Kampuchea Crossings

Bump to baby on the beaten expat track

Interests

Bye George!

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Join us in the countdown pandemonium nearly a decade in the making, and share in the merriment of 43’s imminent and much anticipated departure! What started with some hanging chads in the Fall of 2000 will finally come to an end! No weapons of mass destruction will be unfound; no Vice Presidential shotgun will be uncocked! Watch the West Wing purge of 8 years of carnage and idiocy and toast the End of an Error at two events!

If you can’t catch the Beltway action on the 20th, then join us at the Gym Bar for the LIVE inaugural soul cleansing! In honor of the Accidental President, we celebrate his departure with a nostalgic trip down memory lane with a Pub Quiz before commencing with the ceremonies. So get your game on, test those brain cells, have some fun and win great prizes! And in true Phnom Penh tradition sure to inspire a drinking problem worthy of Bush’s past, the evening will end in a special toast to the return of reason and a period that can only head in one direction– up!!

And no festivities worth the 8 exhausting years of getting beaten up, stolen from, knocked down, lied to and laughed at can end with one event! The going away revelries for our favorite cowboy continue at CHOW on Saturday 24 January with a rebroadcast of the most exciting POTUS torch pass in a generation! We wanted change and we made it happen! So once again, let’s GIDDY UP, GET GLAM and PARTY HARD-Y with friends who helped make history!!

Is it ok to tell people I’m an American now???

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That was hands-down the most amazing party I have ever helped organise! The entire wing of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club (FCC-Phnom Penh) was packed with expatriates, with best guesstimates of around 400 by 9am!
Just as they declared a winner my friend hollered into the microphone: “AMERICAAANS!!! RAISE YOUR HANDS!!!”

…and that’s when the dam broke. Fists shot up through a rain of confetti and the roar of cheers. Expats from various western backgrounds turned, tears of relief flowing, to hug strangers next to them. All the world had reason to celebrate, not just Americans, and to celebrate on several levels.

The greatest part was the turnout of so many Americans! We don’t normally congregate outside of rare embassy events since that’s asking for trouble. Those hands signaled change already occurring, since no expatriate could in his right mind volunteer that s/he’s American for the hostility it invites, no matter how proud to be an American s/he is and no matter how festive an event in a safe environment. Until now.

Remember when people actually looked to us in friendship, with admiration, in our travels? Instead now we’ve had to avoid looking conspicuously American. We honed instincts for keeping a low profile and watching our backs: no talking loudly, no sneakers, no baseball caps, handle the blue passport discreetly, dodge the “where are you from” question and thank you lucky stars I can pass for a non-American.

As Americans living abroad far off the tourist tracks, we rely on a rational approach to global relations. We are the frontlines for the wrath caused by our government’s ill-informed unilateral activities that have intensified threats to America and its expatriates. In meetings, even when my capacity is to represent not USAID but another bilateral, I am targeted for the ire about my government’s policies that I don’t even agree with. Even Keith— who rarely raises his voice or argues— has on occasion had to defend himself against a barrage of assaults and needed his friends’ physical interventions, for the simple fact that his all-American looks makes him a target. We’re reduced to apologists, defending ourselves for being American, alone with no one taking our side, especially in this post-9/11 world where our government squandered the outpouring of goodwill towards us by wanton engagement in war while options still existed, all the while hypocritically preaching “Christian values”.

And we aren’t all tree-hugging development wonks out to rescind the Gag Rule (Mexico City Policy) on abortion either. Our guests included Americans both based here and passing through from different walks of life– businessmen, developers and investors, corporate attorneys for Microsoft and entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley, regional officials from WHO and the UN system including the World Bank, foreign diplomats, pastors, even our US Ambassador to Cambodia joined.

And today, when we woke up, that tender of global goodwill was somehow back. America as an ideal, and America as a country, has defeated a campaign and reign built on cultivating hatred, fear and ignorance. Internet blogs, editorials, and opinion pages from all over the world are swelling with positive energy that includes us now. Strangers stopped to congratulate me and Keith on the streets and in the store when they heard our American accents. Khmer colleagues eagerly debated their rudimentary understanding of US democracy with me. Against all odds, they told me, it happened in America and maybe one day it can happen in our country.

No matter your political inclinations, this event was a triumph of the grassroots that is the foundation of a democracy. Amazingly, the complete and utter absence of southern conservative anti-intellectualism in Obama’s winning formula is a statement that marginalises the under-educated, impoverished, whiter South and bible belt’s centrality to national politics. Even if nothing gets accomplished in the next four years I applaud the hope this outcome has inspired all over the world. And I am glad that now, once again, logic and reason will take its rightful place in governance, even if only for the next four years.

Wow civic participation… Yes America…. YES WE CAN!!!

SHIFT Happens

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Variations of this has been making the email rounds and YouTube for two years now. It’s an oldie but goodie, and still a relevant topic. Three short years in SE Asia has been eye-opening as far as the impact of technology on a society’s development, including its effect on poverty. Worth a watch..


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Olympics 2008

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Such a spectacular display of the greatest advances across industries! And I’m glad to see the Bird’s Nest architecturally reflect an Asian context.
Photo courtesy of http://en.beijing2008.cn/ Official Beijing 2008 site

Asian culture, its arts and legacy, is beautiful, that it’s disappointing to see the westernisation of Asia– particularly in Bangkok and other major cities. Phnom Penh itself is exemplifying rapid westernisation and eradication of its heritage. Local officials in ill-fitting western suits and ties often arrive at meetings, and villagers trade in their more useful kromas (all-purpose scarves) in favor of mass-produced generic garbs branded by company logos. And then there’s Hong Kong with its otherwise pretty harbour skyline so totally marred by the marquees and billboards advertising major corporations on top of nearly every building. How is this allowed to happen, to dismiss Asia’s beauty in favor of European notions of class or for capitalistic ideals?

Asians ourselves play a huge part in this. Hordes of students flock to study ballet and master the harps and bass, meanwhile Cambodian artists are hard-pressed to even pay young kids to learn their own elegant classical dances. Ever seen ciseauzs performed in classical ballet pieces by Asian dancers? This music was not created for the shorter bodies and legs, and therefore stretch, of an Asian. While it’s beautiful to see nevertheless, it’s disappointing that western culture is more valued by Asians than our own rich heritage.

On the one hand I appreciate the vast growth and potential I’m witnessing in Asia/SE Asia. And on the other, the various aspects of its politics and culture make it difficult to be entirely supportive of its (and especially China’s) inevitable rise. There’s a balance that still hasn’t been achieved– the pace of change is happening  fast. Western ideals of self-actualisation and governance has a place in Asia’s growth, and it’s possible to adopt other philosophies of progress, without Asians having to drop our cultural heritage and roots.

Anyway, I digrees. Here’s a look at the medal counts of participating countries throughout the history of the modern Olympics.
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