June, 2012
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No place like home: Can progress and justice co-exist in Cambodia, a country where development leaves a trail of destruction?
No place like home: Can progress and justice co-exist in Cambodia, a country where development leaves a trail of destruction?
For years, Cambodia’s Boeung Kak Lake has been the centre of a David-and-Goliath battle between its residents and the government. Thousands of residents have been forcibly evicted; their homes destroyed for nominal compensation in the name of developing prime real estate in the capital, Phnom Penh.
Locals have cried foul since authorities awarded a 99-year lease to Shukaku Inc – owned by Senator Lao Meng Khin – in 2007 to develop the area, which is home to some 4,000 families. Over the years, villagers who resisted eviction were harassed by security forces and even thugs, often resulting in violent clashes. Those who accepted relocation found themselves in remote areas lacking basic amenities.
The remaining residents witnessed bulldozers turn their neighbourhood into a construction site, as the once scenic lake was filled to make space for a high-end residential and commercial area.
In August 2011, the World Bank halted funding for Cambodia in reaction to the conflict. Under pressure, Prime Minister Hun Sen ordered 12.44 hectares of Boeung Kak to be allocated to the remaining families, who were to receive land titles. By then, fewer than 800 families were left.
But there is a sting in the tail – 94 families among them are ineligible for the titles due to the unclear borders of the segmented area. To muddy the waters, Senator Lao’s name appears more than 20 times in a list of title applicants.
The community says corrupt officials are trying to make money from land allocated to them. It remains united to fight for those who have been excluded from the list.
101 East reporter Chan Tau Chou covered the issue in 2008 when the lake housed a bustling community. He returns to see the remaining people of Boeung Kak face their stiffest challenge yet – to keep their homes as authorities crack down even more violently on protests.
In a country where the trail of development leaves behind a trail of destruction, Boeung Kak turns out to be just the tip of the iceberg. Can development and justice co-exist in Cambodia?
The real pain of a King is the pain of his subjects – Jayavarman VII
Cambodia’s Orphan Business
People & Power goes undercover to reveal how ‘voluntourism’ could be fuelling the exploitation of Cambodian children.
Between the 1970s and 1990s, Cambodia was ravaged by civil war. Since its return to peace there has been a boom in tourism with over two million visitors every year. Keen to help this war-torn country, increasing numbers of tourists are now also working as volunteers. Most come with the very best of intentions – to work in schools and orphanages, filling a gap left by a lack of development funding.
But, inadvertently, well-intentioned volunteers have helped to create a surge in the number of residential care homes as impoverished parents are tempted into giving up their children in response to promises of a Western-style upbringing and education. Despite a period of prosperity in the country, the number of children in orphanages has more than doubled in the past decade, and over 70 per cent of the estimated 10,000 ‘orphans’ have at least one living parent.
And perhaps most disturbingly, stories have emerged that Cambodian children are being exploited by some of the companies organising the volunteers or running the orphanages.
Posted in Culture, Economics, Education, Researches, Social | Comments Off on Cambodia’s Orphan Business
Tags: Al Jazeera
CAMBODIA: Democrats must become a credible alternative to stop Hun Sen and the CPP
This culture maintains law and order and protects rulers (Sdech phaen dei, or King of the Earth) and their thrones. Despite the arrival of Buddhism, a belief system that preaches individual salvation, Khmers primary devotion was to the god kings. In such circumstances, the “good” karma of Buddhism is perverted to become not an active choice but a passive compliance with the old to avoid “bad” karma.This culture imbued in Khmer mentality the concepts of king-subjects and lord-slaves, and built the Khmer society on class, rank, role relationships based on the superior-inferior, master-servant, patron-client, leader-follower precepts, as known today. Any regime in power — monarchical, republican, communist, authoritarian – benefits from this culture and mentality. Education is the remedy.
AHRC-ETC-017-2012
June 15, 2012
Cambodians, like many other people, say they hate politics. Yet, politics has been practiced since human beings began living and working together. People organized and made decisions that would affect the collectivity. In the words of a professor of politics: “Between the cradle and the grave, we live our lives in the midst of politics.” It is “part and parcel of nearly all human interactions.” Politics exists everywhere.
Posted in Culture, Economics, Education, Politics, Researches, Social | Comments Off on CAMBODIA: Democrats must become a credible alternative to stop Hun Sen and the CPP
Tags: A. Gaffar Peang-Meth