« October 2008 | Main | December 2008 »

November 11, 2008

Tuk is a very useful word.

It is not surprising that Phnom Penh does not have an organized recycling service. What is interesting, however, is that residents are more likely to separate bottles and cans from their trash here than they are in Arizona. This is because the city has a small army of street urchins who scrape together a living by collecting empties and turning them in to some central location. If you don't separate your trash, they tear open your trashbags and leave your front gate strewn with refuse. It's a very cambodian answer to the problem, but it seems to work out okay. I mention this because the urchins are most visible after big public events, especially sporting events, because of the large number of empty bottles resulting from such events. After the boat races today (great visual: big long boats full of furiously paddling village representatives in color-coded hats and shirts), the oarsmen threw their empty water bottles to the couple of fearless urchins who dove into the water to get them. Granted, they didn't seem to be in too much trouble, considering that they were holding tightly onto highly buoyant bags of bottles that were almost as big as they were, but it was another strange scene on this, the first day of the Water Festival.

The Water Festival is held every year on the first full moon in November. It celebrates the changing of seasons (from rainy to dry), signified most spectacularly by the reversal of the Tonle Sap river. Half the year it acts like a normal river, running from the lake of the same name confluencing at Phnom Penh with the Mekong. But during the rainy season, the Mekong swells and forces the Tonle Sap to run backwards. This leads to dramatic variation in the size of the Tonle Sap lake, which some archaeologists believe was an important cause for the prosperity of Angkor: when the lake was low, the uncovered areas were perfect for growing rice.

The scene by the riverside is nigh-on insane: the city doubles in population, and almost all of that is concentrated by the river. Anywhere with a patch of green space was turned into a zone for open air concerts and/or product hawking. (I personally preferred the boot advertising the Thai Mr. Clean knockoff, Mr. Muscle) The ministry of tourism, in connection with its "Cambodia: Kingdom of Wonders" ad campaign (it aired on CNN), set up an 'international visitors only' area that I immediately dubbed "The Barang Pavilion." It felt pretty weird to step past the huddled masses into an exclusive area, but it was admittedly a nice break from the shoulder-to-shoulder (or in my case, shoulder-to-everyone-else's-head) crowding. Maybe because people were coming in from the hinterlands where giant white people are less common, I felt like much more of a curiosity than normal, given the comments, laughter, and attempts by random people to walk side by side with me to ascertain our relative heights.

Another cool part of the water festival is the salutation to the moon, as conducted via fireworks and brightly-lit barges depicting the seals of various government ministries. I used how impressive each ministry's float was as a gauge of its place in the pecking order. And, no surprise given current events, the Ministry of National Defense had a pimped out float, complete with nagas spouting blue light that almost looked like water (if you squinted) and a lit up 'mythical monkey of giant-killing' that is apparently the RCAF's totem animal. The Central Bank also had a cool float, with single-point perspective all leading towards a radiating Riel (the currency) symbol. Initially I was kind of skeptical, but I honestly think it would be pretty cool to see a gigantic barge towing a lit up representation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs down the Potomac.

I'm going to Battambang tomorrow, and probably from there to see the 'greatest hits' version of Angkor Wat, partly just to figure out the lay of the land before I go visit it more fully next time. Also, I'm not entirely sure if this is true, but I've heard that Battambang is named after a whupping stick (literally, the bat of Dahmbang) that some emperor could throw really far. I'll get you the scoop later.

Posted by flynn at 9:04 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

November 7, 2008

The Nearly Obligatory Elections Post

This was my first real vote and I'm glad it counted, even if it had to wing its way across half the world and back in order to do so. It's been a strange electoral season to follow, especially from Cambodia. I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but the only news channels on my TV (besides the Singaporean propaganda outlet) are CNBC and BBC. CNBC gave me a pretty interesting perspective on the financial crisis (I gauged the severity of the crisis based on the frequency of the analysts alternately screaming at each other or admitting their bewilderment.) Still, it didn't give me a (main) street level view of what was going on. That was where my brother came in handy, working as he does in the local congressional office of Patrick Murphy (D-PA) in Bucks County. Without him, I would have felt so distant and disconnected from the mood of the country, like Howard Hughes or Wm. Randolph Hearst or something. Thanks, Brendan!

And while BBC's coverage is fascinating to watch (and freely violates the unquestioned shibboleths of coverage pitched at the American voter), it's just not the same without the endless dissection of minute details (and the irrelevant pleasure thereof) I get from watching MSNBC or CNN with the family on election night, which for me started at 8am Wednesday morning. So I had to settle for the next best thing: talking to my parents on Skype while we endlessly dissected the results. I'm particularly fond of my observation that Obama was on the way to a Big Ten sweep.

I wore a huge smile all through Wedenesday, and tried to explain it to my classes. Most of them sort of got it, but it was really only the Vietnamese exchange student (who had studied American History in high school) who really understood what it meant, both for me and the country. For my Essay Class, I could explain it in terms of 'America as unfulfilled promise, that slowly moves toward fulfillment;' In other words, we need to face the promise of the promised land.


For my low-intermediate class, many of them barely understand what's going on in Thailand, much less the rest of the world. I had to explain that Obama was not in George Bush's party. I had to explain that there were only two parties in America. I had to explain that Obama was the first black president elected in over 200 years. I had to explain that Barack Obama was not a muslim. I had to explain that many people in rural america, especially those in George Bush's party, were afraid of Muslims. Then one of my students asked me why there was conflict between Muslims and Christians, which stumped me when it came to giving a clear, concise answer that can be understood by intermediate speakers of english. (For that matter, it stumps me when it comes to giving a clear, concise answer to speakers of any level.) There's certainly awareness, but not a lot of deep understanding. BBC's callers from Nigeria and Kenya might have the Obama talking points down, but most Cambodians are what you might call "low-information foreigners."

You can't really blame them, though: it takes a significant amount of either leisure time or internationally-minded education to develop an understanding of world politics. Right now, they're just trying to balance demands from parents, jobs and school, hoping to make it through and start a comparatively lucrative career, probably at a nonprofit or international organization(it's a pretty good sign that you're country's a bit skewed when the most coveted jobs are all at NGOs). Maybe their children will have the educational infrastructure and and time to figure it out, but for now they need all hands on deck just to help rebuild Cambodia. Y'know, it's like stage two of the old John Adams saw:


I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain.

Posted by flynn at 4:52 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack