Jul 18th, 2008 by Jinja
This week’s Phnom Penh Post gives us the latest on award-winning animator Puy Chhunly’s work at Phare Art School.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php?option=com_jcs&view=jcs&layout=form&Itemid=554
Interview at 2007 Cambofest Awards:
http://www.expat-advisory.com/articles/asia/southeast-asia/cambodia/local-showcase-winner-puy-chhunly?quicktabs_1=2
See the clip (subtitled): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIxpby7fffk
Jul 17th, 2008 by Jinja
If you can’t bring people to the silk farm, you bring the farm to town.
And give them cocktails.
An evening out at the ‘Silkworm Social‘ highlighted Cambodia’s specialized variety of naturally colored gold threads. About 5 tons are produced each year, and it could be much more.
Above, we have some silkworms eating their favored mulberry leaves.
The worms then spin a cocoon and emerge as moths.
At silk-producing facilities the cocoons are preferred undamaged. So a few are saved for breeding. The rest are boiled and somehow the cocoon naturally unravels its tiny threads, which merge into a thicker thread which is then spooled up. Don’t ask me how it works, it just does.
‘Cocoon soup’ ! Dang, all I had was my camera-phone to snap pictures.
Princess Bopha Devi attended and lent her support to awareness raising efforts about the local silk industry. Very little is produced in Cambodia, especially the yellow variety. News article:
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2008072520988/National-news/
Silkmakers-to-spin-industry-revival.html
Jul 3rd, 2008 by Jinja
(Above: KFC on Monivong Boulevard)
It came as a small surprise when I read in the paper that fast food restaurants existed on Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Somehow the idea of interrogators stepping out of a prison waterboarding session for a latte seemed… incongruous. (The idea of them rewarding prisoners with ‘Happy Meals’ even more so.)
Many bases have features like this, making them small pockets of American culture in unlikely locations. And the controversial detention center is a recent addition to a much older institution.
Now, like ‘Gitmo’, Cambodia has its own Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise, which was unveiled with much fanfare. More than simply providing fatty food, it showed that Cambodia was being wired into the global system of international commerce – so much so that chain stores now feel secure enough to open up shop and boot out their cloned counterparts.
With Cambodia’s entry to the World Trade Organization, and the Stock Exchange opening up in 2009, it seems the sky’s the limit. Now, if only we could just get rid of those pesky homeless people and beggars who get in the way of all this new prosperity!
(Above: Licadho)
Well, Cambodia got its own island prison camp too: Koh Kor. After some starving inmates escaped, and the news media got wind, it was quickly shut down and the inmates were dumped back on the streets. Most of them.
Still running on the outskirts of Phnom Penh is Prey Speu detention center. With an election officially in progress, it’s surprising that no party has taken this up as an issue. Maybe they’re happy to have clean streets for their election caravans.
Fast food and arbitrary detention. Cambodia is joining the world of global ‘convenience’. For those who can afford it.
Would you like fries with that?
Tags: cambodia,prison,fast food,khmer,USA,guantanamo bay,KFC
Jun 24th, 2008 by Jinja
David Eberhardt talks about returnees making a difference at KORSANG preview & fundraiser this evening to a packed crowd at ‘Talking To A Stranger‘.
Trailer online at www.korsangfilm.com , more background courtesy Phnom Penh Post.
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/200806126692/Post-Life/Rappers-beat-path-to-Mexico-City.html
(Story of above: Tired. Take a peek at email. Note from Katy down in Melbourne: hip hop film screening is going on at ‘Talking To A Stranger’ in Penhville. Woah! Check my watch, I’m already late. Grab my camera and little video camera and head out to Psar Kap Ko area. Ouch. $5 cover, and I didn’t bother to cash up before I go out. Maybe I should go back home? HELLS NO! Anyway, the film looks great, sounds great and the place was packed. Camera: out of batteries. Videocam: died. Tried taking some video with my phone: not uploading. Dang. Got a phone picture though. ) More Khmer Hip Hop: http://jinja.apsara.org/index.php/category/hip-hop/
Jun 22nd, 2008 by Jinja
Another blogger meeting this Saturday. The roll call included Tharum, Trajoke, Khmerak, Tastydog, Lucid.Thoughts, BlackandWhiter, Whisper-From-Heart, VuthaSurf and yours truly.
We’ve been in the news again; like the ‘Spiders From Skuon’ story, every six months or so someone does another ‘Blogs In Cambodia’ roundup.
From FCC ‘Wires’ Newsletter: Masters of Their Domain “Young, exuberant and increasingly tech-savvy, Cambodia’s web-loggers are coming of age online.”
http://www.fcccambodia.com/newsletter/0608/cloggers.php
Article based on the ‘Cloggers Corner’ meeting.
AFP: Cambodian bloggers opening up conservative society
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5geM8pG_wBXtUFSyDzY7pjFyTIbsg
Reaction is mixed to the stories, I think a more accurate picture can be found on the blogs themselves.Trajoke and others have done another blog workshop. And it turns out chat service Meebo and WordPress are available in Khmer Unicode. Cool!
http://km.wordpress.com/
http://www.meebo.com/index-km.html
Feeling just a bit backlogged; I’ve still got pictures to post from our recent boat trip, The Advisor launch, ‘Fugitive Denim‘ talk, Nou Hach Journal and more. Some time was also spent mapping out ideas for September’s BarCamp: how to move it forward?My suggestion? Swag. Everybody likes free stuff.
Tags: cambodia,internet party,barcamp,cloggerscorner,cloggerscorner2008,blog,khmer
Postscript: Yet another story from The Advisor, and Radio Australia.
Jinja
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