Thursday, Jan. 31st 2008: Siem Reap, Cambodia

Well, I am going to start again. The last little bit got erased, so here goes.

This trip has been a mind altering one to say the least. I have read the"Killing Fields"about Dith Pran and Sydney Schanberg from the New York Times; and "The Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields"edited by Dith Pran, a Cambodian survivor of the Killing Fields. It is hard for me to understand the absurd devotion they had for their enterprise which was an attempt to restructure the Cambodian society along some fancied imaginary lines of the make-believe society. I have said it before and I will say it again, I think it was an orgy in the true sense of the word. Once they started, they did not want to stop. It was the Vietamese who made them stop in 1979. I imagine that genocides all over the world are fairly similar in their brutality. This Cambodian genocide was different in its intensity and belief that the world would just leave them alone to do their thing, so to speak. They did not count on geo-politics being able to deal with the situation at all.

So, when I return to Kathmandu, I will look at the situation there in a different way. They have a Maoist situation also that, so far, has remained in the rural areas and has not invaded Kathmandu. There are numerous UN people all over and they do have a certain authority over the situation, which is what it takes. Will the Nepalese Maoist challenge the UN order like the Cambodian Khymer Rouge did? At the moment, I do not think they will; but the American Ambassador is not so convinced. She has been witness to a number of intimidations of Americans living in the Kathmandu area and so have informed us to take this under consideration. I have spent a good deal of time thinking about it myself while being here in Cambodia. I think after I pack my place up and put it in storage, I am going to Sarawak, where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer.

So now, my duality is Kathmandu-Kuching.

And, of course, I am for Hillary Clinton winning the USA Presidential race because I think she has the best chance to deal with the economy, in particular. Of course, Barak Obama thinks only he can deal with the situation which seems to me to be a stretch given that he missed most of the votes when he was in the Senate. But, nobody is listening; people are only fantasizing what they want it to be. Most Americans think the credit crisis only pertains to the people who could not keep up their mortgage payments and we know who that is; they do not think it is symptomatic of some larger credit crisis in the global economy. This is the legacy of G. H. W. Bush.

These are my thoughts for today.

Monday, Jan. 21, 2008: Siem Reap, Cambodia

I left Phnom Penh about a week ago now and have come to Siem Reap to see the Angkor Wat Temple ground. So far I have been to Bayon and the surrounding smaller temples. Bayon is the temple with the faces and is very impressive. Some say the face is that of the Buddha; others say the face is that of the Cambodian people. Also, there are numerous freizes depicting life in the Bayon under Jayavarnum II or the VII, I am not sure. The rock freizes are probably some of the best is the world. I took a number of pictures and was surprised to see that the temple carvings are a surprising "non"colour so everything looks like more an absence rather than a presence of colour. This goes for all of the temples that I looked at in the Bayon area. Some of the smaller temples were Baphuon,Ta Promm. Also the area is large and there is a lot of walking so I was pretty much done in by the end of the day.

Another ïmpression"of Siem Reap is all of the building that is going on; the same in Phnom Penh so you get the impression that the Gov't is really working to get past the past and move into the 21st C. Like Thailand, Cambodia looks to be fairly prosperous and global tourism is a big factor in this. The "modern"buildings are not at all like the traditional ones; the modern ones are of cement block with some artistry; the traditional ones are of wood and elevated. The modern one is heavy but nice; the traditional one is light and nice too, but of wood. Wood is out because of global warming and deforestation, so the teak and mahoghany are used just a little.

Hillary has won in Nevada!!!!!! So, she is looking pretty good right now. It is going to take a whole lot of something to get us through the next phase. I, of course, am opting for experience over words because time is the critical factor and experience can deal with time better - got to move this thing along as quickly as possilbe.

These are my thoughts for today.

Saturday, Jan 12, 2008 - Phnom Penh

Well, I am certainly glad for the New Hampshire primary result for Senator H. Clinton. I, personally, think we need a nice motherly, feminine touch in American politics, which is getting fairly acrimonious. I think a feminine touch would bring a good balance to this situation and then we could get on with trying to stabilize the economy and bring up the value of the dollar. I have said before and I will say again that there is a cash shortage in the global market for both dollars and euros and this is what is controlling the price of everything. There is so much more out than there is coming in and this is leaving banks short and in the dark. I think 2008 is going to be an unpredictable year with both potential and hazards. So, we are in a marathon to the finish line of the election.

Here in Phnom Penh, I have been to S-21 and the Killing Fields, the Russian and Central Markets, the Riverside View, the National Museum and have also been reading some. S-21 is the Khmer Rouge Interrogation Camp and is a must see. So many Cambodian men, women, children, young people, seniors as well as foreigners were tortured to death in this place, it became as dark as the concentration camps of the Nazis. This evil force that some give themselves over to so willingly are odious to the human race. Obviously, the question is "are there more of them than there are of us"? Us being those who are against political cruelties that are attemting to define the human race in the wrong way. If they won't change, we are divided for the foreseeable future. A two humanity.

These are my thoughts for today.

Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2008

Dear Blog,
2008 is looking to be a year of fantasies of what the world isn't. For example, I, personally, do not think Barack Obama has worked through seeing how his actions are affecting othr people around him. He is playing his game on his terms and not the terms that the Democrats are used to playing on. Without the Democrats, this Mr. Obama would be nowhere. Of course, he does not care about any of this. This, I think, Senator Clinton is having a hard time understanding. She does not understand how our Mr. Obama friend could be where he is at because she operates from an entirely different set of political ethics. Our Mr. Obama friend is blinded by his own over whelming desire to be President, but not for all of America, just for the people that support him. This is not a good political situation.

Other than this, I am in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; this is the famous place of the "killing fields"where 2 million Cambodian men, women and children were systematically brutalized and starved to death because they did not want to be a communist. Serious business, this is.

These are my thoughts for today.

New Year's Day 2008 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Now I am in Phnom Penh and planning on visiting S-21, the National Museum, the Landmine Museum, the Killing Fields and the Museum with S-21. All of this has to do with understanding the Khmer Rouge orgy of killing. Everybody comes here to Cambodia to see this and to see how the people are today. I need to try and understand that in Asia or some parts of Asia there is no consequence to many acts so if you put a political label on an act you can do anything. There were no consequences until the UN came along with the War Crimes' Tribunal and the Crimes Against Humanity of which Genocide plays a big part. The Cambodians are just now getting somewhere on taking cases before these Courts in order to get a real opinion on their acts. It does no good to just rely on local opinion or your own opinion because everything is legal if it has a political agenda. The Khmer Rouge wanted to create a utopian, agrarian society with them at the head and everybody else falling in line behind. It was not popular or widely accepted, so the Khmer Rouge's embarked on a campaign of forced re-education and slave labor. One thing is for certain, this utopian, agrarian society depended heavily on slaves to get the work done. Other than this, Cambodia appears to be a friendly society that welcomes global tourism and international development. Very much different than the perfect society of the KRs/

I left Thailand last week-end on the 23rd December at Hat Luek/Kroh Kong. After staying in Kroh Kong for a couple of days, I have come overland to Phnom Penh. Right now I am staying on Boenkok Lane at Simon II's Guest House. I like the Guest House but not the noise at night. I really do not understand this noise karma that seems to follow me around on this trip. In India I always had lots of noise around me except for 2rnd class sleeper in the train. The 2nd class is quite quiet and peaceful.

After Cambodia I am going to either Laos or Vietman but not both because there is not enough time. I like to study a little bit when I first get to a country so I can get out of the Tourist rut and into something of my own. This usually takes a little bit of time and I am going back to Kathmandu end of February. It is so cold there now, I think my Nepalese friends will never forget it - this is their first winter of Global Warming/Climate Change. I sure hope they take some of these ideas about cheap heating a little more seriously now.

This is all for the moment