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Headlines and news reports from United States media frequently make reference to the campaign to raise the minimum wage in the U.S. to $15 an hour. The minimum wage is also a matter for discussion in Cambodia but here the goal of organized labor is a minimum wage of $182 PER MONTH. The current wage norm here is $170 per month, raised before last July’s elections in order to get the garment industry workers to support the ruling party.
Tens of thousands of garment factory workers–usually young women–ride to work each day jammed, standing up, in the back of open trucks. Many of them are killed in the frequent accidents when trucks overturn and collide from speeding and throw bodies everywhere. The government’s response? “Training” drivers to obey the law and “urging” them to get driver’s licenses. That’s a neat idea.
It’s not unusual to see women in Cambodia carrying something on their heads, but usually it’s a tray of peanuts or some snack for sale. This woman looks like she’s moving house.
They may seem redundant in age in which almost everyone has a smartphone with a camera, but Phnom Penh has street photographers around some tourist attractions who can give a printed picture fast enough for tourists who need to get back on the tour bus. Click here to see some of the operators.
This is the scene every Sunday morning when I cross town to go to St. Joseph Church for the 10:00 AM mass. The police wait at certain intersections and grab people for mostly imagined offenses. The policeman at the SUV is waiting for his payoff and the woman and her child are pulling over so she can come up with some money.
In the old days a case full of soft drinks in bottles was heavy. Then we got a case of soft drinks in aluminum cans. In Cambodia, coconuts don’t come in cases–rather in wagon loads–but you can believe they are heavy. A big coconut like some of these could easily weight five or six pounds. The driver cruises around until someone hails him, and then he uses a chopper (meat cleaver to Americans) to cut off enough of the top to insert a straw.
There’s a whole lot of vegetables leaving the Doeum Kor market early every morning.
Sidewalks in Cambodia are basically used for anything and everything except walking. Click here to see the sidewalk as showroom.
Sometimes a guy just needs to sit and think…