slow high-speed internet woes in Cambodia

One of the important metrics used to define the burden of disease was developed by WHO. DALY, or Disability-Adjusted Life Years, quantifies the difference between the actual health status of a population and an ideal situation where all individuals live long lives free of disease, free of disability. It measures not just mortality but also morbidity, and it's a measurement based on time.

DALY = YLL + YLD

This equation expresses the years of life lost (YLL) to premature death, and concurrently factors in years of healthy life lost because of years lived with a disability (YLD). This allows for the impact of disease or risk factor to be determined in that one DALY is equivalent to one lost year of healthy life.

Given that the previous post took me 20 minutes to write but two hours to upload, I've come up with a unit of measurement to measure the burden of slow internet for an aid worker living in a developing country. Life lost to premature death, eg due to inhaling particulate matter laden with bacteria making Phnom Penh air worse than Bangkok's smog, and healthy life lost because of years surfing and uploading blog posts on slow internet.

SIALY = YLL + YLSI
(Slow internet adjusted life years) = (Years of Life Lost) + (Years living with Slow Internet)

Mind you, my slow high-speed connection in this Kingdom's capital is not as bad as some of the screaming fast Commodore 64 connections that other colleagues have to contend with. So kudos to the best of you who can produce creative pieces of writing amid these uninspiring conditions. I think I just grayed three more hairs. :-(
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Pchum Ben, to remember the ancestors

This is such a great photo, shared by Metro Cafe.

It is Pchum Ben in Cambodia, one of the biggest Buddhist holidays in which people visit the pagodas and bring offerings in remembrance of their ancestors. Once again there is a mass exodus from the city as the Khmer go to their provinces to visit their families, and foreigners take advantage of the many days off to flee the country.

Pchum Ben is similar to the Christians' All Saints' Day. This ritual used to be an ancient Celtic celebration called Samhain. Attempting to suppress these pagan traditions the Catholic Church created All Saints' Day (All Hallows Day) in the 7th century to christianise the event.

Other cultures have rituals for remembering their dead around this same time of year too:

• the Pasola Festival in Sumba, an island east of Bali
• Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mexico
• Dia de los ñatitas (Day of the Skulls) in Bolivia
• Brazil celebrates Finados (Day of the Dead)
• Araw ng mga Patay (Day of the Dead) in the Philippines
• O-bon (お盆) or only Bon (盆), a Buddhist holiday in Japan
• Hankawi (한가위,中秋节) is Korea's traditional day of remembrance of their dead
• Ghost month (鬼月) in China
  

Safe travels on this holiday everyone!

Sunset on the Mekong

It's been a while since we've seen a sunset here. After the brief lull in the rains last month, September came storming in with brilliant downpours and the energy-sapping intermittent drizzling all day long. In some provinces south and west of Phnom Penh these downpours made up for the drought. Unfortunately there was so much sudden deluge that up to 2m have been recorded in some villages around the country, and flash floods have taken about a dozen lives.

This photo above of the Phnom Penh skyline was taken from the peninsula before the rainy season started. That is the royal palace and royal viewing stage (for the November boat races during the Water Festival, or Bon Om Touk).

The riverfront is getting a massive makeover. Actually open areas around the city are getting a fantastic makeover. Khmers love it, these parks are filled every morning at the freakin' crack of dawn with groups assembling for exercises. It's the popular hangout for inexpensive dates, loitering, families taking their kids out to fly kites, getting some street food and gaping at the water acrobatics at the fountains. Aren't these colors brilliant?

our resident tukei gecko

Isn't Fred the cutest tukei gecko ever?? Except he's a SHE! LOL! Just saw her little ones yesterday, they're feisty like mommy!

Fred is about 6inches around her tummy, 10inches long to the end of her tail. She's been a regular at our place for years. Or should I say, WE've been regulars at HER place for years LOL!
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Celestial dance of 22 July 2009

A dismal overcast day spawns in the Kingdom. The mighty Mekong bucks and swells with all the world's rage. Celestial beings roar.

Across the land village radios quiver with the news: the Eye of God cometh. Today a dark day falls. None shall be spared.

Humans and fortune tellers and witches scurry about their paltry rituals and offerings to stave the impending doom. But the cauldron of the heavens boils and bubbles. In just moments the essence of wrath will descend upon earth to end this corrupt age of Kali. Lesser clouds sent by a kindly small (unknown) Hindu god for Cambodia's meager comfort cower as the lunar transit arcs straight into the solar spectrum.

om shanti..... Om Shanti.... OM NAMAHO SHIVA!!

[looks to see if you, reader, are still watching....]

Well. Thunderclouds rage also in my thoughts. There goes my view of the solar eclipse. Would be nice to see the arc of the cosmos hurtling us towards our destruction, at least.

[sulks. chucks a used tissue over the balcony... and the used tissue chucked over the rail blows into my downstairs neighbor's balcony.]

[a small smile escapes.] This day may yet improve. :-)

---- update at 12:05pm, after the eclipse:

Our six and a half minutes of solar eclipse was watched by many of my friends, thanks to my news flashes on Facebook. Here below is a picture taken by Dave Coolio, since for part of those six minutes I was called into someone's office for a minor query. :-(

Also why Dave felt the need to point out the obvious in the photo is beyond me.
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around the 'hood with a visiting friend

Here's my street, we live a block off the Royal Palace. It's everyday scenes like this that you never bother to take photos of until a friend comes along and captures everything you don't blink twice over anymore. To the left is a tuk-tuk, riding the line to his left and back is what they call here a cyclo, and practically most people travel by some form of motorbike here.
Every day monks walk around the neighborhood collecting alms (this is one of the stores downstairs). Since the Khmer Rouge decimated the elder ranks, the religion's influence has not gained its previous legitimacy and credibility. Respect for monks and the solidarity they fostered before the conflict era have been largely eroded.
Time for some tours around the city! This is what I get when a journalist friend is visiting. LOTS of photos of me. And yes, I know these huge sunglasses are horrible fashion bombs, but they're great for tuk-tuk riding cuz short of goggles they keep everything out of your eyes!
The Independence Monument Plaza, view from Sothearos Blvd. See the cranes in the background? Phnom Penh is under constant construction. sigh.
D was an inspiration to me long ago with her wanderlust. Everyone back then thought she was a nut (me too, secretly!). Of course now we both envy our friends the stability of life and family and community when our lives are anything but. But connecting in different parts of the globe once in a while brings us back to what matters and what brought us out on these paths in the first place.
In a city growing up so fast, these bicycle vendors selling kids' toys brings memories of olden days. They're still numerous on the city streets, particularly where people like to gather at night in the new plazas.
Those of you who saw City of Ghosts (2002) with Matt Dillon might recognize this guy. Ian 'Snowy' Woodford is an old fixture in the Phnom Penh 'hoods from the UNTAC days. He's now running a bar / gallery across the Tonle River from the city.
The Phnom Penh skyline! Naturally you must have a healthy imagination to see it ;-) D and I rented a boat ($16/2hrs) and cruised the Tonle River. Brought a bottle of wine and some desserts. I always forget to look up at the night sky whenever I'm in cities. PP is sufficiently small that you can get a glimpse of some stars. But out on the river- wow.

Banana leaf books

Since deciding to leave 'civilisation' I hardly much missed the comforts I was luckily blessed with. Lord knows my parents are confuzzled why I chose to go to a country worse off than the one they took me out of! I guess that choice is a luxury they passed on to us, but that's where we see things differently... So instead there's a daily onslaught of novel situations-- sights, smells, tastes-- not all good! But more often than not it's a memory to put in that bottle.

Here we saw an old man who lives at the temple on Phnom Chisour (2hrs' motorbike ride from Phnom Penh). He writes Buddhist teachings on dried banana leaves cut into uniform 'pages', which are then tied together into a 'book'. The implement is a branch with a sharpened end, and he fills in the strokes by rubbing a crushed leaf across the page. One book takes him a week to complete, and this he sells to tourists for $2. The skeptic in me wonders in which part of the pagoda do they mass-produce copies of these little books, and then age them over a fire or something. But as K and my photographer friend traipsed off to shoot all manner of inanimate curiosities, I stayed behind and watched him at length (like for 2hrs) painstakingly scrawl his messages. I even helped him pick leaves for ink (only the young leaves will do).

Yes, I bought one book from him. I have no idea what to do with it, so it sits with other dust-collecting ethnic baubles I purchase for the sake of stimulating the local economy.

Day Trip from Phnom Penh to Phnom Oudong

This trip was a 50minute motorbike ride to the outskirts of Phnom Penh on a very hot Sunday. This is a typical panoramic view of Cambodia in the North-South region Siem Reap - Sihanoukville: flat as a pancake dry and dotted with palm and coconut trees, etc. Elevations are revered spots and wats (pagodas) are usually constructed on top of them.

These images of Buddha in various interpretations are not for idolising, such as Christians worship the images of the God. These images aim to inspire the appropriate mode of behaviour towards the personal achievement of enlightenment. It is an admired philosophy, especially during these modern fast-paced times, but its lack of appreciation for personal gains contributes to the detriment of Asian society (values?) in an age of materialism and the pursuit of wealth.

I have no idea what kind of turtles these are, but a lot of them are classified 'threatened' in Cambodia. We were taken once to a restaurant in Kampot Province, where the walls were lined with WWF and conservancy posters. Obviously it's illegal to hunt those animals on the posters, but enforcement capacity is low. They were the menu offerings, but only hush hush. If officials came through the door the establishment is upholding the law.
No shortage of cutesy shots in the third world. Sadly this is exploited and children are sometimes harmed in order to garner more sympathy and thus more money from foreigners.

At wats around the country there are soothsayers who will read palms, feet, sticks, and tea leaves. Philosophies about fate and destiny are major factors why the region has not lived to its full capacity in the past several centuries compared to the West.
This woman makes 3 baskets in one day. Then sells each basket for 1000 Riel (25 cents) for a small one, or 3000 Riel (75 cents) for a big one the size of a cantaloupe. I can never look at the handicrafts in a Pier1 store ever again, since coming out to Asia.
The prize part of a crab is the fat inside the shell. Here they are sold by a vendor at the market. These are river crabs, small enough to fit nicely in a child's hand. The shell / fat is sold for 600 Riel (~24 cents) and the whole crab for 1000 Riel (25 cents).


There were probably five mosques on the way to Oudong from Phnom Penh, which surprised us. Muslims make up 10% of Cambodia's population, the largest group after Buddhists, but they're largely concentrated in Kampot and Kampong Cham (Cham is the Khmer word for Muslim). Saudi Arabia finances the building of mosques here. Their presence has been slowly increasing, since the finding of oil off Cambodia's coasts.

All photos from Keith A Kelly's photostream.

Scene in Phnom Penh

My view from the treadmill at the gym. Running east towards the Mekong River (which is at the top of this photo) is Sihanouk Blvd. Independence Monument, commemorating the war dead and independence from colonial rule (France) in 1953, is at the intersection with Norodom Blvd. The parks on either side of the monument are hubs of activity.

The street grid under French rule composed of wide main boulevards lined with trees. Fortunately the not-so-often wise leadership decided that this is an asset. The municipality has recently begun a spate of beautification projects around the city, making medians more inviting and family-friendly like this one. It's part of a wider effort at attracting tourism, as most visit the country for just three days-- all three of which is spent in Siem Reap's Angkor Wat archeological zone.

Forced evictions and land grabbing for the Chinese New Year

From Phnom Penh Post 24Jan 2009, City, developer demolish Dey Krahorm.

Overseen by the military at 2am yesterday, the remaining residents' houses at Dey Krahorm, a community in Phnom Penh's Tonle Bassac neighborhood, were bulldozed by workers hired by 7NG, a private company who won the rights to develop the site. This is the final outcome of their 3 year struggle against the company, after rejecting the cash compensation and relocation offer to a site 16km out of the city because they felt their property values were vastly underestimated. During this time, their peaceful protests as well as efforts by human rights groups and organisations were met with violence and intimidation, with no action to either address their concerns or provide a platform for dialogue by the government.

Cambodia's vast and rapid influx of foreign capital for economic development, especially in the capital, Phnom Penh, sadly has created opportunity for large-scale human rights abuses. The environment of inadequate legal and regulatory frameworks and lack of capacity to enforce them, fragmented development vision that is in discord with reality, the culture of impunity all set the stage for graft. The courts are often manipulated by the powerful and become tools to sanction violence and silence the weak and poor involved in land disputes. Despite instituting property rights in 1989, land grabbing and forced eviction remain the most widespread and systematic human rights violation today, with at least 30,000 in the capital forcibly removed from their land, and approximately 150,000 throughout the country at risk of being dispossessed.

Aid organisations, human rights groups and bi-/multilateral agencies have issued statements denouncing such practices. But the international response has not been coherent or unified, and with China matching dollar for dollar the cumulative aid and development funds across sectors, what little impact rights advocacy may have is severely eroded. 2008 saw an increase of human rights violations by 25% from 2007, according to legal aid and rights group Licadho. It is such a heated topic that my work in patients' rights must necessarily exclude language, reference or affiliation with the greater rights agenda, or we risk political fallout. It's an issue that's hard to imagine will get better before it gets worse.

More info and updates with Webbed Feet Web Log.

Watching Obama's Inauguration in Phnom Penh

That was a pretty nice event.. Lots of energy and a huge crowd at the Gym Sports Bar: we had about 180 people throughout the night and well past 230am-- was not a good idea to have an 8am meeting like some folks did! And check this piece out, a short blurb on the Phnom Penh Post (though you need to subscribe to get the entire article).
And here, our two most favorite things-- ZULU and BARACK-- we just found our theme for the Mardi Gras Madness event!


And on a side note, a hmmm moment... Bush will be the first ex-president not to get a lifetime security detail. [[cocking head to the side]]] ..of all the living POTUSes that'd need it most...!
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View outside my office window: demolition

No need for big machinery eh. Here's a team of five Khmer (in flip-flops) pounding away at the building with just a sledgehammer each. It took them about two weeks to take this building down and haul away the debris.

beyond Phnom Penh.. in Kampong Cham

Photos courtesy of K Kelly

We just wanted to go for a walk to get some air, after two whole days indoors through several ceremonies. We attended a Buddhist ceremony in Kampong Cham for a friend's grandmother who passed away 10 years ago. This is the province with the beautiful women, according to many Khmer men in Phnom Penh. It might somewhat be validated by the recent legislative crackdown on weddings to foreigners, to prevent trafficking of women. Apparently Korean men looking for a nice obedient wife tend to look for one to buy/marry in this province, until several miraculously escaped abusive relationships in S Korea and reported it upon return.

But I digress. This couple were guests at the event, and we inadvertently followed them home. When we indicated through various gesturing and mimings that we wanted to walk around the village a bit, they wouldn't have that-- "dangerous", they said. "Come with us to our house."


There they served us up some tea and cashew fruits. The lands to and around Kampong Cham are dedicated to farming cashews and rubber plantations. The soil is particularly good for growing very high quality cashews, but they are mostly grown for export to Vietnam and Thailand. The Khmer in turn imports Vietnam's sub-par cashews to sell to its own people. Rubber is exported to China. It fetches high prices, but not high enough to compensate for the damage it renders the soil after a few years of high yield. The agriculture policy is still not effectively implemented, and besides, there's very little regulatory capacity not to mention intense corruption when it comes to land and land use. Small farmers are pretty much left to their own devices and vulnerable to the demands of neighbors and subsequent market imbalances.

They eat the flesh of the cashew fruit here, not just the nut. The older folks especially love it (maybe cuz it's soft?) dipped into a sauce of palm sugar and water.


We walked back to my friend's house in the sunset..