More Silence

For today, at least. Tags:guns,virginiatech,onedayblogsilence

Rat in Me Kitchen Perusing one of the larger supermarkets in Phnom Penh I found a new variation on a classic product. I was first introduced to this by fellow expat Karen in the year 2000, who practially dragged me to the aisle to show me. She pointed out a metal tin and the text went something like: “Put glue on board. Leave food. Rat will come and be trap. Rat will scream. Other rat come too.” I’ve heard rustlings near my stove and roaches don’t get that big, so I’m sticking one of these out tonight. The original title was "No-Rat". Today’s version is a bit more sophisticated and comes with its own glue-coated platter. No pesticides involved? Thumbs up. I found several variations to choose from (N-Rat, E-Rat), and went for the more cartoony cover. The back cover even makes some menu suggestions for the savvy palate of Asian rodents: “put rat bait such as mackerel, pork, dried shrimp in the middle of a plate.” Made in Thailand, about $1.00. *reference: http://www.ub40.supanet.com/discography/rat/rimk.htm Tags:cambodia,products,marketing

Silence Today is 'Take Back the Blog' day, so I think I'll just STFU and let others say their piece. More at http://www.crablaw.com/2007/04/take-back-blog-host-page.html Related: http://detailsaresketchy.wordpress.com/cambodias-bloghers/ Tags:takebacktheblog

The Banyan Weekend 27th to 29th of April Meta House Phnom Penh Street 264 #6 Sangkat Chktomuk (South of Wat Botum Pagoda) 012 607 465 023 22 41 40 www.meta-house.com Fri/Sat 6pm to 12: Banyan Works Objects / Videos /Drawings by Alfred Banze (Germany) People's Thoughts Are Children's Play-Tools Videos by Juhani Koivumaki (Finland) Sun, 3pm: Banyan Project Presentation / Performance together with Cambodian children based on a selection of original artworks by 70 artists from 25 countries Sun, 7pm Banyan Party with VJ Kopi Kaputa from What's On: Tags:cambodia

(in response to the 'proof that girls are evil' meme that has been floating around the Khmer blogosphere...) http://darachan.wordpress.com/2006/02/23/proof-that-girl-are-evil/ Marry a Square 1. To find a husband, a Khmer woman must take be patient as there are many rules in polite society that govern this process. This takes time. 2. "Time is money" so Husband = Time 3. Raising children takes two parents to be fully effective. Children = Time Husband x Children = Time Squared 4. 'Square' is slang for someone who is ordinary / conventional. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/square 5. Husbands who cheat on their wives leave all the burden of raising a family to the wife. Half of the job is not done. Time Squared / 0.5 = : ( 6. So it's good to marry a faithful (square) husband to have 'time squared'. He may not seem special at first, but you will have a happy marriage and good family. Tags:cambodia

Going Viral What did I wake up to this morning? A text message. Forwarded repeatedly throughout the day, clogging up my phone. 'Please forward to everyone you know'. Option: delete. If cattle are dying so rapidly, it'd have to be some new disease - even hoof and mouth disease doesn't work that fast. (And yes, it exists in Cambodia, just like bird flu.) So I rang up one of my friends in the press. Nope. Nothing official yet, though they'd been advised of the rumors. If your food is thoroughly cooked, it's going to be hard for a virus or bacterium to survive. And so far as I know about local farming practices, we don't have prions to worry about. Who's going to get hurt the most from this talk? Farmers, butchers, market vendors. The rapid spread of rumors is sometimes called 'viral'. The term's been applied to ground level marketing via email and text messaging. I'm not going to directly forward on the message like it asks - the message IS the virus. So I'm off for some food. I wouldn't rule out Lok Lak. Think differently? Show me some real proof. Tags:cambodia,press,media,sms

Flow Flow Sculpture/installation and photographs by Pich Sopheap Sala Artspace 339E2 Sisowath Quay (top floor, through Mekong Web) Showing until June 16 Sala Artspace, 339E2 Sisowath Quay, Phnom Penh (through Mekong Web, top floor) [from What's On]

Built to Last With pollution levels rising in the Tonle Sap lake, we are expecting to see some changes amongst its inhabitants as they toughen up. (from the Peace of Art Project, on display at The ArtHouse in Siem Reap) Tags:cambodia,sculpture

Khmer Blog Portal 1.0 It's been my New Years' Resolution to read up on rss feeds and develop a Khmer-related blog portal site, similar to Blogsmalaysia.com or Tomorrow.sg. Now I find that E-Khmer has beaten me and done the task, quite well in fact. They have put together a feed portal that gathers posts in Khmer Unicode and English, and refreshes every two minutes. Way to go! (And thanks for doing my work for me.) Give it a whirl at http://feed.e-khmer.net (Cheers to Phil for rss summary) Tags:cambodia,blog

Noise, Silence April 28th, 'Take Back the Blog' will encourage women bloggers to raise their voice. http://www.crablaw.com/2007/04/take-back-blog-host-page.html April 30th, 'OneDaySilence' will observe the Virginia Tech massacre. www.onedayblogsilence.com

Tags:blog,takebacktheblog,onedayblogsilence

Comics Conviviality Spent the better part of the day rocketing around Phnom Penh to help interview some 1980s era comics artists for an upcoming article. The younger artists? Most were at Sera's comics workshop, which wrapped up with diplomas and drinks at 5pm. Above: handing out certificates. Sera teaches in France, so this was conducted over his semester break. Now that's dedication. In addition to certificates, students took home a copy of Sera's Khmer language 'Water and Earth'. Below: 'Wait! Take a photo with my camera too!' Some students produced one-two pages, others up to six. Publication plans? Stay 'tooned. Tags:cambodia,comics

Club of Cambodian Journalists New site in Khmer and English! http://www.ccj.com.kh (Thanks to Anisa for the tipoff!) Posted 1:07 pm. Tags:cambodia,journalism

Retroblogging I'm back from Khmer New Year and I've got to sort those Trade Fair Pictures, don't I? I will retroactively blog them by subject and get caught up over the next few days. Tags:cambodia

Trade Fair Part 03: Wares to Share

Sweating it out with the food and craft vendors were a bunch of techies with laptops. The KhmerOS team has goodies to share. The problem with giving away software at low or no cost is that people tend to assume there's no inherent value. By adding a few snazzy logos and giving it a marketing spin, they've come up with a collection of cool products. I'd enjoy seeing these items on sale right next to all the bootleg software at markets around town.
Afraid to choose between Windows and Linux? Now this dual boot CD lets you have both!	Fonts & Programs CD cover.

Textbooks in Khmer!	Installation CD - fonts, browser, Open Office and more!	t-shirts!	Unicode Keyboards - cheap!

Scored myself Mekhala and OpenOffice t-shirts amongst other goodies.

More? at www.khmeros.info

Tags:cambodia,open+source,software,khmer,linux

Trade Fair Part 02: Print & Publishing SIPAR publishes childrens' books mostly in Khmer, and a catalogue is available in Khmer, French and English. Reading Book will distribute your Khmer language publication to the furthest provincial corners of Cambodia. Tags:cambodia,literature

"Buy Cambodian Products" Trade Fair Part 01 Took a stroll through the Trade Fair at the part opposite Wat Botum, noontime Sunday. In the glaring heat there was a brisk trade in ice cream. Few visitors meant I could get some good shots of the booths. (Click on the picture for more product info, if I've got it.) I enjoyed seeing small businesses get out and show their stuff. I think that sometimes in Cambodia there is often a default expectation that quality merchandise tends to come from other countries. Plenty here to disprove that notion. Today's subject is widgets - physical ones.

Some solar charged lamps available for rural folks who need a cheap rental light source. Saving 200 riel a day may not sound like a lot, but for the countryside it could be quite handy. www.ckn-cambodia.org/proseed 023 987 843 / 011 748 983
Angkor Hand Pump Enterprise No 20, Street 578, Sangkat Boeun Kok II Khan Tuok Kork, Phnom Penh, Cambodia 012 917 350 / 016 829 135

Tomorrow: publications. Tags:cambodia, technology

Street Kids Shoot Back Long the subject of tourist photos, the Friends drop-in center bordering Siem Reap's Old Market has an exhibition of photos by their kids. It's fun to see these candid shots from the other side of the viewfinder - mainly of sunburnt, exhausted tourists, as much a spectacle as the temples they're visiting. If you're in Siem Reap, give it a look! One of the more innovative photo projects I've seen in a while. Simple and effective. Funding also provided by Japan Cooperation. Tags:cambodia,photo,exhibition,photography

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