Cleveland On My Mind

Tremont, Cleveland, Ohio

While there are many similarities between Washington DC, where I last lived in the US, and Phnom Penh (big money, big government, bad traffic, lots of police), there isn't much of Cleveland here. Although perhaps the New York Times sees it differently, as it reports on both my adopted home and my hometown with more frequency than their relative clouts might merit. Perhaps both are ideal examples of two very different, but interconnected, global narratives. A recent op-ed underscores the challenges Cleveland faces, as well as some of its zaniness. Perhaps the two cities share that quality as well.

I often tell people that I'm happy to be abroad right now, missing the barrage of political ads and the inevitable fights with friends and family. That being said, it is impossible to overstate how much easier it is to live abroad now, thanks to the internet. While I'm happy to avoid the JAWS-esque super-PAC ads, I am extremely grateful that I can still access the news, contact my family, and check my bank account with relative ease. I can only imagine the headache of trying to keep in contact via Cambodia's postal system.

Central Market's new life

Pages from the book, via Melon Rouge website

The Central Market or Phsar Thmei, is my favorite building in Phnom Penh, and not only because I worked on a book about its renovation last year. It's more barang (foreigner) accessible than Phsar O'Russei, but without the tourist trap feel of Phsar Toul Tom Poung. The 1930s design somehow still looks modern, even when compared to Phnom Penh's trendiest new glass-box skyscrapers. It's (pre-climate control) natural ventilation system means the building stays cool during the hottest periods of the day. It's also one of the best market's to grab lunch at, thanks to a clean and bright restaurant wing. And it should go without saying that the people watching is fantastic.

Anyone interested in its history should check out my handiwork in 'Central Market: Story of a Renovation,' available in French/English or Khmer at Monument Books in Phnom Penh, or by directly contacting Melon Rouge.

No End in Sight for Phnom Penh Construction

Cambodia's construction sector attracts 1.53 bln USD investment in 8 months

Unknown fruit, Rabbit Island, Kep Province

Rabbit Island, Kep Province

Sound Familiar?

Central Ho Chi Min City, Spring 2011

Some people compare Phnom Penh to what Bangkok was like 20 years ago. But if I was placing bets on the city's future, I would look toward Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi. I have a hard time believing that Phnom Penh will ever boast a skyline crowded with office towers and five star hotels. Saigon's smattering of condo buildings and designer malls among the rows of shop-houses and French relics is a much more believable vision. When I visited Vietnam last year, both Vietnamese cities were buzzing with traffic jams, busloads of tourists, night markets and fancy cafés. I was particularly struck by the sunset view from the Hanoi's West Lake, complete with the blinking lights of dozens of skyscrapers under construction.

However, since returning to the region, I've come across several articles about Cambodia's neighbor to the east that range from circumspect to exasperated on the subject of the economy, particularly the effects of property speculation and cozy government-business relationships. I couldn't help but think of Phnom Penh, where green tarps and bamboo scaffolding are omnipresent. Large swaths of land just outside the city lie fallow, surrounded by thick concrete fences, waiting for the inexorable march of urban sprawl to reach them. Phnom Penh's Master Plan for 2020 estimates that the city will grow to over 3 million people by the end of the decade, expanding primarily to the north and west.

Phnom Penh art scene

"The Space Between Inside/Outside"

by Anida Yoeu Ali, a Cambodian-American artist, on display at Java Arts

For people interested in history and culture, the pace of development in Phnom Penh is often a cause of concern. Historic buildings are torn down and replaced by glass-box skyscrapers, young Cambodians are increasingly preoccupied with Korean music and fashion, etc. But as the city becomes more cosmopolitan, the local arts scene is growing. There are now several galleries and non-profit arts spaces in the city exhibiting high-quality work by local artists. Over are the days where the city's art 'scene' consisted of a half dozen shops selling the same overwrought oil-paintings of Angkor Wat.

Some of my favorites include:

Java Arts, a gallery space and café
Romeet Gallery, an exhibition space affiliated with Phare, a Battambang based arts organization

Prey Vang

Manure hut, for use in compost, Prey Vang province

I had the opportunity to travel 'into the field' for the first time last week, to Prey Vang province in Southeastern Cambodia. The names means 'long forest' in Khmer, but little forest remains, as in most parts of Cambodia. In fact, in certain areas, if you squint, the landscape looks like a well manicured golf course in Florida. What looks like acid green turf is, of course, rice paddies. CEDAC works with young farmers in the region, and I was lucky enough to visit their farms to view the new techniques they are implementing to raise chickens, grow vegetables, and increase their rice yields.

It was a very inspiring trip, to say the least. I was quite impressed by the farmers, their ambition and their commitment to farming as a profession. Previously, many had to supplement their incomes by working in factories or in construction, keeping them away from their families.

This was not my first trip into the Cambodian countryside, but it was the first time I was able to visit people's homes and learn about tropical agriculture from the farmers themselves. It's easy to forget how most Cambodians live when immersed in Phnom Penh's flashing lights and traffic. But despite the capital's growth, Cambodia is a still an overwhelmingly rural country.

Mapping Cambodia

Heritage buildings in Phnom Penh, from Urban Voice

Much has been made about the prospects of using data in government, development and business. The statistician is the next hot career. Buzzwords like 'indicators' and 'data visualization' are quickly joining the ranks of more established jargon. Since my last trip to Cambodia, the number of wifi cafés, iPhones and even LAN gaming centers has skyrocketed. So I was happy to stumble upon OpenDevelopment, mainland Southeast Asia's first public interest 'open data' site. I was particularly impressed by the maps section, where users can layer information about government land concessions, officially protected areas, and even the broadcast range of local radio stations. Cambodia and the development community would be wise to use these tools to improve public services and promote transparency in decision making.

Also worth checking out is UrbanWatch, a regularly updated community mapping site for Phnom Penh, documenting urban poor communities, heritage architecture, locations of recent news events and more.

Development vs. Justice?

This article in AlJazeera on the ongoing Boeung Kak land dispute is not the most thorough or enlightening piece written on the issue, which has been widely reported in international press and prompted the World Bank to cease new loans to the country. However, I found the sub-headline quite provocative:

Can progress and justice co-exist in Cambodia, a country where development leaves a trail of destruction?

That question is one I think everyone working in development in Cambodia must ask themselves, even if the answer remains unclear.

Sunset over Gulf of Thailand, Kep City

While I recognize the aforementioned 'limits of charity' when it comes to vulnerable children in Cambodia, there are several organizations doing good work in this area, with which every visitor to Cambodia should be familiar:

Mith Samlanh, or 'Friends', runs several business that train former street youth, including one of my favorite hide-outs in Cambodia: Le Café Mith Samlanh at the French Cultural Centre.

Child Safe Network is an international organization that oversees a variety of programs including anti-exploitation awareness campaigns and a reporting hotline. 

Durian for sale in Kep City

It's nearly impossible to describe the experience of eating durian, since there is really nothing else quite like it. The flesh has a custard-like flavor with a bit of sourness and a texture that reminds me of papier maché. It's 'aroma' gets most of the disdain, with comparisons to gym socks and rotten eggs. According to the guidebooks, Cambodians love the smell and are known to place skins underneath their beds. I'm skeptical...

Child Labor and the Limits of Charity

As anyone who has tried their best to resist the pleas of trinket and book sellers at Angkor Wat or on the Phnom Penh riverside can tell you, child labor is a widespread problem in Cambodia. I've been told that children, by appealing to visitors sense of empathy, can out-earn their parents by a figure of 2:1 or more. For every child working to lure tourist money, there are untold more working in less visible industries like construction (where flip flops and shorts are the de facto uniforms), to say nothing of the work in family rice paddies. The US Department of Labor has recently announced a ten million USD grant to combat child labor in the agriculture industry, building upon its previous work with children in the country's brick kilns, salt fields and shrimp processing factories.

Sonia Faleiro's recent op-ed in the NYTimes, a follow up to a previous piece on the subject, addresses the underlying complexities of the problem in India. The author received numerous offers after her last article to fund the education of the orphaned Devi siblings. However, their aunt refused any assistance, on the grounds that the family could not afford to forfeit the less than one dollar per day salary that their eldest sibling, a fourteen year old boy, made in the brick kilns. However, instead of denouncing the aunt as exploitative and cold-hearted, the author instead criticizes the Indian state for its failure to address the cyclical poverty that such a situation is born from. Piecemeal efforts by NGOs and philanthropists can only go so far when corruption and partisanship in the government undermine the policies enacted to combat poverty's root causes (lack of infrastructure, poor public education, chronic food shortages, etc.)

This is a message that should resonate in many places, but especially in Cambodia, home to hundreds of NGOs and charitable organizations, and where there is currently no compulsory schooling age.

There is never any shortage of photographs of Cambodia (or of foreign 'photographers'... myself included). However, with everyone eager to share their 300+ photos from their vacation, the good ones can be tough to find. This old post from the blog KhmerBird highlights some beautiful photographs of varying subjects. The photo featured above is by Frank Spee.

Even after nearly eight months total in Cambodia, I still am transfixed by troupes of monks with their shaved heads and their saffron robes. They are often eager to chat with foreigners and practice their English; many only join the monkhood for a short time before they head to university or back to work.

The Big Picture

It's difficult to find photographs that accurately depict Phnom Penh's skyline and streetscapes, because by the time anything makes it on the web, it's already outdated. However, I quite like this series by Nicolas Axelrod taken earlier this year from the still-incomplete Vattanac Bank tower.

The Cambodia forum on SkyscraperCity has a thread devoted to panoramic photographs, as well as a frequently updated list of major building projects in the city.

 

I love this video series on SRI farming produced by CEDAC. The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is a rice-cultivation method that aims to increase the yields of small farmers without the addition of purchased inputs, such as chemical fertilizer. 

The videos themselves are quite entertaining and give insight into popular Cambodian culture as well. 

Speaking of Cars...

Fulbright researcher Shelby Elizabeth Doyle records her daily commute. 

If widespread English fluency was my most pleasant surprise upon arriving in Phnom Penh, traffic was certainly the least. I had read about Phnom Penh traffic before arriving, but nothing (at least in the US) can prepare you for the free-for-all that is Cambodian rush hour. Motorbikes hauling mattresses, flat bed trucks carrying a wobbling mountain of 50+ sacks of rice, tuk-tuks transporting a family of 15, shiny new Bentleys speeding down the wrong lane....you never know what you'll encounter.

Phnom Penh currently has no public transportation. If the city continues to develop as anticipated (and hoped), traffic will likely become one of the biggest issues facing the city.

Range Rovers getting some competition in Cambodia?

New 2 billion USD investment to create a national car in Cambodia. Could Phnom Penh's next status car be homegrown?

Another lake slated for development

Despite the ongoing controversy surrounding the filling of Boeung Kak, it appears as though there are plans to develop the areas around another large lake in Phnom Penh, Boeung Tumpun. The Phnom Penh Post first reported on the story, and now the mapping group Urban Voice has released a speculative map of the development plans.

There are also reports that the property development company working at Boeung Kak has closed its doors in Phnom Penh without starting construction. 

Documenting the water

The floods are coming. My first few weeks were surprisingly dry, but now the rain has arrived in earnest. Last Saturday (pictured above) was a 12 hour deluge. After last year's devastating floods in Thailand and Cambodia, resulting in numerous deaths and the cancellation of the annual Water Festival, everyone is holding their breath.

The blog City of Water has been tracking Tonle Sap levels and other water and flood related issues.

Stock up on ponchos everyone!

Abandoned villa from the 1960s, in Kep City

Kep (pronounced 'Kype') is a seaside resort town in southwestern Cambodia. Less than 2 hours from Phnom Penh, it was frequented by French colonial officers in the early 20th century. After Cambodia won its independence, it became a vacation spot for wealthy Cambodians, who built modernist concrete villas in the emerging 'New Khmer' style taking hold in Cambodia's urban centers. Abandoned during the civil war and Khmer Rouge periods, many still remain as reminders of a mostly overlooked time in Cambodian history. Luckily, Kep has so far escaped the Sihanoukville's fate and remains relatively quiet. KepExpo, a new multimedia project taking place in early 2013, will raise awareness of Kep's heritage architecture and use the city to prompt dialogues about Cambodian urban history and culture.

Of the many surprises that awaited me on my first trip to Cambodia, the high level of English fluency was the most striking. I had read that people working in tourism would at least know a few phrases, but I did not expect to be able to get by using only English so easily. Like most expats, I failed to learn much Khmer, an error I'm trying to correct this time around. I am still very curious as to how the country managed to promote the language so successfully, much more so than neighboring Vietnam.

Despite the many French visitors and the well-attended French Institute, French language has been mostly relegated to 'hobby' status. I've read that the French presence in the country during the colonial period was never very strong, especially when compared to Vietnam or Algeria. Only the elite and well-educated would have spoken French. Such a status would have immediately marked them for execution by the Khmer Rouge. That being said, I have met a fair number of Franco-Khmer expats and permanent returnees in Phnom Penh, far more than from the US.

I have yet to read anything or get a good explanation of language-politics in Cambodia, beside 'it's good for business,' which may be all there is to know. This piece, in the blog 'I see Cambodia', discusses growing concern over the dominance of English and the romanticization of written Khmer. I find it quite interesting that all of the countries in which I've spent significant time (the US, France, Cambodia) seem to be having a similar internal debate about language, and especially its relationship with communication technology.