Bunly Meas

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 ...