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There’s Something Stale in this Month’s Bayon Pearnik

So I grabbed a copy of the April 2013 Bayon Pearnik while departing one of my favorite lunch spots today.

As I was flipping through the magazine’s highlights (the hostess bar ads), I ran across an article on page 28 titled “Stages of Foreign Man in Cambodia.” The article appears to be an attempt at humor, containing trite observations about how tourists and NGO workers view the country differently over the years, as they progress from wide eyed optimists to full blown alcoholics.

The article ends by asking “Any bells of familiarity ringing?”

Yes, Bayon Pearnik, there were bells of familiarity ringing. You printed the same crap article word for word in your September 2005 edition.

This made me quite curious. I looked at the next page (29) of this month’s BP and there is an article titled “Self-development Amid the Temples in Cambodia.”

This is a fairly well written, first person account of visiting some of Cambodia’s more well known temples. There’s no byline, so I thought maybe the article was just written by BP “staff.” It wasn’t. It was written by Kate Edgley and published in The Guardian last January. BP apparently just took her name off the article and re-published it word for word. Strangely, they used different photos though. I guess that using The Guardian photographer’s photos without compensation or acknowledgement would have been wrong.

It’s obvious that the Bayon Pearnik plagiarizes its non-Cambodia political content; I didn’t know that they also copied the Cambodia stuff from other sources too. I don’t know if I should be outraged by this or jealous that they haven’t reprinted any of my own top notch material about marrying Cambodian women, Facebook customs, and embassy dudes visiting hostess bars.

Gavinmac

17 thoughts on “There’s Something Stale in this Month’s Bayon Pearnik

  • williagra

    Cannot imagine you can be too shocked by this. After all, it’s Cambodia, where copyright “does not compute.”

    Reply
  • Pinnochio

    When wilI I hear one single Cambodian be honest and address their country’s poor values, which are causing their people great hardship both domestically and abroad, and suggest a solution to this problem instead of being defensive cowards ? Every country, government, and person on this planet is flawed. Self examination and acknowledgement bring forth improvement, not denial.

    Reply
    • I am sorry ..what ? defensive coward ? dear my friend if you don’t know us then don’t judge. if you sincerely want to hear Cambodian people stand honest and address about our poor value, hardship ..whatever it all about I am sure you will hear from more than one Cambodian and maybe you never know how it feel to live in a country like us. I don’t care who you are and where you from whatever you do that’s your life and I am sorry if you met a bad time in Cambodia and made you feel that way but every country has it own value and we are one of them. I don’t know about other Cambodian but i am one of those who admit the fact and all the negative things we have in our country but i am still proud as Cambodian as you are proud to be your nation too . So be nice to people and respectful.

      thanks

      Reply
  • They wouldn’t print any of my stuff either…..

    Reply
    • Peter Hogan

      You probably used lots of long words that the editor had never heard of. I also hear that it takes the simian knuckle dragger a full month to write ‘Cockroach Corner’ for the very good reason that he can only nut one key of his laptop at a time.

      Reply
  • I wrote “Stages” back in 2005. Sorry you didn’t enjoy it, but I do remember a few people talking about it back when it was first printed. Obviously, it’s strange it’s been reprinted almost eight years later, and I’m a little irritated they didn’t seek permission (or, you know, pay me again).

    If anyone wants to read “Stages” without slogging through the Pearnik’s pdf, I’ve posted it on my blog: http://khmersalem.blogspot.com/2013/04/repeating-stages-of-foreign-man-in.html

    Reply
  • Sorry, Will. I probably did enjoy it in 2005. I remembered it anyway. That’s pretty good.

    I wonder what is Bayon Pearnik’s business model exactly? Steal other people’s written materials off the internet, re-compile stolen articles into a “magazine,” and then local businesses pay them money to advertise there? I don’t think anyone reads the thing except to look at the ads themselves.

    Also, if the defense of their business model is that “This is Cambodia man, it’s so cool and lawless that intellectual property rights don’t apply,” then why does the Bayon Pearnik bother deleting the author’s names from the articles they steal? I mean, at least the riverside booksellers don’t delete Amit Gilboa’s name from the photocopied “Off the Rails” and then approach customers saying “Sir, you buy my book, yes, I write, I write.”

    Reply
  • Rick Rougehat

    We rarely get to see the B.P. down here in Snooky these days. But when I managed to purloin a copy 2 years ago (2011), the pricks re-printed a piece I wrote, and submitted in about 2003.For reference it was “Cambodian Health Matters,(or does it?).

    Reply
  • Could we start doing this with 440? Total time saver and it would make writer’s block a non-issue. Here’s my next piece: just cut and paste the HTML or something and slap my name on it. Or just link the URL even, whatever.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Cambodia

    If it’s too much of a departure from my customary writing style then try putting it through Google Translate once or twice – Mandarin to Urdu then back to English, that should do the trick. No hurry on the paycheck, any time this week is cool.

    Reply
  • blowhard

    What’s been said about BP is true enough but I doubt if anyone reading or posting here actually pays for the music they listen to, the movies they watch and software they use.
    The three schools I taught in all used photocopied books. That’s the way we do it here. People who live in glass houses and all might be concerned about their own self-righteousness, because it all comes back around

    Reply
  • Pinnochio

    So Cambodia, I see you will write over 170 posts defending female competence on facebook but nobody will step up to defend your country’s political, literary, and media integrity. Where was China 30 years after Mao ? Where were the Jews 30 years after the holocaust ? It’s been long enough. At what point will someone acknowledge the Emperor has no clothes on ?

    Reply
  • Pinnochio

    Come on Cambodia, not not response ? Debating is a lot like the way you streetfight. You’re allowed to go get ten of your friends to assist because you’re too weak to do so yourself. Geez, and I I thought I was a small wooden puppet.

    Reply
    • Firstly, please forgive me for my broken English. Pinnochio, I thought you told us to stop being defensive cowards? 😉 Ok, let me try to write a comment to please you and so that someone can pick on me. Please do not be upset over the hundreds of comment on Gavinmac’s article about Cambodian women on Facebook. It was a great article; I read briefly cannot help but notice that the comments were not ALL from Cambodian women. It was also a mixture of responses to comment as well (I think they gave Gavinmac a little too much attention).

      I have nothing to comment on how awesome we (Cambodia) have enforced on Intellectual property rights. I am not in denial of how slow our country is in moving forward. We have a Prime Minister who has been in this position over the decades. I guess, it says a lot about our country.

      I am not here to debating about this but let me point out few things and please correct me if I am wrong. Plagiarism is a serious problem. Believe me, I know that. I would always want credit for my works. We Cambodians should worry about this but we don’t. It’s simply because so many people in our population are too poor to worry about it. Most people are uneducated so they are lack of creativity. I read news very often (rfa.org in Khmer) about children at a very young age having to drop school to help parents making a living. Lots of children migrate from different provinces to Phnom Penh to beg for money on the street so they send some of that money to their parents. I am a firm believer in education but we all have to have food first before anything else.

      Pinnochio, I think you hold Cambodia to a little too higher standard. We not one of the West countries so full VARIETY of food that they have to create TV Show of “how to not eating too much food” (Biggest loser). We do not have Eating Disorders Association organization to help people who are obese to stop eating too much. To me, the easiest way to cure the obesity problem is to send them over to Africa or Asia (Cambodia perhaps) for two or three years, I’m sure the weigh and the disease will drop in no time. We do not have to time to feel upset over clothing store that do not make clothes our size http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/petition-launches-urging-abercrombie—fitch-to-change-it-s-anti-plus-size-stance-190830257.html. Life would be a lot easier to be able to have a lot time in our hand and to wake up in the morning having a big breakfast with a great cup of coffee and write about people who do not have enough food “cowards” than being in their shoes.

      Reply
      • Thank you Srey Nec.

        Reply
  • What a bunch of cowards ! No wonder your country is in the shape it’s in. Where I come from only children stare.

    Reply
    • Really feel sorry for you Pinnochio , you absolutely so free to do something useful but only know how to abuse others and have no time to enjoy your own life. I’ll pray for you for a better life ~~

      Reply
  • William

    Keep Calm & Carry On

    Reply

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