Media access and The Cambodia Daily online in Khmer

I was recently exploring the back roads of Kampot province, rice paddies, more rice paddies and the occasional little hamlet, bumping down narrow dirt roads in my beat up old Camry. Great car for rural Cambodia, but she was suffering that day. The engine was getting ready to give up the ghost 20km out in the backcountry, overheating and burning off water. Trying to get back to the main road I had to stop every couple of kilometers to refill the radiator. Midday, temp gauge topping out again, I pulled off in a village at a thatch shack full of Khmer countryguys sipping tea and coffee and watching the community TV. A no-English situation. I asked for water for the car. One guy motioned to a cistern beside the shack and handed me a scooper. "Thank you very much." But the engine was too hot and needed a few minutes to cool. I pulled up a chair, ordered a black coffee and settled in.

The guys gave me a curious glance now and again, and finally one brave soul started asking me questions (in Khmer) - the usual - what's you name, how old are you, are you married, and finally, what are you doing here? I answered in Khmer, and they understood most of what I said, but when I tried explaining that I was out there writing a piece for a travel magazine, they just didn't seem to get it. Probably my fault. I was struggling with the word for 'magazine.' Frustration building and trying to simplify things, I switched to 'newspaper,' an easy and common word. "Ahhh, cassette, cassette, ko'ot traukah cassette" ('he works for a newspaper') one guy said, and everybody seemed satisfied and went back to watching TV.

Figuring the engine was now cool enough to take water, I fetched a scoop full from the cistern and went to remove the radiator cap, but it was too hot to touch. I rummaged in my car for a rag, found an old copy of the Phnom Penh Post and used it as hand protection to remove the radiator cap. Noticing what I was doing, one of the TV watchers announced "He works for the Phnom Penh Post!" This drew everybody's attention. I tried explaining that I don't work for the Post, but nobody was listening. To my surprise, one guy was exclaiming how great the Post was, talking excitedly, "Oooo, Borei Keila, Boeung Kak, I read it in the Phnom Penh Post. Post is very good, very good. Borei Keila not good, very bad. They steal! People's houses! Post very good!" and so on. Others grunted emphatic agreements.

I wasn't surprised that they thought that the Post was good, but that back here in the middle of rural nowheresville they knew it at all. And more, that they had learned about controversial land-grabbing issues from it. And even more, that they were greatly appreciative to have that information, presumably in contrast to the say-nothing local Cambodian press.

Most of the local Cambodian press, whether government controlled or cowered into self censorship, remains almost silent on controversial issues such as land-grabbing and the attendant protests. The English language press in Cambodia (The Cambodia Daily and The Phnom Penh Post) regularly reports on these controversial topics and is largely tolerated by the government, presumably because (even in its Khmer language version) it is thought to have very little penetration into the Khmer market, especially in the countryside where most of the population resides.

For at least the last decade and a half the government has shown sensitivity to foreign news about Cambodia (especially news with a critical/anti-government lean) reaching into the countryside. As early as the 1998 election period, back when rural folk got much or most of their news from radio, I heard regular reports of village chiefs patrolling at night, listening under the thin floored stilted houses for people tuned into VOA (broadcast in Khmer), and then threatening them to turn it off. More recently, in the last commune elections (2012), for the first time ever the government ordered VOA and RFA off-the-air on election day.

Sitting back in the rural countryside 20km from the nearest paved road, and seeing the impact The Phnom Penh Post was making back there, I wondered how long the tolerance of the English language press and its unrestrained reporting could last in Cambodia. On a related note, with Internet penetration expanding exponentially and Facebook users now likely exceeding a half-million in Cambodia, I have also wondered whether the ruling party's recent paranoid-seeming tactics in the run-up to the national elections may be due in part to their fear of losing grip on the media and the flow of information in Cambodia.

Which brings me to The Cambodia Daily. The Daily, in my opinion, like most of the English language press, leans anti-government, and has been hitting hard in the last couple of months as the election approaches, (not that there is anything wrong with that in a country that supposedly enjoys freedom of the press.) Last week, the Daily launched an online version of its publication in Khmer language, free of charge, including all of its election coverage and stories critical of the ruling party and government. This is a timely and, in my opinion, gutsy move on their part, especially during this very tense pre-election period and on Internet where the government feels its media control slipping. This is also a fine example for other in-country media that self-censors for fear of reprisal. Granted, it is easier for the Daily than the Cambodian press because it is run mostly by foreigners and has far less penetration in the Khmer market, but as demonstrated by the impact of the Post deep in the country, this latter part is changing.

It will be interesting to see what happens. If the online Khmer Cambodia Daily catches on, if it begins to penetrate deeply into the Khmer market, will it face temporary suspensions during sensitive times like VOA/RFA, or worse, threats and intimidation like the Khmer press? Or will it perhaps help lead the way to a freer press in Cambodia?

The Cambodia Daily - Khmer version

LiDAR, Mahendraparvata and the Media

On June 14 and 15 the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age reported the high tech mapping and “discovery” of previously unknown Angkorian era ruins and extent of the the city complex of Mahendraparvata in Siem Reap province Cambodia. The discovery was made through the use of LiDAR, a laser scanning device that can provide precise landscape mapping. The overly dramatic wording of the SMH article provoked some snickers and snide comments on social media, and as the story spread to other news outlets the wording became even more dramatic, even fanciful – Mahendraparvata evolved from a “Lost City,” to a “Lost World” and even “Atlantis-like.” With that the social media jabs shifted into high gear.

On June 17 The Cambodia Daily published an article on the discoveries which seemed to imply some controversy between the archaeologists about whether the city could accurately be said to have been “discovered,” since its existence had been known for more than a century. On June 18 I noted on Twitter that the media coverage of the discovery was becoming a story in itself. But admittedly I too took a poke in this blog at the Indiana Jones-like language of the SMH article. Unfortunately, in all this chatter over how the discovery was being reported, the significance of the new archaeological work at Mahendraparvata was becoming lost.

Enter ‘Alison in Cambodia,’ an archaeologist and blogger in Cambodia who correctly brought the discussion back down to Earth. She helped refocus the discussion back on the archaeology, putting the significance of the discoveries at Mahendraparvata and the ground breaking use of LiDAR back into perspective. And in something of a scoop, she also managed to secure an extensive response from Damian Evans, the archaeologist at the center of the new discoveries, on the work at Mahendraparvata and the media uproar.

The purpose of this post is to try to bring some extra attention to these excellent blog entries by Alison in Cambodia, as well as provide links to some of the other relevant articles on the subject. Great work Alison. Thank you for helping clear the air and put the spotlight back on the science.

Alison in Cambodia: LiDAR and Lost Cities

Alison in Cambodia: “Lost Cities” and the press

SMH: Revealed: a lost city and a holy temple

SMH: Lost horizons: mediaeval city uncovered

The Age: The lost city

Phnom Penh Post: Lasers reveal Angkor city four times bigger than previously believed

The Cambodia Daily: Archaeologist Says Existence of Siem Reap Lost City Long Known

Sophat Soeung’s Connecting the Dots: Angkor’s Founding City Revealed on Mount Kulen

CSM: In Cambodia's jungles, a lost world is found

FOX News: Atlantis-like lost city unearthed in Cambodia

The Silly Season

The last couple of months have produced some particularly stupid, self-contradictory, silly and even vile comments in and about Cambodia from politicians, journalists and the like. The upcoming election has had a lot to do with it, but it hasn’t been restricted to politicians alone. Amongst the many ill-considered remarks of the last couple of months, the following are but a choice few.

“Most Cambodian men are dignified—we never have sex with minors. Only foreigners do that.” - Phay Siphan
(Cambodian government spokesman reacting to the U.S. State Department downgrade of Cambodia's ranking in its annual human trafficking report. Leaving aside the many studies showing that Cambodian men make up the vast majority of sexual abusers of children and minors in Cambodia, this statement is so counter-factual as to almost defy reasonable retort.)

"If the Khmer Rouge killed a lot of people, they would not be stupid to keep it to show to everyone, they would destroy it to eliminate evidence. I believe that it was just staged." - Kem Sokha
(Opposition candidate apparently denying that the infamous S-21 Prison [Tuol Sleng] was real, seemingly claiming it was some sort of Vietnamese propaganda invention.)

"Atlantis-like lost city unearthed in Cambodia" - FOX news
(Headline of a story about the high-tech mapping of a Angkorian era city complex in Siem Reap, which was not lost, nor unearthed and certainly not 'Atlantis-like', whatever that is supposed to mean.)

“But not only did I not authorize his arrest, I also sent other agents to go to Micasa Hotel without notifying authorities. It was like signaling to him that the authorities knew, and he escaped...So you have to remember that I helped you (Kem Sokha) by breaking the law myself.” - Prime Minister Hun Sen
(While engaging in some political mud-slinging against the opposition candidate, apparently also publicly admitting to interfering with the police in order to facilitate the escape of an alleged sex criminal.)

"Any election result would be dismissed by the CNRP" - Sam Rainsy, paraphrase by Cambodia Daily.
(After saying that his opposition party CNRP would participate in the national elections, Sam Rainsy went on to say he would reject any election result, apparently including his own electoral victory.)

"Fairfax Media recorded the discovery of the first five temples after pushing through landmine-strewn jungle, swollen rivers and bogs with the expedition on a mountain called Phnom Kulen." - Sydney Morning Herald
(Article from SMH about the high-tech mapping of a Angkorian era city complex in Siem Reap, portraying itself as some kind of journalistic Indiana Jones, presumably with bullwhip and Fedora. They managed to work in a plug for the publisher as well.) 

"I hope people in Cambodia are discussing the unfolding tragedy: Stealing a generation: Cambodia’s unfolding tragedy." - Lindsey Murdoch
(Apparently, after almost a decade of the orphanage tourism problem here in Cambodia, dozens of discussions on travel boards over the last 8 years, several articles in the Cambodia Daily over the last two and a half years, several more articles in the international press including the very often cited Al-Jazeera piece last year and, of course, the well-publicized  Childsafe 'Children are not tourist attractions' campaign launched in 2011, it was his article 2 months ago in an Australian newspaper that may finally spark discussion of this "unfolding tragedy" here in Cambodia.)

The Sacred Cows of Bet Trang

Another story of Cambodians flocking to yet another ‘magic’ object has been making the news for the last 24 hours or so – this time it is a ‘magic log.’ An article appeared in today’s Cambodia Daily, and the story has since hit the wire, different versions of an AFP story popping up in papers around the world. These stories of Cambodians worshiping turtles, anchors, snakes, meteorites and so on have been showing up in the international press at least a couple of times a year for more than a decade. And often they seem to have something of a condescending tone, usually nothing too overt, but still as if we are to snicker a bit and feel a twinge of superiority over these superstitious people who do such silly things. There often seems little context to it all besides the occasional hollow nod to tradition as the source of their superstitions.  

Almost 15 years ago I did such a story for a local paper here in Cambodia  – ‘The Sacred Cows of Bet Trang.’ In fact I like to imagine that it was the first of its kind in Cambodia. I hadn’t seen any similar stories in the English press prior to that, and at the time thought it was something new and fresh. Perhaps there were other such newspaper articles prior to mine and I just hadn’t noticed them. I can't be sure.

One thing I tried hard to do in writing that article was avoid the all too easy mocking angle, instead aiming at contextualizing and perhaps offering some grasp of the meaning the participants felt in it all, or at least as much as I could do within the limitations of a daily newspaper. I’m not sure I fully accomplished that, but I think I did better job of it than some others as the story was picked up in the international press in the following days and weeks.

This story was originally published mid-October 1997. The UN sponsored elections had taken place in 1993, followed by steadily rising political tensions that boiled over and found an edgy resolution in the violent factional fighting in Phnom Penh in July 1997, just 4 month earlier. Low level war with the Khmer Rouge continued but the end seemed in sight. The mood of the country was tense but hopeful as Cambodia fitfully but persistently pulled itself up from the muck of 30 years of war and isolation. It was then that the sacred cows appeared in Bet Trang. 
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The Sacred Cows of Bet Trang

“Have you been to see the cows?” seems to be the most oft asked question in Sihanoukville these days.

Tales of miraculous healings and the extraordinary powers of two very special oxen have consumed the southern coastal region.

“Preah Ko and Preah Keo (have) come back to Cambodia” said one Sihanoukville restaurateur. “They can do anything...heal people, bring peace, fly, anything!”

It all began shortly before Phra-Chum Ben last month when rumours started to emerge of two oxen that were curing people’s illnesses in the village of Bet Trang, about 10 kilometres north of Sihanoukville.

According to Sok Vanny who tends their shrine, the oxen’s powers were discovered after a farmer from Bet Trang unknowingly sold them to a butcher. That night, he had a dream that the animals were actually Preah Ko and Preah Keo (Sacred Cow and Sacred Gem), the sacred oxen of Cambodian legend.

He bought them back and, upon returning to the village, the ox known as Preah Ko reputedly performed two healings, first restoring the leg of a lame man by licking it and then curing a chronically thin woman by drinking from the family cistern.

Photo sold by vendors in Bet Trang

Since then the oxen have become local celebrities and Bet Trang has become a boom town as hundreds of pilgrims arrive everyday to pray and seek relief from a variety of conditions. The kilometre long path from the main road is lined with vendors hawking everything from 500 riel bundles of grass and herbs (ox food) to photographs of the pair for 1500 riels.

At the end of the path, in the middle of the village, their manger has been turned into shrine, adorned with candles and incense and continuously packed with people.

Once in their presence, many of the faithful attempt to feed Preah Ko (considered the more ‘powerful’), grass, bananas, water and anything else he might eat, in the hopes of retaining the scraps from which to make medicine.

Ur Sovath, a pilgrim suffering from a skin condition, said that he was sceptical but that he had visited them three times. “The first (two) times I washed with the urine of Preah Ko but it did not help. If they help I will believe.” This visit he was hoping to be licked but there were too many people to get close enough.

To the naked eye the oxen appear normal save the swirl of people that constantly surround them. The ox called Preah Keo is white and slightly larger than Preah Ko who is dark brown with a “5” branded into his rump from his stay with the butcher.

Despite their average appearance, many of the faithful argue that these oxen somehow embody the legendary Preah Ko and Preah Keo, though many of the pilgrims I spoke to could not agree on the precise telling of the legend or its connection to these oxen.

“Young people (like me) didn’t study this, only the old people know the story clearly,” said Mr. Sovath, a 30 year-old pilgrim at Bet Trang.

Scholar and author, David Chandler, noted that “there are no approved versions of (the legend), only stories that people tell and listen to” and that this particular legend is “deeply embedded in Cambodian culture.”

In his History of Cambodia, Dr. Chandler relates a standard telling of the traditional legend. Preah Ko and Preah Keo were statues, one of a cow and the other a Buddha image, which contained Cambodian sacred books and treasures. In an ancient war, the king of Siam sought to capture the sacred statues from the citadel in the city of Lovek, but the city was fortified by a bamboo forest. So the Siamese fired coins from their cannons into the forest, leading the Khmer soldiers to cut down the bamboo in search of the money. When they did, they also exposed the city to attack, allowing the statues to be captured and taken to Ayudhya, the capital of Siam, never to return. Lost with the sacred statues, so the legend goes, was Cambodian power and eminence in the region.

Shrine tender, Sok Vanny, offered a similar but more flowery version of the legend which included flying cows and magic formulas but ending with the same great loss to Cambodia. She went on to explain that it is the “spirits” of Preah Ko and Preah Keo that have returned to Cambodia in the oxen in Bet Trang.

To believers, the return of Preah Ko and Preah Keo to Cambodia, even in this spiritual form, represents a return of power and possibility. They offer hope for the future on both a personal and national level.

To skeptics, their appearance is obvious charlatanism. “Who’s making the money on these ‘magic cows’?” seemed to be the most common sentiment expressed at an expatriate pub in Sihanoukville. One British expat could not resist but make note of the primary by-product of feeding a male cow. But to many this event remains enigmatic even in the face of skeptical doubt. After long discussion, the Cambodian barkeep concluded “I (will) believe it when I see it work...even if I don’t see it, many people do. For this I must have respect.”

Pedophile!

It finally happened.

As a result of the hysteria generated by the western press, and perhaps a bit of racism as well, today I was accused of being a pedophile, for absolutely no other reason than being a white male in the company of brown children – my son and daughter. 

First, just a bit about us. I’m 50+ years old, white, a businessman and have lived in Cambodia for more than 18 years. I’m married to an Asian woman. We’ve been together more than 10 years and have two beautiful children - a 9 year old girl and 7 year old boy. We are the natural parents of both. They are wonderful children, the loves of my life. They are well-behaved, excellent students and speak perfectly accented American English as well as 2-3 other languages. And though it sickens me that the situation requires me to make note of their racial features… though they are not distinctly Asian, they are darker than me and not 100% European in appearance, to anybody with an eye, clearly ‘kon kut’ (mixed race.)

I work a lot, perhaps too much, but always reserve Sundays for my family and children. It’s become a Sunday afternoon tradition in our family to give Mom a break, some time for herself. The kids and I always go somewhere together on Sunday afternoons - the Museum, the park, the Palace, the Russian Market, or quite often the riverfront for snacks and CD shopping, as we did today. 

We took a tuk-tuk to the riverfront, got out at K-West (Sisowath Quay and Street 154) and started walking up the riverfront road. My children were dressed in their Sunday best, happy and smiling. We strolled hand in hand, my daughter anxious to buy the newest installment of Harry Potter at the CD shop, my son looking forward to strawberry and passion fruit ice cream at K-West.

We hadn’t got but 40 meters when I noticed a woman – white, 50ish, seemingly a tourist - walking toward us taking photos in our direction. A man, presumably the husband, stood next to her. As we got closer I thought she might be trying to get a riverfront shot, perhaps of something behind me, so I stepped slightly to the side to get out of the way. But she tracked us with her camera. As we got closer and she kept shooting I furrowed my brow in a ‘what are you doing?’ sort of way, but didn’t actually say anything.

She held up her camera, pointed at it and said, “Internet!” I wasn’t sure I got the meaning so I said “what?” She pointed at her camera again and said with a smirk, “Internet,” pointed at me and said, “you pedo!” Hearing clearly but not wanting to make a mistake I stepped closer to her and asked again. She repeated, “Photo you, internet, you pedo…for police,” in a distinctly Italian accent. I said something like “These are my children.” She just shook her head and started to raise her camera again. I said, “You want police? You want to call the police?” She nodded. I said, “I’ll call police.” She nodded again and we stepped to the side of the pavement together. My children backed off a few steps, frightened by the obvious tension in our voices. I pulled out my phone, called my staff and asked them to call the police and I called the police myself as well. I told them where I was and asked them to come quickly.

We stood there uncomfortably for a moment. I considered grabbing the camera, but didn’t want to start a fight, especially with my children there. I motioned my children to us and told my daughter to explain who she was. I figured my daughter’s thick American accent alone should be enough. My daughter started to tell her name, age and such when the Italian woman cut her off. “No English. No English,” she barked. Startled, my children moved behind me.

We stood there another uncomfortable minute, waiting. The woman started to get nervous. She said “I go,” and tried to push past me. I said “No, we wait for police.” She repeated that she was going. I told her to either wait for the police or delete the photos. She said, “No, you pedo,” and tried to push past me again. I stood firm and told her we were going to wait for the police. She pushed me back but I stayed in front of her like a blocker. I didn’t touch her myself because she was a woman, but she pushed me back repeatedly. It became a jostling and yelling match, her pushing, me blocking, staggering down the riverfront back toward K-West. Khmers and tourists stood and stared at the commotion. I just kept repeating, “wait for the police or delete the photos,” as did she, “no, no…go, go.” 

Through all this her husband did nothing to help her. I kept expecting him to jump in. Rather hoping he would actually.  But he just looked uncomfortable, slowly, silently, wimpishly following behind his wife.

In front of K-West they jumped in a tuk-tuk. I thought about getting in too. Or perhaps grabbing a motodup. I saw my children standing about 15 meters away, wide-eyed. I didn’t want to involve them in a chase. This was already too much. I pulled out my phone and aimed it at the woman to take a photo. She screamed, “No photo! No photo!” and covered her face. It took a few seconds for my camera to work allowing her time to cover. I took several photos, all of her with face covered.

After they left, I called the police back and told them she was gone and to not bother coming.

My kids and I went into K-West, got some tea and sodas and we talked about what had happened. I tried to explain, leaving out the bit about pedophilia and replacing it with ‘she thought I was trying to steal you.’ “Why?” they asked. I could only say because I’m white and they look Asian. “But we’re a family,” they said. They know that their Mom is Asian and I’m a barang, but they haven’t yet learned that this is an important distinction in the minds of some.

I know there is more to it than that, but how do I explain that to a 7 and 9 year old?

In moments of silence, as they tried to comprehend what this woman had done, I tweeted about it. The whole thing left me rattled. Bitching about it on internet seemed to help relieve the tension a bit.

My daughter made an astute observation in the aftermath. Thirty minutes later, as we walked to the CD shop she said, “She knows nothing about Cambodia. Doesn’t she know that Asians and Americans can have children? She doesn’t know anything.”

I think my daughter is right about that, or perhaps even understated it a bit. The woman doesn’t know anything about Cambodia. She, in fact, probably only imagines she knows something because of what she has read in the western press, which is something less than nothing in many cases.

If this Italian woman isn’t simply a racist, her mind has probably been twisted by the constant stream of sensational, repetitive and often wildly-overstated stories of western pedophiles and abused children in Cambodia.  And not only by the western press but by NGOs that profit from it and feed the beast with exaggerated stats and a constant stream of rehashed horrors stories that keep the funds flowing and the presses humming.

Back in the US a few months ago I saw MSNBC playing their 8 year old ‘Children for Sale’ video yet again, about a brothel village that hasn’t existed in more than half a decade. Some NGOs are still pawning off the ’33,000 child prostitutes in Cambodia’ stat when there aren’t 33,000 prostitutes of any age in Cambodia (link). Some Christian NGOs tell their people that there are women chained to beds and being raped in hostess bars in the center of the tourist district on the Phnom Penh riverfront. Every westerner busted for pedophilia in Cambodia is repeated in the international press for weeks while the fact that they make up a tiny fraction of the pedos in Cambodia goes unmentioned. Nicholas Kristof parachutes into Cambodia to do a sensational live-tweet of a brothel raid, painting himself the cowboy hero riding to the rescue of women and children in the Wild West (link1 link 2). Some NGOs in Cambodia parade their rescued victims (link) of trafficking in front of an insatiable press and voyeuristic tourists to repeat their stories of victimhood again and again - donations accepted. Sex in Cambodia sells. 

Don’t get me wrong. Human trafficking and trafficking in children for sex is a real and present problem in Cambodia, and the rest of the world. There are pedophiles, especially amongst the Khmer and Asians, and certainly westerners too. It all needs to be addressed, there is no doubt about that. But the western press’s manic fixation on abusive sex in Cambodia has made the country name synonymous with pedophilia, unfairly and inaccurately so.

From her exposure to the press, tourists like this Italian woman think that pedophiles are as common as cockroaches, that any white man with an Asian looking child must be a pedo who can simply waltz through tourist areas in broad daylight with a prepubescent child on each hand. (And I can’t help but believe that if my children had been white, she wouldn’t have made this judgment about us.) Kristof’s sensationalism has 3-day tourists believing they too can play super-hero, identifying pedos at a glance, swooping to the rescue and saving a child in between their afternoon visit to the Royal Palace and authentic Cambodian Curry dinner on the riverfront.

Ultimately, as good as their intentions might be, as important as the problem is, the press, some NGOs and these misguided tourists are doing the country, the victims of trafficking, and yes, even little people like me a terrible disservice, while enriching and glorifying themselves in the process. This needs to stop. This isn’t a game or an action hero movie or an opportunity for tourists to feel righteous pity. The problems need to be addressed realistically and not in the context of sensationalism, mania, big-money, and dare I say, racism.

If, unlike this Italian woman, you have a reasonable, rational belief that you have seen a child in a risk situation, by all means, call the ChildSafe helpline, if possible keep the child in sight and wait until the ChildSafe team arrives to sort things out.

Anyway, I figure that when my photo turns up on some Italian website as another pedophile operating openly and with impunity in Cambodia, it will also include a story of my powerful police connections that were on their way to protect me and how she had to flee for her life. A narrow escape by our heroine, just like in the movies. Cambodia is a very dangerous place, you know. And her harrowing tale might even generate a few donations for some Cambodian anti-trafficking NGO.

Juxtaposition

From the front page of yesterday's The Nation (one of Thailand's main English language newspapers.)

Interesting choice and placement of photos. To the left, armed and uniformed Cambodian soldiers aiming their rifles to the right as if ready to shoot. Immediately to the right, a separate photo of unarmed Thai civilians ducking for cover. From the juxtaposition of photos it almost seems that Cambodian soldiers are ready to fire on Thai civilians. Though both the comparative sizes of the subjects and the caption beneath the photos make it clear this is not what is actually happening, this particular juxtaposition would seem...well...suggestive. I guess it comes as no surprise that a Thai newspaper would have a Thai lean. But I found this particular manipulation heavy-handed enough to roll my eyes a bit.

Snub?

In an article titled, "'Sorry, I'm busy!' King of Cambodia snubs Royal Wedding for 'something more important'" the online version of the British newspaper the Daily Mail yesterday bemoaned Cambodian King Sihamoni's "snub" to the British Prince, supposedly committed by turning down an invitation to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The also article notes that "His father Sihanouk refused to attend Princess Alexandra's wedding in 1963 after being told he would not get a guard of honour and could not stay at Windsor Castle," perhaps suggesting that the then King Sihanouk felt he was not afforded the respect and regard that he was due as a king.

Accompanying the article was a photo labeled "No thank you: King Sihamoni of Cambodia has turned down…etc." Except the photo was not of King Sihamoni but of retired King Sihanouk.

Ooops?

The Mail has since corrected the apparent error, maintaining the same caption but replacing the photo of retired King Sihanouk with one of King Sihamoni.

Khmer Pedophiles and the Cambodia Daily

Cambodia Daily, Sept 21, 2010, page 24

In the Cambodia Daily newspaper, foreigners who have been caught having sex with a minor child in Cambodia are routinely (and justifiably) referred to as 'pedophiles' or 'alleged pedophiles,' and the problem of 'foreign pedophiles' is almost always noted somewhere in such articles. There are also disturbingly regular reports in the Cambodia Daily of Cambodians "raping" children in Cambodia. In fact there currently seems to be an epidemic of Cambodians sexually abusing children. But, regardless of the age of the victims, Cambodians are never referred to as 'pedophiles' in the Cambodia Daily.

Helping to illustrate this point, today there are two stories in today's Daily set side-by-side (see above,) one of a foreign "pedophile" who sexually abused an 8-year-old boy and later two 16-year-old boys. Next to it there is a story of a Cambodian man who allegedly "raped" an 8-year-old girl and a 5-year-old girl on separate occasions. For some reason, the Cambodian who allegedly repeatedly sexually abused children is not referred to as a 'pedophile' or 'alleged pedophile' in the Daily article. And even though the article notes literally hundreds of cases of sexual abuse against children by Cambodians, there is no mention of pedophilia. Now, I could imagine several possible reasons for the different vocabulary used in these two specific articles in today's paper, that is if it weren't for the fact that in the dozens and dozens of stories of the sexual abuse of children by Cambodians and foreigners reported in the Cambodia Daily over the last decade, the Daily has never once referred to a Cambodian child sex offender as a 'pedophile' in any of its articles (at least in my semi-systematic observation.) Let me repeat for emphasis, not even once.

Assuming my observation is accurate, there would seem to be a pattern here. The Cambodia Daily seems categorically averse to attaching the label of 'pedophile' to Cambodian offenders, and I was just wondering why. What is the difference between Cambodian and foreign child sex offenders when it comes to being a 'pedophile?' Is there a racial component to being a 'pedophile'? Can a Cambodian be a pedophile or is that a category reserved exclusively for foreigners?

UPDATE: October 23, 2010
The Cambodia Daily provided a nice example this week. Two articles, same writer, 4 days apart, two men, one Khmer, the other a foreigner, arrested for virtually the same crime - purchasing sex from girls younger than 15. The article describes stereotypical pedophile behavior on the part of the Khmer man - engaging in serial sexual abuse of children, choosing his residence so as to have access to children, 'luring' them into his home where he would then pay them for sex.... Yet, in the article about the Khmer man, there is no mention of 'pedophilia.' Whereas in the article about the foreigner, (which in fact has less to do with the nature of the crime than in his accusation about the court,) pedophilia is not only mentioned but is in the headline. Very odd.

(Click on the article to enlarge it.)