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CIVIC EDUCATION
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Prominent Rights Judge Is Convicted in SpainThe New York Times, 10 Feb. 2012 MADRID — Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday convicted the crusading human rights judge Baltasar Garzón of illegally ordering wiretapping in a corruption case and suspended him from the courts for 11 years. Read more about this Human Rights defender featured in Kerry Kennedy's book SPEAK TRUTH TO POWER...
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Great fellowship with Women of Vision Inquisitive, compassionate, beautiful women with a mother's heart for the poor
Dinner at FCC, 24 Jan. 2012. The Women of Greenwich, CT. These women who are all mothers exude such beauty and aura that an older woman at the request of her male companions approached our group as we ordered dinner to inquire: "We, especially the men in our group, are intrigued and would like to know who are you women-- beautiful and sophisticated--what are you doing here in Cambodia?"
The following day, even greater fellowship and inspiration from these sophisticated, fun-loving, compassionate, loving, well-read, well-educated, well-traveled, Christian women from Greenwich, Connecticut who introduced me to their world of philanthropy as I spent the day with them out in the rural villages of Kampong Speu visiting area development projects of World Vision where each woman has sponsored-children living in these area villages. They are on a mission of mercy and loaded with gifts bought and wrapped in their Greenwich home for their respective sponsored children (some of the most vulnerable in that area) as each woman sponsors monthly AT LEAST one child, years on-end. First, I am deeply impressed with the holistic, comprehensive, deeply thoughtful and sustained work of World Vision in the areas and communities that it engages. Second, I am deeply moved by the heart, preparation and commitment of these mothers for the poor around the world, especially the poor of Cambodia, and even more particularly for their sponsored children. Their checked-in luggage comprised mainly of gifts for their sponsored children, while they carried-on their personal belongings. Related, World Vision staff brilliantly arranged the day so that these Women of Vision were well-briefed before visiting each community. At the children's club, they were treated to a welcome dance and given dance lessons to the great entertainment of the jovial, mesmerized crowd; they met with the micro-financing committee for rice and later visited a woman who is successfully supporting a family of 7 with an initial loan of US$100 which she invested in raising chickens and planting vegetables; they listened to a group of village women and inquired into their lives --their challenges, joys and fears.
However, it was obvious that the highlight for these Women of Vision, which was the anticipation of the days before and that morning and formed the core reason for their Cambodia visit, was meeting their sponsored children over lunch at a typical provincial roadside restaurant and afterward spending a couple of hours getting to know their sponsored children and accompanying parents/guardians. It was priceless to see the smiles and lit-up faces and eyes of the children, as well as the glistening eyes / tear-stained faces of these normally well-composed women who shared their mother's heart with these children as they listened to the travails of living in dire poverty. Women of Vision, with 40 chapters across the US, travel often to the most conflicted, most divided, dangerous zones in the world--the Congo, Rwanda, northern Uganda, Cambodia, etc., bearings gifts especially of a mother's love for the most vulnerable children in the world.
Women of Vision (Greenwich, CT Chapter)at Youth Club in Kampong Speu that they sponsor, 25 Jan. 2012(YouTube videos of children dancing with WoV)
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BOREI KEILA EVICTIONS
Development that Destroy Lives by MU Sochua . . .
The New (old) Khmer Rouge
desolation
Borei Keila Kids Cry Corruption The Phnom Penh Post, 11 Jan. 2011
Borei Keila Residents Demand Justice Heart-breaking images of evicted children and their families. Children should be reading, writing, laughing, playing. Not demonstrating for their basic necessities; worse yet, demonstrating to protect their dwellings, their clothes, their books from being destroyed by greedy tycoons backed by government military police. - Theary Seng, 11 Jan. 2012
30 Borei Keila Residents Arrested
At Least 30 Demonstrators Detained at City Hall
VOA, 11 Jan. 2012
Night in Cell for Borei Keila Kids
The Phnom Penh Post, 12 Jan. 2012 Cambodia:Release peaceful protestersdetained over forced evictionAmnesty International Press Release, 12 Jan. 2012 "The women and children are some of Cambodia’s poorest, most vulnerable people – and when they’ve stood up for their legitimate rights they’ve been rounded up and locked away." - Donna Guest, Amnesty International's Deputy Director for the Asia Pacific. Amnesty Calls for Release of Borei Keila Protesters VOA, 12 Jan. 2012. Re-post in KI-Media. “The center is used by the authorities to arbitrarily detain homeless people, drug users and sex workers rounded up from the streets,” Amnesty said. “Human rights NGOs have previously reported that detainees there have been subjected to abuses including rape, murder, and threats of violence.”
Rights groups demand releaseof eviction protesters in CambodiaDPA, 12 Jan. 2012. Re-post in KI-Media. "Tensions between residents, authorities and companies in Phnom Penh over land use have increased in recent years because of an upswing in large-scale development projects."
Joint statement for the immediate release of Borei Keila residents from Prey Speu Detained Borei Keila Residents Must Be Released from Prey Speu Center 12 Jan. 2012 This media statement has been endorsed by the following civil society organizations:
The Borei Keila Nightmare The Diplomat, 15 Jan. 2012
Livelihood of Borei Keila evictees in Phnom Bat
More images with captions by Radio Free Asia
Condemnation of 'shocking' Cambodian protest detentionsAFP, 14 Jan. 2012
Cambodian evictees scale the wall of Gov't detention centreABC Radio Australia, 20 Jan. 2012 Escapees ready complaintThe Phnom Penh Post, 20 Jan. 2012 Re-post in KI-Media
New York Students, Teachers Fundraise for CambodiaSpringville Middle School Sends Ripples of Hope to Borei Keila Children Disrupted by Evictions; to Teachers Training onthe RFK Center’s Speak Truth To Power Curriculum PRESS RELEASE
New York/Washington D.C./Phnom Penh, 18 Jan. 2012: Two hundred students of Social Studies teachers Drew Beiter and Joe Karb classes of Springville Middle School in New York are planning a charity event to benefit children evicted from the Borei Keila Phnom Penh neighborhood and teachers training on the Speak Truth To Power (STTP) project of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights being conducted by CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education.
Cambodia evictions continue uncheckedGlobal Post, 22 Jan. 2012
A Cambodian Eviction: Land Grabs and Misery at Borei KeilaThe Faster Times, 22 Jan. 2012
Rights groups urge Cambodia to end mass evictionsAFP, 24 Jan. 2012 Court balks at Borei Keila request The Phnom Penh Post, 24 Jan. 2012
More Arrests Follow Land ClashRadio Free Asia, 1 Feb. 2012
Evictees detained againThe Phnom Penh Post, 2 Feb. 2011
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For immediate release Cambodia: Revise or Abandon Draft NGO Law
Donors Should Insist on Protections for Civil Society
(Bangkok, December 22, 2011) - Donors, who provide approximately half of Cambodia's national budget, should make clear to the Cambodian government that the fourth draft of the Law on Associations and NGOs (LANGO) must be revised to protect civil society or be withdrawn, a group of concerned international human rights organizations said today. Any revisions should involve meaningful consultation with civil society organizations and aim to support their activities instead of creating a legal framework allowing for arbitrary closure of organizations or the denial of registration. The groups involved are Human Rights Watch, Global Witness, Freedom House, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), Article 19, Southeast Asia n Press Alliance (SEAPA), Civil Rights Defenders, Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada, Cent re for Law and Democracy, Protection International, and the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a joint program of the International Federation for Human Rights - FIDH, and the World Organisation Against Torture - OMCT).
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CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education a partner of The Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights conducts Curriculum Courage Without Borders (Speak Truth To Power, based on book by Kerry Kennedy)
in 20 Provinces/Municipalities
[Letter from CIVICUS Cambodia founding president Theary Seng] Dear Colleagues and Friends who are Teachers/Educators—our unsung Heroes: This is your book! We created it with you in mind, as the shapers of minds. We know of some of the challenges you face in present-day Cambodia and we empathize. More power to you.
We believe greatly in the importance of this curriculum because we believe deeply in this virtue—COURAGE. We believe it is a virtue that can be practiced more and more by everyone, especially the young people. Courage is defined as “mental or moral strength to persevere and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty,” something that all of us (as Khmer—in the NGOs, in the government, in the opposition, in business, in Mondolkiri, Kampot or wherever, holding different religions or beliefs, rich or poor—as well as foreigners—French, African, Chinese, no matter the background) can and do believe in. As with any other disposition, courage is only fixed in us through practice. As Aristotle notes in the Nicomachean Ethics almost 2,400 years ago, we become brave only by doing brave acts: "By being habituated to despise things that are terrible and to stand our ground against them we become brave, and it is when we have become so that we shall be most able to stand our ground against them." Moreover, when we encounter obstacles, let us be reminded that they are only invitations to courage. Fear destroys a person's spirit whereas courage builds a person and in turn society. Everyone everywhere in the world, anytime throughout history believes in the significance and practice of this virtue, COURAGE. Thus, our deep admiration for you, who are in the frontline in instilling this virtue via this curriculum in our children. Of course, we would like very much for this curriculum to be included as part of the official educational curriculum. We are engaged and will continue to engage the relevant government officials to make this happen. Before this happens, however, it is necessary that we all are familiar with the content. Naturally, this takes time. But we are making a good beginning. For example, we are pleased to have H.E. Om Yentieng’s recognition of the importance of the Speak Truth To Power project (as expressed to Kerry Kennedy over a dinner he hosted in February 2011). We continue to count on his Cambodian Human Rights Committee as a vehicle for the dissemination of this material. We believe in the universality of this virtue; we believe in the government’s courage to take this on and we will do everything to work with ALL partners, who believe in EDUCATION. I would like to give you a bit of background as to how we went about producing this Courage curriculum: First, the drafting of the Khmer curriculum in the English language is based on extensive discussions between CIVICUS Cambodia in Phnom Penh and RFK Center in Washington, D.C., with comments and ideas from Kerry Kennedy after her visit to Cambodia in February 2011. Among all the 51 defenders featured in Kerry Kennedy’s book Speak Truth To Power, we decided to focus on eight individuals whose works and issues resonated with the current situation in Cambodia: Elie Wiesel (Genocide), Marina Pisklakova (Domestic Violence), Juliana Dogbadzi (Slavery/Trafficking), Vaclav Havel (Free Expression), Muhammad Yunus (Right to Credit), Desmond Tutu (Reconciliation), Ka Hsaw Wa (Corporate Social Responsibility), Kailash Satyarthi (Child Labor). Second, we had the English-drafted curriculum translated in Khmer which took several phases. We put a lot of energy into this process, as we know ultimately it is the Khmer version which must be understandable and readable. Those who have worked with translation from the English into the Khmer language can appreciate the process—the content quality of making sure the Khmer language makes sense; preserving the spirit and meaning of the original English content; the technical difficulties of typing Khmer, with associated problems transferred to the layout process, etc. We employed some of the best translators in the country who did the initial translation for us. Toward the middle and the end of the translation process, I meticulously scrutinized the Khmer version line-by-line, with the English text for content integrity and comprehensibility, with my dedicated assistant Ms. Sivnin Eam typing in the changes as well as providing the sounding board for my explanations and my constant, recurring questions: Is it understandable to a 13-year-old? Is there a simpler, more common word in usage? Tell me what you think this word or phrase or sentence means. As important as preserving the spirit of the content, we were very concerned that the Khmer translation flows smoothly and is understandable to the larger population. Simply put, we focused on clarity and common (vernacular) usage for UNDERSTANDING. We preferred the common vocabulary to the highly technical ones, if we could avoid them. It was not uncommon for Sivnin and I to be engaged for half an hour, for example, over one phrase or one sentence. We consulted the available dictionaries, with great reliance and value given to the works of Venerable Chuon Nath. During this process, we also engaged some of you, the educators who will actually be teaching from this curriculum. We met in person at three consultation workshops with approximately 40 of you, senior educators, from four northwest provinces of Siem Reap, Battambang, Banteay Meanchey and Kampong Thom as well as you, senior educators, from Phnom Penh and Kandal Province. You assisted us tremendously with your comments and feedback, especially on the readability, usage and spelling of certain words. We included as much as we can of your feedback. (Thank you so much!) Finally, we worked with a layout designer, a very able young woman Ms. Rany Song, to put everything together as suggestions and comments gleaned from the consultation process (workshops and private review of drafts) continue to stream in. I ask for your good will, magnanimity and patience with any mistakes (e.g. spelling) you may find or preferences (e.g. usage of commas) you may disagree with. We accept full responsibility for the content in this curriculum but we ask for your help in providing us your feedback for future printing. I pray you will find this Courage curriculum inspirational not only for your students, but for yourselves as well. Peace and courage be with you. _____________
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Kampong Chhnang Training Workshop Aranh Pagoda, Sunday, 9 Oct. 2011
. . . Training Workshop in a Takeo Pagoda Sunday, 16 Oct. 2011
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Training Workshop in a Kampot Pagoda (including educators from Kep) Monday, 17 Oct. 2011
. . . Training Workshop in Kandal Province at Sa'ang
More info and photos...
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Courage Training Workshop in Kampong Thom Sunday, 5 Dec. 2011
More information and photos...
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