Hope for exploited daughters

(Photo: Samaritan’s Purse)

Thursday, 22 April 2010
Samaritan’s Purse (Australia)

“Channa” was 14 when she was sent to Cambodia’s capital city of Phnom Penh to earn extra income for her mother’s medical treatments. Desperate for work, she found a job at a bar.

Channa had always refused lewd offers from male patrons, but when her family continually pressured her to earn more, she thought she had no alternative. For a full year, Channa engaged in commercial sex work and desperately wanted out. Neighbours began looking down on her. And her dreams of a happy future seemed spoiled. “I thought I was an animal, a slave,” she said.

Thousands of Cambodian women are forced into such work every year. A lack of opportunities for education and skills training, the result of decades of civil unrest and instability, leave them with few options to support their families.

Samuel Heng of Daughters, our local partner says that cultural norms contribute to the problem. “Many girls believe that the more they sacrifice for their parents and family, the better their next life will be. They say parents are like a second god – Buddha is the first, parents are the second. So you should serve your parents like you would serve god.”

Samaritan’s Purse is working with Daughters to give these women a way out. The ministry runs a safe house and provides vocational training in sewing, cooking, fabric painting, cake decorating, card and jewellery making.

Channa now works as a cake decorator, with a special expertise in making delicate sugar flowers. Perhaps the sweetest part of her story is that Channa has found new hope and peace in her faith in Jesus Christ. “When I prayed, I felt a peace in my heart,” she says. “I hadn’t felt that before.”

Channa goes to weekly church services and has found a community that provides encouragement and support. “I feel that a lot of people love me at Daughters, that I have a big value and a lot of hope,” Channa said. “Before I had a big family, but with no love, no peace. Now I have a good father – God.”

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Unconditional nomination of Hun Xen and Xok An to the Royal Cambodian Academy ... which was created by Hun Xen

Hun Xen (R) and Xok An (L) are the two new members of the Royal Cambodian Academy which, coincidentally, was set up by Hun Xen himself. Hun Xen's talent is displayed by his poem writing whereas Xok An is a well known expert in cock-fighting.

Poem written by Academician Hun Xen sent to his lover, Ms. Piseth Pilika, who was later gunned down. Heng Pov revealed that the person who commissioned the killing of Piseth Pilika was no other than Mrs. Bun Rany Hun Xen, the famous wife of Academician Hun Xen (Poem posted at: pisethpilika.free.fr)

21 April 2010
By Nhim Sophal
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Translated from French by Sen Os Somneuch
Click here to read the article in French

Hun Xen and vice-PM Xok An have just been nominated as members of the Royal Cambodian Academy

The royal decree to the effect was also issued, but the ceremony will only take place next week. It is now official: the two leaders are now full members of the famous academy. 16 individuals, including 4 Cambodians living overseas, are part of this prestigious institution.

Created in 199 by a sub-decree issued by Hun Xen who is also its honorary president, the Royal Academy is still administered by the Council of Ministers. At the beginning, there was no preset condition to become a member. Graduated individuals who provide academic documents and work are often accepted as its members. Under this stipulation, Hun Xen – who penned several poems and research works in politics, as well as giving out important speeches – and Xok An were both admitted to the prestigious institution.

However, in the future, candidates must fulfill new conditions in order to become provisory members. They must earn a Ph.D. degree after spending 5 years of academic work and they must be elected the full members. The maximum number of members is limited to 60 and only 2 persons can be selected for each year.

“To be elected, one must undertake scientific research without plagiarizing others. We must have new [rules], but for now, it is not easy to follow all the rules,” Ros Chantraboth, an advisor and full member of the academy, admitted.

For the past 10 years, this institution has been criticized for not undertaking any valid research. From now on, it hopes to play the role of a memory bank for the government and the society.

READ MORE - Unconditional nomination of Hun Xen and Xok An to the Royal Cambodian Academy ... which was created by Hun Xen

Short biography of the world cookbook winner

Mrs. Long Sorey (L) winner of the World Gourmand cookbook (Photo supplied)

21 April 2010
By Mao Sotheany
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Heng Soy and Socheata
Click here to read the article in Khmer

Under this week’s Khmer Women’s Progam, Mrs. Mao Sotheany is reporting about a short biography and the volunteer work by the winner of the World Gourmand cookbook author.

The Cambodian cookbook penned by a Cambodian woman and her daughter was selected to receive the World Gourmand prize in France. The cookbook was considered as the most talented cookbook in the world for 2009 among a selection of 6,000 other entries.

The French-language cookbook includes about 139 recipes and it also includes photographs. It was authored by Mrs. Long Sorey who is currently retired and living in Cambodia.

The 69-year-old lady was a former teacher during the Lon Nol Khmer Republic regime and she is currently retired. She is very happy after learning that the cookbook she co-authored with her daughter was recognized as a special cookbook in the world, both in terms of quality, printing, cover illustration, as well as photo illustrations of the completed dishes and the ease to prepare more than 130 Cambodian dishes.

Mrs. Long Sorey said: “I am very pleased, extremely pleased! Two Cambodian women wrote the number 1 cookbook in the world. This prize is beyond my imagination, it means more than money to me. I remembered about Cambodia, nobody knew about me, I had a Cambodian flag and they did not know about Cambodia. I showed them where Cambodia is! I showed them…”

Mrs. Long Sorey, the winner of the World Gourmand cookbook, said that the recognition of the talent in this Cambodian cookbook is an important factor to let countries in the world know about the civilization, the culture and the customs of Cambodia, and Cambodian food in particular.

In addition to her cooking skills, she is also very skilled in sewing and knitting, as well as being an expert in wedding marriage clothing. She said that after coming to live in Virginia, USA, in 1975, she was actively involved in Cambodian communities, especially during the celebration of the Cambodian New Year.

Mrs. Long Sorey said: “I dress up in Cambodian clothes to show how Cambodian women dress up, how they carry a food container to take to the pagoda, how we dress up for weddings, and during the Cambodian New Year, I have to do it to show others. People like to cook, they asked me to help so I can earn some extra income on top of my factory salary because I only know how to cook, to work in the household, so in order to survive, I did everything…”

In 1977, Mrs. Long Sorey and her husband, Mr. Long Bota, a former professor under the Lon Nol regime, along with their two children, decided to move to live in France. There, she and her husband were actively involved in the Cambodian community: “… Me and my teacher, we formed the women association to help in the translation work, to help find jobs, to teach cooking, tailoring, dressing up in Khmer. In Cambodia, I used to teach tailoring. People wanted to know, wanted to learn, so on Sundays, my family went to teach others because it’s something we like…”

Mrs. Long Sorey added that, in addition to being a teacher for household work during vacation period and weekends, she also used to volunteer her work in France and in refugee camps along the Khmer-Thai border.

Mrs. Long Sorey said: “When I arrived in France, I continued my study until I became a chef teacher for more than 20 years, up until my retirement in 2001. Prior to 2001, I returned back to Cambodia once a year. After 1980, I volunteered to work at refugee camps along the border because I have 2 months of vacation each year, I went to teach cooking and tailoring to Cambodian women in refugee camps so that when they return back to Cambodia, they have some skill to survive on…”

Mrs. Long Sorey and her husband, Mr. Long Bota, retired in 2001. They currently returned back to live in Cambodia and to offer volunteer work for the Children’s Smile NGO.

Mrs. Long Sorey claimed: “I volunteered to teach at a school where they gather children who scavenge garbage and bring them in to study at the center. I teach them, the younger teachers do not know how to cook Khmer food.”

The two children of Mrs. Long Sorey and her husband are both married now. Her son now lives and works in Switzerland, and her daughter went to live and work in England after her wedding.

She added that as long as she lives, she will continue to share all her professional knowledge to all Cambodian girls and younger generation of Cambodian women who want to learn about savoir-vivre (life), morale and household work such as cooking, dressing up for wedding, tailoring, knitting, etc…

Mrs. Long Sorey claimed that her cookbook is currently being translated into English and in the future, it will also be published in Khmer as well.

READ MORE - Short biography of the world cookbook winner

Chhnam Thmei Mok Dol - "Arrival of the New Year": A Poem in Khmer by Srey Sra'em

Click on the poem in Khmer to zoom in

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Photo Exhibition by Khvay Samnang Starting from Wed April 21

Dear art lovers,

Happy Khmer New Year!!!!

Sa Sa Art Gallery is back!! Our first exhibition this new year features Khvay Samnang’s photo series on Cambodian wedding. Come join us at the opening night on Wednesday April 21st at 6:30pm.

'I want to show a fuller picture of the wedding - what is happening during the wedding, for example when the bride and the groom changing dresses and doing make-up, the decoration of the wedding house, the way people dress-up and show off their jewelery, the hectic pace of the wedding and the tiresome rituals endured by the family, and especially the embarrassment that people don’t want to show in photos.'

READ MORE - Photo Exhibition by Khvay Samnang Starting from Wed April 21

Khmer New Year Celebration in Fresno 2010

Click to Read More...

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Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Neay Krud'th's Words

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

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Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Tea Money

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)

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Cambodia reports H5N1 death, WHO confirms Vietnam cases

Lisa Schnirring Staff Writer

Apr 21, 2010 (CIDRAP News) – Cambodia's health ministry today announced that a 27-year-old man died of H5N1 avian influenza, while the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed two previously reported cases in Vietnam and ruled out human-to-human transmission.

The Cambodian man, whose case is the country's first of the year, lived in the eastern part of the country in Prey Veng province, the Associated Press (AP) reported today. Few other details were available about the case, and the health ministry said it is investigating the man's illness and death. He will be listed as Cambodia's 10th H5N1 case and its 8th death from the disease.

Meanwhile, the WHO today confirmed the H5N1 infections of two Vietnamese patients who are part of a suspected case cluster. The patients, a 22-year-old man and a 2-year-old girl are both from Bac Kan province in the northern part of the country. Their illnesses raise the number of H5N1 cases in Vietnam to 119, of which 59 have been fatal.

Previous news reports said the area where the two live had mass poultry deaths and that at least four other people with flulike symptoms were isolated and treated with antiviral medication. Reports of suspected and confirmed H5N1 infection clusters raise fears that the virus is becoming more transmissible among humans and could become a pandemic flu strain. However, the WHO said an epidemiologic investigation has found no link between the two patients that would suggest human-to-human transmission.

A WHO statement suggests both had similar exposure to the virus. It said an initial investigation revealed sick and dead poultry around both patients' homes and in surrounding areas. It said the girl's family had recently slaughtered sick poultry to eat.

The man is listed in critical condition at National Hospital of Tropical Diseases, and the girl is in stable condition at Cho Moi District Hospital.

The newly confirmed Vietnamese H5N1 cases raise the global H5N1 total to 495 cases, which includes 292 deaths.

READ MORE - Cambodia reports H5N1 death, WHO confirms Vietnam cases

China's new dam seen as a water hog

Still under construction, the 66-story-high Xiaowan dam is scheduled to be completed this year. Other countries accuse China of stealing water.

By Calum MacLeod
USA TODAY

XIAOWAN, China — Wearing cloaks of tree bark strands, villagers from the Yi ethnic minority tend wheat terraces that cascade downhill toward the riverbank.

It is a scene unchanged for centuries, and it takes place in the shadow of a modern wall of concrete as high as a 66-story skyscraper that fills a gorge of the Lancang River in remote southwestern China.

The Xiaowan dam in the hills of Yunnan province is one of eight hydroelectric projects that will bring China?s industrial revolution to the impoverished region. It is by far the biggest of the four dams built so far that when done this year will be the biggest arch dam in the world.

But not all of the water is China's. The downstream half of the 2,700-mile-long river winds through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, where it is known as the Mekong.

In those countries, 60 million people rely on the Mekong not for electricity but for food, water and transport. They say the Chinese dams have reduced the river to its lowest levels in 50 years, and environmental groups accuse China of reducing the river flow downstream.

"Many local people and groups that monitor the dams in China point the finger at the dams as one of the main causes of the drying up of the river," says Srisuwan Kuankachorn, co-director of Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance, a Thailand-based environmental group.

Srisuwan says the countries are in a drought caused by China that has killed fisheries, withered croplands and dried up waterway transportation routes.

And the problems are likely to get worse with the completion of the Xiaowan dam. A United Nations report issued in May 2009 warned that China's eight planned dams, of which Xiaowan is the fourth, "may pose the single greatest threat to the river."

"The capability of the new dam is much bigger than the other three combined," Srisuwan says.

Little leverage for compliance

At the plush local offices of dam builders Huaneng Hydrolancang, senior engineer Zhao Meng is unruffled by the dire allegations. Zhao, 58, bears a scientist's conviction that the doubters are wrong.

"However much water arrives, the same amount will leave," Zhao says. "We have no plan to keep the water or use it elsewhere. We will store water for a while as we fill the reservoir (currently 30% full), but this dam will not affect the water flow downstream."

Some regional experts agree that the hydroelectric projects are unrelated to the drought.

"China's dams have not caused this problem," says Jeremy Bird, CEO of the Mekong River Commission, an organization that helps manage the river's resources for Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

But China's refusal to provide data to the commission on the dams already is raising suspicions among analysts. This month, a Chinese delegation to the commission promised deeper cooperation but stopped short of adding to a promise to provide hydrological data for two smaller Yunnan dams.

"The Chinese must come clean on how much water they are diverting at Xiaowan and, in the future, at Nuozhadu," another dam that will boast an even bigger reservoir, says Alan Potkin, a development specialist at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University.

Xiaowan is "an enormously large dam, bigger than anything in North America," says Potkin, who worries that in two years' time both Xiaowan and Nuozhadu could be filling reservoirs simultaneously. Potkin is urging the commission to ask China for the most critical data. But he knows the board can do little if China refuses. "It has very little leverage at all," he says.

Journalists have been kept at bay at Xiaowan. A USA TODAY reporter was detained by police for three hours while trying to get to the site and then refused entry.

Local residents dispute that the drought stems from natural causes.

Here in Yunnan province, White Fish Pond hasn't seen fish for years, says Bi Xiuxian, who heads a small hydropower station on the Weishan River. For the past half-year, the river has hardly seen any water, either. So the privately owned power plant in the village of Lishimo is idle.

"Poor management of water facilities is definitely a major reason for this drought," complains Bi, an ethnic Yi. "We need new wells, better management of old wells, and more maintenance of water canals."

Elders pray for rain

China's thirst for energy will likely keep the projects moving forward without much look back, say activists.

"We need time to see the real results," says Wang Yongchen, founder of Green Earth Volunteers, an environmental group, who has monitored China's dam-building for several years. "China is developing so quickly and needs a lot of energy, but nature is not just for humans."

In Shuanghe village, Nanjian County, Yunnan province, farmer Xu Piqing stands on a bridge above the now-dry water canal that usually rushes into the Weishan River.

"We should be busy now, harvesting corn and beans, but instead we have nothing to do," says Xu, 43.

Some villagers are taking action, though.

This month, more than 100 elders will gather to pray for rain on the hilltop, lighting incense and kowtowing to the earth. It's an annual ritual, but "this year will be the biggest ever," Xu says.

READ MORE - China's new dam seen as a water hog