Jamie_Lambo wrote:

SinnSisamouth wrote:i dont evar want to go to the genocide museum

i had a dream about it the day before i agreed to go with a khmer friend

she was relived as she did not want to go either

we got drunk instead

i went to the museum but not the killing fields, the museum was bad enough, all those faces staring back at you, so many faces, dead faces, knowing theyre going to die
theres not much else to the museum tbh just loads of empty rooms, but its depressing, i was tempted to go again now i have a lot better understanding of the country, but i think it would depress me more so ive never bothered

Same here. I went to the school/museum on my first trip to Cambodia because I thought I should.I'm "glad" I went. But one visit was really enough, the experience was intense and I will never forget what I saw there. Or rather, what I felt while I was there.

Also,I have mixed feelings about the concept of genocide sites as tourist "attractions", yet it is important to acknowledge what happened and not to forget those who died. However, I totally understand those who don't want to experience this. (Personally, I visited the museum and THEN got drunk.Each to his/her own.)

my khmer friend said non of her friends have gone or want to go

its all very well educating tourists but what about the cambodian people?

SinnSisamouth wrote:my khmer friend said non of her friends have gone or want to go

its all very well educating tourists but what about the cambodian people?

maybe its still a little fresh, i know a lot of people that have lost family to the KR, either during that 4 year spell or the years that followed
you can be educated about it without actually having to go to the place where a lot of people were killed

Jamie_Lambo wrote:

SinnSisamouth wrote:my khmer friend said non of her friends have gone or want to go

its all very well educating tourists but what about the cambodian people?

maybe its still a little fresh, i know a lot of people that have lost family to the KR, either during that 4 year spell or the years that followed
you can be educated about it without actually having to go to the place where a lot of people were killed

yes
Howewer it is mportant to know the history and not just from a side

but during my 2 visits to S21 I didnt see any high school class visiting it and I cannot remember of khmer people visiting it, maybe there were just a few there.
S21 could be better organised, I cannot remember of an audioguide and for tourists and particularly for illiterate people could be a plus.
The second time I was there with a khmer friend, that appreciate the visit.
The audioguide of Killing fields is really interesting

khmerre wrote:

Jamie_Lambo wrote:

SinnSisamouth wrote:my khmer friend said non of her friends have gone or want to go

its all very well educating tourists but what about the cambodian people?

maybe its still a little fresh, i know a lot of people that have lost family to the KR, either during that 4 year spell or the years that followed
you can be educated about it without actually having to go to the place where a lot of people were killed

yes
Howewer it is mportant to know the history and not just from a side

but during my 2 visits to S21 I didnt see any high school class visiting it and I cannot remember of khmer people visiting it, maybe there were just a few there.
S21 could be better organised, I cannot remember of an audioguide and for tourists and particularly for illiterate people could be a plus.
The second time I was there with a khmer friend, that appreciate the visit.
The audioguide of Killing fields is really interesting

but what side are they learning anything from visiting a building converted for the torture and death of many innocent people? do german kids go on school trips to the gas chambers used in the holocaust?

The guided tours of S21 are crap anyway, they just tell you the usual BS about how everything was hunky-dory and then suddenly bad mans came and killed lots of people. They don't even explain that most of the photos are of Khmer Rouge cadres who were caught up in purges.

I know that uk school kids go to the Nazi camps and I bet the german kids do too

that whole "dont mention the war" joke came about because the germans dont like talking about it or used to

John Bingham wrote:The guided tours of S21 are crap anyway, they just tell you the usual BS about how everything was hunky-dory and then suddenly bad mans came and killed lots of people. They don't even explain that most of the photos are of Khmer Rouge cadres who were caught up in purges.

Whatever the official discourse and the ideological reasons behind the preservation of S21,I still think that it's important to remember those who died - even those who believed in the KR. Many were young and uneducated, frustrated and misled, more or less children.
All those people pictured in S21 were killed. Some of them were KR. Some people had joined the KR with good intentions. Some were resisting. Others were killed for no reason.
IMO what happened at S21 goes beyond ideology and beyond Cambodia. It's a reminder of what we all could be under certain circumstances ... butcher or victim.
I still remember my visit.

[/quote]


I don't believe there should be 3 monkey's. [ no hear , no see , no speak ]

As two of them rely on sound vibrations to [ hear and speak ] covey their message, the third one [ in the middle ] is out of place and must go, never to be seen again.

SinnSisamouth wrote:I know that uk school kids go to the Nazi camps and I bet the german kids do too

that whole "dont mention the war" joke came about because the germans dont like talking about it or used to

i went to germany for a week on a school trip but we never went to any nazi camps, went to an old roman amphitheater but no nazi camps,
i cant say i know anyone thats been to a germany nazi camp on a school trip