Thanks to Global Voices Online, (once again! I love that site!), I’ve found a blog with a few videos of 1960s Cambodia – years before the ruin of Khmer Rouge rule and civil war.
You can find the videos here.
Although I have only been to a few places in Cambodia, I could instantly see the irony of the videos. They show Cambodia’s agricultural, educational and industrial development during a time when much of the world was booming with scientific advances. Cambodia was no different and the videos attest to a land with so much promise – industrious people and beautiful vistas.
It is so sad to know in just ten years this blossoming society would be so cruelly cut down. What was prospering would be turned to nothing. The scientists, the leaders, the teachers, the monks – so many of them would simply cease to exist.
It is a lesson we must all learn. A once peaceful and developing society can at any time suddenly turn to one of butchery and savagery. We must always be on guard against fundamentalist elements – of any kind – that preach hatred, intolerance and strict, “their way or the highway” ideals. This kind of thing can happen anywhere, at anytime, as we have seen in the genocide of Nazi Germany, Armenia, Rwanda and Sudan and the cultural decimation of the Cultural Revolution in China and Taliban rule in Afghanistan. One small group can turn back the clock by hundreds of years.
A friend told us a revealing story. His brother was working in construction in Cambodia. His firm had several electric concrete mixers yet he still found many of the workers mixing the concrete by hand, only feet from the mixer. When he confronted one of the workers he was told – yes, I know there is a mixer there, but if I use it someone might see and think I am educated. (During Khmer Rouge rule being educated meant he’d be sent to a camp or to his death.) The real tragedy is the many years it will take for the country to heal – for some, there is no healing.
The blog where the videos are posted, Phnomenon, mainly talks about Cambodian food in a light-hearted way.
Related Posts:
- Some General Thoughts Post Cambodia For me, our trip to Cambodia was extremely enlightening and...
- Heavy Reading…Heavy Questions I’ve been haunted by the images of Cambodia from the...
- Down the River and Through the Minefields – Our Trek Out of Cambodia Bear with me, this is long. After a few days...
- Temple Overload and Tired Feet Ever heard of temple overload? We’ve just spent the last...
- We Are in Cambodia I’m writing this from an Internet cafe in Siem Reap,...
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
it’s a great new for me.
thanks for your kind of posting this.