October, 2012

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Posted by: | Posted on: October 31, 2012

Summary of 21st Anniversary of Paris Peace Agreement

Op-Ed: KC-YAA

This year is the third year Khmer-Canadian Youth Association celebrated the anniversary of Paris Peace Agreement (PPA). This year, the theme focused on “How peace mean to us? And how we can build peace?”

Many speakers who come from various disciplines and different backgrounds shed us light and gave us great input on this Peace Commemoration.

Sophan who is the president of the Youth Association and chair of the PPA Commemoration committee stressed on the importance of PPA comparing to the great civilization of the Angkor Era. He also valued the PPA as the renaissance of Cambodia. Further to his statement, the Youth will keep organize the Peace Commemoration annually to provide public with right understanding and help build peace together collectively. This concerted effort will not only ensure that Cambodia can get fruition from the PPA, the world will also share this peace process.

MP Wayne Cao who is the member of parliament of Alberta government gave us a great importance on the decline of two countries who signed the PPA but Cambodia is still alive. The Russia union and Yugoslavia have been split, but he observed that Cambodia has been stronger by the PPA. He emphasized that the cold war has been died while the connectivity of people in the world has become more visible. On his sight back home of birth in Vietnam, Mr. Wayne Cao reflected on his life and his friend which both have born in the same location but made a living in different situation of political circumstance and economic development. Mr. Wayne highly appreciated the Peace Commemoration and he will join this celebration in years to come.

Ms. Janyce Konkin who has extensively worked in Cambodia for “Initiative for Change” described the importance of building peace within individual first before expanding it to others such as family, community, nation and the world. In this context, Janyce shed us insight on both practical knowledge and academic theory. As her MA major focused on peace research, her conclusion wholly rests on individuals who must initiate peace within themselves first before outreaching to others. But she accepted the original interdependent of inside peace affects outside peace, and outside peace also affects inside peace. Her theory is not different from that of Lord Buddha and late Cambodian monk Maha Ghosananda. For the PPA, according to Janyce, it is a good instrument for peace development in Cambodia.

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Posted by: | Posted on: October 26, 2012

Lim Pisith: an inspiring young man of Cambodia

While Cambodian people around the world are mourning and remembering their august King Somdach Preah Norodom Sihanouk who passed away at the age of 90 on 15 October 2012, younger Cambodian generations are shocked by the death of Lim Pisith who championed to anchor Cambodian flag on the top of Himalaya mountain. Pisith came back to Cambodia with different body but his heart, bone and spirit are still Pisith, a farmer boy of Cambodia who is not defeated by the Shangri-La or a Himalayan Utopia of the world. He is among those champions of the highest top of deadly adventuring. In the pictures, his mother is hugging Pisith with love and sorrow and his remains will be altered at his hometown of Srok Puok, Siem Reap. Pisith will be missed by many of his friends and Cambodian compatriots.

May he rest in peace and realize the challenges of life Buddha taught, Nibbana.

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Posted by: | Posted on: October 16, 2012

For sincere condolence, love and shared responsibility of Cambodian nation: special collection of news outlets regarding Somdech Ta King Norodom Sihanouk

For sincere condolence, love and shared responsibility of Cambodian nation: special collection of news outlets regarding Somdech Ta King Norodom Sihanouk

Cambodia’s Mercurial Former King, Norodom Sihanouk, Dies at 89

Cambodia’s former King Norodom Sihanouk greets his subjects at the annual crop-planting ceremony outside the royal palace in Phnom Penh on April 30, 2002 (Chor Sokunthea / Files / Reuters)
Cambodia’s former King Norodom Sihanouk, pictured in July 1941 (AP)
The former monarch, who died Monday in Beijing at 89, was at various times a playboy prince, a teenage King, an independence leader, an elected Prime Minister, an exile and, later, a peace negotiator
By Kay Johnson | October 15, 2012
Time Magazine (USA)
In the end, he couldn’t script a happy ending for Cambodia.
Filmmaking was a favorite hobby of Cambodia’s former King Norodom Sihanouk, and in his long, extraordinary life, he played enough roles to fill a Hollywood epic. The former monarch, who died Monday in Beijing at 89, was at various times a playboy prince, a teenage King, an independence leader, an elected Prime Minister, an exile and, later, a peace negotiator. Along the way, he found time to compose jazz tunes, throw champagne-soaked soirées and rub shoulders with the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru, Charles de Gaulle, Mao Zedong, Jacqueline Kennedy, Sukarno and Kim Il Sung. The part he loved to play most, though, was that of Samdech Euv, or Papa King, to the Cambodian people, known as the Khmer. “My people love and admire me and respect me so very much,” he once said. “They continue to believe I am a god-king.”
Though he cast himself as heroic, Sihanouk, like the country he once led and long symbolized, was most defined by tragedy. His carefully cultivated status as a benevolent and glamorous ruler wasmarred by his cooperation with the murderous Khmer Rouge, whose “killing fields” regime of the 1970s left 1.7 million dead. It was a decision that cost him dearly: he himself was held prisoner by the Khmer Rouge, who killed five of his 14 children. His passing is a reminder of a long-past era when Southeast Asia, not Afghanistan and Pakistan, was the focus of a protracted U.S. war. During the Vietnam War, Cambodia was carpet bombed by the Nixon Administration trying to root out “safe havens” across the border, an eerie precursor to today’s drone campaign in northwestern Pakistan.
The mercurial Sihanouk was a man of contradictions — an avowed Cambodian patriot who wrote mostly in French, a man who sought peace for his people, but whose decisions seemed to lead them, time and again, to disaster. “Sihanouk was certainly one of the most interesting leaders of the 20th century,” said Milton Osborne, author of the critical biography Sihanouk: Prince of Light, Prince of Darkness. “But I wouldn’t say he was one of the best leaders.”

Posted by: | Posted on: October 14, 2012

Former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk passes away

 Beings eventually disappear from this earth, no one is exceptional. Three characteristics Buddha exposed “Anica = impermanence, Dhukkha=decaying and Anatta=non-substantial, are omnipresently existing and no one can resist these natural forces. I am sad to hear that our Somdach Ta Norodom Sihanouk passed away at Beijing on 15 October 2012 at 2:25 am today. Of course, there are different views from Cambodians and non-Cambodians regarding the political leadership of King Norodom Sihanouk, but for me who have closely followed all political movements in Cambodia, the post Cold War positioned King Norodom Sihanouk and other world leaders at a critical angle in governing their country. 

I am very sorry for one thing that our King Ta should not be undone is to be a witness at the current Khmer Rouge Tribunal.

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 15 Kyodo – Former King Norodom Sihanouk passed away in Beijing early Monday morning, government officials said. He was 89.
Nhiek Bunchhay, deputy prime minister and secretary general of royalist FUNCINPEC Party told Kyodo News that King Norodom Sihanouk who is in Beijing for medical check-up died of heart attack early Monday morning.
“I have just received information from Beijing and that I was told that His Majesty (the former King Sihanouk), he had heart problem and was sent to hospital where he passed away there,“ Nhiek Bunchhay said.
Prince Sisowath Thomico, personal assistant to Sihanouk told Kyodo News, “It is true that His Majesty passed away by heart attack in Beijing at 2:25 am (Beijing time),“ he said.
“Because of his heart is weak that is why His Majesty continued to stay in Beijing for treatment since January this year,“ he added.