What Can We Do?

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Kammekor
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Re: What Can We Do?

Post by Kammekor »

TWY wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 2:49 pm 100% tax on all NGO expenditures in Cambodia.
Great idea. Cambodia is famous for its' well spent tax money.
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timmydownawell
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Re: What Can We Do?

Post by timmydownawell »

timmydownawell wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 2:58 pm There is a program to distribute free food. Have you seen the cyclos with the glass cases on the passenger seat?

Can't remember where I read about it though, but I have seen them around. I'll ask next time I spot one.
Here it is: Local4Local Cyclo Pantry

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Web: https://linktr.ee/local4localkh
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hdgh29
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Re: What Can We Do?

Post by hdgh29 »

Without having any statistical information to hand, I reckon there are more rich khmers here than there are expats . Actually I just checked, expats make up slightly less than 1% of the population. So the question is not how we should use our meagre resources to feed the poor, but how we can influence the wealthy khmers to do that. I don't have any ideas either way. I do contribute to a local family every month, but that's out of self interest. As for tuktuk drivers, they can go to hell in a handbasket. When I first came here I was naively paying at least $5 every time I used one. Then I got Passap and saw the price for the same trip was KHR3,000. Thieving buggers or just taking advantage of the innocent?
"I tried being reasonable. Didn't like it" (Clint Eastwood)
Bongmab69
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Re: What Can We Do?

Post by Bongmab69 »

violet wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 1:47 pm
Bongmab69 wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 11:12 am interesting to use google translate to thai, violet doesnt sounds really thai, as you have no flag at all at your profile, nobody may know where you come from maybe ??
I don’t like to pigeonhole myself. More than one country’s flag represents me.

ONLY an american would reply like that, ahhahaha !!
The Judge
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Re: What Can We Do?

Post by The Judge »

Why barang try to solve Khmer people's problems is beyond me.

I haven't experienced one Khmer ever who truly tried to help me, without benefiting greatly for themselves in the process.

I see it everyday. These people are professionals at playing the woe-be-me card. Despite any signs, verbal pleas, etc, ready assured they have family somewhere who can support them, if they are truly in need.

It takes a shrewd eye to identify the level and magnitude of their collective greed.
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John Bingham
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Re: What Can We Do?

Post by John Bingham »

hdgh29 wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 4:29 pm Without having any statistical information to hand, I reckon there are more rich khmers here than there are expats.
Of course there are far more. There are plenty of Khmers with huge luxury car collections and vast amounts of property. When was the last time you saw a whitey driving a luxury car, other than the Doroshenkos?
Silence, exile, and cunning.
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John Bingham
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Re: What Can We Do?

Post by John Bingham »

The Judge wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 6:24 pm I haven't experienced one Khmer ever who truly tried to help me, without benefiting greatly for themselves in the process.
That's a shame, I heard they speak highly of you. 8-)
Silence, exile, and cunning.
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hdgh29
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Re: What Can We Do?

Post by hdgh29 »

The Judge wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 6:24 pm Why barang try to solve Khmer people's problems is beyond me.

I haven't experienced one Khmer ever who truly tried to help me, without benefiting greatly for themselves in the process.

I see it everyday. These people are professionals at playing the woe-be-me card. Despite any signs, verbal pleas, etc, ready assured they have family somewhere who can support them, if they are truly in need.

It takes a shrewd eye to identify the level and magnitude of their collective greed.
Quite right. Like most expats I did not come here to be part of some sort of Peace Corps with a mission to save the poor and downtrodden of the third world, I came for my own selfish reasons. If I wanted to be a decent human and help others, I would look first at families in NZ who sleep in their cars because they cannot afford rent, or the bums who sleep in doorways and get pissed on by drunks after midnight. As the Yorkshiremen would say "A doorway? Luxury". But no, like the rest of us I operate out of self interest and if I give some rice to a starving family I do it because it makes me feel good and saintly. As Milton Keynes said, if people get involved in charity for the poor, it takes the onus off the government and gives them more money to spend on upgrading the military etc. Or on their own salaries.
By the way, I was reading that what I spend on groceries in a week would feed a poor khmer family for 6 months. Made me think I am being seriously overcharged in the markets.
"I tried being reasonable. Didn't like it" (Clint Eastwood)
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bossho
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Re: What Can We Do?

Post by bossho »

Its ok to to get involved in the community where you live. If you can help and are in a position to then some well directed and qualified donations may go a long way for someone in your community. If you cannot help or you are not set up to do anything else for anyone and it would injure your belief system to do so then by all means don't, but if you want to chastise others that do and arrange the philosophically flawed arguments to those that help to show them they are out of step then, in that case, it's fine to blow retorts here I guess, but surely those who are not wanting to help are not going to stop those that are wanting to help.

And @hdgh29 i am petarding this "Milton Keynes" mis mis mis quote because we all missed his life, we missed that a certain Milton Keynes ever said anything to anyone and we missed the why of this usage. And if petard is not yet a gerund lets make it one.
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xandreu
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Re: What Can We Do?

Post by xandreu »

Nothing wrong with genuinely wanting to help those in need, but it's a personal choice. I get it that some people just aren't as charitable as others and again, that's a personal choice. I don't have a problem with anyone who doesn't want to or doesn't feel morally obliged to help strangers.

But some of the excuses they come out with..? C'mon. If you're waiting until you can no longer point at someone wealthier than you and claim that it's their responsibility for being richer than you, let me tell you something you and everyone else already knows, it'll never happen. That's convenient isn't it?

Like I said, I'd never judge anyone for choosing not to help out, but sometimes it's best to just say nothing.
The difference between animals and humans is that animals would never allow the dumb ones to lead the pack.
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