Bunly Meas

It is very interesting to know from the Phnom Penh Post newspaper that among the 130 pure drinking water companies in Cambodia, only 20 of them meet the government's health requirements. It is a worrying figure for public health! How come the unqualified companies run business with such government's acknowledgement? Sometimes I think the Europeans are so lucky in getting access to clean water. It is very easy for them to just turn on their taps and drink the cleanest water. It is not that easy for my rural Cambodians. We do not even have that public service in most of rural parts. To get a glass of clean water, it is a long process. We need to go the nearest pond and lift buckets of water home. We collect woods and fire. Then it is time to boil and wait. Because it is so long, people just ignore and drink without boiling! This is where diseases come to them.

When the US sneezes, the whole world catches the cold. It is of course true because the US is the most powerful country in both politic and economy. The current financial crisis is a clear example. The US banking system and corporations are facing unstable situations; public spending is down. Economic transactions between the US and the world are less. As the result, the world export to the US decreases. The main focus here is whether Cambodia is among the cold catchers. It is hard to deny that Cambodia is still healthy while others have already been affected. Some predictions, including the IMF and World Bank, say the country's garment sector, which depends heavily on the US market, will affect by the US consumer saving. But this is somehow not really true. Americans at this financial crisis period try to cut their spending on luxurious commodities. The General Motor example of being bankruptcy is a sign that cars are not American choices anymore. Cambodian garment, on the other h...

Rural Cambodians do not have electrecity to use in their homes and for their farming. Some at the provintial town are paying more for their electricity use than their friends at the capital city. They use car battery for their few lamps and black-white TVs. For cooking, they depend on firewood near their homes. Those forests become scare and they need to travel far away from home to find them. The lack of electricity block their business initiatives. The government realize this and have been developing many hydro-power projects, which will come to life in the next few years. A commune in Battam Bang province came up with an idea to bring electricity to their homes. They grow leuceana, fast-grown trees, and sell to an electricity generating workshop. The workshop sells back the electriciy to villagers. I would like to invite friends to see a short documentary about that project.

If the plan to build a Toyota factory in Cambodia succeeds, it will be a new step in the country's development. Both sides, Cambodia and Toyota, will benefit of course. The question is who will gain more? And how can Cambodia maximize its benefits from this investment? Toyota is looking for new markets after its sales decreased this year. Cambodia's rapid economic growth for the last few years and its low cost of labour are two attractions for the company. Those factors should make Cambodia a good market for Toyota. Some rich Cambodians are waiting for the chance to buy the latest Toyota cars to drive in the streets without paying import tax. But poor, rural Cambodians will not see any benefit from the new auto factory. They might have hoped that the factory will provide jobs to their children but their children's farming skills will be of no use to Toyota. Cambodia, of course, will receive foreign capital from a Toyota factory. The country will also have the opportunity...

Resulted from decades of war, Cambodia is left with poor infrastructures and almost zero of human resources. Even worst, the country is still struggling with landmines, one of the country's silent killers. It a slow and paintful process to clear one signle landmine. A deminer could spend the whole day to just identify and clear one. All of my friends, I would like to invite all of you to spend 3 minutes on a documentary about landmine clearance. It is an effort to rescue land for farmers. Enjoy it and I am waiting for your comments.

Cambodian Finance Minister confirmed last week that Cambodia will have its own stock market in 2009 despite the world's exchange crisis, reported the Phnom Penh Post. Although the plan is going ahead, there are some sceptics questioning if Cambodia is ready for this big move. Are there enough laws to implement the new system? And do the Cambodian companies and public have enough knowledge to participate? There have been efforts from the government to make sure that enough law mechanism is already in place in advance. The Korea International Cooperation Agency (Koica) invest more than $1 million each year just to make this Korean style stock exchange exist. So why does Cambodia need a stock market? Cambodian officials said the market will provide other sources of money coming to the country. Now Cambodia depends on Aid, banks and a little amount from foreign direct investment. This trend is not stable for long-term market solution. More interestingly, the establishment of the mar...

All my friends, it is really great that Samdech Sang Choun Nath dictionary now available as software. Thanks for the efforts of Cambodian Buddhist Institute. Since I am always a fan of the dictionary, I tried to bring it with me to Europe. However, I could not. The dictionary's availability now could help me a great deal. I hope it will be useful for you all too. Click here to download it :

Humanitarian: World Food Programme resumed their breakfast distributions to 450,000 Cambodian school children in rural areas, reported AP on Tuesday. The new scheme will cost around USD 9 million per year, which means each children wil recieve around USD 20 in terms of food cost, added the news wire service. The attemp is to reduce children's lack of nutritions and as the result will increase their learning capacity. But the United Nations World Food Programme is not so sure if this programme could last longer due to fund insecurity, stressed AP. Comments: It is always very nice to see children come to school in the morning, holding their bags. In addition, they also bring their plates and wait for yummy breakfast. Later on, they stay at schools and learn from their teachers. It is such a good innitiative to attract students to come to class. And it is not expensive. Only USD 20 per year could change their lives and histories. It is more than worth to invest.It helps both child...

All my friends, I think I found a good song that inspires me to go on doing my master here. It helps me to forget all culuture shock and rudeness I have faced so far. Friendliness, Patience and smile is our Khmer uniqueness!

Politics: Cambodian Prime Minister said his new ministers will be more focused on their ministerial work by dropping their parliarmentary positions, reported the Phonom Penh Post on Friday. Ther are around 40 Cambodian People's Party officials, who are holding dual postions both at the government and parliarmentay, are being considered to resign, added the paper.

I am always positive that one day Cambodian farmers will have enough capacity to do their farming. Let's the Europeans go first!

All my friends, there are not many activities at the moment. It is exam time and the rest of my time is in the room. This is a photo from my window at around 6 am. I took it during my break from writing my essay. Happy Pchum Ben Day!

Pictures of police guarding schools, preventing people from throwing documents into exam rooms, become normal for public eyes. It looks funny sometimes, but it really provides a bad image of Cambodian culture and education and also creates conditions for economic failure. The practice is a sign of weakness in the country's education system. A culture of bribery is introduced and promoted that strongly discourages the culture of competition among students. Putting effort into study is not as important as being able to find suitable ways to bribe for certificates. It also reverses any results from the government's efforts to develop the education sector. Poor education leads to poor human resources. This is serious because all development can be done sustainably only if Cambodia has her own strong human capital. Insufficient education causes high unemployment and this is currently true. Thousands of students graduated from universities and high schools are not able to get jobs. B...

This is a good lesson to learn from a tree behind my house. The tree is safe from rain and wind and so you are from driving accidents by wearing seat belts.

It is praying time in Cambodia. We dedicate food through monks to our ancestors. It is a big festival for the whole country. Our ancestors always advise us not to forget our gods at home. They are our parents! Feed and treat them well before anybody else. We Cambodians always remember that!

Politics: Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen says theres is no channel to negotiate with Thailand over border dispute since the last delayed meeting resulted from political crisis in Thailand, reported a Chinese news agency, Xinhua today. He urges the neighbouring Thailand to set up delegations to continue bilateral talks to find peaceful solutions. If the bilateral efforts fail,a third party will be needed to get an agreement, continued the agency. The Prime Minister concerns about Thail troops' presence on Cambodian territory and accusing them of acting as thieves, reported Radio Australia today. The Cambodian Prime Minister also feels deeply concerns over political crisis in Thailand and questions if the country will be able to host ASEAN submit in December, report a german news agency, DPA. He suggests a more stable nation such as Singapore or Vietnam to hold the submit if Thailand's situation remains unstable, added the agency.

Some politicians in most powerful countries blame the media of not providing enough coverage on crisis in third-world countries especially when they failed to make any policies to support. But actually they do not have interest in those conflicting countries anymore. Take Cambodia as an example. The country's internal politics was influenced by some powerful countries before the Khmer Rouge came to power. But after, it seemed Cambodian was no use for them. Nearly two million Camodians were killed during the Khmer Rouge periord and there was no country claimed of human right abuses, hunger, alliance relations and so on. Maybe now Cambodia comes back to their interesting list again. We do not care what they think of us, we do not care who will invade us, we will protect our people and land. Cambodia is still smiling with hope of prosperity and always ready to response to any invasions and political interference.

Economy: Oil price in Cambodia goes down slightly despite sharp decrease in internal oil market, reported Cambdian daily newspaper, Koh Santepheap. The price decreases 400 rield (US$ 0.1) today while the international market lower the cost to US$97 per barrel from the old record of US$140, compared the paper. --- Cambodia plans to build another new bridge to link Kandal provice to Vietnam in order to boost trade between the two nations, reported the Cambodian English newspaper the Phnom Penh Post today. The project will cost around 20 million dollars, but there is no exact date mentioned on launching it, added the paper.

Today, September the 15th is my birthday. Today 27 years ago, I was born in Takeo near my small cottage. Today this year, I am in Denmark celebrating. I will only have a small meal with my wife and wish to get happiness in the whole life. I wish I could go to Khmer pagoda today. But today is also the first day of Pchum Ben periord. I hope all of my family, friends and Cambodians go to pagoda and offer food to monks and pray for their ancestors. In return, they will get happiness! Happy Pchum Ben!

Employment: There are more than 20 thousand Cambodians working abroad both legally and illegally. Most of them are in Thailand, reported Koh Santepheap yesterday. The other two destinations for Cambodian workers are Malaysia and South Korea.So far there have been 18 companies registered with the government in transferring Cambodian labour abroad, added the paper. Development Cambodia and the United States will sign agreements on trade, agriculture and industry on Monday the 15th, Xinhua published. But there is no detail of the agreements. The agreements will be signed during the US deputy Secretary of State,John D. Negroponte, visit to the Kingdom, added the news agency. The US will also grant a twenty-four-million project to Cambodian health sector. Economy: Cambodian inflation rate increased to 22 percent in July, Minister of planning told AFP last week. High prices of global oil and food are the two main reasons behind the inflation surging, continued the minister. According to AFP,...

It is already three weeks I am in Denmark, away from home. I just feel I miss something every morning I wake up. Of course I know I miss my family but I feel there is something more. Just today I realize that I miss my Cambodian National anthem. When I was in Cambodia, I used the anthem to tell myself the time I should hurry to go to work. Never mind, here I can also listen to it, just in different atmosphere.

By Meas Bunly For more than ten years, Meas Pov has served as a Commune Councilor in Tang Kcha village of the western province of Kompong Speu. She is in charge of children and women's issues, domestic violence, and land conflicts. One thing that she never forgot to do whenever she handled a case was to advise villagers to end their disputes through conciliations and not bring them up to the provincial court. Her only concern was that villagers would end up spending a lot of money to travel on a bumpy 40-kilometer road to the court, which is the only court in town, to seek solutions whereas their problems could be solved at the commune level. Pov's advice was not very effective in convincing the villagers because she had no authority to pass judgment on any case. But they actually asked her where they should go if provincial court was not the option. Pov never had a clear answer. Until July this year when the Ministry of Justice in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and ...