Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
This is the kind of silliness the people of Cambodia must put up with. Their government regularly, frequently, arrests–and jails–people for innocuous Facebook posts. It is not unlikely that some of the offensive posts are actually true, but true or not, the government officials are so sensitive and thin-skinned that a bit of criticism or negative comment draws the thought police. It’s an insult to the people of Cambodia….
In the US supermarkets put impulse purchases on display near the lines where people wait to check out. Because they see the items and they’re convenient, a purchase is more likely. Here in Cambodia there are all sorts of products available on the streets in the hope that people passing by will see the product–the vegetables in this photo–and decide to take some home for dinner. This little “market” is even more strategically placed because the gate on the right is for a garment factory and lots of young women workers will pour in and out of the gate during the day and will be reminded they need to get something for the evening meal.
The foreigners in Cambodia (and probably in other countries) often get into patterns of going to the same stores, interacting with the same people, etc., as one way of acclimating to the different cultural settings we find ourselves in. This is Shop No. 41 in the Russian Market, with the proprietor and her daughter. I have been going there for maybe seventeen years to buy Cambodian goods to take to the US or other places as gifts or souvenirs. She knows me and gives me a good deal and I keep coming back and leading my visitors to her place. I was there this afternoon to buy some gifts to take to England on Sunday when I fly there for my nephew’s wedding.
Recently I went to a graduation for a school for children with disabilities. Near the end the graduating students presented small gifts to officials who had come, as a little thank-you. When these two students with disabilities approached this official, he stood and at the same time his phone rang. He pulled out the phone and talked for three to four minutes while the two students–and the whole assembly–waited for him to accept his gift.
Now maybe it was his wife and she was calling with a special ring that they only use for real emergencies–but I suspect that was not the case. I suspect it was another example of the lack of respect and courtesy many government officials show toward the people they are supposed to serve.
Several years ago, we had a similar incident on Deaf Day. The main speaker and honored guest was a high official in a ministry. Right in the middle of her main talk, her phone rang–and she answered it! She talked for three or four minutes and we could hear every word from the microphone on the podium. She said she was busy at the time and then proceeded to set up a lunch date on another day. This is the disrespect and patronizing attitude so many in the government exhibit here.
Every year I attend the graduation of the Salesian Sisters’ girls schools: two of them in Phnom Penh and one in Battambang Province. I have mass every Friday morning at one of the schools so the students and the sisters know me.
Practically every day there are articles in the newspapers about corrupt government and military officials. It is really incredible how much this is just a normal part of the body politic. Click here for more.
Today I went to the Russian Market to get a replacement suitcase for one of mine that has lost its wheels. Actually it’s the Tuol Tum Poung Market, but it acquired the Russian Market name during the period when the Soviet bloc was keeping Cambodia afloat. You can get just about anything there, from hot food to a motorcycle carburetor, although you can no longer find the AK-47s and box of grenades that the older residents here remember.
These pictures make the stifling hot market look almost spacious, but maybe that’s because there were fewer people because of the downpour outside. That’s rainwater, coming through the roof, on the floor in the first picture. The aisles, as in the bottom photo, are just wide enough for two people to carefully squeeze past each other.
This post is also a trial of a new gallery function in WordPress that allows several photos to be automatically arranged by the software. I don’t find it all that impressive.
