Cambodia Calling

Singapore healthcare

2009-11-02T12:50:00.006+07:00

I've been back in Singapore since mid-Oct for a health thing. (If you are interested, I wrote about my trip to a good Cambodian clinic in Siem Reap which led to this trip home).

Singapore has one of the best healthcare systems in the world and it's again in the spotlight at a time when the US is debating healthcare reform. I was happy with my experience at the Toa Payoh government polyclinic. I took a number and within 20 minutes saw the doctor. I was done just over an hour, including waiting time for the medication. The clinic also called up a hospital for me to see a specialist. For the consultation, I paid - wait for it - SGD8.80 (USD6.30)! The medication, Serratiopeptidase (for inflammation) cost SGD4 for 40 pills. Incredible. I could not believe how cheap it was. The only complaint is that I did feel that the doctor was in a rush and was not interested in going the extra mile to find out what was wrong with me, basically taking me at my word. (A friend said "What do you expect? It's conveyor-belt heathcare!")

One possible downside is you don't get to choose the specialist at the hospital if you go through the government-subsidised route, which is what I chose to do. You also have to wait some time for your appointment. In my case it was just over 2 weeks which I thought was fine. But for these small inconveniences, I will pay SGD20 for the consultation with the hospital doctor, compared with SGD83 should I choose to bypass the government system and go directly to the hospital.

A few years ago, in his book "The Undercover Economist", Tim Harford praised the health care policies of Singapore, which have resulted in the lowest infant mortality rate in the world, out of 224 countries: 2.31 deaths per 1000, versus the US's 6.26. Out of interest, Cuba's infant mortality rate is 5.82 and Cambodia's is a whopping 57.79.

(Still, you have to question these figures. Singapore is a small country and the time taken to send a sick baby to the hospital, thereby increasing the chances of his survival, is much shorter than say the US, a geographically large country. A better comparison would be say between Singapore and Manhattan - what is the difference in mortality rate for the two cities?)

Life expectancy at birth in the U.S. is 78 years; in Singapore, it's 82 years. (Cuba's is 77 and Cambodia's 62) Source for all these figures: CIA world factbook 2009 estimates.

This is even though the U.S. has 2.6 physicians per 1,000 people, compared with 1.4 physicians in Singapore. The United States has 9.4 nurses per 1,000 people; Singapore, just 4.2. And while the U.S. spends almost 16 percent of its GDP on health care, Singapore spends a mere 3.7 percent.

So how does Singapore do it? If you know anything about Singapore, you would know that while the ruling People's Action Party has consistently rejected the notion of being socialist, professing to be a free-market economy, it has many socialist policies. Public housing, where 80 per cent of Singaporeans live is one, as are the government-linked companies (GLCs) that account for more than 60% of the country's GDP (source: nationsencyclopedia.com), although you would be hard-pressed to get the ruling party/government to admit to this. There should be a difference between "the ruling party" and "the government" but there isn't in Singapore, a one-party state.

This "state capitalism" has done well for the country, ranked the top 5 richest country in the world GDP (PPP) per capita by the IMF, World Bank and CIA for 2008. (Another blog post on the business culture and resulting materialism of the country beckons. I feel like an alien in Singapore having lived in Cambodia for over 3 years now).

Back to Singapore's healthcare system.

In the 1980s, the Singapore government rejected the British-styled National Health Service and instead came up with the “3M” system — Medisave (1984), Medishield (1990) and Medifund (1993).

Medisave is a national health savings account and people contribute to this fund through their CPF (Central Provident Fund) deductions. For every dollar you earn, you and your employer have to contribute a percentage into your CPF account. This forced savings is supposed to form the retirement money for Singaporeans who are able to withdraw the money only after a certain age (55, but the government plans to increase this, to correlate to a higher retirement age). Medisave, a subset of a Singapore's CPF account was supposed to help with healthcare costs.

Medisave proved insufficient. Niko Karvounis has written an excellent essay "Health Care in Singapore: What's the Secret?". Honestly, it is the best explanation of Singapore's healthcare system I have read and I highly recommend it.

He notes that according to William Hsiao, a Professor of Economics at the Harvard School of Public Health, Medisave has failed to contain health care costs in Singapore: since Medisave was introduced in 1984, the rate of health care spending per capita increased from 11 percent to 13 percent a year after the program’s introduction.

By 1993, Singapore’s government started Medifund, an endowment fund to help poor patients pay their medical bills. According to Singapore’s Ministry of Health, the Medifund endowment was SGD 1.6 billion this year and 98 percent of patients who apply for Medifund aid are approved.

But the real changes made in 1993 represented a paradigm shift: from regulating the demand for healthcare (what patients would pay) to regulating the supply of healthcare (what resources are available). Today, hospitals have to clearly list the costs of their service and there is a price cap on public hospital services, not only for surgeries but for hospitalisation. In 2009, means testing was introduced, which ensures only patients who truly cannot afford to pay qualify for the high hospital bill subsidies (up to 80%).

There is a lot more to the system and for further reading check out Niko Karvounis' essay.

Of course the system is not perfect and it is hard to replicate elsewhere, especially in the US, where people are paranoid about government regulation or intervention, except of course when it suits them.

Road works on Sivatha

2009-10-05T19:50:00.002+07:00

The rain caused many potholes which were a source of problem when there were floods. People on motobikes and bicycles especially fell into the potholes and got stuck or toppled.

New pothole at Psar Kandal or Centre Market

This is what is done to fill up the potholes - throw a pile of rocks on the hole. I suppose later a big roller will flatten the rocks.

I saw some workers throwing some rocks away from the pile. They were spreading the rocks on the road for a roller to flatten them later.

Exposed piping after the rain and flooding. See, if they had done the roads properly the first time around, they would not have to do this with the rocks now. I'm guessing there was not enough cement or tar or whatever during the construction of the roads. I'm also guessing this was due to corrupt contractors. And one should point out all over the world (not just Cambodia) there are corrupt contractors who mix in more sand than cement thus making lousy and unsafe structures. Structures made with spit we sometimes joke.

Plastic Bag shoes

2009-10-05T19:39:00.002+07:00

This little girl was wearing plastic bag shoes today and happily posed for a picture when I took out my camera. I have no idea where she was going as the street was dry! Cambodian children are very cute. They love taking photos. If you ever take a photo of a Khmer kid, don't forget to let the child review it!

Siem Reap - Back to normal!

2009-10-05T19:05:00.001+07:00

Yay! Back to normal. This is the exact same spot where I took the Tourist Bus and the motorcycle driving through the floods on Saturday. Today the street is dry as a bone. I took this photo in the afternoon about 1pm.

This is Sivatha with the Hotel de la Paix in the background. Dry, too, with the exception of the muddy water in large potholes. The water has washed away much of the gravel and sand. The tiles in front of our shop was also loosened. I'll upload photos to show the road reparation works going on.

Pub Street

Warehouse pub. You can see the difference from a few days ago. I just took this on my way to meet my vet and her friends for dinner around Pub Street.

The Old Market and Grand Cafe.

Blue Pumpkin

And the Bloom street!

I should point out, though, I have no idea what the situation is like closer to the river and at Wat Bo Road. I'll have to check it out tomorrow. Welcome back to Siem Reap!

Floods are gone on Old Market Area

2009-10-05T13:00:00.001+07:00

Quick update everyone - the waters have largely subsided at the Old Market Area as of yesterday, so if you are planning to come to Siem Reap, it's really ok now. It rained last night but the rain did not seem to do much damage.

The only place that is still badly flooded is across the Siem Reap river at Wat Bo road. A tourist told me yesterday that water at the road leading to her guesthouse at Wat Bo was still knee high. Also the Old Market road beside the river was still flooded.

I'm sorry I did not update yesterday as was busy with Bloom. Sina, our manager at the workshop in Phnom Penh is up here for a brainstorm meeting.

I'll take a walk around the Old Market in a bit to take photos to confirm that the water is still away.

Water, water everywhere

2009-10-03T16:33:00.000+07:00

These photos show the river water spilling onto the side of the Old Market area. River, pavement and road are all one. In the last photo you can a Western tourist helping to push the tuktuk while her husband carries the baby.

Wat Bo Road Floods

2009-10-03T16:23:00.000+07:00

The floods are bad across the river on Wat Bo side of the road where I was walking past. I crossed the bridge and saw that the road to Bopha Angkor Hotel was completely flooded.

I saw people swimming outside the expensive private apartments Butterfly Residences, which I found amusing.

Chili Si-dang and Moloppor restaurants on Wat Bo opposite the river from where I took this shot seem to be wet as well...

This man is standing in the river/pavement/road which have all merged into one on Wat Bo Road.

Douk

2009-10-03T16:11:00.000+07:00

Douk the handicapped bookseller (he has no arms and needs to sell his books with a basket around his neck) saw me taking photos and asked that I take one of him. You can read more about Douk if you are interested.

He looks so lost in this second photo...

Old Market floods

2009-10-03T15:52:00.001+07:00

Here I am at the Bloom shop. I took a walk from Lucky Mall on Sivatha just to see how the floods are doing. As expected they are worse than yesterday with the water from the river still overflowing into town.

Kagna our shop assistant in front of our shop.

Kagna showing me how the water has caused the tiles to crack and break.

Junction of Warehouse Pub and the Old Market

Tourist crossing the water barefoot.

Blue Pumpkin

Grand Cafe

Viva restaurant

Street from Old Market towards Steung Hotel where Bloom is located.

Siem Reap flood photos - Day 3

2009-10-03T11:49:00.001+07:00

Well, not only did the waters not subside, they have got worse. Central Sivatha Boulevard must be lower than the surrounding streets. It is especially bad at the junction where Hotel de la Paix and Sokimex meets the road to Psar Nge. You can tell how deep it is. The water has risen about a foot from yesterday afternoon. Last night, the motodop would not even take me home that way. We went a long, roundabout way, and I ended up paying twice the fare, which was fair enough, I thought. The water can't be good for the motorbikes.

Here's the thing though. Just behind the hotel de la Paix running parallel along Sivatha is a big drain, which was just completed this year. I'll show you the photos in a bit. I am standing on that parallel street, above the drain, taking this photo. The drains run across the whole street to the Night Market on the opposite side of this road.

Here you can see the railings around the drain with a bit of the sign, "Don't throw rubbish in the drain". In the background is the same spot where that motorbike was in the previous photo.

This is the drain. So, if there was a big hole just where the motorbike in the second photo is, the waters would be able to flow into the drain. Instead, where the water is, the drain is sealed. And as you can see, the drain still has some ways to go before filling up.

We followed the drain where the land was dry. This is one exit onto Sivatha. It's still dry so far. But as we approach Sivatha, we start to see the water.

This is Sivatha in front of LuckCafe, Lucky Supermarket's cafe branch.

And this is Sivatha just before the Prince d'Angkor hotel.

Sivatha boulevard, Siem Reap's main street. I dread going into the Old Market Area. Yesterday, Pub Street was flooded as well. We had dinner at the Alley and the tuktuks were doing brisk business ferrying tourists who did not want to get their track shoes etc wet. My friends told me Ta Prohm temple was completely inaccessible because of the floods. They did manage to visit Angkor Wat and Bayon though.

Siem Reap river overflowing Oct1

2009-10-03T11:30:00.008+07:00

First clear day after the rains stopped, on Oct 1. The Siem Reap river overflowed and the waters spilled onto the riverside road, forcing shops at the Old Market facing that road to shut. I wonder if the loss of business will upset owners enough to complain so the city authorities will do something about the drainage system. Even though this is the first time the floods in Siem Reap have been so bad, I am sure it will not be the last time.

Half of babies born in rich countries will live to 100 years

2009-10-02T21:20:00.000+07:00

"Professor Kaare Christensen, of the Danish Ageing Research Centre at the University of Southern Denmark, who led the study, said life expectancy had been increasing since 1840 and there was no sign of this trend slowing down.

He said: "The linear increase in record life expectancy for more than 165 years does not suggest a looming limit to human lifespan. "If life expectancy were approaching a limit, some deceleration of progress would probably occur."

In 1950 the probability of surviving for between 80 and 90 years of age was, on average, 15 to 16% for women and 12% for men.

In 2002, these figures had risen to 37% for women and 25% for men.

The study points out that until the 1920s, improvements in infant and childhood survival contributed most to the increase in life expectancies."

In addition, people are living longer with less disability and fewer functional limitations. Read the full BBC article.

Worse Flooding in Siem Reap town in memory

2009-10-02T16:48:00.010+07:00

Photo of tuktuk driver at the riverside I took yesterday.

The floods are worse, much worse than yesterday. It has been sunny for 2 days now but waters on the main street Sivatha is high. I took a motocycle to work so did not get wet but I just met a customer who walked across Sivatha into town who said the waters reached her knees.

I did see one poor man with his 3 family members (wife and 2 kids) who got their motobike stuck in a pothole hidden from view by the muddy waters. But at least some Cambodians are enjoying the floods. The tourist told me she saw Khmer children playing in the waters outside her guesthouse.

At the Old Market area, water has risen to just two inches below the pavements. Another couple of inches and my shop will be flooded.

My Khmer friends tell me waters from the Siem Reap river is overflowing because the river joins Phnom Kulen, a mountain (487 m) with a famous waterfall. Water off Phnom Kulen has been running into the lower lying areas. I don't know what the outlying villages are like but it is bad in the town centre.

I forgot to take my camera with me but I'm meeting some friends visiting from Singapore for dinner, so I'll use their camera to take the photos. But I am sure the waters will not subside by tomorrow, so I'll be able to take more pics then.

Everyone tells me they have not seen anything like this. Of course human development and the lack of proper drains compound the problem, as I wrote last year on Siem Reap floods and Cambodian floods. There is simply nowhere the waters can flow to.

Earlier this year I met an Irish couple. The husband was employed to work on the main drains on Sivatha Boulevard and there was much construction then but it's obvious the drains can't cope.

Ps: I just read on andybrouwer.com that more than a dozen crocodiles have escaped from a farm in town. Wow. What wouldn't I give for photos!

More Cambodian flood photos from KI Media.

You can also read more about Ketsana's impact on Southeast Asia on globalvoicesonline.org.

Tropical storm Ketsana in Siem Reap

2009-10-01T12:49:00.004+07:00

This was at noon today, while taking a motocycle to the Bloom shop at the Old Market Area. We are on Sivatha, about to turn to Pub Street. You can see the 5 star Hotel de la Paix in the background. Even 5 stars are not spared in this town. But it is the first time the floods have been so bad in Siem Reap.

The rains came hard and heavy the day before yesterday and continued for a whole day. Cambodia was hit by tropical storm Ketsana, the same one that killed many in the Philippines and about 40 in Vietnam. Ten people died in Cambodia as the storm fell houses and trees. Our giant cherry tree too, was uprooted.

Women pushing their bicycles on the street between Centre Market and Old Market in Siem Reap. The floods near the Siem Reap International School were bad and Thyda had to get off her motocycle and push it for 500m. Water got into the engine and it wouldn't start. She said the cars drove fast because drivers did not want to get stuck in the waters. When that happened, the ripples made it harder to push her motocycle.

Beside Canadia Bank.

Tuktuk on the road to Pub Street where the Hospital is.

Three tourists from China were trying to walk on the flooded street. I was on the motorbike so had to take the photos as we drove past. Everyone wasn't sure what to do.

Turning into my street, this tourist saw me snapping away and gave me a helpless smile. I can understand when Western tourists don't want to step into the waters, because you don't know what's mixed in with it.

Pub Street

And one street north of Pub Street.

In front of Warehouse Pub

At the Old Market.

And the street where Bloom is!

Greetings from Singapore!

2009-10-01T10:46:00.000+07:00

This email really made my day :)

Hi Diana,

Greetings from Singapore!

After a long holiday, i finally have to get back to work. We enjoyed our trip in Siem Reap with Phoern. My husband and I like him alot and we find that he is very friendly and reliable. We were slightly panic when we saw no one waiting outside our hotel on that morning we were supposed to catch the sunrise. But later, Phoern approached us and showed us your name card. He was actually waiting for us outside the hotel's security area. He is a very careful driver and he always take the initative to look for us whenever we came out from the temples. Unlike the driver that we hired off the street at Phnom Penh, he was hiding at one corner when we visited the russian market. It took us 5 to 10 mins looking for him under the rain despite that we have agreed on the waiting time and location. We visited phoern's home too and met his wife as well as his three lovely children. Indeed, their living condition is not that good but i can feel that they are all very happy.

Thanks for your help for being the middle man and because of you we have met a excellent tuk tuk driver and enjoyed a wonderful trip in siem reap.

cheers

ice

Readers will know I am a big advocate of Phoern, my tuk tuk driver in Siem Reap. If you would like to know more about him or employ him, please email me. He charged Ice US$15 from sunrise to sunset for the main temples.

City living for small animals

2009-09-30T16:00:00.000+07:00

One of the things I like about living in Siem Reap is the nature and small animals I encounter at home and in town. These are animals that are mostly gone in the concrete jungle that is Singapore now. We had a small garden when I was a child in Singapore and I remember catching small grasshoppers exactly like this one so I could feed them with blades of grass. They actually ate the grass out of my hand. This one I found on my laptop bag one day in the house in Siem Reap.

This small toad was found on our mop one day I guess because the mop was still wet. Once we saw a completely white frog at the taps on our bath. I wish I had taken a photo because I never saw it, or another albino frog again. I think it was albino, or maybe it was camouflage because our bathtub is white.

These one I saw one night on the way home, just outside the Maybank in town. The grasshopper was in camouflage mode, trying to blend it with the rubble where some construction work was ongoing. What a magnificent creature. I hope it managed to flit away and find some grass.

And this is what happens when you get too close to Man. This was a rat, now roadkill. It's a common sight in Cambodian roads in the cities.

Labour Start: where trade unionists start their day on the Net

2009-09-29T11:53:00.003+07:00

Photo from The Hankyoreh showing a Korean woman holding a copy of a 1,000 Won note to campaign for an 1,000 Won (80 cents US) increase in the minimum wage in Seoul.

I am one of 60,000 email subscribers of LabourStart.org because I support trade unions, also known as labour unions, in principle. (There are practical issues with unions of course and I will go into that later).

LabourStart.org is a great resource for people interested in workers' rights. Below are some of the articles for Cambodia 2009:

- Retrial in unionist's killing set for Aug 17 2009-08-11 [The Phnom Penh Post]
- Angry Workers: Drawn-out fight over Naga hotel layoffs 2009-07-29 [The Post]
- Garment employees back on the job as protests end 2009-07-19 [The Phonm Penh Post]
- Xing Tai garment workers protest factory conditions 2009-07-16 [The Phnom Penh Post]
- Govt rejects union data on jobless workers 2009-07-14 [Phnom Penh Post]
- Parliament OKs deal to send migrant labourers to Kuwait 2009-07-14 [Phnom Penh Post]
- 600 workers at Camko City protest over pay 2009-05-14 [The Post]
- Did the ILO really help Cambodia's garment industry? 2009-03-30 [CSR Asia]
- Union critical of Gov't silence on payouts to gambling industry 2009-03-26 [The Phnom Penh Post]
- Teachers Union says PM's claims about pay increases dubious 2009-03-24 [Phnom Penh Post]

A trade union is simply an organization of workers who group together to achieve common goals, usually better pay and working conditions. The union representatives negotiate terms with company owners which are binding on members. You can see how trade unions have an important role to play especially in countries with weak labour laws to protect citizens. If you think about it, if the law is not on their side, strength in numbers and collective action is often the only way many workers can demand fair treatment from their factory owners, if these owners are exploitative, as many are.

But this is also why corporations have always sought to limit the existence of labour unions (and tolerate them if they can't get rid of them). This is also why many governments have sought to eradicate labour unions, in the pursuit of making their country's labour cheaper and thus more competitive.

History is full of examples of brave men and women who try to demand justice, in the form of fairer pay and working conditions, for their fellow workers. Cambodian trade union leader Chea Vichea who was murdered in 2004 in broad daylight is the most famous of these brave Cambodians.

I remember watching a documentary a long time ago on the incredibly brave and tenacious South Korean women labour activists who were beaten, had feaces thrown at them etc.

In one incident

"In August 1979, 200 young women employees of the Y.H. Textile and Wig factory staged a peaceful vigil and fast to protest the company's closure of their plant. On the fifth day of the vigil, more than 1,000 riot police, armed with clubs and steel shields, broke into the building and forcibly dragged the women out. One 21-year-old worker was killed during the incident. It was her death that touched off widespread rioting throughout South Korea and crystallized the opposition that eventually forced President Park Chung Hee out."

Source: "Women in the Fray"

The struggles of the women activist have been documented as facilitating (1) the rise of the opposition consciousness, (2) the growth of radical ideology, (3) the mobilization and consolidation of opposition groups, and (4) the expansion of the concept of human rights and democracy.

These mainly blue-collared women protestors transformed how labour issues are viewed in South Korea: now as political problems to be taken seriously by the government. Some of these women also became labour full-time activists. They laid the foundation for the waves of protests in June 1987 in South Korea, when white-collared workers such as journalists and teachers demanded democracy. The nationwide protests put an end to the tyrannical rule of Chun Du-hwan's regime and opened a new chapter in South Korea's contemporary history.

So you can see, if true to its cause or raison d'être (reason for being), trade unions can be a very powerful tool for democracy.

But trade unions can also be subverted for personal gain. I had the opportunity to speak with a senior member of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Phnom Penh who explained to me that things are not always what they seem. In garment factories in Cambodia, for example, there are fake labour unions that are really mafia gangs who try to extort money from company owners.

Some men (it's always the men; i think because women don't have the courage. I think this is one of the reasons why many factories choose not to employ men, seeing them as potential trouble-makers) see a trade union achieve small wins in the factory and decide to form their own gang. Of course this undermines the real trade union and now, there is internal fighting as well as the fight with the company owners. At stake is money.

There is much to say about trade unions, and I'll have to pick up on the topic another day.

I had only wanted to tell readers about Labour Start and the contest for the Labour Photo of the Year but as usual I get distracted. So far, 97 photos have been submitted. (You can see them on Flickr) and the deadline is 1 Oct. You can send any questions about this competition to Derek Blackadder - canada@labourstart.org

Over two-thirds of world's illiterate are found in just 8 countries

2009-09-27T18:49:00.003+07:00

(World Literacy Map, UN Human Development Report via wikipedia).

While researching for a story on education in Cambodia I came across this:

According to CIA World Factbook, "over two-thirds of the world's 785 million illiterate adults are found in only eight countries (Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Pakistan). Of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women. Extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, the Arab states, South and West Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate."

A number of the Bloom women are illiterate, which is unsurprising, since we employ middle-aged women who were young children during the Khmer Rouge era. But the country has made improvements.

The 1998 Census adult (people over the age of 15) literacy rates were estimated at 76.25 per cent for men and 45.98 per cent for women.

Today, overall adult literacy rate is 74% while youth literacy (people between 15 and 25) is 83% (UNESCO figures, data taken over a 5 year period, from 2000-2004). More adult men are literate, 85% compared with 64% of adult women; and more young men, 88% are literate, compared with 79% of young women. Source.

This is unsurprising, because when money is short, it is the boys who parents choose to send to school. Many young Khmer women are forced to stop their education and instead help out in the house or get a job.

21 Sept: Peace One Day

2009-09-27T15:04:00.001+07:00

I am ashamed to say I have not heard of the global "Peace One Day" initiative until this morning. I am so glad I caught this BBC documentary "The Day After Peace" and I really recommend you watch the entire show here on youtube. It's remarkable what one single individual can achieve if you persist. Most of us have strong beliefs, even dreams, but don't have the will to see out our beliefs.

"Peace One Day" is the idea of one British man, Jeremy Gilley, who against all odds, manages to create an annual global "Peace Day", where all fighting would stop, just for one day. The day is not just symbolic, but pragmatic - when the fighting stops, food and medicine can reach the victims of war; people can have a breather from the daily uncertainty of whether they'd get bombed or killed; and just that one day of peace may ignite a desire for more such days.

The BBC show charts Gilley's remarkable journey and how difficult it was to get a ceasefire, anywhere in the world, just for one day. His idea for a global day of peace started in 1998 at a WOMAD music festival. He learnt that a UN resolution would be the best way to establish this global day. His persistence paid off. In 2001, the UN adopted a resolution to have a day of peace.

The biggest success took place in Afghanistan in 2007. Helped by the British actor Jude Law, Jeremy Gilley managed to get agreements by the Afghan government, NATO, and the Taliban to stop fighting on the 21st Sept so that the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNICEF, and the Ministry of Public Health would be able to enter areas of the country that were otherwise inaccessible and to provide 1.4 million children with the polio vaccine.

It's a remarkable, remarkable journey and Jeremy Gilley: "I salute you". I have not been so inspired in a long time.

Palm Leaf Dog - handmade in Cambodia by Bloom!

2009-09-25T12:39:00.002+07:00

Check out this cutie! I am so pleased with this cute doggy which was fashioned out of dried palm leaves by one of the Bloom staff members. I had bought a Chinese handicraft book on weaving and another one on Chinese knots to inspire the women and one of them succeeded in making this! We stuck on the eyes with scotch tape because we weren't sure how to create the eyes - marker drawn or button eyes. We'll keep experimenting. What do you think?

If money is no object, you may prefer Vivaterra's Recycled Rover, made out of corded recycled newspaper for a cool USD$129.

Bloom Puppy will cost less than 5% of Recycled Rover. If there is demand for our puppy, it will be another income-generating project for the villagers. Yay!

How to make coconut (and watermelon!) wine

2009-09-21T22:33:00.000+07:00

I just found this! I like wine. By the way, I have no idea what Sauterne wine yeast is and if anyone can buy some as well as acid blend and Campden tablet, please let me know where from. Better yet, if you succeed in making this, please send me a bottle. Heck I'll settle for a glass :) I believe in vino veritas!

From winemaking.jackkeller.net:

COCONUT WINE

1 lb dried coconut
1 lb rice
1 lb pitted dates
2-1/2 lbs granulated sugar
1-1/4 tsp acid blend
1 tsp yeast nutrient
1 gallon water
Sauterne wine yeast

Bring 1 quart water to boil and add rice; boil for 3 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the dates and mix then with the coconut in a boiler. Strain the rice, adding the water from it to the boiler containing the coconut and chopped dates. Bring to a boil and hold for 15 minutes. Strain the water over the sugar, yeast nutrients and acid blend and stir until dissolved completely. Allow to cool to room temperature, transfer to primary and add activated yeast. Cover and ferment until initially vigorous fermentation subsides, then transfer to secondary and attach an airlock. After 3 months, rack into clean secondary with crushed and dissolved Campden tablet, top up and refit airlock. Wait 3 additional months and rack, top up and refit airlock again. After additional month, stabilize, sweeten if desired and rack into bottles. [Adapted from recipe by C.J.J. Berry]

What a great site. There is even a Watermelon wine recipe!

Acid n Peppery beef noodles from China

2009-09-21T18:53:00.001+07:00

I buy instant noodles because they are easy to cook and handy when I'm hungry. I know it's bad for health because of all the preservatives and what not but I am lazy and a lousy cook to boot. I love 麻辣火锅 "ma la huo guo" (literally "sesame and chili hotpot") and still drool when I think of 水煮鱼 "shui zhu yu" (literally "water cook fish"), a Sichuan dish I had in Beijing. Don't let the second name fool you, "water cook fish" is a dish with slices of tender fish cooked in chili oil, with a whole lot of chili on top. It is very, very spicy but my mouth is watering as I type this. I am Singaporean and we like our chili! Sadly, you can get "ma la huo guo" in Singapore but not "shui zhu yu"...

So I was excited when I found this at Lucky Supermarket. On the packet of the instant noodles it says The Flavours of Yunnan China- I've never been to Yunnan so was interested. The flavours I chose were "hong shao niu rou" 红烧牛肉 (red braised beef) and "suan la niu rou" 酸辣牛肉 (sour and hot beef). In English, it said "Beef with Brown Sauce" and "Acid and Peppery Beef".

Fortunately I knew what the makers were trying to say with the acid beef but I did wonder if the name hurt sales...

Then today I visited a blog mandevu.net by another foreigner in Cambodia and he had a photo of a flashlight from China which said "powerful, weak, blinker, siren, amplifier, rechargeable, easiness schlep."

The writer was nonplussed, as I must say, I am. He makes a great note:

But I still marvel at how a word from a language spoken mainly by Jews of Eastern European origin (with speakers numbering a little over 3 million people) found its way onto a Chinese-made flashlight, and then into the hands of a police officer in rural Cambodia. No, it is not the first example of nifty global linkages which I have ever seen. But it is indeed one of my favorites.

Chinese babies stolen by officials for foreign adoption

2009-09-20T20:43:00.001+07:00

"The man from family planning liked to prowl around the mountaintop village, looking for diapers on clotheslines and listening for the cry of a hungry newborn. One day in the spring of 2004, he presented himself at Yang Shuiying's doorstep and commanded: 'Bring out the baby.'"

Very sad story from the LA Times:

"Since the early 1990s, more than 80,000 Chinese children have been adopted abroad, the majority to the United States...

"Parents who say their children were taken complain that officials were motivated by the $3,000 [about six times the annual income in rural China and usually handed over in new $100 bills] per child that adoptive parents pay orphanages.

"Our children were exported abroad like they were factory products," said Yang Libing, a migrant worker from Hunan province whose daughter was seized in 2005. He has since learned that she is in the United States."

The US government stopped allowing its citizens to adopt from Cambodia since 2001, citing concerns over Cambodia's "child welfare" (read: "child trafficking") system. Here is a 2007 update from Cambodia adoption connection:

"Cambodia has begun this process with its accession to the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption in March 2007. However, the U.S. Government continues to wait for Cambodia to take further steps towards Convention implementation as well as to make progress on updating its overall child welfare system. The U.S. Government will continue to urge Cambodian officials to develop significant and much needed reforms that could eventually lay the groundwork for a resumption of intercountry adoptions between Cambodia and the United States."

One of my friends is unable to go back to the US with a few of her adopted Cambodian children because of this ban on Cambodian adoptions.

Australian Idol did not see a cent of estimated $3m profit

2009-09-20T20:13:00.003+07:00

Australian Idol winner had Australia's highest selling album of 2007 but got nothing from the estimated $3 million profit. dailytelegraph.com.au. via reddit. Do I have to say it? This is one of the reasons why some people disagree with copyright laws. We are told to buy original because the creator, in this case Damien Leith (and don't tell me the studio is the creator - what would they create if his voice was not part of the album? People buy the album primarily for Damien Leith, not the session players, the recording studio etc). How does buying a record in this case support the artiste?

Kro-lyiang - a Cambodian berry

2009-09-20T19:47:00.005+07:00

I was offered some "krolyiang" the other day. The whole bag pictured costs just 500riels or USD0.125 cents. It's a kind of furry berry which is rather tasteless. The fur feels weird on your tongue. It is very small, and has a hard seed. It looks like the wolfberry/枸杞(gou qi) but I'm not sure. I tried to google to find the English name but had no luck.

I did find this interesting site listing tropical fruits by scientific name. Many of the links have photos so I had an interesting browse. Click on Morus Nigra or Black Mulberry - it looks like a stubby caterpillar!

Anyway, the tree must be common enough. There is even a market here in Siem Reap, Psar dum krolyiang, which is named after the fruit tree. If anyone knows its English name, please let me know :)