Hun Sen's Diplomatic Juggling Act

While the US interests for Cambodia come mainly from terrorism, China involvement is driven by economic interests.

More than any other Southeast Asian country, Cambodia finds itself caught in the middle of competing United States and Chinese diplomatic overtures. With Washington offering bilateral strategic initiatives and Beijing rich financial assistance, Prime Minister Hun Sen has deftly balanced the country's diplomacy between the two superpowers to his government's political advantage.

Cambodia's economy is expanding at double digit growth rates and China's economic interest in the country has intensified since 2005, when US oil company Chevron discovered what some have projected are large stores of oil and gas off the country's southern coast. Those growing commercial ties were witnessed in the establishment in February of a special economic zone at the coastal town of Sihanoukville, from which goods will be produced for export duty free to China.

While China's economic influence grows, that of the US is on the wane. In recent years the US has given around $150 million in annual economic aid, a small fraction of China's commercial patronage. At the same time US-Cambodian trade ties have fallen off, seen in the 30% year-on-year decline in garment exports to the US in 2007. The US has long been the primary importer of Cambodian textiles, which is still the country's largest export item.

By offering more aid through strategic initiatives, the US policy towards Cambodia has apparently shifted after emphasizing throughout the 1990s the promotion of democracy and the rule of law. That frequently put the two sides at diplomatic loggerheads, notably over an FBI investigation into a March 1997 bomb attack.

While the US tries to deflect China's commercial diplomacy, Beijing has simultaneously landed on ways to unite economically and culturally with Cambodia, including through outreach to politically influential ethnic-Chinese entrepreneurs. It's also apparent, some say, in the fading popularity of the English language over Mandarin Chinese, also known as Putonghua, in local schools. Cambodia is now home to the largest Chinese school in Southeast Asia, Duan Hua, which currently enrolls over 8,000 students. The most popular Chinese courses are specifically geared towards business, with students reasoning that English language capability may help to land jobs with international aid organizations, while Mandarin, which is taught across mainland China as the official language, will catapult them into more lucrative positions in business.

Cambodia's Construction Boom

Golden Towers 42 (under constuction), Pharos Mekong Towers (in planning)

By roatha007

Cambodia has seen unprecedented construction boom in recent years, driven largely by S. Korean investment. Mega construction projects include Camko City, Golden Tower 42, De Castle Royal, Koa Pich, Boeng Kok, PP Pearl, PPSES and River Palace. The boom is driven by economic factors and speculation:

• Macroeconomic and political stability: This is the first and foremost driver. Improved macroeconmic management and CPP's dominance play a vital part in boosting confidence in construction investment.
• Rapid economic and population growth: The stability has contributed to double digit growth . Combining with high population growth, it is expected that there will be more affluent people demanding better living and shopping places, entertainment centers...
• Tourism boom (Angkor factor): Tourism is shooting up and is expected to boom in the near future. As a result, there is a high demand for hotels, resorts and entertainment centers. The trend is obvious in Siem Reap, and PP and Kampong Som are joining the rank. The upswing also helps prop up other sectors.
• Influx of foreign investment and equity funds (spill-over effect): Cambodia's investment-friendly policy has attracted investors hoping to reap windfall profits. Some investors and private equity funds find Cambodia a safe heaven in hedging against international financial turmoils and avoiding strict regulation in neigbouring countries. Investing in real estate is a wise decision in this sense. Some Korean construction companies have shifted to Cambodia due to the high cost and restriction in VN.
• Cambodia's lost decades: Decades of turmoils and destruction means Cambodia is in immense need of all types of infrastructure, both private and public.
• Underground money: The laundering of money obtained from corruption and other illegal activities contributes to construction boom. Cambodia's present situation and lax law enforcement provide a rare opportunity for money laundering; investing in real estate in a fast growing economy is a best option in yielding quick and high return. Some development projects by foreign investors, esp those from eastern Europe, are in fact international money laundering.
• Last but not least is speculation and somehow opportunism: The indirect-but-indispensable element is optimism. There are a lot of speculation about Cambodia's hidden wealth and positive prospect. These include agricultural potentials, unexploited natural resources (esp oil), tourism promise and political stability. The boom is much more about speculation than reality, as most mega projects are still in planning stage. Big investments in Cambodia are still very risky, and investors are adopting wait-and-see attitude.

Real estate boom in Cambodia's capital: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2008/gb2008062_768642.htm

Special supplement on real estate in Cambodia: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php?option=com_news_portal&Itemid=54&id=44&lang=en&sectionid=18&task=category

Cambodia's mega projects on Youtube: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dEQCNQ1GKxQ&feature=related

More on Preah Vihear

Just seeing the photo is enough to tell why the Thais want it and why we need to protect it. Below is the list of news, documents and links related to Preah Vihear:
Cambodia's proposal for the inscribtion of Preah Vihear on the World Hertiage List

http://www.pressocm.gov.kh/publishing/Preah%20Vihear_English.pdf
Prasat Preah Vihear overview: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prasat_Preah_Vihear
http://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2008/05/23/preah-vihear-an-overview/
Preah Vihear travel guide: http://wikitravel.org/en/Preah_Vihear
International Court of Justice: Case concerning the temple of Preah Vihear
http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php?sum=284&code=ct&p1=3&p2=3&case=45&k=46&p3=5
Understanding Preah Vihear issue: http://www.mfa.go.th/internet/information/19648.pdf
Preah Vihear News: http://www.preahvihear.com/
Tale of Asia on Preah Vihear: http://www.talesofasia.com/cambodia-preahvihear.htm
Pilgrimage to PV: http://www.earthportals.com/Portal_Messenger/stonesinsky5.html
Gobal Voice on Preah Vihear (comments on Preah Vihear issue)
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2008/06/24/preah-vihear-belongs-to-cambodia/
Preah Vihear Photos: http://impressive.net/people/gerald/photos/by/location/cambodia/preah%20vihear
News links related to Preah Vihear dispute:
Thailand to co-host bid Preah Vihear listed by Unesco (a new trick)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/280608_News/28Jun2008_news10.php
Thai court nixes temple cooperation
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j_Jf2WvfwZyntywvbTXg0VfGEfwwD91J39TO0
Temple tenstion: Kenneth's letter to PP Post (why is Cambodia gov't so stupid)
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/200806268841/National-news/Temple-tensions.html
Ancient temple at center of debate in Thailand
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZwfevhsGLvqW-M__bOJ1Psix7swD91HT2H00
The judgement of the World Court, 1962
http://www.bangkokpost.com/250608_News/25Jun2008_news20.php
Abishit: Gov't telling lies ( Leader of gouts)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/250608_News/25Jun2008_news01.php
Win-win temple deal (Cambodia was trapped in fact)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/220608_News/22Jun2008_news08.php
Preah Vihear white paper to be released
http://www.bangkokpost.com/210608_News/21Jun2008_news06.php
Thai rally over temple dispute
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gsN2uTPpxoebQhHlznf-JLCQyKvgD91CEF500
Dispute holds up temple listing
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/programguide/stories/200806/s2273596.htm
Preserve the integrity of Preah Vihear ( a Thai scholar reveals some facts)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/290608_Perspective/29Jun2008_pers001.php
Commentary: Nationalistic puppets (why Thais think they are greatest race in SE)
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=128521

Preah Vihear listed as a world heritage

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080708/ap_on_re_ca/canada_world_heritage_site_3

Temple issue helps pin Thai stance on colonial map (a big gain for Thais)http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/07/14/politics/politics_30078015.php

Thai-Cambodian border stand-off continues

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/world/asia/21cambodia.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Cambodia turns down Thai request to review the borderline

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/22/content_8742133.htm

The reasons behind Thai-Cambodian temple dispute

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0722/p06s02-wosc.html

Cambodia's coming energy bonanza

If the United Nations, World Bank and Harvard University are to be believed, Cambodia is poised to become a major new global energy exporter, with a fossil-fuel windfall that promises to double the country's current GDP and potentially lift millions of Cambodians out of poverty.

The World Bank has said that Cambodia's total energy reserves may be as high as 2 billion barrels of oil and 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Depending on future world prices, fuel exports could generate annual revenues upwards of US$2 billion, or several times the current combined amount that Cambodia generates in domestic revenues and receives in foreign aid. Meanwhile, Cambodian energy officials indicated this week that they hope to ramp up production as early as 2009, three to seven years earlier than the World Bank projected as feasible.

An energy-rich Cambodia would appreciably enhance the war-torn country's geostrategic significance, particularly as the United States and China aggressively joust for access to new fuel sources around the globe.

Yet there's also a potential Cold War twist to China's bid. Any future oil-and-gas-production agreements with the CPP-led government will likely need to pass through Sokimex, Cambodia's leading conglomerate, which through a joint venture with Tela Petroleum Group controls 80% of the country's domestic oil and gas distribution. Energy analysts note that Cambodia's newfound reserves coincide with the expectation that Vietnam's own diminishing fuel supplies will run out over the next decade. So far Hanoi has no plans on how it might fill this future energy gap.

What is more likely is that senior CPP officials have designs on building up Sokimex and perhaps also Tela Petroleum through lucrative state energy concessions, which, once converted into foreign-currency earnings, may be tapped to support its patronage-based political machine and further consolidate the party's dominance over Cambodian politics - akin to how Malaysia's ruling United Malays National Organization has relied on state oil giant Petronas for its own political purposes.

Western donors have already sounded warnings about the potential pitfalls of Cambodia's supposed newfound energy wealth. Hun Sen's government has come under intense donor pressure to tackle endemic corruption among his ranks.

Country for Sale

Almost half of Cambodia has been sold to foreign speculators in the past 18 months - and hundreds of thousands who fled the Khmer Rouge are homeless once more.

Cambodia is a nation that would drown if their boat tipped over; it is also a country whose citizens mostly do not belong to the places where they have ended up. The Khmer Rouge saw to that, eviscerating the kingdom after coming to power. Below are some highlights extracted from the long article:

• Forty-five per cent of the country's entire landmass has been sold off - from the land ringing Angkor Wat to the colonial buildings of Phnom Penh to the south-western islands. By 2006, the World Bank estimated that 40,000 had been made homeless in Phnom Penh alone.


• Rumours were buzzing around Sihanoukville's covered market that virtually every island in the region was up for sale. Over the following months, Koh Russei and Koh Ta Kiev, Koh Bong and Koh Ouen, Koh Preus, Koh Krabei and Koh Tres were all snapped up by foreigners, who then started negotiating for mainland sites, too, among them public beaches with names such as Serendipity, Occheuteal and Otres.


• The troubled kingdom of Cambodia had suddenly found itself a refuge for cash and speculators fleeing paralysed western financial markets.


• Foreign fund managers had started pitching up in Phnom Penh, alerted by the country's unexpected boom in tourism. Their interest was land speculation: buying up large sites in developing countries that they would then sit on in the hope that, with the influx of tourists, land values would soar.


• Hun Sen and his ruling CPP have, in effect, put the country up for sale. Crucially, they permit investors to form 100% foreign-owned companies in Cambodia that can buy land and real estate outright - or at least on 99-year plus 99-year leases. No other country in the world countenances such a deal. Even in Thailand and Vietnam, where similar land speculation and profiteering are under way, foreigners can be only minority shareholders.


• Many foreign funds - hedge funds, property funds, private equity funds - operating on the outer margins of the financial world thrive on complexity, risk and maximising profit. In Phnom Penh, they found an ideal partner in the prime minister, who has created a unique business environment. Since the mid-90s, Hun Sen and the CPP have declined to enforce money-laundering legislation and have concerned themselves little with the probity of investors. Foreign businessmen were offered nine-year tax holidays, and were allowed to hold their cash in US dollars in banks outside the country.


• In July 2007, Hun Sen, gambling on his people's tenuous connection with the land, changed the designation of the southern islands so they could be sold. The forests, lakes, beaches and reefs - and the lives of the thousands of residents - were quietly transferred into the hands of private western developers.


• It was Hun Sen who, as early as 1989, realised the power of land. As he privatised the land, "he simultaneously cut off the rights of 360,000 exiled Cambodians, awarding prime slices to political allies and friends." Although he bathes his speeches in socialist values, even his closest aides told us that Hun Sen was more often than not a pragmatist.


• The investors could have sold up and come away rich. But this was development with a difference. They were speculating on the future value of the land, believing that by adding only modest infrastructure, perhaps attaching big-name hoteliers, they would reap vast profits in seven to 10 years.


• Since the land sell-offs, members of the government and its allies have been splashing huge sums around. A Korean developer told us that when he marketed Phnom Penh's first skyscraper, the 42-storey Gold Tower project in February, all two dozen £750,000 penthouse suites were bought within 24 hours by "an honour roll of the CPP and its friends in the military".


• Simon Taylor, the director of Global Witness, an international NGO that was forced to leave the country last year, having accused the CPP of running a logging racket, paints a depressing picture: "A shadow state has grown up, a government that misappropriates public assets, extorts from businesses and manages an extensive illicit economy.


• Has the legacy of the Khmer Rouge been purged? Naly Pilorge, director of Licadho, a local human rights NGO, thinks not: "Everyone claims Cambodia has come through the period of barbarism, but the sadism is still bubbling beneath the surface. Extreme violence, greed and disregard for the most basic human rights - of giving people a place to live - are still with us daily. The methods of the past are being used to dictate our future."

Special coverage on Dith Pran- The Killing Fields Hero

Below are some coverages on The Killing Fields and its hero, Dith Pran, who devotes most of his life for Cambodia's causes and genocide prevention. The collection includes his book, various articles, interviews and videos. Also are his biography and his last words. It's an old and most-debated topic but hard to forget. It's a must for Cambodians to remember to prevent such horror from happening again. As he said during his last interview, one Killing Field is many; one is enough. Just compile it for review on his death anniversary. May he rests in peace. May his causes and spirit live forever.

Killing Fields' survivor Dith Pran dies
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080330/ap_on_re_us/obit_dith_pran
Real hero of The Killing Fields, Dith Pran, dies
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article3642909.ece
Your Dith Pran reader- Various articles frome The Times
http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2008/03/dith-pran-a-rea.html
NY Times Achieves- Dith Pran
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/dith_pran/index.html?8qa&scp=1-spot&sq=Dith+Pran&st=nyt

Prasat Preah Vihear

Recently Preah Vihear has become a hot issue between Cambodia and Thailand again. What is special about the historic temple? You will see how great it is after seeing its photos, studying its architecture, reading its history and watching its videos.
Location
Preah Vihear Temple is located in a pleasant environment with an attractive countryside slightly east of the mid section of Dongrek Mountains. It perches on the edge of a giant cliff, about 625 meters in Preah Vihear Province, north of Cambodia, about 625km from the capital city Phnom Penh. It is also close to Thai border.
The Structure of the Temple
The temple has four levels and four courtyards comprising of five Gopuras ( entrance pavilions some times surmounted by tower )Palace Building or Gopuras on the third level.
The group of buildings was the King’s residence when he came to pay homage to the mighty God , and the two wings were the shelters for the pilgrims. The main temple are used for high-ranking supreme divinities. This mighty group of building is considered as the center of the whole temple complex.
The front stone stairway : this main passage is on the North side. The stairway is 8 meters wide and 78 meters long. The first flight has 162 steps. At the first landing is a large stone singa statue on stone block. Another 54 flight of steps, 4 meters wide and 27 meters long, leading up to the second landing is also decorated with stone signa statue.
The Nagaraj Courtyard : this stone-paved is 7 meters wide by 31.8 meters long. From here the stairway leads up to the first-level Gropura. The stair heads are in the form of seven-headed snakes called "Ngu Suang " facing North towards the Prasat. The heads and tails of nagas on both sides look like ordinary snakes, characterizing and early example of this type of animal figures. The head portion of the naga on the west side looks very impressive because it is made from a single solid stone.
The first level Gopura : this is a pavilion in Greek architecture style with cross plan on an elevated, rebates angle base on each of the roof doorway . Stone lions are placed on each of the roofs doorway.
Accessibility to the Temple
The temple can be reached by crossing the Cambodia-Thai gateway border from the Ubon Ratchantani Province of Thailand. Currently the visits are from 8.00 till 16.00 hours.The Grandeur of its site
For all the grandeur of its site, perched on the edge of a giant cliff and with a commanding view over northern Cambodia, Preah Vihear is difficult to visualize as a whole. The experience is truly a memorable one – the series of ascents over the best part of a kilometer, the ornate Gopuras and the wealth of decorative detail truly staggers one’s imagination.

Click on the title link for its history. Preah Vihear authority website: http://www.preahvihearauthority.org/contents/biograpy.php

Preah Vihear videos on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhg49PtU-ss&eurl=http://www.preahvihearauthority.org/contents/biograpy.php

Faber Sees a Holiday in Cambodia for Investors

Extracted from Commentary by William Pesek

Bullish

"Cambodia offers an enormous potential for future capital gains,'' says Faber, the Hong Kong-based investor and publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom report. "It may take some time, as was the case for Vietnam and India, where stocks languished for a number of years before huge upward trends in asset prices developed. But patience was amply rewarded.''

Contrarian Bet

Cambodia is a contrarian investment with a capital "C.'' For every positive trend cited in this column, one can find a reason, or two, to avoid the place. While Cambodia has great promise, says Simon Ogus, chief executive of DSG Asia, it has a long, long way to go before many investors are willing even to consider putting money there. For one thing, he says, "the monetary system is 95 percent dollarized'' and the country lacks a bond market.

P0verty and Potential

Cambodia's challenges run deeper. Crushing poverty means all too many aren't being educated to compete globally. Good roads, bridges, and power systems are in short supply. The export-dependent economy is vulnerable to a U.S. slowdown and rising fuel costs.
Corruption means double-digit growth doesn't get very far anyway. In Transparency International's 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index, Cambodia ranked 162nd -- behind Bangladesh, Zimbabwe and Tajikistan.
Cambodia also is sitting on a discovery that will either attract investors or have them aggressively avoiding the country: oil. While deposits are still being estimated, the potential of Cambodia's petroleum industry is attracting interest from BHP and Chevron.

Yet investors are searching for the next generation of developing-market stars now that the "BRIC'' economies- Brazil, Russia, India and China- and Vietnam have been discovered. Watching neighboring Vietnam thrive also may inspire Cambodia's government.
If oil profits are used to improve education, reduce poverty and upgrade infrastructure, investors who took a chance on Cambodia will be, in Faber's words, amply rewarded.

Home-coming

I've been in Cambodia for a week. Went straight to my hometown upon arriving at the airport to celebrate Chinese NY there. It was exhuasting but happy to unite my family, esp my cute nephews and niece. Many things have changed, for better or worse. Construction boom and income gap are obvious, and inflation is incredible. It SEEMS that Cambodia is not a poor country any more. Just back to Phnom Penh this morning. Will have to explore more. Will post some nice photos and observation latter.

Roatha007

Cambodian Bourse Planned for 2009

Financial Times, January 22 2008

South Korea's stock exchange and the Cambodian government have agreed to set up a stock exchange in Phnom Penh in 2009, the latest signal of the optimism sweeping the fast growing but deeply impoverished country.

Cambodia’s economy is booming, having grown an average of 9 per cent a year for the past decade, propelled by surging foreign tourist arrivals, garment exports, construction and improvements in agriculture, and Phnom Penh is today keen for all the trappings of a modern economy.

Most of the capital financing Cambodia’s rapid growth has come from external sources, including foreign aid and growing foreign direct investment. A senior World Bank official in Phnom Penh said Cambodia would increasingly need to rely on domestic savings. Local bank lending is surging. Credit to the private sector rose 60 per cent in 2007.

In spite of the rapid expansion, it is far from clear that Cambodia’s private sector, dominated by closely held family businesses, is ready to take the leap to go public. “The key issue will be to raise corporate governance standards,” the World Bank official said.

Cambodia helped Japan save billions in war redress

Japan effectively bargained over war compensation paid to Indonesia and other Southeast Asian nations after World War II, using as leverage Cambodia's 1954 offer to give up its claims to redress, according to archival documents released.

In October 1954, Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk communicated to Japan via a minister at the Cambodian Embassy in Japan his intent to give up the country's claims to compensation, hoping Japan in return would provide various forms of assistance.

Tokyo thanked Cambodia for the offer and told the minister Japan wanted to show this "example of a mutual offer and benefit based on trust and the spirit of friendship" to the other countries seeking huge amounts of compensation. Japan had been facing compensation demands of more than $ 10 billion from several countries, according to the diplomatic documents.

Japan team finds ancient water site in Cambodia

Japanese archaeologists said Monday they have found a man-made water channel in northwest Cambodia used for rituals as far back as the first century.
"Before, it was said that Khmer civilization started from the seventh to ninth century AD, but based on our research here, Khmer civilization went back to the first century AD," said Yoshinori Yasuda, a professor of the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto. He said that the discovered water channel may be the world's oldest, or some 600 years older than the Tikal ruins in Guatemala in the seventh to ninth centuries.
A series of discovery by Western and Japanese researchers recently have helped promote Khmer civilzation and tourism. Still, the main actor is the Khmer themselves: People tend value only things belong to the rich and the powerful. The French first didn't believe Angkor was built by the Khmer, referring to their inferiority at that time.

Is the word Yuon really literally derogatory?

By Navy Phim

I was reading Kenneth So's article on the word Yuon. I would like to submit my piece on it to your website also. It is an excerpt from my book "Reflections of a Khmer Soul. The word Yuon, like the term ethnic cleansing, has been a topic of many discussions in my journey. Yuon is a Khmer word that means Vietnamese. It is neither derogatory nor flattering. As we call Cambodia, Srok Khmer, we also called Vietnam Srok Yuon.In "Khmer Language and the Term Yuon," Bora Touch argues:To say that "yuon" means "savages," critics of the term are likely reliant on the Khmer Rouge's definition from KR Black Book (1978) p.9, a definition that is incorrect and baseless and was included by the KR for the purpose of propaganda. Some Khmer, including Khmer Krom, believe that "yuon" actually derives from "Yuonan," the Chinese word for Vietnam. Others believe it comes from the Yaun (Khan) dynasty, against whose armies both the Khmer and Cham did battle.But in Cambodia, Yuon has somehow become a politically incorrect word that some view as derogatory.Many Cambodian-Americans and local Cambodians disagree on the meaning of the word Yuon. If I were to accept that the meaning changed due to some occurrence in Cambodia and that people outside of Cambodia were out of the loop, I would hope that the world could accept that Yuon can still be used neutrally without a supposedly derogatory connotation. But I'm not convinced that the word has changed in meaning. I think people may change it for their own agenda. Unfortunately, it can bring misunderstanding and animosity when Yuon is used in Cambodia.The new acceptable term for Yuon is Vietnam. I also saw an Internet discussion asserting that the Laotian word for Vietnamese is Yuon or Kaew. To be able to live and have the dignity to use your language without others telling you that certain words have a negative connotation is a luxury that Cambodians do not have. Excerpt from "Reflections of a Khmer Soul"http://www.navyphim.com/

The new 2,000 riel banknote

The 5th gopura at Preah Vihear is denoted on the new 2,000 Riel banknote.

The National Bank of Cambodia has just entered into circulation a brand spanking new 2,000 Riel banknote. It's particularly topical as Cambodia has been desperately trying to get World Heritage status for the temple. In addition to extra slice of publicity amongst the country's currency, the authorities are also making changes at the temple itself. The souvenir and drink vendors have been moved out of the temple courtyards and down to the bottom of the first flight of stairs, and the word is that the village which sits next to the border crossing with Thailand, will also be cleared away pretty soon.

Adapted from Andy Brouwer

Sprawling Angkor Brought Down by Overpopulation

Cambodia's long-lost temple complex of Angkor is the world's largest known preindustrial settlement, reveals a new radar study that found 74 new temples and more than a thousand manmade ponds at the site.

But urban sprawl and its associated environmental devastation may have led to the collapse of the kingdom, which includes the renowned temple of Angkor Wat, the study suggests.

Why is Cambodia now such a miserable country while our ancestors are among the greatest achiever on earth? Without answers, the history could repeat itself.

One Big Happy Family

Cambodia's rough-and-tumble politics have long been bloody, marred by frequent political assassinations and violence. But never before have they been quite so blood-linked. One big happy family, 2.5 million destitute families.

Gem Miners of Bokheo

Friday, December 14, 2007
By Andybrouwer

Mining gems, mostly zircon, has taken place for over fifty years in the area surrounding Bokheo, about 30kms east of Ratanakiri's provincial capital of Ban Lung, along that horrendous road I've referred to in previous posts. There's no big mining operation taking place though, its basically a series of deep holes dug into the fields surrounding the small town. Most remain open and unfilled long after the mining has stopped and moved onto another location, so present a danger to wandering tourists like me.`
There were 10 miners at our location, taking it in turns to either squeeze into the 15 metre holes and work in cramped and dangerous conditions underground or to sift through the soil that's brought to the surface for the zircon gems that are in the seams below ground. Sometimes they are lucky and they find a big stone, most times they find smaller, worthless gems. A buyer makes regular trips to the miners to survey their finds. Prices depend on the quality of the stone. A good stone can be the equivalent of a month’s salary, so the miners work in teams of close friends and family as trust is an important factor when sifting through the soil. Foot holds are cut into the inside walls of the hole and below ground some of the more elaborate mines are connected by shafts and tunnels. The work is hard and risky, with only simple tools available, buckets and hand-turned winches to bring the soil to the surface. The buckets are then emptied and the search for the gems begins, aided by a regular swig of rice wine.

Click on the title to see images.