You can go to my Google Drive for some of my Classic Photographs - this is a work-in-progress that I started in August 2017. Takhmau, Cambodia is now the place I have lived in longest, as you can see by the "Takhmau Girls" who have served my beer or over the years.
ANorthumbrianAbroad
Linking life and times of Northumberland with Cambodia, Saint Helena and the developing world. More in https://www.johnlowrie.uk
The Northumbrian Abroad
You can go to my Google Drive for some of my Classic Photographs - this is a work-in-progress that I started in August 2017. Takhmau, Cambodia is now the place I have lived in longest, as you can see by the "Takhmau Girls" who have served my beer or over the years.
About Me
I am of course a long-time worker in international community development and human rights, but have come a long way from my Northumbrian origins. In this blog, you'll find more stories and details than in my website.
Cambodia or SCAMbodia?
Foreword: Jargon-Warner. “Human Trafficking” is just one of a variety of phrases that have come in to common use in Foreign Aid as have acronyms. Some of us complain about it, as along with the post-graduate level of English used, it means that what is said is not easily understood by many in the general population; and for most for where English is not their first language. The terms can be hard to convey in their languages. Human trafficking now encompasses any kind of abuse of people who have been forced or tricked in to leaving home to make money for basic needs. That is quite clear for workers including those in “modern-day slavery”. Less obvious it is also used for sex work.
A more illustrative and extended version of this blog can be accessed on my website.
https://www.johnlowrie.uk/scams-perpetrated-in-and-from-cambodia
.......oooOooo......
A regular feature in my Blogs and Twitter/X postings is how often in my 26 years of Cambodia we see the same issues cropping-up, or reappearing after we thought that the “problems” had been addressed. It's why we have perpetual Foreign Aid when of course it is supposed to be a temporary intervention.
Indeed I make the point that for some country leaders, there is a greater vested interest in not solving problems. Donor funding only comes if there are problems. Nowhere is that more obvious than in Human Trafficking where it pays both to create and facilitate the problems and to “mobilise” resources to solve them, again and again.
The lifelong birth-right denied and an unfulfilled exit
Gaffar Peang-Meth 1944-2022 |
This is not only a dedication to the late Professor Gaffar Peang-Meth but also an indictment of the current Cambodian Government. Gaffar all of his life wanted a better fairer Cambodia. He sought to accomplish it as a diplomat, warrior, academic and policy advocate. An internet search of his name produces a wealth of writings not only as to how his aim could be achieved but also how troubles could have been avoided, and still could. Sadly his premature death meant Gaffar was denied seeing his ambitions fulfilled. He leaves the question though – can Cambodia afford to thwart the noble efforts of people like him exiled from Cambodia?
The Lifelong Birth-Right Denied and an Unfulfilled Exit
The homing instinct exists in many creatures not just human beings. It's a natural instinct most graphically observed with the Salmon and Turtle who somehow manage to return to find their exact birth-places across thousands of miles to spawn and even to end their days.
Human beings might not have to endure such physical feats but the yearning to return home can be just as strong. Some who have left their birth-places and “traveled each and every by-way” want to go home to see people and places of their early years. Others who have forged successful careers abroad want to go home with their skills and knowledge to share and to benefit their people. Many, however, just simply want to end their life where it began.
inspirations original
The humble Salmon - what a remarkable journey it makes with sheer dogged determination to return to where it was hatched, to spawn and die. Photographer Mike Smith similarly persisted. It took two years to capture this Northumbrian image at Hexham Bridge. This is a duplicate of the same blog here: Inspirations, lasting impressions The original blog title included "lasting impressions" but in 2022 I decided to pen a sequel because quite a lot of personal anniversaries are coming up. Some are most significant - my graduation in 1973 followed by a decade later my departure from UK to live and work abroad. (I talk more about this in a recent blog.) One more is 25 years in Cambodia in January 2023. Anyway here is the original blog with the sequel added at the end. .....ooo0oooo..... |
Over there? Over here?
A discourse on perceptions, manipulations, and realities. Note my blog banner above.
Those of us who spend our lives in more than country tend to be asked the same questions.
“What is it like there?” Or “Why do stay there?”
Cambodia 25 years on: Leadership Without Regrets
Do you remember Cambodia's 1998 elections and the post-election violent crackdown? Yes, of course I do and for more reasons than most. Apart from the fact that I had worked to help make sure the elections took place, I also witnessed live-fire on protesters including two badly injured maybe dead monks by Wat Langka pagoda. |
It’s hard to believe but it is now 25 years since I landed
in Cambodia. I had left Rwanda and was
supposed to be on my way to Haiti. Fate
however intervened. I saw a job in the
Cambodia Daily one day, applied for it and started work the next day. I joined the work of Human Rights from the fields
of Human Resources and Development.
Sadly I have to say that 25 years on, the work of Human Rights Defenders in Cambodia is needed as much today as it was 25 years ago – more so in some areas, less so in some. Why is this?