New beginnings! Our beloved website has a new face and a new name. A change of scenery is good for everyone – and I speak from experience. Since my last article found a home on the then Bajan Dream website, I myself have found a new home. My ever-itchy feet have led me a half a world away to Cambodia – the land with a haunted past and promising future. But more on that later – It is good to be back!

For my first article for our new website, I wanted something thought provoking or at least, interesting. I have plenty of inspiration in both departments these days. My current day job involves writing, editing and creating documents for Cambodia’s largest agricultural NGO. I’ve spent time wandering through villages so basic and so beautiful that it would literally break your heart. And I’ve had hands-on experience with the improvements taking place here, transforming a once hope-impoverished country into an impressively resilient kingdom.

Why would you be interested in Cambodia, you ask? Well, for one thing many of my upcoming articles are likely to be based on knowledge gained while I’m here or influenced by what I see here. And secondly – and most importantly – because Cambodia represents, simultaneously, the best and the worst the world has to offer. It is a place as charming as it is devastating and as impressive as it is impoverished. Many of the issues we discuss on this website are directly or indirectly evident in Cambodia – and many of them more blatantly obvious for the lack of infrastructure and the exceedingly wide gap between the upper and lower classes. In that way, it may serve as a foundation for discussion on hot topics because it often occupies the extreme side of the scale we use to measure these issues against.

But before we can plunge into the issues at hand, we must first familiarize ourselves with the nature of the beast.

Cambodia, like all developing countries, did not end up in its current state by one singular event. Its destiny has been wrestled with through years of political upheaval and war. A history of Cambodia would take use many pages, but suffice it to say that the road to poverty and corruption was a long and winding one marked with interior power struggles and exterior influences.

The infamous period of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979, which eventually led to the death of approximately 2 million Khmer people and one of the most grisly and mysterious genocides of our time, was the breaking point for Cambodia. At the height of her power, Cambodia produced one of the world’s most amazing tributes to solidarity – the Angkor Wat Temples – and led the region in rice production due, for the most part, to an elaborate and inspired irrigation system that is truly a marvel of ancient agriculture. Today, however, her people struggle to survive on sustenance farming that fails to adequately feed most households while her politicians fight generation’s worth of corruption and greed.

Cambodia holds a place on several top 50 lists – though most of them are not list to be aspired to. According the United Nations website, Cambodia is high on the 50 poorest countries list. Out of the 177 countries included in the United Nation’s Human Development Index List, Cambodia is 131. She also ranks high on the “Most Corrupt Countries” list developed by Transparency International – coming in the top ten with a Corruption Perceptions Index of 2.2. The United Nations also has a list of 48 “Least Developed Countries” and Cambodia is included on that. And while those lists could be assumed to be subjective, the cold hard numbers never lie: Even at a lowered poverty line of $0.50 USD per day, over 30% of Cambodians still live in poverty (the normal poverty line is $1.25 USD a day). Cambodian farmers harvest a measly 1.7 tons per hectare of rice compared to the 2.59 and 4.51 tons per hectare in neighboring Thailand and Vietnam respectively (USDA Statistics, 2007 and 2009). When 85% of a countries total population depends on rice farming for their livelihood, it doesn’t take a mathematical genius to get the picture. Cambodia has fallen on hard times.

But while the light at the end of this depressing tunnel of human doubt may be out of sight, the silver lining to the thundercloud of despair is becoming more and more obvious. Cambodia has become a training ground for inspired non-governmental organizations and has, for the last 20 years, benefitted from some of the most impressive acts of kindness the better-off of the world could bestow.

The United States spent $62 million USD in 2007 alone, making Cambodia the third largest international recipient of United States Government Aid. Organizations like the one I work for have become so adept at using new ideas that one could easily say that “thinking outside the box” has become more common than thinking inside of it. Using knowledge gained from the successes and mistakes made in other countries across the globe, the non-profit, civil society sector of Cambodia has been able to change basic, foundational areas much faster and more efficiently than we saw in other countries in previous years.

As an example, using the “teach a man to fish” philosophy, my organization promotes an ecologically friendly and non-technologically based rice production improvement system, based on simple improvements in transplanting and crop care. The idea is to use what is available and improve upon it through techniques discovered by a Jesuit priest in Madagascar. Some harvest studies have shown a doubling in tonnage per acre during the first year of implementation. Here in Cambodia, we’ve gone back to the basics working to create methods that are as sustainable as they are useful.

So what can we – as readers, as activists and as people – learn from Cambodia’s trials and triumphs? We can learn that hope cannot be killed, massacred, or starved to death. We can recognize that even a mere five years of destruction and disaster can set a nation back for twenty or more years. We can acknowledge that money, in the long term, won’t feed the starving but that knowledge most certainly will. And we can rejoice that there are people, organizations and governments striving to make an impact and improvements far beyond their borders.

Time alone will tell whether Cambodia can truly rise from the ashes. I will probably be long gone before that day occurs. However, even as I take my lessons with me, I am hopeful that we can all glean some knowledge from the strife that this country has endured. This year abroad will doubtlessly provide me enough fuel for my creative fires to feed you a thousand tales. I look forward to sharing them with you.

Charlsea Ewing · Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Charlsea Ewing is a traveling gypsy in search of a good story. Originally from Texas, she has pursued her culture shock addiction across nine countries and has recently moved to Cambodia to work with farmers. When she’s not working on a farm or traveling, she enjoys a good book, great conversation and learning as much about as many cultures as possible.

charlsea@antillean.org