Inflation

I'm back from R&R to find that prices are increasing in almost every sector. Inflation of consumer prices is at 37%. The price of gas is soaring. No doubt rice will follow especially with the drought in several provinces. Now rat meat has quadrupled in price. Rat meat was the affordable protein.

With consumer price inflation at 37 percent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel (69 pence) from 1,200 riel last year.

Spicy field rat dishes with garlic thrown in have become particularly popular at a time when beef costs 20,000 riel a kg.

Officials said rats were fleeing to higher ground from flooded areas of the lower Mekong Delta, making it easier for villagers to catch them.

Even this readily available source of protein may be out of the price range for the 42% (6 million people) living on less than a dollar a day according to the World Bank's latest poverty line re evaluation.

Prehaps the government can focus on issues of poverty and inflation now that the chaos of the general election has passed and there is no longer a war pending over 4.5kms of land near Preah Vihear.

Rat - the other white meat

They may carry the flies that carry the plague but in Cambodia they are just another source of protein.

The rocketing price of more conventional meats due to bird flu quarantines and world oil prices has doubled the market price of rat meat in Cambodia, local media reported Tuesday. Rat meat has become so valuable that rice farmers "in their hundreds" had set up sideline businesses catching rats and making them table-ready, reported the Khmer-language daily Kampuchea Thmey.

Cambodians in certain provinces have long caught rats as a protein source when rodent numbers reach a peak during the rice harvest and enjoy the meat roasted or dried as a snack while drinking. (Source)

To each their own I suppose. Must. Not. Judge.

KFC = animal cruelty or PETA = delusional?

PETA's got another idiotic and vaguely insulting campaign going.

An international animal-rights organization has urged Prime Minister Hun Sen to prevent the U.S.-based fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) from opening in Cambodia, claiming that it threatens Cambodian culture, people's health and leads to animal abuse, local media said Wednesday. (Source)

Model Sarah Jane urging a boycott by posing naked with two chickens and the slogan 'chicks agree'. Aside of the obvious sexism, PETA is delusional with regard to the 'animal cruelty' issue. They are worried that KFC will hurt the poor chickens. Well since I've been in Cambodia, I've seen live pigs, ducks and chickens strapped to motorbikes. At the zoo adults throw stones at the animals to make them move and domestic animals are savagely beaten. Big deal on the KFC chickens!