Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten
(Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll)

Is a new documentary featuring the music of
Sin Sisamouth & Ros Serey Sothea,Yol Aularong, Pen Ran & many more! http://dontthinkiveforgotten.com

Check out the site, complete with trailer and MP3 music!
Donations to complete the project are appreciated. http://dontthinkiveforgotten.com/support

The documentary’s team includes John Pirozzi, Jonathan Del Gatto, Nicholas Simon and Bradley Bessire, among many others.

Postscript:
Andy Brouwer and Jungle-Blog also give it a mention.

(image courtesy dontthinkiveforgotten.com) Tags: Cambodia,rockandroll

Building Peace

(click to enlarge)

This one’s for Sasha and her crew; I should have webbed this up ages ago.
If you’re in Siem Reap, give it a look.

Not in the News

1. Cambodia Community Information Center
Cambodia’s popular Khmer language portal is still offline.
Few foreigners seem to have noticed, but this site has been THE Khmer language web portal for the last few years. No word from Open Forum on when it gets back up.

2. Tep Vong, Great Supreme Patriarch
Think those watching the palace have a tough job? Try Buddhist politics.
Which of course shouldn’t / don’t exist, depending on who you talk to.
There’s been a lot of speculation about Mohanikay/Dhammayuth interaction since Tep Vong’s elevation to national representative for both sects, but so far all’s quiet on the Wat front.
Probably a good thing.

3. Blizzard hits The Shop
Pochentong Dairy Queen has beaten out ‘The Shop’ as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal take-out of choice. Judges and staff are mighty fickle with food.

4. Google Maps Cambodia
But it missed a few spots. Wobbly satellites?

5. Toad Wine
After the ‘drunk monk’ streaking episode, Toad Wine has become all but unfindable.
Snake Wine, sure. But Toad Wine? I’m still looking. Either demand has risen, or was hard to come by to begin with.

6. ‘Taste of Life‘ available for purchase (- by NGOs only)
BBC has finally crumbled and is selling sets of Taste of Life, the popular soap opera, to nonprofits. Here’s hoping we can see a commercial release someday.
There are only so many Dolph Lundgren VCDs that can clog up the video stores here.

7. Invasion of Thai Teachers (not) Imminent
Despite a coup and visa regulation changes, Thailand-based English teachers so far don’t seem overly concerned.

8. Fine Hagar Soy Products are Tasty
Is this a good example of an NGO – to – commercial entity project? Or did they start off too big? Class, discuss. (And can I um, get a few more cartons? Thanks.)

9. Sexy new Installation Discs for Khmer Language Programs
Click to see Microsoft Office,

And kudos to the person who designed the Linux disc!
Make it look like a product, not a giveaway, and people will eat it up.

[cheers to Traactivity / KhmerOS]

10. Evictions
…are at an all-time high but organizations and communities are at a low in coordinating responses. Is there any kind of information clearinghouse? Not so far as I can tell.
As per Tonle Bassac, we’re finding out many areas that are being moved are divided communities. The only thing they’re united on? They don’t like being dumped out in the boonies.

Tags: Cambodia

Ang Choulean: How Was Cambodia Born?

A Lecture/ Discussion (in Khmer) by Dr. Ang Choulean at Reyum Institute on Thursday, October 26 2006 at 5:30pm..

Nokor Kok Thlork or – How was Cambodia born?

This event is part of a series of Reyum’s public education program supported by : The Albert Kunstadter Family Foundation and The Rockefeller Foundation.

If interested, please contact Reyum Institute #47, Street 178 Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Tel/Fax : 023 217 149, reyum@camnet.com.kh, www.reyum.org

Tags: Cambodia

Tight Grip on 3G Phones

If you want to see someone from the States go from zero to angry in 5 seconds flat, just mention gun control. It’s an issue that strongly divides people.

The USA is the world’s biggest arms dealer. Is it any wonder it’s awash in guns? There’s a lucrative weapons industry with a big lobby. A popular bumper sticker on cars of gun enthusiasts: “You’ll Take My Gun Away When You Pry It From My Cold, Dead Fingers“

But we’re not talking about weighty issues today. We’re talking about something light as a feather that fits in your hand. And something Southeast Asia is just as passionate about.

Cambodia sports at least two magazines specifically devoted to mobile phones, each costing no more than 4000 riel ($1). How can they afford this? Like music magazines, they are heavily subsidized by advertising. Years of war have resulted in Cambodia leapfrogging landlines to mostly mobile service.

As a foreigner I’ve come to the conclusion that a) urban Cambodians will always dress better than me (regardless of the heat) and b) virtually any Khmer person who has a phone will have one more tricked out than mine. (I haven’t upgraded in four years. ) Phones are a very sexy personal accessory.

So how does an urban Phnom Penhois earning $100-$200 a month afford a $400 phone?

1. Gift from family – nice phone but often they’re low on calling credit.
2. Bought with credit – if necessary it can be sold and the simcard kept.

Young people will do virtually anything to have the latest phone, even if they can’t afford to use it regularly. That’s why I knew the proposed ban on 3G phones would be revoked. Sure, many Cambodians turned in their guns after years of war, but You’ll take my 3G phone when you pry it out of my cold, dead fingers!

To save money? People pocket their precious totem and call via a street phone stall. I know people with phones worth hundreds of dollars, but I never recognize their call until I hear their voice.

Street phones? There are some rather lonely looking Camintel phone booths that you can use via a prepaid card – they work pretty much like public phones in Australia and that’s no coincidence. Apparently during UNTAC the Australians were heavily involved in setting up telecommunications infrastructure.

The booth of popular choice though is one that has a phone for every mobile carrier. It’s an intriguing model of small enterprise. The proprietors buy high denomination phone cards and pass some of the savings on to their customers.

Muhammad Yunus recently won the Nobel Prize for his Grameen Bank loan approach, and has pioneered a ‘village phone‘ system for Bangladesh’s most remote villages. So far as I can see, Cambodia is closing the gap; the ‘village phone’ model is already being implemented here, adhoc.

Tags: Cambodia,phone