Random Cambodian News Links

According to the Political and Economic Risk Survey group, out of a collection of 16 Asian states, Cambodia is only the third most corrupt! Compared to last year’s Transparency International rating, this marks a small improvement.  This is a devastating blow to Thailand and Indonesia, which come in as actually more corrupt than Cambodia.

Kidnapped, defrocked, and disappeared, former monk and Kampuchean Krom dissident Tim Sakhorn has reappeared in Cambodia, traveling on a Vietnamese passport, and quoted worrying about his return to Vietnam.

Via DAS, Milton Osborne’s written opinion on the Preah Vihear debacle.

Five garment factories burn down. I want to know how much insurance was awarded to Suntex and whether they plan on reopening or moving jobs elsewhere. Seems convenient.

Garment orders plunge 40 percent – Phnom Penh Post

More numbers on the garment sector impacts in Cambodia:

About 70 factories have shut their doors since the economic crisis started to hit Cambodia last August, and more than 51,000 workers have lost their jobs or seen their contracts suspended, say industry officials.

“We have received only 60 percent as many orders as last year, and that figure may continue to decrease without urgent measures,” said Van Sou Ieng.

Typically, GMAC is attempting to blame the unions:

Van Sou Ieng called Sunday for the country’s 1,000 unions to limit their activities while the sector faces problems.

“Some union activities are leading to fewer orders and are leading to thousands of job losses, so [unions] must be careful with their actions,” said Vann Sou Ieng. “I would like to publicly announce to the world that no matter what obstacles we face, Cambodia will not die. I will try to look for new markets and new buyers.”

Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union of Cambodia, rejected the GMAC accusation, saying that many of the factories closing down were simply avoiding taxes.

“This is just GMAC’s accusation,” he said. “GMAC cannot blame strikes – there have been no strikes in the first two months of 2009, but 70 factories closed.”

via The Phnom Penh Post – Garment orders plunge 40 percent.

Garment industry unravels

Well, we saw it coming, but the numbers are still good to have, and deeply alarming.

Garment exports – the country’s chief source of foreign exchange – contracted in January to less than a third of their value compared with the same period last year, the Ministry of Commerce announced Tuesday.
…

Minister of Commerce Cham Prasidh said that garment exports generated revenue of only US$70 million in January, compared with $250 million in January 2008, a situation the Ministry of Finance acknowledged was a troubling signal of tough times ahead.

Last week the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected that, after years of growth, Cambodia’s gross domestic product would shrink by 0.5 percent this year in the most negative assessment yet of the Kingdom’s economic health.

This contraction comes largely due to falling demand for Cambodian garments, the IMF said.
…

Officials with the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia [GMAC], which holds accounts with large Western brands – including Gap, Nike and Adidas – said that in previous years orders were placed in October for the 12 months  ahead.

But given the downturn, these companies are now placing orders on a monthly basis, GMAC officials said, predicting that things will get worse before they get better.
…
The Free Trade Union of Cambodia said Monday that more than 20,000 garment workers have already lost their jobs this year, with another 10,000 at risk of becoming unemployed as more garment factories face closure.

The Phnom Penh Post – Garment industry unravels.

Cambodia Link Dump

Busy writing dissertation stuff lately, and have been neglecting my blog. Here are a few things that have happened of note in the last few weeks. At any rate, it’s the Cambodia-centered stuff that I’m interested in…

Andy Brouwer is one of Cambodia’s most famous non-Khmer bloggers (some graciously give us foreign bloggers the honorary title of cloggers, but I prefer ‘floggers,’ since it takes the air out of our unearned pretention). Andy’s posts are most commonly on temples, and are extremely fun and worthwhile. But here’s a post which deals with the mummified, displayed body, of murdered monk Sam Bunthoeurn, who figures briefly in my dissertation. Warning – the pictures can be disturbing for those squeamish about bodies and decomposition….

Mandevu is back, with a couple of fantastic posts on current fieldwork in the agricultural sector. Great photos of field inventories, and on the production of roof thatch. Can’t wait to see how this work turns out!

You must read the second part of Ka-Set’s interview with Richard Rechtman, French psychiatrist and anthropologist dealing with trauma, death, and memory. Fascinating stuff. (see also part one).

Economic stuff is looking bleak for 2009. The ILO reports that 500,000 Cambodians have been significantly affected already, with another million to be affected during 2009. More precise numerical predictions can be found in the article itself over at the Phnom Penh Post, along with a nice little factoid sidebar. Yikes.

Chea Mony, president of the Free Trade Union Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC), about which I have often written in these pages and elsewhere, has been nominated for the Martin Ennals award in Human Rights. Ennals was the founder and first president of Amnesty International. Mony deserves the recognition, and I hope it accompanies a resurgence in local support and labor activism and solidarity.

Ros Sovannareth was a union official and activist within the FTUWKC, when he was assassinated on May 7, 2004. He worked at the Trinunggal Komara Garment Factory, and was gunned down by two men riding a motorcycle. Just as in the murder of FTUWKC president Chea Vichea months previously (brother of Chea Mony), a patsy was found to take the legal fall. Now, with the accused killers of Chea Mony beginning to possibly receive a new trial, the accused killer of Ros Sovannareth will also receive an appeal. This isn’t justice, but it’s a necessary step forward.

Good news, Dougald O’Reilly, archaeologist, founder of Heritage Watch, and acclaimed scholar (I’m slowly working my way through his engaging book “Early Civilizations of Southeast Asia” in the five minute breaks between getting into bed and falling asleep these days, and am grateful for his work), has received a major award for Heritage Watch’s work. The Archaeological Institute of America’s Conservation and Heritage Management Award, was given to Dougald just a few days ago. Congratulations Dougald!

Video explaining the notion of the Commons

Many of us are deeply concerned with the commons – their reality, the danger posed them (and by direct extension, us), and the possibility of their resurgence. The commons is a real issue in Cambodia, where they are under nearly universal attack, as well as most every other place in the world. But what are the commons? This video, which was brought to my attention by the great blog of economic anthropologist Keith Hart. Check it out

more about “Video explaining the notion of the Co…“, posted with vodpod

Hart’s been posting some wonderful, comprehensible, and very insightful videos of his lectures lately. I highly recommend the following:

On Development

The Anticolonial Revolution

Links J13

• Dreams and the fear of the dead. A post referencing responses to Vaughan’s earlier SciAm piece on hallucinating the dead.
• Nina Paley has a new distribution plan for her amazing Sita Sings the Blues. With any luck, it’ll be released soon so that I can show it to classes.
• They’re auctioning off the Big Bopper’s coffin. That is all.
• Keith Hart has an excellent piece on Marxism and economic anthropology. And just today, he posted a series of video lectures on “development and anthropology.”
• Raj Patel has a good intro on the concept of food sovereignty.
• Andrej Grubacic and Staughton Lynd have released a book titled “Wobblies and Zapatistas.” As a supporter of the latter and member of the former, I’m really interested, and what I’ve read about the book so far is enticing. I’m not convinced by some of the major claims yet – that marxists and anarchists need to set aside their ideological differences – however: indeed, it seems that everytime the anarchists ’set aside their differences’ with the marxists, the marxists ruin everything in their rush to accommodation and consolidation of state power. Still, massive respect to Andrej and Staughton, whose interview over at ZNet is well worth reading.

Keith Hart’s Astonishing Blog

Keith Hart “is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London and Honorary Research Professor in the School of Development Studies, University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban.” He’s the author of many important contributions to anthropology, including his famous book The Memory Bank: Money in an Unequal World. He also co-founded Prickly Pear Press, which has now morphed into Prickly Paradigm Press, the works of which are truly important, and some of which available for free download.

You rarely get a chance to see the big famous names in acadmic disciplines in fora like blogs. But that’s not the reason why Keith Hart’s blog and website The Memory Bank, is so wonderful. Nope. Hart has been blogging for years now, but I have only sporadically checked in with his site, largely because I’m truly lazy, and until a recent update, I couldn’t locate an RSS feed for his site. I was redirected there by a post at Lorenz’ wonderful anthropologi site, where he reprinted excerpts from an article by Hart and Horacio Ortiz on “How anthropologists should respond to the economic crisis.”

The stuff at The Memory Bank has been universally fantastic and inspiring, but here are some examples from recent posts which demonstrate some of the style and content which can be found there. If you don’t need anyore convincing, go there now. Otherwise, more after the jump…

Philippines grants duty-free status for more Cambodia goods | balita-dot-ph

This is good news for Cambodian garment factories. Maybe the owners will stop trying to illegally destroy unionizing efforts in their factories now, as a factory which supplies Puma and Adidas is currently attempting to do.  Don’t hold your breath, though

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 1 – The Philippines has granted duty-free privileges to more imports from Cambodia in line with the ASEAN Integration System of Preferences (AISP), according to Cambodian Ministry of Commerce.

Products from Cambodia that will be duty-free are clothing, as well as products made of textiles other than ramie, linen or silk.

A preference is a unilateral offer made by old ASEAN members – or the so-called “preference-giving” countries the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand – to new ASEAN members or the “preference-receiving” countries Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

This is meant to narrow the development gap among these countries and to facilitate the integration of new ASEAN members.

via Philippines grants duty-free status for more Cambodia goods | balita-dot-ph

Quick Economic Links for N13

• Steven Shaviro has a brief review of why people who’ve ever paid attention to anti-capitalist theories of the economy should not be surprised at the fact of our current crisis.
• John Robb has an excellent series of links himself on this topic, pointing especially to the few attempts to stop mass foreclosures in cities, and a point to the second in a (so-far) two-part series on This American Life which does a pretty excellent job for those of us who are attempting to quickly get a leg up on the facts driving the crisis.
• KI-Media offers an English-language translation of an article from RFA, which reports that Thailand continues to kick Cambodian migrant workers out of the country. Meanwhile, unemployment in Cambodia is rising.
• Remember all those enormous (and largely unfinished, right?) skyscrapers that the Sensation was promoting? Some people are starting to sound the alarm on these: Asia Bracing for Downturn in Property Markets.
• DAS reports on some good Cambodian economic news: apparently there is still business for Cambodian Garment Factories.

First Step: Stop Enforcing Evictions

As the nationwide mortgage crisis puts the squeeze on homeowners, the Cook County sheriff’s office is on pace to evict more people than ever from foreclosed homes.

At least it was until Wednesday, when Sheriff Tom Dart announced he wouldn’t do it anymore.

Dart cited the growing number of evictions that involve rent-paying tenants who suddenly learn their building is in foreclosure because the landlord neglected to pay the mortgage. By refusing to do any foreclosure-related evictions, the hope is that banks will change their policies.

via Sheriff: I will stop enforcing evictions — chicagotribune.com.

This is happening in my old city of Chicago? Who knew.

Wanna know what the Second Step is? Community-based self-defense organizations, ready to resist those who, unlike the apparently decent Sheriff Dart, will continue to kick people out of their homes and apartments.