Drugs, cocktails, malaria

Without a degree in medicine or microbiology, it’s a bit hard to know how far the results of this joint Cambodian-Chinese study will reach. But even from a layman’s perspective, the numbers look quite impressive.

Kampong Speu Gov. Kang Heang said malaria prevalence among children in the province has been reduced from 36.19% to 0.13%, according to the provincial health information unit and data from Li Guoqiao of Guangzhou University.

The magic elixir is a multi-drug combination known as Artequick, an artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT). Multi-drug combinations, or cocktails, first gained recognition with their use against the HIV/AIDS virus.

In related news, The New York Times interviews Dr. Arata Kochi, the World Health Organization’s abrasive new leader of WHO’s global malaria program, who’s got his own iron fist.

Is Sam Rainsy high?

The recent Sam Rainsy Party proposal for determining the results of village chief elections is not really the kind of thing a “democracy advocate” should be caught saying in public:

The Sam Rainsy Party will boycott the national village chief elections if the CPP does not agree to share a set number of the positions with the SRP, regardless of the outcome at the polls, SRP officials said Tuesday.

SRP lawmaker Eng Chhay Eang said he no longer believes the party can succeed in the elections, which started in May. He alleged that the CPP has bribed Funcinpec commune councilors to vote for CPP village chiefs, and said he feels that the CPP will not recognize SRP village chiefs if they are elected.

More or less, democracy champions the idea that votes get counted. Do the Sam Rainsy people not get that? While fears that the CPP will corrupt the results may be legitimate, corrupting them back in Sam Rainsy’s favour regardless of the vote count hardly qualifies as a solution.

If that’s the case, then why go through the charade of voting in the first place?

Idiot of the week (American edition)

Is it even worth pointing out the idiocy of stuff like this?

The fact that the Khmer Rouge were able to rule the country with an iron fist in part because of the strict gun control laws in place has been lost on the United Nations.

Jealous monkey eases pain with ABC Stout

File this one under “Why is it not surprising that she would only drink the most expensive beer on the menu?”

Kay Kimsong
The Cambodia Daily

Forestry officials will investigate reports that customers at a Battambang province restaurant have been plying a pet monkey with multiple cans of ABC Stout after it developed a taste for the eight-percent alcoholic drink, an official said Wednesday.

Three-year-old Mira recently started drinking at least three cans of stout per day, apparently to cope with jealously caused by waitresses pretending to flirt with male customers, according to Rath Sorphea, owner of Sorphea Restaurant in Battambang district.

Scaring the tourists

Sounds like a guy named Scott has been working the lady tourists overtime:

An aid worker from the US called Scott told me the tale of a bike crash outside the bar we were in. One dead and one dying while Scott (who knows first aid) tried to hold his head together until an ambulance arrived. A crowd came to see and then a couple of police showed up. But they didn’t help, they leant down and took the watch from the man who Scott was trying to save. Before the guy was dead (which he was long before the ambulance arrived) his bike had been dragged up the street for scrap. Life here it seems is cheap. There are many cases in Phnom Penh of people being accidently hit by a car. Then the driver gets out and shoots the victim dead. The reason being is that the bribe for murder is $650, but hospital costs are far higher so its cheaper to gun them down than pay the hospital costs.

Guys will say anthing, won’t they.

Everybody hates a tourist

The Independent was apparently suffering a case of the vapors last week when it published this article with the headline ‘Temples doomed by tourism’.

The ever increasing number of tourists to Angkor Wat each year presents its problems, but it’s hardly out of control. As the story points out, the World Monuments Fund has just spent 18 months devising a $3 million restoration strategy for Phnom Bakheng alone.

Further, Angkor Wat is on neither the 2006 World Monuments Watch 100 Most Endangered Sites nor the World Heritage in Danger List, a fact conveniently overlooked by the story’s author.

That’s not to say that challenges don’t lie ahead, but to imply that the temples as a whole are falling apart, or worse, that they are “doomed,” is just dopey.

This week in Cambostan

Under the duress of a 7am vegetarian breakfast, phnomenon admits a fondness for human jerky [phnomenon]

So that’s why their striking [vuthasurf]

In light of the dangers of bird flu, chickens will be replaced with Landrovers [khmerang]

Dog? It taste like goat! [webbed feet]

Cambodia’s junior science olympians get paid [wanna]

Even at your best watering hole, some guys just can’t get a drink [sweet cucumber]

Futility cubed

Today’s Cambodia Daily reports that Sralanh Khmer newspaper editor You Saravuth has filed a lawsuit against Hun To for making threats against his life. Hun To is a nephew of Prime Minister Hun Sen and has what could be called a thuggish reputation.

Based on its merits, even You’s attorney admits he has approximately zero chance of winning the case.

Lawyer Chhit Sarith said the lawsuit, filed in Phnom Penh Municipal Court, accuses Hun To and several others of inciting the attempted murder of his client, though he conceded that no such attempt was ever made.

This seems incredibly, incredibly daft. Not only is the case destined to fail, but even worse, it will give political cover to those who would champion the court’s independence.

UPDATE: Khmer Intelligence gets hold of the “threat letter“.

Stopping torture

Today is International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, and a statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission calls out many Asian governments for their lack of progress on the matter: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and, of course, Cambodia.

Torture also occurs in Cambodia because of inadequacies in law enforcement techniques and the weakness of the judiciary that fails to confront the police about the use of torture. Claims of torture by victims in court are rarely, if ever, investigated. The acceptance of confessions in court encourage the use of torture in police stations as a way to “solve” crimes. The police employ torture to also extort money from victims. Moreover, there is a fear of prosecuting powerful or protected offenders. As a result, a climate of impunity prevails.

At risk of stating the obvious, Cambodia has some work to do in this area.

UPDATE: As it turns out, June 26 is also International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, which Cambodia acknowledged by burning 16 kilos or herion, 1.9 kilos of powdered methamphetamine, 1.25 kilos of cocaine and 76 kilos of weed in a ceremony at Olympic Stadium, according to the Daily.

Eyes on the prize

Another showdown between the Free Trade Union and the government has been brewing for some time. Yesterday, reports the Cambodia Daily, 90 garment factories "agreed" to strike for higher wages on July 3.

"The government does not raise workers' wages, so we must go on strike" unless a solution is found before that date [FTU President Chea Mony] said.

The first part of that quote is true, of course. The government does not raise workers’ wages. It can legislate minimum wage policies or offer incentives to encourage factories to pay more, but the reality is that the government just doesn't have much say in the matter of what private companies pay their employees. So striking against factory owners as a way of influencing government policy seems more than a little misdirected.

Robbing the bank

The Cambodia Daily reports in its weekend edition that the World Bank has, in fact, given the government fairly detailed evidence of the Bank's allegations of corruption.

Although the government claims the World Bank has not given enough evidence to support its allegations of corruption in seven bank-funded projects, documents obtained on Thursday show that the bank has named some companies and detailed the corrupt schemes that allegedly occurred.

Of course it did. But it did not do so straight away, and there's something unusual about that. The Bank spent a year researching the projects, yet it went public with the allegations, apparently, before it was prepared to show its evidence to the government.

A simple act of arrogance, or a calculated slap?

At the time it looked like both. Unsurprisingly, the government reacted with righteous indignation and accused the Bank of pandering to the media. Then came calls of flimsy evidence and impure motives.

The Bank has yet to disclosed how much money it expects refunded, but the figure is insignificant. Either the government gets in line, or it doesn't. The government can stay on the gravy train by repaying the World Bank what it asks and in the future devise new and better ways to hide the sugar. Or it can walk away.

There are rumours that Hun Sen is contemplating default, which may not be as crazy as it sounds. World Bank policies are notorious for sacrificing long-term growth for short-term stability. The country could do worse than try and stand up on its own.

The question then becomes, could the World Bank quit Cambodia. If Hun Sen calls the Bank to account, it may have to. That would be virtually unprecedented, and it’s not at all clear how the Bank or the larger donor community would react. Few, if any, would have given the possibility much thought.

For the likelihood of Hun Sen forgoing easy World Bank funds is practically nil. The smart money is always with the sugar.

The cold, hard reality

The problems facing Cambodia really do at times seem intractable.

I am [a government employee] but I never go to work because low salary can not support my basic spending and family. So I decided to work for a non-governmental organisation. My government salary is 190,000 riel ($46) per month. If I have no extra job, I could not live on just my government salary. Nowadays, my government institution is blaming me of not going to work regularly. In fact I have no desk and table for work and I have no work as well. What is important is that they need my daily signature. When I went to my institution, most of us always stand under the tree, where is our office.

As a general summary on Cambodia this does quite well. Responsibility at every level has been forfeited and making a buck often passes for intelligence. That the guy doesn't have a desk to sit in or, you know, do any actual work, does not appear to bother his superiors in the slightest. It's hard to imagine incompetence taken to such grandiose levels.

Despite what makes the headlines, it’s not just the corruption that plagues Cambodia. For all the desk-thumping about corrupt officialdom, this is just pure amateur hour all the way, malfeasance is simply a byproduct.

UPDATE: Third paragraph edited for clarity.

Celebrating Freedom

To Whom It May Concern,

Because you might be a terrorist, you will not be invited to the United States Embassy and Freedom Sanctuary for July 4th festivities, where true, government-approved Freedom lovers who have passed a background Freedom check and had their persons physically searched will be allowed past the armed Freedom guards and towering Freedom fence to eat hot dogs and Freedom fries and listen to government-approved messages about our incredibly awesome Freedom.

Sucks to be you.

Sincerely,
United States Embassy and Freedom Sanctuary
Phnom Penh

Kawasaki Bulldog

Having watched Honda pretty much own the Cambodian market for years, Kawasaki recently announced the introduction of two new machines specifically tailored for today's Cambodian driver (photo after the fold).

Stop press!

From Agence Kampuchea Presse today comes this breaking news:

Phnom Penh, June 23, 2006 AKP — A Petanque match to selected 2006 national championship closed at the national stadium in Phnom Penh on June 20 in the presence Deputy Prime Minister HE Sok An, cabinet minister.

The five-day competition was attended by 241 men and 24 women athletes from 33 Petanque clubs across the country.

Thirty-three petanque clubs in Cambodia, betcha didn't know that.

UPDATE: The point is, there's a country to run, squatters to evict, prison riots to quell, World Bank money to, um, anyway, and in case HE DPM didn't notice, there's a bit of footie on (psst!, the Boss picked Germany). So what's with the petanque already?

Bargain hunting on eBay

Stars & Stripes reports that two United States airmen have been busted for stealing 14 bulletproof vests and selling them on eBay. The vest are valued at more than US$1,000, but the pair sold them on eBay for an average of US$300. And then there's this:

The U.S. Air Force has only been able to recover eight of the vests, according to the 100th Staff Judge Advocate’s office. The six at-large vests include two that were shipped to Cambodia.

Kinda makes you curious, don't it?

Friday quotable quotes blogging

The Cambodia Daily reports today that National Police Commissioner Hok Lundy has dismissed accusations levied by Adhoc of police brutality.

"This accusation is not proper. Violence is not used as the solution for the people," [Hok Lundy] said.

Speaking about the recent Battambang prison riot, Hok Lundy had this to say Tuesday:

"The men who held our guard hostage were dealt with. It meant that the last decision was to destroy. …" Hok Lundy told reporters …

……

"I don't think the government is so bad it would mistreat people who inform about corruption."

So Vichea, an 11th-grader at Wat Koh High School, speaking about the government's demand that the World Bank name its sources for it corruption allegations.

……

"They choke the Chinese and the Cambodian tongue comes out."

Prime Minister Hun Sen, speaking about previous accusations of fraud involving the World Bank demobilization project. Hun Sen is implying that those allegations were actually fuelled by the bank's desire to undermine China's influence in the region. The contract in question was awarded to a Chinese company.

……

"The information of these so-called irregularities is spreading worldwide and this is harming the reputation of the government."

Keat Chhon, Minister of Finance, in a prepared statement released by the Ministry of Finance, referring to allegations of corruption made by the World Bank.

Cambodian deminers head to Sudan

According to this photograph caption in the Sudan Tribune, Cambodian deminers are headed to Darfur.

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen walks past a demining unit, during a ceremony before the departure of the Cambodian humanitarian demining unit for the United Nation peace keeping operation in Sudan, in Phnom Penh April 12, 2006. (Reuters)

Sambok Chab

Should it come as any surprise that along with the first semi-permanent structures to rise at Sambok Chab — the swath of land recently cleared of roughly 1,000 squatter families and their homes — is a shiny, new Cambodia People's Party sign?

Can he get a witness

As reported by AP yesterday, Prime Minister Hun Sen again demanded evidence of corruption from the World Bank. Without evidence, the prime minister said, the government could not pay the World Bank back.

The World Bank has said previously that it has given all the evidence it plans on giving.

But more intriguing was this:

Hun Sen prodded the bank to reveal its sources.

"What are they afraid of? If anonymous information can be taken as credible, where is justice in the world?" Hun Sen said.

Today's lead story in The Cambodia Daily makes it a bit clearer:

If the Bank does not disclose the names of the witnesses, it will be hard to forsee how the government can repay the money that the Bank has requested, [Hun Sen] said.

Hun Sen is now asking the World Bank to name its sources, too.

On the surface, of course, this is all just political kabuki. By making impossible demands, Hun Sen not only plays up to his reputation as the strongman, but postpones the day of reckoning.

But there's a little more to it.

By asking the Bank to name names — publicly, on television — the prime minister sends a message to others who might think about helping World Bank investigators.

Remember, the World Bank is currently investigating at least four other projects, possibly more. Those investigations are certain to reveal more misallocations of World Bank money. Not only does that means more millions for the government to pay back, but even worse, it almost certainly means more suspensions of World Bank projects.

Remember too that the World Bank is under new management, and should the new lords come to the realization that the Bank's policy in Cambodia is fatally flawed, that could have catastophic effects on the choo-choo.

Two Kampuchea Krom men reported missing in Vietnam

The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization reports that two Kampuchea Krom men have gone missing at the hands of Vietnamese authorities.

On behalf of the KKF (Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation), the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) would like to highlight and bring to international attention the current arrest, interrogations, torture and disappearances of three Khmer Krom individuals, Mr. Chau Sok Kha, Mr. Chau Siem and Mr. Chau Chien, persecuted on the sole basis of watching at home a VCD showing the KKF members’ participation at the Fourth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) at the UN Headquarters in New York.

Mr. Chau Sok Kha has been released — with broken ribs, arms, and legs — but the other two men are "reported missing, and are thought to be in Vietnamese’ incarceration and their lives in grave peril".

Welcome to Cambodia

Anyone who has stepped off an airplane and on to Cambodian soil knows the scenario:

As I stepped out of the small airport building into the hot sun, I was greeted by a horde offering accommodation and transport in a frenzy of shrewd, fast bargaining; and up for grabs was the pure-bred tourist stock who had come to witness the wonder of Angkor. "Going, going, gone … and the backpacker in the faded jeans goes to the man with the three-dollar-room."

A single woman traveling on her own, Charmaine Pretorius helps dispel the myth of a dangerous Cambodia. Stories like this really can't get told often enough.

Cambodian Muslims

This item in the Nation is next to impossible to verify, at least any time soon.

Sa Kaew- A Cambodia newspaper has reported that Muslims from Cambodia were among unidentified bodies found in mass graves in southern border provinces of Thailand, a senior police office said Monday.

The Nation doesn't identify the Cambodian newspaper. Hopefully some definitive answers will follow.

UPDATE: This is actually an old item, which the Daily reported back on June 1. No follow up as yet.

The silk route to nowhere

The Bangkok Nation on Monday takes an interesting look at the Siem Reap-based Institute for Khmer Traditional Textiles and the current rebirth of the Cambodian silk industry.

Founded by Kikuo Morimoto in 1995 in Phnom Penh, IKTT moved to Siem Reap in 2002. As the Nation tells it, the revival of traditional Khmer silk-weaving is Morimoto’s passion. He has given more than a decade of labour and his entire life savings to the project.

It has not been easy. There have been times in the past when salaries were late, but today monthly sales average about US$20,000, which covers cost. In 2004 Morimoto won a Rolex Enterprise Laureate Award, worth US$100,000, which he used to buy land and build an integrated silk-weaving village.

Morimoto’s dedication and commitment appear to have paid off. For who, though, is not exactly clear.

Ong Mary, 40, has been in the institute's workshop for several years and earns $40 a month. … With six years' experience in the workshop, Tak Lang, 71, earns $80 a month. … Morimoto emphasises that salaries depend on skill and length of service, largely ranging from $35 to $150 a month. The highest of $180 is drawn by a worker who has been with the institute for 10 years.

The story does not say what kinds of jobs these workers do, but even for part-time, unskilled labour, $40 per month is meager — especially when you see what the stuff retails for.

Read the whole story. It doesn't get any better.

Hard times for the World Bank

The month of June has not been kind to the World Bank. First the corruption scandal, and now this:

A leaked (World Bank) Inspection Panel investigation heavily criticises a forestry management project in Cambodia. The investigation, requested by local communities, the Cambodian NGO Forum and UK-based NGO Global Witness (see Update 46), finds the project helped private companies to produce forest management plans which were "deficient in almost all regards", failed to reduce poverty in Cambodia and, in the process, broke safeguard policies designed to protect human rights and the environment.

[ ... ]

The Bank-supported $5 million Forest Concession Management and Control Pilot Project was designed to improve forest management , but merely gave support to the same crony companies previously responsible for ransacking Cambodia's forests over the past decade.

But that's hardly news. For years the Bank has thumb its nose at outside advice and funded projects of questionable account, arguing all the while that engagement is a better choice than isolation. By sitting at the table, the engagement argument goes, the Bank can better use its substantial heft to sway government policy in a positive direction.

The Bank, however, never managed to find the moxie to get the job done. Instead of stifling bad policy, the Bank helped pay for it, a fact that puts the Bank quite uncomfortably in the company of the timber thugs it ostensibly set out to close down.

Phnom Penh Chic

The current issue of Saigon Inside Out gives a outsider's take of the goings-on down on Street 240.

Most cities have their in-streets, the places known to locals, but tucked away from the regular clip-clop of tourists' feet. In Phnom Penh it is Street 240 that manages to fuse boutique fashion shops, great places to eat and drink, and one perfect oasis to rest from the cacophony of motorbike drivers offering to take you to the riverfront.

The story then takes a pleasant saunter down the lane, pointing out this restaurant or that silk shop. Not unexpectedly, it has only good things to say about everybody. Well, almost everybody. Sandwiched between the Factory Lounge and Le Filao comes this cryptic quip:

Just down from there is the Freebird, an air-conditioned American-style bar with free Internet, which is very popular with larger than life Americans and Bryan Adam fans.

Bryan Adams fan? Now that is just plain insulting.

Gratuitous Angelina Jolie blogging

Not only does she have a new baby, Angelina Jolie has a new tattoo (pictures).

N11º 33’ 0” E104º 51’ 00”
N09º 02’ 00” E038º 45’ 00”

That's what it says. The top line is the latitude and longitude for Phnom Penh, where Jolie adopted her first child Maddox. Below that are the coordinates of the place in Ethiopia where Jolie adopted her second child Zahara.

Ohmygodthatmorphineisgood!

Leading by example

Also from the Daily, file this one under "NGOs contemplate expanding conflict-resolution programmes among primary education teachers and their district officials".

A member of the Cambodian Independent Teachers' Association was injured Saturday in a fight with a district education official over the posting of fliers advertising a teachers’ strike on July 3, union members and human rights officials said Sunday. Em Bunthy, a teacher at Wat Mohamontrey primary school in Chamkar Mon district, suffered injuries to the head when she and Yin Sokha, the district's education deputy director, began fighting as Yin Sokha started tearing down the fliers Em Bunthy had posted at the school.

Daring tourist police rescue Sihanoukville from bracelet sellers

The Cambodia Daily today has a story headlined “Vendors Say Tourism Police Taking Their Wares”. According to two souvenir sellers who work the beaches in Sihanoukville, tourism police in recent days have been confiscating bracelets bearing the flag of Cambodia.

One police officer who declined to be named said selling the bracelets was equivalent to “selling the country’s territory,” adding that they must be confiscated and destroyed.

Selling the country’s territory? Yeah. It's just like that.

Maybe it’s the powerful and addictive stimulants that tourist police in Sihanoukville should be confiscating.

Give me liberty or give me death

According to this Reuters story, a group of inmates at Battambang prison Sunday overpowered a guard and snatched his gun and hand grenade. The group then barricaded themselves into a prison cell, with the guard as hostage.

Presumably, the group of nine convicts wanted to escape. But barring freedom, death by hand grenade sounded like a pretty solid second choice.

After negotiations failed, police fired tear gas into the cell and rushed the hostage takers.

"As police fired the gas, an inmate put the grenade under our guard and pulled the pin," police official Seng Hor told Reuters by telephone from Battambang.

"They said they decided to kill themselves instead of surrendering," he said.

Investigation no doubt to follow.