As always, the news of the week from Cambodia is like a Clint Eastwood movie ... it's the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'll move through them in some sort of sequence, but don't expect the good guys to win before riding off into the sunset. Not Spaghetti Western material by any means, this story about the Cambodian National Theatre is great, and announces performances this weekend at the Barbican... more

An FYI: My Internet access has been, shall we say, unreliable lately? That's putting is as nicely as possible. The consequence of this is that I have not been posting as much as usual, my research has been limited, and I have not been using as many images as I normally do. I keep being assured that it will be back to full form 'any minute now'. You'll know when it is, as my blogs will be more frequent, and more interesting.

Conflicts cause orphans. That's not news at all, but it's good to post reminders of how this works from time to time.

Official sources on the Pakistani side of Kashmir are ... more

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While life in rural Cambodia is what it is, this article postulates that stability is a boon to business.

With the economy growing by more than 10% last year, tourism increasing, construction everywhere and more agricultural output, things appear to be looking good.

Cambodia seems to be “on the fast-track”, says Nisha Agrawal, the World Bank’s country director. “Money is being made in this country – you can now use the word... more

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Fishing communities on the banks of the Tonle Sap are about to be surveyed to see how they're making out four years into the five-year-long Tonle Sap Initiative (TSI), primarily a project of the Asian Development Bank, AsDB, that was supposed to improve their lives.

It appears it's not going well:

The poor living along the banks of the Tonle Sap are part of the nearly 40 percent of Cambodia's 13.8 million population living below the poverty... more

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Speaking of elections, here's a report on campaigns getting under way.

The election is scheduled for the 1st of April and will see 102,266 candidates from 12 parties running for 1,621 commune, village and urban neighborhood seats. (Until 2002, these were ruled by political appointees.)

The head of the Cambodian NGO charged with monitoring the election is prediciting:

"This election is merely going to strengthen the current ruling... more

With the passing of another week ... and, yes, we are almost through the first quarter of 2007! ... it's time for another wrap of news from Cambodia.

I'll start out a Heng Pov update ...

We've been following the saga of this former PP police chief turned fugitive for months now, ever since Singapore kicked him out and he vanished before reemerging in Malaysia where he had temporary asylum, then was on his way maybe to Finland, then caught and brought back to Cambodia to face charges of kidnapping and ordering murders. (Whew ... that is a saga!)

Well ... surprise, surprise ... he's been cleared... more

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Tourism in Cambodia is up, and it appears the the big numbers are coming from Korea. Two new air routes are being added to the ones between Inchon and Siem Reap that started late last year. And tourists aren't the only creatures on the increase.

... more

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The Christian Science Monitor has a very interesting story about how the US Congress is now cozying up to Cambodia. Seems Washington has twigged to the fact that isolating the country won't do much for the global terrorism situation. Plus, with China courting Cambodia like a sophomore looking for a date... more

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A couple of reports on the state of affairs in Cambodia have been issued this week. From the European Union, this one on human rights ... it also discusses Guatemala and Nigeria, by the way ... that condemns the murder of trade unionists... more

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