Phnom Penh will boast a state-of-the-art solar powered ‘skytrain’ similar to the elevated trams of Bangkok if plans discussed in a meeting on Monday are put into action. The developer claimed the new skytrain could carry over 600,000 people per day, with a possible capacity of over 1 million people by 2043.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) held a meeting presided over by MEF Minister Keat Chhon with the GREENCAMECO Company, according to MEF reports.
About 39 km of rail would be built around Phnom Penh, Richard Rory of GREENCAMECO said.
An addition 34 km would be covered by buses and solar power would be integral to the project, he added.
The four year project would take until at least 2014, with the first stage from 2011 to 2013. The total budget will be over US$3.6 billion, GREENCAMECO said. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the MFE Keat Chhon recommen- ded that “Before starting project, the company should survey extensively first, to protect any impact to the related railways of Cambodia.”
All designs and planning should be clear and support ease of access for all disabled Cambodian people, as well as children,” Keat Chhon added.
Rory said the project would support Cambodian development, inclu- ding public transport, road safety and less traffic jams.
The company should cooperate with the Ministry of Land Manage- ment, Urban Planning and Construc- tion together to better serve the public, Keat Chhon added.
Phnom Penh Plans to Build ‘Skytrain’
King pardons Thai man jailed for spying
King Norodom Sihamoni has pardoned a Thai man jailed for seven years for spying on fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra during a visit to Phnom Penh, Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said Friday.
Sivarak Chutipong, 31, an engineer who had been working in Phnom Penh for seven years at Cambodia Air Traffic Services, will be released from prison Monday to his family and a delegation from Thailand's main opposition party, Puea Thai, with which Thaksin is associated.
"The king just signed it this morning," Khieu Kanharith said, explaining that the royal pardon was issued after Prime Minister Hun Sen requested it Thursday.
"This morning Hun Sen said that if the man wants to continue working in Cambodia, he is welcome," he added.
Sivarak received a seven year jail term and a 10 million riel (US$2402) fine in Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday for passing Thaksin’s flight schedule to the Thai embassy in Phnom Penh. At his trial, Sivarak denied stealing any documents and told the court that although he had informed the Thai embassy's first secretary by telephone of a flight arrival, he had not been aware that Thaksin was on board.
Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn told reporters the pardon was a "good sign" for relations between the two sides.
"I have received an initial report of a royal pardon, which was an internal matter for Cambodia, but the Thai government congratulates Sivarak's family," Panitan said.
"The pardon is a good sign as Thai people have been very focused on this case and it could ease bilateral relations with Cambodia," he added.
Thai diplomats and the defendant's mother, seen crying in court, had attended Sivarak's trial.
Cambodia expelled the first secretary of Thailand's embassy in Phnom Penh after alleging that Sivarak had passed information to the diplomat. Thailand expelled the first secretary of the Cambodian embassy in Bangkok shortly afterwards, with the countries having already withdrawn their respective ambassadors in the dispute over Thaksin's appointment as government economics adviser.
Thaksin was deposed in a 2006 coup. His visit to Cambodia last month was the closest he has come to his native country since fleeing last year to avoid a jail term for corruption charges.
source AFP
Govt sets tariffs in bid to end telecoms feuds
New regulations also designate limits on promotional tariffsTHE government has taken what it considers a conclusive step Wednesday to end a price war it says has been undermining profitability in the mobile-phone sector and eroding government revenues by setting a minimum tariff operators can charge customers.
Under the terms of an inter-ministerial prakas, or edict, signed Monday by the telecoms and finance ministries but not released until Wednesday, operators will not be able to offer calls below US$0.045 per minute, not including taxes.
Calls across networks cannot be offered at less than $0.0595 per minute under the edict signed Monday by Minister of Posts and Telecommunications So Khun and Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhun.
So Khun said the prakas will also bring to an end dominant mobile-phone operators’ practice of blocking calls from customers of competitors, although he refused to name those most responsible for the practice.
Those blocking calls from other operators risk losing their licence and being forced to pay compensation to affected parties and the government for any revenues lost as a result, he said.
“This directive is absolute and makes sure that all operators live together in harmony,” So Khun said.
However, the prakas allows operators to offer discounted rates and calling specials, including free minutes, during special promotions with prior permission from the ministry.
Each promotion is limited to 30 days in duration, and prices cannot drop below 50 percent of the minimum tariff for within network calls during offers. Promotions on cross-network calls will not be allowed, according to the prakas.
Ministry Director General Mao Chakrya said there are no limits on the number of promotions each operator can offer each year. “There are a lot of holidays in Cambodia,” he said.
Operators have been given 15 days from Monday to ensure all advertising and calling plans are in line with the new rules, and all advertisements must be cleared by the ministry in future.
So Khun said the ministries developed the prakas only after efforts to mediate between operators over ongoing issues of pricing and interconnection failed.
“We have exhausted all means to resolve the problems, but it has not been successful,” he said. “These challenges could not be addressed if the government did not intervene.”
The government has taken a raft of measures to bring order to the sector this year after new operators – Beeline in particular – began winning customer share from incumbents through discounted calls.
The incumbents accused the newcomers of price-dumping, while the new entrants in turn accused the major players of blocking access to their networks.
Measures include a prakas on interconnectivity issued on October 5 setting out a new framework for calls across networks, a September 29 inter-ministerial circular warning operators to desist from any activities that destabilised the sector, and a government order signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen on October 21 threatening to revoke the licences of operators found guilty of blocking calls.
Economy remains in peril: IMF
Banking and garment sectors must evolve, organisation says
The outlook for Cambodian garment exports is clouded by structural changes.
THE International Monetary Fund issued a stark warning to Cambodia’s struggling garment industry and financial sector in a report late Tuesday that highlighted persisting structural problems. The organisation said that in 2009, Cambodia will experience its first recession in years.
Following consultations with the Cambodian government that ended on November 18, the IMF reported that the Kingdom’s banking sector remains vulnerable despite increasing liquidity after a credit squeeze that started a year ago.
“While banks’ liquidity has improved, staff noted that bank balance sheets have further weakened and credit risks have risen sharply over the past year,” the report said.
The report pointed to rising rates of non-performing loans (NPLs) – which hit 5.25 percent in June – as a continuing concern for the industry, “but the figures officially reported by banks likely fail to capture the true extent of the problem”, it added.
The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has increased oversight of the sector and conducted spot checks to complement more-stringent classification rules, the IMF said, but a shortage of resources has prevented adequate supervision.
More damning was the report’s suggestion that the central bank has not shown sufficient willingness to clamp down on the banking industry, a sector that has continued in some cases to report zero NPLs.
“While the authorities agreed on the need to deal firmly with problem banks, they preferred a more gradual approach,” the IMF said, without naming the lenders that continued to underreport bad loans.
“The NBC has taken measured steps to deal with problem banks, with much more forceful action needed to reduce systemic risks,” it added.
NBC officials were unavailable for comment Wednesday.
Stephen Higgins, CEO of ANZ Royal, agreed with the IMF that the central bank had made progress, adding that banks in Cambodia remain well-capitalised compared with other markets, a factor that helps to combat the threat of bad loans.
“The NBC has already been quite strict in enforcing the new asset-classification regime, and I think there is no doubt that their supervision capacity is stronger,” he said Wednesday. “I think the NBC should be applauded for the steps they are taking.”
The IMF said that profitability of banks will continue to be adversely affected while increasing deposits remain with the central bank instead of being offered to lenders, but Higgins said demand remains low and quality borrowers lacking.
ACLEDA Bank profits soared more than 72 percent in the third quarter compared to the previous period, and ANZ Royal saw profits rise 25 percent in the same quarter over the period from January to March.
But the persistent lack of openness in the sector means other banks have not broken down their financial results in public.
The IMF maintained its prediction of a 2.75 contraction in GDP for this year, citing the continuing problems facing the tourism industry, property sector and, most notably, garment exports in what is set to be the worst economic performance by the Kingdom in recent years. Cambodia saw double-digit GDP growth in 2006 and 2007, and 6.7 percent last year.
The garment sector, the country’s primary export industry, remains mired in a downturn with little sign of recovery given the underlying structural issues that have kept costs high and maintained an enduring “productivity gap” with the rest of the region.
“The outlook for Cambodian garment exports is clouded by structural changes in the market, in addition to lagging competitiveness,” the IMF said. “The global recovery is not expected to be consumer-led, dimming prospects for 2010.”
Statistics compiled by the US Office of Textiles and Apparel show that Cambodia’s garment downturn in the first eight months – a 23.1 percent decline in exports to its primary market the United States – was more severe than the global industry average of a 14.3 percent drop, showing that the Kingdom had failed to compete during the global economic crisis.
Bangladesh, by contrast saw exports rise 4.7 percent, and neighbouring Vietnam’s shipments to the US dropped just 1.2 percent over the same period.
“We have always tried to address the issues of costs and productivity; however … some of these issues, such as infrastructure deficiencies, are not within our control and take a long time to resolve,” Ken Loo, secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association of Cambodia (GMAC), said Wednesday. “The issue of the price of electricity is a case in point.”
The IMF report noted that Cambodian electricity cost US$0.22 a kilowatt-hour versus just $0.07 in Vietnam.
Garment bulk buyers in Taiwan and Hong Kong, for example, sourced from “the most cost-efficient” factories first, the report said.
“Declining orders [during the crisis] have left fewer allocated to garment manufacturers with relatively high unit costs and compress profit margins for all.”
Cambodia is unlikely to benefit from reduced tariffs on its garments exported to the US anytime soon, the IMF predicted, given that relevant free trade agreements are currently stalled “due to political considerations”, including the Doha round.
The Kingdom is subject to average tariff of 16 percent on shipments to the US.
Loo said that although GMAC continues to work with the government and relevant stakeholders in a bid to fix underlying weaknesses in the sector, the future remains unclear.
“Without … cooperation from all parties, it would be extremely difficult for us to recover from this current economic crisis,” he said.
Parkson plans to open store in capital: report
Malaysian shopping chain Parkson Group plans to open its first Cambodian outlet in Phnom Penh by early 2011, according to a report Wednesday in Malaysia’s Star newspaper.
The paper quoted Parkson Retail Group Managing Director Alfred Cheng as saying the company would launch a flagship retail store as part of an overseas growth plan in which it aims to expand its retail space by 15 percent each year in the countries where it operates.
The retail group currently has 35 stores in Malaysia, 44 in China and five in Vietnam, occupying more than 1.6 million square metres of retail space.
Neither Cheng nor Parkson Corp Chief Operating Officer Toh Peng Koon responded on Wednesday or Thursday to a request for details on its proposed Cambodia venture.
However, the most likely location for the new store is in a mixed-use development planned for Phnom Penh by JSM Indochina Ltd, an AIM-listed closed-end fund focused on retail and residential real estate investment and development in Vietnam and Cambodia.
The fund announced in December 2007 it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Parkson Vietnam Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the Parkson Group, to take on a long-term lease agreement as the anchor tenant for its proposed Embassy Centre development.
Embassy Centre will feature 30,515 square metres of retail space, along with 100 high-rise serviced apartments from one to three bedrooms. The property is situated near Central Market, the US embassy, Wat Phnom, the governor’s house and Raffles Hotel Le Royal.
Under the terms of the proposed lease agreement, Parkson will lease 20,000 square metres of the gross lettable area for a term of 20 years. The proposed lease agreement had not been finalised at the time, and was subject to further negotiations and due diligence by Parkson, JSM said in 2007.
Craig Jones, the chief executive officer of JSM Capital Indochina, which manages the investment portfolio of JSM Indochina, could not be reached for comment this week.
However, he told the Post in late October that the Embassy Centre would “absolutely change the face of retail in Phnom Penh”. It would be up to Bangkok standards but on a scale to meet Phnom Penh’s needs, he said.
JSM was close to finalising a contract with a construction company to push ahead with the development, which was a cornerstone of the company’s AIM listing in 2007, Jones said.
The centre will be on a “big transportation corridor”, Jones said, meaning it is unlikely to cause traffic congestion as expected with other developments planned for the capital.
The development would also contain ample parking, which Jones said would help develop the city centre. “The community needs parking. We are providing 700 parking spaces in the central city, which is beneficial to the shopping centre and beneficial to the Phnom Penh community,” he said.
Jones recently resigned as executive director of JSM Indochina ahead of a vote on a leadership challenge by San Francisco hedge fund Passport Capital LLC. JSM Capital Chief Financial Officer Rowell Tan also resigned as executive director from the six-man board.
Non-executive Chairman Michael Tanner was ousted in the vote Monday, which also called for a return to shareholders of uninvested capital and a review of the listed fund’s investment strategy.
Freelance journalism a more dangerous profession: group
James O'toole and Meas Sokchea
FREELANCE journalists are increasingly at risk worldwide of official persecution, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said this week, a trend Cambodian media experts said is already evident here in the Kingdom.
In its annual census of imprisoned journalists, the committee noted that freelancers make up about 45 percent of the at least 136 journalists currently incarcerated worldwide.
This, the organisation argued, is because the Internet has lowered the barriers for freelance journalists, and professional news outlets are increasingly reliant on freelancers and stringers in place of full-time staff as they search for ways to cut costs.
“The days when journalists went off on dangerous assignments knowing they had the full institutional weight of their media organisations behind them are receding into history,” the committee’s executive director, Joel Simon, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Today, journalists on the front lines are increasingly working independently,” Simon added.
“The rise of online journalism has opened the door to a new generation of reporters, but it also means they are vulnerable.”
This worldwide trend can be clearly seen in the Cambodian press, said Moeun Chhean Narridh, director of the Cambodian Institute for Media Studies.
“The number of freelance journalists has increased in recent years because many newspapers, particularly Khmer-language newspapers, cannot afford to send their reporters to the provinces to cover stories,” he said, adding that freelance journalists often lack the training and expertise of their professional counterparts.
Pa Nguon Teang, the director of the Cambodian Centre for Independent Media, said opportunities are limited in the current media market for journalists who are not well-connected.
“TV, radio licences – all of these are in the hands of the government,” he said.
“It should be free for all to get these licenses, but actually it depends on your relationship with the government.”
Both Pa Nguon Teang and Moeun Chhean Narridh said, however, that whether they have the protection of a professional institution or not, all journalists are at risk if they dare to criticise Cambodian elites.
This past June, as the CPJ noted, Khmer Machas Srok newspaper publisher Hang Chakra was sentenced to one year in prison for running a series of articles accusing officials working under Deputy Prime Minister Sok An of corruption.
Opposition newspaper Moneaksekar Khmer, meanwhile, ceased publication following the June arrest of editor Dam Sith.
“In the current situation, all Cambodian journalists are under threat and intimidation because of the criminal lawsuits,” Moeun Chhean Narridh said.
The World's Most Powerful People
The 67 heads of state, criminals, financiers and philanthropists who really run the world.
"I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies." --Napoleon Bonaparte
Power has been called many things. The ultimate aphrodisiac. An absolute corrupter. A mistress. A violin. But its true nature remains elusive. After all, a head of state wields a very different sort of power than a religious figure. Can one really compare the influence of a journalist to that of a terrorist? And is power unexercised power at all?
In compiling our first ranking of the World's Most Powerful People we wrestled with these questions--and many more--before deciding to define power in four dimensions. First, we asked, does the person have influence over lots of other people? Pope Benedict XVI, ranked 11th on our list, is the spiritual leader of more than a billion souls, or about one-sixth of the world's population, while Wal-Mart ( WMT - news - people ) CEO Mike Duke (No. 8) is the largest private-sector employer in the United States.
In Pictures: The World's Most Powerful People
Then we assessed the financial resources controlled by these individuals. Are they relatively large compared with their peers? For heads of state we used GDP, while for CEOs, we looked at a composite ranking of market capitalization, profits, assets and revenues as reflected on our annual ranking of the World's 2000 Largest Companies. In certain instances, like New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller (No. 51), we judged the resources at his disposal compared with others in the industry. For billionaires, like Bill Gates (No. 10), net worth was also a factor.
Next we determined if they are powerful in multiple spheres. There are only 67 slots on our list--one for every 100 million people on the planet--so being powerful in just one area is not enough to guarantee a spot. Our picks project their influence in myriad ways. Take Italy's colorful prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi (No. 12) who is a politician, a media monopolist and owner of soccer powerhouse A.C. Milan, or Oprah Winfrey (No. 45) who can manufacture a best-seller and an American President.
Lastly, we insisted that our choices actively use their power. Ingvar Kamprad, the 83-year-old entrepreneur behind Ikea and the richest man in Europe, was an early candidate for this list, but was excluded because he doesn't exercise his power. On the other hand, Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin (No. 3) scored points because he likes to throw his weight around by jailing oligarchs, invading neighboring countries and periodically cutting off Western Europe's supply of natural gas.
To calculate the final rankings, five Forbes senior editors ranked all of our candidates in each of these four dimensions of power. Those individual rankings were averaged into a composite score, which determined who placed above (or below) whom.
U.S. President Barack Obama emerged, unanimously, as the world's most powerful person, and by a wide margin. But there were a number of surprises. Former President George W. Bush didn't come close to making the final cut, while his predecessor in the Oval Office, Bill Clinton, ranks 31st, ahead of a number of sitting heads of government. Apple's ( AAPL - news - people ) Steve Jobs easily made the list, while Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star governor of California (which alone has an economy larger than Canada's) did not.
This ranking is intended to be the beginning of a conversation, not the final word. Is the Dalai Lama (No. 39) really more powerful than the president of France (No. 56)? Do despicable criminals like billionaire Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán (No. 41) belong on this list at all? Who did we overlook? What did we get wrong? Join the conversation by commenting now.
*source: forbes.com
The World's Most Corrupt Countries
Corruption in nearly half the world's nations is not getting much better and, indeed, in many countries is intensifying--affecting virtually every aspect of life among peoples on every continent.
While a year ago, some 72 out of 158 nations surveyed by the international watchdog group Transparency International were classified as "corrupt," now 74 of 163 countries fall into the same category. A few, most notably India, managed to bootstrap themselves (just barely) out of the truly corrupt group, while others, particularly Iran, dug themselves more firmly into that camp.
TI has developed an index from 0 to 10 comprised of surveys of specialists, opinion leaders, business officials and human rights monitors who live, work or travel extensively in each of the countries ranked. The higher the score, the less corrupt the country. Tied for No. 1 this year, with a CPI “score” of 9.6 are Finland, Iceland and New Zealand. At the bottom, with a score of 1.8 is Haiti.
In Pictures: Most Corrupt Nations
Clearly, as those who monitor the ebb and flow of corruption around the world confess, the rankings are heavily subjective, and the nature of the corruption, particularly in the most severely corrupt nations, can differ markedly. But all share one particular characteristic. "You are dealing with societies where corruption filters into everyday life," says Laurence Cockroft, a senior TI official. "Most of us don't experience [it] in our daily life. My guess is that when the TI Index drops below 5, certainly below 3, you get into a different kind of territory."
Below 5, you have 119 countries out of 163, including such nations as Italy, Greece, South Africa, Brazil and China. Below 3 on the TI scale, some 47 nations drop off, though many are very close to the line.
Corruption can take on a host of different forms. It can, and often does, involve the police and judicial systems, including questionable enforcement of business contracts and other commercial litigation. It frequently involves diversion of a percentage of funds from critical projects into the pockets of senior government officials or their families--often in systematic skimming operations. Indeed, the U.S. State Department has labeled Belarus Europe's only remaining outpost of tyranny.
Unfortunately, most of the corruption occurs in countries whose populations are least equipped to deal with the consequences--the world's most deprived nations. In Cambodia, where two-thirds of the population earns less than $2 a month and one-third earns less than $1, a "substantial portion" of the $500 million to $600 million in donor aid each year is "lost to unofficial fees, an informal system of patronage, illicit 'facilitation' payments by businesses and individuals," one Transparency official said.
Such under-the-counter payments for everything from the simplest municipal services to appointments to many of the nation's highest offices, particularly those where there is the greatest access to illicit profits, are the effective rule of law in most of the nations surveyed--especially in Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America.
In general, the most corrupt nations are those with "an extremely weak institutional setting," according to Transparency officials. In Haiti, for instance, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide fled in the face of an internal uprising and international pressure after he sought to move a number of his political allies into the highest positions within the justice system. However, a corrupt police force is still almost ubiquitous there, helping to cement the country's place alone at the top of the most corrupt list.
The former Central Asian republics of the Soviet Union are grouped near the top of the list of most-corrupt nations. The U.S. State Department reports that "Turkmenistan has laws to combat corruption, but they are ineffective, and corruption is rampant." At the same time, nearby Tajikistan is subsisting largely on a narco economy. Another State Department report noted that "rampant illicit trafficking of Afghan opium and heroin through Tajikistan remains a serious long-term threat to Tajikistan's stability and development, fostering corruption, violent crime, HIV/AIDS and economic distortions."
Venezuela President Hugo Chavez, who repeatedly locks horns with the United States, has helped establish his country's presence on the most-corrupt roster by turning the national police force from a once professional body of crime fighters into an institution that is used largely for political issues, according to a Transparency official. The result is a collapse of control mechanisms that is a broad feature of administrations in many of the nations on the most-corrupt list. Moreover, in Venezuela, substantial income from the nation's vast oil wealth goes directly into the pocket of the chief executive according to TI.
"That's almost like pocket money," says the TI official. "There is a large share of the income, and we are talking many millions, used in a non-controlled fashion."
Among the least corrupt nations, the United States has slipped to No. 20 this year from No. 17 last year, while France, Belgium, Ireland and Japan leap-frogged over the U.S. in the rankings. The top 10--the world's least corrupt countries--has remained virtually unchanged with Finland, Iceland and New Zealand tied for the lead, followed closely by Denmark, Singapore and Sweden.
Furthermore, there does seem to have been some improvement in anti-corruption mechanisms in many nations, particularly the more developed countries. In the past year, such nations as Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Australia have ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption. Ironically, Japan, the 17th least corrupt country in the world, and South Korea, the 42nd least corrupt, have failed to ratify the U.N. document.
There is some skepticism over the recent ratification of the U.N. convention by Bangladesh, the world's eighth most corrupt country, though there is some hope that the recent seizure of power by a military junta may help the country turn the corner on corruption there. Some 40 business executives and public officials were seized in an anti-corruption push, while property ranging from a Hummer to three golden pheasant and some pet peacocks were seized in raids there, according to The New York Times.
One Transparency official observed that some countries like Japan have failed to ratify the convention because "that means you have sorted out your whole legal system by which you can enact all provisions of the convention," while others with more questionable records in stamping out corruption "perceive [the convention] more as a standard of [future] achievement."
*source: forbes.com
Proverbes Khmers
• L'honneur sans argent n'est qu'une maladie
• L'ingratitude est la fille de l'orgueil
• L'ignorance est la racine de tous les maux
• Le plaisir d'attendre est plus grand que le plaisir même
• Le trop parler n'est pas manque d’esprit
• Le profit de l'un est le dommage de l'autre
• Il ne suffit pas de frapper fort et souvent, mais frapper juste un bon moment
• Le silence ne trahit pas
• Les grands fuient par honte et les petits par peur
• Les grands ne disent pas toujours ce qu’ils pensent
• Les gagnants du gros lot seront malheureux
• L'eau calme est plus profonde que l’eau agité
• Le bien mal acquis ne profite jamais
• L'arc trop tendu se rompe
• Les frères sont donnés par la nature, tandis que les amis c'est le choix
• On peut oublier le visage d’une personne aimé mais pas son baiser
• Quand l'eau monte les poissons mangent les fourmis .Quand l’eau se retire les fourmis mangent les poissons.
• Pour les éléphants on prend les défenses, pour les gens on prend la parole.
• Les fruits ne tombent pas loin du pied de l'arbre
• Telle mère, telle fille. Tel père tel fils. Tel maître tel valet
• Ne laissez pas à demain ce que vous pouvez faire aujourd'hui
• L'amour est la plus douce et la plus amère
• On aime à éviter ceux qu'on doit tout
• Pour bâtir le futur, il faut étudier le passé
• Un entretien vaut mieux que cent lettres
• La faim ne connaît pas la loi, elle va tout droit et ne regarde pas la sauce
• Quand la faim croit, l’orgueil décroît
• Quand un diplomate dit (oui), c'est (Peut être); Quand il dit (Peut être), c'est (Non); Quand il dit (Non), il n'est pas un diplomate
• On peut donner sans aimer, mais on ne peut pas aimer sans donner.
• Tout est délicieux à celui qui a faim, rien n'est laid à celui qui aime.
• Tout comme la soupe chaude fait passer le riz froid, la jeunesse fait oublier la noirceur de peau de la femme.
• Homme sans amour est comme un jour sans soleil,
Femme sans mari est comme une nuit sans lune,
Soldat sans courage est comme une mare sans grenouille.
• Loin des yeux, loin du coeur.
• Méfie toi du ciel, méfie-toi des étoiles,
méfie-toi de la femme qui prétend ne pas avoir d'amant,
méfie-toi de la mère qui prétend ne pas avoir de dettes.
• Si tu t'aimes, prends soin de ce que tu manges, si tu aimes ton mari, prends soin de son coeur.
• Ne laisses pas un bon plat pour le lendemain, ne laisses pas ta jolie femme marcher derrière toi.
• Les semis sauvent la terre, la femme sauve l'homme.
• Cultive la rizière quand la terre est chaude, drague une fille quand tu es en manque.
• Avant de labourer, regarde d'abord les herbes qui sont dans ta rizière,
avant de marier ta fille, renseignes toi d'abord sur les origines de son prétendant.
• Ne parles jamais de tes affaires avec ta femme pendant la nuit.
• Si un bœuf est jugé bon au travail, son cou est très usé ; Pour ce qui est d'une jolie femme, c'est sa fesse qui doit être très usée. (Il faut savoir que le paysan khmer considère son bœuf plus comme un ami que comme une bête de somme.)
• Riz cuit la veille reste du riz ; de même, une veuve est toujours une femme.
• Le fruit ne tombe que si l'on lui met le grappin dessus. (La faute d'amour incombe toujours à l'homme, car c'est lui qui provoque la femme.
• Il ne faut jamais confier des œufs aux corbeaux. (Dans cette métaphore, les œufs sont les jeunes filles et les corbeaux sont les garçons)
La vie quotidienne
• Si tu es riche, rappelle-toi que sans tes vêtements tu serais nu. (Une fois riche, rappelle toi tous les jours que tu étais pauvre... et donc, fais le bien).
• Il ne faut ni mourir comme un serpent, ni vivre comme une grenouille. (Car, mort, le serpent ne fait plus peur, ne sert plus à rien et est jeté sans être enterré. La grenouille du fond de son trou ne voit qu'un petit morceau du monde. Elle croit tout connaître alors qu'elle est ignorante.
• La barque s'en va, la rive demeure. (Après moi, le déluge...Le conseilleur n'est pas le payeur.)
• N'imite pas les mauvaises habitudes de ton prof, mais contentes toi d'apprendre ses leçons.
• Ne laisse pas faire la vaisselle par quelqu'un qui est en colère, ne laisse pas un affamé cuire le riz. (Rien ne sert de courir vite, il faut partir à point.)
• Si tu es sage, sois le assez pour qu'on t'admire ; si tu es naïf, sois le suffisamment pour qu'on te prenne en pitié. (Celui montre trop sa supériorité n'est pas aimé)
• La négligence amène la ruine; si tu fais attention à ce que tu fais tu n'auras pas de problèmes.
• Mieux vaut perdre son père que sa mère, mieux vaut la barque naufragée dans le fleuve que la maison brûlée. (Dans la famille cambodgienne, c'est la mère qui s'occupe des enfants..Le père, lui, se remarie et "oublie" les enfants de son premier lit.)
• Quand le chat est absent, la souris règne. (les souris dansent)
• Si tu veux t'instruire, prétend ne rien connaître. (feint l'ignorance). (La tendance naturelle du Khmer est de dire "je sais.." dès qu'il sait un peu ; or les professeurs khmers sont des gens très susceptibles... Si l'élève dit qu'il sait, le professeur passera à un autre sujet.)
• Si tu es trop petit, à quoi bon te hisser, si tes bras sont trop courts, à quoi bon vouloir embrasser la montagne. (La grenouille qui veut être aussi grosse que le bœuf...)
• Dressé le riz ne porte pas de grains ; courbé, le riz est bon à récolter. (Si tu es humble et respectueux (courbé) tu réussiras. Si tu est fier et hautain (dressé) tu ne réussiras pas.)
• Remplis le récipient de bambou goutte à goutte, sinon tu en perdras la moitié. (Ne pas confondre vitesse et précipitation...
• A l'apparence, il est calme et réservé, en fait il gratte la casserole jusqu'à ce qu'elle soit percée. (Ce ne sont pas forcément ceux qui parlent et se vantent le plus qui sont les plus efficaces.)
• Quoi que l'éléphant ait quatre pattes, il peut aussi tomber.
Quoi que le savant sache tout, il peut aussi perdre la mémoire. (Il faut toujours faire attention, personne n'a la science infuse.
• Les feuilles d'un arbre ne tombent pas très loin de sa souche.
• Si tu veux savoir, tue l'achat qui est en toi,
si tu veux des fruits, brûle la souche de son arbre.
• A la maison, chacun a sa mère. En forêt, on a qu'une seule mère.
• Tu sais car tu as appris, tu t'enrichis car tu travailles.
• Le poisson attrapé est toujours petit, le poisson échappé est toujours grand.
• Les menteurs sont chez les devins, les voleurs sont chez les réparateurs.
• Lorsque la soupe est fade, tu dis que tu y as ajouté une poignée de sel, mais si elle est salée, tu dis que tu y as mis une pincée de sel.
• Il n'a y pas de fumée sans feu.
• Vaut mieux donner des pièces du gibier aux autres que leur montrer les bons endroits de chasse. (Il ne faut jamais tout dire...)
• Tout comme la pierre est lourde, les procès appauvrissent. (Le plus sûr moyen de s'appauvrir est d'aller devant le tribunal...)
• Ne te querelle pas avec la femme. Ne te plains pas du chinois.
• Regarde l'éléphant faire ses crottes, mais ne fais pas comme lui. (Ne fais pas comme la grenouille, restes humble et si tu es pauvre, ne dépense pas plus que ce que tu peux...)
• N'écoute pas la dispute d'autrui, tu risquerais d'être pris comme témoin.
• L'herminette est bonne grâce à son manche. L'enfant est bon, grâce à ses parents.
• L'honnêteté ne vainc jamais la misère. (Si on est dans la misère totale, on ne peut que voler pour survivre...)
• L'eau coule du haut en bas. La chance va vers celui qui fait du bien.
La vie politique
• Proche de la famille, loin de la Loi.
• La peau de celui qui ose est moins sûre que celle de celui qui ne risque rien.
• Les Chinois chassent les Khmers, et les Khmers chassent les fantômes.
• Ne te soulève pas lorsque tu es assis dans le van (panier plat pour vanner le grain).
• Ne vide pas la jarre quand tu entends le tonnerre.
• Les éléphants se battent, les fourmis meurent.
• On fait la rizière, grâce à l'eau. On fait la guerre, grâce au riz.
• L'eau qui coule n'est jamais fatiguée; le serment de l'ennemi n'est jamais crédible.
• Il mange la soupe en regardant au fond du bol (car la viande est au fond).
Il prend la pagaient regardant la rive opposée. (Il faut toujours avoir un objectif, ne rien faire d'inutile.
• Quand on étrangle un Chinois, ce sont les Khmers qui tirent la langue.
• Lorsque tu remonte ta barque, ne laisse pas de traces.
Lorsque tu as attrapé un poisson, ne trouble pas l'eau.
• L'eau froide est poissonneuse.
• A la crue, les poissons dévorent les fourmis, à la décrue les fourmis dévorent les poissons.
• Si un seul poisson sent mauvais, tous les poissons du panier puent.
• Il ne faut pas tenter de plier le Sralao , il est inutile des donner des conseils aux personnes âgées. (Le Sralao est ici synonyme de notre chêne qui ne plie pas mais se casse. dans la société khmère, l'ancien, comme le politicien, a toujours raison et il est inutile de lui donner des conseils).
• Ta langue montre ta nationalité, ton comportement explique ton origine.
• Chez l'homme, c'est la parole qui compte ; chez l'éléphant, c'est l'ivoire.
• Lorsque la latte du lit est cassée, on peut la remplacer, mais si tes paroles passent, rien ne les remplacera. (Fais ce que tu dis. Chez le Khmer, la parole engage au même titre qu'un écrit engage chez les occidentaux.
Une autre expression courante est "Tu ne peux pas ravaler ton crachat" ce qui signifie "Saches que ce que tu viens de dire est définitif et que l'on ne reviendra jamais dessus quitte à se brouiller définitivement").
• Quand on te propose quelque chose, ne refuses pas : après il sera trop tard.
• Il ne faut pas jeter la ligne de pêche au dessus de la montagne. (Il faut respecter la voie hiérarchique.)
• Si la tête (du poisson) est cuite, il en mange, si la queue est cuite, il en mange. (L'équivalent français serait "c'est un opportuniste" ou "il mange à tous les râteliers".)
• Ne rejette pas toujours le chemin tortueux (la ruse), ne prends pas toujours le chemin direct (l'honnêteté).
• Chien qui aboie ne mord pas.
• Si tu es guerrier, n'hésite pas à la bataille, si tu es buveur, ne repousse pas le verre. (On ne peut jamais aller contre sa nature...)
Good Lawyer in Phnom Penh - Cambodia.
Miss. Nil Phallinneth,
She is the best lawyer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia that I have asked for a service.
I would like to say an indefinite thanks to her.
First, I would like to tell you about the reason why do I need to ask for her service. Before I have asked her for a service, I had run the litigations by myself at the courts for many times, but you know it is not easily to do because I do not have enough law knowledge and, furthermore, I do not have enough time waiting for the meeting with the court officer who are not easily to discuss with and sometimes they ask for something that I do not understand how to do exactly which have caused me sometimes to reveal the thing which I do have to keep secret to win the case.
The litigation that I have asked her to do for me are concerning with borrow money contracts and buy and sale land contracts. These kinds of contracts which were signed between me and my debtors who after did not pay me back and some others did not transfer their propriety right to me correctly and lawfully that’s why they want to cheat my money. Howerver, after she has represent the case for me, I won the cases and got my money and land back from those cheaters. This is my respectful of her ability and cleverness.
In addition, last month I have asked her to reconcile and write a contract for my friends who had a long-running dispute in their family. You know after a few days of her intervention, their family was reconciled and happy again. This point of view makes me very proud of her.
As I told you that she a good lawyer in Phnom Penh, Cambodia whom I and my friends have asked for law services. She, Nil Phallinneth, is a gentle woman, clever, sociable, dependable and skilled lawyer who I really believe in her.
I believe that you could also ask her for service or advice. She is also a great consultant whom I have ever met in my life even though she is a young lawyer.
For last, if you have any serious questions, you can contact her at her office:
Cambodia Law Firm
Address: No. 159, Street 113, Sangkat Boeung Keng Kang III, Khan Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Tel: (855) 12 633-566
E-mail: neth_lucky@yahoo.com
From her client
** this is the letter which PhumYeung get from Miss Nil Phallinneth's client who sent to us and gave us the rightful authorisation to post this letter.
Khmer Rouge trial: Who is Duch?
A devoted maths teacher before he turned revolutionary, Duch, the man who oversaw the Khmer Rouge's security apparatus, will today begin his trial at Cambodia's UN-backed war crimes court.
"I have done very bad things in my life," he confessed to journalists who tracked him down in 1999. "Now it is time for (the consequences) of my actions."
The 66-year-old Duch, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, allegedly oversaw the torture and extermination of over 12,000 men, women and children at the Khmer Rouge's Tuol Sleng prison during the regime's 1975-1979 rule.
Duch was formally arrested by Cambodia's genocide tribunal in July 2007, becoming the first top Khmer Rouge cadre to be detained, and charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and premeditated murder.
"He is meticulous, conscientious, control-oriented, attentive to detail and seeks recognition from his superiors," said a psychological examination by the UN-backed court.
He is said to have been feared by nearly everyone who worked under him at the prison in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh.
Most who worked there were uneducated teenage boys, who he said could be easily indoctrinated because they were "like a blank piece of paper."
He has consistently recognised the crimes committed under his command of the regime's killing machine, where prisoners were tortured into denouncing themselves and others as agents of the CIA, KGB and Vietnamese Communist Party.
Duch was first arrested in 1999 after photojournalist Nic Dunlop uncovered him earlier that year working for a Christian relief agency in western Cambodia.
Before that, he was long thought dead following his disappearance after Vietnam's ouster of the Khmer Rouge in 1979.
Instead, Duch had converted to Christianity and worked for relief organisations along the Cambodian-Thai border.
"I feel very sorry about the killings and the past -- I wanted to be a good communist; I did not take any pleasure in my work," he told Dunlop. "All the confessions of the prisoners -- I worried, is that true or not?"
Duch later told tribunal investigators he believed the inner circle of Khmer Rouge leaders did not believe the confessions either, but used them as "excuses to eliminate those who represented obstacles."
Born in 1942 in central Cambodia, Duch was a top student and is remembered as a sincere teacher devoted to helping the poor, before he fled to the Khmer Rouge in 1970 as a reaction to injustice in then-volatile Cambodia.
That decision to join the communist guerrilla movement was influenced by one of his high school instructors who would later be executed at Tuol Sleng.
"I joined the Khmer Rouge in order to liberate my people and not commit crimes," Duch told tribunal investigators. "I became both an actor in criminal acts and also a hostage of the regime."
Inside the rebel-controlled zones, Duch is said to have been appointed head of special security.
He allegedly oversaw a series of prisons before being made head of Tuol Sleng after the regime seized the capital in 1975.
What began as only a few dozen prisoners turned into a daily torrent of condemned coming through Tuol Sleng as the regime repeatedly purged itself of its "enemies."
Ever meticulous, Duch built up a huge archive of photos, confessions and other documents with which the final horrible months of thousands of inmates' lives can be traced.
After the Khmer Rouge fell from power, he maintained posts within the communist movement as it battled Vietnam-backed troops along the Thai border. He also taught English and maths in at least one refugee camp.
Shortly after his wife was murdered in 1995, Duch began attending Christian prayer meetings and was later baptised by Christopher LaPel, an evangelical Khmer-American minister.
In a 1999 interview with Time magazine, LaPel remembered Duch as an enthusiastic convert, but said there were signs pointing to his dark past.
"Before he received Christ, he said he did a lot of bad things in his life. He said: 'Pastor Christopher, I don't know if my brothers and sisters can forgive the sins I've committed against the people'," LaPel was quoted as saying at the time.
**Source AFP
Download Child Porn
Man Downloads Child Porn “Accidentally,” Faces Up To 20 Years in Prison
Downloading child pornography is not a crime to be taken lightly. While we’ve all seen the To Catch a Predator episodes, it may come as shock to find out that the mere presence of child pornography on your computer’s hard drive is enough to send you to prison for 20 years.
Matthew White of Sacramento is learning this lesson the hard way. The 22 year-old man is facing hard time for downloading child porn, “accidentally.”
White claims that after using Limewire to download “College Girls Gone Wild,” he discovered that inappropriate images of children were also downloaded. Upon the discovery, White claims the photos were immediately deleted.
Now White faces up to 20 years in prison and plans to plead guilty, on the advice of his lawyer, in the hopes of getting a 3.5 year sentence instead (though he will have to register as a sex offender when released).
CBS in Sacramento covered the story, and White’s story is as follows:
“It didn’t appeal to me,” he said. “I was looking for women my age, so I just wanted to download ‘College Girls Gone Wild’ and accidentally downloaded underage pornography.”
About a year later, FBI agents showed up at his family’s home. The family agreed to let agents examine the computer, and at first, they couldn’t find anything.
Investigators later were able to recover the deleted images from deep within the hard drive.
“I asked them, ‘Where did you get that? I don’t remember that.’ I asked them, ‘Could I access that if I wanted to?’” Matt said. “They said no.”
It appears as if the law has no lenience for accidents when it comes to child porn. If you ever find yourself in a similar situation, the only option you have to avoid White’s fate is to report the incident to the authorities immediately.
The 8 most expensive paints in the world.
1. A boy with a pipestem by Pabol Picasso - Value $104,160,000US
2. The doctor by Van Goth - Value $82,500,000US
3. Red grindery's shindy - Value $78,100,000US
4. Blow the Baby by Rubens - Value $73,500,000US
5. Still Life by Paul Cezanne - Value $60,500,000US
6. Shed blood by Rubens - Value $59,500,000US
7. Flower-de-luce by Van Goth - Value $53,000,000US
NO PICTURE !
8. Dream by Pabol Picasso - Value $48,400,000US