New and Depressing Things

Each day I learn new and wonderful things about Cambodia and its rich culture, but I also learn new and depressing things about the state of this poor Southeast Asian nation. I though I had seen poverty before, whether through living in Chinatown in San Francisco or through visiting parts of other countries, and indeed in all these places there is a great deal of poverty, and the people in these places struggle each day to put food on the table--even they even have a table, a home, or a family. But the poverty in Cambodia is much more acute, and the signs of suffering are much more visible and apparent. I don't mean to say that the people are necessarily less happy or content because of this, but I do mean to say that the suffering here is very real and cannot be ignored or mitigated by looking away.

There are many victims of land mines in Phnom Penh--those that have lost limbs, mobility, livelihood and sometimes even half their face from the perennial results of war from decades earlier. And their are just as many who are handicapped or horrifically disfigured from illnesses and accidents unrelated to war, but because of the medical standards of the country, they are unable to find meaningful or affordable treatment. Young men arrive from the countryside and find no work in the city. Mothers send their children out onto the street with their babies to beg for money. And street children who truly have no home struggle to survive by selling a few newspapers or bootlegged books.

Moreover, even their own government is trying to uproot the poor from their homes and their livelihoods. The Tonle Bassac community where I visited four masters and their music classes is one example. The community is named because of the theater that used to exist there, which was likely burned down by the CPP (Cambodian People's People, the current ruling party of Cambodia, headed by Prime Minister Hun Sen, who is widely disliked among the Khmer for his authoritarian rule, the corruption of his administration, and his disinterest in helping Cambodians who are not rich businessmen). The community lives in fear of eviction because developers and the government officials who will profit from such development want the slum converted in a shopping mall.

For me, this is the kind of story that I read about happening but could never really understand what was going on. But now that I know the people that it affects so deeply, and have witnessed the strength of their resolve in creating a revival of the arts in their community, the situation pains me much more. Today, UN officials visited the community and interviewed Ki Mum and her students, whom I had visited just days before. Through the interviews it became apparent that the government had been threatening the residents of the Tonle Bassac to move elsewhere or their community would be burned down or bulldozed without advance notice. And the threats are not empty because the community has been a victim of arson by the government before. Furthermore, the government is now threatening legal action against the members of the community because it alledges that the 800 fingerprints the residents collected to certify the joint complaint they filed were fake. This is truly a deplorable situation, and is certainly one of the most outrageous examples of economic cruelty I have ever heard of.

All this makes me wonder why I choose to just study music and Buddhism during my time here. Shouldn't I be working to improve the material conditions of the people in Cambodia? Well, shouldn't you? If you have the financial means, there are many NGO's that are doing excellent work in health care, human rights, AIDS, women's rights and other areas in Phnom Penh and I am sure they would appreciate your support. And not just in Cambodia--a comparatively small sum of American money goes a long way in developing countries, whether it be to buy mosquito nets, to fund education about sexually transmitted diseases, or to help bring justice to issues of human rights. I, too, hope that I can find a way to meaningfully contribute to the material well-being of Cambodians.

However, my main intention in my time here is to look at Cambodia not as a country of problems, but as one whose rich musical, spiritual and artistic traditions have a great deal to teach the world. In a post-genocide society, restoring faith in one's culture, religion and traditions goes a long way toward promoting emotional and spiritual health. And while I know my impact me indeed be small, I sincerely hope that I can always remember to make this my intention during my time here. I love this country, its people, its language, its spiritual values and its arts traditions, and I want to make sure these treasures are accessible to the Cambodian people and may be a point of pride to the world at large.