Life's a balance between cheap beer and prison

There have been so many things that I have wanted to write about Cambodia since I have arrived: disgusting income inequality; corruption; mass forced evictions; and unjust imprisonment. However, I put off writing about these things until people had the chance to understand where Cambodia is in terms of development, which was the whole point of this blog I wrote recently.

Plus, Cambodia is also about the kindness and friendliness of our Khmer colleagues and others, the wonder of swimming in waterfalls and volcanic lakes, the mad mass dance aerobic type thing that happens every morning and evening all over the city and of course the cheap price of a beer. But some Khmer people have more than the price of beer to worry about.

There are two English language newspapers in Cambodia, The Cambodia Daily and the Phnom Penh Post, and I quickly began to read about the issues I've highlighted above. Don't get too excited about Cambodia having a free press, the Khmer language newspapers do not quite cover the same stories or in the same fashion. When reading the first such story, I thought that I must write about what is happening, but I quickly realised that there was no rush - there would be plenty of stories to write about.

However, there are three stories that seem to encapsulate the struggles facing people in Cambodia: the murder/manslaughter of anti-logging campaigner Chut Wutty; the shooting of three garment factory workers  by the Bavet town Governor at a strike protest; and the imprisonment of 13 women who had built a wooden shack where the homes used to be after being forced from their land for property development. Their stories will be told in the next few blogs.

So how do Claire and I fit into this situation? Well, we don't. We live in a different situation. Our life can consist of art exhibitions, yoga, and mini (v mini) street parties for royal jubilees. It can also consist of street food, the local markets and cheap long distance buses. The difference is our freedom to have both. 

Could we put ourselves in a different situation? Could we be beside Chut Wutty, the striking garment workers and the imprisoned women? To an extent but not if we wanted to continue doing the work we came here to do as VSO volunteers. It would be hard to convince the Government that VSO is here to work with them to build capacity when you are viewed as supporting the opposition. And this is a country where the popular and elected PM is not afraid of saying they will "make the opposition dead".

There is an online network of mainly ex-pats living in Phnom Penh. One member recently replied to another, who had recently experienced low level corruption, finishing with this advice; "We enjoy the cheap cost of living but complain about the ways of Cambodia that make that possible." Our challenge is to lead an undeniably privileged life built on cheap living, our duties as volunteers and the work of VSO, whilst making sure we do not complain about the ways of Cambodia when they happen to us, but work to improve them because they are happening to others. 

Gordon