tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268514535295850133.post4638317035736649110..comments2023-09-21T03:28:16.289-07:00Comments on CAMBODIA AS IT IS: Life in the CountrysideKJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04869408230216868495noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268514535295850133.post-69811483225294877162011-09-03T19:58:59.864-07:002011-09-03T19:58:59.864-07:00I completely agree with the author. The stats dont...I completely agree with the author. The stats dont just lying, they don't provide all the information required. Actually according to my own observations farmers are quite well off than urban poor. What most people don't get with an "adequate infrastructure" that as soon as they all connected into a single electrical network or supplied with mandatory education or other "mandatory" shit from the Government they get hooked up on all endless fess and bills and in this case, integrated into the economy they will become real poor. Now at least they're self content, but with all the guys bringing English and Math and other pointless modern education they will find themselves into the dire shithole, pardoonez mon Francais.reasatheanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268514535295850133.post-87480080775222225752011-05-31T17:21:11.995-07:002011-05-31T17:21:11.995-07:00Hi Jason,
thanks for your comment.I hope to move t...Hi Jason,<br />thanks for your comment.I hope to move to asia pac. in next 3 -4 years.<br />I have some experience teaching math,<br />science and electronics.Your dream could be a chance to make last pat of life worthy,so let me know if you need help to make your dream to become true.<br /><br />may 31,2011umbertostagnittihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05769368098063946869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268514535295850133.post-51655094588846917462011-05-24T22:23:52.261-07:002011-05-24T22:23:52.261-07:00Hi Jason,
Thanks for your comment. I do not have a...Hi Jason,<br />Thanks for your comment. I do not have any experience in the educational sector. However, I do know that public schools are of poor quality, especially in rural areas. Often several grades are lumped together in one classroom. Besides reading and writing and arithmatic they normally don't teach any other subjects. From what I read and know from experience most rural students drop out of school after grade 5 - elementary - or sometimes 9 - middle school.<br /><br />So to open a school teaching more than the absolute fundamentals would be a great idea; but you would need to speak Khmer in my opinion. Although there are private English leassons available in rural areas as well, their standard is mostly not up to the level that students could follow classes taught in English. You would probably also have to find more teachers (foreign?) to be able to teach a full curriculum.<br /><br />Furthermore, the school needs to be approved by the Ministry of Education; probably not a simple process. The question of funding also arises. I can't imagine that this would be an inexpensive undertaking.KJEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04869408230216868495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268514535295850133.post-85770376045607282632011-05-24T06:30:21.672-07:002011-05-24T06:30:21.672-07:00Dear KJE,
I found your article about Cambodian ru...Dear KJE,<br /><br />I found your article about Cambodian rural life very interesting. It struck a note in my heart. I have been teaching English in Japan for the past 15 years. Although I am sincerely devoted to educating children here in Okinawa, Japan, I often feel that my job is unsatisfying and meaningless. The Japanese are not hungry for knowledge (at least not in English). The reasons for this are many.<br /><br />Within the next 2 or 3 years, my dream is to move to a rural Cambodian community and build a school to educate anyone with the need and desire for knowledge not only English but math, science, social studies and so forth. I hope you don't think I'm crazy or naive but I really think that this is my destiny and the destinies of those who I try to help.<br /><br />If there is any information or advice you could give me, I would greatly appreciate it. I am not looking for recognition or riches. I just want to do work that has value and meaning and help people who truly need it.<br /><br />Best regards and good luck to all.Jason Webbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268514535295850133.post-34469546451759942142010-03-01T23:39:37.256-08:002010-03-01T23:39:37.256-08:00“If you understand, things are just as they are: i...“If you understand, things are just as they are: if you do not understand, things are just as they are.” Zen proverbsHeng Soyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03583846000870000488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268514535295850133.post-87544238088187331042010-03-01T17:23:30.243-08:002010-03-01T17:23:30.243-08:00Thank you KJE. Yes, the article is clear itself. T...Thank you KJE. Yes, the article is clear itself. The comment could be a complete of that insight and this is a good space to reflect on the development of Cambodian rural areas where the Khmer traditions must be protected and give the opportunity to generate unity in the nation. Regards. :)Albeiro Rodashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14857408989918571838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268514535295850133.post-49828757364672880192010-02-28T06:39:37.143-08:002010-02-28T06:39:37.143-08:00Mr. Rodas
I do agree with your comment 100%. This ...Mr. Rodas<br />I do agree with your comment 100%. This post was not meant to romanticize life in rural Cambodia. As I said above it is limited in scope and not representative. It is a glimpse, nothing more, nothing less. That should be clear from the article itself.KJEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04869408230216868495noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268514535295850133.post-19520812326731312162010-02-27T20:49:55.304-08:002010-02-27T20:49:55.304-08:00Dear friend, thank you for visiting the rural area...Dear friend, thank you for visiting the rural areas of Cambodia. I wish that more foreigners from NGOs, companies and other offices in busy Phnom Penh will do it. <br /><br />Statistics are statistics and they help us to understand the results of any particular reality. First, they cannot be assumed as a total vision of the reality, but at the same time, they cannot be dismissed as an relative tool. Relative is of course the reactions of those who find statistics in favor or against their particular interests. Therefore, statistics are object of manipulation. Monitoring must come always from very neutral sources.<br /><br />As educator of children and youth from farm communities since 1999, I am at the side of the farmers everyday and I know very well what is to live in a Cambodian farm. We know that 90 % of the Cambodians who live under poverty, are in rural areas. It is true, even if we want to underline the romantic point of view of a country life. Then, we have to meet the concept of poverty and how relative it could be. <br /><br />Children from most rural areas have not access to education. Many of them walked for kilometers to attend a school that is rather not well furnished for education (have you studied in the classroom of a tropical country without a fan?) Then at midday children should walked kilometers back to look for that food you are suggesting is everywhere. <br /><br />Farmers depend also from the jumping of prices in the market. They are particularly susceptible to harvest production (floods, dry season, typhoons like the last one of Kompong Thom, etc. can let them without that abundance of food.) It is enough you do a visit for farmer families in Kompong Thom now, the ones that suffer the consequences of the last typhoon. <br /><br />Even if they live a peaceful rural life at the side of their pagodas (it is not true either in many other rural areas,) farmers are cut from the stream of telecommunications and then living in ignorance of what happens in their own country and world. You know that ignorance makes a population at the mercy of ambitions from rural powers. <br /><br />Health is out of reach of farmers. Even if you suggest that the villagers you knew go to the nearest big town (Kratie?) there are villages too far and without proper roads, where a doctor is a very strain, far and expensive guy. Natural medicine is their health service and - with the due respect to ancient traditions - several natural practices are the main cause of death tolls, including that of the friendly mid-wife.<br /><br />If Cambodia wants to reduce poverty, it has to attend urgently the rural areas: infrastructures, telecommunications, electricity, running water, schools and agricultural projects. In Phnom Penh there are enough funds to do so. However, to do so, we need that the air-conditioning-office officials and private employees from departments, NGOs (most of them settled in Phnom Penh) and companies, bring their so expensive (?) cars to the dirty roads of the villages of their country in order to proof how true statistics can be.<br /><br />Greetings in the name of my children and young people from farms.Albeiro Rodashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14857408989918571838noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7268514535295850133.post-52407085646250065052010-02-27T20:49:49.681-08:002010-02-27T20:49:49.681-08:00Dear friend, thank you for visiting the rural area...Dear friend, thank you for visiting the rural areas of Cambodia. I wish that more foreigners from NGOs, companies and other offices in busy Phnom Penh will do it. <br /><br />Statistics are statistics and they help us to understand the results of any particular reality. First, they cannot be assumed as a total vision of the reality, but at the same time, they cannot be dismissed as an relative tool. Relative is of course the reactions of those who find statistics in favor or against their particular interests. Therefore, statistics are object of manipulation. Monitoring must come always from very neutral sources.<br /><br />As educator of children and youth from farm communities since 1999, I am at the side of the farmers everyday and I know very well what is to live in a Cambodian farm. We know that 90 % of the Cambodians who live under poverty, are in rural areas. It is true, even if we want to underline the romantic point of view of a country life. Then, we have to meet the concept of poverty and how relative it could be. <br /><br />Children from most rural areas have not access to education. Many of them walked for kilometers to attend a school that is rather not well furnished for education (have you studied in the classroom of a tropical country without a fan?) Then at midday children should walked kilometers back to look for that food you are suggesting is everywhere. <br /><br />Farmers depend also from the jumping of prices in the market. They are particularly susceptible to harvest production (floods, dry season, typhoons like the last one of Kompong Thom, etc. can let them without that abundance of food.) It is enough you do a visit for farmer families in Kompong Thom now, the ones that suffer the consequences of the last typhoon. <br /><br />Even if they live a peaceful rural life at the side of their pagodas (it is not true either in many other rural areas,) farmers are cut from the stream of telecommunications and then living in ignorance of what happens in their own country and world. You know that ignorance makes a population at the mercy of ambitions from rural powers. <br /><br />Health is out of reach of farmers. Even if you suggest that the villagers you knew go to the nearest big town (Kratie?) there are villages too far and without proper roads, where a doctor is a very strain, far and expensive guy. Natural medicine is their health service and - with the due respect to ancient traditions - several natural practices are the main cause of death tolls, including that of the friendly mid-wife.<br /><br />If Cambodia wants to reduce poverty, it has to attend urgently the rural areas: infrastructures, telecommunications, electricity, running water, schools and agricultural projects. In Phnom Penh there are enough funds to do so. However, to do so, we need that the air-conditioning-office officials and private employees from departments, NGOs (most of them settled in Phnom Penh) and companies, bring their so expensive (?) cars to the dirty roads of the villages of their country in order to proof how true statistics can be.<br /><br />Greetings in the name of my children and young people from farms.Albeiro Rodashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14857408989918571838noreply@blogger.com