The Home Comes First

by Vannak LACH

Fire victims care more about building houses than voting.

“We need a home and need to fill our stomach, not to cast a ballot!” says 40-year-old Heng Mony, smiling sadly. He is one of over 562 Phnom Penhian families who have lost their

The victims are siting under the tent with sadness.

houses to fires about two months ago. With another 433 families from Teuk Thla commune of Russey Keo district, he is now temporarily housed in blue plastic-covered shelters provided by the Cambodian Red Cross and some NGOs.

Since the fire, Mony, who is an official at the Chemical and Biological Department in the Interior Ministry, his wife and two children have had a difficult life. “My wife must stay at home all day to look after our remaining property.”

Even now, Mony does not know whether his family will be allowed to vote because his election documents were destroyed. He had no time to check with the authorities. “During the day I have to work full time and at night I have a part-time job at a printing house,” he says. “If I do not work hard, I cannot survive.” He does not waste emotions on the election. “If they want me to vote, they must approach me and issue the lost papers. Otherwise, I will not vote.”

“It’s miserable,” says neighbor Meas Heourn, a cyclo-taxi driver. “Everything gets wet and sometimes, the roof of my shelter is blown away.” He doesn’t care much about the election, all he wants is a new house. “I cannot sleep at night when it rains,” he complains.

Hardly anyone in the community cares about the election. Even Tea Thet, a salesman who has never missed voting since 1993, does not worry about it any more. “Last time, I watched the TV and listened to the parties’ policies, now I don’t care, I just want the authorities to solve my problems.”

The authorities had promised to find a solution for the people after Khmer New Year, but everything is quiet now. “I heard a rumor that they are waiting to check outcome of the election first.” What is more threatening to the fire victims, is the land problem.

The community is settling on the land of Ouknha Thay Bun Rong and people do not know how long they can stay there. “We may not be allowed to stay here after the election,” says Tea Thet. “When we had a home, everything felt comfortable,” Tea Thet says. “Now we have no home, no electricity, and no comforts.”
The place where all those victims lived before fire comes is a lake. Thus, they are worried that if they are not allowed to stay on that land for longer, they will have no place to live in because they cannot build their house on the lake.

Douk Phalla, a former policeman in the Anti-terrorism Department of the Interior Ministry, said “my life is getting worse and worse because I am ill. Now I am both homeless and sick. It is hard to survive. Voting! Wait until that day.”

Mann Sreyla, whose husband is a motor-taxi driver, said that she does not expect to get anything from her vote. “Even though I go to vote, I don’t expect to get a new house. We have to try hard by ourselves.”

In response to the victims’ concerns, Toeuk Thla’s commune chief Tan Navin, said that there won’t be an eviction of people to anywhere else. Phnom Penh’s municipality is conducting studies on the disaster land as they want to develop the roads and infrastructure to avoid such disasters in the future.

After the road development, City Hall will allow the victims to return, but the municipality will not promise to build houses for the people, he added.

Tep Nytha, Secretary-General of the National Election Committee said that the people have not understood. As citizens, they have an obligation to vote. They vote to choose a good leader not only to solve their problems but also to lead the whole country.

“It is wrong for the people to expect the authorities to come to them,” he said. “They themselves must approach authority if their files were destroyed.”


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Once a Prisoner, Always a Prisoner?

by Vannak LACH

Prison is supposed to be a place where bad people become re-educated in order to return to society as a better person. For Cambodian prisons, this is not true. A few ex-inmates however do claim to have changed – some with the help of god.

“In prison, the convicted grow accustomed to the brutal conditions and they become even crueler,” says Chou Potita.  Prison is not a place where people “learn to lead a life without crime.”

Chou Potita should know. The thirty-five year old was just released from Municipal Prison where he spent three years of his life. The embezzlement of a large sum of money from one of Cambodia’s big gas companies got him there; he never denied the charges.

“In prison, people are classified”, says Potita. “The rich have power and get protection from prison officers, the poor always suffer. Discrimination, corruption and unfairness exist just like outside.” This discovery seems to have shocked the man who used to mix with the more powerful and rich himself, before he was imprisoned.

Potita himself became a victim when he was assaulted and humiliated in the prison.  He recounts how one day, “I was exercising, when a newcomer with his gang came and took off my shorts in front of a crowd of people and beat me. When the prison guards came they blamed me and banned me from exercising for a month.” His assailants were known to have money, he says, and that was why the prison guards favored them.

“A prison guard once even told me, ‘money, not justice, rules in here’”, says Potita who once served as an officer for the government himself. “I always used my money to influence the people around me. Most of my life, I was the one who had control over others, but in prison, I had no control.” Torn between helpless desperation and great anger, between suicidal thoughts and the wish to do away with others, he finally formed a gang to protect himself.

“I thought that after my release, we could rob and kidnap the rich and use the money to bribe officers to discharge other prisoners, so our gang could grow.” This plan no longer exists, after what Potita calls “the guidance of a Christian missionary” entered his life.

“If prison is not changing us to the better, then we have to start changing ourselves,” says Potita confidently.

“Christ helped me change and allows me to live peacefully.” He says that his belief also gives him the strength to openly admit that he was in prison. If this is why people dislike him, he hopes to change their attitude to him and possibly towards other ex-inmates by living a sober life.

“I never cared about what others said,” he says. “Now, that helps me; I just try to be good.”

The Bright Future Project aims to educate prisoners and help them when they are released. It also provides new hope for Potita. He volunteers with the project under the umbrella of the Community Enrichment Alliance International (CEAI), a Christian organization with South Korean support which focuses on agriculture, healthcare, and education in remote areas. The plan is to create an organization which will focus on educating and training ex-inmates and to help them to find jobs.

“Potita was an aggressive and hot-tempered person before, but now he has changed for the better,” says Ny Sambath who is running the project to which Potita hopes to contribute with his experience and past good relationships with many businessmen. Potita’s ultimate goal is to run an organization which helps released convicts to set up small businesses. “Ex-inmates can work together,” he adds, “we want to help them because we know how they feel.”

Sam Phirum, a 24-year old ex-inmate appreciates such support. He had to give up high school after he was convicted of armed robbery and is now released, looking for a job. In the prison, he says, Potita helped him to deal with frustration.

Potita himself has not found a job yet and says that this is because Khmer society still discriminates against ex-inmates. Now his goal is to create a job for himself as well as for other prisoners after their release.

Around 30 students are already undergoing training in English, computers, publishing and music, he says. But their goal is more than that. Potita and Sambath work very hard to strike against discrimination and to prove to society that they are strong enough to stand by themselves and to gain respect through honorable work.

“One day all people will acknowledge us for making a change and becoming good people, and no longer look at us as prisoners.”

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Malaysian Female Rugby Players

Hi

Here is my first story that I have done during my internship in Malaysia.

Malaysia: A group of women has discovered the joy of rugby. They formed The Royal Selangor Club Dingoes one year ago and want to encourage more women to the sport.

I cannot upload it here so here is the link:

http://thestaronline.tv/default.aspx?vid=4125

Final Project Reflection

Hi everyone both Cambodian and German fellows.

Since the announcement of the course, I feel that this is a great chance for me to expand my knowledge.

For one reason, it is a kind of new program course that I used to only hear but never touch. When I hear others talking about online course, I always wonder what it is about and how the students learn and are taught. So, after joining this cooperation project, it helps clear some doubts from my mind.
This course mean a lot to me; It helps me learn something about German, the way German students live and study and share back about Cambodia.

What I am interested in the most is the course as I mention above. However, what I find strange to me is that German girl can drink wine without getting criticized. In Cambodia, females are not supposed to drink any wine or beer. They will be strongly criticized if they do and supposed to be bad persons. Though, people should have right to do what they want, I think.
For the difficulty in the communication process, I think it is as hard as most of the students here always complaint; the slow speed of the internet. And it is even harder for the students who do not have own laptop to connect wireless because the time to use computers at school is limited. To be honest, I haven’t watched the movie clips that all the students produced. I also tried to watch but it took me long time to do it.
In short, it will be better if we have faster-speed internet. We would have shared more things. I am happy to have more course; I would like to expose myself more to European life.

My Favorite Media

Among the media, TV is my favourite medium that I consume most often than others. Why?

As I cannot afford internet at home, only TV that help me not to feel bored.  I love watching TV because there are varieties of things in it through different channels.

What I like the most on TV are Movies and Footble match. I love Star Movie and Star Sport very much. I enjoy watcing movies everyday I stay at home.  I admit that I just watched TV for fun only in the past.

Footbal Match

 However, since I started class at Department of Media & Communication, I begin to have some changes like Now I also like watching  news channels ( CNN or BBC) and have critical eyes, I can say. I do not just watch for fun but the way behind it like how and why the film and programs on TV are created etc.  

News on CNN

 To me, I really satisfy this school because it teaches me to be more literate and more independent.

I think I don’t have much to say about it but one thing I wanna to admit is that I haven’t learn anything about German from TV. Though,  I have learned a lot from my German  lecturers at school and internet and also from this Moodle. To me, German people are very good and I love Germany.

My Trip with radio group

Here is the front of Speanyol (Bridge) at Koh Kong.

Cambodian Student welcome to the world…

Dear all readers

I am Vannak Lach, year 3 at the department of Media and Communication in Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Happy to see you from all corners.

This is me, Phnom Penh Airport