(Above: talk at Meta-House last night).

I had missed seeing it the first time and was quite moved to see how the film quietly and powerfully demonstrated how environmental and social change were affecting Cambodian communities and families.

The film makers are also doing some ‘follow up’ meetings (below) with the subjects of the film, who continue to struggle to keep their families healthy and secure.

Also in attendance: opposition Assemblywoman Mu Sochua, who shared her thoughts in the Q&A but did not seem to be there in an official capacity.

Below: update on one of the film’s subjects, Khieu, as she votes in the election. Kalyanee noted she’d had to pull a 24 hour sewing shift in order to make sufficient overtime to vote while keeping her financial obligations.  (Ouch!)

If YOU want to arrange a showing of the film, please contact the Documentation Center of Cambodia. DC-Cam will be having screenings of the film during working hours on Fridays for the near future. (I’ll update this post with any additional screenings if/when I get word.)

http://ariverchangescourse.com/

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Scholar and blogger Erik Davis (formerly of blog DeathPower) is back with
“Imagining the Real World.” Hooray!
http://erikwdavis.wordpress.com

Off to click through the many tidbits on offer, digesting a rather exhaustive examination of Chomsky Cambodia chronology.

Postscript: more drama on that last bit from Details Are Sketchy!
http://detailsaresketchy.wordpress.com/2010/01/19/scorned-in-cambodia/

http://www.environment-week.org

Participants are a veritable who’s who, from nonprofits to businesses and student groups.

WWF
AFD and Melon Rouge
East West Management Institute
Fauna and Flora International
Indigenous Cambodian Support Organisation (ICSO)
Children at the Wat Phnom
Environment Film Festival (CCF)
Australian embassy
Bophana Center
WWF at the airport
Khmer Youth and Social Development (KYSD)
German Embassy
U.S. Embassy
Cambodia Youth for Development Society Organization (CYDSO)
Vulnerable Teenager for Help
Amok Restaurant

I’m particularly interested in the films, check out the program!

Tags: cambodia,environment,khmer

A lot of talk about print media lately. The Phnom Penh Post has gone daily. The Advisor is ‘not dead, just resting’, and The Mekong Times has come to a halt. Some of my friends were complaining about the lack of English language reading matter.

But hey, there are heaps of publications – there’s a magazine boom on!

Every day it seems like there is a new magazine, newspaper or book. To prove the naysayers wrong, I rocked up to the newsstand and grabbed a few tidbits.

Economics Today (August edition pictured here) kinda sorta looks like… a similarly named magazine, don’tcha think? I expect they were counting on that.

The fact that there are enough buyers in the Kingdom to warrant a separate Khmer and English edition rocks my world. Looks like they are tailoring it to different readerships too – the English edition has a different numbering than the Khmer edition. (And at the newsstand I went to, no Khmer edition was available. Sold out? Hmm…)

Let’s see… the obligatory tourism article or two, recipes and filler from wire services – especially when it comes to global markets and issues. The magazine shines the most in its original content – with articles ranging from local intellectual property issues to analysis of how middlemen function in the agricultural market (and how farmers get market info via text messages!) Coverage of local exhibitions, a tactful mention of human rights concerns, and a spotlight on the self-employed (‘Wat Phnom’s Women Photographers’) aren’t bad either. The most potentially controversial item is the most understated: pages of market and commodity statistics, including inflation rates. I’ll be reading this magazine again.

By billing themselves as ‘Cambodia’s Business Magazine’ and offering Paypal PDF downloads by issue or article, the publisher is certainly working it.

Perhaps the main purpose is to flog their service of economic data provision. Behind the publisher ETMCambodia.com is – The Economic Institute of Cambodia, a nonprofit. It wouldn’t be the first time a not-for-profit entity spun off a profit generating funnel – Hagar Soya, anyone?

What I’d particularly enjoy amongst all these articles is an analysis of how ‘Economics Today’ came to be, and where it fits in the mixed economy of business and nonprofits. Would it be safe to assume that the overall institutional opinions of EIC (cited as an objective source in one article) will be reflected in this publication?

Economics is not an exact science; the one thing missing is a robust debate on its nonexistent ‘Letters To The Editor’ page.  I’ll be curious to see how the magazine evolves.
Tags: cambodia,economics,magazine,business

One of the concerns that came up at the summit was getting more rural voices in the world of blogs. Especially in primarily agrarian Cambodia.

Agricultural researcher Mandevu’s Ph.D field work is to observe, um, work in the fields.

He takes us to Planet Countryside, where a farmer is attempting to salvage a flooded rice crop. A great first start. Click for video and commentary.

Tags:cambodia,farmcambodia,rice,agriculture