“Maybe the dead were starving…”

Excellent two-part documentary from Al Jazeera on the ongoing Cambodian tribunal of the Khmer Rouge. There’s little discussion (but some) on the extremely limited number of leaders in the dock, but some great discussion. The talented Nic Dunlop, author of The Lost Executioner, takes lead on this report.

In the clip above, starting at about 10:43, note the following quote, which is characteristic of the way in which people have talked to me about ghosts and the dead during the Khmer Rouge period (Democratic Kampuchea, 1975-1979). Seng Yao, 81 year old survivor of prison camp M-99, says

At least ten prisoners died each morning and we would take the bodies away. We kept moving the corpses. I was not afraid of ghosts at that time. I would sometimes sleep on graves but ghosts did not haunt me. Maybe the ghosts did not have the energy left to haunt us because they died of starvation.

[Note that the speech in Khmer is actually somewhat less conditional about the reasoning]

I only interviewed a few survivors of Khmer Rouge prisons during my fieldwork. But such expressions and reasoning about ghosts were common among many survivors, not just former prisoners.  I was frequently told that “there were no ghosts during the Pol Pot time,” because “they had nothing to eat.” I had a hard time understanding this at first, because it was my assumption that whenever there was mass death there would necessarily be more ghosts, not fewer.

But the explanations I received were consistent with what Seng Yao expresses in the documentary clip above. In January 2005, an 85 year old man in rural Kompong Cham province expressed it this way:

When the country is rich, there are lots of ghosts. When there is nothing to eat, what will the ghosts eat? Nowadays, there are lots more ghosts than during the Pol Pot time.

Note that the reciprocity between humans and the dead is assumed to be the basis of the ‘health’ of the dead, and that the basis of this reciprocity is food. This point underlies almost all my work thus far on death and deathpower in Cambodia.

1 Billion Hungry People

In this 12 minute piece from Inside Story, the crucial issues of food security and worldwide hunger are addressed. Nearly 1 billion of the world’s people go hungry. This number is getting bigger. Nobody seems to care aside from the hungry themselves.

more about “1 Billion Hungry People“, posted with vodpod

Some excerpts of particular interest to me from the FAO site:

“World food prices have dropped since early 2008, but lower prices have not ended the food crisis in many poor countries,” said FAO Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem, presenting the new edition of FAO’s hunger report, The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008.

“For millions of people in developing countries, eating the minimum amount of food every day to live an active and healthy life is a distant dream. The structural problems of hunger, like the lack of access to land, credit and employment, combined with high food prices remain a dire reality,” he stressed.

Prices of major cereals have fallen by over 50 percent from their peaks earlier in 2008 but they remain high compared to previous years. Despite its sharp decline in recent months, the FAO Food Price Index was still 28 percent higher in October 2008 compared to October 2006. With prices for seeds and fertilizers (and other inputs) more than doubling since 2006, poor farmers could not increase production. But richer farmers, particularly those in developed countries, could afford the higher input costs and expand plantings. As a result, cereal production in developed countries is likely to rise by at least 10 percent in 2008. The increase in developing countries may not exceed even one percent.

Right. As I, following many others, have been talking about for the last few years, the inexorable rise in fossil fuels will necessarily hurt the food economies in the most grievous ways. Oil is a requirement for modern pesticides, natural gas a requirement for fertilizer. As we run out of these, the prices for these inputs rise dramatically. Meanwhile, the ability to distribute the food that is grown is made even more pricey – trucks run on gas, right? And climate change isn’t helping.

Link Dump D1

Nom Banchok (a tasty Khmer soup) video by Preap Sovath (heartthrob pop singer) over at Stomachs on Legs, along with link to Alison’s recipe for same (soup, not heartthrob).

Claude Lévi-Strauss is 100 years old! (and still looks awfully dapper). Holy cats. Lots of good coverage at anthropologi, savageminds, and open anthropology.

Albert Woodfox, wrongly convicted for murdering a prison guard in 1972 (his conviction overturned in September), and who has spent 36 years in complete solitary confinement (think about that) as a punishment for his organizing efforts as a member of the Angola Three, must be released, according to the Judge who overturned his conviction. I’ve written about Albert before. Here’s hoping he is allowed out soon, and can rejoin (meet) family members, and find some ease and peace in the outside world.

Link Dump for O27

Marc Bousquet gives the most level-headed endorsement of Obama I have seen yet. And he makes the point I’ve been making privately to friends and comrades for the last two months: Obama will likely be remembered, should he be elected, as Herbert Hoover part II. Why? Because he’s not (McCain buzz to the contrary) a socialist:

It’s nice to see the electorate finally rejecting the same old Raw Deal.

On the other hand, we’re pretty far away from a new New Deal, except for bankers. In fact, we could be in for a long tour of Hooverville.

I know, that’s not what you want to hear about The One.

He’s pretty. Like Kennedy, only moral, and he writes most of his own stuff, which is nice. Daddy didn’t fund his political career.

But his policies on education (charter schools: yum!) and health care (buy your own!) are miles away from the “socialism” that Dumb and Dumber have labelled them.

Sad to say, but if you’re inclined to view the moment through the lens of a potential Second Great Depression, then Obama’s positioned a heck of lot more like Hoover than FDR.

Vaughan over at Mind Hacks refers to a fantastic radio documentary on Milgram’s conformity experiments. Milgram and Zimbardo’s experiments were formative for my own understanding of human behavior, as they were for many. That along makes this documentary important, especially for educators looking for new ways to introduce this well-trod material to students.

Ursa at Class Struggle For Gunslingers refers, via Nate, to two excellent and contrasting views from the French on the current economic crisis: Tronti and Badiou. Go. Read.

This, from Vutha, makes me hungry. Ansam Ang.  Yum. Ansam Ang is a delicious roadside treat. I rarely ate the ’straight’ ansam ang, but the fancier variety, in which the grilled banana is wrapped around something else (some meat, or beans), and then wrapped in banana leaf for takeaway. Cheap and tremendously delicious.

Wellington Grey, who despite his name is a citizen of the United States, has a very nice graphic demonstrating clearly the ways in which the US is not number one. It deserves wider attention:

Via BoingBoing, these wonderful black and white drawings from a great-looking show of Dia de los muertos drawings!:

And finally, a reference to the always-impressive posts over at Will Buckingham’s thinkbuddha.org, which reviews the great book from Gregory Schopen, Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks. Schopen has subsequent volumes in this series which are equally impressive.

Schopen writes that those who attempt to reconstruct the early history of Buddhism have two bodies of data upon which to draw – in the first place, material records, and secondly literary materials. In our tendency to take texts as somehow being the place where “real” religion resides, and to consider the data from material records as secondary, we have, Schopen contends, arrived at a curiously skewed vision of Buddhist history. For example, epigraphic and archaeological evidence – records of generous donations by monks to the erecting of monuments – suggests that Buddhist monks did own property, whilst literary evidence suggests that Buddhist monks should not own property (other than the “requisites” necessary for supporting their existence); and thus the scholars have concluded that, although Buddhist monks in general didn’t own property (the texts tell us so), perhaps at certain times and in certain places there was a decline in the probity of the monkhood. The epigraphic evidence, then, is considered to be an exceptional case manifesting the behaviour of some backsliding monks, or else a case of monks acting as mediators in the donation, but in all cases it is considered to be unrepresentative of what Buddhism has been like historically.

Rat Meat in Cambodia

Not sure what to make of this – the rat under discussion is Paddy Rat – not the nasty urban sewer rats of victorian England imagination, and considered a ‘delicacy’ by many meat-hungry Cambodians, especially in the Northwest (Battambang Rat is supposedly the tastiest). I think we need Phil Lees to weigh in here.

The price of rat meat has quadrupled in Cambodia this year as inflation has put other meat beyond the reach of poor people, officials said on Wednesday.

With consumer price inflation at 37 percent according to the latest central bank estimate, demand has pushed a kilogram of rat meat up to around 5,000 riel (69 pence) from 1,200 riel last year.

Spicy field rat dishes with garlic thrown in have become particularly popular at a time when beef costs 20,000 riel a kg.

Oddly Enough | Africa – Reuters.com.

On the other hand, if the Cambodian government decided that this was a solution to hunger in Cambodia (while they are proclaiming increased rice harvests and over 40 percent of the country goes to sleep hungry), I would share Raj Patel’s outrage (over a similar situation in India).

Favored Links for 08.08.08

Southeast Asia-related:

A nice interview with Duncan McCargo over at New Mandala that’s worth reading. He’s been all over the place lately, with the success of his recent writings and the coincidental (or not?) rise in high-profile Thai activities lately.

Short article on the suddenly low price of rice in Vietnam, which has resulted in Vietnamese farmers leaving their crops piled up in the fields. Yeah, the ‘free market’ is a great way to deal with global hunger and food distribution. Really.

Does anyone remember the food riots just a few months ago? Doesn’t this seem strange to free-market cheerleaders, or are they so besotted with their own high-end commodities that they just don’t notice?

Academic News

Inside Higher Ed reports on the dumbass (but predictable) efforts of a new business to ‘certify’ adjunct faculty as teachers. (their degrees don’t count apparently). The service only costs $395, a price that must seem a steal for adjuncts living without health insurance and feeding their kids on food stamps. Marc Bousquet has already weighed in, and extended the story nicely, but for my money, the best quote comes from within the Inside Higher Ed story itself:

Others appeared skeptical, with one person writing: “Is there perhaps a Society of Indentured Servants as well? Complete with certification. Pay money and someone will count and certify the number of holes in your head.”

If the idea of faculty on foodstamps seems like hyperbole to you, it’s time to wake up. Just over a year ago, my own family of four stopped being homeless and stopped buying our groceries with not only food stamps, but also WIC subsidies. Thank god we live in the relatively progressive state of Minnesota, so that we also received good subsidized health insurance. It ain’t pretty out there, folks.

“Oh Snap!” Somebody Got Told, Vol. 1

This lovely flowchart may be of use to those who find it difficult to know the appropriate moments at which to say, ‘Snap!’, or its variant, “Oh, Snap!”

Sure, we all know that it’s something you say when a person nearby was just humiliated, proven desperately wrong, or smacked in the face. But is that enough?

I didn’t think so, so I’ve culled a few examples from recent news stories. You decide: “Snap!”, or “No Snap!”?

1. Heard of Argus? Neither (so he claims) has Marc Bousquet, whose excellent How The University Works should be required reading for all new and aspirant faculty. He was just invited to be an informer on his colleagues and fellow workers, ratting them out for their politics and teaching. He wasn’t amused, but his post is deeply amusing. One short snippet:”Every time I catch someone who thinks we should all have health care, I get a prize, working all the way up to a flying broomstick!”

   Snap or No Snap?

2. The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand has announced that the Cambodian ‘theft’ of Preah Vihear should be considered a serious violation of human rights. Andrew Walker has the smack-down:”The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand has taken leave of it senses….There are many important human rights issues to be addressed in Thailand. This is not one of them.”

   Snap or No Snap?

3. Sam Rainsy objects that he lost the election in Cambodia. He was the only person surprised about this. I’m sure that there was intimidation and vote-buying (it was an election, after all), but to complain that the entire election was stolen? DetailsAreSketchy reports on the European Union’s smackdown. See also KJE’s post, “He Just Doesn’t Get It.” You want to see real electoral corruption? Just wait a few months and pay attention to the USA. Or watch this documentary.

   Snap or No Snap?

4. After thousands in Milwaukee rioted over food vouchers, Raj Patel calls down the smackdown on those who were surprised about it, titling his post “Spank me and call me Cassandra!“:”Were we perhaps expecting the event to come to us pre-labelled?”

   Snap or No Snap?

5. George Orwell’s diaries are going to be serialized on wordpress, thanks to the Orwell Trust, Political Quarterly, and the Media Standards Trust.No smackdown there – yet. Keep reading those diaries, though, and you’re certain to read a few.

Haitian Food Riot Video – Avi Lewis

Raj Patel over at the Stuffed and Starved blog posted about this new video piece from journalist and filmmaker Avi Lewis on food riots, including a long bit of history, focusing on Haiti.

He also references Lewis and partner Naomi Klein’s excellent movie, The Take, which documented the factory occupations and the increase in worker self-management in post-collapse Argentina. Very worth watching. [amazon]

Cambodian Poorhouse Prisons and Fast Food

How did I miss this story? Thanks to Jinja for blogging up this horrible set of juxtapositions in Cambodia, on his normally extremely non-confrontational (wonderful) blog.

Fast Food and Slow Starvation

Jul 3rd, 2008 by Jinja

(Above: KFC on Monivong Boulevard)

It came as a small surprise when I read in the paper that fast food restaurants existed on  Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Somehow the idea of interrogators stepping out of a prison waterboarding session for a latte seemed… incongruous. (The idea of them rewarding prisoners with ‘Happy Meals’ even more so.)

Many bases have features like this, making them small pockets of American culture in unlikely locations.  And the controversial detention center is a recent addition to a much older institution.

Now, like ‘Gitmo’,  Cambodia has its own Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise, which was unveiled with much fanfare.  More than simply providing fatty food, it showed that Cambodia was being wired into the global system of international commerce – so much so that chain stores now feel secure enough to open up shop and boot out their cloned counterparts.

With Cambodia’s entry to the World Trade Organization, and the Stock Exchange opening up in 2009, it seems the sky’s the limit. Now, if only we could just get rid of those pesky homeless people and beggars who get in the way of all this new prosperity!

(Above: Licadho)
Well, Cambodia got its own island prison camp too: Koh Kor. After some starving inmates escaped, and the news media got wind, it was quickly shut down and the inmates were dumped back on the streets. Most of them.

Still running on the outskirts of Phnom Penh is Prey Speu detention center.  With an election officially in progress, it’s surprising that no party has taken this up as an issue.  Maybe they’re happy to have clean streets for their election caravans.

Fast food and arbitrary detention. Cambodia is joining the world of global ‘convenience’.  For those who can afford it.

Would you like fries with that?

News Roundup.

Some old posts never made it to the page: Catching up, here.

My writing process being what it is, I’m absorbed elsewise for the time being. Here are some news bits I’m following:

• Cambodia’s Economic Growth To Slow Down. Yes. And the Australians get it right in this tiny tiny little blurb by also mentioning the rising rate of inflation – the part of the economy that allows people to live? It’s getting crowded out.
• Dam Sith, the publisher of Moneasekar Khmer (Khmer Conscience), a pro-Sam Rainsy Party paper, has been detained on ‘defamation’ charges. Defamation in Cambodia is what lese majesté is in Thailand.
• Agriculture hampered by lack of funds in Cambodia. Yes. The article mentions that Khmer farmers lack sufficient access to capital to buy land, fertilizer, pesticide, and seed. Yikes.  Land grabs make the accumulation of capital to buy land dubious at best – people with enough money to secure and protect legitimate title to land in Cambodia rarely want to see the low level of agricultural returns on their expensive investments. I’m deeply sympathetic to the need of farmers to purchase new seed, fertilizer, and pesticides, especially when they have already committed themselves to this direction; however, it is becoming rapidly clear that in terms of actually surviving on a Cambodian farm, these techniques and tools are not the Khmer farmer’s best friends. A return to intensive home gardening supplemented by rice cash cropping is a much more sustainable and secure direction. But, it’s less likely to produce surpluses of cash, which is increasingly what farmers need to take advantage of the other benefits of the state – such as education, which must be paid for every day by the students.
• From the Everybody Told You So And Now Millions Are Dead And A City Destroyed File: devastated Sichuan province (see also Earthquake) has had the second shoe drop on it. The quake “caused a landslide on Mount Tangjian which dammed the Jian River and created the Tangjianshan Quake Lake.” (Wikipedia).  The landslide dam has been unable to retain the massive amounts of rainfall. At least three emergency drainage canals have failed to alleviate the pressure, but has finalized the total and apparently irreversible destruction of Beichuan city. As many as a million people downstream may have to be removed. Soldiers have even taken to firing missiles at rubble blocking the drainage canals.
• UN Extends Free Breakfast Program in Cambodia. Thank god. Kids need to eat.