Magic Man

Here's a fun post for a local street entertainer in Siem Reap. I remember watching his performance several times from my table at the Soup Dragon while eating my bowl of noodles for breakfast. Good times.

Magic Man Johnny smiles on the streets of Siem Reap where he is famous for his dangerous (and noisy) acrobatics. Photo by: ZOE TROUT

Friday, 27 August 2010 15:00 Nicky Hosford

MENTIONED to one Pub Street area bar manager that I was going to talk to the “noisy boy”, the guy who jumps through the knife-filled hoop of fire onto a dark, decrepit mattress to the blare of loud, uncomfortable music. “Oh, is that what you call him?” she asked. “We call him Magic Man. Sometimes we call him something else. Maybe you can’t print it though.”

“Mr X” is another name given to him, but he calls himself Johnny. Johnny has been in Siem Reap for four years now and has become a definitive feature of the town, part of the Siem Reap experience.

Most days you’ll see him doggedly hauling his cart from one tourist hotspot to another. Once there, he’ll set up his main event, which requires a rickety looking stand, topped with three rusted hoops to which have been attached a few dozen knives at disparate angles. Through this he leaps and rolls onto a dog-eared mattress, also doing some fire eating tricks. All this is done to the sound of some ghastly techno caterwaul segueing at times into the dreaded “Macarena”, and to the cheers of tourists who find him endlessly fascinating.

For those who live here the novelty has worn off – the show, or rather the music, can tend to wear a little thin after a while.

When I ran him to ground for this interview, his portable music machine was exuding a gentle, wafting, Khmer ballad. He’s aware of the complaints about his noisiness, and has toned down the music. But, as he says, he just wants to earn a living, and is proud of his entrepreneurialism.

“Other people just beg,” he says, “I use my skills.”

Originally from Battambang, Johnny started to learn his craft from the Phare Ponle Selpak’s circus school. Stranger still, this is the boy who actually ran away from the circus.

He felt he could do better on his own and, although leaping through a hoop came from his early acrobatic training, the knives were his very own embellishment. And he’s got the scars to show for it. Great unnatural protuberances are scattered across his arms, interspersed with long, thin, flat scars and what look like cigarette burns. Among them are tattoos dotted across his body.

He has protective Sanskrit script on his hands, arms and back. On his chest, there is a representation of himself, eating a fire stick. “I made them myself, for fun. They aren’t from the military or anything like that,” he says.

Although he hasn’t seen his parents for years and doesn’t know where they are now, he lives with his wife and two children on the road to Chong Kneas. The muscles on his too-thin arms bulge as he pulls on the wisp of a beard on his chin and says, “I don’t want my children to do what I do. It’s too dangerous. I want them to read and learn.”

Temple body plans public forum

I'm not sure I'm convinced that a meeting with the APSARA Authority will improve how it treats villagers within the Angkor Park borders. However, it will hopefully be a valuable sounding board to make their rules about building or restoring property within villages near the park area.

Thursday, 26 August 2010 15:03 Rann Reuy

Siem Reap provinceAPSARA Authority officials plan to hold a public forum “as soon as possible”, in order to explain rules concerning the construction of housing by villagers in Siem Reap’s Leang Dai commune.

Chrun Sophal, director of the authority’s communications department, said yesterday that, following an internal meeting, a forum would be held to discuss building restrictions in Leang Dai, which falls within the bounds of the Angkor temple park.

“We will hold the forum after meeting the Siem Reap governor [today],” he said. “We are trying to balance natural resources, the environment and the preservation of culture.”

In a letter dated July 23, opposition Sam Rainsy Party lawmaker Ke Sovannarith criticised the Apsara Authority, which maintained the temple park, for preventing the commune’s 1,255 families from building new market stalls, a kindergarten and other facilities.

Contacted yesterday, Ke Sovannarith said that she supported the initiative to hold the forum because villagers were not sure what they were permitted to build. “The problem is not just in Leang Dai, but in other places as well,” she said. “The Apsara Authority should call all affected villagers to listen.”

In March, the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights organised a similar public forum, at which Apsara officials defended the rules aimed at preserving the Angkor temple park.

Calling it a Season

Just another typical day in Cambodia. Motorbikes can carry just about any quantity and type of product imaginable.

Photo by: Sovan Philong

Friday, 11 June 2010 15:00 Sovan Philong


A man transports fish traps down Street 217 on the last day of May. The annual fishing ban began June 1 and runs until September.

Sleuth researches enigmatic Angkor girls

An interesting story about a research with a curious theory about all those Apsaras on the temples.

Michigan State University worked with Davis to devise a mathematical trait
analysis system to be used at Angkor Wat.

Friday, 20 August 2010 15:01 Peter Olszewski


FLORIDA-based researcher, publisher and robot manufacturer Kent Davis is rapidly gaining an international reputation as the sleuth of Siem Reap, a new age detective delving into what he sees as one of the greatest mysteries of ancient Angkor Wat – the 1780 images of anonymous and mostly bare-breasted women depicted in carvings throughout the iconic structure.



Commonly known as apsaras (or, as Davis prefers, devatas), these female images were mostly accorded little significance.



But Davis, a former resident of Siem Reap and a regular visitor to Temple Town, is sure he’s onto something. He’s sure that these women represent something decidedly significant, but he’s not quite sure what.



Read more here...

Youth employment falling

This subject is an area of interest for me. My master's thesis covered this topic, but as this article states, there is a need for more information.

"The government should promote proper training.
They should provide the youth with professional training, and research the
market and what people need to develop the economic sector."

"We still need updated data on national youth
unemployment."

I hope to develop further research on this type and seek out research funding in order to do so.


Friday, 13 August 2010 15:03 Cameron Wells

YOUTH unemployment rates in Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia are expected to rise to as high as 14.8 percent by the end of the year, according to a new report released by the International Labour Organisation.

The report, released today, states that global unemployment among people aged 15-24 is expected to reach 13.1 percent by the end of the year. It stood at 13 percent at the end of 2009, when 81 million young people were out of work, a rise of 7.8 million since 2007.

The report also says that young people working in low-paid sectors of Cambodian industry were finding it hard to break back into the sector after losing their jobs because of the global financial downturn.

“If a worker in a low-income country loses a job in the formal sector – such as the garment worker in Cambodia – there is little chance of finding new work in the same sector as it continues to shrink,” the report reads.

Tun Sophorn, national coordinator at the ILO, said that the Kingdom’s unemployment rate may be higher than the figure mentioned in the report.“We still need updated data on national youth unemployment,” he said. “The seasonal farmers, they sometimes work for three months and are unemployed for the rest of the year. But that is counted as employment.”

He said the lack of jobs for Cambodian youths can largely be contributed to a struggling economy and more youths entering a market that cannot sustain employment growth.

“Acknowledging the economic crisis last year, there were a lot of job losses and a lot of problems with young people entering the markets,” he said. “Hundreds of young people enter the workforce every day. They are trying to get good and decent jobs, but they still face challenges.”

The ILO report follows a Labour Ministry report released Tuesday, which stated that youth unemployment levels were “becoming critical” and pointed to foreign labour markets as “a cornerstone for alleviation of unemployment, income enhancement and poverty reduction”.

The Labour Ministry report also stated that economic growth and employment in Cambodia had become “narrowly concentrated in the agricultural, garment, construction and tourism sectors”.

Sam Rainsy Party spokesman Yim Sovann said youths continually look to overseas employment because of a lack of proper training and opportunities in Cambodia.

“Every year around 200,000 to 300,000 youths go abroad to look for jobs,” he said. “The government should promote proper training. They should provide the youth with professional training, and research the market and what people need to develop the economic sector.”

He said that foreign investment was the key to developing sustainable employment for youth workers in Cambodia. “Competition in Cambodia is very bad; gas [petrol] and electricity rates in Cambodia are the highest in Asia,” he said.

“There needs to be a good environment for investors. Good investors from developed countries don’t want to invest in Cambodia [because] of government bureaucracy and corruption.”He said: “We need to reform our economic policies.”

Officials from the Ministry of Labour could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Tonle Sap lake: Officials talk sustainable tourism

Thursday, 19 August 2010 15:02 Rann Reuy

Tonle Sap lakeTourism officials in Siem Reap province have announced that they intend to establish a “learning laboratory for sustainability” as well as a “master plan for sustainable tourism development” as part of efforts to promote responsible tourism around the Tonle Sap lake.

Speaking during a three-day workshop in Siem Reap on Tuesday, Tourism Minister Thong Khong said that the aim of both initiatives would be to ensure that as tourism develops around the Tonle Sap lake, South East Asia’s largest freshwater lake, it would contribute to the alleviation of poverty in local communities and assist in the conservation of the area’s bounty of natural resources.

Thok Sokhom, director of the International Cooperation and ASEAN Department at the Tourism Ministry, said officials hoped to finalise the master plan by November this year. “We will look to establish the learning lab in Siem Reap,” he added.

The three-day workshop is scheduled to finish today.

Long Beach student, business owner raise funds for toddler's surgery

This is simply an inspiring story about how so many different people and groups can come together for a single cause without knowing it ahead of time. I'd love for something similar to take place with the Sustainable Sanitation Cambodia project!

Millikan High senior Lauren Briand and Socheat Nha in Briand's Long Beach home on Wednesday. (Jeff Gritchen/Press-Telegram)
Socheat Nha at Lauren Briand's home. Behind her is Nha's father, Phin Ken, and her cousin, Kenha Heang, right. (Jeff Gritchen/Press-Telegram)

02/25/2010
By Greg Mellen, Staff Writer
Long Beach Press Telegram

LONG BEACH - A student and a Long Beach business owner are raising money to help save the life of a Cambodian toddler and support the fledgling local nonprofit that finds treatment for destitute children.

When Lauren Briand went to Cambodia, she was looking for a project. At Angkor Children's Hospital, her project found a purpose. Now that purpose has a face.

Lauren and her mom, Debbie, were part of an educational and humanitarian tour to Cambodia led by Cal State Long Beach professor Alex Morales. Lauren was hoping to find something that would inspire her for her upcoming senior project at Millikan High.

The 17-year-old found it when the group went to Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap and saw scores of children in need of help. Already looking ahead to a future in medicine, Lauren found a natural fit in doing something to aid those in need.

Read the rest of this heart-warming and inspiring story here.

Cambodia opens luxury casino

Oh boy! Cambodia is treading a very precarious line with this one. I'm not sure how gambling is OK and fully-promoted, but not contradictory to "traditional cultural values". How is gambling not in the same camp as pornography, adultery and drug addiction. Oh, yes, it's because you can make a boat-load of money from it.

The irony is that last year several casinos were closed due to the lack of "visitors". I guess Mr. Kith Theang has better PR and marketing capabilities to attract more visitors than his rivals.

Feb 26, 2010
AP

PHNOM PENH (Cambodia) - CAMBODIA opened a luxury, US$100 million casino on Friday hoping to attract more foreign tourists and promote its fast-growing entertainment industry, casino owners said.

The Titan King Casino, located along the Vietnam border, is one of a number that have sprung up along the country's frontiers with Vietnam and Thailand, attracting thousands of gamblers.

The Ministry of Finance says Cambodia earned US$19 million from 29 casinos in 2008. But revenue fell to US$17 million in 2009 because of a decline in tourist arrivals and a border dispute with Thailand.

The Titan King Casino is owned by Mr Kith Thieng, a business tycoon close to Prime Minister Hun Sen.

In a message posted on the casino's website, Mr Kith Thieng said the town of Bavet, where the casino is located, was fast becoming an entertainment centre, 'much like Las Vegas and Macau'. Bavet is 68 miles (110 kilometres) south-east of the capital Phnom Penh.

Mr Hear Sopheaktra, assistant to the owner, said the casino would help attract more foreign tourists.

Who will be Big Brother? Ministers differ on Internet controls

I think it is very thoughtful of the Cambodian government to consider the consequences of granting a single government entity the exclusive rights to monitoring and filtering all of the internet traffic for Cambodia. This is a particularly sticky point when it comes to encouraging free market policies since government-controlled services are the opposite of free-market capitalism.

Photo by: Rick Valenzuela
Suong Senghuot, a line supervisor for the Internet service provider WiCam, checks for data service on the corner of Monireth and Sihanouk boulevards.

Friday, 26 February 2010
Brooke Lewis and Sam Rith
The Phnom Penh Post

SENIOR ministers on Thursday were in apparent disagreement over the extent to which the state-owned company Telecom Cambodia would be able to block access to individual Web sites if it were granted control of the country’s Internet exchange – a move both company and government officials are reportedly looking to implement as soon as possible.

An official from the company on Tuesday said it would seek to block access to Web sites deemed inappropriate for a range of reasons, a statement that drew fresh outcry from representatives of the private telecommunications sector, one of whom said it could be “very dangerous” for the government to filter online content.

“If any Web site attacks the government, or any Web site displays inappropriate images such as pornography, or it’s against the principle of the government, we can block all of them,” Chin Daro said. “If TC plays the role of the exchange point, it will benefit Cambodian society because the government has trust in us, and we can control Internet consumption.”

In any case, rights groups and private telecommunications sector representatives have expressed concern over the plan to funnel traffic through TC’s exchange point, with some painting it as a threat to freedom of information.

MPTC and TC officials have said that the proposal stems from national security interests and a desire to preserve cultural values, but some private sector representatives have countered that the government is attempting to mask an attempt to make money from Internet traffic.

For the full article, go here.

This is very real and very alarming, but not surprising in the least. I am constantly reminded: the love of money is the root of all evil.

Kith Meng is an entrepreneur whose parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge (All Photos: Agnes Dherbeys)
A mansion being built in Phnom Penh for prime minter Hun Sen
Victor in his parents' luxurious home in Phnom Penh
Sophy(far right), the 'Paris Hilton of Cambodia' at a shoot

February 14, 2010
Andrew Marshall
The Sunday Times (UK)

Cambodia has been colonised all over again, this time by its own greedy and ruthless ruling class.

Meet the spoilt, young elite who, unlike most Cambodians, enjoy the privileges of wealth - and aren’t ashamed to flaunt it

I am going to drive a little fast now. Is that okay?” There is one place in Cambodia where you can hold a cold beer in one hand and a warm Kalashnikov in the other, and 21-year-old Victor is driving me there. We’re powering along Phnom Penh’s airport road with Oasis on his Merc’s sound system and enough guns in the trunk to sink a Somali pirate boat. Victor is rich and life is sweet. His father is commander of the Cambodian infantry. He has a place reserved for him at L’Ecole Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr. And, in his front passenger seat, there is a thin, silent man with a Chinese handgun: his bodyguard.

“His name is Klar,” says Victor. “It means tiger.”

Devastated by decades of civil war, Cambodia remains one of the world’s poorest nations. A third of its 13m people live on less than a dollar a day, and about 8 out of every 100 children die before the age of five, but Victor — real name Meas Sophearith — was raised in a very different Cambodia, where power and billions of dollars in wealth are concentrated in the hands of a tiny ruling elite. They prefer to conceal the size and sources of their money — illegal logging and smuggling, land-grabbing and corruption — but their children like to spend it.

I first met Victor at a fancy Phnom Penh restaurant called Cafe Metro. Outside, Porsches, Bentleys, Cadillacs, Mercedes and Humvees fight for parking spaces. The Khmer Rouge are dead; the Khmer Riche rule. The son of a powerful general, Victor has his future mapped out for him. He went to school in Versailles, speaks French and English, and now studies politics at the University of Oklahoma. “My mother wanted us to get a foreign education so we could come back and control the country,” he says. The shooting range is where Victor and his friends go to relax. “I’ve grown up with guns and soldiers all around me,” he says. Victor and his generation are Cambodia’s future. Will they use their education and wealth to lift their compatriots out of poverty, or continue their parents’ fevered pursuit of money and power?

Britain’s Department for International Development gave £16.5m of taxpayers’ money to the country in the last fiscal year, but has announced the closure of its Cambodia office by 2011. Perhaps the development agency tired of throwing money at a nation where so much poverty can be blamed on a grasping political clique and their luxury-loving children. The Khmer Riche kids sometimes seem indistinguishable from the old colonial ruling class. They carry US dollars — only poor people pay with Cambodian riel — and live in newly built, neoclassical mansions.

Sophy, 22, is the daughter of a deputy prime minister. Rich, doll-like, and self-obsessed, she could be the Paris Hilton of Cambodia. She imports party shoes from Singapore, selling them in her own multistorey boutique. It has six staff, no customers and a slogan: “It’s all about me.” Sophy’s name is spelt out in sparkling stones on the back of her pimped-up Merc. She is launching a magazine with her brother Sopheary, 28, and their cousin Noh Sar, 26. All three were educated abroad and prefer to speak English together. Sopheary, who studied in New York State, seems both amused and slightly embarrassed by his wealth and privilege.

“What can you do?” he asks. “Your parents give you all these things. You can’t say no. If someone gives you cake, you eat it.”

Cambodia’s official economy largely depends on garment exports, but there is a much larger shadow economy in which only the rich, the ruthless and the well connected survive and prosper. The closer you get to Hun Sen, Cambodia’s autocratic and long-serving prime minister, the better. Hun Sen staged a bloody coup d’état in 1997 and has kept an iron grip ever since. Opponents have been silenced, while loyalists have grown rich. The armed forces are a major player in the black economy. Cambodians are often driven from their land at gunpoint by soldiers or military police. Cambodia has been colonised all over again, this time by its own greedy and ruthless ruling class.

Ask Cambodian ministers how they got so rich on a meagre government salary, and they will reply: “My wife is good at business.” When I ask Noh Sar, whose father is a senior customs official, why his family is so wealthy, he smiles and says: “My mother works a lot.”

Victor’s mother, too, is good at business, according to Country for Sale, an investigation into the Cambodian elite’s wealth published by the London-based corruption watchdog Global Witness in February 2009. “She is a key player in Royal Cambodian Armed Forces patronage politics, holding a fearsome reputation among her husband’s subordinates,” says the report.

It is only in the past few years that the children of Cambodia’s elite have grown confident enough to show off their family’s wealth. “If you want people to respect you in Cambodia, you must have a good car, good diamonds, a good cellphone,” explains Ouch Vichet, 28, better known as Richard. “It’s an I’m-richer-than-you competition.” Richard drives a black Cadillac Escalade ($150,000) and wears a Hèrmes watch ($2,500) and a 2.5-carat diamond ring ($13,000). “My money is from my parents,” he says with refreshing candour, and then breaks it down. They gave him a villa ($500,000), and a rubber plantation that will generate income for the rest of Richard’s natural life. His parents-in-law gave him $100,000 in cash and another villa, worth $200,000, which he sold and invested in real estate. He also runs a nightclub called Emerald — his parents made their first fortune in gems — which provides him with “pocket money”. A party of rich kids can spend $2,000 on drinks and mixers in a single night — more than an average Cambodian earns in three years. His parents’ second, much larger fortune comes from real estate. A few years ago they bought about five hectares of land just outside Phnom Penh for $14 per square metre, then sold it for $120 per square metre two years later. They made more than $5m. “Where else can you make profits like that?” grins Richard. “It’s crazy money.” He has a daughter called Emerald and a son called Benz. His living room features giant chairs ornately carved from tropical hardwood, and a flatscreen television the size of a pool table.

Yet Richard’s house is modest by the operatic standards of Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kuok district.

A taxi driver shows me the neighbourhood — it’s like a “homes of the stars” tour in Beverly Hills, except that Tuol Kuok’s backstreets are piled with uncollected rubbish. My driver points out giant mansion after mansion, and tells me who lives there. Defence minister. Prime minster Hun Sen’s son. Hun Sen’s daughter. Secretary of state at the Ministry of Labour. A deputy prime minister — Sophy and Sopheary’s dad. A four-mansion compound with high walls, razor wire and a gate guarded by special-forces soldiers — Victor’s family. Tuol Kuok’s houses are well guarded for a reason: until there was real estate to invest in, many wealthy Cambodians kept their money at home in bricks of cash, sometimes for so long that the elastic bands around them rotted. “We don’t trust banks,” says Richard. “The old generation kept their money under the bed. The new generation keep it in safes in their houses.”

Victor’s family, too, stay away from banks, but for a slightly different reason. “If you put your money in a bank, everyone will know how much you have,” he explains. I had also heard that rich Cambodians had repatriated hundreds of millions of dirty dollars from Singapore banks after a post-September 11 shake-up of global banking, and that this money had helped fuel the land speculation in Phnom Penh. Richard had heard this too. The bank accounts had belonged to “government people”, he said. Buying land and selling land had not only enriched them further, but had also allowed them to obscure the source of their wealth. Laundering any dirty money was vital, since foreign donors were pressing the Cambodian government to pass anti-corruption legislation that would force the rich to declare their assets.

For the children, the wealth comes with one big condition: they must do exactly what Mum and Dad tell them.

“I wanted to go to art school, but my parents wouldn’t let me,” says Sopheary.

Most kids dutifully join the family business. For some, that business is politics. The commerce minister, Cham Prasidh, whose house is the size of an airport-departure hall — one with a jet-ski lake — gave a ministry position to his wife and made his daughter his chief of cabinet. Cambodia’s ambassadors to Britain and Japan are brothers, and their boss is also their father, the foreign minister Hor Namhong. “It’s not nepotism,” he insists.

Their parents also expect them to marry young and strategically, to someone from a rich and influential family. These marriages are often arranged. Many high-society Cambodians soon find themselves trapped in loveless unions; extramarital affairs are common. Sophy, that deputy prime minister’s daughter, was married off at 17 to the son of the rich and powerful interior minister. A web of marriages binds together the elite and ensures the ruling

People’s Party’s stranglehold on power. At the centre of the web sits prime minister Hun Sen. His three sons and three daughters are all married to the children of senior ruling-party politicians or, in the case of his son Hun Manet, to the daughter of the late national police chief. Hun Manet is being groomed to succeed his father. He graduated from West Point in 1999, amid protests by members of the US Congress over his father’s human-rights record. Senior Khmer Rouge figures such as Comrade Duch, the mass-murdering commandant of Tuol Sleng prison, are currently on trial at a United Nations-backed tribunal in Phnom Penh.

The Khmer Riche, on the other hand, remain above the law. Victor displays a military VIP sticker on the dashboard of his Merc. “It means that the police cannot touch me,” he says. Many of his generation abuse such privileges. Last August Hun Chea, a nephew of the prime minister, hit a motorcyclist with his Cadillac Escalade, ripping off the man’s leg and arm. Hun Chea tried to drive off but couldn’t, because the accident had shredded one of his tyres. Military police arrived, removed the Escalade’s licence plates and, according to the Phnom Penh Post, told Hun Chea: “Don’t worry. It wasn’t your mistake.” Hun Chea walked away. The motorcyclist bled to death in the road.

Hun Sen has yet another bad-boy nephew, the widely feared, mega-wealthy Hun To (“Little Hun”). In 2006 a newspaper editor filed a lawsuit against Hun To for alleged death threats, then fled overseas to seek asylum, with the help of the UN. Hun To owns, among other cars, a Lamborghini, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a Bentley. Victor test-drove Hun To’s latest acquisition before it was put on a Cambodia-bound shipping container: a $500,000 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren supercar. “He’s built a special garage for it,” says Victor. He dares not criticise Hun To. But he is critical of Cambodian society. “From top to bottom, everyone is corrupt,” he says. He hopes one day to set up a foundation to help poor Cambodians send their children to study overseas.

“We want to change things, but we’ll have to wait until our parents retire,” he says.

But the older generation shows no sign of retiring — not when there’s so much cake to eat. In January 2009 foreign donors pledged $US1 billion to Cambodia, its biggest aid package yet, mostly donated by western tax-payers. The government relies on foreign aid for almost half of its budget. It could break this reliance by exploiting its reserves of oil, gas and minerals: the International Monetary Fund estimates that Cambodia’s annual oil revenues alone will reach $US1.7 billion by 2021. Could, but probably won’t. Why? Because the same elite who cut down the trees and sold off the land are now poised to extract the oil and minerals. And they will expect their children to help them.

Some Hun Sen loyalists have already been allocated exploratory mining licences, including General Meas Sophea. He recently hired a temp to act as his foreign liaison officer. The temp is his son. His son’s name is Victor.

I love to see Cambodians making academic and intellectual steps forward by adding to the existing research! So Sokuntheary's complete dissertation can be found here.


Drain G-2 (Photo: So Sokuntheary's Doctoral Degree Dissertation)
Drain D-1, inner structure, by CCD camera (Photo: So Sokuntheary's Doctoral Degree Dissertation)

2010-02-11
Xinhua

A team of Cambodian and Japanese archaeologists said it has uncovered an ancient man-made drainage system at the site of the Bayon temple at Angkor Thom, local media reported on Thursday.

The temple, built in the late 12th and early 13th centuries during the reign of King Jayavarman VII, has been the subject of three digs since 1999, but this is the first time such a drainage system has been discovered, according to the archaeologists.

"The drainage system is for rainwater flow from the first and second levels," the Phnom Penh Post quoted Heng Kamsan, one of the archaeologists as saying.

Heng Kamsan said 14 metres of the 70-centimetre-wide drain had been dug up, and that its covering of laterite stone was due to be removed next week.

He said the archaeologists had at first been hoping to learn more about the condition and construction of the temple's foundation.

After one largely fruitless month of work, however, he said the archaeologists were elated to happen upon the drainage system.

"While we did not expect to find it, we did, and it has made us happy," he said.

The ongoing dig, which began in January, is being carried out under the auspices of UNESCO and the Apsara Authority, which manages the Angkor Wat temple complex. The dig was expected to conclude by the end of March, according to Heng Kamsan.

Victims to play simpler role at KRT

And the struggle continues. . . Now civil cases are being considered for the Khmer Rouge Tribunals to allow victims to have a voice.

A photo supplied by DC-CAM shows Boeung Rai prison, a security centre in Svay Rieng province that was not specifically named among the sites investigated by the Khmer Rouge tribunal for its second case. (Photo by: DC-CAM)

Wednesday, 10 February 2010
James O'Toole
The Phnom Penh Post

AS its critical second case approaches, the Khmer Rouge tribunal is wrestling with the issue of how to expedite proceedings against the ageing leaders set to stand trial, while at the same time giving adequate voice to the regime’s many victims.

On Tuesday, the court formally adopted reforms to civil party participation, including the establishment of a team of lead co-lawyers who alone will represent all admitted civil parties in court. In the first case, that of Tuol Sleng prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, civil parties were represented by four distinct legal teams.

This change was paired with an expansion of responsibility for the Victims Unit, renamed the Victims Support Section, to include “a broader range of services, as well as a more inclusive cross-section of victims than those who are admitted as Civil Parties in cases before the [court]”, the UN-backed tribunal said in a statement Tuesday.

More than 4,000 civil parties have applied to participate in Case 002, and about 250 had been accepted by the end of December, compared with just 90 who participated for the duration of the first case. Under the old system, this many civil parties could not have been accommodated, court officials say, though observers warn that the newly diminished legal role for civil parties may sow discontent among many victims.

“The judges ... have to balance between the rights of the accused and also respect for the victims,” said Long Panhavuth, project officer at the Cambodia Justice Initiative. “The victims have to have a meaningful way of participating.”

A further concern, aired by the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee last week, is the potential disappointment of thousands of civil party applicants whose applications may be inadmissible.

Though the court’s mandate is to investigate crimes committed under Democratic Kampuchea (DK), charges in individual cases are confined to particular crime sites falling under the scope of the judges’ investigation. As such, prospective civil parties with applications pertaining to other sites will be unable to participate at trial.

Although the Case 002 investigation began in 2007, the sites being examined were not publicly revealed until last November.

Theary Seng, the former executive director of the Centre for Social Development and a civil party in the case, acknowledged the court’s need to keep the investigation confidential, but said the delayed disclosure did a disservice to victims.

“To use the blanket of confidentiality to keep the public from being adequately informed generally, and then to keep the victims who could become civil parties from knowing whether they fit into the scope or not is irresponsible,” she said.

After being imprisoned as a child at the Boeung Rai security centre under Democratic Kampuchea, Theary Seng was frustrated to learn that the site, where perhaps 30,000 people were killed, was not named specifically by the court (though it may be included in the investigation of purges in DK’s Eastern Zone). She said she plans to file an investigative request asking judges to examine the centre.

More broadly, Theary Seng said she resented what she views as the court’s diminished engagement with victims and civil parties.

“The fear is that they’re going to really emasculate and water down the concept [of civil parties] to make it completely not meaningful,” she said, calling victim participation essential “to give a larger meaning to this process”.

Defence teams, however, say the increased number of civil party applicants in Case 002 may undermine the rights of the accused.

Richard Rogers, chief of the court’s defence support section, said in a statement following the conclusion of Tuesday’s plenary that the newly established 10-day window for lawyers to appeal decisions about the admissibility of civil party applications is unacceptably small.

“According to international standards, an accused’s right to appeal must be practical and effective. In adopting these amendments, the plenary has left the accused with a right that is merely theoretical,” Rogers said.

Outside the courtroom

Helen Jarvis, head of the Victims Support Section, emphasised the importance of contrasting between “the issue of admissibility in a particular case … and recognition of somebody’s status as a victim”.

“It’s an important distinction. I think it’s a technical distinction, and I think that we have done and certainly will [continue to] bend over backwards to thank people for the information that they have provided,” she said.

Jarvis said her section was developing outreach efforts through “non-legal measures” to ensure that victims who are unable to officially participate nonetheless have their suffering addressed.

These measures notwithstanding, a more limited role for victims is inevitable in Case 002, said Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, who called on the court to be open about its reforms.

“If a person can no longer speak, you’re no longer a civil party,” he said, adding: “It’s a bumpy road by having to explain this, and perhaps the fear is of being resented by the victims.”

While he noted the importance of outreach efforts for Khmer Rouge survivors, Youk Chhang said the broader expectations of the Cambodian people are uncomplicated.

“None of the people here expect the court to go down to the villages and record their story on file,” he said. “They expect delivery of justice and a verdict.”

Number of Cambodian landmine casualties shows further annual drop

This is good news. But there is still a long way to go!

Thu, 11 Feb 2010
DPA

Phnom Penh - Official figures released Thursday showed the number of Cambodians injured by landmines and unexploded ordnance dropped 12 per cent last year from 2008 although the number killed remained constant at 47 in each year. A total of 243 people were killed or injured in 2009 by explosive remnants of war (ERW), down from 271 the previous year, the Cambodian Mine/ERW Victim Information Service said.

The number of victims has shown a steady decline year-on-year since 1994 when almost 3,000 people were killed or injured.

Chhiv Lim, a project officer for the service, said a survey undertaken four years ago showed several reasons behind the annual decline in deaths and injuries.

"We found the number one reason was demining activities, and that's because we have a lot of people involved in demining," he said. "The second is that people [have been educated] to understand the dangers of mines and ERW."

Other experts have previously said a further factor in Cambodia's predominantly agricultural society has been farmers earning better prices for crops. Improved incomes mean less need to forage for supplementary products such as bamboo and firewood and a lower risk at coming across unexploded ordnance.

More than half of last year's deaths and injuries came from three provinces in the country's north-west. The majority of victims were men while around one-third were children.

In 1999, Cambodia ratified the Ottawa Treaty, which bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of anti-personnel mines. While more than 150 countries have signed the treaty, China, Russia and the United States are among those that refuse to do so.

The treaty gave countries 10 years until 2009 to clear all mines from their territory, but Cambodia missed that goal. In December, Cambodia was granted a 10-year extension on the deadline although it is still thought unlikely to reach that revised target.

This week, Germany pledged 1.4 million US dollars for demining in Cambodia's north-west, adding to around 10 million dollars it has provided for demining in the country since 1999.

Cambodia has one of the highest disability rates in the world, a legacy of the country's decades of civil war that started in the 1960s and finished in the late 1990s.

The importance of speaking English

"Don't forget Cambodian" is essential if the Cambodian people would like to maintain their cultural ties, but learning how to speak English is essential for any kind of advancement. However, as an English teacher in Cambodia for 4 years, I have actually started recommending that students begin to learn other languages such as Japanese, Chinese, or even Korean. Despite the stigma attached to Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodians would also benefit greatly from learning those languages, too!

Au revoir, le Français ... Hello English? But, Kom Phlech Khmer!

Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Tharum Bun
The Phnom Penh Post

THE seed of the English language was planted in Cambodia during the UNTAC mission between 1991 and 1993, which facilitated the cooperation of some 60,000 Cambodians with 20,000 peacekeepers and personnel for 34 nations around the world. But the importance of the English language has truly taken hold as Cambodia integrates into a global society in which it is widely used as the language for business, education and development.

Two decades ago, those with the ability to speak some broken English stood a chance of working with the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). Today, the ability to speak English continues to represent hope for a better future and solves common issues in the Kingdom. “You learn English to survive, it’s a language you acquire for your stomach,” said Kieng Rotana, 43, a former interpreter for UNTAC.

For students such as 23-year-old Tep Livina, it became obvious that expertise in English would open doors, regardless of the specific career he chose to pursue. In 2004, Tep Livina enrolled in the computer science programme at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. However, a year later he quit, having lost faith in the power of an engineering degree. He decided instead to enroll at the Institute of Foreign Languages, where he graduated with a degree in English last year.

As a sales executive for Japanese-run Sumitomo Corp in Phnom Penh, Tep Livina speaks English fluently and communicates confidently. “It’s more than just a bridge, you major in business, law or whatever field, without this language to communicate, you won’t be on the stage to compete,” he explained.

After years of learning and teaching English as a second language, including two years mastering the language in Australia, Kieng Rotana is convinced that acquiring fluency in English can be life-changing for all Cambodians. “Speaking at least basically or intermediary [English] is necessary to be in the workforce, in the marketplace and to thrive in higher education in this modern society,” he said.

“Early 2000 saw the arrival of foreign culture through tourism, international scholarships and international aid agencies,” Tep Livina said when asked why English has become widely used in a country that was once governed by France and is still home to many francophone intellectuals and elites.

Also in the new millennium, as Cambodians witnessed political stability and economic growth, a surprising number of new private universities have been opened, many of which have integrated English as an essential part of their curriculum.

“In 1997, Cambodia’s first private university, Norton University, helped transform how lecturing is conducted and how students access study materials; again English is the main language,” said Kieng Rotana, who is also vice chancellor of Pannasastra University, where English competency is mandatory for graduation.

When employers try to whittle down a pile of hundreds of applications, it is often those people with the best English skills who rise to the top. Students who have studied in countries such as Japan, the United States, Australia and even China’s Hong Kong usually possess strong English language skills. But this is not only due to their experience abroad – they have invariably spent thousands of hours self-learning and participating in intensive courses to perfect the language.

Being fluent in English not only improves one’s job prospects, it allows one to access a wealth of information that is not available in Khmer. “It opens and widens up my world view, since I am able to read textbooks, newspapers and magazines in the English language, not to mention to watch foreign TV channels and movies,” Tep Livina said.

As linguists estimated in 2009 that two billion people worldwide are trying to learn English, Cambodia – once isolated by civil wars – is gradually integrating itself into the regional and global economy.

“I can see the world in a bigger, clearer picture than I could have if I hadn’t learned English,” Livina said proudly.

Cambodia Rebukes Google Over Disputed Thai Border Map, AFP Says

I love that my family, friends, and all others think about me whenever they see, hear, or read about anything related to Cambodia. This is one of those examples. Thank you to a Swap-Bot friend, I am posting this article she read about how Cambodia is responding to Google's map of Cambodia & Thailand.

By Jonathan Burgos

Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Cambodia is asking Google Inc. to withdraw a map of an ancient temple at the center of a border dispute with Thailand, Agence France-Presse reported, citing a letter by the Cambodian government to Google.

The Google map “places almost half of the Khmer (Preah Vihear) temple in Thailand and is not an internationally recognized map,” according to a letter written by Svay Sitha, secretary of state of the Cambodian Council Ministers, as reported by AFP.

Cambodia and Thailand have been at loggerheads over their border for decades. Nationalist tensions spilled over into violence in July 2008, when the Preah Vihear temple was granted UNESCO World Heritage status. Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen was to make his first visit today to the 11th century temple, according to AFP.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Burgos in Singapore at jburgos4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 6, 2010 00:49 EST

Child prisoners in Cambodia

Here's a very sobering look at one of the many unfortunate situations in Cambodia. Two problems immediately come to mind: lack of a juvenile justice system and lack of a social services system.

Wednesday 3 February 2010 00.05 GMT
guardian.co.uk

Lodging for the family of the little girl shown on the top photo

In developing countries, children, including those who have only committed minor offences, often serve their sentences in appalling conditions alongside adult prisoners. Photographer Matt Writtle travelled to Cambodia with the charity EveryChild and gained unique access to some of the country's provincial prisons and children incarcerated there. Here he tells their story.

Cambodian govt panel to target racy images

This is certainly a slippery slope that will be interesting to see how the Cambodian government decides to rule. In a country like Cambodia where the Constitutional rights are much different than in the United States, I would expect a less lenient decision.

Wednesday, 03 February 2010
Sen David and Brooke Lewis
The Phnom Penh Post

THE government’s morality committee will soon begin holding bimonthly meetings to review Web sites featuring racy images of Khmer women, and will consider blocking access to those deemed in conflict with national values, officials said Tuesday.

Ros Sorakha, an undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, said Tuesday that representatives from local Internet service providers as well as mobile-phone companies would be present at the meetings, which she said would begin in about two months.

She added that the ramped-up monitoring of online content was necessary in light of the rapid growth of information and communications technology nationwide.

“As young Cambodians have access to such technologies, they indulge and commit wrongdoings that deviate from our customs and traditions by accessing and replicating erotic and pornographic pictures over Internet sites,” she said during the annual conference of the National Committee for Upholding Cambodian Social Morality, Women’s and Khmer Family Values.

The committee includes officials from the Post and Telecommunications Ministry as well as the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Interior Ministry.

In her remarks, Ros Sorakha noted that officials have occasionally implemented similar measures in the past – including targeting magazines featuring “sexual” images of Cambodian women as well as shops in which such images can be uploaded onto mobile phones – but stated that the growing popularity of the Internet mandated a systematic effort aimed at Web sites.

“We are still concerned about it because nowadays the world has modern information and communication technology from developed countries, so it is difficult for us to fight it,” she said.

But the announcement renewed debate about whether the government should have a hand in filtering online content.

For his part, Oum Sarith, president of the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists, said he had no problem with the shutting down of “pornographic sites” so long as other Web sites were not affected.

“I think it’s good if they close down the pornographic sites if they don’t close other sites that are not offensive,” he said. “This is not of concern for freedom of information or freedom of the press because these sites are not good for Khmer society.”

But Ou Virak, president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR), said he was concerned about the proposed monitoring effort.

“It depends on how they implement it,” he said. “The fear is that they’ll use this to censor the Internet and that they will move on to political content. If they block users, that could be very, very dangerous.”

Ou Virak said he doubted that the effort could be effective. “I’m not sure if blocking access to Internet sites is going to work, because of the presence of VCDs, which are available very cheaply. That could be very easily controlled, and it’s not – they’re being sold in public,” he said.

He also said that pornography transmitted by mobile phone was a more persistent problem in rural areas, where Internet access is limited.

Minister of Women’s Affairs Ing Kantha Phavi, who is also president of the morality committee, said the monitoring of objectionable Web sites is entirely consistent with its mission.

“If we can stop the flow and influence of foreign culture, then we can maintain our own culture and traditions and foster values for our women.”

Past restrictions
The effort to block Web sites featuring steamy images of Cambodian women is not entirely new. On Tuesday, Ros Sarakha pointed to the government’s decision to prevent local Internet service providers from allowing access to www.reahu.net, the Web site of the Khmer-American artist Koke Lor.

Ros Sorakha said the site, which displays paintings of scantily clad Khmer folktale figures, was blocked early last year “so that it wouldn’t affect Cambodian women’s dignity, society and culture”, adding that the site remained blocked.

But the Web site was accessible yesterday from a computer connected with the MekongNet service provider. Sonak Kouy, assistant CEO at MekongNet, said the service provider was not among the major providers operating in Cambodia when the site was targeted by the government, and thus had not been asked to block access to www.reahu.net.

“Now our engineers are working on it, and it will be blocked later today,” Sokan Kouy said Tuesday afternoon. The site was still accessible on Tuesday evening.

IRI's involvement with Marginalized Groups in Cambodia

Something of interest to me: youth, education and providing great opportunities for them.

In many countries young people, the disabled, ethnic and religious minorities and indigenous peoples have been excluded from the political process. As more countries join the growing number of democracies, these groups are demanding and gaining a greater say in their governments and communities.

Youth

In Cambodia, IRI helped to establish a nonpartisan youth organization, the Youth Council of Cambodia (YCC) that trains young people in how to become civic activists.

A basic civics class teaches 14-17 year olds about how their government works and citizens’ role in effective democratic governance.

A more advanced course for 18-24 year olds teaches effective activism by engaging government officials at public meetings, conducting petition drives, fundraising campaigns and grassroots advocacy.

Graduates have access to additional training in topics like debate, public speaking, information technology as well as access to YCC’s libraries, matching funds for community service projects, and networking opportunities with other youth activists around the country.

IRI spreads the concepts taught by YCC through two additional channels – provincial Youth Democracy Festivals and the Youth Leadership Challenge reality-TV show. The formats reach millions of young people throughout the country empowering Cambodian youth to become more active in their communities and more interested and engaged in the political process.

A network of future political and civil society leaders, the Europe and Eurasia Young Political Leaders (EEYPL) Seminar provides a space, both through periodic seminars and online forums, for up-and-coming young leaders to share experiences and ideas. One of the most prominent features of EEYPL has been the Democratic Youth Network website, which allows participants to engage in a dialogue on social and political issues.

In addition to its online community, EEYPL has gathered more than 150 young political and civic leaders at conferences in Macedonia, Moldova, Serbia and Turkey. Organized by IRI and its partners the National Democratic Institute and the American Council for Young Political Leaders, these conferences have focused on leadership attributes, communication skills, political and community organization, and the use of technology and social media.

Seven people found with cholera in Mekong Delta province

Yet another reason why I am interested in funding sanitation projects in Siem Reap Province, Cambodia...

Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Thanh Nien News (Hanoi)

Seven of 45 people with acute diarrhea who were admitted to local hospitals in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang between January 19 and 28, were found to have cholera, a health ministry agency reported on Sunday.

All seven cholera patients came from Cambodia’s Takeo and Kandal provinces to An Giang for treatment, according to the Department of Preventive Health and Environment.

The department did not clarify whether all the patients were Vietnamese or not.

The Ministry of Health has warned of an outbreak of cholera, an acute intestinal infection transmitted through water or food contaminated with the bacteria vibrio, causing diarrhea and dehydration that can lead to kidney failure and death if not treated promptly.

The disease has ravaged northern Vietnam two times, in 2008 and 2009, infecting hundreds of people.

Meanwhile, in the central province of Ha Tinh, which has been hit by outbreaks of the avian flu H5N1, reported that seven people had fallen sick with fever and flu symptoms after coming in contact with sick poultry.

However, tests at the Hanoi-based National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology showed they did not have the avian flu virus.

Also on Sunday, the Nam Tra My General Hospital in the central province of Quang Nam said they had admitted 25 people with malaria over the past week from Tra Tap Commune.

The local health agency found nearly 100 people affected with the mosquito-borne infectious disease, but they had not approached the hospital for treatment. Hospital staff said they had also found patients in Nam Tra My District’s other communes.

Cambodian PM says irrigation network to cover 70 pct by 2013

This is a follow-on to the previous post about investments in rice production from China into Cambodia. No matter what people might think of Prime Minister Hun Sen, he is saying the right things when it comes to the key to economic development withing Cambodia: infrastructure.

February 02, 2010
TMC.net

BATTAMBANG, Cambodia, Feb 02, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on Tuesday that by 2013, irrigation network in his country will cover up to 70 percent of the total cultivated land.

In his speech at ground breaking ceremony of Kanghot Irrigation Development Project, donated by China, in Battambang province, Hun Sen said that the irrigation network will be able to cover as many as 70 percent of all cultivated land in the country by 2013.

He said that by now cultivated land for farming has increased to 2,547,402 hectares but irrigation ability is only able to cover some 43.97 percent, compared with the total cultivated land of about 2,253,000 hectares in 1967 and the irrigation ability in percentage was just about 49.72 percent.

During his speech, Hun Sen has commended China for continued and great assistance to Cambodia at all fields, in particular, infrastructure and irrigation network.

He said encouragement and promotion for agricultural products are important for sustainable and economic growth in the country because as many as 80 percent of all Cambodian populations are farmers.

Rice is one of Cambodia's major agricultural products for export to others countries.