Deaf Internet

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This month I got one of the most beautiful evidences of the importance of the internet in our time and how it is about inclusion. New technologies are changing the human history and it is not created for the power and enjoyment of minoritarian groups, but information and communication technologies are a human patrimony we must promote to reduce the global digital gap. 

Minimum wage in Cambodia

The minimum wage in Cambodia has evolved since 2010 from 61 to 66 US dollars for garment and footwear workers, while other industries do not have an established minimum wage, according to different sources. In October 2010 the minimum wage was 61 USD. According to the archive of the US government, in November 2011 ‘to help workers meet basic needs like health care, the government awarded a USD 5 per month pay raise starting in January 2012, thus bringing the minimum monthly wage up to USD 66,’ it says. The labor code 2007 amended ordered a night shift wage of 130 percent of daytime wages. Garment factories give also a 5US health allowance. Please see this source for more details about legislation on minimum wages in Cambodia.

(Information updated on 4 September 2012)

Japanese Aikido’s master to open club in Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville. Japanese Aikido’s master Kaneko Shinichi, a volunteer based in Cambodia, will give a demonstration of this Japanese martial art at the Khmer University of Technology and Management, KUTM, of the city port. Aikido means the Way of Unifying Life Energy and it is developed as a practice to self-defense and protection of others from attackers. Pradal Srey, the Cambodian martial arts, is widely practiced in the country, although some foreigner martial arts like Taekwondo are present in the Cambodian post-Khmer Rouge era. In Sihanoukville, a city without an authentic sport vocation, there is already a Taekwondo club leaded by Korean Christian groups at the Leu Market. Kaneko Shinichi is going to do his opening Aikido demonstration this Sunday at 9 AM to promote the participation of young people at his lessons with a cheap fee: 20,000 riels for Cambodians, 60,000 riels for foreigners and free for persons coming from KUTM or NGO schools. Cambodians can attend Aikido lessons on Wednesdays at 16:00, 17:00, 18:00 and 19:00, foreigners on Fridays at 16:00, 17:00, 18:00 and 19:00 and KUTM students and NGOs on Sundays at 8:00 and 9:30. Number phone for more information 012.21.67.20 and 017.95.65.85.

Planning a major event

Looking now for scapegoats of the Koh Pich tragedy will not lead to peace at all. If guilty, all of us. Education, prevention and social discipline are elements that do not come out from night to morning. We should remember that Cambodia is a developing country and that we are three decades away from the nightmare of brutality and violence. The Koh Pich tragedy is a historical and sad lesson, but we all should concentrate now in avoiding the next tragedy. To do so, we must work in the formation of a safe mentality that is in general lacking if we just see for example how people drive a car or a motorbike in Cambodia. How to plan a major event? Let’s see.

The relic of Don Bosco will cross the former Khmer refugee camps this Thursday

Last November 17 a curious guest arrived by plane from Seoul to Bangkok and visited all the Don Bosco schools in the Southeast Asian kingdom where the Salesian educational community has been working for underprivileged children and youth since the 1930s.

The ‘Anne Frank’ of Cambodia?

For months ago I find it most of the time published in any visible page of The Cambodia Daily, full color and that strain comparison: The Cambodian Anne Frank.Watching the movie of Rithy Panh or reading the book of Elizabeth Becker, Bophana, A Cambodian Tragedy, you understand that it is the making of a character.

The prison of Siem Reap

I thought that the visit was going to be to a gloomy place. A prison is not properly the place you dream to be. However, countries must work to make it not a lovely place, but rather a real educational place. This morning I went with three teachers to visit the Siem Reap prison. Lichado promotes the idea that Don Bosco creates a technical program inside it as we have in the Sihanoukville’s prison. We got an appointment with the prison director at 8 AM. Going to the prison when most people are visiting the Angkorian temples is already very original in us. But we came to this country to open the way of hope for young people without hope.

A Word on the Meaning of “Free Education” And the Culture of Aid Dependency

There is a fact that causes some conflicts for some friends when they know that our Don Bosco Technical Schools in Cambodia charge the students with a monthly fee. Why do you say that it is ‘free education‘ when you charge the students?

It is necessary to clarify this element before it reaches confusions.

‘NGO’ Tourism, a way to a most direct help

How to let the coins on the right hand

Surely this would be regarded as a new concept: “NGO Tourism.” And maybe this will be the first article – and even it could be the last, to mention such a concept. However, there are many types of tourism: adventure, eco-tourism, geo-tourism, medical, rural, sex and even space tourism. I propose then to talk about “NGO Tourism”, its benefits and limits.