xandreu wrote: ↑Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:30 pm

Phnom Poon wrote: ↑Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:10 pm i would improve sex education

For the locals or the expats?

both!

but seriously all the options are noble, education being the most foundational
but it seems to me these are 'western' fixes
and the west itself needs a new direction

I would raise the wages first, so teachers get motivated and able to sustain classes, so education rises, then corruption at little level get dented, so higher corruption issues get some concern.

I might be wrong, but curious to know if that could be correct ?

Freightdog wrote: ↑Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:57 pm

nemo wrote: ↑Tue Mar 16, 2021 4:55 pm but education may be the real key.

With better education would come better thinking. Teaching of critical thinking, the skills to be able to assess information.
Then questions like-
Does it have to be this way, or could it be better? would improve health, awareness of health issues, medicine, common sense approach to drugs and medicine.
Corruption isn't going away any time too quickly, any more than other crime. But peoples blind acceptance of it, and opening up opportunities for change would mean that opportunities for corruption would slowly be eroded. <cut>

The problem in the children get used to corruption as being a part of daily life in school.
Teachers handing out learning materials at a profit.
School directors charging fees to park your bicycle.
Teachers forcing their students to buy food at a certain food stall.
Teachers asking daily fees to attend full class

I could go on for another hour

the problem is to define corruption

it's easy to point to minor officials demanding 'facilitation fees'
what about foreign companies having to form a 'partnership' with a local company?
and look what's happening across america, with private equity 'rolling-up' so many mid-sized industries
the entire system worldwide is corrupt to an extent

I ended up going for 'Corruption' myself.

Loss of confidence in authorities infects society at all levels, and societies tend to become more 'dog-eat-dog' and overly self focussed. That leads to more behavioural carelessness/maliciousness towards society at large in areas such as environment, planning, pollution etc.

It also makes everything more expensive, and creates massive (often insurmountable) barriers to upward financial/educational mobility. As a result, down the line things like healthcare quality is compromised due to unaffordability.

So i'm a believer that Corruption is a plague with vast consequences for a society. When leadership cannot be trusted to such a large extent it permeates almost everything and affects how almost every facet of society operates.

It'll always exist in some form - no society is totally immune.

But corruption in South Asia & South-East Asia really is off the charts.

As a special note, with the obvious exception of North Korea, CAMBODIA IS NOW THE WORST PERFORMING COUNTRY IN THE ENTIRETY OF ASIA on Transparency International's corruption index.
Yes - indeed it is now worse than Bangladesh, worse than Myanmar, worse than the Phillipines worse than Vietnam.

phuketrichard wrote:education.. winner hands down
the rest will fall inn line

The education system here is corrupt, so it won't change anything without the corruption (assuming one hand a magic wand that would do away with ONE thing).

I think the Singapore model of cleaning things up bringing foreign investment and business is a productive course of action, that especially applying to literal dirtiness. Air pollution and litter makes many foreign investors not want to conduct business there.

Alex wrote: ↑Fri Mar 19, 2021 4:01 pm I want things to stay the same, for as long as possible.

If I could change one thing though, I would reduce the Chinese Commie Pissheads influence to near zero. Hey, we all have dreams.

I'd call Cambodia a Chinese satellite state at this point lol