Scents and sensibility

The ‘Golden Champa” Chanel’s secret ingredient or Ladakh’s secret to keep? 

My ears pricked up immediately on hearing about India’s decision last week for direct rule of Kashmir.  I once had some remote (very remote of course) involvement with Ladakh and some good people there.  There are mixed views as ever on India’s move but one thing I do recall is how honourable and ethical were our erstwhile Ladakhi colleagues. That’s something very rare in Cambodia.

St Helena - Free Yourself from Mental Slavery

The BBC World Service airs some brilliant shows. One today (8 August 2019) surrounds the topic of Bob Marley’s “Songs of Redemption”.

It gave me “Emancipate Yourself from Mental Slavery” the final hook needed to complete my long-held contention about why the UK constantly fails in its efforts to make Saint Helena Island self-sufficient.

The Rise and Fall of Public Service

Ealing Town Hall

My UK public service career began here in 1970 as a pre-graduate experience placement. In 1974 I joined Surrey County Council, moving on to Devon County Council in 1975 and to Dorset County Council in 1978 where dealing with “Social Services” was the biggest challenge.  I left for overseas life and work in 1985, going to St Helena; Saudi Arabia, Malawi and Rwanda before settling in SE Asia working mainly in Cambodia. My profession and training is in “organisational development” and “human resources” - how to obtain the best performances from people.  I retired from full-time work in June 2016, only to encounter maladministration at Northumberland County Council.

Update June 2022 - it seems I am not the only one to have misgivings about the way Northumberland Council was operating. Belated Vindication? Please see this article, latest update below and links to reports. The main report makes graphic and sad reading.

Please see the sequel to this blog and my website entry - the case for better public service everywhere also published here.

Bournemouth Dorset 1984

Mr Ricketts couldn’t believe his luck.  He’d asked for a pay rise and got twice as much as he’d asked for.  His trade union representative Mr Watson beamed approvingly: “Never” he said  ”Never has his union won a pay upgrade by two whole grades”.  Mrs Bicknell chairing the Appeals Committee addressed all three of us. “We don’t care what the rules are supposed to be.  We are correcting an injustice and that is our job as elected Councillors.”

The Unlikely Foreign Aid Worker

A follow-up to my most popular Blog “Smarter Aid, not More Aid”.

Play on words. Cambodia is known as the Kingdom of Wonder but because of corruption this is changed to Kingdom of Plunder. This is the default position in human resources management where seldom does the best person get the job.

Life can be strange.  Although things can work out as expected for people, often they don’t.  We see that there are some born to follow family traditions. Sometimes we also see children who harbour very early keen ambitions for what they want to do in life, and they adopt clear study and career paths.  For others opportunism matters more than a concerted plan.  Then there are a few of us – Lally Brown is one - who have discarded sensible plans to let fate take its course.

Time and Tide Waits for No Man

Marooned on the Holy Island Causeway

Please click on this link to enjoy the full video.

If there is one thing in Northumberland that reminds me of parallels in Cambodia it is the Holy Island crossing, where fools never cease to try beating the tide and end up marooned in mid-sea.  Even a Buddhist monk in this video defies his Karma as if to allow me to make my connection here with Cambodia.

MFI micro-credit can increase poverty, not help to solve it.

I have written the contents of this blog for the World Bank's Inspection Panel. They contacted me, to my surprise, in response to several of my Twitter postings where I complained about the World Bank's inaction. I am very pleased that they did. Most Tweets were in relation to the treatment of community activist Tep Vanny whose land disputes should have been resolved after an Inspection Panel's previous report. In fact she continued to be detained by authorities for maintaining her community's protest. Next to her case I criticized the way Micro-Finance Institutions were operating in Cambodia in increasing rather than alleviating poverty: “MFI's have lost their way”. By chance our journalist colleague David Hutt released an article this week making much the same points.

August 2019 - please see in-depth analysis by LICADHO on how and why MFI malpractice is posing a danger to so many poor Cambodians. The issue aroused more controversy in July 2020 when Acleda Bank and the Khmer Times weighed-in. (See updates below)

Cambodia Election 2018: Neither Free nor Fair nor Credible.

Takhmau Cambodia the CPP Election Post nearest our house. Please note the Church poster. I tweeted that what it depicted might be apt for what CPP did to the Opposition CNRP party but had they overlooked that after the crucification came the resurrection?

For more photographs capturing the "atmosphere" please visit John Brown's album.

Cambodia in the modern era, since the Paris Peace Accords of 1991, and its subsequent new democratic constitution, has had national elections every five years since 1993 as well as local commune elections. Until the National Assembly election in July 2018, every election was fought competitively - if not fairly - by the ruling and opposition parties with the processes subjected to scrutiny by reputable international election observers.

This year, however, the only real challenging opposition party, was dissolved and banned from participating, accused by the ruling party of fomenting a colour revolution to overthrow it and risking a return to conflict.