Happy birthday to me

Phones and morality

Cambodia was to have had the first 3G phone network in South East Asia. All the preparation was complete - the equipment is in place. But the prime minister (now in power for over 20 years) has decided that there is not enough morality in Cambodia to handle phones that take and transfer images. He has decided that the entire country must wait 10 years.

His reasons are that women will send pornographic images of themselves and thus corrupt pure and innocent Cambodian men. There are two issues with this. Firstly anyone can get porn these days - internet, books, magazines, $2 DVDs, and secondly blame the woman seems to be a standard strategy in this country. Picture phones and messaging does not corrupt morality - at least not on any sort of economy of scale.

Once again Cambodia loses an opportunity because its leaders ignore the progress to be made.

TGIF again

Life here continues as ever. It is a little cooler so I'm not as dependent on the air conditioner any more. Here's hoping my electricity bill reflects the situation. Somehow I think that it won't. Of course to counter that there is the monsoon but it generally rains between 3 and 5pm when I'm in the office. That takes the oppressive humidity out of the air!

I'm looking forward to the weekend. I plan to catch up on my sleep and tomorrow I'm going to the markets to buy fabric with some friends. We are going to get some clothes made. It is really reasonable here so we're taking advantage.

Well I suppose I should get back to work. I'm transcribing interviews I did before my trip home and am having trouble reading my own writing! Oh well I'll muddle through. There really is no good way to take notes for interviews. If you tape them, often the sound quality is poor and the batteries fail and if you write notes them you have to read your own notes. It's quite the adventure. I used to have goodish handwriting but since college it's gone a little downhill.

Have a good one friends

Guess who's back

Its been so long since I wrote - I may have forgotten how to post. I'm back in Cambodia after a very enjoyable trip home and one that seemed far too short. My brother got married in a beautiful ceremony and an excellent party afterwards. I went to Dublin and Kerry. I did not want to leave Kerry. It is so beautiful at the height of summer. I even felt sick leaving the place. I swam in the cold Atlantic and had a great time. It was just too short a time.

Oh well next summer perhaps... Anyway Cambodia is much the same as when I left. It is a little less warm - only noticeable at night - which is very welcome. The rains are still here and with them dengue and regular flooding.

I celebrated Quatorze Juillet at Elsewhere - a garden bar - and ended up in the pool for the first time ever. Copious volumes of wine were implicated. Many many French people were in attendance. And for the first time ever myself and Maggy were the last to leave and we were still up for partying so we tuktuked around trying to find a bar. We ended up - as always - in the Heart despite our general dislike for the place. Dancing and chatting followed.

I did get a little depressed seeing how many young Western men were with prostitutes and it really makes one wonder whether it would be the same with the men at home if prostitution was more widespread. I prefer to think that the freaks we see here are the exceptions.

After sharing our thoughts on the subject Maggy and I headed for a bar with a pool table and played till dawn. I did have a conversation with a guy who drove to Cambodia to France. That's a journey I want to do but Padraic is not up for it. I think it would be great!

Good Tuesday all!

Last chance

Anyone want anything from the wild East? Valium for a few cents, illegal DVDs, statutes of Buddha, or just some silk?

Today is your last chance to request!

Trivia

Well we didn't exactly defend out title as trivia champions at the lazy gecko. Oh well We came second. Our glorious night of triumph was not for this week - getting bored with it anyway. The antibiotics that the doc has me on prohibit taking advantage of the vodka for 50 cents at the lazy gecko but none of us were exactly on form last night anyway! Oh well girls night in tonight - chocolate, margeritas, and movies. It should be fun fun fun

Health facts

Did you know that malnutrition is the biggest killer in Cambodia and diabetes is in second place? Kinda ironic don'cha think?

It also rains

The good, bad, and ugly

Well I've not posted in a while because I've been on the road. I've been to Battambang, Bunteay Meanchey, Siem Reap, Poipet and Battambang again. It was of course all for work. The GIPA (Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS) project is over and I interviewed the national UN volunteers in three provinces.

The Poipet and Battambang trip was to follow up on my child trafficking articles. So I've been busy. I've seen the good (Angkor Wat and other temples). I've seen the bad (colonies of ants in my hotel rooms) and I've seen some of the ugliest things you can imagine (a young child kowtowing for money, a six year old boy in rehab for glue sniffing, children trafficked for the sex trade in Thailand).

Da Vinci Code

Seen it yet? Well I suppose you should see it as its the movie that everyone will talk about I suppose but the Da Vinci Code is a poor movie. I refer not to the adaptation book to film because of course the book is better. The film stands alone as boring, poorly executed, and lacking in chemistry. I had to force myself to sit through it.

Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou were acting by numbers. Never been a fan of Hanks but Tautou is better than that. Reno is off but still watched and McKellan is great, natch.

I wouldn't waste the money to go and see it, if you can bear to be left our of film conversations for the next couple of months.

Ciao