Environmental Un-Awareness

I remember when I was a young child and many people in the United States threw trash on the ground or out of car windows, never giving much thought to the environment.  Then there came along a “Don’t Be a Litterbug” campaign and slowly attitudes and practices changed to a strong environmental consciousness in the US today.

In Cambodia, we are still at the stage of the US 70 years ago.  Here is a picture of a small Phnom Penh street stall selling breakfast.  Notice it is the custom to throw any napkins or food scraps on the ground.  It seems counter-productive–and certainly un-hygienic and ugly–since someone has to come along and sweep up the trash a little later.  Also, in this picture notice all the single-use plastic straws in the gutter and already heading toward the sewer where they will be washed into the Mekong River and then into the sea.

Buddhist Fund-Raising

Organizations collect money in Cambodia just like everywhere else in the world, but here they don’t use robocalls and direct mail.  It’s a more people-to-people approach here where figures like these process through the streets accompanied by a tuk-tuk with a loudspeaker announcing the presence of the figure–and the accompanying woman who collects the money for a Buddhist organization in this case.

It’s not my night….

When I tried to fire up my main computer a few minutes ago, it refused to cooperate.  I took it apart and tried cleaning all the contacts but the drive may be shot so I’m using my little netbook that I use for trips to write this.

Tomorrow morning I head for Siem Reap for a meeting of all of our staff.  I’ll be back in Phnom Penh on Friday afternoon, but should be posting from the retreat center where we are staying.  And I hope my computer will be working when I get back!