Anchor Moy wrote:Roz, I think you didn't get much in the way of an answer here because this has been discussed many times on these forums, and there doesn't seem to be a good answer except that it's a case by case individual thing.

Personally, I would not feel comfortable giving anyone else advice on what they should do.It is a tough subject to comment on - ie; how should you react if you are witness to scenes of violence - particularly Khmer on Khmer. Whatever you say, someone will tell you that you are wrong - for sure.

However, since you just arrived in Cambodia more or less, and I don't mind being told I'm wrong, I'll tell you what I think about the subject and hope that will be some help to you.

In western culture, when you see a man beating a woman with a stick you will probably feel that it is your moral duty to intervene - so either you will do so directly, or you will call the police and expect them to sort it out.
In Cambodia, you will probably not call the police; even if you knew the number to call, they will probably not respond or they will turn up and give you the shit. (FWIW, I have never tried this, so it's just what I've heard.)

So, that leaves you with direct intervention. There are a number of problems with this, especially if you do not know the language or the situation.
The first very real problem is that you might get beaten up. The woman may also turn around and attack you for beating her man.
The second one is that you may have totally misunderstood the situation - perhaps the woman just ran over the guy's kid and killed it or did something even worse - this puts you in a bad position to say the least.

Yet another problem is that even if you jump in and save this woman, what are you going to do as a follow-up? Are you going to adopt her and take her home? Assuming she would want to go. Or are you going to leave her there to get beaten up even worse when you leave because you made the guy lose face ? Or if the guy goes to jail because of this, are you prepared to support the woman and her family?

If the woman concerned is a neighbour and the problem is on-going then perhaps you could help. You could also make contact with an appropriate local NGO and learn how you can help if you see this again, or if you can support them.

So, Roz, I guess you can see now why you didn't get much imput on this. Some people will say kick his ass and others will say get the hell out - there is no good answer IMO.

So these are just my thoughts for what they're worth. This does not mean that you should never intervene, and maybe you will even if it's unwise because you feel you have to. I have no idea what i would have done in your case, but I'm not you and it's difficult to say how you will react until you are on the spot.
We all do what we can...
or or ...