December 2011
4 posts
Phnom Preuk District, Oda Commune
And so it begins again.
The government has given away 4,000 hectares of land in the Phnom Preuk District, Oda Commune in Battambang. A villager was attacked by the army as he tried to stop the development company officials measuring the villagers plots of land that they are stealing. The disregard for Cambodians basic human rights is so blatant that sometimes it’s...
November 2011
12 posts
Women on the Land II
This week Amnesty International released a a report on land evictions and resistance and the effect it is having on Cambodian women. The report clearly illustrated the vocal and important role women play in the issue. In a lot of provinces it is the women who work the land while men travel to cities for work. Women are left on the front line to fight for their rights when police with ...
Women of the land I
Last week Sochua attended a rally held by the residents of the Borei Keila. The project which has been held up by developers and authorities as an example of successful resettlement - an improvement of living conditions for those resettled - has once again been a scene of violent clashes between the residents and police. The residents were protesting the reneging of the development company...
Fear and Loathing in Phnom Penh
So I have avoided talking about my medical situation on here, mostly because it was a bit too upsetting for me to blog about. But the past few days have given me some peace and being pollyanna and jokey about it really won’t cut it.
My injuries from the accident are more complicated than I was letting on. I have to return to Australia for medical treatment as soon as the swelling has gone...
Occupy my brain
I feel like at least once a day I’m recommending people to read this article, so it’s about time I immortalised it on here. My homeboy Ben Gook managed to write what I think about politics both in Washington, Phnom Penh, Melbourne and the provinces, without swearing or being condescending once! Far better job than me.
So what is the other lesson to take from history?
History...
Health Update
So thankfully, the head pain is definitely subsiding - today I had the best day yet. I don’t want to get too excited as the doctor said it could be up and down but I am hopeful.
The one thing that hasn’t got better is my sense of smell/taste, which since the accident has been zilch. My googling says that this is a condition called Anosmia and can be a result of the head...
The world keeps spinning (so does my head)
So while I’ve been out for the count, Sochua and a number of my colleagues have been to Malaysia to talk with authorities, NGOs and Cambodian workers regarding the drastic situation that has caused the Cambodian government to ban all Cambodian women from traveling to Malaysia to work. What they’ve found is rather alarming. The Phnom Penh Post reports:
The...
Accident
For once I have a good reason for the silence on this blog. I’ve been in hospital the past few days. On Monday night I was pulled off the back of a moving motorcycle. A man also on the back of a motorcycle tried to grab my bag, but in doing so I was pulled off. I managed to wave down traffic in my semi-conscious state and was taken to a hospital by a tuk tuk driver before collapsing at...
Business as usual
Things have been slow on here recently as I’ve been attending to the more dull tasks of life such as writing reports, funding proposals and applying for jobs. Yes all of the fun stuff.
Nothing that makes you want to run to your blog and jot it all down. But I guess full disclosure insists on posting about the dull parts as well as the fun.
Phnom Penh has also been a blur of paperwork as...
WatchAnother teaser of the doco being made about the forced evictions at Boeung Kak Lake - the Cause of Progress. This is the community who have had their houses destroyed and flooded, their livelihoods threatened, their families split up - their leaders attacked.
This movie looks like it’s going to be really powerful and will hopefully bring international focus to what is happening over...
October 2011
6 posts
Trains, planes and autocrats
So what is this kerfuffle with the Australian funded project that has run into some problems over here?
Well, in 2010 work on a nation-wide railway restoration project began in Cambodia. The project aims to repair around 600 kilometres of railway track that was destroyed during the fighting of the civil war. A key step in economic development, the railway plans to link Thailand and...
The Jammed
Right now if you are in Australia you can go to TheAge TV site to stream the Australian film THE JAMMED.
It’s an incredible film that illustrates the violent and corrupt world of sex trafficking in Australia. It’s rad. (And p.s my genius friend Courtney worked on this film.)
So I’ve been sick (again). Not nearly as bad as last week but sick nonetheless. I get results from the medical tests tomorrow. The doctor seemed to be sure I have a parasite but I’m crossing my fingers for heat stroke. The idea of having to go on a month long course of antibiotics in this town of three dollar cocktails does not fill me with joy. PLEASE HEALTH GODS LET A GIRL DRINK...
So I got my protests mixed up yesterday. Today was international habitat day, teachers day is on Wednesday. This morning we went to a morning of speeches and testimonies about the environment, development, climate change and human rights. The messenger band were there and they did a very moving song about land grabs. I’ll post the video in a bit.
After that we went down to...
Sick
So I’ve been sick for the past week. The full might of e.coli hit me. And hit me, then hit me some more. Having never had so much as a gastro bug in my life I immediately thought I was dying. After the eternally continuous vomiting stopped ten hours later I had a tearful skype conversation with my mum who cheered me up a bit by detailing the results of the Andrew Bolt case blow by blow. ...
September 2011
17 posts
Lucky
Lucky. Ever since I’ve been in Cambodia, I’ve come across this word again and again. I live behind the massive chain supermarket Lucky, across the road from Lucky Burger, my favourite tuk tuk drivers same Sam-Nang translates to Lucky in English. But mostly, it is because I am constantly being told I’m lucky. From the young activist women at the vote registration event, the staff at the beauty...
Q and A
Soz so silent. A mixture of stomach bug and workplace training for the women in my office has meant I’ve been at home the past week. Tres boring.
I am eating through my internet like no tomorrow. Yesterday I got into a spiral of internet question and answer sites. There is NOTHING that has not been asked before. The answers are hardly reliable but it’s nice to know that there are...
4 tags
There really are no words. The man lying bloody in the mud there is Soung Sophoan. Sophoan came “door-knocking” with us on Monday. This morning he is in the hospital after being bashed unconscious with rocks and batons by riot police yesterday. The attack occurred during a forced eviction of the controversial Boeung Kak Lake district. Sophoan, a community representative of...
The sun is an old friend
So this morning The Cambodian Daily reported that a criminal complaint has been filed against Sochua with the National Election Council, accusing her of violating public order and elections laws the other day. The issue seems to stem from the fact that at the Pagoda she used a microphone to speak due to the difficulty the old women had hearing her.
Her response? “I welcome a...
Democracy with a Cambodian flavour
Yesterday I accompanied MP Sochua and a group of SRP youth as they handed out voter information cards to people in a rural commune of Phnom Penh. The cards are a part of a push for voter registration that is currently taking place in Cambodia. There is 28 days left before registration closes and SRP are racing across the country encouraging everyone to register. At the last elections a very...
First day jitters
So today was the first day of my placement with the local women’s NGO I’ll be helping out at.
It did not start with a bang, it started with a power shortage. Which actually turned out to be quite helpful as it gave me time to introduce myself to everyone in the office. There is about six women who work at the organisation day to day but they come in and out of the office depending...
Migraines, getting lost and brie baguettes...
So I’ve been in Cambodia for forty-eight hours and I’ve been sans migraine for one of those. The slow ache was so consistent that I started to worry that maybe I had contacted some mysterious tropical illness. I was finally sick last night, which for me is the sign of the end of a migraine and I can tell you, I’ve never been more happy to be vomiting. A final purge after days...