Are you optimistic for the future?

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Kampong Spooner
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Are you optimistic for the future?

Post by Kampong Spooner »

Long term expats- see title.

With the 3 wise monkeys reduced to 2, who are getting on a bit, will the next generation (already groomed, no doubt) be different from their parents?

These guys have expensive western educations, successful businesses handed to them and are already rich beyond compare. With these and the growing middle class children coming of age, will the future be bright(ish)? It's not like they've spent a decade fighting in the jungle and experienced abject poverty like the old guard.

I'm expecting a Dr Vladimir, PhD in Negative Studies (Pannasasstra University) reply, but what do others predict?
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vladimir
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Re: Are you optimistic for the future?

Post by vladimir »

Translation, anyone?

Who are 'these guys'? The remaining 'monkeys'? Isn't that racist? The next generation? You need to be specific.

The Khmers I work with now had nothing handed to them, nor are they 'rich beyond compare'. A wannabe David Harris?

I don't understand what relevance the experience of abject poverty has, if any. Please expound your Malthusian Trap doctrine.

I think your comments -'monkeys', 'rich beyond compare', 'already groomed, no doubt' and 'abject poverty' - reveal just who is really negative.

PS It's 'Pannasastra'.

For the record, and assuming I decoded your post correctly. I think everything looks rosy for both expats and Khmers.
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Kampong Spooner
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Re: Are you optimistic for the future?

Post by Kampong Spooner »

vladimir wrote:Translation, anyone?

Who are 'these guys'? The remaining 'monkeys'? Isn't that racist? The next generation? You need to be specific.

The Khmers I work with now had nothing handed to them, nor are they 'rich beyond compare'. A wannabe David Harris?

I don't understand what relevance the experience of abject poverty has, if any. Please expound your Malthusian Trap doctrine.

I think your comments -'monkeys', 'rich beyond compare', 'already groomed, no doubt' and 'abject poverty' - reveal just who is really negative.

PS It's 'Pannasastra'.

For the record, and assuming I decoded your post correctly. I think everything looks rosy for both expats and Khmers.
Oh FFS you complete dickwad.

3 wise monkeys= the 3 CPP amigos with faces adorned on the billboards, 1 died the other week, remember?.

The next generation being groomed = the offspring of the current elite.

I doubt, even such an esteemed individual as yourself, will have any dealing with the top tier of society, I doubt they drink happy hour drafts down the riverside on Saturday afternoons.

Rich beyond compare- everyone (according to you), but mostly the Huns, Soks, Kems and their ilk.

Thanks for the spelling correction, good to know your studies paid off at such an renowned institution.


Now, can you reply to a serious thread without turning it an orgy of Vlad? Back to the question...... you're the one ranting about the 'shitstorm' to come, when accusing me of being a land scammer (which you never explained that insult), so what do you think will happen in the next 10-15 years as the guard changes to the next generation? NOT trolling, just trying to spark a discussion.
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vladimir
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Re: Are you optimistic for the future?

Post by vladimir »

Glad you approve.

Stop crying about one insult, you've called me dishonest on here, and several worse things.

Afaik, I've never met you, but you insulted me with the OP, so stop trying to whitewash yourself and present me as the stirrer. It was you, as usual. You don't insult me, I don't insult you.
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Kampong Spooner
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Re: Are you optimistic for the future?

Post by Kampong Spooner »

OK, truce time... but what do you think about the future?

As a sign of my good intentions and in order to bury the hatchet, I offer you some meat pies tomorrow afternoon. Whaddya say?

Hugs?
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Re: Are you optimistic for the future?

Post by Username Taken »

Come on Vlad. Truce time.

Accept the meat pies, and answer the thread question "What do you think will happen in the next 10-15 years as the guard changes to the next generation? "
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Re: Are you optimistic for the future?

Post by BOFH »

Image
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vladimir
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Re: Are you optimistic for the future?

Post by vladimir »

Cool. Truce.

Now, I think things for Khmers look bright, especially in the teaching profession. Many have excellent English skills now, especially in the field of grammar. Writing still needs a lot of attention.

Foreigners without genuine degrees involved in education will get kicked out. Good thing, imo.

I also believe that the recent clampdown on foreign workers is a concession to Rainsy, but justified.

The lawyers, estate agents etc who believe that being unlicensed will be ignored forever are in for a shock. They argue with logic in favour of themselves, but as we all know, the govt has shown itself to be inconsiderate of western logic in many instances.

Bar and restaurant/guesthouse owners will require work permits.

Infrastructure slowly improving, but healthcare needs drastic improvement, and I do not see the state spending money here, too many vested interests.

The only problem I see is that salaries will not keep pace with inflation, especially for foreigners. COL will rise rapidly in the next few years, thanks in part to carpetbaggers/foreign property speculators, it's not just greedy, opportunistic Khmers out there.

Growing resentment at foreign interference also,but generally, life will improve.
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Re: Are you optimistic for the future?

Post by TheGrinchSR »

I am not so optimistic. It's clear that the balance of power is shifting and that Rainsy may even be permitted to win an election. The guy's a clown and his grasp of economics is abysmal and the political reality of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Vietnamese, who are Khmer by birth and nationality, is something that seems to have escaped him. If he doesn't get to win soon... then civil war or at least major civil disruption and disobedience is highly likely.

There is no chance of Cambodia attracting many qualified English teachers when countries like China (which pay far more) can't get them either. There aren't enough qualified Western English speaking teachers to go round the developing world and Cambodia's lousy salaries make it a very unattractive destination for those teachers.

Licensing of businesses doesn't lead to quality. It just leads to regulatory burdens that can't be policed in places like Cambodia and thus increases the opportunities for graft rather than serving a genuine purpose.

Infrastructure investment is still appalling. The "improvements" to the main arterial route through the country (Bangkok to Saigon essentially) are no further ahead than the day I arrived. Healthcare will probably come in time thanks to foreign investment - health tourism is a lucrative market after all. This won't help the locals though.

Salaries are unlikely to rise dramatically and as Vlad says inflation is a bitch here - particularly if you're living on commodity items such as local rice...

The property bubble will come to shuddering collapse if black money from China, Korea, Japan, etc. is interfered with. This looks likely with China increasingly exerting influence over the Khmer economy - it's going to be a quid pro quo moment so they can round up their own corrupt thieves and throw them to the wolves in the court of public opinion.

I think I would have moved to Thailand by now if it wasn't for the facts that we can't discuss in case we break the lese majeste laws of that nation...
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever." - George Orwell
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frank lee bent
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Re: Are you optimistic for the future?

Post by frank lee bent »

The children of the rich are generally completely incompetent.
Unlikely successors imho.
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