Casting Call! Jeudi 03 Octobre, a Phnom Penh, au Teukei, 23 bis rue 111 de 11h a 15h, casting-figuration pour les occidentaux, hommes et femmes, tous les ages afin de participer au film que tourne Jean Jacques Annaud au Cambodge.... Thursday 03 October, has Phnom Penh, in Teukei Bar, 23 (a) street 111 at 11h to 15h, casting for Westerners, men and women, all ages in order to take part in film which Jean Jacques Annaud makes to Cambodia... Pathe Films is doing a flick about tigers, and employing a few friends of mine.

And further on the film front, Matt Dillon's 'City of Ghosts' is on its way, premiered at Cannes recently. When he was local, he'd hang at Happy Herb's Pizza.

L'Autorité APSARA a le plaisir de vous informer qu'à l'occasion de son passage à Siemréap le Professeur Emérite Frits Staal du Département de Philosophie de l'Université de Berkeley donnera une conférence intitulée Indian Scripts of Asia dans ses locaux de la Conservation d'Angkor, le 7 octobre 2002, à 17h30 Vous être cordialement invité (e) à assister à cette conférence. ****************************** The APSARA Authority has the pleasure to cordially invite you to a lecture entiled Indian Scripts in Asia to be given by Professor Emeritus Frits Staal from the Department of Philosophy, UC Berkeley at its office, in the Conservation d'Angkor on October 7, 2002 at 5:30PM Presentation will be in English

SOVANNA PHUM presents Shadow theatre- Preah Kho Bot or the sun's son Friday 27th September 2002 at 7.30 P.M. Entrance fee 4 U$ No. 111a Street 360 (corner St 105) Boeung Kang Kong III, Phnom Penh - HP 012 84 60 20 or 012 857 437 - e-mail: art@sovannaphum.com

UM researchers train bees to sniff out land mines The Associated Press. September 24, 2002 12:06 AM Eastern Time Three University of Montana scientists admit it sounds funny, but they say their trained honeybees can detect land mines. Jerry Bromenshenk has studied bees as pollution sensors and environmental sensors for the past 30 years. As odd as it may sound, honeybees are easier to train, harder working and more accurate than bomb-sniffing dogs, he says. "What makes them so effective is that they have a very refined sense of smell," Bromenshenk said. Honeybees also live in packs of thousands, cover ground more quickly than dogs, and learn their new task in a matter of days, he said. The first step is to distract the bees from their natural instinct for foraging by offering them easy-to-find food, Bromenshenk said. Then the bees can be taught to seek out a particular odor - such as the chemicals used in land mines - by rewarding them with more food for finding the scent and hovering over it, he said. Bromenshenk has the help of UM scientist Colin Henderson, who conditions the bees to a certain odor, and UM software expert Robert Seccomb, who tracks the insects with special equipment. For two years the bees have been finding simulated land mines that smell like the real thing. So far the bees have earned high marks, and the insects have a near-perfect track record, Henderson said. "We know bees can sense vapors at levels dogs can't get to," Bromenshenk said. "If they can smell it, they will be as good or better than dogs at finding it." The bees have proven their talents to scientists beyond the UM campus, but they still have to be tested in a life and death scenario, Bromenshenk said. For now the research will focus on detecting land mines because of a tremendous need for safe detection, he said. About 110 million unexploded land mines are planted in countries around the world, Bromenshenk said, citing United Nations statistics. Each year about 26,000 people are killed or maimed by the hidden bombs, he added. "It's a huge, huge problem," he said. The mines are a risk to people who are trying to remove them, and they also take valuable agricultural land out of production, he said. "People starve because of this problem."

People often ask me if I think it's dangerous in Cambodia. That depends on how you define 'dangerous'. I feel a lot safer here than I did in Los Angeles.

From: http://www.ausoug.org/working/dennis/factory/faq96.html New Order ...the band's official story is that Rob Gretton had spotted a news article in the daily paper which spoke of the "The people's New Order of Kampuchea", taken from from a piece in the UK paper, The Guardian(according to Select 9/93), and the phrase "new order" caught his attention. The reality may be a mixture of this and the following (from NME, 28 Feb 81). The name New Order, which was obviously appropriate considering the circumstances, had been used before. At 08:48 AM 4/19/02 +0700, Jinja wrote: This is too weird. I enjoyed New Order's 'deeply shallow' music back in the day, alongside the Dead Kennedys. It seems every band I like has written some song about Cambodia. Way before I even decided to make it my academic focus. best - J From: ----- Original Message ----- From: "Ben Butler" To: "jinja" Sent: Sunday, April 21, 2002 10:07 AM Subject: Re: New Order It's probably true - the band are a bookish lot. It's interesting that people in bands seemed to be a lot more aware Of what was going on in Cambodia than the public at large - I wonder why?

Dirtbikin’!

Went out to Phnom Bok and Kpal Spean this last Sunday. My friend Paul runs ‘Hidden Cambodia’ Dirtbike Tours and has been encouraging me to go. So I borrowed one of his big 250cc riceburner dirtbikes and came along. Eight people in all. Usually I ride a Samyan 125cc motorbike. It gets me over bumpy roads in Siem Reap, and is pretty adequate for what I have to do. The big bikes use a foot-operated clutch and are a bit heavier, but those are the only major differences. They’ve got more weight, hence more traction, so they sail right over the mud. (Did take a fair bit of it home with me on my clothes though.) Phnom Bok has a tiring climb up to the top of the hill, and the stairs are only half finished. But it’s got some interesting ancient ruins, and a more modern Sihanouk era concrete construction. (Perhaps a stupa?) There are two Soviet antiaircraft guns sitting there, and they’re fully oiled, ready for action. (I think the only invasion on the way now is one of tourists.) You can see a great panorama of the countryside from up top. Didn’t go too far off the main path, there are still probably a few mines on the mountain. Next up was Kbal Spean – ‘the river of a thousand linga’. Here you can find Hindu deities carved into the rock, and linga to bless the water as it flows down to the temples. There’s a great waterfall where you can wade after the tiring trek up. Ahhh.

The Cambodian Student Society of Cal State Long Beach will host the Rithy Panh Film Festival on Oct 11-13 as follows: Location: University Theatre (seats 400) FRIDAY OCTOBER 11 ( for 3 hours) 7:00 p.m. "The Rice People" (35 mm; 125 minutes) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12 (5 hours) 2 p.m. Site II (59 minutes; BETA PAL format) 3:30 p.m. : Bophana: (59 minutes; BETA PAL format) 5 pm: Land of Wandering Souls (99 minutes; BETA PAL format) SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 (7 hours) 2 p.m. The Rice People (125 minutes) 4:30 pm. Land of Wandering Souls (99 minutes) 6: 30 pm Bophana (59 minutes) 7:30 p.m. Site II (59 minutes) Information about the four films/documentaries follows: 1) LAND OF WANDERING SOULS France /1999/99 min Director - Rithy Panh Producer - Cati Couteau Director of Photography - Prum Mesar Editors - Marie-Christine Rougerie, Isabelle Roudy Screenwriters -Rithy Panh This compassionate portrait of post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia portrays workers digging a trench across that country for a multinational company's fiber optic cable, earning pennies a day enabling a high-tech communication system that will otherwise never touch their lives. Though exhausted and uneducated, they are hardly naïve: In one scene, the laborers are plainly unimpressed by a patronizing company man's enthusiastic description of the "magic eyes and ears" of the fiber optic cable they'll never use. (One man dryly observes that he can barely afford kerosene for his lamp.) Then there is the haunting legacy of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. "They turned my generation into ignorant masses-just animals," one young man observes. "The Khmer Rouge drove us mad." Every scene illuminates the dignity of a people recovering from a war that left mines and human remains that are still scattered across the countryside. The dangers posed by the mines are obvious, but stray bones are disturbing on another level-a pregnant wife believes that a ghost is pursuing her. The predominant sounds in the film are the thud of hoes striking the ground, the splashes of children scavenging for fish and the rustling of leaves as a mother shakes ants from a branch into a pail. Despite poverty and betrayal, the resilience and gentle common sense of the Cambodian people is undiminished. 2) BOPHANA: A CAMBODIAN TRAGEDY France / 1996 / 59 min Director - Rithy Panh Producer - INA Director of Photography - Jacques Pamart Editor - Marie-Christine Rougerie Through the tragic destiny of Hout Bophana, a young woman, and her husband Ly Sitha, this film looks back at Cambodia's recent history. Disgusted by the corruption of the Lon Nol regime, Ly Sitha joined the communist resistance. After their separation the two young people wrote to each other, and were reunited after the taking of Phnom Penh. The victory of the Khmer Rouge was for them to be the start of a nightmare. Arrested, tortured, and forced to make improbable confessions, they were both executed in 1976. Rare documents - the transcripts of the interrogations, and the couple's repeatedly rewritten confessions - throw an unusually clear light on the young couple's story. The letters exchanged over the years also bear witness to the conditions in which they were living at the time. 3) SITE II France / 1985/ 90 min Director - Rithy Panh Director of Photography - Jacque Bouquin Editor - Andree Davanture This film deals with the Khmer refugee camp on the border of Thailand and Cambodia. Site 2 was one of the many camps housing Cambodian refugees escaping from the ravages of their country. In the eighties, Site 2 held 180, 000 refugees living in a 4 mile space. In this film, Rithy Panh tells the story of one family living in that space. The film, narrated by the mother, tells the story of the 'displaced' person uprooted from their culture and country. Site 2 shows us the family's daily life and what it means to live at the mercy of others.The film displays the "refugee camp" -- a place that is all too often only a point of reference in Western media, and we come to know what it means to be living in the "country of the other," what it does to the body, what it does to the spirit. 4)THE RICE PEOPLE France/1994/125 min Director - Rithy Panh Producer - Jacques Bidou Cinematography - Jacques Bouquin Editors - Andrée Davanture, Marie-Christine Rougerie Screenwriters - Eve Deboise, Rithy Panh, based on the novel, "ranjau Sepanjang Jalan: by Shahnon Ahmad Panh has taken a novel by Malay author Shahnon Ahmad and transferred it to a Cambodian setting, using one complete cycle of rice-growing to portray the tragic fragmentation of a poor rural family. In a remote village, Poeuv lives with his wife, Om, and their seven daughters. Poeuv worries about his declining acreage and Om worries about what would happen if the sole man in the family was incapacitated. The group live permanently on a fragile economic balance dictated by the success or failure of their annual crop. One day Poeuv is poisoned by a thorn in the foot and eventually dies. Om takes on the burden of working in the rice fields as well as running the family. She becomes increasingly paranoid that her kids aren't pulling their weight. The other villagers finally decide she needs treatment in town, and lock her in a cage. Eldest daughter Sokha takes over and eventually brings in the crop. Biographie Né à Phnom Penh en 1964, Rithy Panh est le cadet d'une famille de 9 enfants. Son père, instituteur très large d'esprit, a entrepris le tour du monde pour constater les différents modes d'éducation inhérent à chaque pays... En 1975, il est enrôlé dans les camps de rééducation des Khmers Rouges qui viennent d'entrer dans la capitale. Mais à 15 ans, en 1979, il réussit à s'échapper pour la Thaïlande. L'année suivante, il gagne la France puis parvient à intégrer l'IDHEC. Il signe dès 1989 un premier documentaire déjà primé, Site 2, sur les réfugiés cambodgiens. Viennent ensuite Souleymane Cissé, un portrait du grand réalisateur malien, et Cambodge, entre guerre et paix, nouveau documentaire sur l'actualité de son pays. En 1993, il se lance dans le long métrage de fiction avec un film encore teinté de docu : Les gens de la Rizière. Il met 5 ans à réaliser Un Soir après la Guerre, mélo sur fond d'évènements historiques pas drôles qui émeut pas mal de ses spectateurs (diffusé sur Canal + puis sur Arte en 2001). Son nouveau film, présenté à Deauville, ne sortira qu'à la fin de l'année 2001 sur les écrans...

The US Embassy is closed in Phnom Penh, due to potential terrorist attacks. It already looked like a prison from the outside...now it is a prison for its staff.

I don't like crazed fundamentalist bombers but Americans have a way of freaking out that just puts other countries to shame. Sigh.

SOVANNA PHUM presents Shadow theatre- Preah Mohorsot- Khmer classical story. Friday 13th September 2002 at 7.30 P.M. Entrance fee 4 U$ No. 111a Street 360 (corner St 105) Boeung Kang Kong III, Phnom Penh - HP 012 84 60 20 or 012 857 437 - e-mail: art@sovannaphum.com

Siem Reap has officially arrived. We have not only one but two bookshops: Lazy Mango and Paper Tiger. Spent part of last Sunday reading Andrew Vachss' Dead and Gone' . Funny to read a detective novel set in Portland (where I lived, for three years) that even includes a Khmer character, while I'm lying in a hammock in Cambodia.

For our friends in Southern California, try the Rithy Panh Film Festival, at Cal State Long Beach. October 11-13. It's really a crime that Cambodia is awash in pirated Hollywood product, while these films are difficult to find in the country they depict so well.

motorcycle + doubler (french) = motodop. The omnipresence of the motodop is perhaps one of the more defining characteristics of Cambodia. Sitting on every corner, cruising every street, the uniform is one of baseball cap and dress shirt (not tucked in). If you walk down a street in almost any major town (especially Phnom Penh) you’ll often encounter them. They are self-employed taxi drivers, which is the default job for many young men in Cambodia. Foreigners don’t know the going rate for a ride. And often they pay a higher rate. They are highly sought after as fares. If you’re a repeat customer, that could have long-ranging effects on your motodop’s life – steady employment, connections with the outside world, regular practice in foreign language. Is it any wonder that it’s hard to walk down the street in central Phnom Penh without their constant presence? And it even gets to the point where it’s annoying. So here’s what I do when I’m accosted by motodops. Often motodops will beep foreigners, as they pass by or from across the street. Cambodians don’t get this treatment. If they’re close by, I just say ‘Ot tee’ (no). If they’re across the street, you can just shake your head. But if they’re really aggressive, you can always play dumb. Catch their eye and shout (OT TEE!) Wave your arms in a warding off fashion, to emphasize your point. The other motodops on the corner will collapse laughing at their overeager friend. Then there are the motodops who follow you down the street. (‘Where you go? Where you stay? You wan’ massage?) You can be humorous: ‘Barang dae, baan tee?’ (Foreigner walks, is that OK?). But if they’re really rude, you can just say ‘Ot jang chi moto’ (I don’t want to ride a moto). And since most of them know basic English, you can just cut to the chase and say ‘No’ or ‘go away’.

SOVANNA PHUM presents Folk and Classiscal Khmer Dance Friday 6 September 2002 at 7.30 P.M. Entrance fee 5 U$ No. 111a Street 360 (corner St 105) Boeung Kang Kong III, Phnom Penh - HP 012 84 60 20 or 012 857 437- e-mail: art@sovannaphum.com Show of orphaned children living in the CCPSO center Song, Dance, Theatre, Music, Contemporary danse, Chayam Saturday 7 September 2002 at 7.30 PM In Sovanna Phum Association

. . .