The Northumbrian Abroad

Well, here we are! I succumbed.  Rather than blogging on other people's sites, I have decided to have my own.  Why?  Well like most of us, I think I have something to say and some folks out there may be interested.  I quite often find especially with larger media, that they tend to want things expressed in their own way, imposing a kind of censorship.  Well this is the pure unadultered me!  As a person who comes from a distinct part of the world, betwixt the warring English and Scots, I think we have our special characteristics.  Those stand us in good stead when plodding around the world.  So I like to compare and contrast situations at home or in the past but within living memory, with those encountered in the developing world.  My blogs delve in to some intricate details as does my website.         

My "Alnwickdotes" are of course anecdotes, usually lighter stories of things that have happened over the years.  Please go to the link below for a quick-list. Most still have a development connection.  Over time, I will write up more of them, as well as blog on any subject in my areas of interest trending on social media.  I explain the term Alnwickdote in No 1 in the series. One clue is Alnwick may be the "most mispronounced place-name in the UK".

Alnwick Castle and the Lion Bridge                         

My life journey briefly has taken me far in to the distance from Alnwick Northumberland (and back)  to Leicester; Kingston-upon-Thames, Exeter, Dorchester, Saint Helena Island, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Malawi, Rwanda and Cambodia plus many stops on the way. You can access my latest CV hereI m I must warn you, and maybe apologize in advance? I do tend to rant; rave, groan and moan, perhaps a North-Eastern attribute, but then who would not want to associate with the High Level Ranters?  (For the uninitiated, this great band was called after one of the 5 Bridges now 7 that grace the River Tyne in Newcastle, made famous by the Nice.) Their equally talented and humorous peers, the band Lindisfarne, are more famous - lads I met in Kingston before they were rich and famous! (The Fog on the Thames was all wors!).

Actually, as my blogs show, there is not so much difference between life in cities like Newcastle and Phnom Penh, despite the passage of time and distance.  Listen to my chum Chris Minko and his great Cambodian girl singers in Sin City. Just like Eric Burdon and the Animals "We gotta get out of this place"?

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.

My background picture is of Longhoughton Quarry Pond.  I see it every day when I crank up the computer!  When we grew up, the pond was small but a constant source of fascination with the fishes, frogs, and newts. Apart from a few fishermen, few people seem to go to enjoy its beauty*.  Maybe that is because one thing has not changed.  There may be still explosive charges to extract the stone.  Many years later when in Malawi, Africa, I recalled instantly those days.  Young Pioneers.......

* PS - Well that was until Vera visited! (A TV detective show set in and around #northumberland Great Tweet of her in Amble here 15 June 2018.  I've taken the liberty of borrowing the photograph too.

About Me

The inaugural AGM of the new local NGO for indigenous people in Mondulkiri, Cambodia. I am a bit too centre-stage for my liking, but they like it!

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.

Why public services aren't working

My letter to the new British Prime Minister.  

Please email me for the enclosures or look them up on my personal website.

                                                                                                                                        6 August 2026

The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP,

Prime Minister,

10 Downing Street,

London, SW1A 2AA

Dear Prime Minister

If I may I wish to add my personal perspective on how and why public services in UK are just not working.

Monumental failure! Or Working Perfectly?

 

Cambodia's has its much vaunted local network of officials down to sub-village-level everywhere.

And yet it is not only hundreds of scam compounds that somehow eluded their notice but in fact even everyday occurrences. Is it deliberate selective “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”?

 Splendid Isolation

Sometimes the mundane tells you a lot. There I sit in splendid isolation sipping my Lao Beer. Just a few weeks ago this was was the most popular convenience store in Takhmau. I'd have been lucky to get a seat most hours of the day or night. Even if I found a seat I'd have been surrounded by noodle-slurping, smartphone-wielding, game-playing youngsters. 

Now they're all gone.

Is Encouraging Voters to Vote from Abroad Good?

 In this commentary, John Lowrie explores how Cambodia is making strides in enfranchising its diaspora, while the UK’s experience highlights the challenges of low participation, the role of an independent electoral commission, and advocacy efforts like the British Overseas Voters Forum

Hun Manet shows his inked finger after a vote on July 23, 2023. Kiripost/Siv Channa

Published on:

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 - 8:48 AM(GMT+7)

Disclaimer: The commentary published is contributed by the author and does not represent the views or opinions of Kiripost Media. The publication of this commentary does not constitute endorsement of its content by Kiripost or its staff

By John Lowrie

Local media in Cambodia has reported that the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) is celebrating its OverseasYouth Wing, which has more than 160,000 members. We can't know, of course, how many there are in similar opposition party groups abroad given current barriers to them forming and operating.

In general, however, encouraging people of all ages to participate in democracy and political affairs should be encouraged, along with equal protection afforded to those with dissenting opinions.

Cambodia or SCAMbodia?

 

Tat Marina, a victim of human rights abuse - attacked with acid, before and after images.

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.

Excellent video here (May 2026), also forlatest updates visit this monitoring site.

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.

What has changed in recent years has been the sheer scale of these kind of criminal enterprises. For those unfamiliar with the scams, an excellent round-up is given by Danielle Keeton Olsen. There are also good features by Al Jazeera and the BBC. Danielle makes a most obvious point. It is humble “beat journalists” who have exposed these crimes, not any of the numerous expensive “technical experts” in Foreign Aid “co-operation” projects, of which there have been many in Cambodia's justice sector over the last 30 years. Of course the most expensive of those was for the Khmer Rouge trial.

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?

I am very appreciative that Mr Chan Thul Prak and Kiripost decided to post my article and was happy for them to abridge and edit it to meet their specifications.  In Cambodia there are few media outlets now brave enough to accept such critical pieces. That alone is a sign of the times and why many of us, Cambodians brave like Gaffar, and foreigners - dedicated to a better fairer Cambodia - must accept failure. Ideas for positive change are rejected outright, or they are tacitly accepted but then undermined.  

However some readers might like to see my original with its extra notes and the links to the various sources used.  So here it is:

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
Anniversaries

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.....

Very often people ask me “What keeps you going?”  There is no doubt that work in the “Aid and Development” industry is a struggle and frustrating. Just ask Nate!

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?

The Prince’s Cubby Hole

https://www.knightfrank.com.kh/offices/prince-phnom-penh-tower

This blog is a sequel to one about:
the saga of dealing with the UK Home Office and its "brimful of brilliant people."

The British Embassy and Ambassador uses the title “UK in Cambodia” for its social media.  I wonder though if there’s much more Cambodianess going in to Britishness than the other way round?  I often muse about this whenever I see the remarkable efforts and sacrifices made to drum-up trade compared to what at one time would have been our once top British values – democracy, good governance, and human rights. I suppose “When in Rome do as the Romans do” is being applied along with “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”.

From Riches to Rags

Schools and Schooling/Trust and Abuse

It’s Pchum Ben in Cambodia the annual festival to remember ancestors.  My sleep has been disturbed by the partying from the night before that faded-out just as the very early morning chants began from the Buddhist pagodas.  I had the radio on but the BBC World Service was repeating a programme I’d heard before. There was still two hours to go until dawn and breakfast.  I was wide awake, so embarked upon one of those streams of consciousness you try to drift off to sleep.

Kept from House and Home

The UK Home Office gave my wife just two weeks to get out of the UK in November 2021 as soon as it abolished its Red List of countries for Covid19 travel restrictions. That meant both of us kicked out as it would be grossly unfair for the wife to travel alone. It did this irrespective of circumstances in the UK with the Omicron variant surging at that time; those en route or in Cambodia, and her Covid vaccination status that it ruled as "irrelevant". See Note 1 below.

An Alnwick chum beaten out of house and home

Most people never wonder what it is like to have to leave home. We mostly assume that we will be able to return and to be welcome back.  We expect to resume life as it was before our foray away. 

Community Organising Globally – Saving and Enhancing Lives

Your members and supporters might like to hear how the same devotion and skills that they apply in their communities are very effective abroad.  They are perhaps the best way for Foreign Aid interventions to succeed.

As the title in one of my blogs states I am an “Unlikely Aid Worker”.

When sparks fly 

Last month Cambodia's irrepressible young people discussed consumer rights in the country.  It seems there are efforts underway to begin to correct a persistent wrong over many years, one that I actually spoke about back in 2005 "Doing Business in Cambodia."

Well, after an altercation this week with Cambodia's monopoly Electricity Company (EdC) - that proclaims "high quality" and "best productive services" - you can see how much not only the legislative and regulatory frameworks must change but also the basic culture.

Exasperating donors

Dealing with Daft Donors

We can all be exasperated or exasperating. Whistle-blowers of course encounter both.

Public Service: no way; on its way, or lost its way?

In life things go round in circles, don't they? We keep seeing the same things happen over again. This is a sequel to my blog the “Rise and Fall of Public Service”.  Please also see my website entry - the case for better public service everywhere also published here.

Roll out the Barrel!

What ales you, man? (An Alnwickdote)

Roll out Watney's Red Barrel [Video]

When Bob Caldwell told us “You must be one of the boys”, he didn't add that we'd be having our first beer of the day at the unearthly hour of 4.45 am. If you were lucky – unlucky if you're a normal mortal – you'd have two more before going for your greasy-spoon bacon-and-egg breakfast at 6.00am. Some days you'd be off again for two more “turns” and that could mean 6-8 more pints by knocking-off time at noon.

Mekong: Dam, Sand and Blast: Confluence of Calamities

Tonle Sap Bottleneck comparison - Sept 2019 vs 2020

Forward by Brian Eyler Published on Sep 18, 2020

Prior to 2020, the 2019 wet season was one of the driest on record. The annual reversal of the Tonle Sap in Cambodia was severely delayed in 2019 but low rainfall plus upstream dam regulation (mostly from China's 11 mainstream Mekong dams) have totally erased the annual reversal of the Tonle Sap for 2020. This comparative image compares two extremely dry late September images. Remember September 25, 2019 was comparatively very year, so the flooding you see in the 2019 image is at a very low level compared to normal conditions. The September 16, 2020 image shows the Tonle Sap bottleneck at much lower levels - in fact, this is what the Tonle Sap bottleneck looks like for much of the Mekong's dry season which runs from December to May annually.

Click here for my website entry of the same name

Geography was always my favourite subject at school. I didn't like other subjects so was delighted with my Grade A at “A” level, the university-entrance examinations in the UK. Human and physical geography have remained of great interest and relevance throughout my overseas career.