CIVIL RESISTANCE
My TREASON & INCITEMENT MASS TRIAL (Initial Page on Trial Matters) TUESDAY, 14 JUNE 2022 VERDICT ANNOUNCEMENT Court Statement: Concluding Remarks ការការពារ ផ្លូវច្បាប់ របស់ខ្ញុំ [ ... ] |
CIVIC EDUCATION
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សាលា ចំណេះដឹង មូលដ្ឋាន
សេចក្តីផ្តើម, ទិដ្ឋភាពទូទៅ INTRODUCTION / OVERVIEW
គ្រូបង្រៀន៖ លោកស្រី សេង ធារី (បរិញ្ញាប័ត្រ ផ្នែកវិទ្យាសាស្ត្រ នយោបាយ អន្ដរជាតិ ពីសកលវិទ្យាល័យ ចចថោន នៅវ៉ាស៊ីនតោន ឌីស៊ី; បណ្ឌិតច្បាប់ ពីសាលាច្បាប់ នៃសាកលវិទ្យាល័យ មីឈីហ្គែន, ហើយ ប្រហែល ជាជនជាតិខ្មែរ ដំបូងគេ ដែលបាន ប្រលងជាប់ គណៈមេធាវី ក្នុងរដ្ឋ ញូវយ៉ក)។ គាត់ មានបទពិសោធ ការងារ យ៉ាងស៊ីជម្រៅ និងទូលំទូលាយ នៅកម្ពុជា ចាប់តាំង ពីឆ្នាំ ១៩៩៥ (បង្រៀន នៅក្រសួងយុត្តិធម៌, ធ្វើការ ក្នុងវិស័យ ឯកជន នៅក្រុមហ៊ុនច្បាប់ អាមេរិក, ដឹកនាំ អង្គការ សិទ្ធិមនុស្ស ជាច្រើន); ហើយ សរសេរ ជាទៀងទាត់ អំពី បញ្ហា សង្គម, នយោបាយ, និងច្បាប់ សម្រាប់ ការបោះពុម្ពផ្សាយ។ គាត់ បានធ្វើដំណើរ ទៅគ្រប់ខេត្ត នៃប្រទេស កម្ពុជា យ៉ាងហោចណាស់ ៣-៤ ដង សម្រាប់ ការងារ, ច្រើនទៀត ក្នុងការដើរលេង។ គាត់ បានធ្វើដំណើរ ទៅកាន់ប្រទេស ជាច្រើន រាប់មិនអស់ នៅលើពិភពលោក, ទីក្រុងជាច្រើន ច្រើនដង។ Instructor: Ms. Theary C. Seng (International Politics degree from Georgetown University, Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School) ប្រវត្តិរូបសង្ខេប | Curriculum vitae
អ្នកចូលរួម៖ មានមួយណា ក៏បាន—អាយុ ពី៥ ទៅ ១០០ឆ្នាំ; យល់ ភាសាខ្មែរ; មានបំណង ចង់រៀន/ចង់ដឹង; អ្នក ដែលគ្មាន ធនធាន/លុយ; ពលករ ចំណាកស្រុក នៅ ថៃ, ម៉ាឡេស៊ី, កូរ៉េខាងត្បូង, និងទីផ្សេងទៀត; លើកទឹកចិត្ត ឱ្យក្រុមគ្រួសារ ទាំងមូល មើល និងរៀន ជាមួយគ្នា, ហើយ បន្ទាប់មក ពិភាក្សាគ្នា, មុនគេង ឬព្រឹកថ្ងៃអាទិត្យបន្ទាប់ ពេលញ៉ាំ អាហារព្រឹក។ Participants: Ages 5 to 100 who understands Khmer and desires to learn/know, Encourage the whole family to watch and learn together, and afterward discuss with each other before going to sleep or the next Sunday morning at breakfast. ថ្លៃសិក្សា៖ ឥតគិតថ្លៃ | Tuition: Free ប្រធានបទ | Topics Read and watch all lessons.
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The Three Terrible Ideas
Cambodians, be antifragile. Be FIRE.
Has Science Discovered God?
Click to watch this FASCINATING, MIND-BLOGGING video with breathtaking images and you learn science in the process!
The English-language learning I’ve encountered here in Cambodia is not as humorous as this but still in the hazardous zone: Recently, I sat down with a 12-year old girl who has been learning English since time immemorial as I was curious why she and similarly-situated children like her were not speaking English and could not understand my English even though I know they have been learning English for many years. She started reading from her textbook; I immediately noticed a curious thing: at the words she had not memorized the sound, she would look up as if to do some calculation. I asked her what’s she doing. Translating the alphabet sounds from English to Khmer and then applying them back to the words, she answered. Eh?! For example: she would see the word "similar" and then would search for the Khmer alphabet with the equivalent "s" sound, which is "ស" and would make this ស sound; would find Khmer equivalent of "m" sound, which is "ម"; would find the equivalent of the "l" sound, which is "ល". Then, she would come back to the English "similar" with the equivalent Khmer alphabet sounds in her mind and then would attempt to sound out the word! Upon my horrified interrogation of why she’s doing this, she said that’s how her teacher has taught her! I asked her if she already knew her abc which she proved to me that she did by reciting them. Then, use the "s" sound WITHOUT GOING TO ស, use the "m" sound without going to ម, use the "l” sound without going to ល! Without the time-consuming, useless, dangerously frustrating, circuitous confusing detour! Then I thought some more why some teachers are doing this, and I thought of how Cambodians do not pronounce a few letters properly. Ex. “s" as “eh" (which i always have to exaggerate the “sss’uh!" stressing its importance while correcting them); "r" as “ah", not completing the “rrrr" sound; thus the need to find the Khmer equivalent “s” and "r" sounds in the letter ស and រ. It’s only a guess that may explain some teachers, but for others it may be the "illogic logic" or “confused logic" of a society that does not teach one how to think but what to think, where learning is repetition and rote memorization. See: http://thearyseng.com/…/469--beauty-mark-rong-chuns-nephew-… Also, I thought of how many Cambodians leave out the important ending sound of words, even YouTube English teachers as I found out with a bit of research.
Veritas Forum at Yale University Dr. Jennifer Wiseman October 13, 2009
How big is the universe? How old is it? What is our place? Do we have any ultimate meaning? Is there a God out there? Dr. Jennifer Wiseman, astronomer with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center provides us with a journey through the cosmos. Watch with transcript.
My all-time favorite online talks: No. 1, 2, 3
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How chronic stress can affect the brain's size, structure, and how it functions
World-class pianist, Mia Chung, described by the New York Times as "technically dazzling” Veritas Forum at MIT
An extremely illuminating talk at Stanford University by prominent philosopher and USC professor Dallas Willard. I've already listened to this several times because there's so much insight to absorb slowly. THE MOST PROFOUND is Dallas Willard's articulation of the relationship between TRUTH and FREEDOM. I've listened to many Veritas Forum talks and I've really, really liked most of what I've listened to (oftentimes multiple times) thus far -- ex. anything Ravi Zacharias, anything John Lennox, anything Os Guinness, anything N. T. Wright has to say. But this talk is the MOST PROFOUND.
USC philosopher Dallas Willard at Stanford Quoting TH Green on Freedom (41:40)
“When we speak of freedom, we should consider carefully what we mean by it. We do not mean merely freedom from restraint or compulsions.” — We do not merely mean freedom that just sets us free FROM other things. — “We do not mean freedom to do as we like, irrespective of what we like. We do not mean freedom that can be enjoyed by one man or one set of men at the cost of the loss of freedom to others. When we speak of freedom as something to be so highly prized, we mean a POSITIVE POWER or CAPACITY OF DOING OR ENJOYING something worth doing or enjoying, and that too, something that we do or enjoy in common with others. We mean by it a power that each man exercises through the help and security given by his fellow men, and which he in turn helps to secure for them.” ... “Intentionality”... Augustinian teaching about the mind: The Inner Light, the Inner Teacher, is God, and it is interacting with the mind and enables it to reach out to the world which God, not the mind, created. And to find in that world, with others who are there, the proper support of a will that is capable of moving to genuine freedom. See, if you want to see freedom, you don’t look at a kid jumping around with nothing to do; you see freedom when you see an accomplished artist sit down at a piano and play something so beautiful that you can hardly stay in you seat.
World-renown sociologist Peter Berger and New York Times columnist Ross Douthat at Harvard
Faith in a Pluralistic Society University of Cambridge Elaine Storkey Brilliant through and through. I especially like the Thailand illustration!
The Role of Religion in Public Life Harvard University Jean Bethke Elshtain, Michael Sandel March 5, 2013 University of Chicago professor Jean Bethke Elshtain and Harvard philosopher Michael Sandel discuss the role of religion in public life. Does religion deserve a place in the public square? Is it fair to exclude what many people consider the basis of their ethical framework? Should we study our religious texts together?
[Worth EVERY MINUTE listening to these two BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT professors. So much to digest that I will be coming back to this again, and most likely again.]
Why do so many people believe in God? Yale University Justin Barrett, Paul Bloom
Paul Vitz Professor Emeritus of Psychology at New York University "Defective Father Hypothesis" 1. Abandoning father: rejects, abandons his family; 2. Abusive father: critical, hostile, a tyrant at home; 3. Dead father: dies, non-existent in the eyes of young children. Evidence: Dr. Vitz looked at the childhood at many of the very famous atheists in history: - "strong" or "intense" atheists; not looking at "mild" or "soft" atheists; - Friedrich Nietzsche, David Hume, Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, Sigmund Freud, Madalyn Murray O'Hare, Ludwig Feuerbach, etc.
Why Religion Deserves a Place in Secular Medicine Veritas Forum at the Mayo Clinic Nigel Biggar, Rev Dan Hall, Warren Kinghorn
Faith and Biomedicine in Dialogue: Faith Informs Practice, Science Examines Faith
Eye-opening, thought-provoking
Author, actor and political commentator Ben Stein poses the argument that intelligent design and evolution are both valid scientific explanations for the development of life on earth, and that institutions that don't embrace both views are guilty of stifling academic freedom. Stein makes his case through film clips, interviews with creationists and scientists and his own acerbic observations, including the opinion that Darwin's theory of evolution is partially responsible for the Holocaust.
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Pedagogy
(info gleaned from Wikipedia; closely related to child development)
Pedagogy is the science and art of education, specifically the teaching of children. Whereas the teaching of adults is considered androgogy
Sequential development of individual mental processes—such as recognizing, recalling, analyzing, reflecting, applying, creating, understanding, and evaluating—are scaffolded. Students learn as they internalize the procedures, organization, and structures encountered in social contexts as their own schemata. The learner requires assistance to integrate prior knowledge with new knowledge. Children must also develop metacognition, or the ability to learn how to learn.
Andragogy is the science of understanding (= theory) and supporting (= practice) lifelong and lifewide education of adults.
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When we take a test, we have some idea of how well we’re going to do. When we start a task, we can predict how long it’ll take us to finish it. When we field a question, we can judge whether we need to consult the oracle of Google. We can do all of this because of a skill called metacognition—the ability to reflect upon our own minds, to monitor their degree of certainty, to have knowledge about our knowledge. Now, a new study from Louise Goupil, Margaux Romand-Monnier, and Sid Kouider at Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University suggests that we have this ability from a very early age.
Semiotics is the study of meaning-making: signs and sign processes (semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication. Semiotics is closely related to the field of linguistics, which, for its part, studies the structure and meaning of language more specifically. However, as different from linguistics, semiotics also studies non-linguistic sign systems. Semiotics is often divided into three branches: - Semantics: relation between signs and the things to which they refer; their denotata, or meaning - Syntactics: relations among signs in formal structures - Pragmatics: relation between signs and sign-using agents
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Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley
Click to watch the brilliant talk, with a special, urgent resonance for Cambodians.
Salman Khan: Let's Use Video to Reinvent Education TED Talk
Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script — give students video lectures to watch at home, and do "homework" in the classroom with the teacher available to help. In 2004, Salman Khan, a hedge fund analyst, began posting math tutorials on YouTube. Six years later, he has posted more than 2.000 tutorials, which are viewed nearly 100,000 times around the world each day.
The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World Miroslav Volf
Another BRILLIANT book by Yale theologian Miroslav Volf, and on a topic I've been thinking about for years now... This gift from Calvin professors Pennylyn, Leonard, David is a treasure I will reference and come back to it again and again.
Quoting Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil):
"'I have done that,' says my memory. 'I cannot have done that,' says my pride, and remains inexorable. Eventually -- memory yields."
"Remember, yes; but how?" 1. We should remember truthfully; 2. We should remember therapeutically. "Remember, yes; but for how long?" "Remembering is then part of the pursuit of justice for the victims... Memory is judgment in the absence of more public judgment, including the Last Judgment. In fulfilling these obligations, Christians who take their faith seriously will aim at forgiveness and reconciliation. We remember so that we can forgive and reconcile, and since we have an obligation to forgive and reconcile, we have an obligation to remember. But forgiveness and reconciliation are also tied to the letting go of memories... [A]n unalterable sequence: in deliberate and often difficult steps, we remember, we forgive and reconcile, we let go of memories. The letting go of memories, as I advocate it, is not a unilateral act, one that persons who have been wronged do on their own. Even forgiveness is not a unilateral act. Though given unconditionally, it is a git that has to be received, not just extended, for it to be truly given: I must receive forgiveness to be forgiven. And the letting go of memories -- non-remembrance of an offense -- is even less a unilateral act. It makes sense only after the victim has been redeemed and the perpetrator transformed and after a relationship between them has been redefined through reconciliation. As long as reconciliation has not taken place, the obligation to remember wrongs stands. For not only does memory serve justice; memory and justice serve reconciliation."
- Volf, p. 204-5
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Complete Books Freely Accessible at:
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry Fair Trial Rights in Cambodia Handbook
Understanding Trauma in Cambodia Handbook Speak Truth To Power by Kerry Kennedy (CIVICUS Cambodia project) Courage Without Borders Khmer Curriculum
From Dictatorship to Democracy by Gene Sharp
1984 [about Big Brother] by George Orwell The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Audio Online Mere Christianity (text), (audiobook) by C. S. Lewis The Screwtape Letters (text) (audio) by C. S. Lews
Paradise Lost by Milton
The Veritas Forum Francis Collins - The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence of Belief UC Berkeley
[Francis] Collins' devotion to genetics is, if possible, greater than Dawkins'. Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute since 1993, he headed a multinational 2,400-scientist team that co-mapped the 3 billion biochemical letters of our genetic blueprint, a milestone that then President Bill Clinton honored in a 2000 White House ceremony, comparing the genome chart to Meriwether Lewis' map of his fateful continental exploration. Collins continues to lead his institute in studying the genome and mining it for medical breakthroughs."- TIME
Socrates in the City Stephen Meyer, a founder of Intelligent Design
BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT man, FASCINATING CONVERSATION! Watch with transcript
And a more comprehensive, in-depth explanation by Stephen Meyer of Intelligent Design at Seminar. And Stephen Meyer at PBS's Think Tank (Part 1 | 2) I'm in utter awe, spell-bound by the mind-blowing double helix and its genetic code and the controversies and arguments surrounding them.
A really, really fascinating talk with a brilliant, deeply articulate knowledgeable Stephen Meyer, director of Discovery Institute.
Q&A: 1:13:20: Q: Commonly we hear that humans and monkeys are 99% the same. A: Software developers not impressed with argument (figure of 90%) because when they write code, a big part of that code is common no matter what program they’re running because you just need a big chunk of it to run the basic machinery, the hardware, the basic operational system. And the part that differentiates one program from the other is usually very small percentage of total code. All the differences between chimps and humans: arts and science and some football, and our cognitive abilities, the ability to use language. Genes, the way the genomes are regulated, epigenetic etc.... our proteins are so much more different than our genes which means they are processed differently. ... Software: It’d be poor design if you have 90% different. The difference that makes the difference is a small percentage.
A Cosmological Argument for God's Existence RIVETING! Whatever your theological stance, this 4-part series of 20 minute is informative, accessible and brilliant! And AWESOME!
National Geographic
THE MOST INCREDIBLE, MIND-BOGGLING, AWESOME structure of our body. It leaves one breathless. - Each person is made of 120,000,000,000,000 (120 trillion) cells.
- Cells are the basic building block of living tissues, most fundamental unit of life (smallest unit of what makes us human).
- In EACH cell, a billion (1,000,000,000) microscopic machines all play their part.
- DNA is nucleus of cell, made of genes, containing the instructions for life.
- 6 feet (1.83 meters) of DNA in every cell of our body.
- The double helix of DNA contains over 20,000 instructions that tell our cells what to make and when, how to organize our entire bodies.
I am reminded of Psalm 139
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
The Veritas Forum Os Guinness discusses religion and pluralism
[excerpts] Issue: (abstract-sounding but underlies so many other issues that humanity have to answer) How do we live with our big differences? Answer: SOUL FREEDOM: freedom of thought and conscience for everyone. To make that possible: soul freedom plus CIVILITY. To make that practicable: PUBLIC SQUARE. HOW DO WE LIVE WITH OUR DEEP DIFFERENCES TO A NEW LEVEL? Are we to be content with little sound bites and limited character tweeting, or anonymous names on blogs issued in degrading speech? Or, are we to work out how we live in the public square globally in ways that do justice to our humanity and the greatness of our democratic past we may have? Freedom of thought and conscience protects BELIEVERS, it never protects BELIEFS. As soon as you shift to protecting BELIEFS, you silence debate. The difference between RESPECT and TOLERATION: “toleration is always better than its opposite, intolerance. But “toleration” is not the word to defend today. It’s John Locke’s word; it has a very basic weakness. Tolerance is condescending; it’s always the powerful tolerating the weak; the majority tolerating the minority; the government tolerating us citizens. No. Freedom of conscience is alienable. No govt, no scientific discovery, nothing has the right to come between an individual and his/her conscience. That’s respect. Tolerance is far too weak a word. We need to persuade our liberal friends to want something much tougher, because our human rights are at stake here.
The Veritas Forum Living Free in a World of Lies, Hype and Spin Os Guinness at Stanford University
Charter 77 "Truth prevails for those who live in truth." Russian proverb "One word of truth outweighs the entire world." Jesus "...and the truth will set you free."
Truth is essential for a good life, for freedom.
1. Two companion crises to the crisis of truth: (i) crisis of character (who a person is when no one sees except God), (ii) crisis of ethics (Shirley Jackson's The Lottery; "Today, it is worse to judge evil than to do evil, so confound is the ethical confusion"; Nietzsche's will to power)
2. Two arguments for those who believe in truth but have grown careless about it: "Without truth, there is only manipulation" (Picasso); "Without truth, there is no freedom" (Isaiah Berlin; "freedom from, freedom for")
3. Two arguments for those skeptical about it, have no interest in it: Peter Berger "to relativize the relativizer"; they don't apply relativism to their position; there is clarity in consistency; any thought can be thought, any argument can be argued; there are some thoughts that can be argued but not lived; A.J. Ayer's Verification Principle - all claims must be verified through the 5 senses or they're non-sense; but the Verification Principle itself could not be verified through the 5 senses, so the Principle is nonsense. Point to the Signals of Transcendence. Atheist: "There is no god", an absolute (not relative) position; they are not saying as a true relativist, "There is no god for me, there may be for you."
4. Two challenges that truth to bring to all of us: People try to shape truth to their desires; the sharper the minder, the slipperier the heart; Aldous Huxley: "decided" (not "discovered") the world has no meaning.
Triangle of First Principles: Freedom requires virtue, which requires faith, which requires freedom...
Basil Mitchell's Parable of the Resistance Fighter
Os Guinness
Another brilliant talk. Another equally brilliant talk on the same theme:
[Before starting his talk on Freedom, Os made remarks about the Religious / Christian Right that are worth capturing in print: (i) theological unfaithfulness, (ii) political ineffectiveness, and (iii) cultural counter-productiveness. "The Religious Right is one of the main factors stoking anti-religious, anti-Christian sentiment..."]
"...always free, free always"
Three Tasks:
1. Winning freedom.
2. Ordering freedom.
3. Sustaining freedom - by far, the hardest.
- Yes, Constitution, but more... AND
- "Golden Triangle of Freedom": (i) Freedom requires (ii) virtue, which requires (iii) faith, and faith requires freedom.
Three Menaces to Freedom:
1. External menaces.
2. Polybius "corruption of customs" "habits of the heart"
3. Passing of time, "the injury of time" for fall of Rome.
Three Shifts from Founders:
1. Privatization of religion.
2. Rise of "proceduralism" or "legal secularism" (Rawls)
3. Rise of "post-modernism" (no truth, will to power)
Contemporary Menaces:
1. Alienation of leaders.
2. Breakdown of transmission of American virtues
e.g. public education (custodians of handing down American virtues), immigration (citizenship education)
3. Corruption of customs.
3 Worldviews on Evil Os Guinness, The Veritas Forum
The Veritas Forum What Gods Do We Believe in Now? NT Wright and Gary Morson at Northwestern University
Fascinating lectures and discussions
The Veritas Forum
The Bible: Gospel, Guide, or Garbage? NT Wright and Sean Kelly at Harvard University
Dr. John Lennox God, the Universe, and Stephen Hawking Cape Town University
The Veritas Forum
Is Belief in the Supernatural Irrational? John Lennox (prof. of mathematics at Oxford University) speaking at Harvard University
A brilliant, brilliant talk, so brilliant that the some 1,000 Harvard students and faculty gave a standing ovation at the end of the lecture, before the equally brilliant Q&A A great personal story re Russian Bible during Q&A
Seven Days That Divide The World John Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University
Creation account in Genesis 1 (English | Khmer)
Veritas Forum Dr. John Lennox of Oxford speaks at Columbia University
The Veritas Forum Gideon Rosen (atheist) & John Lennox (theist) at Princeton University The best formulation of the problem of evil I'v ever heard put forth by an atheist (in the Prof. Rosen's opening statement).
Dr. David Berlinski at Socrates in the City The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions
Philosophy, Science and the God Debate Hosted, moderated by Chris Jervis
Philosophy, Science and the God Debate: 'Science disproves the existence of God'. Scientists and philosophers interviewed: Alister McGrath (The Dawkins Delusion), Keith Ward (Why There Almost Certainly Is a God) and John Lennox (Gunning for God, God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?). This documentary shows these Oxford professors (with backgrounds in mathematics, philosophy, biology, theology) responding and refuting the New Atheists, like Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion), Christopher Hitchens (God is not Great), Sam Harris (Letter to a Christian Nation) and Daniel Dennett (Breaking the Spell).
Topics of discussion:
What is "faith"?
How do we derive at knowledge? Relationship between science and religion Exclusivism and Relativism
Worldviews Design - a Biological Reflection Design - a Cosmological Reflection Reasonable Inference of Faith
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Read the CLASSICS -- free downloading of complete books for your library!
Other great pieces of literature at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library:
The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, my two all-time favorite novels
https://app.box.com/s/xx0llgjz176r2dcg32bz
"Since its publication, it has been acclaimed all over the world by intellectuals as one of the supreme achievements in literature."
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Grounded questions.
Rich stories.
Deep change:
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Exploitation and Disempowerment of Victims at the KRT
Issues of Reparations
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COMMENTARY
Phnom Penh, 6 February 2012
On the advent of the Duch verdict on 23 July 2010, we, the Civil Parties of Orphans Class—a sub-group of the Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia (www.akrvictims.org)—launched a public campaign for the “ECCC Inventory and Provincial Learning Centers as Part of [our] Right to Reparations for All KR Victims”.
By way of reminder, we have periodically re-released the public statement. Excerpt:
“After initial review of the ECCC website and communications with ECCC officials, it is our understanding that the ECCC has at minimum these basic items of inventory for its 500 personnel (350 of these Cambodian):
On 26 July 2010, the ECCC Trial Chamber’s verdict offered in full this reparation: “to compile and post on the ECCC’s official website all statements of apology and acknowledgements of responsibility made by [Duch]” (our emphasis). Unsurprisingly, the hollowness and insensitivity of this reparation triggered a public outrage! (It raised the rhetorical questions of: How many victims own a computer? And of those who own a computer, how many have access to the internet?)
On 26 June 2011, we issued a similar demand with an open letter to the Lead Co-Lawyers and the 40 intermediary lawyers representing the civil parties to advocate at the ECCC hearings on reparations. We acknowledged the scope of our demands (excerpt):
“It is also our understanding that (i) the Chambers may award only “collective and moral reparations to Civil Parties”, (ii) Article 39 of the ECCC Law [promulgated 27 Oct. 2004] to “be awarded against, and be borne by convicted persons” not to exclude the Cambodian government and the United Nations, parties to the laws and agreements establishing the ECCC in the provision of this collective and moral reparation as owners of the inventory (see ECCC Law Art. 44.1, 44.2, 44.4 New; Internal Rules 9.3 New), and (iii) any sensitive materials and data can be easily removed and protected before the handing over of the inventory.
In addition, we demand that provincial Learning Centers-Memorials be established in each of the 24 provinces of Cambodia as part of our right to reparation and the legacy of memorializing and education. With all due respect, Phnom Penh was not the only crime scene; memorializing and resources need to include and respect the 85% of Cambodian victims who reside in the provinces.”
A few days after this open letter of 26 June 2011, the Elite Club of ECCC officials (civil party lawyers, administrators, judges) exclusively met—as presidents and representatives of victims associations do not matter in this high-minded discussion on reparations as we can’t possible know what we want (sic!), thus we were not invited—and decided to seal shut any possible interpretation of government and UN responsibility.
This Elite Club amended the above Article 39 of the ECCC Law, stripping it of the above quoted language, with the document falsely stating that it was last amended on 26 August 2007 (which opened up the possibility that I made up the above quoted language). As it stands now, the full Article 39 reads:
“Those who have committed any crime as provided in Articles 3 new, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 shall be sentenced to a prison term from five years to life imprisonment.
In addition to imprisonment, the Extraordinary Chamber of the trial court may order the confiscation of personal property, money, and real property acquired unlawfully or by criminal conduct.
The confiscated property shall be returned to the State.”
The vacuity of past discussions of the ECCC Elite Club on victims’ reparations was given the final seal of approval with the ECCC Supreme Court Chamber’s summary decision of 3 February 2012, in para. 67: “that awards are borne exclusively by convicted persons”, shielding the government and the UN of any responsibility.
Here, I will not go into the other serious concerns raised by the 3 Feb. 2012 final decision on Duch, except to say that: We the victims and we the larger Cambodian society have to pay an extremely high price for the life sentence given to Duch. The life sentence fits with the gravity of the crimes and should have been given at the first instance without the high drama for such a simple case as this one where the defendant confessed and cooperated, mounds of culpable documents existed and Tuol Sleng survivors testified; that’s not the point.
The price we have to pay comes in the serious consequences in the: (i) Supreme Court Chamber’s erasure of the illegality of Duch’s pre-trial detention at the Cambodian Military Court; (ii) SCC’s uneasy language on personal jurisdiction in light of the imbroglio of Cases 003/4, stating that “[w]hether an accused is a senior leader or one of the most responsible are exclusively policy decisions for which the Co-Investigating Judges and Co-Prosecutors, and not the Chambers, are accountable” where history, resources and power are not on our side; and (iii) making Duch the sole scapegoat of the Khmer Rouge regime and crimes.
By any interpretation, this is manipulation of victims. This is exploitation of our suffering. This is disempowerment whereby the tools of “justice” are used to perpetrate injustice.
The danger now is that it comes with UN insignia. It comes with Japanese Yens and high-minded rhetoric of western ambassadors for the vacuity. It doesn’t matter how many billions the western donors and Japan continue to spend on “rule of law” via the various aid agencies, because what they are embracing now at the KRT will undo any benefits they may have produced. We are talking about the embedding of dark mentalities by the KRT with UN insignia which will awash the larger society for years and decades to come, long after the KRT has closed its gates on its military-situated compound and the UN has left for another genocide-chasing mission.
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References:
Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia: www.akrvictims.org
ECCC Law (Oct. 2004): http://www.eccc.gov.kh/sites/default/files/legal-documents/KR_Law_as_amended_27_Oct_2004_Eng.pdf Public Demand for ECCC Inventory, Provincial Learning Centers: http://www.thearyseng.com/component/content/article/104-campaign-for-eccc-inventory-provincial-learning-centers/242-campaign-for-closing-order-booklets-eccc-inventory-24-provincial-learning-centers-memorials . . . TEDxTalks
Aleph Molinari: Let’s bridge the digital divide!
Through education and technology-focused community centers, Aleph Molinari empowers the 5 billion people who cannot access or use the Internet and other technologies.
Why you should listen to him:Economist Aleph Molinari is working to close the digital divide and empower people by providing access to technology education. In 2008, he founded Fundación Proacceso, and in 2009 launched the Learning and Innovation network, which uses community centers to educate under-served communities about different technologies and tools. To date, the network has graduated 28,000 users through 42 educational centers throughout Mexico.
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Civil Parties of Orphans Class' Open Letter to Civil Party Co-Lead Lawyers ANG Pich, Elisabeth Simmoneau-Fort re ECCC Inventory (Physical Assets), Provincial Learning Centers-Memorials Phnom Penh, 26 June 2011 . . . . .
Making Booklets of Closing Order of Case 002 Freely Available for Trial Hearings and High Schools ______________________ PRESS RELEASE ______________________ PHNOM PENH, 15 June 2011: The Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia would like to request that the Extraordinary Chambers (ECCC) makes freely available nicely-bound booklets of the Closing Order of Case 002 in the Khmer language for the victims and visitors to the ECCC for hearings of Case 002 beginning on June 27 against the four surviving most senior Khmer Rouge leaders of Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary and Ieng Thirith., to victim associations, non-governmental organizations engaging victims, and high schools and public universities.
. . . . . CAMPAIGN
for ECCC INVENTORY
and 24 PROVINCIAL LEARNING CENTERS and MEMORIALS
. . . . .
We, the Civil Parties in the Extraordinary Chambers (ECCC or Khmer Rouge Tribunal), are laying a prior claim to the office equipment of the ECCC, worth in the millions of U.S. dollars, immediately after the Tribunal closes operations. We have learned the lessons of UNTAC (United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, the largest UN peacekeeping operations at US$2.5 Billion, unprecedented at that time, 1991) and the “disappearance” of expensive equipment into illegitimate possessions/hands after its operations, and thus will be sending out public announcements regularly, inter alia, on this matter of ECCC inventory.
ECCC Inventory Campaign launched at the 23 July 2010 Public Forum at Panasasstra University (PUC) "Transforming Killing Fields to Healing, Living Fields - Advent of Duch Verdict"
"Tribunal Must Consider Reparations: Victim" (HELLO VOA with Theary Seng, 27 Aug. 2010)
(HELLO VOA with Theary Seng, Chum Mey, 27 Jan. 2011) . . . . .
Khmer Rouge Victims Demand Tribunal's Office as Reparation The Cambodia Daily (23 July 2010)
. . . . .
Association of Khmer Rouge Victims Demand ECCC Inventory and Provincial Learning Centers
KI Media, 23 July 2010 KI Media, 5 Dec. 2010
Civil Party of Orphans Class Demands ECCC Inventory
and Provincial Learning Centers
as Part of Their Right to Reparations for All KR Victims _______________
PRESS RELEASE _______________ PHNOM PENH, 23 July 2010: The Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia (“Victims Association”)—the first Cambodia-based association to be officially registered with the Ministry of Interior and the first to be officially recognized by the Victims Support Section of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (“ECCC”)—demands that the inventory of the ECCC be given to victims after it has closed operations and that Learning Centers in all 24 provinces of Cambodia be established and furnished with this inventory.
The Civil Party of Orphans Class, a sub-group within the Victims Association, has the right to reparations as a party to the ECCC criminal proceeding against the senior Khmer Rouge leaders, should they be found guilty.
After initial review of the ECCC website and communications with ECCC officials, it is our understanding that the ECCC has at minimum these basic items of inventory for its 500 personnel (350 of these Cambodian):
It is also our understanding that (i) the Chambers may award only “collective and moral reparations to Civil Parties”, (ii) Article 39 of the ECCC Law to “be awarded against, and be borne by convicted persons” not to exclude the Cambodian government and the United Nations, parties to the laws and agreements establishing the ECCC in the provision of this collective and moral reparation as owners of the inventory (see ECCC Law Art. 44.1, 44.2, 44.4 New; Internal Rules 9.3 New), and (iii) any sensitive materials and data can be easily removed and protected before the handing over of the inventory.
Here, we would like to draw the attention of HE SOK An, Mr. Sean Visoth and his replacement Mr. Tony Kranh for the Cambodian government; Mr. Douglas Broderick and Mr. Knut Rosandhaug for the United Nations; and the donor states who are Friends of the ECCC. In addition, we demand that provincial Learning Centers be established in each of the 24 provinces of Cambodia as part of our right to reparation and the legacy of memorializing and education. With all due respect, Phnom Penh was not the only crime scene; memorializing and resources need to include and respect the 85% of Cambodian victims who reside in the provinces. These provincial Learning Centers must be the joint efforts of local and national government with civil society and all the victims associations. Local government can donate land and office space while civil society and victims associations work to maintain and operate these Learning Centers. The Learning Center being established at Wat Samroung in Battambang with the involvement of the local community, assisted by the Center for Justice & Reconciliation and funded by the Australian Embassy is one existing example. The ECCC documents, the Virtual Tribunal, public forums and outreach materials produced by civil society and victims associations, art works are but some of the materials which can be made available at these provincial Learning Centers. These provincial Learning Centers would be furnished with the above-mentioned equipment and inventory.
Our demand for the ECCC inventory does not burden the ECCC with a new budget as they are items already financed and purchased. No one else has a greater moral and legal right to these equipment and inventory than the civil parties for the welfare of all the victims, including the new generation born after the Khmer Rouge who lost grandparents and other loved ones in addition to limited opportunities produced by the genocide.
Moreover, the provincial Learning Centers do not pose a heavy financial burden, if at all, a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the national budget which can easily be legislated by the National Assembly. The benefits which these reparations of inventory and provincial Learning Centers impart toward reconciliation and legacy for the current and future generation are priceless.
We would like to thank the Center for Justice & Reconciliation (“CJR”) for facilitating our establishment and involvement in these public forums, CIVICUS Cambodia for co-organizing this particular forum, as well as the donors The Asia Foundation, the German Development Service and the Australian Embassy of these public forums, victims participation and the Battambang Learning Center. ________________________________
For further information, please contact:
For more information about: The Association of Khmer Rouge Victims in Cambodia—the first association based in Cambodia to be registered with the Ministry of Interior and the first to be recognized by the ECCC Victims Support Section and independent of any political or religious affiliation—is a network of survivors of the 1975-79 killing fields who are joined in the fellowship of suffering, in the demand for justice, and in the work for a just peace. The members of the Victims Association are from overseas and spread across the provinces and capital of Cambodia, coming together as a result of the public forums conducted by its Founder, and now its president Ms. Theary C. SENG since 2007. They include widows and orphans; former child soldiers and former prisoners; hard-working farmers and middle-class city-dwellers; well-known actresses playwrights, authors and journalists; as well as teachers, translators, security guards, taxi drivers, inter alia. Among the other members of the Victims Association is the Civil Party of Orphans Class, a special grouping pre-dating the AKRVC founding when introduced officially in the Pre-Trial Chamber hearing of Nuon Chea in Feb. 2008, and since officially recognized by the ECCC Victims Support Section and a party to the Extraordinary Chambers Case File No. 002 against the senior Khmer Rouge leaders.
The Center for Justice & Reconciliation, a non-profit non-governmental organization registered with the Ministry of Interior, is founded by Ms. Theary C. SENG and senior staff to continue the work of the Center for Social Development on victims outreach, psycho-social support, court monitoring and radio broadcasting with seed funding and consultants from the German Development Service. Over the last year, CJR has conducted public forums in former Khmer Rouge strongholds to give a more concrete meaning to the term “reconciliation”. www.cjr-cam.org. CJR is now incorporated as a major component of CIVICUS Cambodia (below).
CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education (CIVICUS Cambodia) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational, non-governmental organization registered with the Ministry of Interior dedicated to promoting an enlightened and responsible citizenry committed to democratic principles and actively engaged in the practice of democracy and reconciliation in Cambodia and the larger, globalized world. Up to now, Cambodia has had only a society of “survivors”, not of “representatives” or “citizens”. Cambodians as survivors are either “survivor-authoritarian” if the person is in a position of power or “survivor-subject” if an average person. The principal goals of CIVICUS Cambodia are to help Cambodian citizens develop (i) an increased understanding of the institutions of Cambodian constitutional democracy and the fundamental principles and values upon which they are founded, (ii) dialogue as a norm of communication, (iii) the skills necessary to participate as effective and responsible citizens, and (iv) the willingness and ease to use democratic procedures for making decisions and managing conflict. In its engagement of citizens, CIVICUS Cambodia gives a special emphasis to (i) students—from elementary to university level—and the generation born after the Khmer Rouge era, (ii) female (both girls and women) participation, and (iii) elected representatives. CIVICUS Cambodia has an official Memorandum of Understanding of partnership with the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice & Human Rights.
See also Victims Association
What is JUSTICE?
See Reconciling Peace with Justice in Cambodia We contextualized the JUSTICE conversation within the larger week-long discussion of RECONCILIATION and reparations, which was succinctly summarized for us by Graeme Simpson in the
6Rs of REPARATIONS:
Reconciling Peace with Justice in Cambodia TEDxPhnomPenh, 3 Feb. 2011
. . . A brilliant talk by one of my favorite philosopher-authors Dr. Mark STROM on CONVERSATION (craft + community)
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Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
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Who do you see? A beautiful young woman, or a not-so-beautiful, old woman?
"Double Vision" "Oppression and Justice" (Chapter V of Exclusion and Embrace, Miroslav Volf) "Conflicting parties need to practice what Hannah Arendt calls an 'enlarged way of thinking'"... (p. 212) "or, as I will call it 'double vision'... we enlarge our thinking by letting the voices and perspectives of others, especially those with whom we may be in conflict, resonate within ourselves, by allowing them to help us see them, as well as ourselves, from their perspectives. Nothing can guarantee in advance that the perspectives will ultimately merge and agreement be reached. We may find that we must reject the perspective of the other. Yet we should seek to see things from their perspective in the hope that competing justices may become converging justices and eventually issue in agreement." (p. 213) "Stricken with the sense of sinfulness, should we withdraw from making judgments and working for justice? Abdication of responsibility will be tempting to those who only know how to live in a world neatly divided into territories of pure light and of utter darkness. But no such world exists, except in the imagination of the self-righteous; the construction of such a world is itself an act of injustice. In a world shot through with injustice, the struggle for justice must be carried on by people inescapably tainted by injustice. Hence the importance of 'double vision.' We need to see our judgments about justice and our struggle against injustice through the eyes of the other--even the manifestly 'unjust other'--and be willing to readjust our understanding of justice and repent of acts of injustice." (p. 218)
Yes, we must have humility to allow space for the different perspectives. But in reality, there are either 3 or 4 logs, not both; only one is right.
The situation is slightly different when the image shows an upside-down 6/9. Here, we must not allow have humility but realize that there are situations where both sides are equally right.
"From the position where we are, we don’t have an eternal perspective in our own right. And what comes to us, we may not fully understand."
A Virtual Tour of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum
for Kerry Kennedy, Michaela Kennedy, John Heffernan (22 Feb. 2011); psychologist/author Dr. Ervin Staub and psycho-therapist Dr. Luann Warren-Sohlberg, trustee of the Headington Institute (7 March 2011)
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"Revolution of Conscience" by USC Shoah Foundation Institute executive director Stephen D. Smith . . .
The feature documentary Acting Together on the World Stage highlights courageous and creative artists and peacebuilders working in conflict zones. It features theatrical works and rituals that reach beneath people’s defenses in respectful ways that support communities to configure new patterns of meaning and relationships. Feature a segment on Cambodia of works by playwright and librettist Catherine Filloux. "... remembering as a revolutionary act... " - Catherine Filloux . . . Julian Treasure: 5 Ways to Listen Better
Listening: making meaning from sound a mental process, a process of extraction "... sound has time embedded in it... our listening is the main way we experienced the flow of time from past to future... Sonority is time and meaning... Listening is our access to our understanding... conscious listening creates understanding" 1. 3-minutes a day of SILENCE (alternatively, QUIET) 2. Mixture: how many channels of sound do I hear? 3. SAVORING - enjoying mundane sound 4. LISTENING POSITIONS 5. RASA (sanskrit for "essence"): Receive, Appreciate, Summarize, Ask
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TEDxBloomingtonShawn Achor:The happy secret to better work
Small Changes Ripple Outward
Creating Lasting Positive Change: - GRATITUDE - JOURNALING - EXERCISE - MEDITATION - RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
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