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You may have read about and seen ugly images of the recent Dey Krahorm slum eviction. If you live outside Cambodia, chances are you get only one-sided and simplistic look at the very complicated issues of land dispute and development that exist here.

I have read some Western journalists describing the Cambodian slums as “iconic” and how these run-down communities are being “threatened” by development. Descriptions like these are very disturbing. Khmer people deserve more than the makeshift homes with trash piled up to the roofs, infested by drugs, crime, disease, prostitution, unemployment, illiteracy– you name it. Any reasonable person who has visited a slum like Dey Krahorm knows that something must be done about these places. They should be cleared out and rebuilt, not preserved as some sort of cultural “icon” or museum of poverty for the amusement of slum tourists from wealthy countries.

Slum tourism is not a new concept. It’s a form of voyeuristic self-gratification whereby one derives some twisted pleasure from the misfortunes of others. We must distinguish between genuine concern and compassion and an unhealthy fascination with human despair.

While the foreign media outlets were eager to show ugly scenes of Cambodian authorities using bulldozers and tear gas to expel some 130 families who had ignored repeated eviction notices, they dare not show the thousands of other former Dey Krahorm residents who had willingly relocated to Choum Chao and who had been provided with adequate housing, electricity, running water, schools for their children, and employment opportunities to improve their living standards.

Many of the previously relocated residents admitted, to Khmer media, that they initially did not want to leave the slum but were happy that they did because their lives have improved significantly in their new community. In fact, some of them stood in front of their homes and laughed at the freshly arriving Dey Krahorm evictees who had turned down compensation offers of $20,000 only to be forcibly removed anyway.

This is something you won’t hear from the foreign media. Of course, I’m not saying that all is well in Cambodia. It’s not. The pro-government Khmer media, in contrast, tend to paint an overly favorable picture of the company. It’s worthwhile to view the story from different angles, to get a more accurate picture of the situation.

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You may have read about the recent death of a Canadian “aid worker” who was supposedly followed by Khmer men from an ATM and “bludgeoned, robbed, stripped of his clothes and left to die” in a Cambodian ditch by his assailants.

Well, as it turned out, the “aid worker,” Jiri Zivny, may have died from a simple motorcycle accident after a night on the town in Kompong Som, a popular destination for Western sex tourists and pedophiles.

As for the “humanitarian” organization which he “worked” for…

“The International Humanitarian Hope Society functions like a tourism business. Clients sign up and pay for tours that mix sight-seeing with visits to orphanages throughout Southeast Asia. The trips cost about $2,500 per person for airfare and accommodations. ” source

After the accident dozens of sensational articles were circulated about an “innocent” humanitarian who was savagely robbed, beaten and killed by the very people whom he came to “help”.

As the report below reveals, the real victim may be the Khmer motorcyclist hit by Zivny. The Khmer motorcyclist is still unconscious. It would be interesting to know the blood alcohol content Zivny when he was taken to the hospital.

I think the real tragedy is that Khmer people were falsely portrayed as savage ingrates by the news media, and I have yet to see any retractions of the inaccurate reporting by any of the sources.

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I’ve installed a new TV widget on the site. This one allows you to watch more than 80 channels online. It’s the best online TV widget I’ve found so far.

Just choose the category and station on the pull-down menus.

You can access the online TV from the menu bar above. The permanent address is http://www.oudam.com/tv/.

Below is the widget in action. You can watch in full-screen by double-clicking on the video as it plays.

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Hi Everyone,

Good afternoon from Phnom Penh.

I’m happy to announce the launch of a new website, KhmerNews.net.

Khmernews.net aims to be the most comprehensive source for the latest news and information on Cambodia.

We gather news articles from thousands of sources around the world and deliver them to you in one convenient portal. News are updated continuously every 5 minutes, so you can be certain that you’ll find the most up-to-date stories on our site.

This is my newest website dedicated to providing quality content to the Khmer community around the world. It’s a relatively new site. I plan to add enhancement to make it even more useful.

Check it out today at:

http://www.khmernews.net

Take care!

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While we strive to provide useful, quality, and up-to-date content, we make no claims or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information published on our site.

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