Myanmar/ Burma

I never did post about my three week visit to the country earlier in the year, so here goes.

Firstly, it is a fantastic country to visit. While the military led government is, without doubt, a terror to its population and especially the non-Burmese ethnic groups which make up a sizable portion of inhabitants -- mainly found outside of the main Yangon/Mandalay corridor in the country's middle -- as a visitor this is not always apparent.

No police or army patrol the streets, people smile and greet visitors and there are no outrageous curfews. Indeed, if I had not been aware of the political situation, I would have assumed all was well. Which is probably exactly what the military leadership wants.

The former British colony has maintained a very British feel, in a crumbling Indian Raj sort of way, with the downtown offices, hotels and warehouses of the colonial bureaucracy still to be found by the riverfront in Yangon, in various stages of repair. The hill station of Pyin Oo Lwin still bares a remarkable resemblance to Surrey, with large houses, rose guardans and endless lawns rather at odds with a Southeast Asian setting.

I was ostensibly in the country to visit a friend who was interning with the United Nations Development Programme. As my grandfather had also been stationed here during WWII, it had also been somewhere I had thought of visiting for a long time, even if he never spoke of his experiences there.

I started in Yangon -- Colonial Rangoon, due to the British inability to pronounce the word -- a remarkably hilly and leafy city for Southeast Asia that has spread outwards at a terrific rate, due to the rural urban migration caused by the near continuous conflict the Burmese military has waged on the various groups calling for autonomy or independence.

As a visitor, Yangon offers glimpses of the former colonial power of the city, from the grand central train station, to the large docks and churches. It also highlights the strength that Buddhism holds in the country, with the giant golden stupa of Shwedagon visible from many points of the lower half of the city, especially when lit up at night.

In terms of actual sites, especially when compared to the rest of the country, the city is sparse, but what it does offer is up close immersion into the lives of city dwellers, especially when viewed from the incredibly slow circular train (3 hours to do a 20 km loop) that passes by both urban apartment blocks, slums and shanties and through vast fields growing vegetable feeding the city. It helps that its costs less than a dollar for the experience.

From Yangon, I traveled up to Naypidaw, the city built by the military to be its new capital. It has about as much warmth and attraction as similar such endeavorsand feels very Soviet, featuring large expanses of concrete, empty space and almost no people to speak of. It truly is a strange place, and I was glad I visited. I managed to be adopted by a local English teacher for the day, and was driven around the various sights, namely a massive and empty botanical gardens, and a massive and empty copy of Yangon's Shwedagon, this one complete with a troop of albino elephants (an auspicious animal in Burmese culture). It is also connected to the city via one of the strangest sights in, well, the world. A massive 18 lane highway, with virtually no traffic. It (and the city itself) has been built to allow the military to escape, or fly in troops in case of a coup or protest, and the highway works as a backup runway for planes. It really is an odd experience to be the only vehicle on a highway bigger twice as wide as the M25 in England.

From here, I made my way up to Inle lake, a glorious place to visit (which the tour companies have also discovered unfortunatly), a huge lake ringed by hills in Shan state. Unique fishing techniques, a whole town in the middle of the lake, and some very interesting Buddhist sites make it a fantastic place to visit.

Heading further into Shan state, the plan had been to meet my friend in the town of Hsipaw and do some real hiking, but armed conflict between the government and rebels dashed that plan, and instead we spent a whole day walking down the traintracks, and having a thoroughly exhausting adventure (and eating our bodywight in gifts of lychee)  Wandering through rural Myanmar was an experience to remember for sure, and the smiles and friendlyness of people in tourist areas was even greater here, where I can't imagine too many sweaty giant westerners walk past too often.

A brief stop in Kyaukme, which had almost nothing to see, and the next part of  the journey involved taking the narrow-gauge railway down towards Mandalay. The railway is a treasure, similar to those still running in India, a relic of the desire of the British to get away from the heat of the cities. Too small to carry goods, and to travel at any speed, they have now been largely replaced by road transport, but the frankly terrifying shuddering and swaying leant the journey an adventure all of its own. It also crosses a giant,U.S built viaduct that is probably 50 years old and combined with the train, not particulalry faith inspiring. Which makes the crossing even more exciting, and something I would recommend to anyone visiting!

Jumping off in Pyin Oo Lwin, we wondered around the British relics and ate great Indian food. A legacy of British rule, there is a sizable number of Indians/Nepalese in the country, who seem fully integrated and happy to cook great food :D

From town, due to strange bus/train timetables, we opted for giving hitchhiking a try, and after a 20 minute wait, we got our first ride, down the switchbacked road to the plains. Ride number two, in the back of a truck too us into downtown Mandalay, in roughly the same time the bus would have taken, and having saved $3 each! Success.

Mandalay, important hub of the colony, has a very Indian feel, and is clearly a city designed from scratch, and an expectation of growth. A grid system downtown keeps things remarkably orderly, and it makes a pleasant change from the chaos of Phnom Penh were I currently live. The fort in the center of town is certainly the largest structure, but with limited tourist appeal, it is Mandalay hill, covered in shrines and commanding a fantastic view of the city and the plains that is the prime attraction. We spent a great sunset talking with some monks and eaves dropping on the Russian Ambassador who was there on an official visit.

Running short of time -- i would have loved to go up the Irrawaddy river to the lesser visited north -- Bagan, the plain of temples, was my next destination. Myanmar's primary tourist draw, i was thankfully there in low-season, and it certainly helped. Little temples, shrines and stupa dot the landscape as far as one can see, and i had a great time cycling around and exploring the sites. I had hoped to take my first hotair balloon ride over the area, but as it wasn't the season it wasn't possible.

In the name of adventure, i opted for the night train from Bagan back to Yangon. I had been warned by just about everyone that this was a stupid idea and the train was terrible. Which meant I naturally had to check for myself.

I was the only person in the entire 2nd class sleeping carridge. The train was truely horrible. But at the same time, so much more interesting a journey than the equally priced A/C express bus. Yes the train was delayed 4 hours, but i was able to wake up to the sunrise of the fields as we travelled along as walking pace, and I had all time in the world to read. It was a great final adventure to the trip, and I willcertainly return.

Drinks at the Cuban Embassy

I know I don't write on here enough, so apologies, but writing all day and all weekend is exhausting.

Yesterday, I was sent to cover an event at the Cuban Embassy on the topic of Nuclear Disarmament. A hold-over from the Vietnamese occupation, when Soviet supported States aided each other, it is a classic villa and embassy in the center of Phnom Penh.

With a current staff of 8 (which includes the driver, cook and gardener) the mission is quiet, mainly seeming to support 2 Cambodian students a year in traveling to Cuba to enroll on a 6 year medical programme. 

Most of the guests were former Cambodian students and their families, who, in earlier times, had studied engineering, medicine and environmental sciences in Cuba. 

While the tone of the event had subtle anti-american notes (in a documentary that was screened, it was only US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that was shown) -- and no mention of the 'Cuban Missile Crisis' -- I have to say I agree with the overall message, namely that all nuclear weapons are terrible, and no one needs them. 

"Cuba maintains that the use of nuclear weapons is illegal, immoral and cannot be justified under any security concept or doctrine." 

Chatting afterwards in the garden, he spoke of his time as the ambassador to North Korea in the mid 1990's, and how he was probably the last diplomat to meet with Kim Il-sung before his heart attack. 

Long break

Apologies for the rather long pause in writing. The keyboard on my laptop suffered an unauthorized washing, and I never found the time to write at work. This is also my excuse for the lack of photos. I am still taking them, but the editing is just too hard on a broken computer. I promise ill work on it!

So, I am back in Phnom Penh, after 3 months working in Siem Reap (of Angkor Wat fame), and ill write something about that later, I promise.

What prompted me to write again, was an event I attended yesterday, at the veritable Meta-House (the German cultural center in town). I think i have mentioned the daily films and documentaries they screen, but if not - well, that is what they do. And its a fantastic service they provide.

Last night, they held a showing for the recent Cambodian winners of Tropfest, a competition highlighting the best in short films. In the S.E Asia version, Cambodia has won for the past 2 years, which was rather a surprise to me, given the terrible nature of TV here. But the films I saw were, on the whole, very well made. They often shared a common theme of poverty and violence, 2 factors that are an unfortunate reality to many Cambodians.

I have included below my 2 favourite ones. The first I found really rather moving:

The second relates to the Khmer Rouge, and it is another theme I have noticed in recent art displays here - a desire by young artists to depict the period, even if they themselves did not live through it.

Anyway, I hope this sparks more blogs!

No, ISIS isn't the new Khmer Rouge

This is something I wrote a few weeks ago, but wasn't picked up by any media/journals, so rather than let it go to waste, here it is. There have subsequently been a few articles published which further try to link the two regimes together, but as I think I have show here, they are really rather different.

No, ISIS is not the new Khmer Rouge

There is a common theme running across many articles about ISIS – a need to reference the Khmer Rouge. In some cases this is little more than a name-drop or to briefly mention how the two groups are different. In others the comparison is the centre of the whole piece, with the authors normally focusing on two keys areas:  both groups’ love of gruesome executions and the parallels in the US’s unintentional involvement facilitating their creation. While these links can indeed be made, it is also relatively simple to find a point of comparison between any two entities - dinosaurs and sheep are both animals but few would seriously compare the two. In the case of the Khmer Rouge and ISIS comparisons, it doesn’t take long to find more aspects highlighting their differences rather than their similarities, and yet such comparisons continue to be made.

The most repeated similarity related to the brutality of the executions by the Khmer Rouge and ISIS. There is no disputing the crude and savage methods employed by both groups to kill large numbers of people, however even in this area, the differences are clear.

ISIS' recent public execution of the Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kaseasbehis, is steeped in symbolism and is a clear escalation of their violent imagery.  Footage of crucifixions, beheadings and at least one homosexual man thrown off a building are designed to rally the troops and to stoke fear in the enemy. These made-for-TV executions, justified with selective reading of religious texts and historical events are intended for the world to see and indeed fear. After bursting onto the 24-hour news cycle last year, their burning quest for increased media coverage has driven and shaped their slick and polished online presence, recently aided in this by Fox. A lauded social media machine ensures that the executions, often by beheading, spotlight an ever-increasing desire to be taken seriously and be feared.

Access to technology notwithstanding, the executions committed under the Khmer Rouge were not for public dissemination. Instead, Pol Pot sought to project an image of a peaceful Cambodia. The barbarity of the regime was actively hidden from the world, with no Western journalists allowed to visit until late 1978, and the killings were expressly kept from their domestic population; going so far as to play music to mask the sounds of interrogations and mass executions. The Khmer Rouge certainly killed many people, often brutally, as recent testimony at the ongoing UN assisted Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) demonstrates: Children smashed against trees, and throats slit with garden hoes. By the end of 1979 it is estimated that almost a quarter of Cambodia’s population (2 million people) died, either as a result of war, starvation, exhaustion, illness or execution. S-21 security centre boss Duch was sentenced to life imprisonment by the ECCC for overseeing the execution of over 17,000 detainees, many of whom in the later stages were themselves Khmer Rouge cadres.  They did indeed execute people, often by brutal means, but the use of farming tools was more to do with the extreme material limitations faced in Cambodia than a conscious effort to make a statement.

It is clear that both ISIS and the Khmer Rouge are synonymous with the frequent and gruesome killing of prisoners, with the latter’s practice only being widely known and believed after their removal from power. However, one can find such a similarity between almost any violent groups, many whose actions are more recent than the Khmer Rouge. If brutality is the only qualifying criterion, then why no mention made of Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Yugoslavia or Chechnya?

Executions and brutality aside, the other point of reference for those attempting to draw similarities between the Khmer Rouge and ISIS is America’s perceived role in the group’s creations.

Lead by a handful of French, Thai and Vietnamese educated communist intellectuals and headed by Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge came to prominence only after Nixon authorised the dropping of more bombs on Cambodia than were dropped on Japan during WW2,  in the process ensuring the deaths of up to 500,000 people. This support for the disastrous campaign in neighbouring Vietnam, and to prop up Cambodia’s American supported government of Lon Nol, who had taken power in a coup in 1970. The anger felt by Cambodians towards the Americans boosted support and recruitment for the Khmer Rouge, who had long and rather insignificantly been fighting against the government forces. Despite receiving initial training and support from the Vietnamese Communist Party, after taking power in 1975 the Khmer Rouge leadership increasingly allied themselves with China.

ISIS, so the comparison goes, is also a creation of US bombing. The American led second Iraq war saw the toppling and execution of Saddam Hussain, and the much heralded arrival of 'Democracy.'  The US-created power vacuum in Iraq, which lifted Saddam's boot of oppression, saw Sunni and Shia militias fight for political control, and the removal of American troops, and this is what has allowed ISIS to grow as it has. In the coalition-run prisons set up after the invasion, various Sunni individuals, members of the numerous militias and factions, were kept together with little more to do than talk and share ideas. They became senior leaders in the Sunni militias, and eventually formed ISIS. The regional chaos and influx of fighters and arms to the civil war in neighbouring Syria provided the perfect launching pad for ISIS to emerge. Funded and supplied in part by supporters in friendly Sunni Gulf States, their rapid spread from Syria through much of western Iraq, ethnically cleansing the Shia communities, and  minority Christian, Kurdish and other groups in their path, has presented a terrifying prospect for Western governments.

At this point the comparison has been taken to its extreme conclusion. Any further look at the groups simply serves to prove how dissimilar they are in almost every aspect.

Unlike ISIS, the Khmer Rouge was not looking to recruit international members to its cause, or to spark similar global revolutions.  Executions simply sought to remove anyone associated with the previous government (or accused of being CIA or KGB spies) and to ethnically cleanse the country of its non-Khmer population, most notably the Muslim Cham minority and the Vietnamese. News of a family member’s death, rather than being widely broadcast for propaganda purposes, was often only confirmed years later when the security center records became available, and remnants of families reunited.

Further differences in the comparison are easy to find. Control over Cambodia’s existing borders was the primary goal of the Khmer Rouge, who were unwilling, and most probably unable to export their extreme brand of Communism. There were incursions into southern Vietnam, a region traditionally and ethnically linked with Cambodia, but this action was not the spearhead of a concerted effort to spread their message. It served instead to antagonise Vietnam, which eventually invaded and removed the Khmer Rouge from power.

ISIS, on the other hand, has set its sights on expansion from the very beginning. It is obviously too early to talk of their demise, but their reign thus far has been very different compared to the Khmer Rouge. Indeed, for specific areas there are there closer comparisons available. The speed with which ISIS has swept through vast swathes of the Levant, killing many in their wake, draws comparisons with the Mongol horde’s 13th Century achievements in the region.. But with the goal of creating a Sharia Law-enforcing Sunni caliphate, this blitzkrieg, to use a more modern comparison, has not been accompanied with the complete destruction of the existing state, in an anti-intellectual and anti-industrial fervour ala the Khmer Rouge. Securing dams and oil wells shows an economic and strategic pragmatism, and their media presence certainly cannot be called anti-technological. ISIS has aimed to demonstrate that it has total control in the region. It has redrawn borders to reflect the desired religious make-up, and ethnically cleansed those groups that are not compatible with this vision. It has sought to project sovereignty over this region by providing all trappings of statehood and exerting the monopoly of force required, even if recent events suggest they are failing in this regard.

With the ISIS/ Khmer Rouge comparison crumbling under scrutiny, an explanation is needed as to why journalists and reporters attempt to compare this new dangerous force with earlier ones. Such a need to compare new with old is certainly not confined to this context, with music albums or TV Series – seemingly just about everything these days - requiring a comparison with a better known and established entity. Neither are such comparisons a new phenomenon. Churchill compared the Nazis to the Mongols, and indeed Hitler praised Nazi “quickness” and “brutality” in relation to Genghis Khan. ISIS currently represents the West’s boogie man; it is bound to draw comparisons with similar entities that have come before it.  Although why a regime that ruled Democratic Kampuchea - as the Khmer Rouge renamed Cambodia -  for almost four years in the late 1970’s has been chosen for this role is unclear.

As President Obama recently discovered when comparing ISIS and American views on Islam with the Christian crusades, choosing examples that dare to question the inherent “goodness” of your own side is fraught with difficulties. Choosing to compare one widely hated group with another similar group is much easier, especially when knowledge about them is minimal.

A non-ISIS comparison to the Khmer Rouge certainly isn’t difficult to make.  The use of nationwide prison camps, prison labour, arrests based on little more than the desperate pain-ending denouncements of the tortured, the mass movements of people and the lengths taken to keep the brutality secret, may accurately be describing Stalin’s gulag system, or present-day North Korea, rather than anything ISIS has sought to achieve. Conversely, Boko Haram’s use of shocking violence and kidnapping, intended to both repulse and recruit, is a much better comparison to ISIS, even before taking into account the similarity of their religious message and their Al-Qaeda links.

It is clear that both groups certainly owe some of their initial success to the actions of the US. The idea that anger against American actions leads to recruitment, as well as a destabilising effect on regional authority and rule of law is not disputed. However as a unique and central point of comparison between the two, this argument is weak. The Nazis and Japanese both blamed American actions for provoking them in the 1930s, yet these claims haven't been included to support the ISIS Khmer Rouge comparison. Neither case involved direct American military action, but with the strict German armistice conditions following WW2, and trade embargoes on Japan following its invasion of China, US involvement cannot be denied.  

Is ISIS a cruel, brutal group, dangerous not only to the inhabitants of the Middle East and the stability of the region, but also to larger values of democracy and secularism? Indeed. Was the Khmer Rouge also cruel and brutal? Yes, but the danger they represented was reserved almost exclusively to the population of Cambodia, and was not antagonistic to the rest of the world, and it is upon this clear division that the comparison again breaks down.

It is easy to project our ideas of what ISIS is, onto what we have determined were the overall aims of historic regimes. At the same time sometimes forgetting that these were often evolving ideologies, subject to internal and external factors not entirely planned, and in some cases driven by the whims of (questionably sane) leaders.   

To claim that a new terrible group is merely a resurgent or copy-cat form of an earlier one, is an overly simplistic characterisation, attempting to force the opinion that history repeats itself. Such lazy attempts at analysis are too dangerous to be allowed to be repeated. It has the effect of elevating the importance of the new group - and in this modern era, this means media coverage - while at the same time lessening the impact of what we know of the former groups.  

So is ISIS the new Khmer Rouge?  While it is true that both Khmer Rouge and ISIS were strengthened in the craters of US bombs, have a barbarity at their core and  a deeply driving ideology, the answer is no. However they are certainly an unwanted addition to the long list – which humanity seems bent on extending ad infinitum - of cruel and barbaric groups and regimes whose blind belief in the superiority of their message, whether divinely supported or not, places them at odds with the rest of civilisation.

Humouring this flawed comparison for hopefully the final time, one of the main factors in the Khmer Rouge’s demise - assisted by antagonistic military incursion against a more powerful neighbour - was its paranoia fuelled cannibalistic purging of the senior command. Is it too much to hope that ISIS will succumb to a similar fate?

Comfort

 "Anything which does not completely fit in, coincide, subverts!

Still slogging through Gulag Archipelago, and while it is most certainly worth it, being very pertinent given the current decline in Russia, easy reading it certainly ain't.


The following were some thoughts I had while still in Phnom Penh that I never got around to articulating on here. It concerns the notion of comfort, more accurately, the idea of being comfortable in a different country.

I was thinking about how, after only being in Cambodia for five months, I honestly felt comfortable in Phnom Penh. My daily work schedule, my social life, my apartment, my neighborhood; everything had just become simply, comfortable. Which of course sounds rather odd, living as I do in a (rapidly) developing country  - at least in terms of material structures/possessions -  and clearly I wasn't talking about traffic, or cleanliness or weather.

But when words and actions associated with a 'new' culture become normal, then I would call that comfort.

In Japan, it took rather a while, but when a small bow of the head became a reflex response, when not feeling that taking the Osaka metro system was akin to an apocalyptic exodus of the city's entire population, when I wasn't required to tell the cashier at my local supermarket that I didn't need a bag because everyone knew me as the crazy gaijin (foreigner) who hated plastic bags. That all became normal, and therefore, Japan became comfortable (until the racism, bureaucracy and lack of job progression became too great).

Kazakhstan, my next country of residence, was much harder in this regard although I think some of this was simply the shock to the system of finally leaving Japan after three years, and discovering that no, not every Asian country's education system is quite so rigid, or indeed functioning. But after eight months, the notion of being offered vodka shots in professional environments before 10am, making toasts about camels at the weddings of people you hadn't met before (in Kazakh), and flagging down any passing car as a taxi had all become comfortable. Of course, I was lucky enough to leave before winter kicked in.

India was slightly different, as I was a traveler and not resident, but even then, the idea of finding puri chat (potato curry and fried chapatti) for breakfast from a street-vendor, taking night trains with obscure connections and being watched by crowds while reading on my kindle become, simply, normal.

Sierra Leone and Senegal proved somewhat harder. Sierra Leone, with its English- derived Krio language was certainly easy enough to communicate in, but the three months there just wasn't enough time to truly feel at home. Senegal was much harder, living and working as I was with an unashamedly Christian organisation (a constant issue of contention) in a vastly Muslim majority. It meant that I doubly felt a stranger to the culture and practices of the country, and didn't get a real feel of the culture of the country.

And now to Cambodia. Where a simple hand wave (similar to the Queen's one actually) is enough to tell a tuktuk/moto driver than no, you don't need a ride.

Where crossing the street involves kinda just going with it, that the heat and the dust and the sweat is all pervasive and that yes, people really do smile a lot.

How long I stay here remains to be seen. But it currently isn't a chore, and by the time it does feel that way, I will have found somewhere new to begin the whole process again.

Future

So my 5 months at the ECCC are almost up, and the challenge of what to do next has taken up rather a lot of my time. Having written more cover letters than I care to remember, having a couple of interviews via skype for roles in Liberia and Burma, I have decided to take up an offer that will keep me in Cambodia.

Ill be moving up to Siem Reap (of Angkor Wat fame), and working for a British run non-profit travel agency. With their profits (after paying for staff thankfully) funding local schools, it sounds like a socially responsible organization, and i look forward to aiding their social media and public outreach presence.

Which means I have to scramble around seeing all the things ive put off in Phnom Penh (i still haven't visited the Royal Palace), and preparing for a move 300km up the country. Here are some photos from an hours bike ride around the north of Phnom Penh from yesterday:

 (A giant abandoned boat)

 (The changes the city faces)

 (someone's home)

 (The new city...taken in what was, until a few years ago, a lake)

(View from the lake)

Art, and gulags

“Resistance! Why didn't you resist?” Today those who have continued to live on in comfort scold those who suffered. Yes, resistance should have begun right there, at the moment of the arrest itself. But it did not begin.

“In compiling this list the most difficult thing is to begin, partly because the further back into the decades one goes, the fewer the eyewitnesses who are left, and therefore the light of common knowledge has gone out and darkness has set in.”

Both quotes are taken from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, a book looking at the Soviet Gulag system, especially the period under Stalin's dictatorial reign. While the meticulous attention to detail paid by the system: the informers, the police, the prison heads, all to imprison, torture and kill huge numbers of the domestic population is certainly terrible, what my time at the court has shown is that much of this was repeated by the Khmer Rouge a number of years later.

Indeed is is almost as it they followed the play-book step by step:

• Invite back all nationals from abroad....and arrest them
• Arrest anyone involved in the previous government
• Arrest anyone associated with a political group other than the new ruling one
• Define ethnic groups as enemies and arrest them
• Reduce the rule of law, and the role of the law to a mockery; ensure prisoners have no idea of why they have been arrested, or how long their sentences are
• Disrupt the traditional way of life, ensuring chaos, suffering and nothing to “go back to”

And all of which to achieve what? Huge numbers of domestic deaths, destruction of traditional support network and comforts, a bureaucracy infinitely more complicated and inefficient than the one it replaced, and enemies on all the borders.

ISIS being the “new Khmer Rouge” is a phrase bandied around a lot recently, especially given the most recent execution of the Jordanian pilot. And while I would be inclined to agree that there are certain similarities, I think the analogy as used by most people misses the point.

I am writing something longer about this, so may well post it when finished.

Back to a lighter note, what else have I been up to recently?

Football has started to be played again at the court (yes, there is a football pitch of all things), which is providing a good opportunity to mix with people from the other departments, especially the Cambodian staff. Most are also rather terrible (Cambodia has worst football team in Asia), so it is rather flattering to my own terrible skills as well.

Last weekend saw the beginning of a month-long Photography festival in Phnom Penh, with works by various domestic and international artists exhibited around the city. Given the subjective nature of art, some of it is of course rather crap (in my professional opinion) but there have been some fantastic images as well. Organised by the French Institute, they supplied a fleet of tuk-tuks on the opening weekend to take people all over the city, to the various venues hosting exhibits. Free art, and free transport to art is a fantastic idea, and I was glad to be able to make use of it.  A number focused on Khmer Rouge period as well, and given the lack of serious discussion about it here, it was great to see some work on the subject. I have included a few photos I took, so enjoy.

Last night, the Cambodian Space Project, a mix-matched group of expat and Cambodian musicians played at one of the live venues, and it was packed! They play covers and original songs, based on the 1960's and 1970' Khmer Rock style that was hugely popular in Cambodia in the period leading up to the Khmer Rouge, and brutally destroyed by them. Influenced by the music being broadcast to US troops fighting in the region, it had a profound influence on Cambodia's music scene, and it was great to get to experience this modern homage to this music.