I come from the future

Since the poll returned joint winners for what the next blog should be (1 vote each), I'm writing about something totally different. But rather like Series 2 of The Wire, it may not be the best, but if you want to understand everything that follows than you have to read it.

Before departing, I was explaining to a friend, Liane, what I was going to do - assist an educational charity with campaigning and advocacy. Then she asked a basic but rather meaningful question - why do they need you to do that? I scratched my head and hummed a little. Now I have an answer - it's to do with breaking the space-time continuum and travelling faster than the speed of light.

A while ago, I attended a seminar given by a guy called Matt Ridley (Zoe, I've still got your book!) who has written brilliant books about genetics, was the Chairman of Northern Rock when it went bust (kind of the UK's Lehman Brothers) and then wrote a book advising that all countries will become wealthy given time and avoidance of North Korea like policies. As countries join the development conveyor belt, a series of good things happen that lead to more good things happening that leads to us all having a good time. Woo hoo!

It's just a matter of time before we're all rich

We've made it!

Ridley is really saying that the explanation for different countries having different levels of wealth is because they are at different stages in their political development. The UK has had political stability, democracy and commerce for centuries. Cambodia would count this in years, months and days. Einstein may have thought that time and space cannot be separated but actually some countries sharing the same space are in different time periods.

For Cambodia, which has had about 15 years of peace after decades of war and centuries of colonisation, is it just like being in the US after their War of Independence in 1783, or more like 1865 and their civil war? Maybe Cambodia is like the UK in 1745, when the Jacobite rebels were finally defeated and the UK found political stability.

When we wonder why some countries cannot just sort themselves out and stop being poor, we should think about what our countries were like when they were at the same stage as Cambodia is now. A few men ruled, corruption was common, power came from wealth and force, rule of law was absent, the streets were dirty, the masses were uneducated and irrational beliefs were common.

But this does not mean that Cambodia has to wait 200 years to become a functioning, developed society. Although Cambodia may be at a different time to the developed world, they do share the same space, which means that people of the future (from the developed world) can travel to Cambodia and share with them the learning and skills that are common in the future. In this way, Cambodia can travel faster through time and catch up with the developed world quicker than they otherwise would.

Don't worry, it's Claire that is driving

Cambodia and Cambodians have not had the chance to reap the knowledge or learn the skills that we have accumulated over centuries. That is why I'm here. I come from the future to share what has taken us centuries to learn.

Gordon

PS, because this blog is maybe stretching credibility a little and a bit 'off-beat' I've added a couple of random videos to entertain you. The first is us out for a cycle through tobacco fields near Kompong Cham.

And the second is a tribute to the start of the rainy season which was this week. But since Claire has the camera away with her in Mondulkiri, we're making do with a rain storm when we were walking through the national park in Kep.