With all the Internet problems I had last week, the weekly wrap of news from Cambodia didn't happen, so this week there's some catching up to do ...

Starting with a smile, the Operation Smile Medical Mission team is in PP right now and training Cambodian volunteers in biomed, teaching "techniques in setting up, testing and maintaining the state-of-the-art medical equipment that Operation Smile is supplying each of its partner countries. This is a major step toward reaching Operation Smile’s goal of having one person trained in biomedical technology in each of its partner... more

A while back, I won a $150 gift certificate from Adoptionshop.com for coming up with some greeting card copy. I don't think the cards are ready, but they did send me the virtual gift cert, so I did what anyone would do ... I went shopping.

Cruising around the adoptionshop was fun, but being out of the ritual of regular shopping has me thinking that there's not much I can't live without, so I didn't find anything I needed to have.

What I did find, however, was an idea.

Those colored wristbands the rest of the world has been wearing for a while to tout various causes are just beginning to appear here in Seychelles,... more

I'm suffering from some serious Internet problems at the moment, so my blogging time is stressful and limited. Here are some bits of news you can use, though.

Ethica: An Independent Voice for Ethical Adoptions had appointed a new executive director.

The board of directors of Ethica, Inc., a national organization committed to ethical adoptions, is pleased to announce the appointment of Linh Song, MSW, as the organization's new executive director.

"We searched... more

Continued from here

Cambodia's also not into playing ball over military aid.

"We need assistance without strings attached. If it had strings attached, we would not accept it," Chum Sambath, undersecretary of state for Cambodian Ministry of Defense, was quoted as saying.

Does the US dole out... more

Continued from here ...

Another Free Trade Union leader was murdered this week ... the third since 2004.

Chea Mony, current FTU president of Cambodia, said that the killing was an attempt to intimidate union members.

"The killing is to frighten FTU members from striking or staging demonstrations against... more

Starting off, here's a fascinating story of what happened after Cambodian tribes emerged from the jungle years after vanishing into the bush in efforts to escape Vietnamese soldiers twenty-five years ago. Lied to by the Khmer Rouge, terrified of the Vietnamese, these people were welcomed back into the fold when they first appeared, but found themselves soon forgotten.

The office of... more

Continued from here:

On the money front ... China is going to build some massive power plants in Cambodia. One in Battambang alone will cost $190 million and is expected to generate 465 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.

And a number of articles on Cambodian oil are worth a read. ... more

Cambodia had quite a bit of coverage this week, and much of it is not just news, but some fascinating stories, as well.

A while back I wrote about Sythan Leam a fourteen-year-old Cambodian girl who has been suffering the effects of a horrendous burn in infancy that make it impossible for her to walk. She's now in Hawaii and preparing to undergo surgery.

Yesterday... more

I am disgusted with the Toronto Star this morning. (OT tangent warning ... What an age we live in! Here I am, sitting at my desk on an island in the Indian Ocean, about to write about being ticked off over something I've seen in a Canadian newspaper, and sharing my irritation with you ... you being almost exclusively a person half the world away from the aforementioned desk. Cool ... )

I wrote yesterday about... more

I have SO much information coming across my desk right now that I'm backed up to my eyeballs in stuff I want to share. So, without further procrastination ... Informed Adoptions is an organization set up to help members of the international adoption community educate themselves and share resources on a wide range of topics. They offer, "on-line education, resources, and training for parents, guides, social workers, etc. on the various issues, such as signs of grieving, post institutional... more