Samouth wrote:

kiwiincambodia wrote:Actually, the difference is in the west we are taught to stand on our own 2 feet at a young age. I started working when i was 15, moved out of home at 16 and lived by myself ever since.

My now ex wife's brother is 22 and still living at home with his sister (not the ex) and is considered to young to live alone and support himself. He has to follow the rules set out by the family and cannot do anything with their approval.

When Cambodians realize that there is a life away from the family they can choose to have the same experiences in the open world as western youth supposedly have as long as they are willing to work hard and become self sufficient.

I also started to live far away from my family in young age too. i moved to live outside when i was 15 years old, even thought i was still being supported by my parents, but it is hard for Cambodian in general. By the time, i had to study at high school, however there was no high school in my village, so i had to move to live in the city in order to continue my study. I finished high school when i was 17 years old then i moved to live in Phnom Penh to continue my higher education. So far, i have been living in Phnom Penh for more then 5 years.

The problem that i raised up here is that most of the countries (government) in the west really pay more attention toward their youths while my country seems likely to do nothing for its youths.

I think of Cambodia as a new and young country. Forced re-birth in the 1970s.

After i read all these interesting responses, i went to talk about this again in more details with my friends. Actually it is not always easy to be able to volunteer in any International organisations in abroad or their own embassies. It is really challenging. Before they were be able to work as a volunteer in Cambodia, they needed to beat with other candidates. For example, one of my friend is now working with GIZ Cambodia http://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/383.html. Before, he came to Cambodia, he needed to challenge with other 30 candidate who applied for the same position and program.
So, you guys are right.

Sir_Quality_U_Feel wrote:

Samouth wrote:

kiwiincambodia wrote:Actually, the difference is in the west we are taught to stand on our own 2 feet at a young age. I started working when i was 15, moved out of home at 16 and lived by myself ever since.

My now ex wife's brother is 22 and still living at home with his sister (not the ex) and is considered to young to live alone and support himself. He has to follow the rules set out by the family and cannot do anything with their approval.

When Cambodians realize that there is a life away from the family they can choose to have the same experiences in the open world as western youth supposedly have as long as they are willing to work hard and become self sufficient.

I also started to live far away from my family in young age too. i moved to live outside when i was 15 years old, even thought i was still being supported by my parents, but it is hard for Cambodian in general. By the time, i had to study at high school, however there was no high school in my village, so i had to move to live in the city in order to continue my study. I finished high school when i was 17 years old then i moved to live in Phnom Penh to continue my higher education. So far, i have been living in Phnom Penh for more then 5 years.

The problem that i raised up here is that most of the countries (government) in the west really pay more attention toward their youths while my country seems likely to do nothing for its youths.

I think of Cambodia as a new and young country. Forced re-birth in the 1970s.

You meant after the coup d'etat?

My 2 bob....

whilst it's dog-eat-dog for the citizens and migrating workers in PP, those in the provinces (mostly the men folk) have no real drive to do much more than drink/play cards.

I would argue that the traditional peasantry, who have a pretty impoverished existence, have traditionally not wanted to do much more work than necessary- like, why bother when life is tough enough?

The rice planting takes out a couple of weeks a year, and then the harvesting a couple of weeks later, other than than talking the cow to pasture and throwing down some rice for the chickens day-to-day life is hot and mundane.

hungry? Go catch a fish, pick a few coconuts or bananas, which are abundant. Rice/palm wine costs pennies to get. If a sister or 2 work in the factory and mum sells mangoes on the roadside, then a few pennies will always get thrown your way.

That Buddhism blessed are the poor stuff must also have some effect, as well as the 'today and tomorrow' short sighted vision of 'future'.

So, in short, it's probably been like that from the year dot, Pol Pot aside, and let's face it, if you had the opportunity to sit around all day and survive or work all day for peanuts, what would you choose?

My ancestors choose to invest in the future of they children as poor as they were:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangor_University

The university was founded as the University College of North Wales (UCNW) on 18 October 1884, with an inaugural address by the Earl of Powis, the College's first President, in Penrhyn Hall.[4] There was then a procession to the college including 3,000 quarrymen (quarrymen from Penrhyn Quarry and other quarries had subscribed more than 1,200 pounds to the university).[5] The foundation was the result of a campaign for better provision of higher education in Wales that had involved some rivalry among towns in North Wales over which was to be the location of the new college.

£1,200 was a tremendous amount of money at that time.....don't wait for governments to do things if the Cambodia poor are going to rise they need to organizing and educate the youth....not wait for handouts..