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?”

Sometimes the questions are qualified or illustrated by something the questioner has seen, heard, or read about in the news, that has caught their attention.

Unfortunately news of Cambodia has too often been of the bad kind. Even today it can be quirky. News of the UK in Cambodia, apart from the Premier League, tends to come from dealings involving the British Embassy.

The Covid pandemic stimulated many such questions with our British and Cambodian friends. With them we encounter very different perceptions. We know “where people are coming from”, how they are influenced. Both respective governments and the usual “experts” present events and situations ion their own way, to manipulate things, ostensibly for the good of their populations and their own good.

We left Cambodia for the UK in March 2021 just as the news of the Covid virus emerged from Wuhan in China. In fact I thought that our trip, a regular one planned for a long time, would be cancelled. As the UK was slow to react and impose travel restrictions, our trip went ahead OK, but our planned return to Cambodia three months later was held up for 18 months.

Oddly, when we did leave UK in December 2021, we had to do so just as the Omicron variation was beginning to surge in London. The virus itself, otherwise still high, was in retreat whereas Covid was actually growing in South East Asia. Fortunately this was not so in Cambodia. It had and has done remarkably well by comparison with much of the world and indeed advanced countries with better health services.

There has been one much repeated statement we've kept hearing, meant to evoke replies:

You're better off over there!

It was said of us to us when we were in the UK and just as often vice-versa when back in Cambodia. Exceptionally the opposite was said or inferred. “You'd be better off.... here!”

Now Covid might have initiated more of such a debate but actually it is a perennial one generally. Itinerants like us are always viewed with some curiosity, aren't we?

Whether they “You're better off there!” or here, they do expect a reply that confirms their observation.

It is actually quite hard to make a proper judgement either way. Specific situations do vary but one thing does stand out, The world is changing. The old order no longer holds and with it the perceptions that go with it.

When in the UK we hear the contrasting messages – on the one hand “our National Health Service (NHS) is wonderful!” Yet on the other hand, they're matched with grumbles about long waiting lists to see a doctor or for treatment to begin. The reality is no matter how much poorer the NHS is these days, it is far far better than public health services in countries like Cambodia.

Some aspects of comparative life in the two nations are less clear or the exact opposite.

Both public and commercial customer services in UK in my view are infinitely poorer than they were in the past. Many of them are now poorer than equivalents in Cambodia. Of course the main reason for this is the cost of labour. People are paid much more in UK even if it less than their worth. It helps to explain surliness manifested at times. In Cambodia, despite staff being badly-paid it is rare not to be greeted by a warm welcome and smiles. (Mind you as Cambodia's King Sihanouk (who I had the privilege of meeting) remarked and I once described, a smile can be deceiving.

Few people in UK smile about their banks. Banks and branches are closing everywhere. They're even reducing the number of ATMs. The root cause of the loss of these services is more internet banking and cashless digital payments. By contrast in Cambodia the banks and branches are proliferating as are STMs, at least for now, as the economy grows. There too cashless payments are on the increase as are money transfers by mobile phones. So it may well go the same way as the UK in due course. For now we should enjoy the great customer service, branches packed with cashiers and staff available and willing to help you.

Customer service in the hospitality trade in the two countries is even more marked. In the UK there is both a shortage of labour and an effort to operate with minimal staff-levels. Venues are short-staffed while trying trying to operate with minimal staff-levels to keep down costs. In Cambodia, there are always a lot of staff floating around. The only thing is whereas a few years ago they would give you undivided attention, overbearing at times, these days you'll need to give them a call. You need to divert them from their obsessive peering in to their mobile phones.

Politics are where you see the greatest differences in perceptions, realities and manipulations.

I would be hard-pressed to say which countries leaders are worst, as they all tend to mislead and to portray things in their own favour. They're also equally sophisticated at manipulating media both conventional and social. None of them like criticism or being held to account.

In Cambodia, sadly lives and liberty are still lost merely for opposing the government. Corruption is endemic. I am fare from alone in one remark. Corrupt payments are elicited from birth, throughout schooling and working life, and right on to the end-of-life and the funeral. Yes, your mother has to pay formal and informal fees to give birth to you. Your family has to pay extra for your teacher to teach you. You have to pay some form of commission or for “essential documentation” in order to get or keep a job. Then when your time is up, more money must be found to dispatch you on your way.

Corruption exists in UK but it is much less obvious, and thankfully for emergency services never a barrier to get help. You're unlikely to come to much harm for your beliefs, although those who disagree might find that officialdom does things to your detriment. There are supposed to be checks and balances to prevent such conduct but they tend not to work.

Whistleblowers in both countries - everywhere - suffer.

So there you are. The other man's grass might be greener or not.

On balance I would say UK despite its faults is still a better country in which to live than Cambodia, but not everywhere for all.

However if you examine future trajectories, the UK does appear to be on a slow decline, whereas Cambodia in overall is on the up.

So maybe those of us who spend our lives in both countries enjoy the best of both worlds.