Everyone in Cambodia, from top to bottom, still operates on a survivalist mentality. This is understandable because of our recent past. The country has found relative stability just 10 years ago when the final remnants of the Khmer Rouge were eliminated.

When one works on a survival instinct, one has a tendency to hoard resources, often to the detriment of others’ livelihoods, and to flee (to a more survivable place). The survival mentality promotes selfishness– help yourself before helping others.

Selfishness, as it addresses more basic human needs like food and shelter, takes precedence over selflessness, a quality identified with higher needs like altruism and idealism. That’s why Khmer leaders don’t like to lose their seats. Their survival would be threatened. We don’t live in a country where a president who earns just $400K a year in office could make tens of millions of dollars writing books, giving speeches and working for private companies when he is out of office.

Most of us are frustrated with the slow transition from selfishness to selflessness, from the individual fulfillment to collective fulfillment, from pragmatism to idealism, from survival to living. It’s going to take some time and patience. In the meantime, we have to avoid replaying same old tunes like a broken record, because it seems like whenever someone comes up with a bright idea that would radically transform Khmer society, the country is set back to year zero.

Everyone in Cambodia, from top to bottom, still operates on a survivalist mentality. This is understandable because of our recent past. The country has found relative stability just 10 years ago when the final remnants of the KR were eliminated. When one works on a survival instinct, one has a tendency to hoard resources, often to the detriment of everyone else, and to flee (to a more survivable place). The survival mentality promotes selfishness– help yourself before helping others. Selfishness, as it addresses more basic human needs like food and shelter, takes precedence over selflessness, a quality identified with higher needs like moral idealism and political ideology. That’s why Khmer leaders don’t like to lose their seats. Their survival would be threatened. We don’t live in a country where a president who earns just $400K a year can make tens of millions of dollars writing books, giving speeches and working for private companies when he is out of office.

Most of us are frustrated with the slow transition from selfishness to selflessness, from the individual fulfillment to collective fulfillment, from survival to living. It’s going to take some time and patience. In the meantime, we have to avoid repeating the same mistakes and replaying same old tunes like a broken record.

When one considers the challenges that Cambodia faces, the issue of corruption always seems to jump out. Corruption is really a collection of often unfair, inefficient, and abusive practices arising from the extreme scarcity of resources, greed, and degradation of social and moral foundations of our society. We all know that corruption exists in Cambodia; it’s rather hard to miss. But in order to formulate an actionable plan to tackle this problem, we must be able to measure and quantify the various aspects of corruption and understand the complex interactions among the multitude of economic, social, political, cultural and religious factors that give rise to unwholesome practices collectively known as corruption.

Simply calling out wealthy high-ranking government officials and demanding that they end corruption is not going to get us anywhere. Corruption in Cambodia is an incredibly complex matter that requires a much more thorough and comprehensive approach.

Too much focus on the conceptualization of corruption can be counterproductive because it promotes finger-pointing and the distancing oneself from shared accountability. In the end, we’re all part of the web of humanity that commits all the good and bad deeds in the world.

As complex a problem as corruption is, I think there is, yet, a simple solution for it. Was it Gandhi who said, “Be the change you want to see in world”? This is one of the reasons I decided to move back to Cambodia. If you are mindful of your own thoughts and actions, you’ll find that in each and every day, you’ll have some thoughts and impulses that are good and wholesome and some that are destructive. As long as you’re able to keep track of your own thoughts, impulses and actions everyday, you’ll naturally become more moderate and compassionate. You’ll still make mistakes and commit unwholesome deeds, but at least you’ll commit fewer of them and have less crave for the excesses for yourself that lead to suffering for others.

Everyone in Cambodia, from top to bottom, still operates on a survivalist mentality. This is understandable because of our recent past. The country has found relative stability just 10 years ago when the final remnants of the KR were eliminated. When one works on a survival instinct, one has a tendency to hoard resources, often to the detriment of everyone else, and to flee (to a more survivable place). The survival mentality promotes selfishness– help yourself before helping others. Selfishness, as it addresses more basic human needs like food and shelter, takes precedence over selflessness, a quality identified with higher needs like moral idealism and political ideology. That’s why Khmer leaders don’t like to lose their seats. Their survival would be threatened. We don’t live in a country where a president who earns just $400K a year can make tens of millions of dollars writing books, giving speeches and working for private companies when he is out of office.

Most of us are frustrated with the slow transition from selfishness to selflessness, from the individual fulfillment to collective fulfillment, from survival to living. It’s going to take some time and patience. In the meantime, we have to avoid repeating the same mistakes and replaying same old tunes like a broken record.

When one considers the challenges that Cambodia faces, the issue of corruption always seems to jump out. Corruption is really a collection of often unfair, inefficient, and abusive practices arising from the extreme scarcity of resources, greed, and degradation of social and moral foundations of our society. We all know that corruption exists in Cambodia; it’s rather hard to miss. But in order to formulate an actionable plan to tackle this problem, we must be able to measure and quantify the various aspects of corruption and understand the complex interactions among the multitude of economic, social, political, cultural and religious factors that give rise to unwholesome practices collectively known as corruption.

Simply calling out wealthy high-ranking government officials and demanding that they end corruption is not going to get us anywhere. Corruption in Cambodia is an incredibly complex matter that requires a much more thorough and comprehensive approach.

Too much focus on the conceptualization of corruption can be counterproductive because it promotes finger-pointing and the distancing oneself from shared accountability. In the end, we’re all part of the web of humanity that commits all the good and bad deeds in the world.

As complex a problem as corruption is, I think there is, yet, a simple solution for it. Was it Gandhi who said, “Be the change you want to see in world”? This is one of the reasons I decided to move back to Cambodia. If you are mindful of your own thoughts and actions, you’ll find that in each and every day, you’ll have some thoughts and impulses that are good and wholesome and some that are destructive. As long as you’re able to keep track of your own thoughts, impulses and actions everyday, you’ll naturally become more moderate and compassionate. You’ll still make mistakes and commit unwholesome deeds, but at least you’ll commit fewer of them and have less crave for the excesses for yourself that lead to suffering for others.

Have you ever handed a $1 bill to a beggar at the intersection and spent the next 10 minutes in your car complaining how lazy he was for choosing to beg instead of work to support himself? We all have. Truth be told, we’d never know the full story why he became bum. It’s always easier just to blame people and make assumptions about them than to make a real effort to help the less fortunate.

Last year the U.S. gave just $5.8 million in aid to Cambodia. This may be a huge amount for you and me, but in a country of 14 million people, it comes out to just $0.40 a person, enough to buy everyone a pack of chewing gum. Of course, people will point out to things like corruption and human rights abuses to justify the meager aid amount.

These arguments about corruption, human rights abuses, and whatnot aren’t wrong. But giving a poor country like Cambodia $5.8 million a year is like slapping a band-aid on someone’s bullet wound and giving them a lengthy lecture on gun safety.

As long as people are hungry and uneducated, democracy and human rights mean nothing to them. Resources are extremely scarce here. Even in the absence of corruption, there still is not enough to go around. This is something that many outsiders, including overseas Khmers, don’t understand.

Survival comes first. If you were living in a situation where food is so scare that there are only a couple of spoons of rice for everyone and you were in charge of distributing the food in your village, would you not steal a bowl of rice for your own hungry children if you had the chance, even if your action left everyone else with only a spoon? Of course, you would. In fact, many Khmers learned to steal during the Khmer Rouge. An extreme state of despair can drive good people to do bad deeds. And they don’t necessarily give up the bad deeds after their needs are met.

While stealing a million dollars to build a luxurious villa isn’t quite the same as stealing a bowl of rice to feed one’s hungry children, most corruption in Cambodia occur at small-scale levels where public servants like teachers, policemen, and government officials try to supplement their $20-a-month salary with extra money to feed their families.

Fortunately, Cambodia’s biggest donors like Japan, who provides our country about $250 million in aid each year, have a more accurate understanding of our situation. Besides buying villas and luxury cars for a few government officials, the aid money also enable roads, bridges, sewage, and other public works projects to be built. Many Khmer lives are saved by the improved sanitation, education, and food and health programs provided by our generous donors.

These donors aren’t clueless about the need for less corruption in Cambodia. But they also understand that you can’t feed people’s minds while ignoring their stomachs. Khmer people eat rice; we don’t eat democracy or human rights. As problems like corruption and human rights abuses stem at least in part from the extreme scarcity of resources in Cambodia, solving these social problems go hand-in-hand with addressing basic needs like food, shelter, medicine, and education.

I read a report today that some Hispanics are feeling betrayed by President-elect Obama choices for his top cabinet positions. Most of top cabinet positions have been filled by whites and Jews, with the notable exception being Bill Richardson, who is Hispanic. Obama is expected to name his once-bitter rival Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

By most estimations Obama’s choices so far is very close to perfect. He’s assembling a “dream team” of experienced and well qualified individuals to deal with the economic crisis and two wars abroad inherited from the Bush administration. His choices reflect his commitment to unity and getting-the-job-done over race politics.

I understand Hispanics’ feeling of betrayal since, like African Americans, Hispanics voted overwhelmingly in favor of Obama. At first glance, the racial composition of his administration may not reflect the “change” that he promised.

In his defense, however, the country is facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and Obama simply cannot afford to appoint anyone but the most qualified and experienced people to the top posts. It just so happens that the most experienced people happen to be white and Jewish.

A major reason that there are fewer qualified minorities is that we seldom were given the opportunities to gain the necessary experience to fill the posts. Working under a black president, Obama’s white and Jewish cabinet members would be hard-pressed not to recruit minorities to their departments. These diverse and inclusive working environments, in turn, will enable minorities to attain the necessary experiences and credentials to become the leaders of tomorrow.

As a Khmer I would like to see at least one or two Asian Americans appointed to Obama’s top posts. However, even more important than Asian representation is that he or she is truly qualified for the job. I do not want to see Obama appoint an Asian just to show that his administration is inclusive of Asian Americans.

Tokenism is a deplorable arrangement that attempts to project a semblance of diversity while perpetuating the status quo. The token Asian appointments of past administrations have done little to advance Asian American concerns. Often, they were even less interested about Asian American causes than their white bosses.

Obama, on the other hand, is more concerned about laying the foundations for real diversity and real inclusion whereby all Americans would be given an equal opportunity to succeed. Far from betraying his minority supporters, I think Obama’s actions reflect incredible depth, foresight, and integrity in his thinking.

I’ve always been impressed by Obama’s exceptional intelligence and vision, and I think America is very fortunate that he, instead of one of the other candidates, was elected to lead the country out of the current mess.

Discuss this article on Khmercity.net

I read a report today that some Hispanics are feeling betrayed by President-elect Obama choices for his top cabinet positions. Most of top cabinet positions have been filled by whites and Jews, with the notable exception being Bill Richardson, who is Hispanic. Obama is expected to name his once-bitter rival Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

By most estimations Obama’s choices so far is very close to perfect. He’s assembling a “dream team” of experienced and well qualified individuals to deal with the economic crisis and two wars abroad inherited from the Bush administration. His choices reflect his commitment to unity and getting-the-job-done over race politics.

I understand Hispanics’ feeling of betrayal since, like African Americans, Hispanics voted overwhelmingly in favor of Obama. At first glance, the racial composition of his administration may not reflect the “change” that he promised.

In his defense, however, the country is facing the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and Obama simply cannot afford to appoint anyone but the most qualified and experienced people to the most important posts. It just so happens that the most experienced people happen to be white and Jewish.

A major reason that there are fewer qualified minorities is that we were seldom given the opportunities to gain the necessary experience to fill the posts. Working under a black president, Obama’s white and Jewish cabinet members would be hard-pressed not to recruit minorities to their departments. These diverse and inclusive working environments, in turn, will enable minorities to attain the necessary experiences and credentials to become the leaders of tomorrow.

As a Khmer I would like to see at least one or two Asian Americans appointed to Obama’s top posts. However, even more important than Asian representation is that he or she is truly qualified for the job. I do not want to see Obama appoint an Asian just to show that his administration is inclusive of Asian Americans.

Tokenism is a deplorable arrangement that attempts to project a semblance of diversity while perpetuating the status quo. The token Asian appointments of past administrations have done little to advance Asian American concerns. Often, they were even less interested about Asian American causes than their white bosses.

Obama, on the other hand, is more concerned about laying the foundations for real diversity and real inclusion whereby all Americans would be given an equal opportunity to succeed. Far from betraying his minority supporters, I think Obama’s actions reflect incredible depth, foresight, and integrity in his thinking.

I’ve always been confident of Obama’s exceptional intelligence and vision, and I think America is very fortunate that he, instead of one of the other candidates, was elected President.

A lot of people I know are still bewildered as to why I chose to return to live in Cambodia. They say that Cambodia is one of the poorest countries in the world. They say that it is infested with corruption, lawlessness, AIDS, chaos, human rights abuses, and so on and so forth.

That may be true. I am not going to deny that these problems exist. Not only do they exist but are in some ways worse than anything outsiders could imagine.

Back in the states I was making a good living, owned a nice home in an upper-middle class suburban neighborhood, and enjoyed a network of friends and relatives who are very good people.

But something was missing.

Although I spent 75% of life and most of my childhood in the U.S., I remained a perpetual outsider. I remember arriving in at the age of 9 years old in a foreign land speaking very little English. The other kids would taunt and harass me on a daily basis as I struggled to adapt to the new environment.

Here in Cambodia when Westerners speak broken Khmer, they don’t get teased at– they become celebrities. The Khmer TV and radio stations would seek them out to interview them, marveling at their ability to speak our language.

Personally, I don’t think it’s a big deal for a Westerner’s being able to speak or read Khmer. We shouldn’t feel it’s some form of special honor just because a handful of Westerners elect to learn our language. In fact, I expect any foreigner who comes here to live or work in srok Khmer to learn Khmer. It’s completely normal; every country has the same expectation.

Nor should we taunt them for speaking Khmer with a European accent, as Asian immigrants to America have been taunted for speaking broken English.

In fact, the constant torment that I received as a recent immigrant was a major motivation for me to study hard and excel in school. Sure enough, within a couple of years I managed to top my native-born American peers in every field of study, including English. From then on I would be known as the “smartest” student in every school I attended.

While I was no longer taunted and even was respected and admired for my academic achievements, I remained an outsider. I often sensed fear, jealousy and resentment from fellow students, their parents, and even some members of the faculty. They felt threatened, but they couldn’t do anything about it. They had to give me my props because I played by the rules and beat them at their own game.

Still, some people would say, “Sure, Oudam, you’re book-smart, but how street-smart are you?” I didn’t respond because I knew the none of those “street-smart” native-born Americans would have been able to survive the Khmer Rouge and escape to refugee camps in Thailand as our family had.

At any rate, despite my best efforts to fit in, I never felt like I belonged. I remained an outsider.

By college and graduate school I began to realize that even with my hard work, determination, and scholastic achievements, I would not achieve the fabled “American dream”. Beyond school, it takes much more than talent, credentials, and qualifications to succeed in the American society. While my straight A’s and academic accolades in high school eventually earned me admission to one of the nation’s elite university, they would not give me entrance into the old boy’s network.

It has been my experience that even in America, you can’t realize your full potential if you’re an outsider. While you may overcome racial and ethnic barriers in certain aspects of life, you will be missing out on others. Sooner or later you’ll begin to question yourself: Are you better off in America or Cambodia? How much of yourself– your social associations, your ethnic identity, your culture, tradition, and heritage– are you willing to sacrifice to gain acceptance by a foreign country?

While America has always offered our family shelter since we immigrated there 28 years ago, but it never offered me a home.

A shelter is not necessarily a home.

If you live in a modest house that gets flooded by a storm, your rich friend may offer to let you stay at his million-dollar estate for a while. But his mansion is not your home, but a temporary shelter. As a guest you don’t enjoy all the privileges that owner does. Even if you’ve earned the legal rights to call the property your own home, e.g. by paying your share of the bills, taxes, and living expenses, there’s always something, perhaps even your friend himself, to make you feel like an outsider.

Why do I love Cambodia?

I feel right at home here.

Our country may be a small house badly damaged by a huge storm, but at least we still have a home. I think if more people here in Cambodia could appreciate that they’re very lucky to still have a home and stop coveting other people’s mansions, then they might make a more serious effort to rebuild it, rather than wishing to flee it to seek shelter elsewhere.

For me it’s very easy to appreciate Cambodia as my home because I’ve already spent three-fourth of my life somewhere else. Of course, it would be best if Cambodia is both a home and a shelter to her people because a home that is not a shelter is really not a home.

Hi Everyone,

I hope you and loved ones have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we don’t celebrate the holiday here in Cambodia, so I didn’t get a chance to gain the extra few pounds that had become a tradition during this time of the year.

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Go to the following to see a list of gadgets you can add to your page.

http://www.khmercity.net/opensocial/application/list?sort=popular

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Also, I am happy to announce that close to 10,000 people have downloaded and installed our popular Khmer Community Toolbar. The toolbar puts Khmer radio (VOA, RFA, Khmer songs) and other useful tools right on your browser, letting you listen to Khmer-language programs while browsing the web.

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Although I wasn’t in the US to vote for the next president, I’m very delighted to see Barack Obama elected as the next president.

Although I think either Obama or McCain would make a good president, I think Obama will be a more effective one. He is exceptionally bright, understands issues on a deeper level, has foresight and conviction, able to work with different people, and can assemble effective teams and task forces. These are some qualities that I think that the next president must have to deal with the huge mess left by the current administration.

You get the feeling that Obama’s presidency will succeed from the way he came from behind to beat Hillary Clinton and overcome racial barriers in the general elections to win it all. In the end he was the best candidate because he was able to gauge the prevailing social, cultural, economic, and political conditions of the country more accurately than any other candidate. He had skillfully dissociated himself from black militancy and used a John Kennedy-esque charm to appeal to people’s hopes and optimism. I think good leadership is about accurately understanding the situation and making the right choices, and Obama has made all the right calls in his campaign. Hopefully, he will continue to do the same as the leader of the world’s sole superpower.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of Obama’s victory is that he is the first black president in America’s 232-year history. This election has exposed that the country is deeply divided by race, and racism was not done away with by Obama’s victory. But it shows that the country is willing to change to accommodate the demographic shift toward greater ethnic and cultural diversity.

My family immigrated to the U.S. when I was only nine years old. During the 27 years that I lived in America, I never felt that I was part of the country. This feeling continued until my adulthood when I decided recently to move back to Cambodia.

Michelle Obama echoed a similar sentiment when she stated that for first time in her life, she felt proud to be American. Cindy McCain indignantly countered that she had been always been proud of her country. I think it’s easy for Cindy McCain, a white woman who was born to wealth and privilege, to declare that she has always loved her country, whereas it’s not so easy for a minority to make the same declaration. This exchange illustrates the deep racial divide that still exists in America, a challenge the Obama presidency will be burdened with, not to mention two disastrous wars abroad and current financial crisis. I think if anyone is capable of solving all these problems, Obama would be the man.