Because I caved to a pressing need to rant, last week's Cam news update didn't happen. My chickens have come home to roost ... minus the H5M1 virus, hopefully ... and I'm up to my beak in items of interest, and I'll feel totally derelict if I don't share immediately.

Surprisingly for the region, Cambodia is on the leading edge of technology ... at least when it comes to passports. The country is going to be the first in Asia to use ePassport labels.

According to the supplier, the deliverables will adhere to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards and deliver a multi-level identity management solution combining fingerprints, facial characteristics, biodata and signature capture.

Deliverables? Whatever ...

Apparently, the UN is running out of money for feeding hungry Cambodians, mainly young children and HIV/AIDS and TB patients.

More than 700,000 hungry Cambodians, mostly young children and HIV/AIDS and TB patients, will start going without essential food next month, and the situation is likely to worsen unless millions of dollars in new donations are received soon, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned ...

Gee ... maybe they can auction off a few of Kofi Annan's old suits or sell a fraction of the limo fleet ...

Sheesh!

Or perhaps the UN should look to folks like this couple in Hawaii for some practical ideas.

They pick up cans, recycle them, then take the money to Cambodia.

This year, they bought $2,000 worth of rice (equivalent to 20,000 pounds) in Cambodia, along with other items ... small toiletry items, medicine, Bibles and reading glasses for 300 villagers.

In addition to their recycling efforts, the couple has weekly garage sales at their Kuliouou Street home to sell items that are dropped off by friends, neighbors and people who have heard of it through word of mouth.

Or US school kids organizing bake sales and the like?

When the American students learned schools were badly needed in the Cambodian countryside, they began to work with the group American Assistance for Cambodia to build a school.

"Words can't express how proud I am of what we've accomplished," said 12th grader Kelsey Schmidt.

The students raised $15,000 through bake sales, talent shows and raffles to build the Cambodian school. Once the school was built, they kept raising funds for teachers, books and the computers.

Naaaa. Stuff like that would never fly ... no white SUVs involved, no snazzy blue berets, and no huge salaries.

Continued ...