Am I hoping against hope that my faith in humanity will be renewed, my vision of the future will brighten, light will shine at the end of a tunnel filled with hard work and dedication?

Do I feel a need to regain trust in organizations that feed, educate, vaccinate? donate more time, money and energy in their direction? sing the praises of heroic deeds and super-human efforts made for the greater good?

Truthfully? No.

I am convinced that feelings like these are unhelpful and counter-productive, at best.

I'm not saying we should stop doing all... more

Chaul Chnam Thmey

That's Khmer for "Happy New Year".

There is a three day run of celebrations to ring in the Year of the Dog.

A bit about it:

In Cambodia, Khmer New Year is the greatest traditional festival. The Khmer New Year festival originated from Bramhmanism, a part of Hinduism, which was a religion that Khmer believed in before Buddhism. Later on Buddhism became associated... more

This diatribe of mine that's been going on for days now started on one of my adoption-related groups. The talk was of good deeds and helping, and of bad things that stopped Cambodian adoptions in America.

A leaning toward cynicism had me tipping over, with words about the good deeds sounding like a waste of time, a deflection of energy; words about the bad things sounding self-rightous, high-handed and like a moralistic waste of time.

This is how it came out:

I'm... more

There's a line in the film "The Big Chill" where Jeff Goldblum's character, trying unsuccessfully to get the editor of the magazine he works for to buy a story on hope, argues a negative response with, "You wouldn't say that if it was the "lost hope" diet."

The stock on hope was down in the eighties ... free thinkers of the '60s style were cashing in, moving up, and giving in ... while the premium on greed soared like an American eagle. Crass materialism was no cause for shame and everyone wanted to know who everyone was wearing, what everyone was driving and all about... more

Continuing the theme of hope, more from the UN:

The United States benefits from membership in the U.N. and other international organizations by being part of a multilateral approach to address a wide range of serious global issues. Through the U.N., the United States can build coalitions and pursue multilateral programs that advance U.S. and international interests. U.S. priorities include: countering... more

Hope is big business. Huge. Multinational. Lots of salaries are paid out of the hope budget and many are invested in hope continuing to pay well. My recent ponderings have me asking questions about the hopefulness of hope ... the point of it, as well.

The UN has a huge budget, all spent on hope.

The following describes U.S. goals at the 59th session of the United Nations General Assembly:

The... more

There was a time in my life when hope seemed an end result.

In the 60's I went to rallies on the Cal campus in Berkeley, listened to Mario Savio speak and marched against the war in Vietnam. Since then I've been active in organizations that work to save endangered species, preserve habitat and natural resources, clean the oceans, feed the starving, prevent genocide, fight corporate, individual and governmental greed, foster good governance, educate, vaccinate, eradicate ... if there's a problem, I've tried to be part of an effort to find solutions.

I've now lived in... more

While flying from Singapore to Phnom Penh to pick up our son Sam in 2003, Mark and I had our Scrabble game interrupted by a pleasant young man in the next seat. I'm chatty by nature, so more than happy to share airplane conversation with this complete stranger, to hear a condensed history from him and give a quick run-down on us.

Him: David, French Canadian photographer/writer, married father of one nine-year old son, traveling with a friend to Cambodia for the first time to visit the daughter of the friend.

Us: On our first trip to Cambodia, going to an orphanage... more

Cambodian history is extremely rich, and not like that of any other country. From grand to gruesome, from cultural birth to mass death, there is nothing average or commonplace about its past. The temples at Ankor Wat are testament to a culture as ancient and venerable as that of the Aztecs and the basis for much of what is now considered Thai. Toul Sleng, the Genocide Museum, illustrates far too graphically the modern history of the country.

Given... more

Sam and Cj are international in just about every way possible: born in Cambodia, being raised in Seychelles, citizens of Great Britain and eventually the USA, they can claim affinity in many directions and will have choices upon choices when older for education, work and life.

Their British passports are actually European, so they will be allowed to live and work in any EU country. Procedures for processing their US documents have to wait until we go there again ... possibly next year if we can take the thought of thirty-six hours of travel with little kids ... and will... more