After living here (Cambodia) for almost three years now, I am very, very impressed by
un-impressive our people are. Our people are mostly either “loose canons” spilling out ignorant theories about the world, “show-offs” or lazy bastards who sit around and watch the rice grow. Reply and question what you want to this blog because I’m pissed!!! I live here for almost 3 freaking years after 27 years abroad and people here seem to never stop un-impressing me. From what conclusion do I based my opinion on you ask? I manage a team of around 100 employees—100 very un-impressive employees!!!

Our people make the average and the rag-tags from other countries look mighty impressive. I'm just an average Khmer-American guy from the States, but here, people look at me short of a genius or something. This blog is a call to all the young, educated Khmers living overseas to return to invest a year or two of your lives away from keeping up with the “Jones” to come to Cambodia to raise the bar of the “Ratanas” and the “Bophas”.

“Cheers”

I'm interested in visiting Cambodia again but was very disappointed (for a lack of a better word) by the "begging" being practiced by the employees working at the airport. I learned that this is a common practice -- you slip him\her five or ten bucks and you're being greeted with a smile and move you along quickly. As a Khmer, I am ashamed of this practice. These people are probably middle or upper middle income and why they did this? I would rather donate to a landmine amputee or support the local fruit stand that run by a poor family from a bamboo hut.

My question is is this still happening today?

All,

''' Reply by mardizone 4 hours ago

'1000+history' apsara is nuttin but sexual pleasure to da king wit bared breasts...hello sam...wat r u talkin bout???? preserv wat? naked apsara?????? plz sam get it thru ya thick skull man.''
..............................

mardizone, when you happen to visit Pum Vapithor again, don't say these words, for God sake!!!

because people over there are crazy, you would be in a serious delimma.

sam

Hey KC friends,

A friend came up with this list so I wanna share with ya! What u think?

*****
10 Tips for Broke People

Here are some things I learned and is currently doing to conserve money - especially for people who are broke or even worse, people who are in debt...

1. Don't eat out unless someone is paying for you. Otherwise, eat at home or eat only free samples. Or go to the supermarket, open a bag of chips, and eat it while pushing your cart... After you're finished, leave the empty bag, and discretely exit the premise.

2. Buy child tickets to the movies using the express ticket machines. They won't notice unless it was rated R.

3. Carpool. Don't agree to go out unless your friend is willing to pick you up.

4. When pumping gas, empty the pumper thing and shake every last drop of gas out.

5. Drive slow and behind trucks to conserve gas.

6. Sell everything you have on Ebay. Ie: textbooks, clothes, shoes, purses, phones, etc.

7. Downgrade your text messaging/phone plan. Or deactivate everything that is not vital to your life, ie: gym membership, netflix/blockbuster, etc.

8. Only buy things with gift cards you received for Christmas or your birthday.

9. Eat at cheap buffets, from the dollar menu, or on sundays when restaurants are 50% off.

10. Keep all your change and deposit it at the bank.

It looks like the recent land speculation has begun to take a toll on the Cambodian economy.

Retailers are complaining about poor business as consumer spending has slowed down considerably due to money being tied up in land investments.

Some people, e.g. farmers, who have sold their properties to buy cars and other luxury items, are having to sell the material possessions to buy food. They no longer have land to grow their own food.

Food prices have not come down with real estate prices as much land formerly used for agricultural purposes have been fenced off and kept idle for resale, and farmers who sold their properties are no longer employed in their natural trade.

Although land prices have declined by around 20%, the real estate market has become stagnant; no one is buying or selling. The stagnation is due to sellers not wanting to take a loss on their investments and buyers not having money or interest to invest in real estate. Land prices had risen by as much as 20,000% during the height of speculation, so a 20% pullback is not a sufficient correction. I think a 90-95% price drop is necessary to overcome the stagnation.

Additionally, people who bet their life savings on real estate paid with real money. It's obvious that that money had not been re-invested in education, infrastructure, and social and rural developments. Where did the money go?

This is only the beginning. The current speculation-- yes, speculation!-- is that the real estate prices will recover and even surpass their recent heights in two years, as world economies recover from the current global crisis. That partly accounts for the stagnation in the real estate market. If in two years, something big (e.g. foreign investments, booming oil production) does not come up to fuel a second round of land speculation, consequences can be severe. Besides, there's no guarantee that "something big" will fuel another round of speculation in land; people may very well speculate on tulip bulbs or white rabbits out of irrational greed...who knows?

Miss World ™ is the original and most popular beauty pageant in the world. Each year young women from every country compete in front of over a billion television viewers. Judges determine which contestant has the winning combination of beauty, glamour, poise and intelligence - all the ingredients needed to be crowned Miss World. For the first time this year, you can be the judge on MissWorld.com.
Missworld.com is the official website for the Miss World ™ beauty pageant. Now you can vote for Miss People’s Choice – catapulting your favorite contestant to the final round of the official pageant. Visit Contestants to learn more about and message the 2008 finalists, and enjoy all of the latest Miss World news, videos and photos throughout the site.

Just remember to Sign Up to make your vote count! Sign Up is free and ensures that all the results are fair and valid. Watch the finals on 13th December 2008 to see if your favorite takes the crown.

“To set up as a standard of public morality a notion which can neither be defined nor conceived is to open the door to every kind of tyranny.”
Simone Weil



Here it is. This French philosopher said it all about the nature of morality in relation to government.

I am committed to believe that it is the responsibility of the private sector to set, maintain, and uphold the moral aspects of their daily life. Morality in its purest form has something to do with the principles of right and wrong in behavior.

A government, on the other hand, is responsible for, among many other things, maintaining law and order. Its job is to regulate behavior. When it starts to legislate morality (or when it says what is right and what is wrong), it treads on the border of invading the very principle of human rights and dignity. It follows also that such a government will look upon its citizens as “children” who are not capable of making their own decisions. Granted that there are certain things that the majority of the people find offensive (morally speaking), but so long as that which is deemed offensive does not infringe upon the liberty or the pursuit of happiness of the others, then the problem that seems to be pervasive becomes imaginary. This is the very basic concept of majority rules and minority rights.

To invite a government to interfere in the life a private sector is like inviting a lion to come live with you in your household. It is easy to coax it to come in, but it is extremely difficult to kick it out. This is what I fear most. As citizens, we must understand that there are times when we need such a lion and there are times when it is best to leave it outside of our domain. A government can best govern when its citizens comprehend the proper roles that a government should play and which roles they themselves should participate. The question of “moral standard” must be raised by the people and not the government; else we would lose our capacity to make judgments.

Tomb Raider: Underworld is developed by Crystal Dynamics under Eidos Interactive is an action adventure game. I notice on Level 3: Coastal Thailand, Khmer ruins are depicted as fictitious Thai ruins. I know this is just a game and I also know that Thailand has some ancient Khmer ruins from the days of the Khmer Empire. However, the ruins in the game were renditioned from some of the actually ruins that exist in Cambodia. It bothers me to see the reditioned Khmer-style ruins are referred to Thailand. Khmer ruins have unique architectural styles that no one has. I wish the game develpers would have created the Level 3 setting of the game in Cambodia instead of Thailand. This would only make more sense since most of the ruins characteristics are that of Khmers'.

Here is a brief preview of the scene from the game.

http://www.tombraiderchronicles.com/od/underworld_14.html

Reahu,

To you art is everything to be shown even Your naked Motherland, trashing the entire khmer culture. Everything is for Sale. That's what you call the Khmer Pride.

To me i think your naked apsara are just pieces of crap, degrading and unprofessional.

Reahu...Why trashing Khmer Symbol?

sam