Better than coffee?

I have made a most startling discovery. It has been tested on a sample group of one and 100% of the group agree that X is better than coffee for waking me and staying awake.

Coffee is

is a social binder, a warmer of tongues, a soberer of minds, a stimulant of wit, a foiler of sleep if you want it so. From roadside mugs to the classic demi-tasse, it is the perfect democrat.

What could possibly replace coffee, that nectar of the gods? Certainly nothing as simple as a cinnamon stick in hot water. Alas yes, while I still love my black bitter coffee, I alternate with cinnamon water - that sounds revolting. How about : tisane de cinnamon (sounds pretenious)? Cin keeps you up all night (open to misinterpretation)? Cinnamon tea is what I'll have to stick to I guess. Try it and let me know if it works for you or whether it's just me!

Holiday in the sun

Some pictures from Phuket in Thailand where I went for some R&R. Also shows that it's impossible to escape the ants in this part of the world!

Caught between the tiger and the crocodile

Via Juliana Rincón Parra

Cambodian sex workers talk about their experiences, and their views on the law.



The popular opinion is that the the 2008 law to outlaw sex work was an election game and a strategic international move to curry favour. Whether this is the case or not, the police are using the law to imprison sex workers in "rehabilitation" centres. Money must change hands to secure a release.

The police strategy is to lock up women who carry condoms, assuming they are sex workers. Putting aside the issue of how messed up that notion is, it clashes with the 100% condom use campaign to reduce HIV transmission. The 100% condom use was working although there are issues of secondary sex workers and police harassment. The HIV infection rate is declining in Cambodia.

There is much more I could saw on the sexism, discrimination and human rights violations that the police are a part of. Instead, the sex workers speak for themselves. Too often sex workers are silenced but Cambodians are using the net as a easy way to get information out there.

When you've watched the vid, check out more from sexworkerspresent - vids made by sex workers all over the world.

Cure for acne

Urban legends have a way of fascinating some of us. Snopes is a great resource to find out whether Coca Cola's name is transliterated as "Bite the wax tadpole" in Chinese or if chewing gum really takes seven years to make its way through the human digestive system or whether the five second rule applies.

I've mentioned urban legends from Asia before - they were all news to me but there's a new one being reported on in the Phnom Penh Post and KI-Media. That is that the lubricant from the "Number One"brand condoms, cure acne.

A condom lubricant designed for sex workers and gay men has become a popular acne cure among female Cambodians, women in the capital and local media said Thursday.

Number One Plus, a water-based lubricant produced by health organisation Population Services International (PSI), is an excellent cure for acne, 29-year-old vendor Tep Kemyoeurn told AFP.

"After I used it for three days, all of my acne dried up and went away," she said. "Many people believe in it," she added.

Khen Vanny, 29, from Phnom Penh, told AFP that women of all ages have taken to using the lubricant to get rid of spots.

"It is very effective. Some people don't believe in it but people who do really get a good result," she said, adding: "My youngest sister and my aunt use it too."

A vendor near a factory in the coastal city of Sihanoukville told the newspaper that she sold packets of Number One Plus lubricant for 500 riels (12 cents) to many women every day.

Lost cost acne treatment or urban legend? Maybe there is some active ingredient in the lube, however unlikely it seems to my admittedly un-medical mind.

Is this a slut-shaming movement that likes the idea of women rubbing lube on their faces in a non-sexual context?

This idea probably originates in the same school of thought that informed us that a fan in a closed room can cause death by sucking all the air out. What do you think?

ETA: Here's the advert for it.

Ignorance is no excuse

A seven year old child is a victim of ignorance as described in this DPA article. She was expelled because she is HIV positive and thus a danger to the other children.

Phnom Penh - The foster parents of a seven-year-old Cambodian girl are considering legal action after a foreign-managed private school expelled the child for being HIV positive.

The Cambodian-owned, British-managed Footprints School in the capital, which bills itself as to international-standard and offering 'well trained, caring, professional staff,' expelled the girl within hours of becoming aware of her HIV status, the parents said.

The ignorance is appalling especially for an educational institution. How is it, in a country with so many HIV/AIDS programme, is Footprints ignorant of HIV modes of transmission?

The four major routes of transmission are unprotected sexual intercourse, contaminated needles, breast milk, and transmission from an infected mother to her baby at birth.

Which of these is the root of Footprints' fear? Which is relevent to a seven year old child?

Obviously if it's educational standards are so low, the board of directors should consider closing the school as quickly as possible. Do they still teach that the Earth is flat there too? Maybe the students learn that sun revolves around the Earth? Besides ignorance is no excuse under the law and impossible to believe.

Millions of dollars have been invested in HIV/AIDS education and the efforts are paying off as the infection rate is significantly reduced as a result. Anti-retroviral drugs are available and people are living with HIV/AIDS, not dying of because of inadequate care.

Cambodia has anti-discrimination laws and all children are entitled to an education. Footprints is breaking the law. Wonder if this will have legal repercussions?

A woman who identified herself as the director of studies at Footprints said by telephone that the school did not have an HIV/AIDS policy in place and despite the girl's unblemished three months at the school prior to the discovery, she had to leave.

'We are worried about the rest of the children,' she said, acknowledging that the child's HIV status was behind the decision.

'We are a private school, and although we would try to keep information like this confidential, there is no guarantee it would not become public,' she said.

That could result in the school losing business as panicked parents withdrew their children, she said.

Ah so the motivation is not education but losing business. Yes well yet another reason to close the school down. Children should not be learning discrimination in school. Children should not be learning myths as fact in school. Children should have HIV/AIDS age-appropriate education and not be taught to demonise their peers. The child is not a risk to other students. To expel her on those grounds would be laughable if it was in violation of her human rights.

Shame on you, Footprints School.

Oopsies?

In medical professional in the shambles of the Irish health service just removed the wrong kidney from a child. Harney, the Minister for Health, said

that unfortunately clinical errors occur in the best healthcare systems... insists she has total confidence in the hospital carrying out a thorough internal investigation.

Really? It's amazing that she is not requesting an independent enquiry, especially after the cancer misdiagnoses last year and the resulting deaths. The Irish health service is a total joke and Harney has total confidence. I don't.

Bird flu

Anyone else a little concerned? Found this recently on bird flu.

Limited, non-sustained person-to-person transmission of H5N1 virus probably occurred in this family cluster

Even if limited, human-to-human transmission is worrying and yet is only once of the looming disasters. I feel like singing:

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.

The Black Death returneth

The plague episode of House apart, the Black Death is finito right? Well not according to the Beeb

Research by Professor Michael Begon at the University of Liverpool revealed the deadly disease, also known as the Black Death, has re-emerged.

It has only killed 200 people since 1998, but Prof Begon said the threat is "growing" in Africa and the US.

The plague is caused by infected fleas carried by rats which spreads easily.

As the disease is almost impossible to wipe out, it is increasingly being passed by rodents to humans by rodents, which can kill people within a few days if not treated with antibiotics...

"Because of the disease's inherent communicability, rapid spread, rapid clinical course, and high mortality if left untreated...

"Plague appears to be on the increase, and for the first time there have been major outbreaks in Africa."

So if you feel poorly be on the lookout for black oozing pustules, just in case.

Racism and visas

I am livid. My friend has acute appendicitis and needs immediate medical evacuation to Bangkok. My friend is from a country that needs a visa to enter Thailand. She is lying on a trolley in Cambodia, while her husband rushes around town trying to get her an emergency visa so she can have an operation. You would think that they could make an exception.

My friend is African. The last time she went to Bangkok, she had to submit to a special medical exam only for Africans. I think she is being discriminated against because she is black. And there is nothing I can do, but hope that she can get her operation in time.

I wouldn't trust anyone to open someone up in Cambodia. The healthcare standards are just not high enough. At least the hosiptal in Bangkok is modern and clean - it's where rich foreigners have elective procedures. I hope she gets that visa.

Take the pledge

I PLEDGE:

1. To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;

2. To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become "carbon neutral;"

3. To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;

4. To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;

5. To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;

6. To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,

7. To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.

Take the pledge

For info on 07 07 07 events in Cambodia click here

HIV infections decrease

There is excellent news on the battle against new HIV infections in Cambodia. The infection rate decreased by half in 2006. It shows that the education programmes being run by many national and international organisation are successful. The message that condoms are essential to the prevention of new infections is getting through.

Cambodia gained 70,000 AIDS-infected people in 2006, which decreased by half from the figure in 2003, a senior health official said on Thursday.

Cambodia is very proud of this result, said Mom Bun Heng, secretary of State of the Cambodian Ministry of Health, while addressing an AIDS seminar in Phnom Penh.

The Cambodian government could now provide the delaying-life medicine for 20,000 AIDS-infected people, including 2,000 children, he said.

The government's budget for AIDS prevention in 2007 stands two times higher than 2006, while the disease is spreading from urban areas to rural areas.

Cambodia is one of the worst-hit countries in the region in the field of AIDS spread. In 1997, its infection rate ran at 3.3 percent of its population. (Source)

Advocacy work is an important part of the strategy. Educating people on the disease and its modes of transmission greatly help to reduce the discrimination that HIV positive people face every day. It is wonderful to hear such a positive story when most days all we hear is corruption this and killing that.

Dying to be white?

In Cambodia, one has to search very hard to find creams / shaving lotion / deodorant without whitening cream. The elite have very light skin and the poor have darker skin. I'm generalising, of course, but for the majority it is true. Many Cambodians, especially young women, use whitening cream to attain the whiteness of the elite. However the creams and treatments they use are not great for one's skin.

Then there’s hydroquinone, a chemical used in photo processing that has become a common active ingredient in skin whiteners. Extended exposure to hydroquinone can backfire, leaving large dark patches of skin, or possibly worse: It has been shown to cause cancer in lab animals. In 2005, a pair of Dutch researchers referred to the widespread use of hydroquinone in skin whiteners as “a potential time bomb.” Accordingly, the chemical is banned for cosmetic use in the European Union, but is widely available elsewhere, especially in Asia. Hydroquinone is legal in concentrations of up to 2 percent in the United States, but the FDA is considering banning its use altogether in over-the-counter skin products. (Source)

Some of these young woman are literally dying to be white. White is seen as wealthy and desirable. They wear long sleeved gloves outside and walk with umbrellas to protect their skin from the sun. They gaze in astonishment at expats lying sunbathing, expats that are trying to tan. Culture clash.

Urban legends - plastic bottles

As a regular reader of Snopes I was well aware this one but it's amazing that such ignorance is still being propagated over the internet.

hi friend,

this is info i got fr my friend

Just Info please get more information from your Doctor for confirmation!!!!!!!

Hi ladies, just wanted to let you know some
VERY important information!
This information was given to me by my husband and I
know all the ladies in my life should know and please forward it to all
the ladies in your life.

My husband has a friend whose mother recently got diagnosed with
breast cancer. The doctor told her women should not drink bottled water
that has been left in a car. The doctor said that the heat and the
plastic of the bottle have certain chemicals that can lead to Breast
Cancer. So please be careful and do not drink that water bottle that has
been left in a car and pass this on to all the women in your life.

This information is the kind we need to know and be
aware and just might save us!!!!

Such rumours stuff up inboxes and cause panics. If I was to listen to every rumour I would not drink bottled water for fear of breast cancer, gallstones and everything else that is attributed to toxins. But on the other hand if I drink tap water I risk giardia, gastro-intestinal distress, worms, typhoid and the classic, arsenic poisoning. Now while is it true that tap water in Cambodia contains arsenic, the levels are much lower than in Bangladesh for example. Sometimes you just have to have a glass of water. I'd be grateful not to receive such spam again.

Dengue fever

Officials in a Cambodian province close to the capital said Wednesday that seven children had died of dengue fever in one village in recent weeks and they were bracing for more deaths as the rainy season set in. (Source)

With the rainy season comes Dengue fever which is a mosquito-borne disease. There is no vaccine and there are four subtypes, one of which kills. There have been more cases this year in the dry season so the infection rate with the rains is expected to reach record highs.

So protect yourself

• remain in well-screened or completely enclosed, air-conditioned areas;
• wear light-coloured clothing with full-length pant legs and sleeves;
• use insect repellent on exposed skin.
• get rid of stagnant water in your house

And that's pretty much all you can do. Here's to a disease-free wet season.

International Children's Day

Today is International Children's Day - "a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children" - which is wonderful. But perhaps it is more useful to think about children's rights and promoting adherence to child related conventions.

Six of the eight Millennium Development Goals relate directly to children. Children are living in poverty, embroiled in armed conflict, trafficked as slaves and sex workers, working in the worst conditions, living in shantytowns, addicted to drugs by the age of four, deprived of education, health, orphaned by AIDS and other diseases including those with treatment and a host of other situations that global civil society must work on and ameliorate for all the children in the world. As trite as it sounds - they are the future.

In Cambodia, children sell flowers, shoeshines, jasmine and newspapers on the streets. The expats do not buy from them because there is always a man on a motorbike to take the money and whisk them to the next restaurant, bar etc. It is very hard to say no but the rule is never buy from or give to children. ChildSafe Cambodia is an organisation that protects children and has a network of service people to watch for abuse. Their advice is clear

Do not buy anything from children on the streets:
- Many tourists and expatriates feel pity for the children selling various products. By buying products/services from children, you support a business that puts children at high risk; children are out at night until late and are working in hazardous places
- Most of the children are forced into work and racketed for the money they earn. All have an adult waiting for them outside and could do the job themselves without involving children
- By providing them with an income, it hinders organizations that work with these families to encourage alternative and safe sources of income.
- Children might say that they work to pay for their studies: surveys show that this is something to say to make a sale.
- What to do: Refrain from buying with a smile. If you want to help, support the Cambodian social workers that work with these children
- Giving them food has the same results as it maintains children on the streets

So we comply and refuse to buy and it must seem so unfair. The rich barang (foreigners) are eating, drinking and enjoying life in Cambodia and they won't spare 1000 riel ($0.25).

There is a lovely flower girl who works Riverside at night that a couple of my friends took to the waterpark and the zoo. She sells roses to people in bars but she is approaching an age that will make her vulnerable to prostitution and rape. It is heart-breaking but there's nothing we can do except support the child protection agencies. I recommend Rithy Panh's film Paper Cannot Wrap Up Embers for more information.

I have blogged before on the six year old boy I met who was in rehab for drugs and on Seila a victim of child trafficking. I found this press release from Legal Aid of Cambodia on pre-trial detention for children.

June 1 is International Children’s Day. On that day many accused children are awaiting their trials at the CC2 Prison in Phnom Penh and other prisons throughout the country. Most of them are being held in beyond the legal limits of pre-trial detention and they often wonder who is responsible for their excessive pretrial detention.

The juveniles are between 13 to 18 years old on the date of the accused crime. Nearly all of their clients are held in pre-trial detention in various provincial prisons and CC2 Prison. The excessive pre-trial detention period regarding these cases, range from 15 days up to 70 days or more. This can be considered as a broad violation of children's rights and leads to the situation that these juveniles are being deprived of receiving education, living with their families and enjoying social events even before it has been decided whether they are guilty or not. (Press release from Legal Aid of Cambodia)

Think about it this way, a child innocent of a crime gets locked away for maybe 70 days, over two months. Although it doesn't really matter whether the child is guilty of the crime or not. It is a violation of children's rights, a violation on the Convention on the Rights of the Child of which Cambodia is a signatory.

There is also the fact that child can be charged as adults here depending on the severity of the alleged crime or the status of the victim. There was a story not long ago of a teenager who cursed down the phone to the wife of a CPP official. He thought he was speaking to someone else. He is now in jail, waiting to be tried as an adult. He is in jail due to a mis-dialed number and very bad luck. (I will try to find the newspaper article and provide sources.)

They are just some of the stories from Cambodia. There are other stories, happier stories. There are children who get a great education and play without a care in the world. There are children who get English lessons and play football and meet foreign children. All childhoods are represented.

Yet another explanation

According to [Yin Kim Sean, the secretary of state for the Ministry of Environment], the presence of large amount of excrements in the bottom of the fish cages cause a lack of oxygen and an increase of carbon dioxide concentration. Added to that are the first rains which “warmed up the earth” and increased the water temperature, this would have caused the death of the fishes. (Source)

So it's not poison even though a representative of the SKD winery confirmed that the factory dumped waste in the river. And it's not a naturally occurring chemical reaction in the water, now fifty tons of fish died in warmed excrement. I wonder what explanation tomorrow will bring.

Poison fish - the sequel

So apparently there is nothing to worry about! Radio Free Asia (the insolent radio station) has reported that a group of governmental experts reported that the 50 tons of fish did not die from pollutants but from a naturally occurring chemical reaction in the water.

Oh well that's OK then. Fifty tons of fish died from natural causes at the same time - that's completely plausible. It's good to trust the government when they give such logical explanations. If one was paranoid, one might conclude that some factory paid a large amount of money to make such allegations disappear. I'm sticking to turf for now.

Sapient viruses?

He said that he got the illness from his wife, Chumteav Bun Rany, who also spread the disease to their grandchild. Hun Sen said that illness does not discriminate, and it does not know that Hun Sen is a high-ranking official”. (Source)

Disturbing words from the PM here. Two major points methinks. Firstly his wife "spread the disease". Oh yes, when explanations are too complex, the path of least resistance is to blame the woman. She diseased up the grandchild too just to make sure.

Secondly, from his words I get the feeling that the PM means the opposite. Certainly his phrasing indicates that he believes that an illness should skip him because he is such an important man. Well he is certainly self-important.

The illness does not know his rank. Yes PM this is normal. While viruses are living they have not achieved sapience. Where viruses capable of choice, I'm sure the rank of PM would have encouraged them to seek less connected prey for their evil, rapacious, diseased ways.

As amusing as sapient viruses are, I find the scientific ignorance appalling. One of the markers of a developing state is a lack of investment in science and technology. Perhaps after his encounter with the disrespectful viruses, the PM will reevaluate his appropriation of public money and invest it in Cambodia. Well one can dream regardless.

Save the planet

“We are on the edge of the greatest die-off humanity has ever seen,” said Lovelock. “We will be lucky if 20% of us survive what is coming. We should be scared stiff.”

Lovelock has delivered such warnings before, but this weekend they have a special resonance. Last week in Bangkok, Thailand, the world’s governments finalised this year’s third and final report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) setting out how humanity might save itself from the worst effects of climate change.

In it was a message of hope, albeit a faint one. The report set out a complex mix of political, economic and technological solutions. If they all worked, said the report, they could achieve huge cuts in the 25 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) released by humanity into the air each year, thus keeping global temperature rises below 3C. (Source)

Will the Earth resemble Mars in fifty years time? Will Earth be arid, empty, and lifeless? Is this fear mongering or the far sighted view of a realist?

Whatever arguments are put up in the denial camps, it is clear that our climate is changing dramatically. I notice it in Cambodia even from one year to another. Here everybody dreads April and May. Many people get out of the country for those months because it is so hot and sticky. You sweat wearing a minimum of clothing while surrounded by fans. Even a dip in the pool brings no relief because it is too hot and muggy.

However, this year April and May have so far been tolerable. It is uncomfortable at 34 degrees and 100 humidity but it is tolerable - a far cry from last years experience. It has been raining a couple of times a week. It didn't rain last year.

These changes are profound, sudden and worrying. What does this mean for the rainy season? Will we get a monsoon or a drought? The fortune tellers in Cambodia are predicting a bad harvest and whether one believes in that or not, change is coming. I have already mentioned the climate changes in Ireland last winter. And the changes in these two countries are just highlighted because of my observations.

Climate change is bringing disease, flooding and drought. Tropical diseases are finding their way into temperate zones. Will Europe have to deal with Malaria again? How about Dengue or Japanese Encephalitides?

Additional anticipated effects include sea level rise of 110 to 770 mm (0.36 to 2.5 feet) between 1990 and 2100,[40] repercussions to agriculture, possible slowing of the thermohaline circulation, reductions in the ozone layer, increased intensity and frequency of hurricanes and extreme weather events, lowering of ocean pH, and the spread of diseases such as malaria[41] and dengue fever.[42] One study predicts 18% to 35% of a sample of 1,103 animal and plant species would be extinct by 2050, based on future climate projections. (Source)

It is time to do something. Everybody can save the planet in their own way but governmental cooperation is necessary to really turn the tide. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report

report set out a complex mix of political, economic and technological solutions. If they all worked, said the report, they could achieve huge cuts in the 25 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) released by humanity into the air each year, thus keeping global temperature rises below 3C.

It would involve much international cooperation when the current mentality seems to be "a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face" (Blackadder). Governments, be pragmatic. More climate change is coming and lifestyles and habits are going to have to change. US senator Obama acknowledges this:

The need to drastically change our energy policy is no longer a debatable proposition. It is not a question of whether, but how; not a question of if, but when. For the sake of our security, our economy, our jobs and our planet, the age of oil must end in our time. (Source)

Let's not kill the planet until space travel is more developed and we can escape our own mess. Governments, be responsible enough and adult enough to acknowledge your responsibility in the resolution of this crisis.

Anyone else feel like screaming into a void on this issue?