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


សាលា ចំណេះដឹង មូលដ្ឋាន Basic Knowledge Academy     សេចក្តីផ្តើម, ទិដ្ឋភាពទូទៅ INTRODUCTION / OVERVIEW   គ្រូបង្រៀន៖ លោកស្រី  [ ... ]



I cannot access my Facebook today, after an initial access of 3 min. to post Public Forum on Friday (22 July 2010 at10:20 a.m.); can accept "friends" but cannot move to other pages (11 a.m.)

 

The Country of the Blind

an allegory by H.D. Wells

Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses Against Sex Workers in Cambodia

[Folke Bernadotte Academy's Course on Reconciliation and Coexistence in Sweden - application due Aug. 23.]

 


*** News Conference Invitation ***

Off the Streets

Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses Against Sex Workers in Cambodia


Human Rights Watch is pleased to invite you to the launch of a new report, "Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia," to be held on July 20, 2010, at 9:30 a.m. The report documents the abuse of sex workers by police and other government officials, including beatings, rape, extortion, and arbitrary arrest and detention. The report also analyzes the impact of a 2008 law on trafficking and sexual exploitation, and urges the Cambodian government to end impunity by holding the perpetrators of these abuses accountable.

What: Release of the Human Rights Watch Report*:
"Off the Streets: Arbitrary Detention and Other Abuses against Sex Workers in Cambodia"
Who: Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director, Human Rights Watch
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director, Human Rights Watch

When: July 20, 2010 at 9:30 a.m.

Where: Baitong Restaurant
No. 7, Street 360
Boeng Keng Kang 1,
Phnom Penh

* The news conference will be held in English and Khmer.

For more on Human Rights Watch’s work on Cambodia, please visit:
http://www.hrw.org/en/asia/cambodia

For more information and to schedule interviews, please contact:

..........

The Country of the Blind

a response to KI Media Posting

I have a few close relatives who have/had lost an eye either as a child or soldier, e.g. my father -- like the Prime Minister -- to warfare. Hence, I have a private sensitivity to this particular disability. I like this posting and review for its emphasis on H.G. Well's parable and its reference to our society as a whole and less for its reference to Cambodian leadership in Erasmus' "one-eyed king".



C.S. Lewis observes a similar phenomenon with resonance for us Cambodians: "We are half-hearted creatures ... like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."



But if all these "ruminations" are too literary, here's a more modern, 21st-century observation by the producer of The Office, sit-com style: "In a room full of stupid people, the clever one is always the loser."



I really appreciate the contribution of KI Media in creating in this forum for expression, the only one of its kind in and for Cambodia. I am not naive not to understand that plants with obstructive comments will be following and posting to this site, especially the more popularity and sensitive the topic to the interests of the powers-that-be. But to ears which can hear, it is worth reminding of KI Media's note (top, left hand column): "We just ask that you keep things civil. Please leave out personal attacks, do not use profanity, ethnic or racial slurs, or take shots at anyone's sexual orientation or religion."

***

Apparently it was Erasmus, a Dutch thinker, who first penned the phrase, 'In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king'.


The idea of course is that sight amongst the blind is a precious gift and one which would be lauded.


If only it were so.


In 1904 H.G. Wells wrote a short story called The Country of the Blind.


A lost climber Nunez falls and descends into an isolated and inaccessible valley whose people over many generations have grown to become sightless. With the realisation of his situation, Nunez at first believes that he will be feted as king of his new domain. He comes to learn differently.


The people do not feel deprived awaiting being released from their darkness. Indeed quite the opposite. Their beliefs, religion and rituals have all expunged any reference or recollection of sight to the extent that it has become little more than an echo buried within childish fairy stories.


Nunez's attempts to demonstrate the power of his fifth sense are to no avail. The enhancement of their senses of taste, touch, smell and hearing have replaced the need for sight, and his protestations to the contrary are seen as no more than the rantings of the feeble minded and insane. They no more miss or accept the value of a fifth sense, than do the sighted a sixth sense.


In time he is absorbed into the society, required to renounce his belief in sight. Indeed in order to be assimilated into the community by marriage, the village elders propose to cure his insanity by removal of the facial features he, in his insanity, insists on referring to as 'his eyes'.


As society speeds headlong, head-down and with little thought, it is perhaps more appropriate to say that

In the land of the blind, the world will beat a path to the door of a man who can teach them a few new words of Braille, but will have little time for the man who seeks to open their eyes.

..........

Friday Ruminations
By Theary C. Seng


I’ve had the joy of reading many books over the last year as part of my research for the reflection book on the topics of justice, peace, reconciliation, forgiveness in the healing process and in light of the Khmer Rouge experience and Tribunal. The last three consecutive Hello VOA call-in shows, I’ve been a radio guest to address the topic of the Cambodian judiciary. And the ongoing political saga of using the courts to silence opposition leaders Sam Rainsy and Mu Sochua has generated many discussions. Permit me to share excerpts of today’s reading from Lewis B. Smedes’ Mere Morality on the topic of justice which I hope will serve as food for thought, particularly for us Cambodians:


“In the long run, justice will be lacking when people are not just in their hearts. Plato spoke words of universal wisdom when he insisted that there can be a just society only where just persons live. A just person has an inner push toward justice; he is disposed to treat people fairly even if it costs him a profit…
“…justice in a society will eventually break down unless a high percentage of the people in society are just… For one thing, a society could hardly be just if people routinely sought to take unfair advantage of each other in their private relationships.”

And from one of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis (The Abolition of Man):

"We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst."

Have a great weekend, everyone… despite…

 

 

Theary's BLOG

Published Articles of Vietnamization

Vietnamization: Military Occupation - Present
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 Francois Ponchaud, a French Jesuit who had diligently chronicled the destructiveness of the Khmer Rouge in his book "Cambodia: Year Zero," maintained that the Vietnamese were conducting a [ ... ]


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