Author: Charles Dittmeier

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.

High Water Time

You may have read about the dam collapsing in Laos the week before last and sending a whole lot of water south in the Mekong.  That water has now arrived in Phnom Penh and combined with the normal rains of this season has raised the water level on our riverfront quite high.  Normally these tourist boats, moored in the same place, would be out of sight with the river level about 15-20 feet lower.

Corruption in Cambodia

Transparency International rates the countries of the world according to how people perceive corruption in different areas of business, civic, and social life. TI is now rating 180 countries and Cambodia is 161 on the list. That means there is a LOT of corruption in Cambodia.

Example No. 2: Our Deaf Development Programme needs to take one of our students across the border to Thailand for medical treatment she can’t get in Cambodia.  I asked our social worker to find out about getting her a passport. The answer comes back that the Ministry of the Interior can’t give her a passport now because the minister is away and the minister has to deal with the girl because she is deaf.  What the h*** does being deaf have to do with having a passport?

The probable answer is: [1] the passport office person really is that incompetent that she thinks a deaf person needs something different to get a passport, or [2] someone in that office sees this as an opportunity to make money off a young deaf woman who needs medical care.

Corruption in Cambodia

Transparency International rates the countries of the world according to how people perceive corruption in different areas of business, civic, and social life.  TI is now rating 180 countries and Cambodia is 161 on the list.  That means there is a LOT of corruption in Cambodia.

An example: I was talking to our business manager about filling in a new, long government form about taxes.  He spent hours on it and took it to the tax office and they rejected it and told him to do it over.  He took it back, reworked it, and resubmitted it only to have it rejected again.  When he asked why, the official told him: “You can’t do this.  You have to let me do it.”  In a free translation, that means: You can submit this as many times as you want, but it’s never going to be accepted until you let me do it for you–and you pay me.

Leaving Cambodia

On 14 August, Kaitlynn Himmelreich finished up her two months of research with the deaf community here in Cambodia and got on the plane to return to her student life in the US where classes begin next Monday.  Kaitlynn adjusted well to life in Cambodia and was really able to integrate with and communicate with the deaf people wherever she them.  Here she is presenting to Charlie Dittmeier a thank-you card acknowledging the good experiences she had in Cambodia.

Learn about MKLM!

I know many people have, at one time or another, entertained ideas of serving in mission in another country.  But then school or careers or families intervened and the mission idea was put on the shelf.  At some point, though, you may discover you can take your mission ideas off the shelf to see where the mission call leads you.

Maryknoll Lay Missioners offers orientation, language training, and support in mission placements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America to people from their 20s to their 60s–or maybe a little higher?  If you’d like to learn a little more about Maryknoll mission from Karen Bortvedt, the Maryknoll Lay Missioner recruiter, she will offer a webinar (a seminar on the web) on August 15 at 10:00 AM EST.  If you would like to take a peek, send an e-mail to join@MKLM.org for login information.  This webinar–and more to follow–are just to give information.