Cambodia hosts USA vs China

We live in a flat above a family who live in the two ground floor apartments. Gran and Grandpa (the owners), live in one, and their daughter and her husband live in the other. We generally have small conversations, only ever in the courtyard, discussing whether we are going out to eat or what food we have bought to cook; how hot it is or whether it will rain; and lately, when our parents are coming to visit or have they left yet. All stuff we can manage and then there is a realisation that the conversation can go no further, we say thank you, smile, bob our heads and scurry away.

But one day, who would have believed it, change happened.

Of the six flats you can see, ours is bottom left - kind of above my Dad's head.

This year, Cambodia is the chair of ASEAN (kind of like Asia's EU or Africa Union) meaning that Cambodia had a much larger role in regional affairs, and played host to lots of conferences and motorcades. And it was as Obama's plane arrived into Phnom Penh that Gran, going straight past the usual conversations, invited Claire into her home to watch Obama step onto the tarmac and into a motorcade that would snake through Phnom Penh.

The arrival of Obama had been talked about for weeks before. People began preparing protests to appeal for his help with land and human rights issues, or to release prisoners believed to be innocent. The media began speculating about who he would meet while in Cambodia and what he would say. The US Presidential election even became news.

In an interesting aside, my boss wanted Obama to win the election because he felt wars would be more likely if Romney won. 

But for the other 50 weeks of the year, it is not Obama or America that dominates, but China. In 2011, Chinese investment totalled $1.9bn, ten times that of the US. In 2012, China has given $500m in soft loans and grants to Cambodia, plus a $24m gift that Cambodia can use as it wants. Behind these numbers are the Chinese people and businesses playing a larger role in every day life, such as building a major new bridge that will replace one built by the Japanese.

The 2012 investments came at the same time as China was showing "appreciation", in the words of the Cambodian Secretary of State for Finance, for how Cambodia kept the issue of sovereignty over some islands in the South China Sea off the ASEAN agenda. This dispute involves Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia (all ASEAN members) and China (not a member but attends meetings).

Obama, Hun Sen (PM of Cambodia), Wen Jiabao (Premier of China)

So it was considering all of these things that I asked my boss, Rithy, whether more Cambodians have heard of Barack Obama or Wen Jiabao or Hu Jintao. He had no doubt that it was Obama. And whilst Wen Jiabao and Hu Jintao have come and gone with motorcades, flags and fanfare, Gran had never invited us to watch these on TV. In fact, I'm not sure they were even on TV.

I bet if you asked the Cambodian youth, especially in Phnom Penh, if they want to live a life like people in China or America do, they would choose America. Whilst China has cash, America has allure.

Gordon

PS, just referring back to paragraph one, if you are ever in Cambodia and somebody asks you whether you will fry your eggs, just say yes rather than trying to explain scrambled eggs in Khmer.

A New Year surprise in Siem Reap

I had heard about Pub Street in Siem Reap before seeing it and it evoked hazy memories of alcohol soaked holidays in Gran Canaria and Crete when I was 20. I feared that I when I saw it in its (drunken, pink) flesh, it could be enough to make me ashamed of my own kind.

It isn't subtle and certainly is full of tourists wanting a drink, but it is more a street of restaurants and bars where you can sit and relax than pubs full of ripened Westerners belching lager. But this was in August, and we were going there for Hogmanay (New Year's Eve to non-Scottish readers), so any kind of transformation could occur.

Pub (St)reet, Siem Reap. There is also one on the road next to it with flashing neon arrows pointing the way just in case you were drunk enough not to find it. 

Apart from wealthier people in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodian youth are usually home by 9pm, the family reins proving strong. The importance of the family also means that traditional  celebrations take place at the family home rather than out in the streets. Maybe it is because "International New Year", Khmer New Year is in April, is not a traditional holiday that the celebrations for this holiday weren't traditional either.

We came out of the Old Market at 10pm and to witness a mass of Cambodians standing, dancing and singing in a main street. Occasional waves of cheers and screams rose up over our heads for no obvious reason. Maybe the crescendos were acting like valves releasing the swelling excitement of a public party that Cambodians didn't know how to control.

And this isn't even Pub Street! The view from Blue Pumpkin Cafe

We squirmed into the upstairs of Blue Pumpkin Cafe for ice cream (I had beer) and heard the screams and cheers rising again, prompting us to rush to the window in case they were for Psy performing Gangnam Style live, only to see that nothing had changed. They were just cheering because they wanted to.

And it was this transformation that was astounding. Cambodian behaviour could be stereotyped by rigid rules, family first and no public displays of emotion but here were hundreds of kids aged 16 - 25 whose kindred spirits might be those who danced to Bill Haley and the Comets in the 1950s. Home by 9? These kids were rocking round the clock past midnight.

Check out the 20 sec video that I took: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h91X3kB0hc

Easing through the excitement, we turned the corner into Pub Street to be met by a wall of people and noise. Cambodians were hanging over balconies, standing on pavement-bar tables and jumping up and down to the music. Then we were soaked, proof that young Cambodians knew that some traditions, throwing water during celebrations, were worth keeping.

The Cambodian youngsters in Siem Reap were probably ones who had gone to Siem Reap for the holiday meaning they are wealthier ones and more likely to be exposed to Western ways. Rigid rules are relaxed somewhat when you are not playing in your own town where it can reflect on your family. But this wasn't just a party of wealthy Cambodian tourists, I saw parents with children, very likely from Siem Reap, standing there taking it all in too.


Cambodians had retaken Pub Street, found their own expression of partying and made it a New Year to remember.

From L to R: Khmer guy in hooped polo shirt, Claire (co-author of this wonderful blog), Trish (or Pat, my Mum's cousin who was beginning a cycle ride from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville the next morning at 8am...), Alison (Trish's/Pat's friend - also doing the cycle), Sam (VSO vol and author of Hand-painted signs of Kratie), Gilly (VSO vol, muse for Sam's book), Owen (Sam's brother who was visiting). Gordon took the pic.

Sua s'dey ch'nam tmey (hello new year - what Cambodians say instead of Happy New Year)

Gordon