Pchum Ben 2017

Pchum Ben is a religious holiday celebrated in Cambodia on the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the Khmer year.  It is a time for Cambodians to pay their respects to the last seven generations of the their deceased ancestors.  The last three days of the Pchum Ben period are a major public holiday when everyone goes to his or her home village.  This year the holidays are September 19-21.

There are many rituals associated with the festival although most do not come into full play until the holidays when the populace flocks to the wats (pagodas) to pray.  Leading up to those holidays, many people, especially the elderly make visits to the wats and make offerings of lotus pods.  These are pictures of women on the streets bunching the pods together for sale.

These two women are working together, the one on the right tying the bundles and the one on the left stacking them up. Notice they also have pomelos for sale.
This woman contributes to the line of women near the royal palace selling the lotus buds. This woman is lucky to have her husband there to supervise.
This poorer woman doesn’t have all the chairs and coolers and other things but she has the basics to prepare the lotus flowers for sale.
This woman is happy with her work. I don’t know what is the white fruit or vegetable or ??? that she is also selling on the left.

Deaf Day 2017

Every year in September there is a celebration of Deaf Day in countries around the world, or Deaf Week as here in Cambodia.  Today was our big celebration to climax Deaf Week.  I couldn’t arrive till almost two o’clock because of the morning mass and because of a trip to the morgue for a parishioner who died yesterday.  When I did arrive, I was totally surprised because they turned the celebration into one honoring me.  Our Deaf Development Programme started in 1997 so this is our twentieth anniversary.  1997 was also the first time I came to Cambodia so my coming was included in the anniversary celebration.  And because this is the “birthday” of DDP, it became a birthday celebration for me, too, notwithstanding that I was born in February.  All the different celebrations got conflated together but the bottom line is that they had made a banner wishing me all the Buddhist blessings and they gave me a variety of gifts they had made.  It was a genuine surprise for me and much appreciated.  Come back to see more about Deaf Day in Cambodia.

Cambodian Government:Corrupt, Incompetent 8

This is No. 8 of the nine examples of incompetence and corruption that appeared in the headlines of The Cambodia Daily in just two days.  In this article the Cambodian government continues to abuse indigenous peoples and separate them from their ancestral lands.

Wednesday, 9 August 2017

Thursday, 10 August 2017

 

Cambodian Government:Corrupt, Incompetent 7

It’s all changed!  Earlier I noted that it has intrigued me through the years that the Cambodian government has tolerated the Cambodia Daily‘s reporting about corruption and incompetence in the government here.  That’s all stopped. 
The government has now closed down the Cambodia Daily as of 4 September 2017, supposedly for unpaid taxes.  The government is after the non-government press, foreign radio sources (e.g., VOA and RFA), foreign governments (especially the USA and the EU), and any critical NGOs.  The present government is really running scared and so now, even ten months before the national elections in July, 2018, they are criticizing, harassing, and prosecuting any opposition voices.  That is particularly true of opposition politicians who are being arrested and imprisoned on what many consider political charges rather than real offenses.

This is No. 7 of the nine examples of incompetence and corruption that appeared in the headlines of The Cambodia Daily in just two days.  In this article the Cambodian government once again prevents any ASEAN criticism of China in ASEAN statements.

Wednesday, 9 August 2017

Thursday, 10 August 2017

 

Chinese Spirit Festival

Today we drove to Kampot Province with our donors from Korea and when we stopped at a gas station on the way down, this elaborate offering to the spirits of the deceased was placed in front of the station.  Today is the Spirit Festival in Chinese culture and the gas station owners–and many, many other people in Cambodia—took it very seriously.

Convenience Store

This woman has everything covered: she’s arranging lotus pods which can be given at the wat on the Buddhist holiday that day (and the seeds can then be eaten); in the middle she’s selling gasoline from the blue handcrank pump; and if you want to fill yourself rather than your motorcycle tank, you can buy a pomelo fruit stacked on the right.

Chicken Carousels

In a culture where many, many people are selling food on the street, anything that makes your product stand out is an advantage.  One of the newest marketing gimmicks to hit the Phnom Penh streets is this chicken carousel.  Powered by an electrical cable snaking across the pavement, the machine has a rotating display and warming lamps for pre-roasted chickens and geese.

The rotating displays are an eye-catching novelty now but they must be a real headache to clean.