International development? You can bank on it.

One of my less appealing characteristics is my ability to appear smug. One such time was during the banking crisis in 2008 when my mortgage with the Cooperative Bank, chosen because of their social contributions, fell along with interest rates to be the cheapest on the market.

Smugness was soon replaced by disappointment as despite everybody hating banks, they continued to give them all of their money. I couldn't understand this when there were banks like the Co-op or Triodos (invest in social, environmental and cultural organisations) offering a different banking model. My smugness fell even further when in Cambodia, I found myself promoting greater use of banks.

Perhaps unsurprisingly in a country without money, banks aren't that common in Cambodia. This means that Government sends budgets to schools and wages to civil servants by cash in cars, and school directors keep cash in their home. As money passes through the hands of the provincial office of education, to the district office of education, to school directors and then to teachers, the money gets lighter every time.

Before the election, a primary teacher had a starting salary of $75.50 p/m. Less than a garment factory worker. If some of that goes missing, then teachers are even more likely to need a second job meaning they miss classes. After the election, the government announced a rise to $102 but the details are unclear.

Looking into using the banking system, I found that one bank, ACLEDA, has greatly expanded in recent years and now has branches in approximately 80% of districts, covering the vast majority of schools and teachers. Understandably, ACLEDA were enthusiastic about the prospect of Government increasing its use of the banking system, and transaction costs would certainly be much lower than delivering by car.

International development agencies (EU, World Bank, UNICEF etc) are enthusiastic about this but the Government less so. In fairness, it would be a mammoth task to set up bank accounts and systems, but restricting the pilot to 1500 senior civil servants in Phnom Penh doesn't show a huge desire to change. However, they have just agreed with the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) that all schools will have a bank account within three years (the cynic questions whether they will be used...).

Children are meant to start grade 1 aged 6, but about one-third start later than that. Despite this, the malnourishment causes the children to be tiny and look really young.

 When meeting with ACLEDA, they began to talk about their ethos. It started as a not-for-profit and is still largely owned by its employees and then my smugness returned as I began reading that one of their largest investors who also provide advice was...ME! Well not exactly me, but Triodos, where my savings reside. I even felt proud to bank with Triodos - not a feeling many people have about their bank.

Understand this; your money is making a difference with whichever bank it is in. It can be used to invest in oil, defence or low-wage garment factories or it can be used to help some of the poorest communities wherever they are. You don't have to come to Cambodia to make a difference, in fact the biggest difference that we could make can be done by anyone, anywhere.

Giving it some high 5s in a school in Pursat, where our tuk tuk driver friend (Mr. Seng) is from.

 It's time to put your money where your mouth is.
Gordon

Key to Cambodian development? Google.

By the end of this blog, I bet 6 beers you that you will be able to read and write Khmer script.

This is the Khmer alphabet and the sounds of each letter.

VSO is all about sustainable development. Volunteers are meant to go to a developing country, share their skills and build the capacity of people living there, so that when the volunteer leaves, the volunteer is no longer needed anyway. Teach a man to fish rather than give him a fish type philosophy.

When I first arrived, one of the first things to hit me was that the NGO I work at (NEP) could not produce reports in English to a high enough standard for big, international organisations like UNICEF and the World Bank to respect them. Avid fans of this blog may remember a post about how important English is in Cambodia.

My winning 'sustainable' idea is to arrange for a pool of volunteers based anywhere in the world who could do some serious editing to reports. This could be ex-VSO volunteers, UN volunteers or even just folk who want to do a little good.

I shared this idea with somebody else who was a bit sceptical of it as it was not aimed directly at up-skilling Cambodians here and the ongoing need for volunteers was unsustainable. Her suggestion was intensive training for one or two key members of staff. The flaw is of course that when the staff leave, the NGO is back at square one.

After being pushed, I declared that the only truly sustainable way possible within the near future would be to get Google to have Khmer-English translation available on Google Translate.

Now Google Translate is obviously not perfect but I had already thought that if people could translate things into Khmer, then a whole world of knowledge could be opened up. One of the things that I have realised is that you cannot expect people to become knowledgeable when they cannot read the books or websites that hold the knowledge. As an English speaker, every book in the world is translated into my language. For Khmer speakers, there has probably been a handful. English is king on the internet too.

I began to think how I could get to Google, and then one of my friends began working for them. It was surely a sign. But a bigger one was an article a few months ago that said Google would include Khmer in it's Google Translate service  in 2013. Then on April 18th 2013, I sent this message to a colleague: ខ្ញុំស្រឡាញ់ Google.

You too can now understand what my message said. Simply copy and paste the message that I sent into Google Translate choosing Khmer into English.

Expect the next blog to be written in Khmer...

Gordon

PS, because Google Translate is not perfect, NEP will still need editors for maybe 2 reports a year so not much work at all. I want to trial this before I go in April 2014 as I think it could make a huge difference to shaping education policy in Cambodia. Email me: gordonconochie@yahoo.co.uk if you think you could help.

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.