Through the Expatriate World

Julien Faliu, the creator of Expat blog. In seven year, his network has gathered more than 420 thousand expatriates from around the world, which 2 thousand are in Cambodia. Photo courtesy.

Since ever, there have been expatriates in all countries and cultures. However, it is in our century, the time of globalization and the Digital Era where we can see an increase of the Expatriate Experience. Different to migrants – though the limit among both concepts might be thin – expatriates refer to skillful persons doing a job or service in foreign nations. It applies to persons contracted by a company to do a specif work, volunteers in humanitarian organizations, personnel in consulates and embassies, travelers willing to settle in a country or region and many others.

Good wishes during the Khmer New Year 2556

It is the first week of the Cambodian year 2556. Unlike Thailand that uses the Theravada Buddhist calendar every where, from the press to official documents, Cambodia seems more attach to the Gregorian Christian calendar. During the new year eve – last April 13 – I got several messages wishing a new Khmer year 2012! 

From building Cambodia to build ASEAN Economic Community, AEC

NagaWorld, Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Everybody involved in the development and reconstruction of Cambodia, should be reading and studying by now the Statement of the 20th ASEAN Summit hold in Phnom Penh on April 3 and 4. Here you can retrieve the full document. By sure, it will be the inspiration of many policy makers in the country as it is clearly declared : ‘We also agreed to work together based on the priorities to accelerate the building of the ASEAN Community by 2015 and to ensure the achievements of the ASEAN Community beyond 2015‘ (No. 2) It is, therefore, not only the concern of officials and the financial sector, but in a very special way, it must concern all Cambodian sectors, especially education, organizations working for human rights, environment protection, labor and many others. The coming three years must be followed with interest of how a country with so high levels of poverty and other problems, would contribute to the creation of a body such as AEC and how our people will join it.

Digital volunteers?

This week we were reflecting about volunteer work that, most of the time, means to move from your own country or region and spend time far from home in another culture. This morning of Saturday I had with my students of communication a video conference offered by a Colombian photojournalist from Medellín, Diego Andrés Sánchez-Alzate. He made a valuable introduction to photography and photojournalism for those who love it, by showing his own works on Flicker. Photography is a composition and a story told by images, colors, lights and textures, he mentioned, while photojournalism is a careful attention to events. Thanks to the Skype, 18 Khmer students of communication could enjoy the exposition of a young Colombian journalist, far from them more than 18 thousand kilometers (11 thousand miles.) Diego offered his conference, then it is also a great way to be a volunteer online. Just you need a computer, Internet connection, someone ready to translate and the will to share with other communities in any corner of the planet.

Related articles

• Photojournalism Goes Social [infographic] (thetechscoop.net)

How to become a volunteer in Cambodia

There are many people interested in becoming a volunteer. Frankly, there are also many misconceptions about volunteering. You can find online guides of how to become a volunteer. There also well established and big organizations offering such opportunity in a very systematic process like the United Nations or middle organizations. I will not build here an online guide, but I will share my experience of years in a country like Cambodia, so famous for its several humanitarian organizations and volunteers.

Indian replica of Angkor Wat

India is building a replica of Angor Wat. There’s nothing to fear for our original Cambodian Angkor Wat at all. Even if the replica is set to be biggest than ours, the Patna Angkor Naga will be, surely, so anonymous to many as the 30 replicas of the Tower Eiffel or the numberless replicas of the Statue of the Liberty. See in this forum the Chinese Wall’s replicas too with amazing photos. Now well, the Mahavir Mandir Trust, an organization known in the Bihar State for the construction of hospitals and religious compounds, is the responsible of the ambitions work. It will take about ten years – Angkor Wat took about 30 during the 12th century – and it will cost 20 million US dollars !!!   It will be located 40 kilometers outside Patna. It is understandable that a country where Hindu majority would like ‘to have’ the biggest Hindu complex of the world, that it’s not in India, but in Cambodia ! Anyway, Angkor Wat or Angkor Nagar was dedicated to Vishnu, but it was converted to Buddhism some centuries after. What it cannot be understood is to spend 20 million US dollars for a replica in a country with so big social gap as India.

Update: Here in Asia Times a good development of the growing discussion. A very good description with some curious reactions like the one of a university students at Phnom Penh worry for the lost of tourism if the replica is made – it seems that for this boy Angkor Wat is just a tourist attraction like Disneyland!!! -, the optimistic perspective of Sombo Manara, the deputy chairman of the history department at the Royal University of Phnom Penh, who says that ‘before we thought that all culture – like Brahmanism and Buddhism – came from India to Cambodia. But now why don’t we feel happy that our Cambodian culture is spreading back to India?’ and the funny answer of Acharya Kishore Kunal, the Mahavir Mandir Trust’s secretary, who never has come to Cambodia, who said that he is ‘slightly scared‘ to come because ‘some people [in Cambodia] want to throw shoes on me…’ Who!!! Please…

What Cambodians say about it? I asked my students to let a comment in our Facebook group – mostly in Khmer – about the news and we got the following reactions:

Lonely… ‘Khmer’

Hua Hin. Visiting ‘Amazing Thailand‘ from the ‘Kingdom of Wonders.’ I got the 2010′s edition of Lonely Planet about Thailand (13th edition, January 2010) to read in my 12 hours bus travel from Sihanoukville to Bangkok. I have to recognize that I admire the work of Lonely Planet. It is real original and well documented. Then it is made upon the research of writers living or working in the country. The history of Thailand, according with this 2010 edition (p. 29-40), is a complete resume. I noticed only a great absent: Cambodia. Actually, it is a pity that the use of references is poor in the article. It is  said, for example, that a ‘modern linguistic theory and archaeological evidence‘  - which ones? – ‘suggest that the first true agriculturists in the world, perhaps also the first metal workers, spoke an early form of Thai and lived in what we know today as Thailand (p. 29).’ How can Lonely Planet say it? From where this conclusion came? 

Night of Music during the 4th Kep Trade Fair Concert 2011

Kep City. The popular Cambodian King of Pop, Preap Sovath, performs during the 4th Kep Trade Fair Concert 2011 tonight. It is the third year that Preap Sovath participates in the annual program in the growing tourist spot. The Cambodian female singers Kim Nisa and Pich Sophear and the popular comedian Peak Mi, were on the stage among other artists. The Fair ends tomorrow with more cultural programs and the Boat Festival.

Kep Water Festival

Kep City. A boat returns to the dock in Kep this afternoon after the race of the local Water Festival (properly translated as ‘Boats Festival’) this afternoon. Kep, the smallest Cambodian province at the southeast of the country, is already a tourist destination. This evening is expected the arrival of the popular Cambodian king of pop, Preap Sovath.

Soccer at the sea side

Kep City. A soccer game between the teams of Sihanoukville and Kep was one f the ways to celebrate Christmas at the Don Bosco Vocational Center on December 25 afternoon. The game ended in a draw and went to penalties that gave the victory to Kep. The technical school invites groups of Kep and Kompot to challenge its soccer and volleyball teams, trained currently by Italian-Belgian coach Cassale. Contact the administration for any possible schedule. In January there is a program of rhythmic gymnastics for the afternoon.

The mysterious object that fall on Thai-Cambodian border could be a satellite debris

Bangkok. The unidentified object that fall on the Sisaket Province, bordering Cambodia, could be a satellite debris, declared General Yutthasak Sasiprapa, Thai Defense Minister, reported by MCOT News. On Thursday, December 22 a mysterious object fell from the sky over Srisaket, a Thai village near the Cambodian territory in an empty farm. The noise produced the panic of the villagers that though it was another Thai-Khmer military clash. The Thai police went for inspection and concluded that it could be the part of an aircraft, but the identity still unknown. Military of both countries denied any fire of artillery or gunfire near the border. The Thai Ministry of Defense confirmed that it is likely the pieces of a satellite, probably belonging to ASEAN. The satellite did not burn after it enters to the earth, said the report. The Suranaree Thai airspace forces declared also that there were not shooting over any aircraft. Investigations are under way.

Cambodian Christmas boom

One of my friends wrote to me an email from Phnom Penh:

‘This is great stuff BUT it’s strange to me why so much emphasis is placed on a Christian holiday in a supposedly Buddhist country.  When did this surge of celebrating Christmas (the birth of Christ) become popular in Sihanoukville? Was there an effort from the tourism ministry to promote the westerners holiday in Sihanoukville and Siem Reap? In the past there was no interest.’

It is true that this year the preparations for Christmas has been especially published in Siem Reap and Sihanoukville. Christmas concerts and festivals, Christmas gatherings in hotels and Christmas neon lights everywhere as it were the most Western country. The reply to this question is: all those stuff are not Christmas as the birth of Christ of course. All those stuff are far from the real Christmas Spirit. The goal is, evidently, to attract Western tourism and it means dollars and euros… It is therefore a business. By sure, most of those Cambodians preparing Christmas parties, do not have the most single idea of what they are celebrating or saying when they say ‘Merry Christmas’ or, as some students of mine write ‘Happy Merry Christmas.’

Don’t forget men

Still a lot to do in the protection of women’s rights in Cambodia. In many labor cases, women continue to get less salaries than men. Sexual violence against girls and women does not see to stop: domestic violence, rape, child abuse, child prostitution, human traffic… The current problem of Cambodian maids in Malaysia that face untold human rights abuses, has not yet a satisfactory solution. Husbands that abandon their wives and children to let them without social protection plus the big number of women living under poverty. 

Italian Ice-cream in Phnom Penh

You can find ice-cream almost everywhere in the Kingdom of Wonders. However, there is only a place in Phnom Penh with an authentic homemade ice-cream. Definitely, the ice-cream experts are in Turin (Italy), but some of them have moved to Cambodia under the mission to support education for the poor with Don Bosco.

The kid of migrant workers feeding from a cow

‘Um Oeung said Friday the cow doesn’t mind the boy suckling but he is worried about his grandson’s health if he continues.’ (AP)

Well, actually the boy is going to grow healthy. Milk by itself has sterilizing elements. Cambodian children should drink more milk and its derivations. The boy is just giving a good example. The other problem is the situation of migrant workers. Hopefully, this boy will have opportunities for education and a healthy environment. See the story from The Associated Press here…

NGOs, let’s promote austerity

Kep City. Definitively, it is the time to promote the value of a austerity in Cambodia. It would be expected that a country that has suffered terrible times of poverty, violence, humiliation and hate, would produce people with a great sense of austerity. Reading the history of a Post-II World War Europe, we understand what it means. Everybody was involved in reducing the amount of benefits and spending in order to reduce debt. After the Japanese earthquake, Tsunami and nuclear accident, we all admired the Japanese attitude to reduce spending and keep things like electricity. It became like a natural behavior, thinking always in the common good, without any imposition. No for Cambodia. Social inequality grows, while some privileged groups show up with expensive cars, to say just one thing, which cost could be enough to improve several rural schools. Not everybody, of course, but it is a reality easy to see on the roads. But it is more astonishing the behavior of certain NGOs behaving exactly in the same way.

Queen Beatrix gave medal to director of the Don Bosco schools

Amsterdam. The director of the Don Bosco schools and Children Fund in Cambodia, Dutch Fr. John Visser, 78, was honored by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands with the Medal as Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau. Fr. Visser received the honor from the hands of the Queen on August 31 for his commitment and work for education to unprivileged children and youth in Thailand and Cambodia. The founder of the Don Bosco Foundation of Cambodia with Italian Br. Roberto Panetto, came to Thailand in 1956 and was involved in the development of technical schools in poor provinces of that country. In 1992 he was about to go in pension, when the Order of the Salesians of Don Bosco asked him to move to Cambodia to answer the request of the government to help Cambodian youth with technical schools. Since then, Fr. John Visser has opened with the support of a network of benefactors, mostly from the Netherlands, Italy and US, technical schools in Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, Battambang and Poipet and several literacy centers in different provinces. The Don Bosco Children Fund, also his creation in Thailand, has attended more than 40 thousand Cambodian children since 1993, helping them to return to school. Currently, the DBFC is developing the Don Bosco Vocational Center of Kep and it accepted an invitation of the governor of Stung Treng to open a technical school in that northern province of the Kingdom.