Cambodian Farmers told to “Grow Magic Beanstalks”
- TukTukTimes
- 5 minutes to kill
- Reactions: 0
- Posts: 34
- Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2016 1:30 pm
- Location: Phnom Penh
- Contact:
Cambodian Farmers told to “Grow Magic Beanstalks”
Cambodian Farmers told to “Grow Magic Beanstalks” by local NGOs.
www.tuktuktimes.com
@tuktuktimes
@tuktuktimes
-
- I need professional help
- Reactions: 0
- Posts: 1140
- Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 8:48 am
Is this the Onion sort of shit?
EVERYONE BOW DOWN TO HIS MAJESTIES phat kunthea™
- TukTukTimes
- 5 minutes to kill
- Reactions: 0
- Posts: 34
- Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2016 1:30 pm
- Location: Phnom Penh
- Contact:
I'm pretty sure they're trying to get them to grow magic beans... not onions. This isn't Bermuda.phat kunthea wrote:Is this the Onion sort of shit?
www.tuktuktimes.com
@tuktuktimes
@tuktuktimes
Maybe this Tuk Tuk Times guy can get his own forum section? Perhaps under the title "jokes nobody laughs at".
Get lost, spammer.
Bless
Get lost, spammer.
Bless
Tuk Tuk Times comes across like a splinter group from Bayonpearnik and just as lame.Alexandra wrote:Maybe this Tuk Tuk Times guy can get his own forum section? Perhaps under the title "jokes nobody laughs at".
Get lost, spammer.
Bless
-
- No Joke Howard is my Hero
- Reactions: 0
- Posts: 641
- Joined: Sat Jun 27, 2015 9:14 am
Alexandra wrote:Maybe this Tuk Tuk Times guy can get his own forum section? Perhaps under the title "jokes nobody laughs at".
Get lost, spammer.
Bless
Bit harsh, although i agree it's funnier in smaller doses.
I know I'm unloveable. You don't have to tell me. I don't have much in my life, but take it - it's yours.
If he'd said mushrooms instead of beanstalks he'd have got more traction.
I'd be on a plane already.
I'd be on a plane already.
- Lucky Lucan
- K440 Knight Captain
- Reactions: 761
- Posts: 22525
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2011 12:24 pm
- Location: The Pearl of the Orient
Here's a Cambodia-related Onion piece from around 2001:
http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/view ... f=1&t=2513
They also did a "skull based economy"piece if anyone can drag that up.
New Cambodian Barnes & Noble
Will It Threaten Cambodia's Small Book Shops?
SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA—The paint is barely dry on the new Siem Reap Barnes & Noble, a gleaming, $6 million, 60,000-square-foot book store/coffeehouse that the American bookselling giant boasts is the finest in this rural village of 2,100. But already a serious question is being raised: Can the new bookstore—with its enormous selection, discount prices and chic espresso bar—peacefully co-exist with smaller, independently owned bookstores in the area?
Store manager Amy Kleinert believes the answer is yes. "Barnes & Noble's presence will help local book sales," said Kleinert, who was previously regional manager for Barnes & Noble's Seattle-area stores. "Our store will stimulate an interest in reading, which can only be a good thing for all area book sellers."
Less optimistic is Tuel Cheng, a used-book dealer and small-press operator who was recently forced out of business. "HE's troops came in the night to burn my books and smashed my son's skull on the type racks," he said. "I ran and hid in the jungle. If they see me printing books again, they will torture me to death."
But for all the debate, the new Barnes & Noble has suffered from nothing so much as overcrowding. At the store's gala grand opening Monday, employees were pleasantly surprised to see thousands of Cambodians massed outside as early as 4 a.m. The instant the doors were unlocked, thousands of eager new customers charged through the doors to browse the latest best-sellers, check out CDs at the music section's 35 listening stations, and wash their clothes in the men's room urinals.
Open less than a week, the store is already drawing rave reviews from countless Cambodian book lovers. "There is good water here," said Lon Nai, a Batdambang-area farmer who journeyed 150 miles for the grand opening. "I can keep my pigs free of the sickness with this water."
"It is always the same temperature in here, not like the tent where my family lives in the jungle," said Pursat resident Chun Baro from a secluded spot deep within the bookstore's "Wellness And Nutrition" section. "I do not care if I am executed for being in a book store, as my father and three brothers were in 1979. I am cool and dry."
In addition to the low prices and friendly atmosphere, Baro praised the store's convenient hours, open until 10 p.m. weekdays and Saturday. "Nightfall is the worst time," he said. "That is when the death squads come out."
Speaking from Barnes & Noble's New York headquarters, John Day, company vice-president in charge of overseas expansion, said that Cambodia represents an outstanding new market for the book chain.
"Cambodia has all the signs of being a book-friendly country," Day said. "Did you know that only one Cambodian in 10,000 has a television set? That, to me, is the hallmark of a literate culture."
Day said that Barnes & Noble tends to do best in progressive, left-leaning cities like Berkeley, CA, and Austin, TX, qualities he sees in Cambodia. "They have that same sort of open-minded, hippie culture there—communes are very big in Cambodia."
Despite the company's enormous size, Barnes & Noble is very much committed to the communities in which it does business, Day said, and Siem Reap is no exception.
"The Cambodian government has established many exciting-sounding 're-education camps' where both intellectuals and everyday citizens can be sent at any time," Day said. "Well, we at Barnes & Noble have always supported re-education in America, and we intend to extend this policy to our new customers." For every hardcover book sold, Barnes & Noble will donate a dollar to the Cambodian government to help re-educate local children.
The store has also worked hard to be accessible to everyone, offering a ramp at the front entrance for its many legless customers.
"It's a helping hand, sure," Day said. "But we believe that a helping hand is just plain good business."
As at other Barnes & Nobles, the Siem Reap store has a Local Authors section, which is dominated by the political tracts of noted late-'70s writer Pol Pot.
"So far, there hasn't been a whole lot of customer traffic going through the section," assistant manager Ken Woodson said. "Perhaps we need to publicize it more. We've tried to get Pol in for a book signing, but we haven't been able to find him."
The community-centered approach is paying off: Shoppers have packed the store since opening day, taking advantage of Barnes & Noble's encouragement of casual browsing.
"This a friendly store," Woodson said. "Some places frown on what retailers call 'camping,' but we actually have a policy of putting comfy seats at the end of each aisle. They're very popular—I've seen entire families share one of our overstuffed sofas. Sometimes it seems like our regulars never leave."
So what books have been the biggest sellers at the new store? According to Woodson, most popular are 2,000-plus-page items, such as the Norton anthologies, the collected works of Proust, and the two-volume Riverside Shakespeare.
"I like this one," said Cheun Norresaprong of Phnom Penh, holding up David Foster Wallace's hefty, critically acclaimed novel Infinite Jest. "It will burn for hours, enabling me to cook life-giving grubs and twigs for my children."
Like Norresaprong, farmer Chira Samrong is also a voracious reader—and a serious lover of Tolstoi, to boot. Loading his ox cart with 54 copies of War And Peace, he said, "If I can obtain 200 of such books, I can build a house that will withstand the bullets of HE's guerrillas and Ranariddh's royalists. My wife was shot in the face last spring."
While Barnes & Noble officials would not comment on the possibility of additional Cambodian locations, store manager Kleinert foresees a bright future in the country.
"Everything about Cambodian bookselling has offered me an incredibly fresh challenge. It's wonderful to enter a market where your customer base has such a diversity of needs," Kleinert said. "The future holds bright promise. For Barnes & Noble in Cambodia, this truly is Year Zero."
http://www.khmer440.com/chat_forum/view ... f=1&t=2513
They also did a "skull based economy"piece if anyone can drag that up.
Romantic Cambodia is dead and gone. It's with McKinley in the grave.
-
- Similar Topics
- Replies
- Views
- Last post
-
- 11 Replies
- 3235 Views
-
Last post by vladimir
Sun Aug 11, 2019 6:14 pm
-
-
Magic cards in Thailand
by Cricket99 » Thu Jun 20, 2019 1:40 am » in Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Lao forums - 0 Replies
- 1564 Views
-
Last post by Cricket99
Thu Jun 20, 2019 1:40 am
-
-
-
Thailand's Magic Covid 19 Development
by Expatissimo » Fri Oct 15, 2021 2:34 pm » in Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Lao forums - 3 Replies
- 1016 Views
-
Last post by telescopic
Wed Jan 18, 2023 3:15 pm
-
-
- 1 Replies
- 2858 Views
-
Last post by Playboy
Mon Jul 06, 2020 8:14 am