Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
Some people say there’s no global warming, no climate change but it’s hard to accept that here. When I first came to Cambodia, I was told that the rainy season ended in late September. Then the last few years it seemed to finish in November or December. This year it was raining into mid January. Finally last week we had a full week with no rain and I thought “It’s finally over!” But then today we had a sprinkle in the morning and then a real light rain this afternoon! When will it stop?
“The world is watching as we abandon
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Recently there has been a flurry of street paving in our part of town. It’s getting close to local elections and the ruling party wants to show its best side. Before the pavers got to Street 105, though, two really deep holes had developed on two successive street corners. Apparently water underneath the pavement had washed away whatever foundation there was and a hole developed, straight down, at least eighteen inches deep and ten inches wide and extending who knows how far under the pavement. When they first appeared, the populace did what they usually do, stick a tree branch into the hole to make it more visible.
But then the street pavers came along. Now their job is to pave the street, not repair it, so they just paved around the hole.
Today is the last of the three days of official celebration according to Chinese tradition–although there are NO official public holidays in Cambodia for the lunar new year. Many families either relaxed at home today behind the closed shutters of their shops or continued visiting relatives and friends. Click here to see these last new year photos.
Today was the second day of the new year, and again much of the action was indoors. Driving along the streets, one saw more shuttered shops than people. Click here to see them.
Today was the first day of the new year, a day for visiting parents and elder relatives so much of the action was indoors. To show a more interesting side of the celebrations, here are more pictures from yesterday, New Year’s Eve. Click here to see them.
Today the new year celebrations began with the evening reunion dinner but before that there was time for offerings for the spirits of the ancestors and to purchase a roasted pig for the family dinner. Click here to see how it happened.
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve and the big reunion dinner to bring all the family together. Today families are scurrying to accomplish last-minute preparations. Click here to see what they are doing.
Most of the time most Cambodian men wear sandals rather than shoes. When they do wear shoes, though, it’s not unusual to see them in long, pointy-toed styles that may have come from A Thousand and One Nights.
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We are living in a new and unprecedented era, one in which the President of the United States knowingly, repeatedly lies before the nation and the world. Who would have thought we would come so low as a nation?
It is a dangerous and uncharted situation we find ourselves in, and we need to develop new strategies for survival. One I have seen discussed by the heads of major journalism organizations–and which is illustrated by this New York Times headline–is for the media now to concentrate not on the content of what Trump says but on its truthfulness, and to call a lie a lie and not use euphemisms for it.