Author: Charles Dittmeier

Motorcycle Loads #251

Chickens don’t get no respect in Cambodia!

First they’re trussed up an laid out on the ground so that the motorcycle driver can load them efficiently.
Then they head out for their last ride. I can’t imagine it’s a very pleasant experience because no one’s thinking about their welfare.

Thank You, Aaron

Aaron Wong is a sign language linguist from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.  For the last three weeks he has been in Cambodia, training the members of our sign language committee in the basics of sign language linguistics to help them promote and develop the national sign language better.  Aaron has done a wonderful job, a resource that we have waited for for several years.  Today was the last day of the training and after the deaf students expressed their appreciation for his work, Charlie Dittmeier offered him two of the DDP khramas that we give to our visitors.

Hey, Why Can’t We??!!

Today in a ceremony turning over new China-donated fire trucks to local fire stations, the Interior Minister asked the firemen (and women?) not to demand payments and bribes when they arrive at the scene of a fire.  How novel!

But his plea could be counter-productive.  Who the heck wants to be a fireman if you can’t rip off people and make money for yourself!  Not to worry, though.  Probably not much will change in the behavior of the fire department personnel (a division of the police in Cambodia) because my guess is a good percentage of the money they extort from fire victims gets passed up the line to superiors.

Notable Lies

Lesley Stahl of CBS’ 60 Minutes arranged the first interview with Donald Trump after his 2016 election.  Here is what she reports about that meeting:

“At one point, he started to attack the press,” Stahl said. “There were no cameras in there.”

“I said, ‘You know, this is getting tired. Why are you doing it over and over?'”…. Stahl recalled.

“And he said: ‘You know why I do it? I do it to discredit you all and demean you all so that when you write negative stories about me no one will believe you.’”

What’s in YOUR Front Yard?

This is a picture of the front yard of the Maryknoll office in Phnom Penh.  Our guards–who are basically bored silly all day and night–grow different things throughout the year.  At present we have growing there a pineapple (yellow circle) and orchids (pink circle)—and the guard’s laundry on the rack on the right.  How many of you have orchids and pineapples growing in your yards?

Where do the names come from?

In many cities around the world, major streets and boulevards have been given the names of famous people who lived one or two hundred years ago–or even longer.  Many times the person for whom the street is named has long since been forgotten.

The pattern is different in Phnom Penh where the Khmer Rouge tried to establish their own Year Zero in the 1970s.  Here is a contemporary street sign that reflects more modern history:

Charles De Gaulle Blvd reflects the French colonial era which ended in 1954.

Tchecoslovaquie is the French form of Czechoslovakia, one of the Eastern bloc countries that supported Cambodia when the West would not.

Oknha is the title given to a person who donates a lot of money to the ruling party and so is honored with a street named for himself.

Monireth is the name of the queen mother and recognizes the royal family.

And then there’s Colonel Sanders!

Plans Gone Awry

I had planned to do a more extensive spread of pictures here today but everything today–giving a talk for Mother Teresa’s sisters and a meeting with new St. Vincent de Paul Society members—took longer than expected and I just ran out of time.  Next Sunday, for sure.

I did run across this young man hauling empty (I’m guessing) foam coolers through the streets this morning.  With a little ingenuity and a lot of tape, you can secure some big loads to motorcycles.