General Mackevili wrote:Have any Westerners had any repercussions for speaking out here? If so, what's the worst you've heard?

I think the Daily's been threatened with a defamation suit a few times, though I don't think they've ever carried through. There was the Chutt Wuthy incident, which wasn't really govt targeting a media critic, but nevertheless some EL reporters were there and somebody got dead for it. The Global Witness people I think have been banned from travel to Cambodia for what they wrote. There are also occasional off-handed implicatively threatening remarks by officials, but nothing ever seems to come of it.

General Mackevili wrote:

LTO wrote:There are also occasional off-handed implicatively threatening remarks by officials, but nothing ever seems to come of it.

Well, that's good news, I guess.

Or at least... no one ever reports on it if it does... lol.

Another book review:



Miracle or mirage?

HE’s Cambodia. By Sebastian Strangio. Yale University Press; 322 pages; $37.50 and £20. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

IN A speech he gave in 2006, Cambodia’s prime minister, HE, told his enemies about a particular talent of his. “Even if you farted, I would still know. You cannot hide from me.” What to make of such a boast? For one thing, as Sebastian Strangio, a journalist based in Phnom Penh, recounts in his book “HE’s Cambodia”, it hints at the mindset of a deeply insecure “peasant king” who, after almost 30 years on the political throne, still needs to remind people that he is in charge.

Mr HE’s reign has coincided with the country’s post-war recovery. He credits himself and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party with transforming the nation from the nightmare of the Khmers Rouges to the stable and business friendly economy it is today. This spin is part of a “mirage on the Mekong”, Mr Strangio writes, a jab at the naive “miracle on the Mekong” phrase that was bandied about during the elections in 1998. In Cambodia “accountability and change always lay on the horizon. But what seemed tangible from a distance, on closer inspection very often melted into thin air.”

Most books about this country tend to dwell on the Khmer Rouge years between 1975 and 1979, when nearly 2m people were killed in South-East Asia’s Great Leap Forward. Mr Strangio, who moved to Cambodia in 2008, devotes more attention to the recent past. As such, this is a dual biography: a portrait of the man alongside portraits of his people. Mr Strangio has done much original reporting, peeling away the miracle narrative to reveal the bruised fruit beneath. Although Mr HE presents himself as a saviour, he has met the demands of the international community on his own terms when they suited his interests; it is “democracy with Khmer characteristics”. The elections that were sponsored by the United Nations (UN) in 1993 were endured rather than embraced. Soon, the old “patterns” of factionalism and patronage came to the fore. Mr HE spent the next three elections consolidating, not sharing, power.

But, as the book shows, Mr HE’s ascent from country bumpkin to virtual deity, with little formal education, is remarkable. The former Khmer Rouge cadre was a somewhat unpromising 30-something with one eye—he lost the other in battle—when the Vietnamese installed him as prime minister in 1985. Mr HE was prime minister for roughly half of the ten-year Vietnamese occupation. In the UN-sponsored elections, Mr HE failed to win a majority, yet the chain-smoking strongman forced a power-sharing agreement with the winning party. Then, in 1997, he did away with its leadership as quickly as he flicked away the ash from his 555 brand of cigarettes. As Mr HE grew stronger, non-governmental organisations proliferated, and the mirage of progress really took hold. Mr Strangio accepts that poverty rates dropped, the economy grew and successful businesses abounded, such as Brown, a popular locally owned coffee chain, but he tends to see these as sideshows. The real business was being done by politically connected tycoons intent on exploiting Cambodia’s natural resources.

Everything, he says, is part of the “mirage”, a word that crops up repeatedly. Just as the government could not resist meddling with the UN mission, so too with the Khmer Rouge tribunal. Although two senior Khmer Rouge leaders were convicted in August, this followed years of interference and a fractious relationship between national and international staff at the hybrid court. In last year’s elections the ruling party lost a large number of seats to a young and re-energised opposition, but Mr Strangio has little to say about whether this really will prove to be a game-changer. Is this the real thing, or another mirage?

http://www.economist.com/news/books-and ... -or-mirage

I about to finish reading the Alex e-book, it seems he likes to talk about cooking and food. I am happy to pay for this author's book in PDF file if it costs less than 10 buck, pay via Paypal. I am cheap, I am broke, but I like to rea d.

Forget it. He is succumbed to publicity.

CEOCambodiaNews wrote:Another book review:


The former Khmer Rouge cadre was a somewhat unpromising 30-something with one eye—he lost the other in battle—when the Vietnamese installed him as prime minister in 1985.

Strangio argues precisely the opposite that all parties were greatly impressed with HE from the beginning, not sure the reviewer read the book.

CEOCambodiaNews wrote:Another book review:



Miracle or mirage?

HE’s Cambodia. By Sebastian Strangio. Yale University Press; 322 pages; $37.50 and £20. Buy from Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

IN A speech he gave in 2006, Cambodia’s prime minister, HE, told his enemies about a particular talent of his. “Even if you farted, I would still know. You cannot hide from me.” What to make of such a boast? For one thing, as Sebastian Strangio, a journalist based in Phnom Penh, recounts in his book “HE’s Cambodia”, it hints at the mindset of a deeply insecure “peasant king” who, after almost 30 years on the political throne, still needs to remind people that he is in charge.

Mr HE’s reign has coincided with the country’s post-war recovery. He credits himself and the ruling Cambodian People’s Party with transforming the nation from the nightmare of the Khmers Rouges to the stable and business friendly economy it is today. This spin is part of a “mirage on the Mekong”, Mr Strangio writes, a jab at the naive “miracle on the Mekong” phrase that was bandied about during the elections in 1998. In Cambodia “accountability and change always lay on the horizon. But what seemed tangible from a distance, on closer inspection very often melted into thin air.”

Most books about this country tend to dwell on the Khmer Rouge years between 1975 and 1979, when nearly 2m people were killed in South-East Asia’s Great Leap Forward. Mr Strangio, who moved to Cambodia in 2008, devotes more attention to the recent past. As such, this is a dual biography: a portrait of the man alongside portraits of his people. Mr Strangio has done much original reporting, peeling away the miracle narrative to reveal the bruised fruit beneath. Although Mr HE presents himself as a saviour, he has met the demands of the international community on his own terms when they suited his interests; it is “democracy with Khmer characteristics”. The elections that were sponsored by the United Nations (UN) in 1993 were endured rather than embraced. Soon, the old “patterns” of factionalism and patronage came to the fore. Mr HE spent the next three elections consolidating, not sharing, power.

But, as the book shows, Mr HE’s ascent from country bumpkin to virtual deity, with little formal education, is remarkable. The former Khmer Rouge cadre was a somewhat unpromising 30-something with one eye—he lost the other in battle—when the Vietnamese installed him as prime minister in 1985. Mr HE was prime minister for roughly half of the ten-year Vietnamese occupation. In the UN-sponsored elections, Mr HE failed to win a majority, yet the chain-smoking strongman forced a power-sharing agreement with the winning party. Then, in 1997, he did away with its leadership as quickly as he flicked away the ash from his 555 brand of cigarettes. As Mr HE grew stronger, non-governmental organisations proliferated, and the mirage of progress really took hold. Mr Strangio accepts that poverty rates dropped, the economy grew and successful businesses abounded, such as Brown, a popular locally owned coffee chain, but he tends to see these as sideshows. The real business was being done by politically connected tycoons intent on exploiting Cambodia’s natural resources.

Everything, he says, is part of the “mirage”, a word that crops up repeatedly. Just as the government could not resist meddling with the UN mission, so too with the Khmer Rouge tribunal. Although two senior Khmer Rouge leaders were convicted in August, this followed years of interference and a fractious relationship between national and international staff at the hybrid court. In last year’s elections the ruling party lost a large number of seats to a young and re-energised opposition, but Mr Strangio has little to say about whether this really will prove to be a game-changer. Is this the real thing, or another mirage?

http://www.economist.com/news/books-and ... -or-mirage

But what seemed tangible from a distance, on closer inspection very often melted into thin air.”

Much like all business here. Very true in many regards. But this country doesnt have much to offer. I would love to say more but this a is a public forum.

I am pretty sure he does the editing and subtitles on the Youtube video too. I am dissapointed. I am disappointed because he is scared. Here the message for him: Real reporters, journalists and writers speak the truth.