Storms, torturers and missing parcels

Dad, this blogs for you . . . :o) Government Departments and missing parcels The Phnom Penh post office is a government department with all the simply horrific processes, systems and customer service that you’d expect from a government department from 30 years ago. Well Cambodia is 30 years behind the rest of the world and not I hasten to add solely due to things under its own control. Civil wars, attacks from other countries plus genocide have done nothing to hasten progress in this poor country. I have two parcels that have gone AWOL, so make a trip to the P.P Chief (and only) Post Office, it’s a marvelous old building and that’s about where the marvelous ness ends. Although, I’m starting to learn how things work on this, my second visit. Express post parcels go to a company in one part of the post office, parcels from New Zealand go to another part of the post office, parcels from Australia go to the same part of the post office as the express parcels and the parcels without tracking numbers go to yet another part of the post office. If you receive a parcel and have a post box then you should have a notice put in your post box to let you know your parcels has arrived – in my case this has yet to happen. Every parcel received by the post office is entered by hand in a book which the person belonging to the AWOL parcel then has to search throw row by row. It makes for quite interesting reading – someone simply called “Elder” gets quite a lot of mail. I make the mistake of getting to the post office at 1pm and although the companies with parcels for New Zealand and for express parcels are at work they don’t have my parcel and they send me to the another part of the post office that holds parcels without tracking numbers and I find this company representative asleep on the counter. I daren’t wake them until 1.30 (normal back from lunch time) but then notice the sign that says they don’t start back until 2pm! I return to work and come back later to find a very friendly and helpful (maybe she has just started in this role) lady serving. She gives me two books of parcel lists to look through and she laughs when I let out a shriek of excitement when I finally actually see my name in print. I get charged 2000 riel for the pleasure of dealing with this government department and it’s probably worth every one of the 50 measly cents. I leave the post office to see a monkey walking along the footpath – ho hum, I’m in Phnom Penh – don’t you love it? ----------------------------------------------------------- Khmer Rouge Tribunals Kand Kang Kech Eav or “Duch” as he is infamously known is one of 4 current detainees who together are responsible for approximately 2.2 million deaths across Cambodia over a 4 year period in the 1970’s. Or a least that is what the Khmer Genocide Tribunal is trying to prove. Duch is the first detainee to be tried and leaves his detention centre everyday to face five - international judges (one from NZ and the only female) and multiple lawyers in an International Court of Law situated about 14km outside of Phnom Penh. The court room and the detention centre were purpose built with buses ferrying the public daily from outside the central bus station. The public are encouraged to attend, and actually received an email myself from the Australian embassy suggesting I attend and that we encourage others to do the same. This felt a little weird to me, it almost felt like drumming up business for a “show”. On arriving catering facilities and brochures handed out in both Khmer and English added to my feeling. The deadly seriousness of it becomes all too apparent as we got searched multiple times for arsenal and on entering the courtroom see it is protected by a Perspex screen. Anything that could be used as a weapon or projectile is taken off us, including Emily’s Havianas which are obviously considered quite dangerous. The observation room is huge and sits about 200 people at a guess. It’s nowhere near full on this 8th day of the trial where as you’d imagine the majority of the spectators are Khmer with a smattering of westerners including a small group of backpackers who looked like they’ve had to scrimmage around at the bottom of their backpacks for those rare items of “dress-up” clothes they’ve brought with them. We hear a buzz and everyone stands at the judges resplendent in their cerise gowns enter the courtroom. Duch is moved to the dock by his guards, he’s wearing a white (the colour of virginity and innocence) polo shirt and highest trousers I think I’ve ever seen! The proceedings being with the Core Prosecutor clarifying a few points from previous day’s hearings. It’s all very polite and civilized with no angry cross examinations like the television courtrooms I’m used to. Next the Civil Party lawyers got to do some questioning on torture techniques. Duch acknowledged that he wasn’t in favor of the plastic bag technique as the prisoner quite could quit easily be suffocated before they obtained a confession. Whips and electrocution using a phone line were the favored forms of torture to start with although water-boarding (maybe the Amercian’s learnt this unsavory skill off the Khmer Rouge for Juantanomo Bay) came later. He also explained that the shackles were not used for torture but rather for detention. I’m sitting there listening to this verbatim and not quite believing it. It’s quite hard to fully comprehend that this really is not a television show and that these acts were actually performed on real human beings – by the thousand! We leave the trial at lunch recess and I read in the papers the next day that Duch for the first time became intolerant and rude to the lawyers that afternoon so much so that the Chief Judge had to give him a dressing down on showing respect. How controlled is this man being of himself? Is he an emotional time bomb waiting to go off – I think it’s what everyone expects. But then maybe only an unemotional person could have performed such acts of cruelty on other human beings. ------------------------------------------------------- Storms and lengthy meetings They’re saying the rainy season has come early this year, the rains aren’t due for another month but then what weather in the world is as it’s supposed to be? In some ways it’s a blessing as it brings with it some relief from the heat but on the other hand the mozzies have come back with a vengeance. Our Executive Director decided to call a staff meeting at 4.10pm a couple of Friday’s ago – if he did that in Australia he’d be the only one in the meeting, no actually on second thoughts he’s probably already be over at the pub himself. The meeting was to be a quick round-the-table to reflect on what everyone had accomplished in the week (great initiative and forward thinking). Cambodians unfortunately are not known for saying something quickly and concisely when they have the chance to draw it out endlessly. So as the torrential rains are pouring outside and we’re all keen to get to the safety of our homes the meeting goes on and on for two hours. I have to duck out and ring to cancel plans for meeting a friend hardly being able to be heard over the thunder and the roar of the rain. Finally at almost 6.30 with the meeting finally at an end and with a break in the rain I get to undertake the adventure of getting home in the aftermath. I’m one of the lucky ones as my moto actually starts – I pass a lot of people pushing theirs. The main road from work is a busy two laned road which to my horror is now mostly underwater. I guess this the time to see if Scooby can float – oh why doesn’t she have big wheels??? The traffic is pretty much gridlocked even motos struggling to gain any forward momentum. I drive on the centre white line as this is just about the only part of the road not under water. It’s fairly nerve-wracking me on my bike, low to the ground, half submerged tyres, in the dark and jostling for position with massive Lexus 4x4’s and Prados. I grit my teeth, hold by ground and take the small gaps of opportunity when I see them. It starts to rain again half way through the journey but it’s only light and my lovely wee Scooby sees me safely to my destination, too late for the movie but hey it’s time for dinner anyway. I practically skull a mug of beer to calm my nerves and try not to dwell on the what-ifs of that particular hair raising journey from work. Just another adventure in a fascinating life in Phnom Penh! -------------------------------------------------- Anzac Day I and a few hundred others attend an Anzac Day, Dawn Service at the Australian Ambassadors Residence. We cycled there at 4.30am through streets empty and still – it’s amazing to feel Phnom Penh so calm. They presented us, on entry, with candles threaded through a leaf and we stood in the beautiful grounds listening to the last post and the very bad singing – why do they insist on singing songs pitched so high only Dame Kiri TeKaniwa can reach the notes?? There’s the moments silence and the laying of the wreaths and I think about the fact that it’s 12 years since I was at Gallipoli attending the same ceremony. We all head off for a beautifully laid- on buffet breakfast at the nearest hotel, us volunteers not quite believing our luck. There’s Two-Up of course, and then we head to the Winking Frog pub for a 8am glass of orange and just a wee nip of vodka – it is Anzac Day after all – Lest we Forget. ---------------------------------------------------------- Jacqui on her soap box Horrific numbers: 156 people were killed in January alone in traffic accidents! The result of 950 traffic accidents. Although the Chief of the traffic division wants to blame the fact that there is often 4 to 5 people on one bike and although this may expedite the numbers, I believe it’s more a symptom of the large numbers not a major cause. They have now made it against the law to have more than two people on a bike – this, if it’s enforced, will have a major impact on family outings. But lets look at the other causes of traffic accidents, how about the constant running of red lights; driving on the wrong side of the road; driving too fast, driving while talking on a mobile phone; turning left out of the extreme right hand lane in front of a mob of traffic; being too short to be able to see over the steering wheel of your 4x4 or use your mirrors; riding your motos side-by-side while you have a chat – urrrghhgh the list goes on. I know I’ve mentioned the traffic before but it’s unfortunately the thorn in my side for at least 20 mins twice a day – if I wasn’t blonde I’m sure you could see my hair turning grey! What’s the answer? I have no idea but this is serious and has nowhere near the amount of funding or attention as some of the other “topical killers”, like HIV/Aids. Not wanting to take anything away from this serious disease, it’s killing in big numbers too but those numbers are decreasing, the road toll is increasing! Right I’ll get off my box now.