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Some readers have emailed me about the significance of Pchum Ben. Here is a nice article on Pchum Ben I’ve found on the web. Basically, Pchum Ben, or Ancestors’ Day, is a fifteen-day observance beginning mid-September to honor ancestors and offer food to spirits of the dead.

Since we Khmers devote 15 days a year to make offerings to the dead, how about doing the same for the living?

It doesn’t seem that we as a culture value life enough. The news that come out srok Khmer are rife with horrific stories of abuse and exploitation. We often don’t value even our own lives, much less those of others. For example, on the streets of Phnom Penh it’s not uncommon to see two or three small children perched on a motorcycle driven by their father, who weaves in and out of traffic with reckless abandon.

To honor the living means to promote conditions, attitudes, and behaviors that sustain life. It means sharing, being compassionate, helping the less fortunate, and treating all sentient beings with kindness and respect.

It goes without saying that the celebration of life, not death, is more important to the survival of our people– it will ensure that Khmers do not turn into Khmourch (ghosts).

Why do we meditate?

People meditate for different reasons. The reason I meditate (or at least attempt to) is to perceive reality in a more objective way. Human perception is subjective since it does not give a particularly accurate picture of the world around us, or the world within us, for that matter. For instance, the human eye is capable of detecting a very narrow range, namely the visible spectrum, of the electromagnetic spectrum. That’s why doctors use x-ray to see our bones and internal organs.

If our eyes were capable of x-ray and infrared vision, which themselves are but small ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, objects would appear entirely different from they do normally; our perception of the world would change fundamentally. As all of our perceptual organs are similarly limited, what we perceive is a really only a conceptualization of the world around us, not what it really is. So, there’s more to the world than meets the eye, so to speak.

For instance, the computer screen you’re looking may appear to be a solid object. But in reality all objects, no matter how “solid” they appear, are made up mostly of empty space– of atoms whose tiny electrons hover around nuclei of protons and neutrons, separated by vast expanses of emptiness.

Meditation is predicated on the idea that despite our perceptual limitations, we might be able to use our mind-body to perceive the world in a more accurate, veridical way. It’s a way of transcending the mind with the mind. Through meditation we can see the universe without by looking at the universe within. After all, we are part of the universal continuum that makes up all of reality.

When we bow at the feet of a Buddhist monk whom we do not know, how do we know if he’s an enlightened individual or just a senile old man? We don’t. And it shouldn’t matter. In reality, we don’t bow to the monk or the stone Buddha statue, but to ourselves. The stone statue and monks are but cues to awaken the Buddha that lies within each of us. Awakening the Buddha opens the gate to the divine continuum that allows us to perceive things in a more objective way, to see things as they really are, as opposed to the illusory mental conceptualizations stemming from our perceptual limitations.

Krom Ngoy

The other day I took my car to battery shop to have the battery replaced. Since it’s important to have a car that will start every time you turn on the ignition, I was hoping to pick up a good, reliable battery, preferably a brand I can trust.

However, none of the batteries offered at the shop had a brand I could recognize. There were several labeled “Japan” in large letters on their boxes, but I found that they were actually made in Thailand. Besides not wanting to patronize Siam products, I wouldn’t trust a car battery whose manufacturer wanted to fool consumers into thinking that it was made in a country where it wasn’t. I finally decided on what I was told a “high-end” brand from South Korea that should last me about 2 years. I paid almost $70 for the battery, but I think I could have gotten a comparable one for around $50 back in the US.

Batteries are one of the most ubiquitous items in Cambodia. People need batteries for their cars, motorcycles, construction tools, even to power small light bulbs and TVs in remote countrysides inaccessible to electricity.

That made me to thinking that if these batteries were manufactured in Cambodia, we’d be able to produce much more cheaply, thanks to cheap labor, locally available battery-making materials, the absence of tariffs, and lower transportation costs. Plus, we’d have a domestic market big enough to consume them (and thus do not even have to rely on export). A domestically produced car battery comparable to the $70 Korean-made one that I bought might go for just $30. Besides saving Khmer consumers money, thereby raising their standards of living, making batteries in srok Khmer will create many jobs for our people, not just manufacturing jobs but a whole range of occupations related to the production, distribution, marketing and sales of the batteries.

Making car and motorcycle batteries shouldn’t be that difficult. I refuse to believe that the descendants of the builders of Angkor can’t even make car batteries. In fact, you can make a simple working car battery from a diagram in a high school textbook or even an article from Wikipedia.com. The science behind behind battery-making is exceedingly simple; it’s just the engineering aspects of it that needs attention. Instead of starting from scratch, a Khmer battery maker might invest in technology and equipment from abroad. Initially, they might need to hire technical expertise from countries Korea and China, so that they could set up a plant and produce commercial-quality batteries right from the start.

I think when we talk about building a nation, it doesn’t have to necessarily involve some complex grand scheme that seems beyond reach. Rather, it’s just a matter of putting all the right pieces together. Manufacturing our own batteries, as opposed to importing them, would certainly qualify as a “right piece”.

But why go through all the hassles of building a battery making plant, acquiring technology and equipment from abroad, and marketing and distributing Khmer batteries while we can simply buy them from Thailand, China and Korea? After all, importing also creates employment for Khmer people in transportation, logistics, distribution, and retailing of imported goods.

The answer is, if we don’t start making the goods we use everyday, we’ll all end up as peddlers of finished products from other countries. In fact, much of the Khmer economy revolve around the peddling of foreign goods, ranging from batteries, to toilet paper, soap, whiskey, and even toothpicks. Granted, international trade is a necessity if we are to be a successful player in today’s global economy. But running huge trade deficits with foreign countries is a sure-fire way to bleed the nation to death. Last year Cambodia managed to rack up a whopping $3.2 billion deficit with just Thailand, Vietnam and China alone.

Furthermore, the goods that the Cambodia exports tend to be raw materials like timber that pose a threat to our dwindling natural resources, while we import finished goods and pay premium prices for them. For instance, a $100 piece of timber exported to Vietnam might find its way back to Cambodia in the form of ten thousand boxes of toothpicks costing Khmer end-consumers $3,000 to $4,000. Is it so hard to make our own toothpicks?

Making batteries shouldn’t be much harder than making toothpicks. Of course, there are some hurdles to overcome. Setting up a modest battery manufacturing operation might require a $2 to $3 million initial investment in infrastructure, technology and equipment. Despite huge potentials returns, it may take a few years just to recoup the initial costs.

A Khmer entrepreneur with $2 million to invest in business might choose the easy, tried-and-true route of having a few container-loads of batteries shipped from abroad. He might make a couple dollars in profit from the sale of each battery to the battery shops, which in turn will make a few more dollars from the end-consumer.

Traveling around Phnom Penh I can easily spot 20 or 30 business opportunities in a single day– not silly ideas that can’t make money, but ones that are profitable as well as ethical, socially responsible, and “nation-building” in nature. But for these ideas to work, our mentality has to change, from a narrow focus on individual wealth to collective prosperity, from instant gratification to investing in the future.

For any real progress to occur, the economy should focus on elevating the living standard of the middle class. The same applies to the tourism industry. For instance, Orlando, Florida, the number one tourist destination in the world, is patronized mainly not by the rich or foreigners, but by middle-class Americans. Similarly, a robust, sustainable tourism industry in Cambodia should focus on domestic family tourism by ordinary Khmers. This could occur only through a more equitable distribution of wealth.

The reason that much of the recent “progress” in srok Khmer seems misplaced, in my view, is that it tries to bypass the fundamental necessity for a strong middle class. This would explain why nothing here seems to be done with any rhyme or reason. For instance, the recent construction boom was not driven by the motivation to provide housing to those without adequate housing, but by greed and speculation. It’s curious how much thought was given to how many ordinary Khmer citizens would be able to afford to buy a flat or condo for $50,000 or $100,000 or even $200,000 before they were allowed to mushroom all over the country. I know I wouldn’t, not without some sort of financing. Consequently, most of these units ended up in the hands of those who already have adequate homes, not those who need them. That kind of progress is unnatural and is, therefore, not real.

What bothers me is that Khmer people generally have to know a foreign language, especially English, to land a good job in their own country. Everyone seems to casually accept this as a fact of life.

But something’s definitely not right here.

Normally, if you go to a foreign country, you’re at a disadvantage if you don’t speak their language. But in srok Khmer, when a foreigner comes to your country, you’re the one who is at a disadvantage for not being to communicate with them in their language. Foreigners can come to live and work here without knowing a word of Khmer, and often making more money than all of their Khmer employees combined to boot.

The necessity to learn a second language puts Khmer people at a distinct disadvantage and places an extra burden on an impoverished country with only a fledgling educational system. Further, most Khmer students who learn foreign languages to secure better employment will not master them as well as the foreigners who speak them as their native tongues. This ensures that the Khmer workers will always answer to their foreign bosses.

What’s wrong with the assumption that you must speak English, French, Chinese, Korean, or whatever, to succeed in Cambodia? Well, if you’re only 5 foot tall, you don’t have to play basketball just because everyone else is playing it. You can practice basketball all life, but no matter how hard you practice, in all likelihood you’ll never make it to the pros. Why not play a different sport, e.g. become a horse racing jockey, where your height (or lack thereof) becomes an advantage rather than a handicap?

The same logic applies to srok Khmer. If the Cambodian economy is somehow shifted away from over-reliance on tourism toward areas like agriculture and manufacturing, then Khmer people could thrive professionally and become successful in life without the added burden of knowing a foreign language. Personally, I don’t think it’s very smart to ignore one’s own natural strengths to play other people’s games.

Don’t get me wrong– I still think Khmer students should learn foreign languages like English, Chinese, French, Korean, and Japanese to compete successfully in today’s global economy and to advance their studies in fields like medicine, technology, and science. But our society should not rely on foreign languages in a way that cripples and subordinates Khmer people within our own country.

You may have read about the double-digit growth of the Cambodian economy in the past few years. This year the economy is expected to shrink by 1% because of the global economic downturn. The lack of diversity in the economy, which relies mainly on textile, tourism, and construction, makes the country particularly vulnerable to global economic conditions.

Any real development should focus on improving the livelihoods of the middle 70% of the population, not just the top few percents. It is my impression that middle 70% still make less than $100 a month. For instance, waiters and waitresses at restaurants in Cambodia make only about $50 a month. Their monthly incomes are barely enough to take out their families to the restaurant where they work for just one meal. A typical waitress in the U.S., by contrast, earns enough to dine her family at the restaurant where she works 20 to 25 times a month.

What’s the point of building all the homes and high-rise condos if the average Khmer person can’t afford to live in them? Not surprisingly, there are many empty flats and condos as a result of the recent housing boom. That’s because they’re built by the affluent minority for speculative investment purposes. They’re not built for those without adequate housing. It’s inconceivable that a Khmer couple who makes $100-200 a month would be able to afford a $100,000 flat, especially without financing.

The next logical step would be to encourage the influx of foreigners and allow them to own properties in Cambodia to fill up these empty units. This is exactly what is happening in Cambodia. Khmer people are becoming second-class citizens within our own country. Many of our young people are taking low-paying jobs as waitresses, security guards, tuk-tuk drivers, janitors, and prostitutes to serve foreign expatriates living and doing business in Cambodia. At many establishments Khmer employees have to speak a foreign language to communicate with their bosses.

Development can be a double-edged sword. If it is to play a constructive role in Cambodia, it must focus on raising the living standards of the average Khmer citizen, not just adding to the already excessive wealth of the rich. Otherwise, it will lead to a neocolonialist situation where the majority of the host population are subjugated to serve the interests of the local and foreign elite.

Boiled corn is a favorite snack food here in Cambodia, found at just about every street corner. Since there are so many vendors competing to make a living selling boiled corn, the profit margins are razor-thin. If one vendor tries to sell a cob of corn for just 100 riels (about 2.5 cents US) more than the going price, then people will just go to the next stall to get theirs.

So if you sell boiled corn for a living, you’re always looking for a way to increase your margins while staying competitive. The solution?

Acid.

Yes, acid! Yet another brilliant idea that can only come from Cambodia!

I have been hearing that the vendors are adding a small amount of acid to the boil to make their corns cook faster. The acid supposedly renders the kernels tender faster, reducing the cooking time and hence the amount of coal used to boil the corn. It’s the savings from using less coal or wood, not the saved time, that add to the profits.

Although I haven’t tried acid-boiled corn myself, I’ve been told that you could feel a slight tingling and irritating sensation in your mouth and esophagus when you eat it. One could only imagine what the acid would do to your stomach linings and intestines.

Acid-boiled corn is just the latest brilliant invention that comes out of Cambodia, where the margins of profit and safety are usually thin, and one often compromised for the other. In the past you may have heard of people selling watered-down beer laced with cyanide, a deadly poison, to increase the beer’s potency (i.e., mask its reduced alcohol content) and spraying dried fish with chemicals that even the flies wouldn’t go near. Yet, somehow these foods are deemed fit for human consumption.

Brilliant, just brilliant!