Hitler, Chaplin and a Starving Dog

[Tuek Chhou, 1/2/25]

Yesterday, I didn’t drop into Khemra to spend a couple hours within sight of Phalla. Instead, I hung out with skinny pigs and cows, plus two starving dogs. Chained and caged, one seemed dying of thirst. His rheumy eyes appeared crazed. With Tài, I visited his neglected farm in Tuek Chhou, six miles from Kampot. Only his ten goats were fleshy. On site was also an abandoned tile factory. The land alone is worth 300K, but it was a million just two years ago. Tài bought it decades earlier for 20K.

“Tell your worker to feed that dog!” I said to Tài, but this morning, he told me he had forgotten.

“You’re a terrible keeper of animals!”

“I know, I know.”

“They get sick, they die, you lose money.”

“You’re right. They lack vitamins.”

Great euphemism! Anyone starving to death can be said to lack vitamins. He’s missing a tiny stone from his food pyramid. He ordered the wrong item. He won’t eat at this restaurant again.