Post
by LTO » Sun Jan 17, 2016 11:09 pm
Not quite sure what to make of that article. Felt a bit forced to me. Who didn't think there were rules surrounding the practice of street wedding tents? Of course there are rules. I'd be surprised if most locals didn't know there are rules. There are rules for everything. They just aren't well enforced, like everything else in Cambodia. And sure, there is definitely something to say about the noise (especially for foreigners who seem more bothered by this than almost any other issue in Cambodia except queuing,) and much more importantly (especially to the locals) the disruption of traffic and business. It's insane to be regularly blocking off streets for private weddings in a city of this size. But I don't see the poor vs rich issue the Daily seems to be trying to spin this into. Poor and middle class people, in so far as they can put together the coin, do the same thing, put tents and tables out and block the street and blast music. And Sar Kheng seems like a weak example of the unfairness of it all. He is Sar Kheng, the Deputy Prime Minister, not some lowly okhna. People of that sort of position get special treatment even in the enlightened west. And yes, there is surely favoritism in the application of the law. But where isn't there in Cambodia? It seems to me that the real issue with the traditional wedding tent practice is the disruption it causes in the modern context of a big busy overpopulated city. In the smaller towns and villages, (where the practice makes a bit more cultural sense,) it can still be disruptive, but nothing like the big city where traffic disruption alone caused by a single wedding can affect thousands of people and have significant economic impact. This is not another rich v poor, impunity and corruption issue as the Daily seems to be trying to spin. It is problem of modernization, of traditional practices that no longer seem to fit in a 21st century city and how to deal with that.