Tale of the French communists...
Posted: Tue Feb 17, 2015 12:49 pm
So, a while back my wife, her friend and I had this chat about...
...well some irrelevant bullshit. Honestly, I was a bit tipsy at the time, so I can't clearly remember the entire conversation. But anyway. At some point we came to the topic of politics. Wonderful! How better to spend a night out than discussing politics with two Khmer women that know fuck-all about politics. But I digress.
So, her friend just kind of casually mentioned how france is a communist country, where upon the flow of the conversation came to a screetching halt because I couldn't get over this bullshit. I'm not even french, but I just felt like I had to get this clear. "No, barang is not number one communist!" I tried to retort. My wife however, wasn't a big help. In fact, she sided with her friend. "Yes, barang communist." she argued and that's how it went on for like 20 minutes or so. At some point I pressed them on it and asked: "Who told you that the french are communists?" and I got the same answer from both of them. They learned it in school. "Great! They're lying about france in school and tell the pupils that the french are communists so that they have a reason to dislike the 'barang'." I thought and I left it at that.
A couple of weeks later, we went to her parents home in the province. Her unkle who fought in "the war" and his wife also live there. So at some point I figgured "This guy must know a thing about communism or two. He was fighting in Pol Pot's Army after all." and so I decided to open this can of worms again. When I asked him in Khmer whether the french are commies or not, he gave me a very clear no. My wife was stumped by this. She literally didn't know what to say. It was only later that evening, when we were already lying in the bed, that she sort of adressed what had just happened. So we talked a little more and as it turns out, she, her unkle and I mean different things when we say the word communist. A communist in her mind is any person who is very authoritarian. You know the type. Some police officer for example, who is an asshole to people just because he's got a badge and a gun. That sort of guy. Her unkle means people who belong to a communist party or nation. I mean people who follow Marx' ideas of class struggle, worker controll of the means of production and all of that fancy stuff.
So, yeah. What am I trying to say here? Maybe it's just an example of how similar words can mean different things to various people. Maybe I'm trying to make a point of how my wife just would not believe me when I told her that the french aren't communist because I'm a barang and there seems to be a general dismissal going onnwhenever a foreigner disagrees with a Cambodian on a matter such as this. Or maybe it's just another example of stupid shit that you can argue over here. I'm not sure what I've learned from this experience, but Orcs are still a bunch of dicks and Elves can suck my nuts. That's it
...well some irrelevant bullshit. Honestly, I was a bit tipsy at the time, so I can't clearly remember the entire conversation. But anyway. At some point we came to the topic of politics. Wonderful! How better to spend a night out than discussing politics with two Khmer women that know fuck-all about politics. But I digress.
So, her friend just kind of casually mentioned how france is a communist country, where upon the flow of the conversation came to a screetching halt because I couldn't get over this bullshit. I'm not even french, but I just felt like I had to get this clear. "No, barang is not number one communist!" I tried to retort. My wife however, wasn't a big help. In fact, she sided with her friend. "Yes, barang communist." she argued and that's how it went on for like 20 minutes or so. At some point I pressed them on it and asked: "Who told you that the french are communists?" and I got the same answer from both of them. They learned it in school. "Great! They're lying about france in school and tell the pupils that the french are communists so that they have a reason to dislike the 'barang'." I thought and I left it at that.
A couple of weeks later, we went to her parents home in the province. Her unkle who fought in "the war" and his wife also live there. So at some point I figgured "This guy must know a thing about communism or two. He was fighting in Pol Pot's Army after all." and so I decided to open this can of worms again. When I asked him in Khmer whether the french are commies or not, he gave me a very clear no. My wife was stumped by this. She literally didn't know what to say. It was only later that evening, when we were already lying in the bed, that she sort of adressed what had just happened. So we talked a little more and as it turns out, she, her unkle and I mean different things when we say the word communist. A communist in her mind is any person who is very authoritarian. You know the type. Some police officer for example, who is an asshole to people just because he's got a badge and a gun. That sort of guy. Her unkle means people who belong to a communist party or nation. I mean people who follow Marx' ideas of class struggle, worker controll of the means of production and all of that fancy stuff.
So, yeah. What am I trying to say here? Maybe it's just an example of how similar words can mean different things to various people. Maybe I'm trying to make a point of how my wife just would not believe me when I told her that the french aren't communist because I'm a barang and there seems to be a general dismissal going onnwhenever a foreigner disagrees with a Cambodian on a matter such as this. Or maybe it's just another example of stupid shit that you can argue over here. I'm not sure what I've learned from this experience, but Orcs are still a bunch of dicks and Elves can suck my nuts. That's it