Civilizations, Families and America’s Inner City

We received some unique donations that should add a new dimension to the Angsoeng Library when they arrive next year.

Civilization III and IV.
The Civilization series of video games is popular with educators looking for unique ways to teach social studies. Pookai staff member Chris Seper is going to use some online modifications available for Civilization III to create a Khmer civilization Angsoeng’s patrons can play.

Family Tree Maker 2006.
This should enable Cambodians to preserve and revive their family histories (as well as store them) in a digital format.

Spencer Nakasako’s Trilogy (DVD)
The United States is a land of milk and honey to Cambodians. But many refugees often wind up in hardscrabble places like San Francisco’s Tenderloin District. Spencer Nakasako’s Trilogy confronts that reality, particularly in aka. Don Bonus, a video diary of one young Cambodian’s life in a few of America's tougher neighborhoods. Then in Refugee, a young Cambodian-American confronts his father, who decided his son would go to the United States but that he would stay in Cambodia. What’s great is that these movies, particularly Refugee, have lengthy conversations in Khmer.

We’ll be sure to get Chandara Lor’s reaction to these donations once they arrive.

Changes, Farewell to Santepheap

The Pookai Book Project’s Weblog will be shutting down for awhile. When it comes back, it will be much different.

The current blog format is starting to take away from growing and improving The Pookai Book Project. And, quite frankly, the blog’s financial benefit to our client, The Angsoeng Library, hasn’t been as much as we’d hoped. Helping Angsoeng is our primary mission.

So from now on, the blog will be used solely to post news about Angsoeng and to keep everyone updated on the growth of our library.

Thanks very much for reading so far. And we hope you keep it up!!

Bird Flu Concerns

The Phnom Penh Post is out and discusses concerns about a lack of antiviral medications that could be used to stop Avian flu.

Thailand, Cambodia Sign Visa Deal

The two countries have inked a unified visa, although there’s no word on when it would be enacted.

Consider a Donation to the Pookai Book Project

We hope you have appreciated this Weblog in the last 18 months. For the first time, we’re going to (overtly) ask you to consider giving a donation to our organization, The Pookai Book Project.

We do this blog as an extension of our mission at the Pookai Book Project, promote Cambodia and help tourists and others learn about the country. If you have enjoyed the blog or appreciate our mission, we hope you would consider dropping even a few bucks into our donation “tip jar.”

The primary mission of the Pookai Book Project is to help the restoration of Cambodia by gathering funds and need-specific books for the Angsoeng Library in rural Takeo province. These donations will promote literacy, accelerate education, speed economic development and empower Cambodians to take their place on the world stage.

The rewarding thing about donating to us is that you see, quite tangibly, how your donation changes a library. Even though our funds are relatively small, we’ve helped the library grow from a one-room facility with a few books to a multiroom library with an adjacent school that offers English and art classes, among other things. We’ve helped provide a computer, software and countless books and children’s toys, and expanded the library to include separate children and adult sections.

We’ve also connected the Angsoeng library to other donors who have provided thousands of dollars and committed to provide solar power to Angsoeng. This year, we’re giving $2,000, among other things, to the library.

We want to continue and expand on these accomplishments.

There are lots of ways you can donate to us. And if you are in Cambodia, we’d encourage you to give directly to the library. You can visit the library or contact Chandara Lor, the founder of the library, and arrange to give him money directly.

We’ll leave this post here for the next week. Then we’ll get back to posting news and information about Cambodia.

Thank you for reading and thanks for yours help.

Open-Source Nation

The country’s free software movement is a good way to speed development and computer proliferation in the country.

Cambodia: Completely For Sale

Cambodia has become a self-devouring nation in which just about everything seems to be for sale or lease: forests, fisheries, mining concessions, air routes, ship registrations, toxic dumps, weapons, women, girls, boys, babies.

No one among the major international press writes with as much authority or conviction about Cambodia as the author, Seth Mydans. Read every word.

Crackdown Roundup

The latest Phnom Penh Post is out and includes a series of stories about the recent border-agreement-related crackdown. In particular, there’s a story about the human rights groups speaking out against the arrests.

Plus, Voice of America has posted a draft of the border agreement and The Cambodia Daily offers some interpretation (pdf).

The last paragraph in The Daily’s story is probably the clearest and smartest thing we’ve heard so far.

'Supper With Pol Pot'

Bronwyn Sloan and her translator offer their take on the now-closed Khmer Rouge Experience Café. It’s worth a read.

The Latest Star to Visit Cambodia

Keep an eye out for hard-rock guitarist Nikki Sixx. The Motley Crue member promises to visit “THAILAND AND CAMBODIA ON A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY BETWEEN JAPAN AND AUSTRALIA.” First Angelina Jolie. Now Nikki Sixx.

Harry Potter in Khmer…

is thanks to Bernard Krisher, who actually wrote the author and convinced her to allow the book to be translated. It now sells for 50 cents in Cambodia.

Better Looking Propaganda!

The AKP design is a big improvement.

Rights Group Calls for World’s Help

“This is the most severe assault on dissent in Cambodia since the aftermath of Hun Sen's coup in 1997. International donors and embassies must make it clear to Hun Sen that they will not tolerate the reversal of the important strides made in basic human rights during the last decade.”

Fat chance, considering all the things going on in the world.

More people are taking notice, but the intensity of the crackdown is increasing. Hun Sen is threatening a royal critics and suggesting he could dissolve the monarchy (all pdfs).

Traveling through O’Smach to Koh Kong

Tales of Asia reader Chris Simons wanted to dodge Poipet on his way into Cambodia from Thailand. He offers a detail-laden account that could help people thinking of doing the same.

Border-Related Crackdown Spreads

Border issues could break any ruling government, so the prime minister’s response has been to try and crush anyone who disagrees with his new agreement with Vietnam.

Hun Sen would have trouble selling any border agreement (fair or not) to the Cambodian people. He was among the Cambodians who worked with the Vietnamese during the 1980s occupation. He did positive things during that time, but his role hurt his credibility with many in the country. Cambodians also felt that the Vietnamese at that time forced Cambodia into unfair border agreements.

Unless Hun Sen got all of Kampuchea Krom back, Cambodians from the Mondolkiri to Long Beach would criticize him.

But everything that has happened since the agreement undermines Hun Sen’s credibility. It also suggests that, for the first time, his party could face serious problems during future elections. Former king has called it illegal (pdf) as are other members of the royal family (pdf).

Plus, Hun Sen’s own actions send the signal this agreement is bogus. Critics are getting death threats, other are being sued, some jailed (all pdfs).