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.”

Is it right for foreigners to join protests in Cambodia?

This is a zoom on a photo taken by Lauren Crothers at the protest yesterday and posted on Twitter.

Yesterday, there was a protest on the riverfront here in Phnom Penh. It was one of a series of protests of the last several years related to the forced evictions and land seizures in the Boeung Kak Lake area in Phnom Penh (and across the country.) The purpose of this particular protest was to raise awareness and to push the government to release 13 women who were recently imprisoned for their involvement in protest activities related to the lake area evictions. The protesters blocked traffic on the busy Sisowath Quay Street in front of the FCC restaurant in the heart of the tourist district. I was not present at the protest, but followed it via Twitter. At least 2 people (Lauren Crothers and Donald Rallis) were present at the protest, tweeting the happenings and posting photos of the protest in progress.*

As the photos came through I noticed a new twist to this protest - western foreigners present amongst the Cambodian protesters, clearly participating in the protest. Note in the center photo above the western woman in sunglasses and a protest t-shirt. Other westerners were involved as well. There have also been strong (though not definitive) indications of foreign involvement in other recent forced eviction/land seizure protests in Cambodia, such as the Prey Lang protesters dressing as characters from Avatar. But, to my knowledge, this is the first time that westerners have visibly participated in the protest itself.

Conflicted about the ethics of foreigners participating in political protests in Cambodia, I pointed out the presence of foreigners in the crowd on Twitter and tweeted the question, 'Is it right for foreigners to join in protests in Cambodia?' The question generated an immediate flood of opinions and debate on Twitter, which was hampered by the 140 character Twitter format. So I bring that same question here to my blog to allow more room for comment.

I am still conflicted on the matter, but as I read the comments of others and took time to give it further consideration, I now find myself leaning strongly toward, 'No, it is not right.'

Though I have not developed a final position, my current (and primary) reasoning for opposing foreign participation in protests in Cambodia runs as follows:

These protests have the potential to generate significant long-term consequences for Cambodia, Cambodian society and the Cambodian people. The issues driving the protests have a considerable political component and the solutions are not universally agreed upon by Cambodians. Much more importantly, the consequences of such protests for Cambodia may be positive or negative or a mix. Most foreigners, especially short term visitors as these foreign protesters seem to be, will not be around to share those consequences. Whether they leave in the near future or when the effects of these protests take hold on Cambodia, they will leave. And regardless of whether they leave or not, they will always have the option of leaving and going home to their countries. Cambodia is not their home. As such, they do not share the same stake in Cambodia as the Cambodian citizens whose home will be affected and most of whom must remain in Cambodia and suffer (or enjoy) the effects on their country. As their stake in Cambodia is fundamentally different from citizens of Cambodia, these foreigners do not have the ethical right to join political and social protests in Cambodia, or for that matter, act as coordinators behind the protests.

This is not to say the foreigners should remain mute on matters of Cambodian politics and social justice. But there is a difference between being a critic, perhaps offering inspiration, and being an actor, trying to effect change oneself. Becoming directly and physically involved in Cambodian political affairs by joining such protests is an action akin to rights correctly reserved for citizens such as voting or running for office, and I would hold that foreigners who have no direct and inescapable stake in Cambodia, have no more ethical right to join protests in Cambodia than they do to vote in Cambodian elections. It is a step over the line.

I'm still mulling over this question of the ethics of foreigners participating in protests in Cambodia and invite others to express their thoughts and opinions on the matter.

Appeals Court Orders Release of 13 Boeung Kak Protesters
Cambodia Villages Stage Avatar Themed Protest
Boeung Kak lake residents arrested by police while on peaceful protest
Save Boeung Kak Lake website
Cambodia’s Land Crisis

* Edit: Just to be clear, these two people were at the protest as a journalist and as a bystander/observer, not as participants.

In for a penny...

Tales of woe and need. They're almost as common as poverty in Cambodia. Every expat hears them, often with a request for assistance (i.e. money.) To help or not to help is the question. And if 'to help' is the answer, you still cannot help them all. There are too many, their needs often great, and resources are limited. Not to mention the problem of liars and scammers who would exploit your charitable inclinations. A degree of distance and discrimination is necessary, if for no other reason than to shield yourself from ruin. But how distant? When to listen and when to turn your head? When to help and when to protect yourself? And once involved, how deep do you go?

Over the years I've been suckered more than once, wasting my money and time. And there have been times I've turned my head, when in hindsight I should have listened and helped. The following is a story from several years back when, grudgingly, and somewhat by chance, I got it right...I think.

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Phnom Penh. Mid-monsoon season. Early-afternoon. Black clouds building in the southern sky. The air began to cool and the wind picked up. It would rain soon. I decided to try to beat it home. Riding up Street 13 I could see a foggy sheet of water moving across the city ahead. I wasn't going to make it. I pulled off just as the first drops hit my visor, taking refuge in a little Vietnamese coffee shop near Phsar Kandal.

I sat just inside the open façade near the sidewalk, shielded from the rain by the overhang. I ordered an ice coffee with milk. I love Vietnamese coffee - a little tin-pot strainer perched atop a long glass, slowly dripping jet black coffee onto cracked ice and a big blob of sweetened condensed milk…drip, drip, drip...thick and opaque, the glass slowly filling. It's a lovely wait.

The rain was full on now, pissing down monsoon hard, the street flooding fast. As motos and cars plowed through the rising waters, waves began lapping onto the sidewalk. The intense downpour and encroaching waterline dislodged customers who had been sitting farther out, sending a couple of young VN girls my way. Walking towards me one offered a jaunty, bit too familiar 'Hello, you!"' At first I thought it was a come on, but on closer look I realized they were friends of sorts - a couple taxi girls I've known for years. Dressed casually, out of the bar context and in the stark light of day I hardly recognized them. I motioned them to sit and join me.

The better spoken of the two, Mai, was a pretty 20-something from the British pub in Sihanoukville. Good pool player. Sweet talker. The other, Thi, was a older working girl from Sharky's here in Phnom Penh - always something of a Sad Sack and a bit of a mooch. They sat down across from me and called for a couple of glasses to pour tea from the table pot.

We sipped our drinks and chatted -  cordialities and weather-talk, as our limited language skills allowed.

As we spoke the conversation turned rather quickly to the story of a "sick friend" who was staying in an apartment above the coffee shop. Being a cynical sort, I doubted the tale's veracity and suspected it was leading to an appeal for money, but held my tongue for the moment.

Mai said the sick friend was "very hot" and had terrible stomach and back pain, motioning dramatically to the relevant parts. "She's very poor."

'Ah,' I thought, 'the money move is coming soon.' I waited for an opportunity to change the subject.

She continued, "very hot, wet, stomach big, same like have baby (pregnant,) but no baby. Pain. Ooo, pain a lot. Very sick. Do you want to see?"

The offer to show me lent credibility but I begged off reflexively, not wanting to get deeper. I told them I wasn't a doctor. Still, the symptoms did seem serious and were a bit intriguing, especially the swollen abdomen. 'What could cause that?' I wondered. Against my better judgement, I engaged a bit, asking if she had been to the doctor or was taking medicine.

"No doctor, no money. Medicine come out (vomit), and she no shit, no piss many day."

Even to my non-medical ear that sounded bad. Not just another case of food poisoning or AIDS or whatever. 'Perhaps an intestinal blockage' I thought, which  can be very dangerous.

Though still wary, my curiosity got the better of me. I agreed to go see her, while emphasizing that I hadn't any medical training. I figured I could satisfy my curiosity, and if the story wasn't complete BS, perhaps offer the girl a few dollars and urge her to go the doctor.

We went upstairs. It was colonial era apartment block, now sporting the post-apocalyptic look - heavy old concrete structure, unlighted corridors, barren soot-blackened walls, laundry hanging here and there, the smoke of cooking fires in the air and sounds of crying babies and playing children echoing through the halls.

I entered the apartment and immediately felt I had made a terrible mistake.

More than a half dozen people were crowded into a tiny room and all eyes were instantly upon me. Sad, desperate eyes. All poor, uneducated, bottom of the heap Vietnamese. Probably 10 years of school between them. The place was dimly lit and thick with incense smoke. My eyes burned. A 20ish year old girl lay curled on a bed against the wall - face beet red, sweating profusely, hair matted wet, breathing fast and shallow, seemingly semi-conscious. Two young women knelt at her side massaging her hands and feet. An old couple with bald heads, black silk pants and teary eyes squatted in the corner staring at me, hopefully, pleadingly.

"What have I gotten myself into?" I mumbled to myself.

Mai said something in Vietnamese and a middle-aged woman handed me a little zip-lock bag of pills they had bought at the pharmacy - 6 ampicillin, 6 paracetamol, 3 vitamins and what looked like a several antihistamines.

"Is this right?" Mai asked.

This is a common practice. Too poor for a real doctor, these people go to the pharmacist for both diagnosis and prescription. The pharmacist is a lot cheaper and will dispense drugs on a mere description of symptoms, sometimes even with the patient sight unseen. They don't have a medical degree and maybe not even a degree in pharmacy, but that doesn't stop them from diagnosing sick people and prescribing drugs, often in combinations that seem chosen as much for color coordination as medicinal properties.

In fact, there does often seem to be some crude medical logic to such prescriptions. It's a scattergun approach to treatment, putting together a drug combo that may not cure the problem but will make many patients feel better, if only temporarily, regardless of the disease. Paracetamol to kill pain, B vitamins for a little energy boost, antihistamines in case of allergies or cold and enough broad spectrum antibiotic to slow down a variety of infections (though never a proper full course.) In lieu of affordable care, the limited medical knowledge of these ad hoc practitioners is probably better than nothing. But nevertheless, much (perhaps most) of it is a cynical scam to separate poor, ignorant people from their pennies with only cursory regard to their actual health.

Anyway, how am I to even begin explaining all this to them - the quackery and the exploitation and the blah, blah, blah? So I didn't. I said I wasn't sure but didn't think it was right.

I walked to the sick girl and felt her forehead. She was burning up. She really did look pregnant, her stomach protruding like she was 6 months along, though they insisted she wasn't. I reached toward her abdomen and she winced in pain before I even touched her. She looked like she was dying. Shocked by her deathly appearance, I blurted "You've got to get her to a doctor!" and reached for my pocket to give them some money. I was now thinking $20 or $30, enough to get her examined by a real doctor and buy whatever he might prescribe.

But Mai then explained she had already been to the doctor, in fact two doctors that day.

She reached under the bed and pulled out an ultrasound film and report from that morning. Surprised, I asked what the doctor had said. She said that they didn't understand, but that it required an operation and would cost $500. I looked at the ultrasound report. It was clear, right there in French, 'ruptured appendix…peritonitis.' Holy Hell, she really was in immediate danger of dying and needed emergency surgery to save her life.

"Did you read this?" I asked emphatically.

"Cannot."

Of course not. None of these people could read French. In fact they were probably all illiterate.

"Did the doctor explain this...appendix...her intestines…her sickness...what she sick?" I struggled for understandable vocabulary.

"Yes. No. No understand. Very sick. Very pain. Cut for $500."

So, nobody here can read and nobody helped them to understand the life or death nature of the information. This is so Cambodia - the ignorance, the poverty, the human misery,  the callous indifference of those with the power to help. I told them in no uncertain terms that she needed immediate surgery or she would die. "Go to the hospital NOW," I said.

"Two hospitals already…Calmette, hmm, one more…No $500, cannot. No money, nobody cut."

'Bastards!,' I thought. So called 'doctors' knowingly sending a 20 year old girl to a slow and near certain death for lack of a few dollars in her pocket today. "Quacks, incompetents, selfish racist cunts," I barked at the floor.

They stared at me.

So was I manipulated into this situation? Was I getting the whole story? It didn't matter anymore. Now I'm hip fucking deep in this thing. Dropping 20 bucks on the table and leaving was no longer an option. Now…now, with direct knowledge of her situation and the power to change it, I am now responsible. Knowing what I know now, if I was to walk away I would be no better than those bastard doctors, little different than killing her myself.

I phoned a western doctor who happened to be friend. He's not a surgeon, but I figured he could give some advice. He got right on it, made a few calls and found a Cambodian doctor who said he'd do the surgery for $290 (up front,) but it had to be at his office, not a clinic or hospital. I got the address and asked him to set it up.

I had $130 in my pocket. I put it on the table. I eyed the thin gold ('pla-tin') ring on Mai's finger. She pulled it off and put it with the money. With prompting so did the others. Two rings, a pair of earrings, a tiny jewel pendant, a little more cash and four broken pieces of gold necklace and we had something like the whole $290. Now we had to get her to the doctor.

Thi went to get help and returned with several cyclo drivers. Using a blanket as a litter, the group packed her down two flights of steep stairs with all the delicacy of a bucket brigade, her moaning and wailing all the way. They put her into a waiting cyclo and off she went. The rest of us followed on motorcycles to the doctor's office near Wat Phnom.

We presented the pile of money and gold to the doctor. He fingered through it, nodded his head and then did as he said he would, performing an appendectomy right there in his office. We waited out front on the street, huddling along the curb. I sat. They squatted.

About an hour later the nurse came out and said she'd be okay. We went inside to see. The girl woke in what seemed surprisingly short order, but after a while began moaning and crying in pain. I tried to get some more information from the doctor about her condition. In broken English he said that all had gone well and that with antibiotics she'd probably be fine. Good news.

And "why is she crying in pain?" I asked.

"Because she has pain from the surgery," he responded, adding, "patients can be very difficult in the first 24 hours."

Thinking that perhaps I had missed something, I asked what I thought might be a stupid question, "what about painkillers?"

"Not enough money" he said.

Ah, but of course. What's a sundae without a cherry on top?

I asked how much.

"$40," he said with a barely concealed smirk.

'Extortion,' I thought.

I looked behind me at the group. They looked back at me, nothing more to offer. I could hear the girl sobbing and moaning in the back office.

I had no money left, at least not on me. I took my phone out of my pocket and held it up. A cheap old Nokia. The doctor took it from me, looked it over, then smiled, nodded and handed it back. I pulled out the SIM and gave him the phone. Without missing a beat he opened the medicine cabinet, retrieved a vial of some drug, went in back and gave her an injection. She quieted almost immediately, seemingly more comfortable.

I stepped out to the street. The sun had set but the drizzle had returned. Tapped out and nothing more to do, I made my goodbyes. Everybody was smiling now and Mai gave me a rather formal sounding "Thank you."  The elderly couple in black silk kneeled on the wet pavement, satued and bowed and hugged the cuff of my pants, making me very uncomfortable. I got on my bike and left.

I saw the girl a few times after that, working as a taxi girl at Sharky's and Martini's, and then never again.  A couple of years later I asked some of the working girls about her. One told me she had died of AIDS. Another said that she was fine and had gone to Vietnam. I never did find out what really became of her. Come to think of it, I never learned her name either.

Originally published on Khmer440

Metaphor PP

'No Parking,' Phnom Penh

Traffic Flow PP

A classic Phnom Penh utility pole.
(Or perhaps a schematic representation of the traffic flow at any given 4-way intersection in Phnom Penh.)

Exit the Rabbit, Enter the Dragon

Excerpt from Khmer New Year playlet broadcast on local TV in Phnom Penh this evening.

Today (13/4/12) was the first day of Khmer New Year (Chaul Chhnam Thmey) – the end of the Year of the Rabbit, the beginning of the Year of the Dragon. Unlike western New Year, the Khmer New Year does not begin at midnight, but at a different time of day or night every year, as determined by the astrologers. This year it began on April 13 at about 7:10PM (Cambodian time.) Each house prepares a table of offerings during the day, and as the New Year enters, joss sticks are lit and prayers made at the offering table, ideally at the moment of the change.

Each year I am torn about where to be the moment the new year enters. Most Khmers around me would have me at the offering table making prayers. But I’ve always rather enjoyed watching it on TV. As the New Year enters, the local stations run a delightful little playlet of the goddess and new animal arriving and the old departing. People giggle at the cheesy special effects but can get quite serious and attentive about the spirit of the moment and what is being said. Years back, there was a third option. When the wars were still on, the New Year was welcomed with skyward gunfire. Here in Phnom Penh, at the moment of New Year the air would fill with sounds of firearms discharging and the sky would come alight with tracer bullets (phosphorous filled bullets that burn bright when fired.) A live-fire pyrotechnics show of sorts. Of course, what goes up does eventually come down, making this a very dangerous tradition, but an exhilarating one nevertheless.

One year, 1995 or 96 I believe, I had flown into Phnom Penh from the provinces for the holiday. I was staying at the Bopha Tep Hotel near the Cambodiana. That year the New Year was to arrive at night. Anticipating the usual gun show, I put on a heavy jacket (imagining it might act as a makeshift flak jacket) and went up to the hotel roof, which provided a panoramic view over the city. I situated myself under a low concrete overhang to try to guard against falling lead.

Ordinarily, tracer bullets are used in machine guns, placed every fifth round to help the shooter see his actual line of fire. But for the New Year, soldiers and police would fill their entire clips with tracers so that every shot would glow. At the moment of New Year the city erupted in peals of gunfire from every direction. Some fired single shots, sending tracers zipping skyward like supersonic fireflies. Most used AK-47s, letting off 30-shot clips on full-auto, shooting fiery dotted lines crisscrossing the night sky. Most spectacular, on the outskirts of the city where the soldiers had heavier weapons they’d use belt-fed machine guns that could fire continuously for as long as they wanted to make the belt. It could go on for hundreds of rounds, often several guns at a time, creating great glowing snakes writhing skyward from the horizon.

Now, in 2012, going out to watch the gunfire is no longer a New Year option. The hazardous tradition of shooting in the year was wisely quashed more than a decade ago. Today was a choice between the table or the TV. I chose the TV – exit the rabbit, enter the dragon (naga.) See video above.

Suasedey Chhnam Thmey. Happy New Year. 

Goddess riding in the Dragon. Front of Royal Palace, Phnom Penh.

A few screenshots from the New Year presentation:

A Khmer New Year Story

Our maid, Mean-Ta, was robbed today, in the ordinary fashion. She was riding pillion on a motodup (motorcycle taxi) when a couple of young guys on a passing moto ripped her bags from her shoulder. She probably appeared an easy mark – a small 50-year-old woman, alone, exposed and overloaded. No match for a couple of 20-something thugs on a faster bike. Pulled off with the bags she fell from the motodup, banging her up a bit, mostly bruises and road rash. The robbers escaped with her goods. Not an unusual occurrence here in Phnom Penh, especially in the days and weeks before Khmer New Year (i.e. Chhaul Chhnam Thmey) when robberies and other petty crimes spike as unscrupulous sorts try to put together some holiday coin for their New Year’s festivities. It’s still National Robbery Month here in Cambodia.

Pissed me off something fierce when I heard the story. Like most Khmers, she planned to travel to her native province for the New Year to be with family. She was heading off to begin her holiday when it happened – on her way to the bus station to make the trip home to Battambang. I didn’t see her this morning before she left, but when I got back to my office this afternoon, there she was, bloodied and crying, her clothes torn, her remaining bag smashed and wet from something that had broken in the fall. Two of the staff were tending to her, trying to calm her. Truly a pitiful sight. The thought of a couple of young city boys, probably middle classers or better, targeting a 50 year old country woman for her meager belongings just infuriated me. Perhaps even more upsetting, mostly because I saw how disappointed she was, this was her New Year in tatters.

She had been saving for her trip home for at least the last 2 months. A couple of days ago she took an advance on next month’s pay and I had given her an additional $150 New Year bonus. She spent the last two days preparing, buying a new outfit and bag, as well as some presents for the family. Almost all of the money and most of the belongings were lost or ruined in the robbery. 

But, in the spirit of the season, the situation took a heartening turn. Most of the staff was still here at the office when she stumbled in after the robbery - 12 people, all Cambodians, everybody due to leave on their own New Year holidays at day's end. On hearing the story, people spontaneously started chipping in money for her. A impromptu collection arose in the office. Everybody contributed without hesitation. As the story spread, even the cyclo driver and motodups that sit near the office tossed what they could afford into the pot. I Twittered about the robbery shortly after hearing the story, primarily out of frustration and as a warning about pre-New Year street crime. Again, without prompting or request, local barang Tweeps offered money to help her. It was all an amazing outpouring of sympathy and generosity.

As I understand it, the spirit of the second day of Khmer New Year (Virak Wanabat) is expressed in generosity and giving to those less fortunate than oneself. I saw that spirit manifest today (if a couple of days early) in the swift and unreserved support shown this woman. Perhaps, amongst good people, they would have responded that way at any time of year, but it seemed particularly appropriate to this time.

Calmed briefly after the robbery, Ta was soon in tears again, but this time for being overwhelmed by the flood of help she was receiving. Most of her lost money was replaced. Her thanks were profuse and animated (a bit uncomfortably so.) She told me to say "thank you" and "happiness" and "Happy New Year" (and more) to all who helped and offered kind words. By late afternoon she had collected herself and the staff was readying to escort her back to the bus station to catch an evening bus. I bowed out at that point. I understand that she made it onto the bus without further problem. She should be in Battambang by now, probably in her village, home with her family for the holiday.

When safe sex isn’t

According to Cambodia Daily reports of recent prostitution busts in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian police are using the presence/possession of condoms as evidence of prostitution and as a basis for arresting the people involved.* For example, in ‘Police Raid Parlor Alleged to Provide Sex Services’ (Cambodia Daily, March 14, 2012,) police reportedly stated that, in addition to other evidence, “…used condoms showed the massage place is 100% providing sex services.” The women from that bust were taken by the police for “education” (i.e. possibly sent to one of Cambodia’s notorious ‘rehabilitation centers’) and the parlor owners were arrested.

While I understand, from a law enforcement perspective, why the police would want to use condoms as evidence, this practice clearly runs contrary to this interests of community health and the health and safety of individuals involved in the sex trade. It creates a situation in which sex workers and brothel owners must choose between possessing condoms/risking arrest and eschewing condoms/risking sexual disease. It makes safe sex unsafe (at least legally) and incentivizes sex workers to forgo condoms.

This is particularly frustrating in light of Cambodia’s hard-fought battle against high HIV infection rates. Due in part to efforts by NGOs and government to encourage condom use amongst sex workers, the country’s comparatively high HIV rates have been significantly reduced over the last decade. While the recent crackdown on brothels has negatively impacted this effort in several ways, it has been largely indirect, e.g. forcing prostitutes out of brothels and onto the streets has made them less accessible to the NGOs that provide condoms and safe sex education, and also made them more vulnerable to customer pressure not use condoms.

The practice of using condoms as criminal evidence represents a much more present and direct threat to condom use and safe sex. It amounts to the de facto criminalization of condoms, actively discouraging condom use amongst sex workers. In terms of community health, it is a step backwards, working to undo efforts to reduce the spread of HIV and STDs. And in so far as the anti-trafficking/prostitution laws are intended to protect the women involved, it acts to the contrary, putting their health and safety at greater risk.

Time to end this practice.

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(* Cambodia is not alone in this practice. 'The Policy That Keeps Prostitutes From Carrying and Using Condoms' addresses a similar policy in New York.)

See also:
Cambodia: Sex workers, 100% condom use and human rights
Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia 
Cambodia HIV and Aids treatment programmes threatened
AIDS on Stamps

Windows B

Battambang, Cambodia (yesterday)

(Click photo to enlarge)

Land, Cops, the Rich and the Poor

The morning of Chinese New Year Day, on my way to the pharmacy, I happened up a street on which the owner of one of Cambodia’s controversial land development companies lives. The road was lined with cars and motorcycles and filled with uniformed police loitering about. Dozens of them, with more arriving by the minute. At first I thought there might be a problem of some sort, but soon realized there was a New Year party going on at the home of the land developer and these were the guests. I was ready for a caffeine break anyway so I stopped at a café a couple of doors down, ordered an ice coffee, went back outside and sat down with the parking guard to watch the happenings.

The uniformed men stood in small knots in the street in front of the party house, smoking and chit-chatting. The mood was light and festive. I couldn't see anything of the party for the tall walls surrounding the place but could hear the sounds of traditional lion dancing and then an enormous string of firecrackers going off. It went on continuously for several minutes, punctuated by gunshot-like M-80 blasts. Drawn by the noise and goings-on, a group of poor folk gathered across the street – kids, women, old men with walking sticks - country people, street people, (evictees?,) hard to say who they were exactly. Perhaps 40 or 50 in all, quietly gazing on at the activities from the sidelines.

The uniformed men took turns going into the party. When they reemerged through the front gate, each had a big smile and a bright red ung-bao envelope in his hand. (Part of the Chinese New Year tradition is to give ung-bao envelopes containing token gifts of money.) They stood in the street together, tearing open their envelopes, holding out the money and comparing gifts. The poor people watched and tittered amongst themselves. The parking guard next to me speculated that they were hoping for a hand-out from the house.

A couple of the party goers walked nearby, opened envelopes in-hand. The guard asked them how much they got. “Everybody got 50,000 Riel (US$12.50) each,” one said, adding, boastfully, that over 1300 police had attended the party. If he was correct about those figures, that’s more than US$16,000 in little red envelopes.

The party wound down. Within an hour most of the uniforms were gone and the street was clear again, except for dozens of torn and empty ung-bao envelopes blowing around in the road. As the last of the attendees left and the front gate snapped shut, it became apparent that the party was over.

Nothing was given to the poor.

The group of poor lingered briefly, then slowly thinned, moving off in different directions, disappearing. When I left, a few, maybe 4 or 5, were still there holding out. Perhaps hoping against hope that a few crumbs may still fall from the table. Or maybe they just didn't have anyplace else to go.

Greeting the Dragon at Wat Phnom

Ushered in the new Year of the Dragon at Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh a couple of hours ago. The crowd seemed a bit bigger than last year. I didn't see any foreigners there besides myself. Like last year, the beggars were conspicuously absent and there seemed to be fewer incense vendors. Like every year the smoke from burning incense was overwhelming and the threat of being burned or set alight by an errant joss stick was constant. Note that many people in the crowds are wearing helmets. It's not because they're all responsible motorcycle riders. It's to protect against burns. The following are a few photos from earlier this evening at Wat Phnom around midnight.

A gong rang. People looked. It was midnight (or about 12:04 by my watch.) The Year of the Dragon Enters. The gong stopped. People cheered, then the crowd made a mad rush to escape the smoke filled pavilion. Not sure if it was part of the tradition or just a desperate dash for oxygen.

 

Arriving at Wat Phnom. Incense smoke rises.

Incense vendor.

Overlooking the pavilion madness, a churning mass of people packed sardine tight, covered in a thick cloud of incense smoke. 

At midnight people jostle aggressively to get their personal joss stick in the pagoda incense pot at the most auspicious moment. Afterward they take the joss stick and burn it at home.

 

Pavilion crowd.

Offerings

The crowd on the pavilion.

Lady Penh Shrine. (Legendary 14th century founder of Wat Phnom. Name sake for the city.)

Smoke

Better late than never - 2011

Newly completed Phnom Penh Tower, the city's second highrise.

Running a couple of weeks late on this post. Stray thoughts of Cambodia last year.

2010 At the end of last year, the on-going conflict with Thailand over Preah Vihear was probably the most talked about issue of that moment and perhaps the year. A decades old dispute, the flare up of the last few years was largely the result of Thai political instability stemming from the 2006 coup that ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. After months of deadly border skirmishes in 2010, political and military tensions had begun to ease in December, only to spike again with the arrest of a Thai politician and yellow-shirt activists on the Cambodian side of the border. And so began 2011.
Preah Vihear: the Thai-Cambodia temple dispute 
New developments in the Thai-Cambodia conflict (Dec 30, 2010)

Cambodia Daily

Voluntourism The international press turned a long overdue critical light on Pity Industry tourism, including orphanage tourism and commercialized voluntourism. Prompted by a study of orphanage tourism in Africa, papers such as the Guardian and the Telegraph published critical pieces toward the end of 2010, sparking several other unfavorable articles, blog entries and internet debates throughout the year. In October 2011 the high-respected NGO Friends-International in Cambodia launched an important new campaign aimed at bringing an end to orphanage tourism.
Guardian: Before you pay to volunteer abroad, think of the harm you might do
Telegraph: Volunteer holidays 'do more harm than good'
Inside the thriving industry of AIDS orphan tourism
Taking Aim at Voluntourism
The Independent: Cambodia's orphanages target the wallets of well-meaning tourists
When Children Become Tourist Attractions

Internet censorship Cambodia stumbled clumsily into the world of Internet censorship in February. After a ham-handed start in which all of BlogSpot was suddenly blocked and ISPs initially affirmed then denied knowledge of the blockage, the outage narrowed, leaving only the highly provocative KI Media and Khmerization permanently unavailable through some ISPs in Cambodia. Both the government and the ISP’s denied responsibility. The media squawked about it for a month or so, but the story has since been relegated to NGO reports. The blocked sites are still unavailable through many, perhaps most ISPs in Cambodia. That said, Cambodia still has some of the most unrestricted internet access in Southeast Asia, significantly better than its immediate neighbors.
The Curious Case of the Banning that Wasn't
LICADHO Condemns Censorship of Web Sites Critical of Government

Sam Rainsy Mid-March, Sam Rainsy was stripped of his seat in Parliament. It seemed much less of a story than it would have been in years past.
Cambodia opposition leader loses parliamentary seat

US Maintains Ban on Cambodian Adoptions  There has been a US imposed ban on the adoption of Cambodian children by Americans since 2001. After reconsidering the ban in March, the US ultimately declined to rescind it.
Cambodia Law Blog: Can expats adopt Cambodian children? Dispelling the myths

Unhappy Hippi In May Sihanoukville’s fabled Happy Hippi lost its smile.
K440: Happy Hippy smacked

The Cows of Spring On Royal Plowing Day in May the Royal Oxen ate beans and corn, eschewing the rice and other offerings.

Phsar Thmey and wart

Central Market After more than two years of work, during which many vendors were displaced to temporary buildings next to the market, the renovation and refurbishment of Phsar Thmey was completed mid-2011, including a brand new bright yellow paint job. (And it grew a wart in the form of a new, completely out-of-place 7-story building on the market square.) What a fantastic building, even with wart.

Preah Vihear In July elections were held in Thailand. The Pheu Thai party won. Thaksin’s sister became PM, Thailand’s political turmoil eased a bit, the yellows quieted, and the Preah Vihear situation has been getting better ever since. Come the end of 2011, Thai activist Veera remains in Cambodian jail.
Cambodia congratulates Pheu Thai Party on election win
Yingluck's visit to improve relations: Cambodian deputy PM
Cambodian PM stresses good relations with Thailand

DVDs at Russian Market

Legend In July The Legend Theatre opened in Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s first ‘international-standard’ cinema. Full size screen, proper theater seats, quality projection and sound and the first screen in Cambodia to (legally) show Hollywood first run movies, including 3D movies. As a result there has been a threatened crackdown on bootlegged DVDs of certain first run movies.
Cambodia Law Blog: New moves on pirated movies

Tonle Sap Prime Minister Hun Sen continued to make the health of the Tonle Sap a priority, apparently with significant success. Illegal reservoirs and fishing lots were ordered shut down and the orders were enforced. Initial reports indicate the annual total fish catch is way up.
Fishing licenses around Cambodia's Tonle Sap Lake revoked
Hun Sen extends Tonle Sap fishing lot closure
AKP: Large Scale Crack-down of Illegal Fishing in Tonle Sap to Come

Former brothels on 63

Brothels closed on 63 Sometime in July, the long-running string of brothels on Street 63 was raided and closed. I posted about the bust of one in this group back in 2010. The place was back in operation a couple of weeks later, business as usual. Clearly well protected. But all of the brothels are gone now. To my knowledge those places on 63 were the last openly brothel-like businesses in central Phnom Penh. They have been there as long as I can remember and survived years after every other city center brothel had been shuttered. There must have been dozens of girls there. Closing them was probably one of the biggest brothel raid/ closures in the country this year. But to my knowledge the raid went unreported in the English press in Cambodia.

A Brief Tour of the Cambodian Sex Industry Best article on prostitution in Cambodia by an international journalist in recent memory. I don’t agree with everything he wrote, but unlike many of the weepy, sensationalistic, pre-scripted reports in the international media of late, he drew his conclusions from the evidence rather than looking for evidence to support his conclusions.

Faintings There was a spate of mass faintings at several different garment factories and even a couple of schools in Cambodia. Many observers were understandably quick to cast a suspicious eye on factory conditions, but the cause is still a matter of investigation. The mass faintings began suddenly and have occurred over a relatively short span, the only obvious commonalities being most happened in the factories and were exclusively amongst the laborers. It would be an extraordinary coincidence for such a cluster to occur, yet not have some common cause or link between the incidents – e.g. some new chemical, pesticide or product in use, a new ventilation system, a illness of some sort being passed around, longer working hours or increased production requirements, some new practice common to all of the affected factories.

Different causes have been suggested by investigators and labor advocates. In fact, there have been almost as many possible causes cited as there have been fainting incidents – chemicals, smells, ventilation, long hours, hunger, food poisoning, dehydration, etc., but nothing definitive and nothing new and common to all of the affected facilities. Working conditions in the factories appear to be pretty much the same as they have been for years.

In lieu of evidence of a common cause I am inclined to agree with Time Magazine. The mass fainting are, for lack of a better term, ‘mass-hysteria,’ but by that I don't mean to diminish their significance. These factory workers are largely poor young women, often rural girls accustomed to rice farming and country living, now working in gray, stuffy, unpleasant conditions, feeling homesick, pressured by family (for money) and harsh supervisors, and doing mind-numbingly repetitive work for very little compensation (averaging $55-$61/month,) often for long hours. Though the factories are not 'sweat shops,' this is still the kind of work that is undesirable enough to drive some young women to choose prostitution in preference. In my opinion, for whatever reason that first mass fainting happened, it sparked a chain reaction of all the faintings that followed - it was the spark for a sort of involuntary protest by these young women against the unhappy and oppressive circumstances in which they find themselves.
Hundreds sick in mass fainting at Cambodian factory
Mass Fainting In Garment Factory
Mass faintings at H&M factory in Cambodia
What's Causing 'Mass Faintings' at Cambodian Factories?

Siem Reap, September 2011

Floods The wet season was too wet this year. Cambodia (and Thailand) saw some of the worst flooding in more than a decade. In Cambodia huge swathes of countryside along the Mekong and Tonle Sap rivers were submerged, hundreds of deaths, enormous crop loss and property damage. Government response was slow and inadequate. In an unprecedented but widely supported move, the government cancelled the Water Festival boat races in Phnom Penh. Just as the press was beginning to take note of the flooding in Cambodia, especially with the repeated flooding of Siem Reap town, Bangkok came under flood threat and story in the international press changed focus to Thailand and never really returned to Cambodia. Interestingly, even with the flood related crop loss, Cambodia managed to produce more rice in 2011 than the previous year.
Flood reports, photos and links
Cambodia's rice yield stable in 2011 despite flood devastation: PM

Most self-absorbed article of the year Amidst stories of captive Cambodian women jumping from upper floor windows to escape Malaysian recruitment agencies and of repeated allegations of abuse, torture and rape of Cambodian maids in Malaysia, the Cambodian government has banned its citizens from working as maids in Malaysia. Reporting on the ban in ‘this article’ the Malaysian press complained of a “dire maid shortage”in Malaysia and of how the ban will hurt their recruitment agencies. "Dire." Never mind the abuses suffered by these maids in Malaysia or captive women jumping from windows to escape these so called 'recruitment agencies' in Phnom Penh, it sounds like tough times in Malaysia. It's dire. They're having to make their own beds and there's nobody to do the dishes. 
“They Deceived Us at Every Step”
Recruiters Round Up Cambodians to Work in Malaysia

Rice wine deaths There were several mass poisonings attributable to bad batches of homemade rice wine. A regular motodup on my street died a couple of months ago after being poisoned. In one tragic case the better part of a village was wiped out. One poisoning incident:
12 Cambodians died of wine poisoning

Top Ten Tycoons The essential Who’s Who

Land Next to the floods, the rampant land-grabbing and mistreatment of evictees was the story of the year. So much has been written on the subject I am not sure what more is to be said. The problem continues and is growing. It is involving ever more people and confrontations between evictees and authorities are becoming more violent. In terms of politics, it is a gift from the ruling party government to the opposition. While I accept it is unrealistic to expect there will not be evictions as the city and country develops, I don’t understand from either a human or political POV why it is being handled so badly and the evictees treated with such callous inhumanity. It is sowing the seeds of dissent and future conflict in ever growing numbers. As one Kampong Speu evictee put it, "If there was still a Khmer Rouge hiding in the jungle, I'd join." In the long and even medium term, these pitiless evictions don't make moral or even Machiavellian sense.

NGO Law The government wants to regulate NGOs and has proffered a law. The NGOs are suspicious of the government’s intent but split between those who say the proposed law needs modification and those who say there should be no law at all. Much ink has been spilled on the subject with the highlight being an exchange between Elizabeth Becker and an anonymous commentator at AKP, the government media mouthpiece. The proposed law is currently in its fourth draft and the debate continues. The Prime Minister recently calmed the debate by saying that there was no rush, that they would work as long as necessary to craft a law acceptable to both sides. But, of course, this also takes the ‘no law’ option off the table.
Catalogue of artcles related to the NGO Law
Hun Sen Calls for More Talks on NGO Law
Elizabeth Becker/AKP exchange
Silencing Cambodia's Honest Brokers By ELIZABETH BECKER
AKP: Commentary: Elizabeth Becker and the Campaign to Put NGOs above the Law
Response To Anonymous Critique by Elizabeth Becker

The King, King Father and Queen Mother on the occasion of the 90/20 celebration.

90/20 King Father Sihanouk celebrated his 90th birthday and 20-year anniversary of returning to Cambodia. A truly historic occasion.
Birthday of King Father Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia

Mu Sochea proves to be a continuing force, making her mark (and political hay) taking a hands-on approach and focusing on issues that directly affect the poor and disadvantaged such as land grabbing and maid trafficking. Like I said last year, keep an eye on this lady, especially in the coming election year. She’s going places.

Kristof Tweets In November Nicholas Kristof parachuted in to Anlong Veng to tweet a brothel raid and promote his favorite anti-trafficking NGO in Cambodia. His dramatic tweeting of the raid probably did more to raise public awareness of his questionable ethics in the reporting of sex trafficking than anything he has done since purchasing two underage girls in Cambodia in 2005.
Nick Kristof to the rescue!
Nick Kristof Live Tweets a Raid on an Underage Brothel – And Not Everyone is Thrilled
Fighting back, one brothel raid at a time
A human trafficker defends Cambodian sweatshops
Be Aware: Nick Kristof’s Anti-Politics

Laos threatens to construct the first hydropower dam on the Lower Mekong.
Laos' Mekong Xayaburi dam plan delayed again

@Faineg Tweets KR trial The KR trials continue under a darkening cloud of criticism from disparate quarters. Growing feelings that the trials may be fundamentally flawed, talk of UN incompetence, accusations of government interference, a judge resigned, acrimony between the government and UN, and that's just the now of it. Case 002 is underway. Nuon Chea (Brother #2) has been on the stand and has put on quite a show, well-worth a hundred million, see-sawing between denying knowledge and blaming Vietnam. In an innovative and powerful use of Twitter, Faine Greenwood, aka @faineg, (and others more sporadically,) has been live tweeting the proceedings from the courtroom. This is journalism. ( Recently @KRT_Monitor has taken up the blow by blow.)

Plane to Sihanoukville Cambodia Angkor Air began regular flights between Siem Reap and Sihanoukville in December. If memory serves, this is the first regular air service to Sihanoukville since Royal Air Cambodge stopped flying to Sihanoukville in late 1997…except for PMT’s short-lived ill-fated venture on the same route a few years back. 

Tourism grows and grows At year’s end the government announced that tourist arrivals were up 14% over last year, Vietnamese leading the way. Tuk-tuk drivers in Siem Reap complain that the increasing numbers of Asian tourists, often on packages, is driving down local transport prices. Still, Siem Reap is booming and some of it is spilling off to Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh.
Cambodia's foreign tourist arrivals up 14% in 2011

Gold Tower 42, The Phnom Penh Tower and The OCIC Tower

Phnom Penh towers At the site of the old Ministry of Tourism, Phnom Penh's second highrise after the OCIC Tower (Canadia Tower,) the new Phnom Penh Tower on Monivong Blvd, was completed and opened for business. Stalled project Gold Tower 42 (aka Grey Tower 31, aka Bassac Thmey) has been idle now for 15 months.

The Riel The Cambodian Riel held its own against the US dollar throughout the year, varying only about +/-50 Riel over the course of the year, beginning 2011 at about 4055KHR = US$1 and finishing around 4075KHR = US$1.

New bridge to Koh Pos, Sihanoukville, 2/11. Construction is now complete.

Outrage In the final week of the year Cambodia publicly soiled itself and walked around stinking of shit in its pants all week after pardoning and releasing convicted Russian pedophile Alexander Trofimov. Alexi first arrived in Cambodia heading up a high-profile US$300,000,000 Koh Pos investment project before being caught diddling dozens of prepubescent girls in Sihanoukville in 2007. His subsequent handling by the Cambodian judiciary was riddled with irregularities and he had served only a fraction of his original sentence before being freed by royal pardon. Juice speaks. He has since disappeared into Cambodia somewhere, doing what...we can only imagine. After he was released all of the authorities that should have been in-the-know did a Sgt. Schultz style, "I know nothing...nothing!" all denying knowledge of how he got on the pardon list. His former company even denied knowing who he is. Yeah, right.  
Cambodia pardons Russian in paedophile case
Phnom Penh Post: Petition to deport pedophile Alexander Trofimov

Ten Cambodia Tweeps to Follow
khmerbird
peter_k440
faineg
nate_thayer
dickonverey
HunSensEye
ChrisInCambo
SimOliver
MuSochua
mybigfatface
JaredsCambodia

Cambodia News and Info on Twitter
phnompenhpost
voakhmer
tweetcambodia
cambopedia
cambodianews
Canby_Cambodia
USEmbPhnomPenh
EyeOnCambodia
KRT_Monitor

New Cambodia Blogs of Note
Faine Opinines
Nate Thayer