2011 - 2012 - Transiting – from the Past through the Present into the Future
The Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) carries, with every e-mail sent, the following line:
“...a society cannot know itself if it does not have an accurate memory of its own history.”
Have a look – click! - at their resources: the Documentation Center of Cambodia, the Cambodia Tribunal Monitor, and the Sleuk Rith Institute – the latter is a Permanent Documentation Center of Cambodia, explaining that it refers to “Sleuk Rith, dried leaves that Cambodian religious leaders and scholars have used for centuries to write on them and to document history, disseminate knowledge, and preserve culture.”
There are many people who do not share this conviction. They say we just have to be positive, look into the future, forget the past, newer waste time looking back whatever it was, things will be all right if we just think of and trust in a better future.
I cannot share this disregard for the foundations on which we may build the future, our future.
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MOT and NOCC Counts Down into the New Year With SEA Festival
The Inaugural SEA Festival will be held this weekend at the Port City of Sihanoukville. The event which will include a display of Culture and Sports is jointly organized by the Ministry of Tourism and the National Olympic Committee of Cambodia is organized in celebration of the beach resort’s recent induction into the Most Beautiful Bays in the World Club..
Seven sporting competitions will be on display as part of the inaugural Sea Festival at Sihanoukville’s Occheateal Beach on New Year’s Eve.
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12 March: World Day Against Cyber-Censorship
The Mirror had the following reports in the past, all concerned with access to information and freedom of expression:
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Children of Bassac - a joy to watch
Vibrant, energetic, with boundless vitality, the Children of Bassac were a joy to watch recently at the National Museum for the first of their weekly performances during the tourist high season.
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Reflections on Cambodia in the United Nations, Returning to Cambodia after Six Weeks
The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 687
I have never been absent from Cambodia for such a long time since my arrival at the end of May 1990. There were many personal challenges during these weeks – starting with a meeting with some high-school time classmates who graduated with me in 1953. Some are no more – no surprise, considering the years passed since.
Then, as I had reported also in The Mirror, I became inevitably aware that the population pyramids in Cambodia and in Germany are so different. But it is not yet clear what this will mean for the future of employment possibilities in Cambodia, where most available job positions are already occupied for years to come – but a large number of new graduates are looking forward to jobs.
Living Together with Different Backgrounds
The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 686
My time in Germany – longer, for medical reasons, than originally intended – provides me with interesting insights into German society; I tried to bring some of them into The Mirror, as far as there are references possible.
One debate which, more than ever before, is in the media almost every day, relates to migration and migrants: the fact that a about 10 percent of the people in Germany are immigrants, and there is another group of people born in Germany, but with immigrant background. A special emphasis is on the role of people from Turkey – more than 4 million persons among the total population – of Germans and foreigners – of 82 million living in the country.
Is Angkor Wat a 12th-century Facebook?
Identities of the mysterious Asian women carved into the 12th century Cambodian temple may finally be revealed.
Angkor Wat contains 12th century portraits of 1,796 individual women. They were clearly part of a "social network". American researcher Kent Davis asks "Was this temple an ancient Facebook"?
Improving Communication by Communicating
The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 667
The major event during the week was the meeting of the Cambodia Development Cooperation Forum, which brought more than 100 representatives from donor countries and from international financial organizations to Cambodia, to meet with representatives of the Cambodian government. One newspaper quoted a Cambodian official as saying, before the meeting: “Cambodia Hopes to Get US$1 Billion Aid as Expected.”
About the Clear Separation of Functions and Responsibilities
The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 666
According to the Preamble of the Constitution, the Kingdom of Cambodia is a multi-party liberal democracy. That different people make different observations and have different information and different opinions is natural – that these can also be expressed and discussed openly is legal under such a constitution, unless there is any criminal intent involved.
National Holidays: Labor Day – Sunday – Royal Ploughing Ceremony
The Mirror, Vol. 14, No. 662
While the time runs and runs evenly, the different calendars – related to the year of the sun, or related to the phases of the moon, or related to cultural history and social-political events – have their own ways. And sometimes they lead to interesting crossings.
The Royal Ploughing Ceremony, roughly at the beginning of the rainy season, marks the start of the planting time. And royal astrologers will observe the preferences of the draught animals during the ceremony, which food they prefer – offered to them on seven trays, with beans, corn, grass, rice, sesame seeds, water, and wine – to predict the coming season’s harvest.