[Sihanoukville, 11/9/23] To save a few bucks, I booked a room at Zing without a balcony, so denied myself one more pleasure, but it still feels great to be back in Phnom Penh. After getting off the minibus, I took the tuk-tuk for $3 to the Central Market. Seeing its dome from a distance warmed my heart.
Nov 15, 2023·edited Nov 15, 2023Liked by Linh Dinh
In the 1980s I travelled to Thailand and arrived in Bangkok. I was almost overwhelmed by the strange sounds, smells and tastes – it felt fantastic. Stayed for a couple of weeks and then made my way north, spending the next few months travelling by hired motorbike, having left my passport as security with the hirer. Ah - those far off days of complete trust by both parties.
Used it to travel around Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and many other tiny spots in a jungle that felt almost undisturbed, riding past Karen women walking down the dirt roads who stared in amazement long after I’d gone past. Into villages where innocent children would come to see if they could rub the hair off my skin or the white out of my arms. A fantastic few months.
When I returned to Bangkok, what had originally seemed so incredibly exotic and full of excitement had palled so much by comparison with the unspoilt north that I lasted 4 days before leaving to go south to some of the (then) almost untouched island of Koh Phangan. Spent another few months there and in the hinterland around Nakon si Thammerat before going further south into Malaysia
The point of mentioning my travels long ago is that your article itself is almost an ode to times past. You refer to skyscrapers, brand new airports, retail companies urging you to buy the next shiny thing and your photos are full of bright advertising posters. It’s a snapshot of how things are and, without even having been to Cambodia, much less its capital, I feel a nostalgia for the past there and in so many other places. Phnom Penh, Nha Trang, Vientiane and many other 'vibrant' cities will never again be the small towns they were until quite recently.
We have lost something intangible. Western mores have seeped so far into cultures around the world that the local inhabitants do not see that loss with sadness – they see it as a blessing. The irony in that is excruciating.
This sentence sums up how rapid change happens in SE Asia:
"Cambodia needs roads, airports, seaports, a state of the art stadium and lots of bribes"
Great writing
In SE Asia the corruption goes hand in hand with growth of the economy. A lot of money changes hands when a new airport or road is built but the rabble at least gets a new airport or road that directly or indirectly benefits them.
The corruption in the West doesn't create anything useful for the populace and often is used to hurt them. Americans don't get a bright new shiny airport or highway, they get wars that make them less safe, struggles against imaginary problems like climate change and systemic racism.
The corrupt leaders of SE Asia really don't care about the masses but still get prestige by making their countries more prosperous and wealthier looking. The corrupt leaders in America hate the masses, treat them like fools and get more prestige by harming the masses.
Globohomo has taken over everything, with the old, traditional, authentic places falling like dominoes. Americans have been doing it for a long time, and Chinese have recently gotten good at doing it. Any country or empire that gains enough wealth and power can't help itself, I suppose. The consolation is that it can't last. All the junk built to drain the soul out of places and peoples isn't built to last ages like things that matter are. A lot of it won't last until the end of the century. It can always be torn down and rebuilt easily enough, but perhaps when the great global game of relentless "development" awakens from the fossil fuel dream no one will want to or be able to afford to rebuild all the eyesores and soulsores. Thanks for another good article Linh, and never stop showing us the reality even if it is bleak, neither stop finding the adventure and wonder in the mundane.
I have also heard and read all the talk here in the West about "cutting down on commercial flights, with even airports shutting down, all to control humanity’s carbon footprint." Your own observation is that nothing similar is in evidence in East Asia. I'd actually have to say that hereabouts, the physical evidence is a mixed bag as well, all the blather of Herr Schwab & Co. notwithstanding.
A good example is my recent experience driving down Highway 101 through Santa Barbara on my way to the LA area (something I hardly ever do anymore if not forced by circumstance). Anyone familiar with that stretch of highway knows there has been freeway construction in progress there literally for decades. But sometime since my last trip in the spring, the projects seem to have shifted into high gear, and it now actually looks like I might live to see it completed. But it did make me want to ask: Who and what are they building this for? After all, won't most of this be obsolete on arrival, given the promised (/threatened) elimination of the private automobile, the plan to severely limit personal travel outside one's 15-minute city, and the rising impoverishment of the general public pricing most personal transportation out of reach?
I can think of at least two reasons why we may still be seeing this activity. First, of course, is sheer momentum--large, complex societies don't turn on a dime. But a more modern cause is linked to the financialization of everything--in short, the economic activity itself has become more important than its end result.
You can see this even in places like China, where they have built vast numbers of empty buildings, even whole cities. Here in the West we have things such as roads that are never used, bridges to nowhere, vast subsidies to enterprises (like all the "green" stuff) that never turn a profit, etc. Heck, "Biden" even tried to sell Ukraine aid recently by telling people how good it would be for our economy, because Americans would be put to work manufacturing replacements. My jaw dropped when I heard this, not because I never realized it, but because he said the quiet part out loud.
We truly are toast if we continue down this road...
It seems to me that the difference between Chinese Imperialism and American Imperialism is that the Chinese one is based mostly on selling and building stuff and, okay, bribes. American Imperialism is more about bombing for democracy, supporting terrorist groups and promoting gay sex, feminism and all kinds of social changes. Am I wrong?
Here are the ingredients for a future USA school lunch, “Blatta Orientalist, Sodium Lactate, Sodium Citrate, Lactic Acid, Sorbic Acid, Reconstituted Dog Shit, Drag Queen Juice, Pfizer Whatever, Black Lives Motherfucker and Neo Wokism.”
__
Ya think if the Orange Man, if he's not in the slammer, wins 2024 he'll change the menu a bit?
Smile: a wonderful image. And Linh, let people wear their masks if it makes them feel comfortable. Russian soldiers I see in the photos wear their masks and they seem to be doing just fine.
And camouflage of course. Also to hide identity. Someone with a camera walks up to a group of Russian soldiers and everyone checks their masks. It looks like a formal policy though I don't understand why.
"Cambodians are also eating much more beef, pork, chicken and lobster, and many fewer bugs. Maybe they’re conserving crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches and spiders to export to the USA, Germany, France and Sweden?"
In the 1980s I travelled to Thailand and arrived in Bangkok. I was almost overwhelmed by the strange sounds, smells and tastes – it felt fantastic. Stayed for a couple of weeks and then made my way north, spending the next few months travelling by hired motorbike, having left my passport as security with the hirer. Ah - those far off days of complete trust by both parties.
Used it to travel around Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and many other tiny spots in a jungle that felt almost undisturbed, riding past Karen women walking down the dirt roads who stared in amazement long after I’d gone past. Into villages where innocent children would come to see if they could rub the hair off my skin or the white out of my arms. A fantastic few months.
When I returned to Bangkok, what had originally seemed so incredibly exotic and full of excitement had palled so much by comparison with the unspoilt north that I lasted 4 days before leaving to go south to some of the (then) almost untouched island of Koh Phangan. Spent another few months there and in the hinterland around Nakon si Thammerat before going further south into Malaysia
The point of mentioning my travels long ago is that your article itself is almost an ode to times past. You refer to skyscrapers, brand new airports, retail companies urging you to buy the next shiny thing and your photos are full of bright advertising posters. It’s a snapshot of how things are and, without even having been to Cambodia, much less its capital, I feel a nostalgia for the past there and in so many other places. Phnom Penh, Nha Trang, Vientiane and many other 'vibrant' cities will never again be the small towns they were until quite recently.
We have lost something intangible. Western mores have seeped so far into cultures around the world that the local inhabitants do not see that loss with sadness – they see it as a blessing. The irony in that is excruciating.
This sentence sums up how rapid change happens in SE Asia:
"Cambodia needs roads, airports, seaports, a state of the art stadium and lots of bribes"
Great writing
In SE Asia the corruption goes hand in hand with growth of the economy. A lot of money changes hands when a new airport or road is built but the rabble at least gets a new airport or road that directly or indirectly benefits them.
The corruption in the West doesn't create anything useful for the populace and often is used to hurt them. Americans don't get a bright new shiny airport or highway, they get wars that make them less safe, struggles against imaginary problems like climate change and systemic racism.
The corrupt leaders of SE Asia really don't care about the masses but still get prestige by making their countries more prosperous and wealthier looking. The corrupt leaders in America hate the masses, treat them like fools and get more prestige by harming the masses.
Globohomo has taken over everything, with the old, traditional, authentic places falling like dominoes. Americans have been doing it for a long time, and Chinese have recently gotten good at doing it. Any country or empire that gains enough wealth and power can't help itself, I suppose. The consolation is that it can't last. All the junk built to drain the soul out of places and peoples isn't built to last ages like things that matter are. A lot of it won't last until the end of the century. It can always be torn down and rebuilt easily enough, but perhaps when the great global game of relentless "development" awakens from the fossil fuel dream no one will want to or be able to afford to rebuild all the eyesores and soulsores. Thanks for another good article Linh, and never stop showing us the reality even if it is bleak, neither stop finding the adventure and wonder in the mundane.
I have also heard and read all the talk here in the West about "cutting down on commercial flights, with even airports shutting down, all to control humanity’s carbon footprint." Your own observation is that nothing similar is in evidence in East Asia. I'd actually have to say that hereabouts, the physical evidence is a mixed bag as well, all the blather of Herr Schwab & Co. notwithstanding.
A good example is my recent experience driving down Highway 101 through Santa Barbara on my way to the LA area (something I hardly ever do anymore if not forced by circumstance). Anyone familiar with that stretch of highway knows there has been freeway construction in progress there literally for decades. But sometime since my last trip in the spring, the projects seem to have shifted into high gear, and it now actually looks like I might live to see it completed. But it did make me want to ask: Who and what are they building this for? After all, won't most of this be obsolete on arrival, given the promised (/threatened) elimination of the private automobile, the plan to severely limit personal travel outside one's 15-minute city, and the rising impoverishment of the general public pricing most personal transportation out of reach?
I can think of at least two reasons why we may still be seeing this activity. First, of course, is sheer momentum--large, complex societies don't turn on a dime. But a more modern cause is linked to the financialization of everything--in short, the economic activity itself has become more important than its end result.
You can see this even in places like China, where they have built vast numbers of empty buildings, even whole cities. Here in the West we have things such as roads that are never used, bridges to nowhere, vast subsidies to enterprises (like all the "green" stuff) that never turn a profit, etc. Heck, "Biden" even tried to sell Ukraine aid recently by telling people how good it would be for our economy, because Americans would be put to work manufacturing replacements. My jaw dropped when I heard this, not because I never realized it, but because he said the quiet part out loud.
We truly are toast if we continue down this road...
I think we in the West must consider ourselves happy if they just make us eat bugs:
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_GxpTw_rxqXU/SU-8cd9o_kI/AAAAAAAAABo/-2HAG-Vetm0/s400/pics_shit-sandwich.jpg
It seems to me that the difference between Chinese Imperialism and American Imperialism is that the Chinese one is based mostly on selling and building stuff and, okay, bribes. American Imperialism is more about bombing for democracy, supporting terrorist groups and promoting gay sex, feminism and all kinds of social changes. Am I wrong?
Here are the ingredients for a future USA school lunch, “Blatta Orientalist, Sodium Lactate, Sodium Citrate, Lactic Acid, Sorbic Acid, Reconstituted Dog Shit, Drag Queen Juice, Pfizer Whatever, Black Lives Motherfucker and Neo Wokism.”
__
Ya think if the Orange Man, if he's not in the slammer, wins 2024 he'll change the menu a bit?
Smile: a wonderful image. And Linh, let people wear their masks if it makes them feel comfortable. Russian soldiers I see in the photos wear their masks and they seem to be doing just fine.
For particulates... the aerosol created by an exploding ordinance.
And camouflage of course. Also to hide identity. Someone with a camera walks up to a group of Russian soldiers and everyone checks their masks. It looks like a formal policy though I don't understand why.
"Cambodians are also eating much more beef, pork, chicken and lobster, and many fewer bugs. Maybe they’re conserving crickets, grasshoppers, cockroaches and spiders to export to the USA, Germany, France and Sweden?"
Linh, you got that right!