The human rights organization, "Reporters Without Borders" rates Cambodia's press freedom at 140th this year: http://index.rsf.org/#!/
That's well down the list, isn't it..? So recent discussions about the impartiality of the press are timely... As I noted before, the "Cambodia Daily" seriously lacks local editorial content. They must be afraid of something, hey?
So, what can you do? The regime stays closed inside its ill-educated, complacent corruption, and the quality of conscience, barang and local, suffers from cynicism and vacuity... How can the press possibly attempt to penetrate more deeply into the mechanics of political stagnation and all the vehicles of social repression and contradiction? While we see the appearance of tolerance for other political parties, it seems even the major players are playing along with the regime in a merely hopeful manner: Mr. Sam is a good sport, but knows the boss wants his sons to take over...
Why or how are the Cambodians so unwilling to motivate real social progress? Is it laziness or merely long-term, long-engrained fear -- the residue of the Pol Pot era? It surely isn't easier to be spoiled and corrupt in the long-run. But of course, most barangs here are spoiled and corrupt, too, even the supposedly good ones working for development. What I mean by that broadside is that whitey is basically complacent, selfish and detached from the situation on the ground. You get to live in BKK, and are never really with the poor one is trying to uplift... Maybe the punters are closer to being helpful, socially? Living in dirty, dumpy rooms and cheap hotels, giving a few bucks to poor babes with no education or culture... Come on -- you've all done, I've done it... And those high school girls the insiders get to bed at the guesthouses... Must be nice to know the phone number of the right procuress... And those black and silver trucks are always full of pretty teen girls you never see on the street or in bars anywhere... (...No barang ever gets a really classy girlfriend here... That isn't allowed, is it? Those girls go overseas and marry local boys only, etc, etc, because they are rich... Maybe one or two of you hook-up with well-educated women, but only one or two...)
So many contradictions between being a poor Asian suffering his/her confined existence, and the Westerner's blindness to that suffering, and even contempt for it. The self-serving rationalizations of almost all barangs... That's a good idea for a topic of discussion, isn't it: "how do you perceive your own blinders and prejudices, the ones you impose upon yourself after living here too long..?" The longer you stay, the more cynical and contemptuous you become. I've met a few examples already in person... Amusing, how these old-timer playboy types fondly recall the beautiful Vietnamese girls at Walkabout ten years ago who they haven't seen since, hahaha...
Oh well... Just streaming thoughts; not too coherent, but enjoy... The most interesting long-termer I met was this Kiwi-Aussie who had lived here for fifteen years telling me all about the "Vietnamese shadow army," some of whom you can see everyday lounging about the Viet coffee shops, and he also "knew all about" the city-wide arsenal stashed away by the boss; it's for use by the moto and tuk-tuk drivers, I was told, who are ready to be armed for a price, to shoot up their own people alongside the army, in case the people decide to stand up for themselves... Definitely not true? Anyway, it's something you won't read about in the papers -- for sure... But shhhh !
(...THOSE pudgy Khmer mafia fags with their beanie caps, the redneck Americans, and the young Germans -- they can have private slut-banging-parties up the river in the shit-pile deep in the woods; and the girls don't care what color their hair is -- gray, black or blonde. ...100 bucks a night ain't bad for a poor little girl... Fly in more of those snotty CEOs, fatty! THEY got the Kurupt Kampot Kash Kops on THEIR side, hahaha!
Cambodia 140th on 2015 World Press Freedom Index
- Orichá
- I have some social problems
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Cambodia 140th on 2015 World Press Freedom Index
Last edited by Orichá on Mon Jun 29, 2015 4:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
...Hannah Arendt
...Hannah Arendt
Mate, I have only met one person here who was comfortable in public talking about the obvious corrupt political situation here. He was young, educated, angry and didn't give a shit who overheard about his political views. Every one else looks around to see who might be listening...and even then will only talk in hushed tones and whispers. I've heard it plenty of times in the past and present..."people go missing and never be seen again you know"? Hows that in 2015 for freedom of speech?
- Orichá
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Drivel it is, I guess I was merely feeling sorry for myself and the world. You are right, I will shut up... Before somebody shuts me up...
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
...Hannah Arendt
...Hannah Arendt
With the internet around, it is no longer possible to suppress information. Even ISIS publish freely whatever they want.Orichá wrote:Cambodia's press freedom at 140th this year
The paper belt press has become irrelevant. Even television is quickly sinking into oblivion. Information in Cambodia circulates much more on Facebook, with likes and shares, than anywhere else.Orichá wrote:So recent discussions about the impartiality of the press are timely...
The Cambodia Daily is irrelevant. Almost nobody buys it. The paper belt has become useless.Orichá wrote:As I noted before, the "Cambodia Daily" seriously lacks local editorial content. They must be afraid of something, hey?
Because western ideas about social progress are more often than not just chaos.Orichá wrote:Why or how are the Cambodians so unwilling to motivate real social progress?
Any foreigner could possibly get hold of a middle-class or upper middle-class girl, if he understands that she typically does not do any dating at all. There is no "dating" and "girlfriends" outside the West. It is exclusively a western practice. Instead, you will have to make an offer to her family, pay the bride price, and sit through the ceremony. Most foreigners do not want to do that. They just want to fuck right now, and they don't want to pay upfront the $5,000 or $10,000 that the family will be asking for. That is why they end up with a prostitute instead, because for a prostitute you only have to pay a few dollars upfront.Orichá wrote:No barang ever gets a really classy girlfriend here... That isn't allowed, is it? Those girls go overseas and marry local boys only, etc, etc, because they are rich...
Westerners do not clearly distinguish. There are girls for rent and girls for sale. You generally cannot rent girls from the (upper) middle class. In fact, you generally cannot rent girls from the poor either. The ones that you can rent, are exceptions, even amongst the poor. But then again, 1% of a large population is still a lot of girls. Those are the ones that westerners end up with as "girlfriends". But then again, these girls do not support themselves. It is the western boyfriend who does. So, she is not really a girlfriend either, but rather some kind of semi-wife who pauses her prostituting habits for as long as the western boyfriend keeps paying.
Formal academic training has no real, biological or even social survival value for a woman. Looking pretty does. That is why women tend to spend much more time on looking pretty than on academic subjects. The level of education of a female target will never, ever arouse the sexual interest of a male. It is the shape of her tits and her arse that does. Therefore, the idea that men would ever zoom in on educated women, is absolutely not realistic. Furthermore, "educated" women are usually not particularly fond of reproducing. Therefore, in biological terms high levels of formal academic education make a woman less attractive and not more. It all simply defeats the object.Orichá wrote:Maybe one or two of you hook-up with well-educated women, but only one or two...)
- Orichá
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I agree with everything you are saying in your response except the above line. The Daily is quite a good read if you have time to enjoy a coffee. Although demographically, you are correct to say that the paper belt is useless or outmoded, I still think reading a physical newspaper makes you read more than you would than if you are sitting at a terminal, rushing through mere headlines... The stories are longer and more detailed than what you find online, and that is something you should consider before writing off and burning the newspaper... I live in Kampot, a provincial backwater where there is nothing to do and few people to talk to about anything. So, I buy the paper every couple of days or so...eriksank wrote:The Cambodia Daily is irrelevant. Almost nobody buys it. The paper belt has become useless.Orichá wrote:As I noted before, the "Cambodia Daily" seriously lacks local editorial content. They must be afraid of something, hey?
"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it."
...Hannah Arendt
...Hannah Arendt
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