Reparable/Irreparable

"Have you suffered, starved and triumphed, grovelled down yet grasped at glory, grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?"
- The Call of the Wild, Jack London



Kunma: 90km, 3:44:43.



"I wanted movement, not a calm existence." - Tolstoy



"Action is the refuge of people who have nothing whatsoever to do." - Oscar Wilde



"Ouch. Eeeeh. Oooooh. Aagh. Nuts." - J

Other people's photos

You are my lightning!

Angkor Wat

Cambodia

Cambodia has more problems than anywhere I have ever been. Starting in 1975, for 44 months the Khmer Rouge ran a system to make Cambodia an idealised rural state. Everyone would be equal. Everyone would farm the land.
To do this they killed everyone who was educated, they killed all their doctors professors and professionals, they killed all those who could speak a second language, they killed all those who wore glasses. They sent everyone left out into forced labor camps to 'farm the land'. Children were taught to inform against their parents. Families were divided as they were sent away. The entire society was ripped apart. All trust was destroyed.

When I arrived in Cambodia one of the observable things was how young everyone is. The median age in Cambodia is 20.
The Khmer Rouge involved everyone in this country. Everyone who is older than me was directly affected; either an active member of the Khmer Rouge or a victim. So many were involved in the Khmer Rouge that to isolate and punish those involved was impossible. The Khmer Rouge officials were all dissolved back into Cambodian society. No-one talks about it. It is not done.
The president Hun Sen who has been in power since 1993, was initially a leading member of the Khmer Rouge. Cambodian politics is horribly corrupt and a large amount of the international aid put into the country is transferred to private accounts. Although the elections that took place this last weekend were reportedly fair and open, all opposition that becomes organised enough to present a threat is removed; through intimidation or being pushed out of the country.

At the Pepy school there is a well, provided by Unicef. It's an expensive piece of equipment, costing several thousand dollars. It's a one-size-fits-all kind of well. The same type that has been fitted all over the world in troubled nations by money raised for Unicef.
Unicef works on the premise that they give the money to the government, empowering them to empower the country.
There are just a few problems. The ground-soil in Cambodia is naturally high in arsenic. It only becomes a problem when this kind of pump takes water from the ground. It's hit and miss whether any location in Cambodia will provide a 'clean well' or one that contains poisonous amounts of arsenic. Ten metres difference might make a difference. The Pepy school got lucky, but across the country as they realised the problem and tested the wells it was apparent that a large number were providing poisonous drinking water. It takes about five years to develop any problems from drinking this water. So Unicef came up with a system; clean wells they painted green, poisonous wells they painted red. But let's say you've been using this red well for years, and otherwise you'd have to travel to the next village to get drinking water. And you're perfectly healthy. You have no education, but you're smart, so what are you going to do? You paint it green.
Another problem, there is no monitoring or maintenance of these wells provided by Unicef. The Unicef representative is present at the installation of the well, then they leave it be. The Cambodian contractors wait for the Unicef people to dissapear round the bend, then dig it up and replace it with a cheap inferior Chinese model which looks exactly the same. They install the same 'official' well for the representatives in the next town. No-one knows if the Pepy school's well is genuine or a chinese copy.
The wells are complicated machines and there are no educated mechanics or engineers in the population to fix them. Typically after three years, an internal valve in the well breaks, making it unusable. The price to repair the well - $60. Unicef does not provide this. The villages can't provide this.

Another example, 'Room to Read' the charity started by the no. 2 Microsoft guy. They provide books and libraries, the material necessary to educate children to lead themselves out of poverty. The Pepy School was granted a 'mobile library' by Room to Read. On the conditions that it be kept in it's own room, which is NOT a classroom, which must be locked when not in use. The result; a school that only has four usable classrooms now only has three. The books, an assortment, almost all in English - generally useless to the children, and being slowly dissappeared and sold on. Pepy is paying for the training of a local to be school librarian and setting up a system to keep track of all books and provide a library of books in the local language Khmer.


These are just a few examples that were pointed out over the week I spent there. I don't intend to criticise the large multi-national NGOs like Unicef and Room to Read for their aims. But these organisations are simply so large, they deal with so many countries and situations, employ so many people and deal with so much money that they have lost control of the effects they are having on the local communities they are designed to help. Maybe that well is perfect in Guatemala or a township in South Africa, but it is clearly not the most suitable model to be installed in Cambodia. Each well needs to be 'designed' for the sitation in which it is used. There are alternatives. Pepy has funded two other wells at the school; constructed locally with easy to find, easy to repair materials. How much is each one? $60, the same price it would be to repair the Unicef model, assuming you could find the materials and an engineer.
In a country like Cambodia, where there simply isn't the education amongst the populace to operate and maintain things like wells and libraries the multi-national organisations need to provide something more. They need to provide information. And they need to provide it in a way in which it can be understood and passed on.

I was consistently impressed by the Pepy organisation. The effort and persistence involved in the face of every frustration, every problem. The willingness to stay after the photographic truth.
Despite all the problems I was amazed by the positivity among the other travellers on the trip. The energy was incredible and the whole experience was fantastic.




It was so fantastic that I hope to return in September to complete a six month voluntary internship helping with the running of Pepy from Phnom Penh.

>>intermission

Seoul

Walking down Itaewon -the Roppongi of Seoul- and finding myself at the end I pause a moment to ponder; 'Where am I going to get dinner? Do I want to hang around here for another hour or so until then?'
It's about this time, as I stand motionless at the side of the road when a car pulls over and the figure inside is frantically waving at me. I step towards the car. The door flies open, "Jon! Jon! What are you doing?" It's Jongmi, a friend I met in Thailand at Christmas! "What are you doing? Are you free right now? Want to grab dinner? You want to come salsa dancing?"
I break into a grin. Yes, I do.


I take the escalator up from the underground at Seoul Station and walk into the main building looking for a Dunkin Donuts. Inside, at the back, there is a figure very familiar to me. Although Robert is not as immediately beautiful as Jongmi, and despite the fact that I had arranged to meet him here, as I see the white guy I lived with for two years in London, watching The OC and thinking of ingenious ways to end the life of Mr Kilroy Silk I break into a grin.