eateggs

In re: mute (two posts previous)

When I posted, as per the BBC, the US had only given $100,000 in relief funds. I am aware that, since then, the US has allocated $20 million and pledged up to $50 million in support.

Likewise, the information on donating to UNICEF of the Red Cross/Red Crecent is now readily available.

Although I appluad the American government for this very generous sum, it’s not enough to distract me from the fact that, exactly as the world community witnessed with Katrina, this was not released in a timely manner. I understand, of course, that it’s inconvenient for 23,000 people to die on a Saturday, of course– natural disasters, after all, should only happen Monday through Friday between the hours of 8:00AM and 5:00PM Eastern Standard Time. But in the two days between Saturday and 8:00AM Monday morning, thousands of people died. Thousands and thousands more are still without shelter, food or drinkable water. And yes, I admit, the US is doing what it can to help now. And that’s important, and will continue to be important for the weeks and months to come. But the American response was untimely (or maybe our senators were just unwilling to get out of bed on a Sunday).

Ug. I’m sorry I’m sarcastic and bitter. I’m sick. And tired. Don’t those two always go together? Yesterday was 14 hours of sniffling and blowing my nose on a bus between Phnom Pehn and Bangkok. Today I feel worse. I don’t mean to complain (no, actually, I probably do), but it’s sort of a catch 22: do you go to class without the aid of drugs, and be so miserable you can’t pay attention? Or, do you take the drugs, and then retain nothing from class?

I owe some people some phone calls, I know. When I’m feeling well enough, I’ll give you a ring.

Over 19,000 people confirmed dead, with 42,000 people injured, and countless people still trapped under millions of tons of rubble or suddenly homeless, separted from family, in need of medical attention… and the benevolent United States has allocated $100,000 in relief funds. Whoo. We spent twenty times that on the war in Iraq today. And more Americans probably died. A tragedy. But the scope of the nigh $200,000,000,000 spent on the war in Iraq… in the scope of 19,000 lives lost… and America responds by releasing enough aid to buy one middle-class American home.

And WHERE, pray tell, are the multitudes of “click here to donate to some worthy organization that is helping save lives and provide shelter and comfort for the thousands displaced” links? How was Yahoo and the BBC and CNN so quick to instantly start pulling American charity to help– don’t let me minimize that tragedy, but please, let’s keep some perspective– the victims of Katrina?

Another catastrophy– how many in how few months?– and another seemingly catostrophic failure of the global community to respond.

Of course, what do I accomplish by complaining about it? What-ev. When the “donate to some aid organization” links start appearing, post them in the comments, please and thank you.

Friday was spent, from 5:00AM to about 4:00PM, visiting the various Angkor temples.

Sunrise at Ankgor Wat

One of over 200 enigmatic faces at Bayon temple:

Ta Phrom temple has not been restored, and the resulting fusion between 12th century temple and 800 years of forest:

If you’ve seen the film Tomb Raider, you might correctly think the above two images look familiar, as much of the Cambodian temple portion of the film was shot at Ta Phrom. Cool, eh?

A million pictures, with a hundred days time, by a photographer a hundred times more capable than myself would fail to capture the essence and sublime beauty of the temples.

After just barely catching the bus Friday morning, I arrived as a wildly popular celebrity in Phnom Pehn. The moment the bus pulled up, it was surrounded by throngs of remorque drivers and guest-house representatives. The moment I stepped off the bus, I was instantly surrounded by no less than thirty of them, all yelling loudly for my attention, shoving brochers in my general direction, trying to herd me to their vehicle, and just generally clammoring for my attention. I can’t even being to describe the experience– feeling clauterphobic, smothered, and entirely unable to form a clear thought; amusement, frustration, agitation, maybe some element of fear. My god.

Anyhow. After some work, the two Dutch girls that I was traveling with and I managed to find a decent guest house, where I am currently writing.

The rest of the day was spent getting slightly acquainted with Phnom Pehn. It contrast to Bangkok, Phnom Pehn is paradise– or, rather, many of the things that I dislike about Bangkok are absent in Phnom Pehn: the pollution, the noise, the eratic traffic, the lack of open space and greenery… Phnom Pehn has a million residents, but doesn’t seem to suffer for its size. The air is clean, the river is clean, the streets are generally quiet and less than crowded… In the more affluent portion of the city, parks are prevelent, and are filled by people as the sun goes down– eating, playing, talking, enjoying the splendor of the evening.

I’m unable to believe that Phnom Pehn is the same country that I was in two days ago.

Today has been less than productive, though I did manage to get an amazing sun-burn while driving my little rented motorbike all over the city.

I suppose I’ll post more details when I put the pictures up. Unfortunately, my lens is a little dirty, so all my pictures are a little blurry. Tsk. So it goes.

For me to try to document just the events of the last few days would require pages and pages and pages. And frankly, there’s a lot of exciting Cambodia out there, and I’m disinclined to while away my hours in an internet cafe. Ask me next time you see me and I’ll fill in the details.

To be short: in terms of development, Cambodia is to Thailand as Thailand is to the United States. And that’s not an exaggeration. This reality was driven home by the nine hours of hellish bus ride it took to pass from the Thai border at Poipet to Siem Reap. Part of the “road” had been paved at one point in time, but thirty years of tanks and landmines have collected their toll, leaving potholes the size of cars at such a frequency that we seldom moved faster than even a crawl. The road was only paved for the first four hours, and then became dirt, which was equally innavigable. Imagine the worst dirt road you’ve ever driven down, sustained for five hours.

The belabor the poor quality of the road only to stress that, with the exception of a small handful of cities, Cambodia isn’t a lesser-developed nation: it’s an undeveloped nation. 80% of Cambodians (of which there are currently about 12 million) are farmers– subsistance farmers. The villages we past were generally dark, save for small fires the front yard and the occasional glow of a television seen through the “walls” of the houses. No lights or running water, but televisions. Third world contradictions of development…

Needless to say, we did eventually arrive (just after midnight, having set out at 2:00PM), and were well rewarded. Thursday was spent seeing the Land Mine Museum (http://www.akiramineaction.com/) and the state ran war museum. At the war museum, my “tour” was led by a local university student named Kohn who lost his parents and his arm to a landmine. It’s difficult for him to pay for his education because employers are generally unwilling to employ “cripples,” but he volunteers at the war museum giving tours anyway.

Thursday night we headed out to Angkor Wat for the sunset:

Ar. And that’s where I’m going to stop for now, because I’m starving and this keyboard sucks. More later.

Although I can say nothing of hell, I can faithfully attest that I waded through high-water for a cup of coffee this afternoon.

For that matter, walking across a flooded campus has almost become routine the last few days.

My fish, after three and a half years, died yesterday. Number one. The control group, as it were.

I’ve stopped reading the newspaper. I find myself too distressed by it– too much burning with the knowledge of suffering and injustice, and my powerlessness to affect it. Instead, I’ve turned my reading to some history works and some American classics. It’s too easy to be uninformed about politics and world news, and too comfortable. For the time being, I choose my happiness over my informedness, and defy anyone to chastise me for that.

I will (some day!) give a cookie to who ever can correctly identify which totalitarian regime (hint: not the Bush administration!) the following excerpts describe:

Not long after the coup, crude signs appeared on store windows questioning the loyalty of [ethnic group] proprietors within. Word-of-mouth campaigns started boycotts of [ethnic group] establishments, from restaurants to automobile repair shops.

By early April [Year], [Dictator] had ordered his military to set up detention camps of holding centers for all [Ethnic group] citizens. Soldiers rounded up the [Ethnic group] and placed them in large abandoned buildings, where they were held as prisoners. One [dominant nationality] woman remembered a bleak detention center near her home. “The soldiers took over a deserted house near our [religious building] and the [ethnic group] had to live there. They had nothing. They slept on hammocks and had to sit in the compound all day with nothing to do. The women sat on the ground nursing their babies; the man just walked around. [Dictator] hated the [Ethnic group].”

The campaign grew into a pogrom. The government admitted to arresting some 30,000 [Ethnic group] and jailing 7,000 of them under suspicion of treason. They did not acknowledge the stories of racial murders that were reaching [capitol city]. On April 10, [year], in the town of [town], eighty-nine [ethnic group members] were summarily killed by [Dictator’s] soldiers. There were unconfirmed reports of murders in other parts of the country-side. Two weeks later the army went after one of the biggest [ethnic group] communities, the largely Catholic [ethnic group] settlement on the isthmus…

The soldiers came at night and took the men away, some 800 [ethnic group] laborers. They tied their victims’ hands behind their backs and shoved them onto waiting boats. Then the soldiers executed every man and threw the bodies overboard in the [river]. For days, these bloody, bloated corpses floated on the waters, an open, hideous warning to all [ethnic group] living in [country].

Bonus points to anyone that can fill in the omitted text (heh– or should I say “Bonus points, Meekyung, if you can fill in the omitted text–?”).

Along those lines, I’m done with midterms, with the exception of my Thai-language course. They were a joke, but I fear for my life with regards to next week’s Thai exam.

I’m leaving for Cambodia tomorrow. I’ll be gone till Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. I may find occasion to stop in an internet cafe, but I certainly wouldn’t count on it. If, for some reason, you should find that you need me desperately, I’ll have my cell phone with me.