Continued from here ...

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 Cambodia and prosperity in the same breath.”

Just three years ago, the International?Monetary?Fund was warning that Cambodia’s fragile economy – dependent on garment exports and tourism – faced collapse because of competition from China’s textile manufacturers after the January 2005 liberalisation of the global garment trade.

That collapse didn't happen, and now with the prospect of off-shore oil, investment money is pouring in. Of course, that filtering down business is uneven, as it is everywhere, and far from every Cambodian benefits.

n the past decade, according to the World Bank, in comes for the top 20 per cent of Cambodia’s 13m people rose 45 per cent, those of the the poorest 20 per cent just 8 per cent. About 20 per cent of the population still lives in acute poverty. Most rural Cambodians remain desperately poor with farmers receiving little official support and facing having their land grabbed as the government promotes export-oriented plantation projects.

Prosperity can bring many things to a country, and one Cambodia gets at the moment is a local version of American TV.

A new reality TV show has started up. Somewhat like "The Apprentice", but without The Donald, the Youth Leadership Challenge features, " ... 16 citizen-heroes who race around the capital collecting signatures for a neighborhood clean-up petition, producing a social-advocacy video, and soliciting donations for an orphanage."

Okay ...

And while were talking about entertainment ... if that's what "The Apprentice" could be called ... Cambodia now has its first rock opera.

Inspired by "Rent", "Where Elephants Weep", " ... features a 10-person band that fuses the sounds of an electric guitar, electronic drums and keyboards with traditional Cambodian instruments like buffalo horns, bamboo flutes, gongs and the chapei, a long-neck lute with two nylon strings" ... and is an updated version of Tum Teav, the Cambodian "Romeo and Juliet".

The opera will preview in late April in Lowell, Mass, at Lowell High School, and will move to Cambodia toward the end of the year.

Cool!

And in California, Cambodian rock and roll is making a comeback. The L.A. band Dengue Fever is touring, and recently released their second album, and a film, "Don't Think I've Forgotten", about the emergence of Cambodian rock and the fate of some of its "iconic stars" under the KR, has been released.

Artists and intellectuals were deemed enemies of the classless society the brutal regime was trying to create. Cultural and performing arts institutions were closed, instruments and records burned. Singers who could not flee were killed or forced to sing propaganda songs. Some surviving musicians said they went to great lengths to hide their identities in labor camps.

Very cool!

And that's a week ...