CIVIL RESISTANCE
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CIVIC EDUCATION
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The Phnom Penh Post | 26 Sept. 2013 Question: Where does the term and idea of "scapegoat" originate from?
Answer: The Judeo-Christian story of the Day of Atonement recorded in the Jewish Pentateuch (also part of the Christian Bible)'s book of LEVITICUS (chapter 16).
In editing and punctuating the Khmer version of the book of LEVITICUS (as with other books I edited/punctuated of the Khmer Bible), I consulted the people who are experts on the issue at hand, and one of them on the Khmer language issue was Dr. Phalkun Tan, the smartest Cambodian I know.
Here's an exchange of the process of consultation in determining the best Khmer word to use for "scapegoat":
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Cambodians, like other people living in state of chaos and poverty), need structure and orderliness, in order they can channel their creativity later on. It is implicitly understood that both personalities in this study function within order and structure, immediately of the company, and then larger functioning society.
One of the reasons why in chaotic societies like Cambodia, educational institutions with structure and order tend to be established by Christians and are like magnets for the local elites and well-recognized for quality, e.g. Don Bosco, International School of Phnom Penh, Home of English, Hope School, World Vision, etc. Same in other developing countries, e.g. in Africa, where the local elites, including many presidents and prime ministers, benefited from Christian educational institutions.
- Theary, Phnom Penh, 20 Sept. 2013
The New York Times | 19 Sept. 2013
[excerpts]
The results were something of a surprise, says Kathleen D. Vohs, a behavioral scientist at the University of Minnesota and the leader of the study. Few previous studies found much virtue in disarray. The broken-windows theory, proposed decades ago, posits that even slight disorder and neglect can encourage nonchalance, poor discipline and nihilism. Chaos begets chaos.
But in the study by Dr. Vohs, disordered offices encouraged originality and a search for novelty. In the final portion of the study, adults were given the choice of adding a health “boost” to their lunchtime smoothie that was labeled either “new” or “classic.” The volunteers in the messy space were far more likely to choose the new one; those in the tidy office generally opted for the classic version.
“Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition,” Dr. Vohs and her co-authors conclude in the study, “which can produce fresh insights.”
It's Not "Mess". It's Creativity The New York Times | 13 Sept. 2013
James Q. Wilson, Geoge L. Kelling, The Manhattan Institute [excerpts] The community level, disorder and crime are usually inextricably linked, in a kind of developmental sequence. Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in run -down ones. Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers; rather, one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing. (It has always been fun.) [...]
Untended property becomes fair game for people out for fun or plunder, and even for people who ordinarily would not dream of doing such things and who probably consider themselves law -abiding. Because of the nature of community life in the Bronx -- its anonymity, the frequency with which cars are abandoned and things are stolen or broken, the past experience of "no one caring" -- vandalism begins much more quickly than it does in staid Palo Alto, where people have come to believe that private possessions are cared for, and that mischievous behavior is costly. But vandalism can occur anywhere once communal barriers -- the sense of mutual regard and the obligations of civility -- are lowered by actions that seem to signal that "no one cares."
We suggest that "untended" behavior also leads to the breakdown of community controls. A stable neighborhood of families who care for their homes, mind each other's children, and confidently frown on unwanted intruders can change, in a few years or even a few months, to an inhospitable and frightening jungle. A piece of property is abandoned, weeds grow up, a window is smashed. Adults stop scolding rowdy children; the children, emboldened, become more rowdy. Families move out, unattached adults move in. Teenagers gather in front of the corner store. The merchant asks them to move; they refuse. Fights occur. Litter accumulates. People start drinking in front of the grocery; in time, an inebriate slumps to the sidewalk and is allowed to sleep it off. Pedestrians are approached by panhandlers [...]
We must return to our long -abandoned view that the police ought to protect communities as well as individuals. Our crime statistics and victimization surveys measure individual losses, but they do not measure communal losses. Just as physicians now recognize the importance of fostering health rather than simply treating illness, so the police -- and the rest of us -- ought to recognize the importance of maintaining, intact, communities with out broken windows . . .
PLEASE, PLEASE, no need to post BLOODY, GRAPHIC IMAGES of the murdered young man at Kbal Thnal during the riot, or of the mother and daughter brutally murdered by the husband/stepfather. (I regularly report Facebook posts which are pornographic; I cannot even begin to wrap my mind on the regular consumption of hard-core pornography that is consumed regularly and pervasively in the coffee shops strewn across Cambodian countryside -- by both the children and the adults alike, as a norm.)
Recently, I spoke to a group of 12 graders and my message was simple: PROTECT YOUR HEART. PROTECT YOUR MIND. Everything else can be taken away from you within an instant. Not your heart or your mind. HOW? Be VERY CAREFUL what you allow in through your eyes, the window to the soul. Whatever enters--love or hate, peace or violence, romantic love or sexual violence/pornography--will sooner or later in a myriad of forms find its way out--either to uplift or to denigrate oneself or others.
Not only PROTECT (discretion, judgment) but NOURISH your heart and your mind. HOW? As with your body, so your heart and mind, to be strong, they need to be cared for and nourished with healthy feeding, e.g. uplifting conversations, edifying reading materials, rest for clear thinking. "Deep calls to deep..." - Theary on Facebook, Phnom Penh, 16 Sept. 2013, updated Sept. 29, Oct. 3
References: - The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. - Luke 6:45
- For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. - Matthew 12:34 - Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. - Proverbs 4:23
Go to Facebook for more photos.
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RUTH
នាង រស់
Recently, I discovered the sermons of my college pastor online. While at Georgetown University (1991-95), I, along with 10-20 other Georgetown friends, attended Fourth Presbyterian Church, a 10-15 minute drive from campus through the manicured estates of Northwest Washington, DC to the leafy suburban neighborhood of Bethesda in Maryland.
We drank in the deep wisdom of our college director, Chuck Jacob (now a senior pastor at Knox Presbyterian in Ann Arbor, MI) and of Dr. Rob Norris on Sunday mornings (and at times, classes he taught during the week days).
When I attended, the US Vice-President Dan Quayle and his family (and security detail), my Georgetown professor former UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick, and many other well-known names from politics, academia and media, also attended. Dr. Norris' predecessor was then-chaplain of the US Senate, Dr. Richard Halverson.
All to say, if all of these accomplished people came Sunday after Sunday and benefited from Dr. Norris' sermons, maybe we too can find intellectual as well as spiritual nourishment from these talks?
It does not take long before one is taken in by the profundity and the humor -- not to mention, the accent! -- of Dr. Norris's exposition.
Ruth
The book is named after one of its main characters, a young woman of Moab, the great-grandmother of David and an ancestress of Jesus. The only other Biblical book bearing the name of a woman is Esther. Ruth as ancestress of Jesus; Covenant Love
True Love (brilliant exposition of the interplay of divine providence and human responsibility) Sermons of Dr. Rob Norris by chapter 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
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. . . 7 Things Really Persuasive People Do Sometimes you absolutely have to make your point. Here are 7 tips on how to do it effectively with style and grace. TIME Magazine | 22 August 2013 2. They Listen … and Listen … Then Listen Some More People who know how to persuade also know that just pushing your own argument will get you nowhere. They certainly are able to articulate their position in a convincing way, but that is only half the equation. They are actively listening when in persuasion mode. First, they are listening to assess how receptive you are to their point of view. Second, they are listening for your specific objections, which they know they’ll have to resolve. Last, they are listening for moments of agreement so they can capitalize on consensus. Amazingly persuasive people are constantly listening to you and not themselves. They already know what they are saying. You can’t persuade effectively if you don’t know the other side of the argument.
. . . "Often mistaken, never in doubt" -- PARTICULARLY for us Cambodians. With regards to the punctuation issue I've raising: Donna Alvermann, a language and literacy researcher at the University of Georgia, notes that in study after study, “students ignored correct textual information when it conflicted with their previously held concepts. On measures of free recall and recognition, the students consistently let their incorrect prior knowledge override incoming correct information.”
- TIME Magazine "Learning from Mistakes is Harder than We Think"
I am glad to see the growing and more confident use of commas -- even if yet baby steps. I've been side-tracked -- e.g. the current fury of election-related issues -- that I've not been able to finish the grammar/rules of punctuation book in Khmer I've been promising. - Theary, Phnom Penh, 9 Aug. 2013 . . .
(except in Cambodia) Do you know that we have 2 seminal history books on Cambodia by well-respected Cambodia historians translated into the Khmer language: HISTORY OF CAMBODIA by David Chandler and WHEN THE WAR WAS OVER by Elizabeth Becker. These are really the ONLY NOTEWORTHY, TRUSTED history books on Cambodia in the Cambodian language. But I can tell you with great confidence: the local Cambodians, even with limited English, will prefer to read the English version than the Khmer, because the translation is not easily understandable. And these were translated by the best translators in the country. THE MAIN PROBLEM: no punctuation (sufficient, proper, consistent) save the period.
- Theary C. Seng, Phnom Penh, 30 July 2013
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appointment of Ms. Theary C. Seng Phnom Penh, 13 June 2013
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Why Punctuation Matters: CLARITY!
"យើងនឹងឈ្នះ ហើយយើងនឹងផ្តល់អនាគតរបស់ប្រទេសជាតិយើងជូនប្រជារាស្រ្តយើងវិញ។" «យើង នឹងឈ្នះ, ហើយ យើង នឹងផ្តល់អនាគត របស់ ប្រទេសជាតិយើង ជូនប្រជារាស្រ្តយើងវិញ។» ឬ «យើង នឹងឈ្នះហើយ! យើង នឹងផ្តល់អនាគត របស់ ប្រទេសជាតិយើង ជូនប្រជារាស្រ្តយើងវិញ។»
The Cambodian EDUCATIONAL system NEEDS A COMPLETE OVERHAUL! Our history has been so fragmented with no documentary continuity (and/or limited passing on of stories from parents to children) that is why no one knows of punctuation.
Moreover, we need to do away with the KNEE-JERK DEFENSIVE REACTION without first thinking through what it is that we are saying.
For this runs contrary to what CRITICAL THINKING is all about.
We need to remember that our society learns by ROTE MEMORIZATION, which is just the repeating of statements. And if the statement is nonsense, than the nonsense is repeated over and over and over and over again, that everyone thinks it must be great wisdom!
- Theary C. Seng, Phnom Penh, 23 July 2013
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This is the vision when Cambodians currently read.
NO ONE can be made to enjoy reading if the mangled language frustrates and confuses them, giving them headaches from the burden and work of having to decipher and fight the printed page before they can get to the content. And here, the content is another layer of morass because of the messy or incorrect translation. And the above-mentioned barriers of reading haven't even factor in the deep trauma and social living conditions which inhibit reading...
This is the vision when Cambodians read with punctuation (as a consequence, use of punctuation automatically allows for more word spacing)
I deeply believe EVERY CAMBODIAN can be habituated to love to read if given INTERESTING reading materials, and WHEN THE LANGUAGE is cleaned up with correct, clear translation (if translated, which currently the majority of published materials are) AND with PROPER, CONSISTENT, SUFFICIENT PUNCTUATION.
Use punctuation so your mind can see with 20/20 vision.
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Khmer Grammar -- Punctuation
Thank you very much, Dr. Phalkun Tan, for forwarding this gem of a resource to me!
Click here for more authority, examples. rules of Khmer punctuation
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Why Punctuation? (And its development)
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Old vs. New books ("Spiritual Reading" by C. S. Lewis)
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The Country that Stopped Reading
Education through Imagination:
A Closed Mind is a Beautiful Thing to Lose
Theary C. Seng, June 2007
Read. Read. Read. A critical component of the development of the imagination is reading. We Khmers need to read, read, read and read some more. When we read, we prepare ourselves for any and all opportunities which otherwise would pass us by. The Chinese have it right it defining 'success' by combining the character for preparation (internal individually determined) with the character for opportunity (externally determined). The majority of Khmer live in a harsh reality of abject poverty, crimes and abuse. More than ever we need to keep in mind that reality can be 'beaten with enough imagination'. Imagination, then, is the gateway to wisdom and change, and ultimately to personal and social development.
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Losing our mother tongue The Phnom Penh Post, Feb. 9, 2013 Some young people seemingly pretend to be unable to speak their mother tongue... But when writing in Khmer, which is their native tongue, no one seems to care about accuracy. Even if the dictionary of Patriarch Chuon Nat is installed on their computer, they never bother to open it... "Khmer citizens must know the national language clearly, in both oral and written form, to ensure it survives."
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Rare reading materials in the Khmer language that have been edited for clarity and easy comprehension! With the scarcity of available reading materials in the Khmer language in electronic form where I can edit to raise my larger point of the NEED FOR USE OF PUNCTUATIONS, I am glad I can illustrate using the Khmer Bible.
If you ONLY know English, and this is how you have been habituated to read English, how far would you go in your education?
For the KHMER reader, click here and read this chapter from the book of JOSHUA. (The verse numbers are acting as a punctuation, but without them, the chaos would be UTTER CHAOS.) For the ENGLISH reader, click here and read this chapter, but imagine there are no proper nouns (no capitalized words) and no punctuations except for the full stop. The vocabulary (translation) is very good -- as it done by a committee with checks and rechecks, unlike most of the other translations being produced in the whole of society. But without commas and other punctuation, is the Khmer chapter clear and understandable?
This is how Cambodians read the Cambodian language. For Cambodians with means or an opportunity to rely on another language, after they're stuck with the Cambodian language (which is very early on), they rely on their 2nd language for knowledge.
But for the MAJORITY of Cambodians who do not know a 2nd language, they have to fight the printed page and mangled language (of misspelling, of "creative" texting-style punctuation, or just run-on phrases) to get even a scant piece of knowledge.
. . . A LANGUAGE IN CRISIS
4-Part Series of Commentary to The Phnom Penh Post Re-posted on KI-Media and Facebook Accounts Sent to 1,500 on Email List-serve
Part I A LANGUAGE IN CRISIS (edited version published in The Phnom Penh Post, 16 Aug. 2011)
Part II A LANGUAGE IN CRISIS The Written Khmer: The Problem (edited version published in The Phnom Penh Post, 17 August 2012)
Part III A LANGUAGE IN CRISIS The Written Khmer: A Few Questions (anecdotes of the problems on the ground posed in list of questions, forthcoming)
Part IV A LANGUAGE IN CRISIS The Written Khmer: A Few Recommendations (a few initial recommendations of the way forward, forthcoming) Background
Venerable Chuon Nath's Dictionary and other Authority (the learned monk of the 20th century is the strongest authority on all things educated, in Khmer)
Language and National Identity by Dr. Stephen Heder (a chapter on Cambodia in a book published by Oxford University Press)
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សេចក្តីប្រកាស ជាសកល ស្តីអំពី សិទ្ធិមនុស្ស Universal Declaration of Human Rights
This version is from a couple of translations published by the UNOHCHR (booklet, webpage) which I have edited mainly with regards to spacing and punctuations for easier comprehension. On occasions, I have corrected translation inaccuracies. – Theary C. Seng, Phnom Penh, 30 Nov. 2012
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The Khmer Bible
Version with Proper Punctuations/Formatting
Theary Seng Version
As the Khmer Standard Version of the Bible, 2005 is extremely well translated in terms of word choice/vocabulary, and recently made available in electronic form on the internet, and because I am already very well familiar with the stories and books of the Bible (reading, re-reading them since I first became a Christian at the age of 9 years old--32 years ago!), I am editing the KSV 2005 with proper, consistent, and "new" punctuations as well as reformatting it for clarity and easier comprehension.
I am starting with books and portions of the Bible which contain ideas and concepts which are already familiar, even if the non-Christian Khmer reader may be surprised to find the source as the Bible, e.g. the Book of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Sermon on the Mount, Gospel of Luke and of John, Letter of James, etc.
Both Christian and non-Christian Cambodian readers will be able to appreciate these edited books of the Bible in Khmer, mainly because they rare reading materials available in the Khmer language that are clear and understandable. For the non-believing Khmer readers, take these edited books of the Bible as good literature, which they are (plus more, for the Khmer believers!).
In all instances, I have changed to the correct spelling of ឲ្យ (from អោយ, which is incorrect).
Samdech Sangh (Venerable) Chuon Nath Dictionary (1967) and another dictionary before 1977 have ឲ្យ. Dictionaries of 2004, 2007 have ឱ្យ. ឱ្យ is an accepted form of ឲ្យ. However, the introduction page of Samdech Sangh Chuon Nath dico (1967-1968) edition - note No. ខ៣, he also indicated that while this form is correct, we should not use: ឱយ or អោយ. Writing អោយ (which is INCORRECT) is akin to texting in English luv . It is common practice to write informally text or email messages "I luv you" but it doesn't make "luv" the correct spelling of "love". The principle also applies to writing Khmer properly. I am also changing the spelling of សម្រាប់ (correct) from សំរាប់ (incorrect).
When the dictionaries are in conflict without a reasonable explanation, go with the strongest authority, Ven. Chuon Nath dictionary of 1967 which has សម្រាប់ as the correct spelling (as well as the Dictionnaire Détaillé des Homonyses et des Paronymes, 2007).
(សំរាប់ is found in 2 later dictionaries published during great political instability when there were no infrastructure: Cambodian-English of 1977, during the Khmer Rouge genocide, American University Press, and Oxford English-Khmer of 2004, only one year after UNTAC left.)
I am currently having my staff at CIVICUS Cambodia typing two basic books on the history of Cambodia, already translated but lacking proper punctuations, so that I may edit them and make them freely available online for the public.
READING MUST BE TRIGGERED with INTERESTING MATERIALS.
READING Must be free of the burdens of having to fight the printed page and mangled language.
READING Is the beginning of effective DIALOGUE, of quality EDUCATION, of RECONCILIATION, of Cambodian FLOURISHING (PEACE with JUSTICE, or SHALOM).
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