Cambodia Afterword - Colonialism Is Alive And Well

Since we just left Cambodia in my seemingly never-ending epic series of posts about our trip to SE Asia, I thought I'd take a bit of space up to write about my impressions of our too short stay there.

Although we only spent about a total of four-and-a-half days there, Cambodia seems to have stuck with me more than anyplace else we visited on this trip. I think it has something to do with the abject poverty, landmine victims, Aki Ra's museum and the street children working so hard to sell us trinkets. As well as the amazing sights of Angkor Wat that encompassed these harsher realities. I was also fascinated by the resilience of a country that is still emerging from fairly recent unfathomable horrors. They are a damaged people but their perseverance left quite an impression on me. They are survivors in every meaning of that word.

I was also struck by how well we were treated there. It seemed so amazing to me that the Khmer people could actually be nice to Americans and the French, people whose past governments played such a large role in the destabilization and devastation of Cambodia that directly led to the rise of the genocidal rule of the Khmer Rouge. I'm not sure that if the roles were reversed the Americans would be as forgiving. I've found that the citizens of other countries around the world seem to be better at knowing the difference between the people and their government than most Americans. Lucky for us Americans who like to travel, especially over the last seven years.

It probably does help how they feel about us that we go there and spend money. And tourism in Cambodia seems to be booming, which appears to be helping a lot of Cambodians. Unfortunately it seems to be helping a lot of foreigners even more.

I think if you plopped me down in the middle of Cambodia and I did not know anything about the country, I would probably assume I was in a place that was controlled by a colonizing or occupying nation. From the things we observed with our own eyes and things we were told by people like our driver Mr. Ya, I realized that a lot of the wealth being gathered in Cambodia is not being done by Cambodians.

Both hotels we stayed at in the country were French owned. The roles of the native people at both properties were that of the bellhops, maids, waiters and cooks. I cannot speak to how well they are paid or treated. From Mr. Ya we learned that most hotels in Siem Reap are owned by foreigners - mostly French, other Europeans and a lot of Koreans. The Irish bars in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh are owned by expats. The FCC restaurants and hotels are either European or American owned, and from the visits we made there it was obvious that a white man was the manager.

The Cambodian people have to fight for the scraps that fall to the floor from colonial table. Reagan's trickle-down economics at its finest.

And so many of the tourists seem to get snippy with the poor people who are trying to make a few cents off of them. The same people that happily pay for overpriced beer at the FCC or a $50 hotel room get uppity with the poor tuk-tuk driver that just wants to make a dollar or two for a valuable service or the girl that is asking for a nickel for a banana.

At Angkor Wat an older woman was selling various souvenir trinkets by the exit. She would ask everyone if they would buy something from her. Granted, she would stand right in your way and try to really get your business. A young British guy who, like everyone else there, had been asked probably a million times that day to buy something decided it would be funny to make fun of the locals. He answered her question with, "Do you have any happiness?" in a really snarky way. She seemed confused, not understanding the joke of course, and he went on that if she didn't have any happiness for him then he didn't want anything. He found himself really amusing and had a really nice smirk at the expense of someone just trying to eke out a living. I wanted to smack his smarmy ass.

You know, it got exasperating for all of us, facing the onslaught of hard-selling at every stop. But there is no need for that kind of nonsense. When you are guests in someone else's country you should act like it. I saw many tourists wave off the sellers with a flick of a silent hand. This seemed to be the most common among the French who, along with us Americans, should be the people that are the most empathetic to this country's condition.

Sitting in a restaurant in Siem Reap one night I watched a young tuk-tuk driver trying to pick up a fare from people walking out the door. Most would not even acknowledge his existence when he asked if they needed a ride. He was doing it in such a polite way too. I felt so bad for him.

I already wrote about how some of the girls selling snacks on the boat from Siem Reap were treated by some people.

These were just a few of the instances we saw in only a few days.

It might be the dire need for money that is why they put up with so much from tourists. But I'd like to think it is the unbendable spirit of a people that have overcome so much.

Hopefully, one day that same sprit will help them break the chains of colonialism that ended on paper but has far from disappeared in reality.