Remember Lee Iacocca, the American industrialist who rescued Chrysler Corporation from death throes? Here are some excerpts from 'Where Have All the Leaders Gone?' (c)2007. "Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening?... We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course" "I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of … [Read more...]
Staying informed
Ah, to have your quality of life ranked barely a notch better than that of someone living in Tehran... I do wonder about some things.How do people here stay competitive given that our work is in/with the least developed part of the world? I can imagine one day returning to "civilization", in which case running descriptives on SPSS as the extent of my statistical skills might not be sooo impressive. If I were to go into the commercial sector would I be marketable? On another note. Given that Cambodia is slow on the uptake of adopting technology for mass consumption, I'm feeling left out of the cultural loop. There was also an article in The Economist on the virtual epidemiology research conducted in the synthetic worlds of Second Life and … [Read more...]
the US Agriculture Policy
CARE Turns Down Federal Funds for Food Aid An interesting development, and CARE risks much with it. They traditionally employed monetised food aid but have been debating the damage such a system facilitates to the markets (people) which they are specifically trying to help. Essentially, subsidised US farm products (already controversial by its own right) are shipped from the US on American lines, sold by NGOs, the profits of which are used to fund their aid operations. Because aid organisations are not commodities experts, that profit margin is also impacted. This event is interesting on many levels. It highlights the incredible role of food aid in politics, as leverage, as a weapon, to control the markets. Aid is no longer tied as a … [Read more...]
Tuki gecko
Tuki geckos can get as long as ~30cm, but they're skittish compared to their ubiquitous smaller gecko cousins so it's hard to spot them.ReeaAAARRRRRRRRR!!! Tuki and the Cat!!![photo courtesy of Chakra House, Phnom Penh]Instead of taking my own photos here are some great shots. Keith's trigger happy with that Cannon. Check out the "On the road" section! … [Read more...]
Health Care for Expatriates in Cambodia
Published in AsiaLIFE Phnom Penh April 2007 A thriving health industry in Phnom Penh no longer warrants an urgent plane ticket out of the country for routine care. To boot, medical care is easy on the pocket. But while most practitioners aspire to the western model of care, the system is far from user-friendly and choosing a practitioner is not a simple task. On top of the usual precautions are considerations to a developing country’s medical environment. This is a brief guide to navigating the (western medicine) landscape in Cambodia, with tips for routine and emergency care, and a short look at medical insurance. Where to find a good doctor?• Go public or private? The public sector is much maligned, for good reason (though to give them … [Read more...]
Flags Campaign: Meet the World
Check out this project from Grande Reportagem, a Portuguese news magazine that is recognised for its investigative reports and excellent photo-journalism. The "Flags Campaign" focuses on the concept of "Meet the World." The creative team for this project used the colors on flags to transmit statistics about social and political issues relevant to various countries. The statistics were thoroughly researched and come from information given by the United Nations, Amnesty International, and other national institutions. The US flag is quite funny...Flags Campaign: Meet the World … [Read more...]
Chiang Mai, Thailand: Tourists on the Prowl
K Kelly has finally arrived in-- well, somewhere hereabouts Asia, and was recently spotted in Chiang Mai, Thailand, trying the patience of geckos, who are widely believed among reptilian experts to be imperturbably tolerant. But apparently, tall Anglo tourists poking formidable camera lenses at their noses waiting for a striking pose can trigger a long-dormant evolutionary response of sighing. "This is a groundbreaking discovery. Who knew that geckos can sigh?" Albert Felbrek of the Center for Gecko Studies at Harvard University gushed yesterday. A gaggle of animal rights activists were gathered outside the traumatized gecko's cement crack abode while Mr Kelly bewilderedly insisted he did not intend to harm the urban wildlife. Fellow … [Read more...]
The Mighty Mighty English
Unbeatable. Unstoppable. A most superlative cast of characters is literally a word or two shy of the million word mark. Tres cool tres cool all! Here's some more lingual trivia: There are 6,912 living languages per the language clock on Language Monitor. The top spoken languages, in order, per Info Please : Chinese English Hindustani Spanish Russian Arabic Bengali Portuguese Malay-Indonesian French "According to traditional estimates, neighboring Germany has a vocabulary of about 185,000 and French fewer than 100,000, including such Franglais as as le snacque-barre and le hit-parade." (This site has English at 500,000 official words and another 500,000 uncatalogued.) Words in the Language The lowdown on the … [Read more...]
