Every year, the students at Phnom Penh’s Northbridge International School complete a 24-hour challenge to raise money for charity. Over the past few years, the students’ excellent efforts have led to thousands of dollars being raised for charities in Cambodia and Africa. At the same time, the event encourages the children to think about others less fortunate than themselves as well as engaging them to work together in a fun and healthy collaborative challenge.
The Torture at Tuol Sleng
Shocking and disturbing, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum offers a portrait of anguish and suffering to help the world prevent new regimes from emerging. Giselle Whiteaker speaks to one of the four remaining survivors. Photos by Nick Ross.
Walking through the gates of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, I find it easy to recognise the layout as a former school. The buildings ring two central grassed courtyards, with several magnolia trees in full bloom, bringing to mind laughing school children at play. This image is quick to change.
The Sofitel Phnom Penh Phokeethra will open its gates on Dec. 11 as the city’s first 5-star hotel debut in a decade. Located a short walk downstream of Phnom Penh’s Royal Palace, the 201-room property will bring a whole host of jobs to the city with its eight new restaurants and bars.
“For many people, Phnom Penh is one of Asia’s great new destinations, generating an enthusiasm that we’ve seen for places like Vietnam and the Maldives in the past,” said Didier Lamoot, General Manager of the new hotel, which was constructed using a US$50m investment from a consortium of investors.
Cambodia has seen far more than its fair share of tragedy and misery. The blind masseuses offer a glimpse of the true Cambodian heart and will to carry on.
With the onset of the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia took a serious turn for the worse from the late 1970s through the early eighties. When the Khmer Rouge were finished killing or starving as much as twenty percent of the population and finally thrown out of power, the land turned into a lawless morass with all that implies. During this time, numerous people were left disabled. A particularly significant disability was blindness, which arose from torture or muggings undertaken by throwing battery acid in the face of victims.
In late 2007 via a phone call to miss leading number one women contacted me in Phnom Penh. We arranged to meet, I had expected a photographer and she had expected that I was the person running an orphanage she had visited. After enquiring about the photographs she replied, “I don’t take pictures that are depressing, I didn’t take any.” So why was she meeting with me? After further investigation and conversation it became apparent that she got my number from a Tuk-Tuk driver I had used and he had told her, Jane, to contact me.
Pascal Brandt-Gagnon is general manager of Asia Insurance (Cambodia). In January 2005 Asia Insurance became the first and only company in Cambodia to offer Bankers Blanket Bond (BBB) insurance. In January 2006, Acleda, Cambodia's leading micro-finance bank, purchased BBB insurance and saw deposits increase dramatically in the ensuing weeks. Brandt-Gagnon spoke to Cat Barton about Cambodia's anti-insurance mentality, the lack of public confidence in the banking sector, and the impact of introducing BBB insurance to the country.
What is a Bankers Blanket Bond?
There was a time, not so long ago, when International Women's Day would have passed in Cambodia without most people noticing. But its significance is recognized by more people now with each passing year.
On March 17th, more than 200 women gathered at a Women Leaders reception to celebrate International Women's Day..
The reception was hosted by four ambassadors and the head of the World Bank in Cambodia- all of whom are women
There are those hardy souls that are interested in the local wildlife and will trek through the jungle for weeks to find it. I am not one of them. It brings up a conundrum of sorts as I enjoy wildlife, just not in the wild.
Most people who have lived in Phnom Penh more than a year and have thus experienced an Om Tuk, flee the capital. The migrational patterns of the Khmer dictates all cities empty during Khmer New Year as dutiful urban-migrant offspring return to the paddy field from whence they sprang. At Om Tuk, all people, of all ages, from all provinces across the Kingdom descend upon Phnom Penh.
Phnom Penh: When the hot season arrives, Phnom Penh and Takhmao [Kandal] are facing a lack of electricity, which is a heavy burden that has not yet been solved. It causes some areas in these two cities to have frequent power cut-offs, especially during the day, affecting the daily lives of the citizens.