Somaly Mam by Angelina Jolie

Somaly Mam survived the notorious Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and decided to stand up and deal with problems left behind by the genocide. She wrote books, set up Somaly Mam foundation, and started a non-profit organization called AFESIP to work with local authority to raid brothels and reintegrate the trafficked women into society. Looking into her life, we can see how Cambodians fight for their justice and their right to live freely and happily. To read more, here are the links to Somaly Mam Foundation and Wiki's introduction of Ms. Mam.

Also worth mentioning is that Angelina Jolie discussed about Somaly Mam's story in her column in Time magazine. Read the article here.

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The Future of Phnom Penh

Remember the tall buildings we saw in our second visit to Phnom Penh this summer? It seems that there are some people with even wilder dreams for the future of Phnom Penh than we do. There are many new construction projects going on in the capital. For me, it is shocking simply to imagine that there will be buildings like these that stand on the land of Phnom Penh (picture on the left). What a big transfermation that will be.

Some may argue that it is a bad thing to turn this city into another modern financial center, destroying all the beauty of its original culture. There are some truth in it; however, let us be realistic for a moment--how can a culture that hardly feeds its own people manage to beat the power of capitalism? In this cause of reducing poverty and transforming countries, developed countries seem to take the lead for the time being.

This new construction plan is still appealing in that it attracts the neccessary foreign capital for Cambodia to continue its development especially in the time of global financial crisis. Nonetheless, let's first wait and see how these all develop and which country has the final word.

Further information

• More information on the construction of the plan
• The credit cruch reaches Phnom Penh somehow - Korea building projects delayed

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"We give you rice and please send your children to school.."

"Four large two-story buildings create a fortress-like setting for the 2,000 students who gather at the flagpole for opening ceremony. In straight lines, the children face the flagpole and listen to morning announcements then, with a sign I miss, move to their classrooms with noisy enthusiasm."

In Phnom Penh, there are schools just like what we have in Hong Kong or mainland China. Small pupils are energetic and naughty; they read English and study math. However, the difference is that the school have to provide rice to families so that they agree to send their to school and that many of the pupils still need to go pick up garbage every day in order for their family to survive.

In HIF's volunteer trip to Cambodia this summer, we have visited the school mentioned in the beginning, a school that is free for the local children and that is funded by a French organization called "For Smile of Child". The founders Christian and Marie-France des Pallieres were a couple who retired from IBM in France. Their school probably is the only chance for those little children to get education, and they said that they enjoy doing it because they love to watch those children grow and have the chance to lead a better life.

However, there are still problems with the funding. They have to spend millions a year in order to support the school to run. When those children grow up, some of them definitely will come back to support the school, but might all the money run out before that actually happen?

I believe this is a common problem faced by most of the charities that rely on donation to run their projects. As we continue to seek funding and improve the quality of education in Cambodia, may the solution lie in other field like mutual benefit business cooperation, through which Cambodian people are not only the object of help but also the people who can contribute to bring profit for business? Perhaps business can create wonder other than being the evil that blind people only to see money and power? But how we can make the change?

Further reading

• National Geographic on For Smile of Child
• A foreign reporter experienced An Ordinary Day at the school
• For Smile of Child website (in French)
• Other people's visit to the school
  
• See the garbage mountain that is near the school and that supports 2000 people's lives there (See picture on the left - credit to Thumbnails)

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World Bank Report on Cambodia

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People in focus: John Vink

John Vink - a photojournalist working on humanity issues in Cambodia, won W. Eugene Smith Award in Humanistic Photography for "Waters from Sahel".

His work touches on issues including

• khmer rouge
  
  • the khmer rouge trail
    
• land issues

Explore his websites to enjoy the visual journey to Cambodia.

p.s. excerpt from one of his interview

Wayne: Why has it been so important for you to cover the “powerless and poor?” Why refugees in particular? From where does that sense of justice and injustice stem in you?

John: Why do you climb a mountain? Because it’s there… I must say I never understood why people talk about well-known people. They have a voice already. So why add more noise? Too much information becomes noise. I never understood (or rather: wanted to accept) the fact that all the media focus on the same topic at the same time. When all the media went to Rwanda, I went to Angola. World news… What is that? Whose world are we talking about? Do you really believe the guy in Cambodia who just got kicked out of the shack he has been living in for the last ten years gives a 100 Riel note about Israel flattening parts of Beyrouth? Is a Hezbollah more important than an Israeli or a Phnom Penh slum dweller? I guess it depends on where the center of your world is. When I look at the Cambodian news, Cambodia is in the middle of the map (not that all Cambodians give a shit about the slum dweller next door mind you)…

I always understood the function of being a photojournalist as a go-between, shuttling between one group of people and another to try and explain how the others are faring. It is a fairly simple job in fact: you identify a group, go there, look around, sniff around, listen, take pictures which try to convey what you saw, smelled, heard, and bring it back to others who don’t have the opportunity of going there. Personally, as a matter of putting the sound balance right, I would go to those groups which have more difficulties in having their voice heard (when the voice is faint it is more interesting for that exact reason: why is it that faint?). Refugees have less voice than others. They are pawns. Minorities have less voice. Victims have less voice. If they had a loud voice (if they were allowed to have a loud voice) they would not be a victim. Power is about shutting up the voice of the others. So it goes like this: you have a faint voice, I’ll try and talk about you. You have a loud voice: I heard you already and I am not interested in more…

I guess it has to do with my parents who taught me to be just, not to cheat, not to lie, and to shut up when the adults are talking…

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A Brief Recall of the Cambodian Genocide

Recently, the CNN has interviewed a survivor of the genocidal regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

According to Van Nath, the survivor, he was brought to S-21 and was kept in a room packed with 50 other inmates, shackled together and forced to lie down. He thought he was going to die. All the inmates were not allowed to sit without permission and to talk, not even whispering.

During the interview, Van Nath described how male prisoners were whipped raw, their fingernails were yanked out, they were hogtied to wooden bars. Prison guards mutilated women's genitals, ripped off their nipples with pliers. And worst of all, babies were ripped from their mothers' arms and slaughtered.

For Van Nath himself, he was given electric shock torture at first. Later on, he was asked to paint Pol Pot's picture continusouly after being known that he was one of Cambodia's most prominent painters. He was in the S-21 during the Pol Pot regime, seeing how people were being tortured, such as water torture. Van Nath remembers it as if it were yesterday.

So when Pol Pot finally fell in 1979, Van Nath returned to paint what he had really seen and heard at S-21. He did it as a memorial to the 14,000 who had been tortured and executed in the prison. It's one of the few public reminders of the regime's crimes.

Please click here to watch the interview.

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The Road Not Taken ...

your smiles give us power to move on...

sometimes, we don't need to do much to show our care and love...

friends, let's keep dreaming dreaming dreaming!

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How long will it take? Will it be too late?

Almost every Cambodian family was emotionally scarred by Khmer Rouge rule between 1975 and 1979. The Documentation Centre of Cambodia, a genocide-research institute, estimated that at least 1.7m people died from execution, starvation and other unnatural causes under the Khmer Rouge - more than 20% of the population at the time.

In 2004, a special Khmer Rouge tribunal backed by the UN was finally established. In early 2005, despite the death of several key Khmer Rouge figures, including Pol Pot, at least six surviving senior leaders were expected to be put on trial in the capital Phnom Penh.

In Jul 2007, Kang Kek Ieu, also known as Duch, aged 66, was finally in charge of the notorious S21 jail in the country's capital, Phnom Penh. He was the first Khmer Rouge leader being charged in Cambodia. By charging Duch, the judges were sending out a clear message that the special courts were operational and moving more quickly than many people expected.

In Sept 2007, Nuon Chea, known as 'Brother Number Two" as he was second in command to Pol Pot, was arrested and charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity. Ieng Sary, aged 74, known as "Brother Number Three", was the third person to be arrested by the tribunal in Nov 2007.

It seems that things are going on track. But the progress has been very slow. These leaders are getting old, how long can they wait? Pol Pot, the founder and leader of the Khmer Rouge, died in a camp along the border with Thailand in 1998. Other key figures have also died. Ta Mok - the regime's military commander and one of Pol Pot's most ruthless henchmen - died in July 2006.

As time goes on, some people are beginning to question whether it is too late to achieve a proper sense of justice for the Cambodian people.

Will it be too late?

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Be The Change!

CNN has equipped a group of volunteers with cameras, laptops and a brand new Web site. They will blog and post videos of their lives and new jobs as they fan out across three continents for the next 12 months.

Meanwhile, there are 6 participants in the programme. One of them is now stationing in BATTAMBANG in Cambodia! Her name is Cassie Phillips. She is going to share her stories in Cambodia by videos and articles. Please go to have a look when you are free.

WE ARE NOT ALONE!

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