prahkeitouj wrote:Thanks Samouth and Soi Dog for your contribution. Many young people don't him.

I think there are so many important and sensitive things that we were not taught at school. This is pretty sad though. I hope more Cambodians youth will love reading.

I hope so, samouth

taabarang wrote:Thank you both very much for your honest replies and Sanouth a special thanks for a detailed and lengthy description. I shall reply later when I have more time with what the jas jas in our village have to say about their experience here.

Talking about an interesting thread that leaves on wanting to read more.

Cheers,
BobH

"It's all foma!" -- KV

[quote="Samouth"][quote="prahkeitouj"]Oh sorry for late to reply, taabarang.

If you talk with old people, they will say that 7 January was their second birthday. I was born later than 1979 so what I knew is from listening, watching and reading. my parents told me that If we haven't had that day we would have never seen the world again..."

I'm just going to add a few observations to what you said. Indeed. most of the older locals who survived have that gratitude, but it stops there. People no longer did communal farming, but were given land according to the size of the family; they did not get their old plots back. In fact my in-laws and others tried to buy back their former fields or obtain new ones equal in quality to their old holdings. Secondly, they were liberated in January and the warehouses or wherever the rice was stored were burned down-by the Khmer Rouge or the Vietnamese, no one knows. So, those who had hidden gold ate and the rest scrounged as best they could. If they had family members working in Phnom Penh sometimes they could access essentials such as soap or things that could be traded like perfume. When the liberation forces left for Vietnam on Nat. route 7, the procession of military vehicles was followed by civilian vehicles full of EVERYTHING usable that had been plundered by the military. In short, the saying in our village which is used to describe the difference between the Pol Pot regime and the Vietnamese occupation forces is this, "Different car, same driver. The kinder, gentler face of communism failed.