Mental health is an ongoing issue in modern Cambodia, as the ghosts of the past still walk beside a huge percentage of the people and life is hard.

With only 26 private psychiatrists caring for the ever-increasing numbers of people losing their ability to cope with the horrors of their pasts, there are reasonable fears of what the future holds, especially if the Khmer Rouge trials begin and more ghosts arise. Government health professionals are overwhelmed, and there is a growing recognition that life under today's circumstances are as much to blame for the problems as history.

A decade of peace following the country's long civil conflict has ironically led to an eruption of mental health problems, as Cambodians, freed from the daily traumas of war, have time for perhaps unwanted reflection, stirring sometimes devastating memories, doctors say.

The article is fascinating, so well worth a read.

News from the Netherlands is critical of that country's failings in tackling sex tourism.

There are, reportedly, laws on the books that would require Dutch justice authorities to prosecute Dutch sex tourists who commit crimes abroad, but they aren't using it.

An organization called "Terre Des Hommes" has published a report on the issue titled, "What We Don't See, Doesn't Exist'.

(There's a similar story,this one of a Brit, here.)

How unhelpful.

And speaking of unhelpful, how's this?

A cabinet minister in Cambodia has stated that the government could "terminate" the whole genocide tribunal if former King Norodom Sihanouk gets dragged into the mess and accused of crimes relating to the Khmer Rouge genocide of the 1970s.

Sihanouk's immunity, granted when he was King, is now being challenged, and a US-based rights group is asking it be stripped completely. The government is rejecting any such move.

While the Khmer Rouge is a topic, their old stronghold is about to become casino central.

Quite a shift from the brutal insistence on a classless agrarian society that left two million dead as a wacko utopia was rammed down the necks of the Cambodian people, it's now Thai gamblers being courted and counted in the part of the country that kept the KR comfy for so long.

And to end on an up note that needs no salt, here's a story of Cambodia's organic farming moves, and how they're doing ... and it sounds like they're doing pretty well.

Starting with 28 farmers in 2000 through a project meant to wean them off chemicals, there are now reported to be around 60,000 all over the country.

Rice yields per hectare for farmers who have gone organic have almost doubled and seed requirements have fallen by 70 to 80 percent, according to CEDAC. This means an income rise per hectare to $172 from $58, as organic rice is sold at a premium.

Farmers are keen, products are good, and people are healthier. A win, win, win situation if I've ever heard one.