Edgy Cambodia

by admin on January 9, 2009

Cambodia is what I call a edgy kind of place. How edgy? Consider this.

On Wednesday 7th Jan there was a big celebration here to mark the 30th anniversary of the defeat of the Khmer Rouge. The Prime Minister, Hun Sen, was in the Olympic Stadium with about 60.000 people, all wearing white shirts. On the streets though a lot of folk deliberately wore black. What’s the significance?

Well – the Khmer Rouge were defeated by the army of Vietnam who marched into Cambodia to fight them. Trouble is, Vietnam is the traditional enemy of Cambodia. And I don’t mean enemy in the way that Scotland and England are enemies – these people are deadly enemies. So, while some of the population see Jan 7th as liberation, an equal number see it as the date the Vietnamese began a 10 year occupation and domination of Cambodia. And those are the folk who wore black.

Their message? Black is traditionally associated with the KR so they’re saying they’d rather side with them than the Vietnamese……………

That’s a lot of hatred and it’s what drives a lot of the edge here.

{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

Ferg January 9, 2009 at 6:58 pm

So are you wearing your Newcastle United shirt?

paulyrob January 11, 2009 at 4:57 am

I like it Ferg, I like it – the Khmer Toon or the Toon Rouge. My contact will be in touch to discuss shortly. Watch out for an email from Mr. P. Pot

Previous post:

Next post: