23
Feb
Posted by nomade51 in Cambodia. Tagged: agricultural labor, Asia, cambodian child labor, cambodian children, Child, Child Labor, child laborers, Child labour, Children Youth and Family, International Labour Organization, labour department. Leave a Comment
Child labor is draining the Kingdom’s brainpower and adversely affecting 750,000 of its children.
Child Labor cart in Cambodia.
Roughly 1.5 million Cambodian children are “economically active”, according to Veng Heang, director of the child labour department at the Ministry of Labor.
Permitted and non-permitted work.
This means they contribute to the economy in some way through either “permitted” or “non-permitted” work. Of this total, approximately half were child laborers – children younger than 16 who spend most of their day working rather than attending school. A majority of them – between 400,000 and 500,000 – are involved in the agricultural sector, which includes both fishing and farming.
Budget constraints?
Speaking at a three-day conference on child agricultural labor, Kaing Khim, deputy director-general of Cambodian fisheries administration, said budget constraints were a significant hurdle to addressing the issue.
Kaing Khim estimated that, as a starting point, the ministry needed between US$50,000 and $100,000 to cover expenses for officials to travel to the provinces to investigate child labor violations and educate families about the negative effects of using their children as laborers.
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23
Feb
Posted by nomade51 in Vietnam, Thailand, China, Laos, Cambodia, Indochina - Indochine, Japan, ASEAN. Tagged: Phnom Penh, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, ASEAN, Asia, Southeast Asia, Independence Monument, East Asia, Asia Pacific, Cambodia incoming tourism 2011, international tourists. Leave a Comment
Cambodia closed 2011 with 2.88 million international tourists, a substantial increase of 14.9% over 2010.
Independence Monument, Phnom Penh
During 2011, neighboring Vietnam was the top contributor with 614,090 trips up 19.4% compared to 2010. Thailand ranked at eighth supplied 116,758 tourists down 21%.
By region and market share, Asia Pacific supplied as much as 73.1% or 2,106,601 trips with a growth of 16.6%. ASEAN represented a 38.2% market share (1,101,111 trips). East Asia followed with a 29.7% share.
Europe representing a 18.8% market share grew 10.9% supplying 542,863 tourists. Eastern Europe grew 68.4% though the numbers were still relatively small (54,401).
Cambodia - Incoming tourists 2011.
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22
Feb
Posted by nomade51 in Cambodia. Tagged: Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Asia, intelligence aid, Indonesia, spying, espionage. Leave a Comment
What a crazy world!
Cambodia had yesterday asked Indonesia to help train its military in the art of espionage, a general’s assistant said.
Cambodia had yesterday asked Indonesia to help train its military in the art of espionage.
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21
Feb
Posted by nomade51 in Cambodia. Tagged: Cambodia, PUMA, Occupational safety and health, Security guard, Living wage, Svay Rieng Province, Factory shooting, Puma factory shooting, shoe factory shooting.. 1 Comment
Three textile workers were shot and wounded on Monday when an unidentified man opened fire on protesters in Svay Rieng province.
Kao Way factory - Worker shot (Adhoc)
Rights officials and witnesses said protesters were demanding a pay raise when they clashed with police and factory security guards. The workers were demanding better work conditions and an increase in pay. Workers on strike were asking for living wage above the US$61/month.
PUMA Shoe Factory Shooting, Svay Rieng, Cambodia.
Injured workers speak of a man dressed in police uniform who aimed at workers to kill, not just shooting in the air. Local authorities seem to want to distance this man from the police unit. The man who opened fire at workers was protected by police present the scene and got away.
PUMA 2012_02_20_PUMA Statement Cambodia
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20
Feb
Posted by nomade51 in Cambodia. Tagged: bar girl, Cambodia, goldsmiths university of london, hostess bar, hostess bar Cambodia, love and money, Phnom Penh, professional girlfriends, sex bars Phnom Penh, sex scene Cambodia, taxi girl. Leave a Comment
An American academic has spent seven years researching the local hostess bar scene, and come up with some surprising findings.
Bar Girl: “Why does everyone think I’m a taxi girl because I work in a bar and have boyfriends for love and for presents?” -
Academic: “Well you go with customers right?” -
Bar Girl: “No … I go with boyfriends!”
Read more about the the analysis of Cambodian “professional girlfriends” and their “western” boyfriends.
Dr Heidi Hoefinger has been researching the hostess bar scene in Phnom Penh since 2003. She received her PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London, and is author of upcoming book titled Sex, Love and Money in Cambodia (Routledge 2013).
- Part one:
- Part two:
- Part three:
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20
Feb
Posted by nomade51 in Cambodia. Tagged: Bangkok, bombing in thailand, bombings in bangkok, false flag operations, Georgia, India, Iran, Israel, Tel Aviv, United States, valentine's bombing bnagkok, Washington. Leave a Comment
After last week’s explosions in Bangkok, India and Georgia, it’s important to take an objective look at the evidence as the story unfolds rather than putting blind faith into the anti-Iran spin from Washington and Tel Aviv.
valentines bombings in bangkok, feb 2012
Although the anti-Iran campaign is in full swing, major holes are emerging in the story spun so far.
Although facing media criticism, the Indian and Thai governments’ cautious handling of the matter is putting counter-pressure on the US and Israeli governments to prove that they are not behind what may be ”false-flag” operations.
Just as the US and Israeli governments are anxious to prove that Iran is behind the attacks, the Iranians are anxious to prove the opposite.
So far, the Iranians are losing the battle for hearts and minds being waged by the well trained and well prepared Israeli-US spin machine. But they compliment both the Thai and Indian governments for ”refusing to fall into the trap” of joining the anti-Iran campaign and instead wait for the full facts to be established.
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18
Feb
Posted by nomade51 in Cambodia. Tagged: Phnom Penh, cambodian, Cambodia, Hospital, Public hospital, Health care, hospital quality in Cambodia, declining service of state-run hospitals, public health in Cambodia, public hospitals, medical ethics. Leave a Comment
Health care professionals bear a tremendous amount of responsibility and stress.
Most of the time, they work with a high volume of sick patients. It is their sworn duty to serve those suffering from illness. However, medical ethics is still a hot issue surrounding public hospitals across the Kingdom.
Public Hospital Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
Some doctors ignore, or fail to deliver, care to their patients below the poverty belt. Cambodian medical school graduates pledge to follow a high ethical standard before becoming a professional doctor.
But many of them don’t follow through with their promise to poorer or uninsured patients.
This problem has resulted in the decline of service at state-run hospitals, and Cambodians are thus often reluctant to seek treatment. Funding deficit for treatment at public hospitals is increasingly becoming a major concern for Cambodians. Patients are growing more dissatisfied with hospital facilities and the quality of medical care………..
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18
Feb
Posted by nomade51 in Cambodia. Tagged: ari berman, Citizens United, cyber activism, New Yorker, Occupy Wall Street, Political action committee, political action committees, Political campaign, political pundits, super pac, the politics of the superrich, tomdispatch, tomgram, United States presidential election 2012. Leave a Comment
The .0000063% Election
How the Politics of the Super Rich Became American Politics
By Ari Berman
Tomgram Ari Berman, The Politics of the Super Rich TomDispatch.
At a time when it’s become a cliché to say that Occupy Wall Street has changed the nation’s political conversation — drawing long overdue attention to the struggles of the 99% — electoral politics and the 2012 presidential election have become almost exclusively defined by the 1%. Or, to be more precise, the .0000063%. Those are the 196 individual donors who have provided nearly 80% of the money raised by super PACs in 2011 by giving $100,000 or more each.
These political action committees, spawned by the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United decision in January 2010, can raise unlimited amounts of money from individuals, corporations, or unions for the purpose of supporting or opposing a political candidate. In theory, super PACs are legally prohibited from coordinating directly with a candidate, though in practice they’re just a murkier extension of political campaigns, performing all the functions of a traditional campaign without any of the corresponding accountability.
If 2008 was the year of the small donor, when many political pundits (myself included) predicted that the fusion of grassroots organizing and cyber-activism would transform how campaigns were run, then 2012 is ” the year of the big donor,” when a candidate is only as good as the amount of money in his super PAC. “In this campaign, every candidate needs his own billionaires,” wrote Jane Mayer of The New Yorker.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.
Source:
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17
Feb
Posted by nomade51 in Cambodia. Tagged: Asia, Cambodia, China, destination cambodia, Incoming tourists 2011 Cambodia, Koreans, Phnom Penh, Southeast Asia, tourism Cambodia 2011, tourism sector, Travel and Tourism. 1 Comment
Cambodia received 2.88 million visitors in 2011, up 15 percent from a year earlier, a senior official said, forecasting a further increase this year.
Royal Palace, Chanchhaya Pavillion, Phnom Penh - copyright by awmeier.
“We expect that the tourism sector will also increase 5.7 percent this year”. As part of its effort to become a more attractive destination, Cambodia plans to launch its first clean city contest on 27 February.
Vietnamese are the largest group of foreign visitors, with almost half a million arriving in 2011, followed by Koreans, Chinese and Japanese.
Source:
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16
Feb
Posted by nomade51 in Cambodia. Tagged: ANgkor, CAA, Cambodia, Cambodia Daily, Flights siemreap sihanoukville, KOS, Rainer Deyhle, Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Southeast Asia. 1 Comment
Two month after Cambodia Angkor Air began operating between Siem Reap and coastal Sihanoukville, demand is not yet covering the national carrier”s cost.
Sihanoukville Airport
The airline is running its planes currently at around half of their capacity. Although it is still the high season in Cambodian tourism, the deployed 67-seater ATR-72 airplanes are half empty.
The airline operates flights between Siem reap and Sihanoukville three times a week.
Poor information or boring city?
Beside poor information and advertising for the new flight connection, there might be a very simple reason for the lacking demand as Rainer Deyhle, president of the Foreign Business owners Association of Cambodia,, says: “Sihanoukville does not have much to over. It’s quite a boring city.”
Low Demand for Sihanoukville Flights.
Source:
Read in my earlier blogpost:
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