly fueled by people laundering money from illegal logging, drug trafficking and tax evasion by plowing the cash into the real estate market.
"This is not going to be healthy for the Cambodian economy," Son Chhay said.
There are also concerns that the rapid price gains are creating a bubble that will eventually pop.
Eric Sidgwick, senior economist at the Asian Development Bank office in Phnom Penh, said the real estate market has been "driven by a combination of genuine demand for business-related and residential construction," as well as a growing population, increased urbanization and speculation.
Still, there were "reasons to be concerned about the recent increase in real estate prices and the dangers of further inflating a speculation-led bubble," he said in an e-mail. He declined to comment about any possible link between money laundering and the property market boom.
Meanwhile, the poor like Chhorn Et, the former slum dweller who was moved outside the capital, are left to cope with a stark reality in their new village, which has no running water or sewage system.
Although each family has been given a small piece of land to live on, they complained of the lack of means to support their livelihoods. They have to travel daily to the capital to do odd jobs as motorbike taxi drivers, in construction or scavenge for bottles and cans to sell to buy food.
Many of them are even too poor to afford a latrine and have to use a nearby rice field as toilet, said 37-year-old Mom Somaly, a mother of five children.
Pointing to a distant land-for-sale sign, she said "soon they may not even have a field to use as toilet any longer."
Total International Motocross Championship, Phnom Penh
James Robinson of New Zealand takes part in the Total International Motocross Championship on the outskirts of Phnom Penh March 9, 2008.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA)
Pierre Yves-Catry (L) of France takes part in the Total International Motocross Championship on the outskirts of Phnom Penh March 9, 2008.REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA) 
James Robinson (L) of New Zealand and Pierre Yves-Catry of France take part in the Total International Motocross Championship on the outskirts of Phnom Penh March 9, 2008 .REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea (CAMBODIA) Trial begins in Thailand for Canadian suspected in pedophile case
Canwest News ServiceSunday, March 09, 2008
BANGKOK -- A Canadian man, arrested after police unravelled a digitally scrambled face from images of child abuse found on the internet, will begin his trial Monday in Thailand.
Four months after his arrest, Christopher Neil, of Maple Ridge, B.C., who pleaded not guilty, will stand trial on charges of molesting underage children in Thailand.
Neil was arrested in rural Thailand in October after a week-long manhunt.
Thai police accuse the 32-year-old of raping young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia several years ago.
Detectives in various countries had been trying to track Neil down since German police discovered photographs on the Internet three years ago of a man sexually abusing 12 boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.
The man's face had been scrambled with a digital swirling pattern, but German police computer experts managed to unravel the disguise and Interpol issued an unprecedented worldwide appeal through the Internet for information.
More than 350 people came forward with information.
If convicted, Neil could face up to 20 years in jail in Thailand.
Why I loved Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Angkor Wat, Cambodia submitted by Pat MundyThe Indianapolis Star
March 9, 2008
There are only a few places in the world where man-made wonders, which required unbelievable efforts by the civilizations that created them, are so accessible. You can walk in, around and through so much of the ruins such as this.
This massive tree, with its roots spilling over the ancient temple buildings, seems almost surreal. If you let your mind imagine what it was like nearly eight centuries ago, the beauty is even more amazing.
Pat Mundy, Zionsville
March 9, 2008
There are only a few places in the world where man-made wonders, which required unbelievable efforts by the civilizations that created them, are so accessible. You can walk in, around and through so much of the ruins such as this.
This massive tree, with its roots spilling over the ancient temple buildings, seems almost surreal. If you let your mind imagine what it was like nearly eight centuries ago, the beauty is even more amazing.
Pat Mundy, Zionsville
Sunday, 9 March 2008
Chim Manavy: Women Dare to Break the Silence and Get Rid of a Culture Affecting Their Rights
Posted on 9 March 2008.
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 550
“Phnom Penh: At the occasion of the International Women’s Day on 8 March 2008, reporters of Rasmei Kampuchea interviewed Ms. Chim Manavy, the Director of the Open Institute, a local non-governmental organization working in many areas, including for the promotion of the role of women. Below is the content of the interview:
“Question: What do you think about the respect for women’s rights, in particular comparing the situation of one year ago?“Answer: During the last several years, we have seen that the respect for women’s rights has grown much, compared to before, because citizens have now a better understanding of human rights. During the same time, the government and civil society organizations pay also more attention to implement policies of gender mainstreaming. Women are encouraged to participate in many social activities. The Commune Council elections provided opportunities for women to show their capacities. They competed with their male counterparts to contribute to the development of their communities. Actually, during the Commune Council elections from 2002 to 2007, we saw an increasing participation of women in the leadership of the country. During the first Commune Council election in 2002, women who stood for election accounted for 919 or 8.16 percent of the total candidates. But at the second Commune Council election on 1 April 2007, the women who stood for election accounted for 21 percent of the total candidates. It made much a difference in relation to women’s participation in decision making.
Women who were elected in 2007 as members of Commune Councils totaled 1,662 (but the Ministry of Interior’s figure was 1,683) or 14.64 percent. This was a satisfactory increase if compared to 920 or 8 percent in 2002.“Question: What do Khmer women do to celebrate their day?“Answer: 8 March is International Women’s Day. Not only Khmer women, but also women in many countries across the globe, celebrate the day. International Women’s Day is an international day to celebrate women’s achievements relating to economic, political, and socio-economic sectors. Many countries (such as Russia and the former states within the Soviet Union) across the globe include International Women’s Day into their culture. The day is not celebrated only in political terms, but it is also celebrated as an opportunity for men to express their love for the women around them. It is similar to Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. Moreover, the topics of politics and human rights, set by the United Nations, has been widely discussed.
Information about the struggle of women in the world, concerning political and social issues, have been revealed and analyzed.
“Everybody should do something to participate in celebrating the day according to their respective skills and means. Women can share their good experience with others, they can write poems and stories about themselves and others. These reflect women’s talents, or they are advocacy for the equality between men and women. Women dare to break the silence and get rid of a culture affecting their rights.“Question: When the Open Institute inaugurated a Women’s Web Portal on the Internet, what kind of response have you received from the visitors, and what roles does the Women’s Web Portal play in disseminating the concerns of CEDAW - the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women?
“Answer: The Women’s Web Portal is an activity of the Open Institute, supported by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development, the Open Society Institute [in the USA], InWEnt [in Germany], and UNESCO. The Women’s Web Portal rectifies some deficiencies in the information about women and their rights. It plays a role as an important tool to disseminate information, and it is a means to communicate and share knowledge with women and among women’s organizations. This will further strengthen existing networks of women relating to empowering women and to improving their work. As permanent member of the Cambodian NGO Committee on the UN Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Open Institute disseminates on the Women’s Web Portal this Convention, and is providing further comments of the Cambodian NGO Committee on CEDAW, and other relevant documents for men and women working on CEDAW related concerns. Such information is available on the Women’s Web Portal to promote gender capacity, to help women to use their rights in a balanced manner, and to help build women’s capacity so that they have more self-confidence and self-independence.
“The Women’s Web Portal is a meeting place for interested organizations to share information and to increase cooperation. Electronic information can spread across the country and the world, wherever the Internet can be accessed. Those who receive a lot of information will have much better understanding and can make better decisions.
“Until now, the Women’s Web Portal has attracted more than 300 readers. This figure is not surprising, as the country has only few users of information and communication technology. The readers of the Women’s Web Portal expressed their interest in and their satisfaction for the dissemination of laws and other information relating to rights, in the Khmer language, through electronic communication, which is easy to be researched and read, and is useful for them.“Question: What do you want to say more about the International Women’s Day?
“Answer: I see that global trends and the government’s goodwill have made the situation of Cambodian women turn for the better. The government promotes policies on gender mainstreaming, to be implemented by state institutions, civil society organizations, and in the private sector. However, discrimination against women still exists, as women have not yet received full support from men. This has also caused women to lack self-confidence. To change discriminative attitudes against women, women have to try their best to build up and to promote their capacities, so that they can influence other people, become key agents for social change, work towards progress, and contribute to build a society with knowledge and justice.”
Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4535, 8.3.2008
The Mirror, Vol. 12, No. 550
“Phnom Penh: At the occasion of the International Women’s Day on 8 March 2008, reporters of Rasmei Kampuchea interviewed Ms. Chim Manavy, the Director of the Open Institute, a local non-governmental organization working in many areas, including for the promotion of the role of women. Below is the content of the interview:
“Question: What do you think about the respect for women’s rights, in particular comparing the situation of one year ago?“Answer: During the last several years, we have seen that the respect for women’s rights has grown much, compared to before, because citizens have now a better understanding of human rights. During the same time, the government and civil society organizations pay also more attention to implement policies of gender mainstreaming. Women are encouraged to participate in many social activities. The Commune Council elections provided opportunities for women to show their capacities. They competed with their male counterparts to contribute to the development of their communities. Actually, during the Commune Council elections from 2002 to 2007, we saw an increasing participation of women in the leadership of the country. During the first Commune Council election in 2002, women who stood for election accounted for 919 or 8.16 percent of the total candidates. But at the second Commune Council election on 1 April 2007, the women who stood for election accounted for 21 percent of the total candidates. It made much a difference in relation to women’s participation in decision making.
Women who were elected in 2007 as members of Commune Councils totaled 1,662 (but the Ministry of Interior’s figure was 1,683) or 14.64 percent. This was a satisfactory increase if compared to 920 or 8 percent in 2002.“Question: What do Khmer women do to celebrate their day?“Answer: 8 March is International Women’s Day. Not only Khmer women, but also women in many countries across the globe, celebrate the day. International Women’s Day is an international day to celebrate women’s achievements relating to economic, political, and socio-economic sectors. Many countries (such as Russia and the former states within the Soviet Union) across the globe include International Women’s Day into their culture. The day is not celebrated only in political terms, but it is also celebrated as an opportunity for men to express their love for the women around them. It is similar to Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day. Moreover, the topics of politics and human rights, set by the United Nations, has been widely discussed.
Information about the struggle of women in the world, concerning political and social issues, have been revealed and analyzed.
“Everybody should do something to participate in celebrating the day according to their respective skills and means. Women can share their good experience with others, they can write poems and stories about themselves and others. These reflect women’s talents, or they are advocacy for the equality between men and women. Women dare to break the silence and get rid of a culture affecting their rights.“Question: When the Open Institute inaugurated a Women’s Web Portal on the Internet, what kind of response have you received from the visitors, and what roles does the Women’s Web Portal play in disseminating the concerns of CEDAW - the UN Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women?
“Answer: The Women’s Web Portal is an activity of the Open Institute, supported by the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation for Development, the Open Society Institute [in the USA], InWEnt [in Germany], and UNESCO. The Women’s Web Portal rectifies some deficiencies in the information about women and their rights. It plays a role as an important tool to disseminate information, and it is a means to communicate and share knowledge with women and among women’s organizations. This will further strengthen existing networks of women relating to empowering women and to improving their work. As permanent member of the Cambodian NGO Committee on the UN Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Open Institute disseminates on the Women’s Web Portal this Convention, and is providing further comments of the Cambodian NGO Committee on CEDAW, and other relevant documents for men and women working on CEDAW related concerns. Such information is available on the Women’s Web Portal to promote gender capacity, to help women to use their rights in a balanced manner, and to help build women’s capacity so that they have more self-confidence and self-independence.
“The Women’s Web Portal is a meeting place for interested organizations to share information and to increase cooperation. Electronic information can spread across the country and the world, wherever the Internet can be accessed. Those who receive a lot of information will have much better understanding and can make better decisions.
“Until now, the Women’s Web Portal has attracted more than 300 readers. This figure is not surprising, as the country has only few users of information and communication technology. The readers of the Women’s Web Portal expressed their interest in and their satisfaction for the dissemination of laws and other information relating to rights, in the Khmer language, through electronic communication, which is easy to be researched and read, and is useful for them.“Question: What do you want to say more about the International Women’s Day?
“Answer: I see that global trends and the government’s goodwill have made the situation of Cambodian women turn for the better. The government promotes policies on gender mainstreaming, to be implemented by state institutions, civil society organizations, and in the private sector. However, discrimination against women still exists, as women have not yet received full support from men. This has also caused women to lack self-confidence. To change discriminative attitudes against women, women have to try their best to build up and to promote their capacities, so that they can influence other people, become key agents for social change, work towards progress, and contribute to build a society with knowledge and justice.”
Rasmei Kampuchea, Vol.16, #4535, 8.3.2008
Border talks on oil and gas
Bangkok Post
Thailand and Cambodia plan to set up Joint Development Areas (JDA) covering 26,000 square kilometres of overlapping border areas to facilitate the exploration of natural gas and crude oil, Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said yesterday. Mr Noppadon said the Thai and Cambodian foreign ministries will hold talks on the establishment of the JDA to manage the overlapping border areas which are rich in natural gas and crude oil.
The value of the natural resources is expected to be about 3.5 billion baht for natural gas and 1.5 billion baht for crude oil. If successful, Thailand will enjoy greater energy security essential to electricity generation and the development of the petrochemical industry, said Mr Noppadon.
He added that the Foreign Ministry will join the Energy Ministry in talks with Cambodia as soon as possible on the issue, which is regarded as very important.
Thailand and Cambodia plan to set up Joint Development Areas (JDA) covering 26,000 square kilometres of overlapping border areas to facilitate the exploration of natural gas and crude oil, Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama said yesterday. Mr Noppadon said the Thai and Cambodian foreign ministries will hold talks on the establishment of the JDA to manage the overlapping border areas which are rich in natural gas and crude oil.
The value of the natural resources is expected to be about 3.5 billion baht for natural gas and 1.5 billion baht for crude oil. If successful, Thailand will enjoy greater energy security essential to electricity generation and the development of the petrochemical industry, said Mr Noppadon.
He added that the Foreign Ministry will join the Energy Ministry in talks with Cambodia as soon as possible on the issue, which is regarded as very important.
Splendour of a magnificent past
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Sunday Herald
The remains of the mighty Khmer empire are there for us to see at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, writes Vaasanthi
As I stand before the magnificent temples I can hardly think of the tumultuous history of the land on which they have been standing for centuries. As if mocking history, they are a reminder of a past splendour that also speaks of what must have been an unrivalled empire spanning across South East Asia. Forgotten to the world for centuries, hidden behind the steaming jungles of Cambodia, rediscovered in the 19th century by diligent French explorers, the thousand-year-old stunning religious monuments of Angkor Wat stand as a testimony to human aspirations and imagination.
From Bangkok in Thailand, it is an hour’s flight to Siem Reap the nearest town to the fabled temples of Angkor in Cambodia. Siem Reap, a little more than a village before, is now undoubtedly Cambodia’s fastest-growing town.
It seems to have undergone a metamorphosis ever since the miraculous discovery of the temples. The past decade has seen its rapid growth from a sluggish impoverished village to a booming tourism spot. It is brimming with tourists from all round the world and quickly reinventing itself as a sophisticated centre for the new wave of visitors passing through each year. There are 100 hotels and thousand guesthouses and the number is going up every month; restaurants and bars every week.
It is still a small town with all the charm that goes with small towns. Thanks to tourism development the roads are good and the streets clean and oh, the people from old to the young and the very young always smiling and friendly. Who can say that this has been a land ravaged mercilessly in recent history by war and crime? They seem to have put their lives of recent past of terror and trauma behind to revel in the memory of a glorious past, which now remains a source of inspiration and national pride.
Contemporary Cambodia is the successor state to the mighty Khmer empire which during the Angkor period (9th to 15th centuries) ruled much of what is now Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The remains of the empire are there for us to see at Angkor Wat, the ultimate of Khmer genius, described by travel brochures as ‘unrivalled in scale and grandeur in Southeast Asia’.
Tough times
The first glimpse of Angkor Wat is indeed staggering especially if you remember what Cambodia has gone through. Things were good in the past, culminating in the vast Angkor empire, unrivalled in the region during four centuries of dominance. Then the bad set in, from the 13th centuries neighbours steadily chipped off chunks of its territory. In the twentieth century it went downright ugly, as a bloody civil war lead to the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge (1975-79) from which Cambodia is still recovering.
But meet the man in the street, you will hardly see any rancour towards the evil done. Cambodians have weathered through poverty, bloodshed and political chaos but their smiles have not faded. The tourists that throng and rush to the temple campus in the wee hours of the morning to catch the magnificent view of Angkor Wat at the first light of dawn are not bothered either. Their main worry is the overcast sky that threatens to break into a pouring rain.
As the sun slowly lights up the sky Angkor Wat turns into an ethereal golden hue with its reflection weaving magic in the lily pond. It is like divine inspiration. And yet it is the work of human hands that toiled to create such divinity out of sand stone. It takes some time to see how big the temple complex is.
Angkor’s monuments are spread throughout a huge forest. Heading north from Siem Reap, you first come to Angkor Wat, then the walled city of Angkor Thom to the east and west of this city are two vast reservoirs which helped to feed the Angkor Thom population. Further east are the temples of Ta Prohm and Pre Rup and in the north east is the beautiful well preserved temple of Banteay Srei. There are in fact a hundred temples and probably more.
What is of particular interest to the Indian visitor is the remarkable evidence of the spread of Hinduism and its gods and fables across the seas and the earth more than a thousand years ago. Angkor Wat temples are a celebration and glorification of the Hindu god Shiva and the mythologies of Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Though the lingams are no longer there and stone statues of the Buddha have taken over, the carvings of scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata on the walls of the long corridors of Angkor Wat have been restored and are intact. Hinduism and Buddhism were both the preferred faiths followed alternately according to the reigning king’s belief. The myth of the churning of the milk ocean by Asuras and Devas seems to have fascinated Angkor sculptors and kings. There are two huge rows of the scene at the gate of Angkor Thom temple.
Naga worship must have been prevalent as the snake motifs with erect hoods are carved in stone almost in all the temples. In the temple of Bantaey Srie, which is praised as the jewel of Angkor, the pillars come alive with dancing apsaras and the gateways are filled with exquisite carvings depicting scenes from the Ramayana. So the story goes...
There is an interesting story about the origin of the Indian connection. Cambodia came into being, so the story goes through a union between a Hindu Brahmin named Kaundinya who sailed by and a princess, the daughter of a dragon king who ruled the watery land. They fell in love and the king gave the land as dowry to Kaundinya to rule over. The kingdom was called Kambuja. The myth may or may not be true but it does say something about the cultural influences that affected Cambodia. Cambodia’s religious royal and written traditions stemmed from India. Buddhism spread there when Asoka sent his emissary to Cambodia. The long list of powerful Angkor kings has Hindu names beginning from Jayavarman II- who started building Angkor Wat two hundred years before Raja Raja Chola built the big temple of Tanjavur— the list has names like Yashovarman, Harsha varman, Rajendra Varman, Ishwara Varman— similar to the names of the Pallava kings of south India.
The French ‘discovery’ of Angkor in the 1860s made an international splash. It was only in 1901 the Ecole Francaised’Extreme-Orient began its long association with Angkor by funding an expedition to the Bayon temple. In 1907 Angkor, which had been under Thai control, was returned to Cambodia and the EFEO took responsibility for clearing and restoring the whole site. Since the temples had Indian connection and the theme Hinduism, the cooperation of the Indian government was also taken for some sites. It was a stupendous task indeed. The monuments of Angkor were left to the jungle for many centuries. A large number of monuments are made of sandstone that tends to dissolve in prolonged exposure to wind and rain.
Monuments that wow!
At Ta Prohm, the jungle had stealthily made an all out invasion. The huge roots swoop down the monuments as if to devour them and the visual is at once breathtaking and awesome. What is striking about the sculptures is that no structure is made out of single rock boulders like you see in the temples of South India, but an assembly of blocks. The remarkable symmetry and serenity that prevails in the faces of the Bayon temple is truly amazing. The temples of Angkor are the heart and soul of Cambodia. When our guide made a repeated reference to ‘My people, my country’ there was not only a natural pride but also the belief that Angkor was a true symbol of inspiration for the people to rise to eminence leaving behind the memories of suffering and trauma…
Sunday Herald
The remains of the mighty Khmer empire are there for us to see at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, writes Vaasanthi
As I stand before the magnificent temples I can hardly think of the tumultuous history of the land on which they have been standing for centuries. As if mocking history, they are a reminder of a past splendour that also speaks of what must have been an unrivalled empire spanning across South East Asia. Forgotten to the world for centuries, hidden behind the steaming jungles of Cambodia, rediscovered in the 19th century by diligent French explorers, the thousand-year-old stunning religious monuments of Angkor Wat stand as a testimony to human aspirations and imagination.
From Bangkok in Thailand, it is an hour’s flight to Siem Reap the nearest town to the fabled temples of Angkor in Cambodia. Siem Reap, a little more than a village before, is now undoubtedly Cambodia’s fastest-growing town.
It seems to have undergone a metamorphosis ever since the miraculous discovery of the temples. The past decade has seen its rapid growth from a sluggish impoverished village to a booming tourism spot. It is brimming with tourists from all round the world and quickly reinventing itself as a sophisticated centre for the new wave of visitors passing through each year. There are 100 hotels and thousand guesthouses and the number is going up every month; restaurants and bars every week.
It is still a small town with all the charm that goes with small towns. Thanks to tourism development the roads are good and the streets clean and oh, the people from old to the young and the very young always smiling and friendly. Who can say that this has been a land ravaged mercilessly in recent history by war and crime? They seem to have put their lives of recent past of terror and trauma behind to revel in the memory of a glorious past, which now remains a source of inspiration and national pride.
Contemporary Cambodia is the successor state to the mighty Khmer empire which during the Angkor period (9th to 15th centuries) ruled much of what is now Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The remains of the empire are there for us to see at Angkor Wat, the ultimate of Khmer genius, described by travel brochures as ‘unrivalled in scale and grandeur in Southeast Asia’.
Tough times
The first glimpse of Angkor Wat is indeed staggering especially if you remember what Cambodia has gone through. Things were good in the past, culminating in the vast Angkor empire, unrivalled in the region during four centuries of dominance. Then the bad set in, from the 13th centuries neighbours steadily chipped off chunks of its territory. In the twentieth century it went downright ugly, as a bloody civil war lead to the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge (1975-79) from which Cambodia is still recovering.
But meet the man in the street, you will hardly see any rancour towards the evil done. Cambodians have weathered through poverty, bloodshed and political chaos but their smiles have not faded. The tourists that throng and rush to the temple campus in the wee hours of the morning to catch the magnificent view of Angkor Wat at the first light of dawn are not bothered either. Their main worry is the overcast sky that threatens to break into a pouring rain.
As the sun slowly lights up the sky Angkor Wat turns into an ethereal golden hue with its reflection weaving magic in the lily pond. It is like divine inspiration. And yet it is the work of human hands that toiled to create such divinity out of sand stone. It takes some time to see how big the temple complex is.
Angkor’s monuments are spread throughout a huge forest. Heading north from Siem Reap, you first come to Angkor Wat, then the walled city of Angkor Thom to the east and west of this city are two vast reservoirs which helped to feed the Angkor Thom population. Further east are the temples of Ta Prohm and Pre Rup and in the north east is the beautiful well preserved temple of Banteay Srei. There are in fact a hundred temples and probably more.
What is of particular interest to the Indian visitor is the remarkable evidence of the spread of Hinduism and its gods and fables across the seas and the earth more than a thousand years ago. Angkor Wat temples are a celebration and glorification of the Hindu god Shiva and the mythologies of Ramayana and Mahabharata.
Though the lingams are no longer there and stone statues of the Buddha have taken over, the carvings of scenes from Ramayana and Mahabharata on the walls of the long corridors of Angkor Wat have been restored and are intact. Hinduism and Buddhism were both the preferred faiths followed alternately according to the reigning king’s belief. The myth of the churning of the milk ocean by Asuras and Devas seems to have fascinated Angkor sculptors and kings. There are two huge rows of the scene at the gate of Angkor Thom temple.
Naga worship must have been prevalent as the snake motifs with erect hoods are carved in stone almost in all the temples. In the temple of Bantaey Srie, which is praised as the jewel of Angkor, the pillars come alive with dancing apsaras and the gateways are filled with exquisite carvings depicting scenes from the Ramayana. So the story goes...
There is an interesting story about the origin of the Indian connection. Cambodia came into being, so the story goes through a union between a Hindu Brahmin named Kaundinya who sailed by and a princess, the daughter of a dragon king who ruled the watery land. They fell in love and the king gave the land as dowry to Kaundinya to rule over. The kingdom was called Kambuja. The myth may or may not be true but it does say something about the cultural influences that affected Cambodia. Cambodia’s religious royal and written traditions stemmed from India. Buddhism spread there when Asoka sent his emissary to Cambodia. The long list of powerful Angkor kings has Hindu names beginning from Jayavarman II- who started building Angkor Wat two hundred years before Raja Raja Chola built the big temple of Tanjavur— the list has names like Yashovarman, Harsha varman, Rajendra Varman, Ishwara Varman— similar to the names of the Pallava kings of south India.
The French ‘discovery’ of Angkor in the 1860s made an international splash. It was only in 1901 the Ecole Francaised’Extreme-Orient began its long association with Angkor by funding an expedition to the Bayon temple. In 1907 Angkor, which had been under Thai control, was returned to Cambodia and the EFEO took responsibility for clearing and restoring the whole site. Since the temples had Indian connection and the theme Hinduism, the cooperation of the Indian government was also taken for some sites. It was a stupendous task indeed. The monuments of Angkor were left to the jungle for many centuries. A large number of monuments are made of sandstone that tends to dissolve in prolonged exposure to wind and rain.
Monuments that wow!
At Ta Prohm, the jungle had stealthily made an all out invasion. The huge roots swoop down the monuments as if to devour them and the visual is at once breathtaking and awesome. What is striking about the sculptures is that no structure is made out of single rock boulders like you see in the temples of South India, but an assembly of blocks. The remarkable symmetry and serenity that prevails in the faces of the Bayon temple is truly amazing. The temples of Angkor are the heart and soul of Cambodia. When our guide made a repeated reference to ‘My people, my country’ there was not only a natural pride but also the belief that Angkor was a true symbol of inspiration for the people to rise to eminence leaving behind the memories of suffering and trauma…
PM talks about trip to Cambodia on weekly show
(BangkokPost.com) – Mr Samak Sundaravej told viewers of his weekly television programme this morning about his first visit to Cambodia as Thailand’s prime minister. He said he was surprised and flattered by the amount of locals who came to greet him at Phnom Penh international airport.
He compared the country, which has a population of 14 million, to how it was 50 years ago and said that it had developed a great deal with major roads leading to the capital now.
Mr Samak also revealed how he was granted an audience with His Majesty the King Norodom Sihamoni.
“From talks with His Majesty, he expressed a wish for MK Suki to set up business there,” the premier said.
MK Suki is one of the leading hot pot restaurants in Thailand.
He compared the country, which has a population of 14 million, to how it was 50 years ago and said that it had developed a great deal with major roads leading to the capital now.
Mr Samak also revealed how he was granted an audience with His Majesty the King Norodom Sihamoni.
“From talks with His Majesty, he expressed a wish for MK Suki to set up business there,” the premier said.
MK Suki is one of the leading hot pot restaurants in Thailand.
Cambodia's thriving real estate market enriches the elite
thestar.com.m
Sunday March 9, 2008
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP): An old hospital was razed to make way for Phnom Penh's tallest building _ a 42-story twin condominium tower. A garbage-strewn slum became prime real estate after police evicted its dwellers to a parched rice field outside the capital.
Cambodia is experiencing a construction boom fueled by foreign investment, particularly by South Koreans, and buying and selling among the country's few nouveaux riche _ while leaving the poor majority behind. Shopping malls and tall apartment buildings are sprouting up, transforming the capital's landscape that once bore the charm of colonial French-styled villas but resembled a ghost town at the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime nearly 30 years ago.
Political stability and robust economic growth of nearly 10 percent have lured investors to the real estate market that has seen prices surge over the last few years _ though they are still lower than in neighboring Vietnam or Thailand.
"Cambodia was sleeping for many years and now it's waking up,'' said Claire Brown, managing director of Britain-based Claire Brown Realty who began buying and selling property in Phnom Penh two years ago.
"Everybody wants to get a piece of the action,'' she said by phone. "The time to get in is now because soon it's going to be too late.''
Prime city land prices have tripled over the last two years to US$3,000 (euro2,000) per square meter. Those kinds of returns have drawn rich and middle-class Cambodians, as well as those living abroad.
"In buying and selling land, they could get profit 100 or 200 percent a year, if they make the right bet on the right location,'' said Dith Channa, the sale manager of CPL Cambodia Properties Ltd., a Phnom Penh-based real estate agency.
But the soaring real estate market is also widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
"Phnom Penh city is getting modern every day _ of course for the wealthy,'' said Chhorn Et, a former slum dweller now living with hundreds of others in a village in the middle of rice field about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the capital.
"The government swept us away because they regarded us as very unpleasant for their eyes,'' said the 34-year-old woman who scavenges for discarded cans and bottles to sell for a living.
The flourishing property market is also happening in the shadow of problems of land rights disputes that, in recent years, have often pitted the poor against wealthy developers with links to the Cambodian political establishment.
"We're moving toward possibly about 10 percent of the population owning 90 percent of the land in Cambodia,'' said Naly Pilorge, director of the nonprofit human rights group Licadho.
That could fan social and political unrest, she and others have warned.
The biggest projects are being funded by South Korean investors and companies, which have been the leading investors in Cambodia following the resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1997.
Investment and tourists from South Korea have surged following a 2006 visit to Cambodia by former President Roh Moo-hyun.
World City Co. Ltd., a South Korean company, is investing US$2 billion (euro1.3 billion) to build a "satellite'' urban complex called Camko City on a 120-hectare (300-acre) area on the northwest side of Phnom Penh. The project, the single biggest foreign direct investment in Cambodia to date, will include residential, commercial and public facilities _ villas, condos, trade and financial centers, office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, schools and hospitals.
Meanwhile, at a busy corner leading up to the city's landmark Independence Monument, an old government hospital has been torn down to make way for a 42-story condominium and shopping complex worth about US$250 million (euro162 million). That's going to dramatically change Phnom Penh's skyline, where the tallest building now is a 15-story hotel.
It is going to be the first luxury residential building and tallest structure in Cambodia, said Kim Tae-Yeon, chairman of Yon Woo Inc., a South Korean developer.
Kim said the towers will have about 500 units of apartments, office space and retail shops with price tags ranging from US$112,000 (euro72,647) to US$1.8 million (euro1.17 million) a unit.
Construction will start next month and take 3 1/2 years to complete, but Kim said nearly half of the units have already been bought.
In recent years, Siem Reap, a northwestern town near the famed Angkor Wat ruins, also has seen a frenzy of hotel and guesthouse construction for the growing numbers of tourists.
Thrilled with the boom, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said it has been made possible by the political stability he has brought. In a recent speech he warned that if he is not re-elected in July elections, property prices could nosedive.
"It was a threat, a dirty trick to gain votes,'' said Son Chhay, an opposition party lawmaker.
Son Chhay and some human rights workers, including Pilorge of the human rights group Licadho, believe that the boom is partly fueled by people laundering money from illegal logging, drug trafficking and tax evasion by plowing the cash into the real estate market.
"This is not going to be healthy for the Cambodian economy,'' Son Chhay says.
There are also concerns that the rapid price gains are creating a bubble that will eventually pop.
Eric Sidgwick, senior economist at the Asian Development Bank office in Phnom Penh, said the real estate market has been "driven by a combination of genuine demand for business-related and residential construction,'' as well as a growing population, increased urbanization and speculation.
Still, there were "reasons to be concerned about the recent increase in real estate prices and the dangers of further inflating a speculation-led bubble,'' he said in an e-mail. He declined to comment about any possible link between money laundering and the property market boom.
Meanwhile, poor residents like Chhorn Et, the former slum dweller who was moved outside the capital, are left to cope with a stark reality in their new village, which has no running water or sewage system.
Although each family has been given a small piece of land, they complain of the lack of means to support their livelihoods. They have to travel daily to the capital to do odd jobs as motorbike taxi drivers, construction workers or scavenge for bottles and cans to sell to buy food.
Many of them are too poor to afford a latrine and have to use a nearby rice field as a toilet, said 37-year-old Mom Somaly, a mother of five children.
Pointing to a distant land-for-sale sign, she said "soon they may not even have a field to use as toilet any longer.''
Sunday March 9, 2008
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP): An old hospital was razed to make way for Phnom Penh's tallest building _ a 42-story twin condominium tower. A garbage-strewn slum became prime real estate after police evicted its dwellers to a parched rice field outside the capital.
Cambodia is experiencing a construction boom fueled by foreign investment, particularly by South Koreans, and buying and selling among the country's few nouveaux riche _ while leaving the poor majority behind. Shopping malls and tall apartment buildings are sprouting up, transforming the capital's landscape that once bore the charm of colonial French-styled villas but resembled a ghost town at the fall of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime nearly 30 years ago.
Political stability and robust economic growth of nearly 10 percent have lured investors to the real estate market that has seen prices surge over the last few years _ though they are still lower than in neighboring Vietnam or Thailand.
"Cambodia was sleeping for many years and now it's waking up,'' said Claire Brown, managing director of Britain-based Claire Brown Realty who began buying and selling property in Phnom Penh two years ago.
"Everybody wants to get a piece of the action,'' she said by phone. "The time to get in is now because soon it's going to be too late.''
Prime city land prices have tripled over the last two years to US$3,000 (euro2,000) per square meter. Those kinds of returns have drawn rich and middle-class Cambodians, as well as those living abroad.
"In buying and selling land, they could get profit 100 or 200 percent a year, if they make the right bet on the right location,'' said Dith Channa, the sale manager of CPL Cambodia Properties Ltd., a Phnom Penh-based real estate agency.
But the soaring real estate market is also widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
"Phnom Penh city is getting modern every day _ of course for the wealthy,'' said Chhorn Et, a former slum dweller now living with hundreds of others in a village in the middle of rice field about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the capital.
"The government swept us away because they regarded us as very unpleasant for their eyes,'' said the 34-year-old woman who scavenges for discarded cans and bottles to sell for a living.
The flourishing property market is also happening in the shadow of problems of land rights disputes that, in recent years, have often pitted the poor against wealthy developers with links to the Cambodian political establishment.
"We're moving toward possibly about 10 percent of the population owning 90 percent of the land in Cambodia,'' said Naly Pilorge, director of the nonprofit human rights group Licadho.
That could fan social and political unrest, she and others have warned.
The biggest projects are being funded by South Korean investors and companies, which have been the leading investors in Cambodia following the resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries in 1997.
Investment and tourists from South Korea have surged following a 2006 visit to Cambodia by former President Roh Moo-hyun.
World City Co. Ltd., a South Korean company, is investing US$2 billion (euro1.3 billion) to build a "satellite'' urban complex called Camko City on a 120-hectare (300-acre) area on the northwest side of Phnom Penh. The project, the single biggest foreign direct investment in Cambodia to date, will include residential, commercial and public facilities _ villas, condos, trade and financial centers, office buildings, shopping centers, hotels, schools and hospitals.
Meanwhile, at a busy corner leading up to the city's landmark Independence Monument, an old government hospital has been torn down to make way for a 42-story condominium and shopping complex worth about US$250 million (euro162 million). That's going to dramatically change Phnom Penh's skyline, where the tallest building now is a 15-story hotel.
It is going to be the first luxury residential building and tallest structure in Cambodia, said Kim Tae-Yeon, chairman of Yon Woo Inc., a South Korean developer.
Kim said the towers will have about 500 units of apartments, office space and retail shops with price tags ranging from US$112,000 (euro72,647) to US$1.8 million (euro1.17 million) a unit.
Construction will start next month and take 3 1/2 years to complete, but Kim said nearly half of the units have already been bought.
In recent years, Siem Reap, a northwestern town near the famed Angkor Wat ruins, also has seen a frenzy of hotel and guesthouse construction for the growing numbers of tourists.
Thrilled with the boom, Prime Minister Hun Sen has said it has been made possible by the political stability he has brought. In a recent speech he warned that if he is not re-elected in July elections, property prices could nosedive.
"It was a threat, a dirty trick to gain votes,'' said Son Chhay, an opposition party lawmaker.
Son Chhay and some human rights workers, including Pilorge of the human rights group Licadho, believe that the boom is partly fueled by people laundering money from illegal logging, drug trafficking and tax evasion by plowing the cash into the real estate market.
"This is not going to be healthy for the Cambodian economy,'' Son Chhay says.
There are also concerns that the rapid price gains are creating a bubble that will eventually pop.
Eric Sidgwick, senior economist at the Asian Development Bank office in Phnom Penh, said the real estate market has been "driven by a combination of genuine demand for business-related and residential construction,'' as well as a growing population, increased urbanization and speculation.
Still, there were "reasons to be concerned about the recent increase in real estate prices and the dangers of further inflating a speculation-led bubble,'' he said in an e-mail. He declined to comment about any possible link between money laundering and the property market boom.
Meanwhile, poor residents like Chhorn Et, the former slum dweller who was moved outside the capital, are left to cope with a stark reality in their new village, which has no running water or sewage system.
Although each family has been given a small piece of land, they complain of the lack of means to support their livelihoods. They have to travel daily to the capital to do odd jobs as motorbike taxi drivers, construction workers or scavenge for bottles and cans to sell to buy food.
Many of them are too poor to afford a latrine and have to use a nearby rice field as a toilet, said 37-year-old Mom Somaly, a mother of five children.
Pointing to a distant land-for-sale sign, she said "soon they may not even have a field to use as toilet any longer.''
Cambodian King wants MK Suki to open branch: Samak
Cambodia's King Sihamoni would like Thai sukiyaki chain MK Suki to open its branch in his country, Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Sunday.
In his live talk programme on Channel 11, Samak said he had visited the Cambodian king for 40 minutes during his recent trip to the neighbouring country and the King would like MK Suki to open its branch in Phnom Penh.
The Nation
In his live talk programme on Channel 11, Samak said he had visited the Cambodian king for 40 minutes during his recent trip to the neighbouring country and the King would like MK Suki to open its branch in Phnom Penh.
The Nation
Cambodia travel – some like it hot
Photo: Robert Nielsen / Your Scene, Los Angeles TimesSusan Derby
Special to the Los Angeles Times
If you’re thinking about visiting Cambodia soon, go this month (March) if you can handle some heat (by April, it’ll be even hotter). Or plan a trip for summer, when monsoon rains cool things down and really only inconvenience you for part of the afternoon.
A few years ago I traveled around Cambodia in late April, when the heat was really beginning to escalate (which it does starting around March, before hitting a peak in May or June to initiate monsoon season). The temperature was in the 90s and the humidity oppressive.
I remember stumbling around after a trip to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. The gravity of what I’d observed there was enough to make me delirious, but in addition I’d come down with heat stroke. I spent the next couple days cooped up in my room with fever, a migraine and nausea. If you go to Cambodia in April, bring a big hat, and drink bucketfuls of water.
Why go: Thailand’s neighbor to the southeast, Cambodia is fascinating in many ways, but it has a sobering yet educational impact on many tourists; its recent history is so heartbreaking that you can’t leave the country the same person that you were upon entry. Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples and ruins are truly sights to behold. And adventurous foodies can try all manner of unusual edibles: locusts and spiders, for instance.
What’ll it cost me?: In his article “Countries where dollars go the distance,” L. A. Times Staff Writer Jason La breaks down general food and lodging costs. Right now you’ll spend around $1200 for a flight from LAX to Phnom Penh (PNH) after taxes. Maybe that sounds exorbitant, but if you’re shelling out $10/night for a room, you may decide it evens out. If you’ve got miles, though, all the better.
Special to the Los Angeles Times
If you’re thinking about visiting Cambodia soon, go this month (March) if you can handle some heat (by April, it’ll be even hotter). Or plan a trip for summer, when monsoon rains cool things down and really only inconvenience you for part of the afternoon.
A few years ago I traveled around Cambodia in late April, when the heat was really beginning to escalate (which it does starting around March, before hitting a peak in May or June to initiate monsoon season). The temperature was in the 90s and the humidity oppressive.
I remember stumbling around after a trip to the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. The gravity of what I’d observed there was enough to make me delirious, but in addition I’d come down with heat stroke. I spent the next couple days cooped up in my room with fever, a migraine and nausea. If you go to Cambodia in April, bring a big hat, and drink bucketfuls of water.
Why go: Thailand’s neighbor to the southeast, Cambodia is fascinating in many ways, but it has a sobering yet educational impact on many tourists; its recent history is so heartbreaking that you can’t leave the country the same person that you were upon entry. Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples and ruins are truly sights to behold. And adventurous foodies can try all manner of unusual edibles: locusts and spiders, for instance.
What’ll it cost me?: In his article “Countries where dollars go the distance,” L. A. Times Staff Writer Jason La breaks down general food and lodging costs. Right now you’ll spend around $1200 for a flight from LAX to Phnom Penh (PNH) after taxes. Maybe that sounds exorbitant, but if you’re shelling out $10/night for a room, you may decide it evens out. If you’ve got miles, though, all the better.
PM talks about trip to Cambodia on weekly show
(BangkokPost.com) – Mr Samak Sundaravej told viewers of his weekly television programme this morning about his first visit to Cambodia as Thailand’s prime minister. He said he was surprised and flattered by the amount of locals who came to greet him at Phnom Penh international airport.
He compared the country, which has a population of 14 million, to how it was 50 years ago and said that it had developed a great deal with major roads leading to the capital now.
Mr Samak also revealed how he was granted an audience with His Majesty the King Norodom Sihamoni.
“From talks with His Majesty, he expressed a wish for MK Suki to set up business there,” the premier said.
MK Suki is one of the leading hot pot restaurants in Thailand.
He compared the country, which has a population of 14 million, to how it was 50 years ago and said that it had developed a great deal with major roads leading to the capital now.
Mr Samak also revealed how he was granted an audience with His Majesty the King Norodom Sihamoni.
“From talks with His Majesty, he expressed a wish for MK Suki to set up business there,” the premier said.
MK Suki is one of the leading hot pot restaurants in Thailand.
Samak says he has talked to Cambodian Govt over joint tourism development
March 9, 2008
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Sunday that he has talked to the Cambodian government over proposal to jointly develop tourism industry of the two countries.
He said Thailand would develop roads to link the two kingdoms so that tourists could travel by buses from Thailand to Cambodia.
Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej said Sunday that he has talked to the Cambodian government over proposal to jointly develop tourism industry of the two countries.
He said Thailand would develop roads to link the two kingdoms so that tourists could travel by buses from Thailand to Cambodia.
He said the joint development could allow foreign tourist who visit Pattaya to continue to visit Cambodia with convenience.
The Nation
The Nation
Cambodia's rising property prices sidelines poor
csr-asia.com09 March 2008
An old hospital was razed to make way for Phnom Penh's tallest building - a 42-story twin condominium tower.
A garbage-strewn slum became prime real estate after police evicted its dwellers to a parched rice field outside the capital.
Property prices in Cambodia are on the rise, but opposition party lawmaker Son Chhay and some human rights workers, including Pilorge of the human rights group Licadho, believe that the boom is partly fueled by people laundering money from illegal logging, drug trafficking and tax evasion by plowing the cash into the real estate market.
See this weekend's Bangkok Post for a very intersting story on some of the issues arising from this booming market. The picture shows a billboard for Camko City.
Mr. Hun Sen: Resign or Not to Resign?
Friday, March 7, 2008Courtesy of Khmerization : http://khmerization.blogspot.com/
"One can only lie once. If one lied too many times over, then that person is no different to a prostitute who claimed to be a virgin. The person who made the claims will no longer be credible anymore."
Editorial by Khmerization:- I welcome Prime Minister Hun Sen’s appeal for all political parties, including his own Cambodian People’s Party, not to engage in political violence and intimidations, before and during the upcoming election. I also welcome his promise to step down if he loses the election (read the link below).
But it is hard to know if his appeal is genuine or deceptively made in his political posturing designed to fool the opposition parties and the international community, including the donor countries.
With past experiences, it is almost inconceivable to imagine an election free of violence and intimidations. In hindsight, it is also inconceivable for anyone to have any faith at all in Mr. Hun Sen’s many broken promises.
Political violence and intimidations, pre- and post-election, were often orchestrated and perpetrated by Mr. Hun Sen's own Cambodian People's Party. It is rather cynical and hypocritical of the Mr. Hun Sen to naively go to great length in order to try to con and fool public opinion. But, with his public appeal, the political tension will ease and the opposition parties will undoubtedly have a peace of mind. But whether his appeal will have any effectiveness at all remains to be seen.
Cambodians had been through the election two times post-UNTAC, with every election violently contested and spuriously claimed by the oppositions as fraudulently rigged.
Cambodians had also heard Mr. Hun Sen’s broken promises all before. Whether his promise this time is anything difference from his previous promises is anyone’s bet. But, mind you, I will not bet on his promises.
Mr. Hun Sen could have resigned after the 1998 and 2003 elections when the oppositions didn’t want him as the prime minister. He could have stepped down and offered the PM post to one of his CPP colleagues, the likes of Mr. Sar Kheng, Sok An, Tea Banh, Chea Sim and Heng Samrin and so on. The fact that he fought bitterly so hard to remain in that post, including the arrest and exiling of Mr. Chea Sim, the president of Mr. Hun Sen’s own Cambodian People’s Party in 2003, proved that Mr. Hun Sen will cling to power at all cost.
The lists of his broken promises go on and on. Mr. Hun Sen had promised to resign if he cannot eliminate illegal logging. Not only that the illegal logging had not been contained, but it continued and continued with the maximum willing participation of Mr. Hun Sen, as reported by Global Witness in the Cambodia’s Family Tree report. He promised to step down if he cannot curb official corruption but it continues. He promised to resign if he cannot stop hoodlums. Again, the lists go on and on.
One can only lie once. If one lied too many times over, then that person is no different to a prostitute who claimed to be a virgin. The person who made the claims will no longer be credible anymore. This time I will give Mr. Hun Sen the benefit of the doubt. But Mr. Hun Sen has to earn my trust if his promise this time is to have any credibility and trustworthiness at all.
Editorial by Khmerization:- I welcome Prime Minister Hun Sen’s appeal for all political parties, including his own Cambodian People’s Party, not to engage in political violence and intimidations, before and during the upcoming election. I also welcome his promise to step down if he loses the election (read the link below).
But it is hard to know if his appeal is genuine or deceptively made in his political posturing designed to fool the opposition parties and the international community, including the donor countries.
With past experiences, it is almost inconceivable to imagine an election free of violence and intimidations. In hindsight, it is also inconceivable for anyone to have any faith at all in Mr. Hun Sen’s many broken promises.
Political violence and intimidations, pre- and post-election, were often orchestrated and perpetrated by Mr. Hun Sen's own Cambodian People's Party. It is rather cynical and hypocritical of the Mr. Hun Sen to naively go to great length in order to try to con and fool public opinion. But, with his public appeal, the political tension will ease and the opposition parties will undoubtedly have a peace of mind. But whether his appeal will have any effectiveness at all remains to be seen.
Cambodians had been through the election two times post-UNTAC, with every election violently contested and spuriously claimed by the oppositions as fraudulently rigged.
Cambodians had also heard Mr. Hun Sen’s broken promises all before. Whether his promise this time is anything difference from his previous promises is anyone’s bet. But, mind you, I will not bet on his promises.
Mr. Hun Sen could have resigned after the 1998 and 2003 elections when the oppositions didn’t want him as the prime minister. He could have stepped down and offered the PM post to one of his CPP colleagues, the likes of Mr. Sar Kheng, Sok An, Tea Banh, Chea Sim and Heng Samrin and so on. The fact that he fought bitterly so hard to remain in that post, including the arrest and exiling of Mr. Chea Sim, the president of Mr. Hun Sen’s own Cambodian People’s Party in 2003, proved that Mr. Hun Sen will cling to power at all cost.
The lists of his broken promises go on and on. Mr. Hun Sen had promised to resign if he cannot eliminate illegal logging. Not only that the illegal logging had not been contained, but it continued and continued with the maximum willing participation of Mr. Hun Sen, as reported by Global Witness in the Cambodia’s Family Tree report. He promised to step down if he cannot curb official corruption but it continues. He promised to resign if he cannot stop hoodlums. Again, the lists go on and on.
One can only lie once. If one lied too many times over, then that person is no different to a prostitute who claimed to be a virgin. The person who made the claims will no longer be credible anymore. This time I will give Mr. Hun Sen the benefit of the doubt. But Mr. Hun Sen has to earn my trust if his promise this time is to have any credibility and trustworthiness at all.
Former Japanese PM Abe to visit Cambodia soon
chinaview.cn
2008-03-08
PHNOM PENH, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Cambodia soon, said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday.
Abe is to visit Cambodia on behalf of the Japanese parliament, Hun Sen told the opening ceremony of an irrigation system in Pursat province.
"He will lead members of a school-building association to the kingdom to help us build schools," he added.
Hun Sen once met with Abe last year in Japan while Abe was still in office.
Japan has remained as Cambodia's largest donor country for years.
Editor: Mu Xuequan
2008-03-08
PHNOM PENH, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Cambodia soon, said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen on Saturday.
Abe is to visit Cambodia on behalf of the Japanese parliament, Hun Sen told the opening ceremony of an irrigation system in Pursat province.
"He will lead members of a school-building association to the kingdom to help us build schools," he added.
Hun Sen once met with Abe last year in Japan while Abe was still in office.
Japan has remained as Cambodia's largest donor country for years.
Editor: Mu Xuequan
Cambodia seeks Japan's help in Sudan peace mission
Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen walks past a demining unit, during a ceremony before the departure of the Cambodian humanitarian demining unit for the UN peace keeping operation in Sudan, in Phnom Penh April 12, 2006. (Reuters)Asahi.com
03/08/2008
BY KAZUTO TSUKAMOTO, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Cambodia wants Japan's support for the Southeast Asian nation's first U.N. peacekeeping mission, which is becoming increasingly tense due to fighting in Sudan, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Tea Banh said Friday.
Tea, who is also the Cambodian national defense minister, told The Asahi Shimbun in Tokyo that Cambodian troops sent to southern Sudan "have not yet been directly attacked, but the situation is tense."
About 300 Cambodian Army corps engineers have been sent to Malakal in southern Sudan, mainly for demining, since April 2006, according to Tea.
The Cambodian troops, which have been cooperating with troops from India and Bangladesh, have removed a total of 1,613 mines so far, he said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura has proposed that the Self-Defense Forces be sent to Sudan to participate in the U.N. peacekeeping mission. But the security situation will likely lead to further calls in Japan for a more cautious approach.
"Cambodia will continue to fulfill its duties in peacekeeping operations with the cooperation of Japan," Tea said.
He asked for continued support from Japan in terms of fostering human personnel for peacekeeping operations.
"Japan sent a peacekeeping mission to Cambodia and now Cambodia has sent such a mission to Sudan," Tea said. "If Japan and Cambodia can cooperate in Sudan, it would mean a new page in the history of peacekeeping cooperation between Japan and Cambodia."
Japan first sent SDF members on a U.N. peacekeeping mission in 1992 to Cambodia.
But in Sudan, the situation is so unstable that the legal conditions under which SDF members can be dispatched on peacekeeping missions may not be met.
For example, SDF members cannot be sent on peacekeeping mission to areas that are considered combat zones.
In addition to mortar attacks near where the Cambodian troops are housed, fighting has broken out about 6 kilometers from a site where mines were being removed, Tea said.
The fighting forced the Cambodian troops to suspend peacekeeping activities for 15 days.
The troops have been helping local residents who were victims of the mortar attack.
03/08/2008
BY KAZUTO TSUKAMOTO, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
Cambodia wants Japan's support for the Southeast Asian nation's first U.N. peacekeeping mission, which is becoming increasingly tense due to fighting in Sudan, Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister Tea Banh said Friday.
Tea, who is also the Cambodian national defense minister, told The Asahi Shimbun in Tokyo that Cambodian troops sent to southern Sudan "have not yet been directly attacked, but the situation is tense."
About 300 Cambodian Army corps engineers have been sent to Malakal in southern Sudan, mainly for demining, since April 2006, according to Tea.
The Cambodian troops, which have been cooperating with troops from India and Bangladesh, have removed a total of 1,613 mines so far, he said.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura has proposed that the Self-Defense Forces be sent to Sudan to participate in the U.N. peacekeeping mission. But the security situation will likely lead to further calls in Japan for a more cautious approach.
"Cambodia will continue to fulfill its duties in peacekeeping operations with the cooperation of Japan," Tea said.
He asked for continued support from Japan in terms of fostering human personnel for peacekeeping operations.
"Japan sent a peacekeeping mission to Cambodia and now Cambodia has sent such a mission to Sudan," Tea said. "If Japan and Cambodia can cooperate in Sudan, it would mean a new page in the history of peacekeeping cooperation between Japan and Cambodia."
Japan first sent SDF members on a U.N. peacekeeping mission in 1992 to Cambodia.
But in Sudan, the situation is so unstable that the legal conditions under which SDF members can be dispatched on peacekeeping missions may not be met.
For example, SDF members cannot be sent on peacekeeping mission to areas that are considered combat zones.
In addition to mortar attacks near where the Cambodian troops are housed, fighting has broken out about 6 kilometers from a site where mines were being removed, Tea said.
The fighting forced the Cambodian troops to suspend peacekeeping activities for 15 days.
The troops have been helping local residents who were victims of the mortar attack.
Dengue Fever a new kind of world music
The L.A.-based six-piece Dengue Fever. Guitarist Zac Holtzman, seated far left, says he doesn't speak much Khmer, so writing songs for Cambodian vocalist Chhom Nimol, centre, can be a challenge. Hot band mixes psychedelic rock with Cambodian pop – while redefining the term 'world music'
Mar 08, 2008
Raju Mudhar Entertainment Reporter
The Global Positioning System is chattering away in Dengue Fever's tour van.
During a phone chat while the group is on the road from Philadelphia to New York, main songwriter and lead guitarist Zac Holtzman notes the addition of a disembodied voice offering directions is one noticeable and pleasant upgrade from their previous tours.
The L.A.-based band is currently trekking across North America in support of their acclaimed third album, Venus on Dreams, which stops in at Sneaky Dee's tonight as part of a showcase at Canadian Music Week.
While the GPS can help the band get to where it's got to go, trying to navigate its musical mix is a different matter.
A perfect example of East-West fusion, the California-based six-piece merges retro psychedelic rock with Cambodian pop. Chhom Nimol sings in Khmer, although a few English tracks appear on the new album, which also incorporates surf guitar, Afrobeat and even country.
The band's stated goal is to emulate the sound of music in Cambodia in the 1960s, when American rock influences melded with traditional Asian pop.
"I mean, it was just this really cool twist that they put on all that music. They brought in their own style of singing and it's just this kind of interesting balance of stuff that's vaguely familiar and stuff that's totally from a different world," says Holtzman.
"A lot of the singing, they do a lot of pitch bending and tracking into high voices and falsettos and I think that's a lot of what I was attracted to.
"Sometimes they would bring in traditional Cambodian instruments like a takhe to do an intro to more of a rock 'n' roll number."
Holtzman says inspiration for the band came from his brother, Ethan (who plays farsifa in the band), who returned from trekking Cambodia in 2001 with music from the region.
The brothers decided they wanted to pursue the sound and held auditions in the Little Phnom Penh area of Long Beach. They found Nimol, already a pop star in her native country.
Adding to the Lost in Translation vibe is that, while Holtzman is the main songwriter, he speaks little Khmer, so penning lyrics is a necessarily collaborative process.
"I usually do the vocals when I write the songs, and then we (he and Nimol) kind of go over them. We go over the melody ideas that I have, and then she'll kind of elaborate on those ideas," he says.
"Sometimes I'll send them to a friend. He speaks fluently in Khmer and English, so he'll translate them. We've done a few translations on our own, but I think he does a better job."
While in the past Dengue Fever's mix of music might have ended up in the world-music bin at the local record store, the reaction this album is receiving allows the group to cross the line that divides rock and ethnic music arenas – as the band sees fit.
"If your idea of world music is 20 guys on stage in really colourful outfits, with lots of drums, then we're not that kind of world music. But yeah, our singer is Cambodian, she sings in Khmer, we're playing sort of a hodgepodge of different stuff that we like, so yeah, it's been a lot of fun," he says.
"We kind of walk both lines of playing rock 'n' roll venues and kind of getting invited to these world music festivals and the thing is that we stand out and are different in either of those groups."
Mar 08, 2008
Raju Mudhar Entertainment Reporter
The Global Positioning System is chattering away in Dengue Fever's tour van.
During a phone chat while the group is on the road from Philadelphia to New York, main songwriter and lead guitarist Zac Holtzman notes the addition of a disembodied voice offering directions is one noticeable and pleasant upgrade from their previous tours.
The L.A.-based band is currently trekking across North America in support of their acclaimed third album, Venus on Dreams, which stops in at Sneaky Dee's tonight as part of a showcase at Canadian Music Week.
While the GPS can help the band get to where it's got to go, trying to navigate its musical mix is a different matter.
A perfect example of East-West fusion, the California-based six-piece merges retro psychedelic rock with Cambodian pop. Chhom Nimol sings in Khmer, although a few English tracks appear on the new album, which also incorporates surf guitar, Afrobeat and even country.
The band's stated goal is to emulate the sound of music in Cambodia in the 1960s, when American rock influences melded with traditional Asian pop.
"I mean, it was just this really cool twist that they put on all that music. They brought in their own style of singing and it's just this kind of interesting balance of stuff that's vaguely familiar and stuff that's totally from a different world," says Holtzman.
"A lot of the singing, they do a lot of pitch bending and tracking into high voices and falsettos and I think that's a lot of what I was attracted to.
"Sometimes they would bring in traditional Cambodian instruments like a takhe to do an intro to more of a rock 'n' roll number."
Holtzman says inspiration for the band came from his brother, Ethan (who plays farsifa in the band), who returned from trekking Cambodia in 2001 with music from the region.
The brothers decided they wanted to pursue the sound and held auditions in the Little Phnom Penh area of Long Beach. They found Nimol, already a pop star in her native country.
Adding to the Lost in Translation vibe is that, while Holtzman is the main songwriter, he speaks little Khmer, so penning lyrics is a necessarily collaborative process.
"I usually do the vocals when I write the songs, and then we (he and Nimol) kind of go over them. We go over the melody ideas that I have, and then she'll kind of elaborate on those ideas," he says.
"Sometimes I'll send them to a friend. He speaks fluently in Khmer and English, so he'll translate them. We've done a few translations on our own, but I think he does a better job."
While in the past Dengue Fever's mix of music might have ended up in the world-music bin at the local record store, the reaction this album is receiving allows the group to cross the line that divides rock and ethnic music arenas – as the band sees fit.
"If your idea of world music is 20 guys on stage in really colourful outfits, with lots of drums, then we're not that kind of world music. But yeah, our singer is Cambodian, she sings in Khmer, we're playing sort of a hodgepodge of different stuff that we like, so yeah, it's been a lot of fun," he says.
"We kind of walk both lines of playing rock 'n' roll venues and kind of getting invited to these world music festivals and the thing is that we stand out and are different in either of those groups."
Thailand to talk with Cambodia over JDA project
March 8, 2008
Foreign Minister Noppadol Pattama said Saturday that the Thai Foreign Ministry and Energy Ministry would negotiate with Cambodian to launch a project of joint development areas.
Noppadol said Thailand and Cambodia have some 26,000 square kilometres of overlapping areas along the border and the areas were rich with natural gas and oil resources.
He said it was estimated that the areas had natural gas worth Bt3.5 trillion and oil worth Bt1.5 trillion so the two country should jointly develop the areas.
He said talks would be held how to divide benefits from the project between the two countries.
The Nation
Foreign Minister Noppadol Pattama said Saturday that the Thai Foreign Ministry and Energy Ministry would negotiate with Cambodian to launch a project of joint development areas.
Noppadol said Thailand and Cambodia have some 26,000 square kilometres of overlapping areas along the border and the areas were rich with natural gas and oil resources.
He said it was estimated that the areas had natural gas worth Bt3.5 trillion and oil worth Bt1.5 trillion so the two country should jointly develop the areas.
He said talks would be held how to divide benefits from the project between the two countries.
The Nation
Saturday, 8 March 2008
Flying deportees home is costly endeavor
Los Angeles Times
3/8/2008
Many of the immigrants around deportee Henry Fuentes had never flown before. They looked out the windows anxiously, fumbled to get their seat belts fastened and gasped any time the plane hit turbulence. A few received Dramamine to quell their motion sickness.
Although there are regularly scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights every weekday to Central America, the U.S. government also has flown immigrants home to Nigeria, Cuba, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines.
Tens of thousands of Mexicans are flown to the border and then walk back into their country.
The deportation flights' cost jumped from $96 million in the 2007 fiscal year to $135 million this fiscal year.
That works out to slightly more than $600 per deportee.
Because detaining an immigrant costs nearly $100 a day, Michael Pitts, chief of the flight operations unit for the ICE, said, "it's more effective for us to expeditiously get them out of the country."
3/8/2008
Many of the immigrants around deportee Henry Fuentes had never flown before. They looked out the windows anxiously, fumbled to get their seat belts fastened and gasped any time the plane hit turbulence. A few received Dramamine to quell their motion sickness.
Although there are regularly scheduled Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flights every weekday to Central America, the U.S. government also has flown immigrants home to Nigeria, Cuba, Thailand, Cambodia and the Philippines.
Tens of thousands of Mexicans are flown to the border and then walk back into their country.
The deportation flights' cost jumped from $96 million in the 2007 fiscal year to $135 million this fiscal year.
That works out to slightly more than $600 per deportee.
Because detaining an immigrant costs nearly $100 a day, Michael Pitts, chief of the flight operations unit for the ICE, said, "it's more effective for us to expeditiously get them out of the country."
Troubled teen? Get him to a monastery
Washington mother thinks she saved her son's life by leaving him with Cambodian monks for two years.
BY CHRISTINE CLARRIDGE
Seattle Times
SEATTLE - Michael Sa-Ngoun is no longer a monk. The 19-year-old from Tukwila, Wash., who spent two years in a Cambodian monastery because his mother was desperate to stop his self-destructive behavior, is not prone to deep philosophical meditation these days.
He doesn't work very hard to resist the desires of most young men his age, nor does he seek humility at every turn.
It took surprisingly little time, family members say, for him to turn back into a regular American young man after his return from Cambodia a little more than a year ago. He was profiled then by the Seattle Times.
He now works at a car dealership because he likes to make money, but he doesn't know what he wants to do for a living.
He stays out too late with his friends, wastes too much time watching movies and spends too much money at restaurants, he says. He also doesn't keep his room as clean as his mother wants, nor does he do his chores without being asked.
But he hasn't been in trouble with the law since his return, and some of the things he learned while living the austere life of a monk have stuck with him.
He said he still believes in karma, and he does his best to do right by others. He'll capture an ant and release it outside rather than kill it.
His mother, Chou Sa-Ngoun, said she was disappointed when most of Michael's enlightened behavior quickly gave way to the material world.
"I wish sometimes that I wouldn't have brought him back from there until he was past a teenager," she said.
But she thinks she may have saved his life. And basically she's OK with how things are.
BY CHRISTINE CLARRIDGE
Seattle Times
SEATTLE - Michael Sa-Ngoun is no longer a monk. The 19-year-old from Tukwila, Wash., who spent two years in a Cambodian monastery because his mother was desperate to stop his self-destructive behavior, is not prone to deep philosophical meditation these days.
He doesn't work very hard to resist the desires of most young men his age, nor does he seek humility at every turn.
It took surprisingly little time, family members say, for him to turn back into a regular American young man after his return from Cambodia a little more than a year ago. He was profiled then by the Seattle Times.
He now works at a car dealership because he likes to make money, but he doesn't know what he wants to do for a living.
He stays out too late with his friends, wastes too much time watching movies and spends too much money at restaurants, he says. He also doesn't keep his room as clean as his mother wants, nor does he do his chores without being asked.
But he hasn't been in trouble with the law since his return, and some of the things he learned while living the austere life of a monk have stuck with him.
He said he still believes in karma, and he does his best to do right by others. He'll capture an ant and release it outside rather than kill it.
His mother, Chou Sa-Ngoun, said she was disappointed when most of Michael's enlightened behavior quickly gave way to the material world.
"I wish sometimes that I wouldn't have brought him back from there until he was past a teenager," she said.
But she thinks she may have saved his life. And basically she's OK with how things are.
Left at a monastery
When Michael was about 12, he started skipping school, hanging out with the wrong kids, trying drugs and getting arrested for petty crimes.
His mother tried grounding him and taking away privileges like television and video games. She switched his schools, got him into counseling, let him pay his own fines after juvenile arrests and let him languish in detention centers.
She called the Army, but her son was too young then to enlist. She looked into disciplinary boot camps but found them too pricey.
She begged the state to place him in a temporary foster home, but was told the authorities could do nothing until he committed a more serious crime.
She was afraid he would die violently in a car crash, in a gang altercation or in a drug deal.
Then the couple hit upon an idea while planning a family trip to their ancestors' Cambodian homeland. Sanny Sa-Ngoun thought experiencing hardship would be good for Michael and suggested leaving him behind for a short time. A friend knew of a Buddhist monastery in the Kampong Cham region that would accept Michael as a novitiate if he took the vows of poverty and selflessness.
They flew in November 2004 to Phnom Penh, spent a few days doing tourist things, and made their way to the isolated village of Krolong, where Michael's mother told him he would remain until he had changed. Michael -- who did not speak Cambodian or have any of his own money -- argued, begged, went on a hunger strike and thought about running away. Finally, he gave up and allowed his head to be shaved and prayers said over him.
He spent the first few weeks in shock and despair before slowly settling into the routine.
In silence, he rose at 5:45 each morning, drew water and laid out rugs, place settings and towels for his teacher and the elder monk, whom he called "Grandpa."
He then set a place for himself and called his elders, and together they ate their meal of rice and meat or fish. He rested for 10 minutes and went to work on chores around the temple and school grounds.
He and the other young monks learned to mix mortar, lay stone and build fences. Alongside his comrades, he prayed and studied the teachings of Buddha, trying to learn to free himself from "wanting things," he said.
His mother said he could return when he had earned his high school diploma, which she arranged for him to do online from a nearby village he reached by motorbike once a week.
His return
When he returned to Washington in November 2006, his head was shaved and he was wearing a flowing orange robe. He was nearly silent, and he honored the vows that forbade him from hugging his mother because she's female.
Because Michael chose not to further pursue a life as a monk once he returned, he was released from his vows and his robes in a traditional cleansing ceremony.
Michael got a job working at a restaurant and then at a car dealership, where he details cars, moves them, runs some errands.
His aspirations are not far-reaching.
"Really, I just want to have fun with my friends and get a new car," he says.
'He's just a teenager'
Michael's mother is sometimes disappointed, after all that he's been through, that he didn't retain a higher level of discipline and consciousness.
"He's slipped," she said one day this month when his room wasn't clean and his chores were undone. "I feel like he hasn't changed that much. Sometimes I think there is something missing in his brain, but then I remind myself that I shouldn't overreact. He's just a teenager with a teenage brain."
Because he has stayed out of trouble since his return, Michael will be able to petition the court soon to expunge his juvenile criminal record.
His mother says she's trying to stop worrying and let him make his own mistakes.
"I guess I'm going to have to. He doesn't really know what life is about, but he won't know until he finds out. We can steer him, but we have to let him fall."
World adoption of Cambodian children down by 15% in 2007
March 08, 2008
International adoption of Cambodian children decreased by 15 percent in 2007 compared to 2006 due to more strict censor by the government, English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodian Daily said on Saturday.
A total of 249 Cambodian children, 104 girls and 145 boys, we readopted by foreign parents in 2007, compared to 294 children, 143 girls and 151 boys, in 2006, said Keo Borentr, director general of technical affairs at the Ministry of Social Affairs.
"We need to find adoptive parents locally first because the living conditions and family economy of the Cambodian people have improved," he was quoted as saying.
Cambodian orphanages' capacity for orphans has also improved over the years, he said.
In 2007, parents in Italy adopted 164 children, those in Austria 31 and those in France 19, he added.
Adoption of Cambodian children has become ever popular since United States movie star Angelina Jolie adopted a Cambodian boy years ago. The boy has lived a happy life with her in New York with frequent global media exposure.
Source: Xinhua
International adoption of Cambodian children decreased by 15 percent in 2007 compared to 2006 due to more strict censor by the government, English-Khmer language newspaper the Cambodian Daily said on Saturday.
A total of 249 Cambodian children, 104 girls and 145 boys, we readopted by foreign parents in 2007, compared to 294 children, 143 girls and 151 boys, in 2006, said Keo Borentr, director general of technical affairs at the Ministry of Social Affairs.
"We need to find adoptive parents locally first because the living conditions and family economy of the Cambodian people have improved," he was quoted as saying.
Cambodian orphanages' capacity for orphans has also improved over the years, he said.
In 2007, parents in Italy adopted 164 children, those in Austria 31 and those in France 19, he added.
Adoption of Cambodian children has become ever popular since United States movie star Angelina Jolie adopted a Cambodian boy years ago. The boy has lived a happy life with her in New York with frequent global media exposure.
Source: Xinhua
International arms dealer Viktor Bout arrested in Thailand
From Wikinews,
March 8, 2008
Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer, has been arrested in Thailand. Bout was arrested by the Royal Thai Police on Thursday, after checking in at a Sofitel luxury hotel in the Si Lom district of Bangkok.
Viktor Bout is suspected of supplying arms to the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, FARC, as well as combatants on both sides of African civil wars. He has been dubbed the "Merchant of Death" by the press as well as the book Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun.
At a press conference held by Thai police they said that Bout is being investigated for "procuring weapons for terrorists and conspiring with terrorists." According to Maj. Gen. Surapol Thuanthong, Bout said "The game is over" when he was arrested.
"This multi-country operation culminating in the arrest of Viktor Bout in Thailand is a model for how suspected dangerous international criminals need to be investigated, charged and brought to justice in the 21st century," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble.
Federal prosecutors in the United States hope to get Bout extradited for prosecution on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
The 2005 film, Lord of War has been said to have been inspired by Viktor Bout.
March 8, 2008
Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer, has been arrested in Thailand. Bout was arrested by the Royal Thai Police on Thursday, after checking in at a Sofitel luxury hotel in the Si Lom district of Bangkok.
Viktor Bout is suspected of supplying arms to the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, FARC, as well as combatants on both sides of African civil wars. He has been dubbed the "Merchant of Death" by the press as well as the book Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun.
At a press conference held by Thai police they said that Bout is being investigated for "procuring weapons for terrorists and conspiring with terrorists." According to Maj. Gen. Surapol Thuanthong, Bout said "The game is over" when he was arrested.
"This multi-country operation culminating in the arrest of Viktor Bout in Thailand is a model for how suspected dangerous international criminals need to be investigated, charged and brought to justice in the 21st century," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble.
Federal prosecutors in the United States hope to get Bout extradited for prosecution on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
The 2005 film, Lord of War has been said to have been inspired by Viktor Bout.
Internet game which feeds poor attracting lakhs of people
8 Mar, 2008
The Economic Times
NEW YORK: An Internet game launched by UN World Food Programme (WFP) six months ago has proved so popular that it has generated enough rice to feed 1.1 million people for a day.
The interactive vocabulary game allows a player 20 grains of rice for each correct answer. The money raised through advertising is used to underwrite rice donations.
Thus it allows children simultaneously to bolster their vocabularies and help feed world's hungry children.
With between 3 lakh and 5 lakh people playing it daily, it has generated 21 billion grains of rice for WFP.
The first recipients of the website's aid were refugees from Myanmar taking shelter in Bangladesh. Ugandan school children and pregnant and nursing mothers in Cambodia were among other beneficiaries.
Next batch of rice will be distributed among Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.
"I never imagined that things would move this fast or that it would be such a success," said the game's creator John Breen, an online fundraising pioneer from the United States.
"Quite apart from the actual amount of rice generated, FreeRice is a fantastic way of spreading the message about world hunger."
A new audio function lets players hear how words are pronounced, and Breen said a team of lexographers is working to expand the database of 10,000 words. To scale up the game's appeal to younger and non-native English speakers, visitors can now select the level of difficulty.
The Economic Times
NEW YORK: An Internet game launched by UN World Food Programme (WFP) six months ago has proved so popular that it has generated enough rice to feed 1.1 million people for a day.
The interactive vocabulary game allows a player 20 grains of rice for each correct answer. The money raised through advertising is used to underwrite rice donations.
Thus it allows children simultaneously to bolster their vocabularies and help feed world's hungry children.
With between 3 lakh and 5 lakh people playing it daily, it has generated 21 billion grains of rice for WFP.
The first recipients of the website's aid were refugees from Myanmar taking shelter in Bangladesh. Ugandan school children and pregnant and nursing mothers in Cambodia were among other beneficiaries.
Next batch of rice will be distributed among Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.
"I never imagined that things would move this fast or that it would be such a success," said the game's creator John Breen, an online fundraising pioneer from the United States.
"Quite apart from the actual amount of rice generated, FreeRice is a fantastic way of spreading the message about world hunger."
A new audio function lets players hear how words are pronounced, and Breen said a team of lexographers is working to expand the database of 10,000 words. To scale up the game's appeal to younger and non-native English speakers, visitors can now select the level of difficulty.
Volunteer in Cambodia
Ethical and Affordable Volunteer Opportunities in Cambodia
www.globalteer.org
Heavy lifting for new homes
Rotaractors from the University of New South Wales, Australia traveled to Cambodia in 2007 to help needy residents build new homes. Photo courtesy of the Rotaract Club of the University of New South Wales. By Maureen Vaught
Rotary International News - 7 March 2008
Rotaractors from the University of New South Wales in Australia will travel to India and Mongolia in July as part of Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village Youth Program, which sends volunteers ages 14-25 to other countries to help needy people build new homes.
Since 2004, the Rotaractors have traveled on the program to Cambodia, Fiji, the Philippines, and Thailand. They’ve paid their own travel and lodging expenses with help from corporate donations and eight Rotary clubs in New South Wales.
Rotaractor Yiling Cheah went on the Philippines trip in 2005 and led another trip in 2007 to Cambodia. There, she and 10 others built two houses in six days and donated money to build a home for a blind elderly woman and her grandson.
Covered with mud and sweat, the volunteers in Cambodia mixed cement, laid bricks, and hauled soil in wicker baskets. The work was exhausting, but the bigger problem was the ankle-deep water caused by flooding. “The soil we carried was wet, meaning that it was a lot heavier to carry. It also meant that we had to work with things hidden in the water, whether it was our tools or parasites,” Cheah recalls.
The hard work seemed worthwhile when the homes were presented to their new owners in a special ceremony. “The homeowners were in tears of joy. They were also in tears of sadness because we were about to leave, and they never really got to know us due to language barriers,” Cheah says. “The homeowners didn’t know how to thank us for what we had given them, and we didn’t know what to say. It was only then that our team members realized what a huge contribution we had made to two families’ lives in a matter of six days.”
Rotary International News - 7 March 2008
Rotaractors from the University of New South Wales in Australia will travel to India and Mongolia in July as part of Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village Youth Program, which sends volunteers ages 14-25 to other countries to help needy people build new homes.
Since 2004, the Rotaractors have traveled on the program to Cambodia, Fiji, the Philippines, and Thailand. They’ve paid their own travel and lodging expenses with help from corporate donations and eight Rotary clubs in New South Wales.
Rotaractor Yiling Cheah went on the Philippines trip in 2005 and led another trip in 2007 to Cambodia. There, she and 10 others built two houses in six days and donated money to build a home for a blind elderly woman and her grandson.
Covered with mud and sweat, the volunteers in Cambodia mixed cement, laid bricks, and hauled soil in wicker baskets. The work was exhausting, but the bigger problem was the ankle-deep water caused by flooding. “The soil we carried was wet, meaning that it was a lot heavier to carry. It also meant that we had to work with things hidden in the water, whether it was our tools or parasites,” Cheah recalls.
The hard work seemed worthwhile when the homes were presented to their new owners in a special ceremony. “The homeowners were in tears of joy. They were also in tears of sadness because we were about to leave, and they never really got to know us due to language barriers,” Cheah says. “The homeowners didn’t know how to thank us for what we had given them, and we didn’t know what to say. It was only then that our team members realized what a huge contribution we had made to two families’ lives in a matter of six days.”
Sign Here
washingtonpost.comSunday, March 9, 2008; Page P04
Bonus week! We've chosen two funny signs to spotlight, thanks to our eagle-eyed readers. Both receive Washington Post Travel section tote bags for sharing their finds with us.
Gail Boesel of Severna Park sent us the beaut at left, taken at the St. Lucia crocodile sanctuary in South Africa. "It wasn't a joke," Boesel assured us. Wheelchair users might want to add this place to their do-not-visit lists -- or at least check their brakes.
The sign at right arrived in our mailbox courtesy of Sherri Powar of the District. She stumbled across it during a January 2007 visit to Siem Reap, Cambodia, noting that it meant "No squatters." We think it's a plea by authorities to keep visitors from doing a cannonball into the toilet.
Seen an amusing sign in your travels? Read on.
Write you r name, contact information and caption on the back of your photo. Photos may be in color or black-and-white. Send prints or photo-quality printouts to Travel Section Sign Contest, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. Winners receive a Travel tote bag. Photos become property of The Post, which may edit, publish, distribute or republish them in any form. No purchase necessary.
Thailand stakes claim to Ta Moan temples
Details are Sketchy
March 8, 2008
No sooner had Thailand and Cambodia papered over the issues surrounding Preah Vihear, and now the Thais are crying over Ta Moan.
The Foreign Ministry summoned on Friday French and Cambodian ambassadors to complain maps of Cambodia publish in France and Cambodia wrongly claimed Thai territory.
The envoys were told that maps of Utdor Mean Chay and Preah Vihear provinces published in France and Cambodia claim that parts of the Ta Mean Prom temple in Surin province are in Cambodia.
Director of Treaty and Legal Affairs, Virachai Plasai, told the ambassadors the area in question is “overlapping” and requires demarcation under a treaty signed by Thailand and Cambodia in 2000.
For starters, the Ta Moan temples — there’s actually three of them — lie in a declared “white zone,” as agreed to by both countries under the treaty that Virachai is talking about. That’s supposed to mean that neither side can use or occupy the temples until both sides resolve the demarcation issue.
That’s not what is happening. Today the Ta Moan temples are occupied by a heavily armed unit of the Thai military, in violation of the treaty. The Thais have undertaken road construction in the disputed area, in violation of the treaty. And the Thais have benefited financially by allowing tourists to visit the temples, in violation of the treaty. As if that were not enough, Thailand refuses Cambodians entry.
If anybody has a grievance here, it’s Cambodia.
March 8, 2008
No sooner had Thailand and Cambodia papered over the issues surrounding Preah Vihear, and now the Thais are crying over Ta Moan.
The Foreign Ministry summoned on Friday French and Cambodian ambassadors to complain maps of Cambodia publish in France and Cambodia wrongly claimed Thai territory.
The envoys were told that maps of Utdor Mean Chay and Preah Vihear provinces published in France and Cambodia claim that parts of the Ta Mean Prom temple in Surin province are in Cambodia.
Director of Treaty and Legal Affairs, Virachai Plasai, told the ambassadors the area in question is “overlapping” and requires demarcation under a treaty signed by Thailand and Cambodia in 2000.
For starters, the Ta Moan temples — there’s actually three of them — lie in a declared “white zone,” as agreed to by both countries under the treaty that Virachai is talking about. That’s supposed to mean that neither side can use or occupy the temples until both sides resolve the demarcation issue.
That’s not what is happening. Today the Ta Moan temples are occupied by a heavily armed unit of the Thai military, in violation of the treaty. The Thais have undertaken road construction in the disputed area, in violation of the treaty. And the Thais have benefited financially by allowing tourists to visit the temples, in violation of the treaty. As if that were not enough, Thailand refuses Cambodians entry.
If anybody has a grievance here, it’s Cambodia.
Los Angeles Master Chorale announces 2008-09 season
Cambodian-born Chinary Ung will create a new work for the chorale's third installment of the 'LA Is the World' project.
By Chris Pasles,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 8, 2008
Three world premieres, two West Coast premieres and the close of the multiyear "Homage to Haydn" programs will highlight the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 2008-09 season, to be led in Walt Disney Concert Hall by music director Grant Gershon.
Cambodian-born, San Diego-based composer Chinary Ung will create a work as the chorale's third installment of the "LA Is the World" project. Ung came to the United States with his family in 1964 after graduating from Cambodia's national music conservatory.
His piece, to premiere Nov. 9, will be created in collaboration with dancer-choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, a Khmer Rouge killing fields survivor who immigrated in the early 1990s to Long Beach, where she established one wing of the Khmer Arts Ensemble, dedicated to preserving the classical arts of her homeland. (The other base is in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.)
The Ung-Shapiro collaboration will be paired with Lou Harrison's "La Koro Sutro" (Esperanto for "The Heart Sutro"), composed for gamelan ensemble and choir.
The other world premieres are Andrea Clearfield's "Dream Variations" and a piece by Steven Sametz written to honor Gershon and the chorale. Both works will be sung Feb. 22.
The West Coast premieres will be Nico Muhly's "Expecting the Main Things From You" (also Feb. 22) and Roberto Sierra's "Missa Latina"(May 31, 2009). Washington Times critic T.L. Ponick called Sierra's Mass "shockingly brilliant" when it premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2006. Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy and baritone Nathaniel Webster will reprise their Kennedy Center solo roles.
Bass-baritone Eric Owens, who sang the title role of Elliot Goldenthal's "Grendel" for Los Angeles Opera in 2006, will sing the lead role in Mendelssohn's "Elijah" on Jan. 25.
The season will open Oct. 12 with selections from Rachmaninoff's "The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom" and Haydn's "Harmonie Mass.
"Gershon will share podium duties with the chorale's assistant conductor, Ariel Quintana, for two concerts, a holiday program Dec. 14 and a folk music program March 29, 2009.
The final installment of the Haydn project will take place May 3, 2009, when the composer's "Heilig Mass" will be paired with Messiaen's "Trois petites liturgies.
"There will be two "Messiah Sing-Along" concerts (Dec. 7 and 15).
As a supplement to the season, which runs through May 31, 2009 opera composer Ricky Ian Gordon ("Grapes of Wrath," "Orpheus & Euridice") will write a work for the 20th anniversary of the chorale's High School Choir Festival, in which more than 1,000 students from two dozen Southland high schools will participate April 24, 2009.
By Chris Pasles,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 8, 2008
Three world premieres, two West Coast premieres and the close of the multiyear "Homage to Haydn" programs will highlight the Los Angeles Master Chorale's 2008-09 season, to be led in Walt Disney Concert Hall by music director Grant Gershon.
Cambodian-born, San Diego-based composer Chinary Ung will create a work as the chorale's third installment of the "LA Is the World" project. Ung came to the United States with his family in 1964 after graduating from Cambodia's national music conservatory.
His piece, to premiere Nov. 9, will be created in collaboration with dancer-choreographer Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, a Khmer Rouge killing fields survivor who immigrated in the early 1990s to Long Beach, where she established one wing of the Khmer Arts Ensemble, dedicated to preserving the classical arts of her homeland. (The other base is in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.)
The Ung-Shapiro collaboration will be paired with Lou Harrison's "La Koro Sutro" (Esperanto for "The Heart Sutro"), composed for gamelan ensemble and choir.
The other world premieres are Andrea Clearfield's "Dream Variations" and a piece by Steven Sametz written to honor Gershon and the chorale. Both works will be sung Feb. 22.
The West Coast premieres will be Nico Muhly's "Expecting the Main Things From You" (also Feb. 22) and Roberto Sierra's "Missa Latina"(May 31, 2009). Washington Times critic T.L. Ponick called Sierra's Mass "shockingly brilliant" when it premiered at the Kennedy Center in 2006. Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy and baritone Nathaniel Webster will reprise their Kennedy Center solo roles.
Bass-baritone Eric Owens, who sang the title role of Elliot Goldenthal's "Grendel" for Los Angeles Opera in 2006, will sing the lead role in Mendelssohn's "Elijah" on Jan. 25.
The season will open Oct. 12 with selections from Rachmaninoff's "The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom" and Haydn's "Harmonie Mass.
"Gershon will share podium duties with the chorale's assistant conductor, Ariel Quintana, for two concerts, a holiday program Dec. 14 and a folk music program March 29, 2009.
The final installment of the Haydn project will take place May 3, 2009, when the composer's "Heilig Mass" will be paired with Messiaen's "Trois petites liturgies.
"There will be two "Messiah Sing-Along" concerts (Dec. 7 and 15).
As a supplement to the season, which runs through May 31, 2009 opera composer Ricky Ian Gordon ("Grapes of Wrath," "Orpheus & Euridice") will write a work for the 20th anniversary of the chorale's High School Choir Festival, in which more than 1,000 students from two dozen Southland high schools will participate April 24, 2009.
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