A Journey to Mutual Understanding

Announcement

2008-08-08T14:45:00.001+07:00

I've changed my blog

Pls go to frenix-vanishing.blogspot.com from now on

bye bye, see ya there

IM for K1

2008-07-21T16:39:00.002+07:00

Haha,...it's been pretty long since I last log in to yahoo messenger...well just do a moment ago...and here an interesting IM i got from K1. found it's beneficial...lah

douk phoungkanitha (7/18/2008 3:01:27 AM): Don't put your mobile closer to your ears until the recipient answers, Because directly after dialing, the mobile phone would use it's maximum signaling power, which is: 2watts = 33dbi. Please Be Careful. Please use left ear while using cell (mobile), because if you use the right one it may affect brain directly. This is a true fact from Apollo medical team. Please forward to all your well wishers

When the exam's over...

2008-07-15T15:00:00.003+07:00

when the exam's over, i didnt feel everything was fresh and green as i did last semester. I dunno why. Cheata, my friend, told me that becos i didnt really study as hard as before, that's y i didnt sense the relief.

Upon hearing this remark, it took me a moment b4 i realized that it was quite like that. Last semester, I had to take that damn IELTS examination a week b4 that torturing IFL final. I tried to cram in load of lessons at one time. Compared to the last one, this 2nd semester exam was kinda relaxing and free. I didnt review much during the break and even the night b4 exam. Though, i was really afraid of getting a bad/low grade, I had no feeling for study....just kept wondering what to do after the exam. Now that it's over, i dun even feel like........hard to say lah....

ok, let's stop talking bout this boring topic. Last Saturday, I was very happy cos my precious M2.1 friends went to Sovanna Mall together to enjoy our same same entertainment (KTV lah).
What even happier is that we got the so-called M1.1's Virus, Pheara, with us. He's just arrived in PP a week ago. You guys who have been appreciating his cool hairstyle will have to be disappointed cos as soon as his mum saw his hair, she forced him to a get his hair cut....(kley os ling). Pheara poor you!

Nothing more to say....Post more later!

My winning essay's just been posted in a website. It's quite long and i dun think it's fun to read. Many grammatical and spelling mistake (still wonder why I won lah, mayb u can help answer me). Plus i dunno what the heck with the font, the " becomes h.

here the web: http://ksw.shoin.ac.jp/dept/englang/essay2.htm

My final Decision

2008-07-07T08:42:00.004+07:00

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you guys for ur beautiful comments...
After some times of consideration, I finally decide to cancel my next-month trip to Korea. If thing is going smoothly, I will go on a two-week trip in Kobe, Japan this december....

P.S: Exam tomor, what am I doing?
=> updating my blog
=> wondering what I will do during the vacation.

haha a very good student, am I not?

Why???

2008-07-02T15:41:00.003+07:00

Why life is so hard? Why is it like going to the pole when having to choose between two things?
Why do i often, if not always, have to make difficult decision? why?why cant i get two things at a time?

You guys surely know that I'm going to Seoul this August. Well apparently I have also been awarded the winner of Kobe Shoin Woman Essay Competition. So happy huh? However, thing not gonna be easy for me. Though I was fully aware that only student who has never been abroad was eligible in the contest, I was still against it. Now I have to make an important decision, whether to accept the prize or not. In fact, I have already sent email notify my acceptance of this program. How am i gonna do? Is it wrong? I've never been asked about my traveling experience outside the country. If they ever find out about this, I would be dead. Oh what should I do? Should I cancel my plan to Seoul? or should I risk going there and hope the Japanese Organizers wouldnt find out?

Any advice?
Oh god! (Sigh)

National Spelling Bee Championship in the US

2008-06-25T19:42:00.002+07:00

Indian-origin boy wins U.S. spelling championship

Contesting for fourth time, 13-year-old spells ‘guerdon’ to win National Spelling Bee

WASHINGTON: As it turned out, Sameer Mishra provided more than just comic relief at the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee. He ended up winning the title.

The 13-year-old from West Lafayette, of Indian origin, who often had the audience laughing with his one-line commentaries was all business when he aced “guerdon” — a word that appropriately means “something that has different language roots.” Sameer asked for a definition, and then confidently spelled it out correctly to thunderous applause from the audience.

At one point in the contest he asked, “Are you sure there are no alternative pronunciations?” and later uttered “That’s a relief” after initially mishearing the word “numnah” (a sort of sheepskin pad). And what did he have to say while hoisting the heavy trophy? “I’m really, really weak.”

Sameer is coached by his sister, Shruti, a high school senior and three-time spelling bee competitor.

The first-place finish won him $35,000 in cash and more than $5,000 in other prizes.

Sameer beat 288 children in the 8-15 age group. It was a proud moment for the teen, who was in the contest for the fourth time. In 2005 he had taken the 98th position. In 2006, he was 14th, and last year 16th.

His parents and sister stood proudly behind him as he was awarded the coveted trophy. Sameer is a computer and video games enthusiast and hopes to grow up to be a neurosurgeon.

The second place went to another Indian American, 12-year-old Sidharth Chand, a seventh grade student.

In all, four Indian Americans were among the last 12 who qualified for the final. Kavya Shivashankar was tied in the fourth place with four others and Janhnavi Iyer was in the 8th place.

The youngest to qualify to participate in the championship was 8-year-old Indian American Sriram Hathwar.

In 2005, Anurag Kashyap of Indian origin became the champion by spelling “appoggiatura.”

The third place this time went to Tia Thomas, 13, from Coarsegold, California, who was eliminated on “opificer” (a skilled or artistic worker). She started the word with an ‘e’ instead of an ‘o’ and received a standing ovation and a hug from her mother. Tia was one of the favourites, appearing in her fifth and final bee after an eighth-place finish a year ago.

The finals were aired live in prime time on ABC television, and it appeared for a while that the broadcast could run late into the night. Twenty-four of the first 25 words were spelled correctly, with the dictionary-familiar competitors breezing through words such as “brankursine,” “cryptarithm,” and “empyrean” with barely a hitch.

Among the spectators was 94-year-old Frank Neuhauser, the winner of the first national bee in 1925. Asked to spell his winning word from 83 years ago, he rattled off the letters to “gladiolus.”— AP, PTI

source: hindu.com

An Awfully Busy Schedule

2008-06-20T15:25:00.000+07:00

Sat 21st: Book Distribution, Angkor Borei project
Mon 23rd:Global Studies, Revision Test 2
Tue 24th:Literature Studies, Revision Test 2
Core English Quiz and Listening Test

Wed 25th:Writing Skills, Revision Test 2+ Journal Submission Deadline
Thurs 26th:Review for CE--group work
Fri 27th:LS's Assignment Deadline.

What A pain! Cant wait for the holiday!

Announcement-Debate Forum

2008-06-19T17:10:00.002+07:00

The IFL Debate Club is delighted to organize and cordially invite you to

its 5^th

Open Debate Forum

on the motion

‘That the United Nations Should Take the Lead in Fighting the War on Terror.’

Other activities include:

Debate about Thought-Provoking Questions and Contests

Saturday July 19, 2008

8:00-11:00 am

Cambodia-Japan Cooperation Center (CJCC)

Please register in Room 03 no later than Saturday July 5, 2008 and arrive at CJCC Multi-purpose Hall no later than 7:50 AM on July 19, 2008.

Announcement.

2008-06-16T15:32:00.002+07:00

Exam approaching, so m pretty busy with revision. Sorry guys, I will be absent from the blogging world. Wont be back until Mid Next month.

Food Program

2008-06-16T15:26:00.001+07:00

Apparently, I am asked to write a Reflection of Food Program, a project initiated by the Initiatives of Change Association. I think I wanna share with you guys. Enjoy!

My Reflection on ICA’s Food Program

“Once, when I handed an old lady a box of dinner, I surprisingly received a water melon in return. Compare to what I had given her, that water melon cost more. I could not accept it from that seem-to-be poor elderly. However, she insisted that I accepted her offer. She told me that she had nothing else to express her gratitude for my contribution. This small watermelon was all she left. It was at that time that my tear fell down and I gratefully accepted her offer.” This is a quote of a volunteer who has been participating in the Food Program of ICA. It is also the very first thing I heard about the program. It is not until I fully join ICA’s Food program did I realize that Food Program of ICA is more than just the distribution of food to poor Phnom Penh dwellers.

At first glance, Food Program seems like a simple project in which volunteers prepare and distribute dinner to poor people. But the real purpose is simply beyond that. In fact, I believe that Food Program is, more or less, a means for Cambodian youths to interact with the poor. By handing out boxes of meals and having a small chit-chat, Volunteers provide some kind of encouragement, care, and concern to the poor. Thus, those who have received our contributed meals have hope for life, the hope that in spite of their poverty there is still someone in somewhere care for them and urge them to live on, to work harder toward their dream of happiness.

Furthermore, not only does Food Program benefit the poor, but also the contributors. Since participating in the program, I somehow feel that my personality has improved considerably. For one thing, my first time in ICA’s Food Program was also the first time I had self-satisfaction in my life. Regardless of how small I had contributed, I knew that I was becoming an asset to my community. I believed that I was on my way to becoming a useful citizen or teenager of Cambodia. This has encouraged me to go on with my work, my contribution to community development. As I go on with ICA’s Food Program, I have also come to appreciate the custom of sharing, the one that has been with Cambodian people since ancient time. Regardless how much or in whatever form volunteers contribute to the project, we are working toward a common goal. Each and every effort from each and every of us is small, but when we share the tiny support we have with one another, our seem-to-be-small donation has become a real big one. Through this, I have learnt that sharing is a way to success.

Every month, I always see the smile of volunteers when preparing meals to be contribute. All of them believe that they are on the right tract toward self and community development. Not once have I sensed the cheerful and fun atmosphere throughout the whole activity. From Food Program, I have learnt to value and recognize the devotion to community service and the satisfaction I gain in return. Sooner or later I believe that more people would apprehend Food Program and they would fully cherish the program as I and other volunteers do.

Happy B'Day To me-4th june 08

2008-06-03T13:23:00.002+07:00

Happy Birthday To Me
Happy Birthday To Me
Happy Birthday Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday To Me

Chreang Tuk oy heuy.

From Speaking Club to Eating Club

2008-05-29T15:59:00.002+07:00

If I'm not wrong, the Speaking Club of M2.1 has been operated since the start of semester 2. The club consists of Pooh, Longdy, Dona and I as member. From the birth of the club until now, we have conducted around 4 successful sessions. However, for the last few months, eating out has been replacing the speaking activities though we do speak (in khmer) during the eating time. Because our club is operated during lunch time at PIZZA Company which is just a 5 min-walk from IFL. Haha.....I guess we should make a slight change to our club name, from SPEAKING to EATING.

BTW because there are only 4 members in our club, I think we should take in more people. Here is a draft for Membership Qualification

If you are....

- good at eating (this doesn't necessary apply to eating pizza since ration is limited)
-able to drink more than 3 glasses of coke
-willing to pay for the organizers' meal (the most important requirement)
-have good interpersonal skills, brilliant at chatting and gossiping and teasing
-can stand being at Pizza com and other cafes for long hours
-free every or almost every Saturday lunch time

you are welcome to join our EATING CLUB
Send your CV to the Institute of Foreign Languages, Room C01, Class M2.1.

We're looking forward to ur participation.
Regards,
EATING CLUB's Representative

Useless, Boring, Uninteresting-My life.

2008-05-26T16:08:00.004+07:00

This past few days, I found my life very unhappy and wasted. I've been very busy with assignments, and other work, yet I dunno what to do when I'm at home. Instead I let myself spending time uselessly sleeping and doing nothing. My academic performance is getting down now but I seem not to care much. Of course, I want to achieve a high academic record; however, each day pass with me doing nothing in my self-study time. At night, I would just watch tv or read story books and then sleep, nothing to do with reviewing the lessons or doing homework even if I have one. Now I feel very bored with my study, with my life. I wish I was more hardworking...Only if there was someone to push me.

I feel M getting out of M2.1 more and more. Everyone has sth to talk with friends, but I dun. Today, I got headache, felt sleepy, tireless and boring. Teacher WS noticed this and asked me if everything was fine. I lied that I was Ok. But he said no I wasnt fine and suggested that I went home earlier and took a good rest. I didnt leave school early but I skipped my Japanese Language Class.

Internet Party and IT Exhibition

2008-05-23T12:03:00.002+07:00

Here I am, at the Internet Party and IT Exhibition held at Sovanna Mall. I'm using a free internet access at the exhibition. The speed is very fast. Sound Fun huh? The music is beating, people are talkingI feel quite lonely, being alone and seeing no one at the exhibition.

Soccer's Fan

2008-05-14T20:44:00.003+07:00

Soccer has been my favourite sport since its 1998 Fifa World Cup in France. It's not that I like playing soccer, just an enthusiastic spectator. It's thrilling watching the match even from tele. Whenever the ball is about to be shoot, I wouldnt stay still or sometimes shout. Crazy, arent I? Often receive scolding from mum. Non-girlish behavior, she often says. But who cares? It's just so damn breathtaking watching how the handsome player shoot the ball and seeing how perfect the ball goes into the net...

Unluckily there's no cable tv at my home! if not I wouldnt sleep at all. Apparently I've been wanting to watch the final Champion League's match. It will be deadly compelling with MANU vs Chelsea. Oh God! Such a regret! Also, I'm looking forward to this year European Match, another famous tournament! I remembered the last two year's match which took me up as late as 3 or 4 AM.

Of all matches I've seen, I love the one between Brazil and France in World Cup 2006 the most. It was extremely amazing all along. Back then Zidane was my favourite player due to his excellent skills of leading his French Team and his technique in passing the ball. Since he's quited the national team, I dun see much of his playing. And now guess who is my super hero in soccer? Well it's no one than the famous Christiano Ronaldo, a Portuguese and precious diamond of Manu. He costs up to $200million! Haha, that's a part of the reasons I wanna watch the last match in Champion League.

P.S. But Ronaldo's bit arrogant I think.

Emergency Aid's workshop/training

2008-05-12T15:52:00.006+07:00

Few months ago, there was a 3 year-old girl in front of my house who drowned in the bathroom's pool right in her house. She was playing in the bathroom when she fell into the pool (arng tek). We didnt know how long she was in the pool before her dad discovered. But she was breathing very hard at that time. The little girl was laid on a bamboo bed outside her house with many neighbors surrounding her. However, none of them knew how to rescue the poor little girl. They tried this and that method, still the girl's situation didnt improve. After several attempts, the parents decided to take her to the nearest clinic. But everything was too late. The doctor tried his best but couldnt rescue her. Because she was just 3 years old, there was no ceremony for her parting. At that time I thought to myself, If only I or just one among the villagers had knowledge about EMERGENCY AID, the little girl's fate might have been different.

It was the time I recognized the importance of Emergency Aid's Education. It is not included in our school curriculum, neither anyone tells us how to react/help in this emergency situation. This has lead me to an idea on how to prevent or reduce such a dreadful thing happens among others. Now I'm thinking of suggesting a workshop/project to either SYC Alumni Association or to the Initiatives of Change Association, both of which I am a volunteer. First we can find someone who is knowledgeable on this area. He/She/They can give training/lecture/Guides on how to react when accident happens. However, if this is not possible, they can just train us and we can transfer what we learn to the villagers (can be children or adults or both).

But there're few problems regarding this project. First we might not be able to find someone who know about EMERGENCY AID. Second it might be a hard work learning about emergency aid. Third, if we the young people have to teach the older villagers, they might take it as an offense and wouldnt want to join our workshop.

So I'd like to ask you guys opinions on this idea of mine. What do you think?

P.S What do you think Icebreaker? Since you're kind of an initiator of SYC alumni.

May 11th, Mother's Day

2008-05-10T21:40:00.002+07:00

Hey guys! Any special plan for Mother's Day? For your respective beloved mummy?
Tomor, i'll surprise her with a lovely cake and cook her a dish of spaghetti....
And YOU?

Myanmar junta hands out aid boxes with generals' names, AP said

2008-05-10T21:18:00.002+07:00

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military regime distributed international aid Saturday but plastered the boxes with the names of top generals in an apparent effort to turn the relief effort for last week's devastating cyclone into a propaganda exercise.

The United Nations sent in three more planes and several trucks loaded with aid, though the junta took over its first two shipments. The government agreed to let a U.S. cargo plane bring in supplies Monday, but foreign disaster experts still were being barred entry.

Despite international appeals to postpone a referendum on a controversial proposed constitution, voting began Saturday in all but the hardest hit parts of the country. With voters going to the polls, state-run television continuously ran images of top generals including junta leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, handing out boxes of aid at elaborate ceremonies.

"We have already seen regional commanders putting their names on the side of aid shipments from Asia, saying this was a gift from them and then distributing it in their region," said Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, which campaigns for human rights and democracy in the country.

"It is not going to areas where it is most in need," he said in London.

State media say 23,335 people died and 37,019 are missing from Cyclone Nargis, which submerged entire villages in the Irrawaddy delta. International aid organizations say the death toll could climb to more than 100,000 as conditions worsen.

The U.N. estimated that 1.5 million to 2 million people have been severely affected and has voiced concern about the disposal of bodies.

With phone lines down, roads blocked and electricity networks destroyed, it is nearly impossible to reach isolated areas in the delta, complicated by the lack of experienced international aid workers and equipment.

The junta has refused to grant access to foreign experts, saying it will only accept donations from foreign charities and governments, and then will deliver the aid on its own.

Despite such obstacles, the U.N. refugee agency sent its first aid convoy by land into Myanmar on Saturday and began airlifting a 110 tons of shelter supplies from its warehouse in Dubai, it said.

Two trucks carrying more than 20 tons of tents and plastic sheets for some 10,000 cyclone victims crossed into the country from northwestern Thailand, said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

"This convoy marks a positive step in an aid effort so far marked by challenges and constraints," said Raymond Hall, UNHCRs Representative in Thailand. "We hope it opens up a possible corridor to allow more international aid to reach the cyclone victims."

A total of 23 international agencies were providing aid to people in the devastated areas, said Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

But a large number of organizations still were awaiting government clearance for more aid shipments, staff and transport.

"It's a race against the clock," Byrs said. "If the humanitarian aid does not get into the country on a larger scale, there's the risk of a second catastrophe," she said, adding that people could die from hunger and diseases.

Health experts have warned there was a great risk of diarrhea and cholera spreading because of the lack of clean drinking water and sanitation.

Farmaner suggested that aid be delivered to the country, also known as Burma, even if the regime does not give its permission.

"We have had a week to convince the regime to behave reasonably, and they are still blocking aid," he said. "So the international community needs to wake up and take bolder steps."

However, aid providers are unlikely to pursue unilateral deliveries like airdrops because of the diplomatic firestorm that it could set off.

So far, relief workers have reached 220,000 cyclone victims, only a small fraction of the number of people affected, the Red Cross said Friday. Three Red Cross aid flights loaded with shelter kits and other emergency supplies landed Friday without incident.

The international Red Cross sent 31 tons of relief goods from Geneva Friday evening, including pumps, generators, water tanks and other water treatment equipment, as well as basic health care for about 10,000 people and surgery material, according to spokesman Marcal Izard.

The shipment was designated for those in labor camps and prisons, he said. He said the agency planned to distribute the aid in coordination with the Myanmar Red Cross, which is the leading relief agency in Myanmar.

The government seized two planeloads of high-energy biscuits — enough to feed 95,000 people — sent by the U.N. World Food Program. Despite the seizure, the WFP was sending three more planes Saturday from Dubai, Cambodia and Italy, even though those could be confiscated, too.

"We are working around the clock with the authorities to ensure the kind of access that we need to ensure it goes to people that need it most," WFP spokesman Marcus Prior said in Bangkok, Thailand.

Richard Horsey, a spokesman for U.N. humanitarian operations, said an international presence is needed in Myanmar to look at the logistics of getting boats, helicopters and trucks into the delta area.

"That's a critical bottleneck that must be overcome at this point," he said in Bangkok.

Heavy rain forecast in the next week was certain to exacerbate the misery. Diplomats and aid groups warned the number of dead could eventually exceed 100,000 because of illnesses and said thousands of children may have been orphaned.

Survivors from one of the worst-affected areas, near the town of Bogalay, were among those fighting hunger, illness and wrenching loneliness.

"All my 28 family members have died," said Thein Myint, a 68-year-old fisherman who wept while describing how the cyclone swept away the rest of his family. "I am the only survivor."

Officials have said only one out of 10 people who are homeless, injured or threatened by disease and hunger have received some kind of aid since the cyclone hit May 3.

The government's abilities are limited. It has only a few dozen helicopters, most of which are small and old. It also has about 15 transport planes, primarily small jets unable to carry hundreds of tons of supplies.

"Not only don't they have the capacity to deliver assistance, they don't have experience," said Farmaner, the British aid worker. "It's already too late for many people. Every day of delays is costing thousands of lives."

A compensation?

2008-05-07T20:29:00.004+07:00

Guess what? In the next two months, m going to fly to Seoul, South Korea, to join the Asia Pacific Youth Conference (APYC). Well, sometimes I think it kinda make up for not getting the peace scholarship. Haha...but I believe it'll be a great experience participating in this conference...Korean Guys so handsome***you see what I mean? kekeke

More about Mam Somaly

2008-05-05T22:08:00.003+07:00

source: http://sofiasroyalsweden.blogspot.com/2008/04/queen-silvia-honoured-childrens-world.htmlource:

Sunday, 20 April 2008

Queen Silvia honoured children's world heroes

This past Friday at Gripsholm Castle in Mariefred, a quaint town located beside Lake Mälaren in the Strängnäs municipality in Södermanland County, the Queen attended the annual prize awarding ceremony of The World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child (WCPRC). The Swedish non-profit organisation Children's World, founded in 1979 (the UN Year of the Child) and based upon the UN Child Convention, founded the three prizes in 2000 which are awarded during a special ceremony with royal presence at Gripsholm Castle every year.

This year The World's Children's Prize, selected by a jury of children from 17 different countries, went to Somaly Mam of Cambodia. The second prize, the Global Friends' Award, which was decided upon in a global vote cast by 6, 593 335 children from around the world, also went to Somaly Mam. The third prize, The World's Children's Honorary Award, went to Agnes Stevens of the USA and Josefina Condori of Peru. The award ceremony offered dance and music from South Africa, Vietnam and Sweden, all in the presence of the award winners, the children's jury, invited guests and of course Her Majesty the Queen.

Josefina Condori has for more than 15 years been fighting for girls who work as maids in the city of Cusco in Peru, often in slave like conditions, after becoming a maid herself and separated from her family at the tender age of 7. Agnes Stevens devotes her life to helping homeless children in her country. At the time there are more than a million of them and Agnes helps her share by running School on Wheels which provides education, food, housing and love.

Somaly Mam from Cambodia, the evening's two-time award winner, has for the past 12 years devoted her life to saving girls who are sold as sex slaves to brothels and instead give them love, rehabilitation and education. Somaly was born into the small minority of phnong in the poorer south east parts of Cambodia in 1970, conditions were hard and at the age of only twelve she was sold to a local tradesman and later sold again as a sex slave to a brothel. If conditions had been hard growing up, her life became a nightmare at the brothel and Somaly had to suffer regular abuse and torture, and was regularly locked up. In the early 1990's she was rescued as she received help to escape from a French aid worker and received $ 3,000 from a male client which she used to buy all the girls at her brothel their freedom back. Ever since that day she has made the fight against the sex slave industry her life's mission and calling.

Through her non-profit NGO organisation AFESIP (Agir pour les Femmes en Situation Précaire or Acting for Women in Distressing Situations), founded in 1997, Somaly and her husband work together with the police in Cambodia and several south east Asian countries to rescue, help and protect sex slaves, prostitutes, women and children from their work, rapes and torture. In 2007 she founded the USA based The Somaly Mam Foundation, a registered non-profit that aims at spreading global awareness and funding organisations that works against sex slavery and helps its victims.

Despite her status as something of a celebrity and one of the most well-known NGO activists in the world, all the prizes she has received (The Prince of Asturias Award 1998, Glamour Woman of the Year 2006), being a flag bearer in the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino and sitting on Tyra Banks' talk show sofa - Somaly will always carry her past with her.
- People thing I'm strong but I'm not. Inside I feel just as weak as the girls that we rescue, that cut themselves out of hatred for their bodies, she told Svenska Dagbladet in an interview this week.

The price she pays for her work can also be high. Somaly lives under constant death threats and two years ago the threats on her family became a real nightmare when her teenage daughter was kidnapped, drugged, raped and sold to a brothel neat the borders to Thailand But when she was found and re-united with her mom, Champa was the one who urged her to continue the fight:
- Mom, I have you all will be alright. But what will happen to all those other girls if you quit? she told Somaly.

So even if it sometimes feels hopeless for her, with corrupt officials who more or less supports the sex industry, repeated broken promises and the constant flow of new girls being sold to brothels, Somaly is not giving up. She has a mission for life.

(Pictures from the award ceremony by Elin Berge, the picture of Somaly Mam by Paul Blomgren, both via the official website of The World’s Children’s Prize)

Mam Somaly--from a sex slave to a highly distinguised woman.

2008-05-05T21:33:00.004+07:00

I have just come across a text in a local magazine talking about Mrs Mam Somaly and her work. Though it is not the first time I heard her name, very little have I known about her life. She has written an autobiography called "The Road of Lost Innocence" (which I want to read so much). She has also found an organization helping girls out of sex slave in Cambodia. Actually she used to be a victim herself.. She is such an incredible woman that I cant help sharing with you.

For further information, pls go to http//:www.somaly.org

Somaly Mam

Born in the Mondulkiri province of Cambodia, Somaly Mam began her life in poverty. Twelve years later, her "grandfather" sold her into slavery. She was forced to work in a brothel, where she faced torture and sexual abuse on a daily basis. Then one night, she watched a pimp murder her close friend, and she made it her mission to escape her enslavement. After Somaly broke free from her captors, she worked as a midwife at Choup District Hospital in Cambodia. A few years later, she traveled to France and found that her most rewarding experiences occurred when she devoted herself to social work. Haunted by her experiences and determined to make a difference, Somaly returned to Cambodia and established a non-governmental organization called “Agir Pour les Femmes en Situation Précaire (AFESIP),” translated in English: “Acting for Women in Distressing Circumstances.” She became co-founder of AFESIP and president of AFESIP Cambodia in the capital city of Phnom Penh.

Somaly is now one of the most prolific activists fighting sexual slavery. She has been the recipient of several awards, including the Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation, Glamour Magazine Woman of the Year for 2006, CNN Hero, and recognition from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. She lives in Cambodia where she continues to risk her life to rescue the victims of sexual slavery and help them realize free and fulfilling lives.

The Somaly Mam Foundation

The Somaly Mam Foundation combats the illegal trade by funding organizations that rescue, rehabilitate, and reintegrate these young girls. All organizations funded by the Somaly Mam Foundation are audited operationally and financially – AFESIP Cambodia is currently the primary beneficiary. The Foundation’s mission includes raising awareness through a multi-level marketing and educational campaign consisting of online interaction, celebrity voices, high-profile events, media exposure, university clubs, and a central source of educational information. The foundation’s ambitious vision of ending sexual slavery requires the support of an active community. The foundation is 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

An Absent-Minded University Student.

2008-05-04T12:55:00.003+07:00

Tomorrow, there'll be GS Revision Test 1.
The Test gonna be deadly challenging.
I need to memorize many points, though it's boring to do so.
Up until now, I havent reviewed the lessons, nor have I touched the textbook.
Instead I am sitting in front of the pc screen, typing this post...
y dun i hold my GS text book and start to read?

Damn IT! After help decorating the stage for Clean-Up Day last Friday's evening, I left IFL holding T-shirt to be worn on Clean-Up Day but not my Folder, CE Textbook, and worst of All GS Textbook.

Now my stuff is at Dalin's home.
However, she is enjoying a party at PUC.
She wont be back home until 3.30PM

Oh! How clumsy and absent-minded I am!
Gonna fail Tomor.

A Dilemma

2008-05-01T21:43:00.004+07:00

Last wednesday, i was in this kind of dilemma, whether to pay for japanese language course at CJCC or not. To be simpler, I was thinking if I should stop studying japanese at CJCC like my many other friends. Here are what kept popping in my head:

I should stop bcos japanese is hell difficult. Nay! It's because You never review the lesson.
I dun have enough time when I start a course at PUC. Nay! The course starts in july. By then u will be on holiday at IFL girl...quite free
Though you go on studying, you wont get a certificate. Fail to meet the Attendance Policy already. Nay! You still can study there, not to get any certificate, but to learn the language.
I wont use japanese in the future, no need to study. Well...dun you think that japanese songs sound awesome?

Finally, i still havent decided yet. Then at 11AM, cjcc staff called me and confirmed bout the deadline of contribution payment. I lied that I forgot and would pay later at noon. Walking to japanese class, I met a guy who was also in the same japanese class with me. Like me, he wasnt sure whether to go on fighting or stop. We made up this and that excuses, but unsuccessful to convince us that we should stop studying...

Eventually, I went up to the reception desk, asked to meet the cashier, got 41$ out and paid. In fact the full one year fee is 75, I paid half the fee in case that dilemma merges again in the future.

haha...after paying, It quite a relief...I dun need to worry anymore. Just Go on studying!

Facts about Afghanistan

2008-05-01T21:14:00.003+07:00

Having read two afghan novels by the same author--Khaled Hosseini, I've been taking lots of interest about this country. Here are something i understand about this country:

1. It locates in Central Asia
2. It's been having war since '70s. (invasion from Russia, civil war, then war with the US)
3. There are several ethnic groups. The majority is the Pashtun. The unlucky one is the Hazara, a decent from mongolis and who has been looked down by the other groups esp. the powerful Pashtun.
4. When the country fell into the hand of taliban, many strict rules limiting women's freedom was imposed. Some of them were: women could not go to work to earn living even their husbands had passed away, women must not show faces in public, must not go out without accompany my male relatives...,etc.
5. The hazara was cruelly treated.
6. Afghan people are very good at trading.
7. The 2000 year-old Buddha statue in Bamyan was blown into pieces by the taliban gunmen.
8. It used to be and now still is a beautiful place with scenic natural views. I hope that violence in Afghanistan will be ceased soon...

P.S More to be added...

Our most famous pop star in Wiki.

2008-04-28T00:14:00.001+07:00

Preap Sovath

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Preap Sovath

Background information
Born	February 27, 1972 (1972-02-27) (age 36) Kandal, Cambodia
Genre(s)	Cambodian Music (various genres of music)
Occupation(s)	Singer, Actor
Years active	1992 - Present
Label(s)	Rasmey Hang Meas Production

Preap Sovath (ព្រាប សុវត្ថិ) (also spelled Preap Savat) (born February 27, 1972) is known as the most popular singer in Cambodia today. He records for Cambodian production company Rasmey Hang Meas, generally regarded as Cambodia's most progressive recording label.

Preap Sovath performs the style of music known as "Khmer Karaoke", the name derives from the fact that most sales are of VCDs rather than CDs and all VCD film clips come with karaoke-style subtitled lyrics.

Preap Sovath generally eschews strictly traditional Khmer songs and musical styles, instead his music appeals directly to Cambodia's youth. He is arguably the most popular performer on Cambodia's many televised anthology-style live concert programmes and holds residencies at Phnom Penh's most fashionable upscale nightclubs.

[edit] Best of the Best: Live Concert

Best of the Best: Live Concert is a concert performed at a football(soccer) stadium by all the present Cambodian singers from RHM. This occurs annually and it's known to start in 2004. Preap Sovath is one of the main performers in this concert. It is not rare to see fans climb onto stage and give the performers gifts, or ask for an autograph or picture. The concert is also free to the public, the company profit gains are from sales of the DVD or CD that is sold soon afterwards in Cambodia and overseas.

[edit] Visit to the United States

In 2006, Preap Sovath & some other singers from Cambodia came to the United States & performed in some concerts. One of these concerts was in a restaurant. The places he traveled to are:

Lowell, Massachusetts

(Not in any order)

Admission to the door was $50 per person.

Clean-Up at IFL

2008-04-27T22:21:00.004+07:00

For those who cannot join this year Clean-Up day at IFL, here is another piece of news that would make you wanna.... haha...this saturday's meeting of the organizing committee, our devoted members have browsed up lots of new but fun activities like short clean- skits, quiz but with new style of competing (cant tell), discussion....However, it's unfortunate that I won't be able to join till the very last moment of the day since I have to dash to Takhmao town to help giving presentation about SYC...heuy cannt dance as much as i want to...but at least luckier than you guys abroad...enjoy ur homework+projects+assignments tov na....

Collecting...

2008-04-25T22:17:00.002+07:00

You guys know what? Apart from reading book, my another activity is collecting coins and post card...Up to now, I have collected coins from in Cambodia, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Australia, and Mexico. They are in different value ranging from 5 cent to 1 dollars or 1baht for thai currency...
Regarding postcard, now I have several cards of some beautiful places/views in Cambodia, Hochiminh City, and of course in Uniquely Singapore. I dun have many cards since I dun travel abroad that lots. But if i have chance, the first thing i think of shopping for is Postcard.

I also appreciate you guys who are living abroad to donate some coins and postcards to my collection as well...that would be a nice gift.

At last....

2008-04-24T21:39:00.002+07:00

At last, the result of peace scholarship has been announced....
I have never imagined that I am that upset knowing that I don't get it, though I have told myself that I did make a considerable mistakes.

Dara, you know Yan Sophea got the scholarship na. Good for her...
Congratulation to her Anyway.....

Now i need to cheer myself up! anyone know how?

I'm Back

2008-04-20T22:23:00.003+07:00

it's been a while I havent posted anything. Not that the new year celebration kept me busy, it was just that I was lazy...You guys wanna know what i was doing during the long holiday? Here it is:

Holiday's Activities = Slept*Ate + Ate*Slept + Slept*Watch+Watch*Slept+ Slept*Read+Read*Slept.

Fun?

Clean Up day Coming

2008-04-08T21:44:00.003+07:00

3^rd Clean-Up Day

I Date and time: Saturday May 03, 2008 from 8:00 am

I Theme: “Clean Inside Out”

Possible activities: 1) Sweeping, Cleaning, and Clearing

2) Environment Talk

3) Environment Quiz

4) Friendship Lunch

5) Open Discussion

6) Environment Exhibit

7) Environment Joke Contest

8) Environment Slogan Contest

9) Environmentally-friendly Entertainment

I Required things: 1) Your physical presence

2) A bucket, a mop, and a few cleaning sponges for each class

3) Clothes suitable for cleaning work

4) Your OWN box of lunch

I Suggested things: 1) A litter grabber

2) A hat and/or a pair of sun glasses

I Voluntary things: Contribution financial or material (Contact Mr. Roth Hok in person)

I Registration: Register and/or submit your applications for environment quiz, slogan, and/or joke

contests in Room 03 not later than Saturday 26 April, 2008

Two Amazing & Unforgettable Saturdays

2008-04-07T20:39:00.006+07:00

Saturdays of the last two weeks were quite two BLISSFUL days for me...So what were going on?

Well...first let's start with Sat/29/March.

As most of you guys know, it was IFL's annual Cultural Day and the New Year Celebration. As member of the organizing committee, I had to help preparing the stage a day before the celebration. It kinda of fun. Silin, I, and Maria started to help since 2pm on Friday. At 7.30pm, with the fabulous work of M2.1 team (Dona the hero, Longdy the laziest, Maria the bossy-est, Dalin the pooh's most obsessed, and I the nicest.) v were able to complete decorating the stage at 7.40pm. Lecturers just popped in once in while to check.

On the day of the celebration, which was saturday the 29th, v went to IFL early in the morning, making a final change to the stage in response to Lecturer Roth Hok's Request. Throughout the whole day, except that during lunch time, v were having a great time. Everybody was laughing, dancing, singing, playing.....You could imagine our joy on that day by just seeing our smiles here in the pics. Never have I ever seen them smiling like that....The celebration ended around 6.30PM with Dalin, Dona, Longdy, Chhay and I dancing till the very last moment. Then v moved on to have glassess of refilled coke at Pizza Com nearby....What a tiring but wonderful day...

Now comes with Sat/05/March

As usual, Longdy and I attended the debate club, which lasted from 7.30 till 11 (however, Longdy didnt show up until 9, resulting from his night dancing party at PUC, I guessed). Some of M2.1 came to IFL as well to make their GS group discussion or just to have fun with friends. Seem like our habit of taking pics would never leave us. Jam angkal! Panha brought his Camera de ta! For nearly half an hour we did nothing but took pic, pic, pic.

Now that it was lunchtime, some of us agreed to go to Pizza Com (again). There, v ordered the refilled glass of coke; did hammer, scissor and paper; n the one who lost had to finish the coke in that big glass. Haha...guess who lost most of the game? Longdy... In fact, it was his purpose to lose so that he ot kart luy tinh koka refilled te. He drank up to 5 glasses i guess...V stayed there from 11.30 till 3. Then it came to the playing time at Silin's house. At her house, v still sticked to our traditional game--leng LOTTO. Haha...men arch kvas ban te... V also played ANG KUNH, 3-1, ...etc. They stayed until 6.30 and went to eat soup till 7.30. What a regret cos I left at around 5.30, unluckily, couldn't join any more. Nevertheless, it was the Saturday filled with fun, and pleasure. Hope this saturday, we would have this fun time again!

2008-04-04T20:48:00.004+07:00

This blog is subscribed from the blog of SokHour. Pls find the link on the left-hand side.

Emotional Story about Family and Work

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his5-year old son waiting for him at the door.

SON: "Daddy, may I ask you a question?"

DAD: "Yeah sure, what is it?" replied the man.

SON: "Daddy, how much do you make an hour?"

DAD: "That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?" the man said angrily.

SON: "I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?"

DAD: "If you must know, I make Rs.100 an hour."

SON: "Oh," the little boy replied, with his head down.

SON: "Daddy, may I please borrow Rs.50?"

The father was furious, "If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I work hard everyday for such this childish behavior."

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think: Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that Rs.50 and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.

"Are you asleep, son?" He asked.

"No daddy, I'm awake," replied the boy.

"I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier" said the man."It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you.. Here's the Rs.50 you asked for."

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. "Oh, thank you daddy!" He yelled.

Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills.The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father."

Why do you want more money if you already have some?" the father grumbled.

"Because I didn't have enough, but now I do," the little boy replied.

"Daddy, I have Rs.100 now. Can I buy an hour of your time?Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you."

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness.

It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.Do remember to share that Rs.100 worth of your time with someone you love?

Star of the Killing Field died...

2008-03-30T21:51:00.001+07:00

By RICHARD PYLE, Associated Press Writer NEW YORK -yahoo news!

Dith Pran, the Cambodian-born journalist whose harrowing tale of enslavement and eventual escape from that country's murderous Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in 1979 became the subject of the award-winning film "The Killing Fields," died Sunday, his former colleague said.

Dith, 65, died at a New Jersey hospital Sunday morning of pancreatic cancer, according to Sydney Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times. Dith had been diagnosed almost three months ago.
Dith was working as an interpreter and assistant for Schanberg in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, when the Vietnam War reached its chaotic end in April 1975 and both countries were taken over by Communist forces.
Schanberg helped Dith's family get out but was forced to leave his friend behind after the capital fell; they were not reunited until Dith escaped four and a half years later. Eventually, Dith resettled in the United States and went to work as a photographer for the Times.
It was Dith himself who coined the term "killing fields" for the horrifying clusters of corpses and skeletal remains of victims he encountered on his desperate journey to freedom.
The regime of Pol Pot, bent on turning Cambodia back into a strictly agrarian society, and his Communist zealots were blamed for the deaths of nearly 2 million of Cambodia's 7 million people.
"That was the phrase he used from the very first day, during our wondrous reunion in the refugee camp," Schanberg said later.
With thousands being executed simply for manifesting signs of intellect or Western influence — even wearing glasses or wristwatches — Dith survived by masquerading as an uneducated peasant, toiling in the fields and subsisting on as little as a mouthful of rice a day, and whatever small animals he could catch.
After Dith moved to the U.S., he became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, dedicated to educating people on the history of the Khmer Rouge regime.
He was "the most patriotic American photographer I've ever met, always talking about how he loves America," said AP photographer Paul Sakuma, who knew Dith through their work with the Asian American Journalists Association.
Schanberg described Dith's ordeal and salvation in a 1980 magazine article titled "The Death and Life of Dith Pran." Schanberg's reporting from Phnom Penh had earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1976.
Later a book, the magazine article became the basis for "The Killing Fields," the highly successful 1984 British film starring Sam Waterston as the Times correspondent and Haing S. Ngor, another Cambodian escapee from the Khmer Rouge, as Dith Pran.
The film won three Oscars, including the best supporting actor award to Ngor. Ngor, a physician, was shot to death in 1996 during a robbery outside his Los Angeles home. Three Asian gang members were convicted of the crime.
"Pran was a true reporter, a fighter for the truth and for his people," Schanberg said. "When cancer struck, he fought for his life again. And he did it with the same Buddhist calm and courage and positive spirit that made my brother so special."
Dith spoke of his illness in a March interview with The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., saying he was determined to fight against the odds and urging others to get tested for cancer.
"I want to save lives, including my own, but Cambodians believe we just rent this body," he said. "It is just a house for the spirit, and if the house is full of termites, it is time to leave."
Dith Pran was born Sept. 27, 1942 at Siem Reap, site of the famed 12th century ruins of Angkor Wat. Educated in French and English, he worked as an interpreter for U.S. officials in Phnom Penh. As with many Asians, the family name, Dith, came first, but he was known by his given name, Pran.
After Cambodia's leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, broke off relations with the United States in 1965, Dith worked at other jobs. When Sihanouk was deposed in a 1970 coup and Cambodian troops went to war with the Khmer Rouge, Dith returned to Phom Penh and worked as an interpreter for Times reporters.
In 1972, he and Schanberg, then newly arrived, were the first journalists to discover the devastation of a U.S. bombing attack on Neak Leung, a vital river crossing on the highway linking Phnom Penh with eastern Cambodia.
Dith recalled in a 2003 article for the Times what it was like to watch U.S. planes attacking enemy targets.
"If you didn't think about the danger, it looked like a performance," he said. "It was beautiful, like fireworks. War is beautiful if you don't get killed. But because you know it's going to kill, it's no longer beautiful."
After Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia in 1979 and seized control of territory, Dith escaped from a commune near Siem Reap and trekked 40 miles, dodging both Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge forces, to reach a border refugee camp in Thailand.
From the Thai camp he sent a message to Schanberg, who rushed from the United States for an emotional reunion with the trusted friend he felt he had abandoned four years earlier.
"I had searched for four years for any scrap of information about Pran," Schanberg said. "I was losing hope. His emergence in October 1979 felt like an actual miracle for me. It restored my life."
After Dith moved to the U.S., the Times hired him and put him in the photo department as a trainee. The veteran staffers "took him under their wing and taught him how to survive on the streets of New York as a photographer, how to see things," said Times photographer Marilynn Yee.
Yee recalled an incident early in Dith's new career as a photojournalist when, after working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, he was robbed at gunpoint of all his camera equipment at the back door of his apartment.
"He survived everything in Cambodia and he survived that too," she said, adding, "He never had to work the night shift again."
Dith spoke and wrote often about his wartime experience and remained an outspoken critic of the Khmer Rouge regime.
When Pol Pot died in 1998, Dith said he was saddened that the dictator was never held accountable for the genocide.
"The Jewish people's search for justice did not end with the death of Hitler and the Cambodian people's search for justice doesn't end with Pol Pot," he said.
Dith's survivors include his companion, Bette Parslow; his former wife, Meoun Ser Dith; a sister, Samproeuth Dith Nop; sons Titony, Titonath and Titonel; daughter Hemkarey Dith Tan; six grandchildren including a boy named Sydney; and two step-grandchildren.
Dith's three brothers were killed by the Khmer Rouge.
___
AP News Research Center contributed to this report.

Book I'm reading...

2008-03-28T23:54:00.002+07:00

When jockey Martin Stukely dies after falling in a steeplechase at Cheltenham races, he accidentally embroils his friend Gerard Logan in a perilous search for a stolen video tape. Logan, half artist, half artisan, is a glass blower on the verge of widespread acclaim for the originality and ingenuity of his work. Long accustomed to the frightful dangers inherent in molten glass and in maintaining a glass-making furnace at never less than eighteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit, Logan is suddenly faced with a series of unexpected and terrifying new threats to his business, his courage and his life. Believing the missing video tape to hold some sort of key to a priceless treasure, and wrongly convinced that Logan knows where to find it, a group of villains sets out to force from him the information he doesn't have. Narrowly escaping these attacks, Logan reckons that to survive he must himself find out the truth. The journey is thorny, and the final race to the tape throws more hurdles and more hazards in Logan's way than his dead jockey friend could ever have imagined. Glass shatters. Logan doesn't...but it's a close run thing.

Interesting Thing about US presidental election

2008-03-28T22:43:00.002+07:00

If...
* McCain, from the Republican party is elected, he will be the oldest first-term US president (72 years old this july)
*Obama is elected, he will be the first black president ever elected in the US
*Clinton is elected, she wiull be the first female president of the US

Interesting right?

Big day is coming...

2008-03-24T22:51:00.002+07:00

Guys, guess what the big day is? It's the Khmer New Year Celebration at IFL. It's going to be on this saturday. Some new events have been put up, while some old are cancelled. Just wait and see...

P.S for guys who are living abroad, what a pity! you cannot join! but you are welcome to give contribution, either in cash or material. Contact me directly.

For Your info...

2008-03-24T16:21:00.001+07:00

Hey guys check out on this website...it's cool. You make lists of books you own, have read, wish to read...

http://shelfari.com

Problems

2008-03-21T13:56:00.002+07:00

No life is as easy as eating soup with spoon. In fact, we always confront with problems; that's real life. Problem! People tend to face/cope with a problem in different ways. Some choose to resent it, run away from it, or even deny the presence of problem in their life. Others understand more about life, so they accept the challenges in life. I, no different from other, used to feel very dreadful towards problems that come hamping me from reaching my goal. Mostly, I was afraid to apply for scholarship or enter any competition; I was really afraid of failures, afraid of the pain I would receive if I failed to pass. Even if I was on my way in reaching my goal, upon facing a problem, I felt so undermined that I gave up doing things. It is until recently that I have learnt to see problem as a testing machine, the one that helps me build my mental strength.

Since commencing uni, I have always longed for Peace Scholarship. Maybe, bcos it doesn't require applicant to sit in an examination or interview that urge me to try for the scholarship. Another thing is that, compared to other scholarships, I think I stand a better chance winning. I spent a great deal of time writing a 500-word essay, and filled in a 9-page application form. However, procrastination still haunted me. It was until the very last day, the deadline, that i managed to submit my application forms.

After submitting all necessary files, I reflected from when i started to work on Peace Scholarship application. I realized that I have solved many problems during the process. I have learnt to see problems more positively. I have come to consider problems as the way god uses to test my talents, to make me more mature, and capable of handling hardship enthusiastically.

So now I am ready to accept the result of my hard work, whether or not it is the grant of a 2 semester scholarship to Australia. If I dont get it, it's ok cos I still have another chance next year...

For Your Information

2008-03-21T12:28:00.000+07:00

Essay competition 2008

[English] [Español] [Português] [Français] []

Young voices in research for health

The Global Forum for Health Research and The Lancet are holding their third joint essay competition for the under-30s on the theme:

Climate change and health: research challenges for the health of vulnerable populations

Rules and guidelines

Authors must have been born on or after 1 January 1978.
Each author may submit one essay only.
Essays may be submitted in English or French and should be 1500 words maximum.
Essays must be based on the author’s own ideas and not be derived from another source.
Essays must not have been previously published.
Entries are individual (i.e., the work of a single author).
They should include original, even provocative ideas and not be technical or academic texts: tables, charts and figures are probably not necessary; references should be limited.
Authors are free to be idealistic, passionate, to take established practices to task, albeit in a constructive fashion.
Within the context of research for health, the theme allows authors to include any aspect that interests them particularly – for example, extreme weather, natural disasters, fuels and energy, transport, water management, vectors, food production, demographics, urban planning, security.

Deadlines

The deadline for receipt of entries is 30 April 2008.
A shortlist will be announced by the end of June. Shortlisted authors will be asked to provide a high quality photograph and to confirm original authorship and date of birth.
The winners will be notified by the beginning of August 2008. The judges’ decision will be final.

Prizes

A selection of shortlisted essays will be published in an anthology as well as on the Global Forum and Lancet websites.
Winners will be invited to take part (with all expenses paid) in the Global Ministerial Forum on Research for Health, which will take place in Bamako, Mali, from 17 to 19 November 2008.

Staff members of the Global Forum or of the Lancet or their immediate families are ineligible to enter the competition, as are authors of shortlisted essays published in 2006 and 2007.

For any questions, please contact susan.jupp@globalforumhealth.org or f.mclellan@elsevier.com

G' Bye Kanitha

2008-03-20T12:29:00.003+07:00

No meeting has no end. Sooner or later, the one who used to talk with us, joke with us, and even argue with us would have to leave to take another step in life (study, work,...etc). However, one thing that make the meeting unforgettable is that everyone would still hold memories of those sweet and bitter moment we used to cherish together, a memories that would stay with us forever.
S0...Kanitha, though u no longer physically be with us, laugh with us in class....remember this: you were, you are, and you will always belong to our crazy class, no matter it is M1.1, M2.1, M3.1 or M4.1. You will always be welcome if you find time to visit Cambodia again, and dun forget to drop in our class...

Have a safe journey
Enjoy your study and life in London
And Enjoy the reunion with ur sis and Dara (you lucky to have K1 going to London, Dara!)
Bye :-))

Selective Quotes of George Owell

2008-03-18T17:23:00.002+07:00

Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

On the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and not quite all the time.

To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

Political language -- and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists -- is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?

War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.

The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.

Just A Simple Quiz for You

2008-03-18T16:58:00.002+07:00

It doesn't make sense: We blow on our hands to warm them when they are cold, but we blow on our food to cool it when it's hot.

*** How can blowing make things both hot and cold? :-))

M Back

2008-03-03T16:26:00.006+07:00

M back! Sorry for being away so long...YOu guys must miss me right?
Oh...and Da, sorry I didnt keep my promise.
This post is to make up for my absent
Enjoy
Hope you not get tired of reading it na.

World’s Bank Conference—03/Dec/07

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My last day at Cambokids and VI joint project—27/Dec/07

It was my last day with Veteran International as a volunteer from Cambokids Association, since Cambokids would finish it project at the end of the year. I was some kind of sad to say goodbye to those kids, because they were fun to play with and maybe because they liked me. Well, indeed, though I hadn’t spent time at VI much, those kids remembered me quite well, thanks to my nature of being friendly and outgoing :-)) (Readers, do you believe me?)

Relative Reunion at my mum’s cousin’s house—30/12/2007

It was great to see many of our relatives again, wasn’t it? In fact, at the party, I had a chance to see many of great-granda’s children, nephews, nieces, grandchildren, grandnephews/nieces, great-grandchildren…etc. The list was quite long. Especially, I got to see my granduncle and grandaunt, uncles and their wife, and my many cousins from Canada. The whole evening was filled with fun, jokes, laughter’s from all of us. Having joined this reunion party made me realize that, oh preah chi mjas, my now 92-year-old great grandma had nearly a hundred of KON CHAO, which of course means that I had lots and lots of relatives. Oh and one interesting thing you might want to know is that at the table where I sat and had dinner with a bunch of my young uncle, young aunt, and young cousins was the table with the many cans of coke and beer. We, the youngsters, just kept eating and drinking until having every empty can placed completely around the so-called flat glass for moving food around the table (sorry no idea what the English calls this).

A joint party( friend’s reunion and friends’ b’days) at Huong’s flat—01/01/08

Haha…It seemed my life was pretty busy with parties those past few days. Actually, I had been very very busy on the first day of the new year 2008. From morning till evening, my schedule of that day was totally no empty space. In the morning, I helped my friends cooking, though not much help, slipped out with Longdy and Theary to buy cake for the three pretty girls whose birthday were on the SAME month, December. Actually just to make up for not having bought the presents for them as we were quite busy and BROKE. Also, I even had a chance, slipping to meet with lecturer NPD since he promised to take me to the TASK/HALO project’s office at 11. And I was also to say goodbye and gave him a farewell card as well, because he would leave for Australia to pursue his dual master’s degrees. Then bout 20mins later, here I was back at Huong’s beautiful flat and continued the party. The food was delicious since we had roast shrimps, chicks, meats and of course cans of coke—my favourite drinks. At about 4, it was time for surprising, eating or fighting to eat cake. If you had seen the video how we fighted for the cake, I believe you would think that we were some kind of poor street people who hadn’t eaten anything for weeks, geee. I’ll try to get in to youtube and attached it with this post for you, if I can.

Da’s Bro’s Wedding Party—02/01/08

I might not need to report much bout this big event since you will find detail bout the party in both Da’s and Longdy’s blog. Just to show you guys how meaningful my life is! HasHa

Stationary Support to rural Children at Phnom Da, Angkor Borei—12/01/08

Here is another piece of my community activity. With the Initiatives of Change, I and other young and old volunteers went to distribute stationary to 240 students from 4 rural primary schools in Angkor Borei, the place believed to be the start of Cambodian History. There were around of 25 volunteer, 10 of whom were foreigners, joined this trip. The road to the site was heavenly bumpy! We even got lost twice before arriving at Phnom Da in our 25-seat mini bus. Then we took another half-an-hour boat trip to Angkor Borei primary school, if I was not mistaken. In fact, I was unsuccessfully snapped the picture of the school’s gate, sorry guys. Because we got lost twice, we arrived quite late until 11. And guess what? Students had been waiting for us since 9. So we started our coming activities right away. We started with students singing our national anthem. If you were there, you would find it amazing listening to those kids singing, very fast and kind of messy (I dun mean to be negative about them as I found it new, fun and cheerful listening to their singing, believe me. Then came with short welcome speech by the village chief, school principle, Vice-President of ICA, project organizer, and last ME. It was my very first time delivering such a formal speech in front of many people. Though I only had half an hour prepared what I would be saying, I thought I did it quite well, maybe because it was in Khmer, and I was fluent with Khmer language :-)). After speeches, we distributed the stationary package to every one include teachers and villagers.

I think this trip is one of my most memorable trip I have made so far. It was my first time directly interacting with villagers in rural area. Also two things really upset, intrigue, and inspire me. Firstly, I felt both pitiful and inspiring seeing classrooms at the school. Guess what? There were only 4 rooms at that primary school, but students there ranged from grade 1 to grade 6 in both shifts. How come they learn? It was what I call double classes in a single room. Get what I mean? Well, it is operated like this. In one room and at the same time, two classes learn together. Students from one class face, let say, the north, while the others from another class face the south. Students from the two classes, but studying in the sharing room, have to take turn read lessons out loud. You might wonder why I was inspired by this. Actually, I really admire those kids, hard-working and knowledge-grapping kids. In spite of the many obstacles they are facing, they do not give up their hope of getting educated. Many of you, Cambodian, might know that villages at Angkor Borei is half-a-year dry and half-a-year flooded right? This means that schools there last bout 6 months only, whereas the normal one lasts 4 months longer. And students from faraway villages need to take boat as a mean to go to school. What overwhelmed me the most bout it was the sense of helping each other that is rarely found back in the crowded city. It was the older students who propelled and navigated the boat while the younger kids and teachers were passengers. I really like this unique scene (and even drop a small tear of joy!).

One Fabulous Week with My new 8 Mexican Friends

#3 At Veteran International again, but not as a Cambokids Volunteer—31/02/08

I got a very great chance to assist 8 Mexican friends during their stay and volunteer activities in Phnom Penh. On Jan 31, we had an activity at Veteran International to play with the kids. It was fantastic to see kids there again. And even more fantastic when they still remembered me and asked why I no longer showed up on Thursdays as before. Oh, I was very popular, see? After, filling in the colors to the computerized drawings, our Mexican fellows organized games to entertain those little kids. We really had lots and lots of fun playing and taking pictures together.

# 4 At Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum—01/Feb/08

---------------

Note: T0 be continued..........
and Photos will be attached later

Attention needed!!!

2008-02-11T15:41:00.000+07:00

Dear all fan(only few friends, to tell you the truth) of my blog!

It has been nearly a month and a half now since I last updated my blog...
However, dun get fed up with seeing nothing posted
b'cos, very soon, m going to share with you some interesting highlights of my day for the past 3 months...
so you guys stay tune tov...
your lovely dear friend, Sovan

Some Pics From where m doing my community service-Veteran International

2007-12-31T12:12:00.000+07:00

gang of painter
another young painter
the young acrobat
skilled dancer
Even the adult was attracted by this beautifully printed children's book
young painter
so absorb with the painting!

P.S sorry no time to describe my community work at VI in detail....post more next time

HOT NEWS!!!

2007-12-12T12:02:00.000+07:00

Just a few days ago, A girl was pickpocket while shopping for gifts to be sent to Singapore in Tuol Tompung Market. She lost nothing except her mobile phone which cost around US$170. Not an expensive one right? But it's bad enough for this unlucky girl to get a big blame from her mum. This is the finish of the news report.

***P.S. For the time being, I cannot be contacted via phone call or sms. I'll inform you when I'll be available for phone call's or sms's contact.

SYC again!

2007-12-08T08:15:00.000+07:00

Welcome, The SYC Participants! RELC

i really envy chamroeun for being in this beautiful picture!Discovery, Singapore

Everyone except me in this Pic taken in front of NUS! Guess why?

this one fascinated me the most on my visit to NUS

the young scientists!

In Mediacorp, young professional actors and actress!

v shouting camBOdia!

Our host singing, Exbihition at RELC's Lobby

Underwater world, Sentosa

A Bond of Friendship!

let's dance together!

Hugging!

Uniquely Singapore

2007-12-07T17:43:00.000+07:00

*** It going to the 10th anniversary of Sunburst Youth Camp in Singapore soon...This following song remind me of the great time i had in Singapore...Unfortunately i dun have the music or sound clip...just the lyric,if u wanna know how to sing...let's me teach you

Title* dun know*

You could take a little trip around singapore town, in singapore's city bus
to see ****** quay and the raffle place, the esplanade and all of *****
because in Singapore, singapore, their hearts are big and wide you'll find
because in singapore singapore, you'll find happiness (clasp) for everyone

Let's go down to the riverside, n see the unforgetable sky.
To see the sunlight, in faraway isle, turning from darkness into light.

because in Singapore, singapore, their hearts are big and wide you'll find
because in singapore singapore, you'll find happiness (clasp) for everyone

Note: there's one part missing..I cant remember

*****Updated Information
you can go to the following link for the lyrics and song download. http://www.singsingapore.org.sg/songs.asp
Thanks Marya for the link!

To all SYCians, if you happen to read this text, pls help me fill in the missing lyric ok?
Best regards, Sovan

I had a bad day....

2007-12-07T17:18:00.000+07:00

I had a very bad day yesterday, or probably as far as I remember, the worst day of my life. Things started to go wrong after I finnished my Group presentation in my Global Studies class ( our teacher is Mr. TVR, you guys know him). Though the presentation went well as we hoped, our fortune turned into a disaster when teacher announced that there would be a quiz. Unluckily, I didn't even touch my textbook since I was too busy with the presentation and assignment which had the same deadline. I knew I did my quiz gravely. But I'll tell u this... Life was not treating me that easy... Quiz in session 1 finished. Oh Damn it...on the second session, there was also another surprise quiz...YOu know what? teacher had assigned us to do homework at home, but again i could not find time to even look at it...n believe it? the whole quiz was all taken from that damn homework...bcos I hadn't revise the lesson, what I did in this quiz was no different from the previous one...h god!!!! My bad day didn't finish with this two surprise quiz...the worst of all hadn't come yet... Heuy......as I mentioned above, I had a group assignment to finish...You know what, just after spending 2 hours re-edit again and again I finally got everything perfectly done.But,But,But, bcos of that darn so-called highly infected virus, everything, every of my group effort was totally in ruin. To do this assignment, v skipped lunch for 4 continuous days, v discussed till 7pm, v skipped our thai, korean, or japanese class to do that pain in the neck assignment...
Realizing that the file would never be recovered, I called my GS teacher, he said NO, if the assignment was late in Submission, 5% of the total mark will be deducted...
Heuy but I got no choice ...beside submit it today... a day late...
Thursday, 06th, November 2007 was recorded in my diary as the worst day in my life.

Happy10th B'day, the amazing Sunburst Youth Camp!!!

2007-12-04T16:12:00.000+07:00

In less than a week, RELC International is going to host the annual awesome Sunburst Youth Camp. This year, SYC is going to be greater and happier than the previous one with participants and alumni from all years. Sadly i don't have this chance to be reunion with my friends. But to all SYCians,I would like to make this opportunity to send u all the best regards and wish u all the best...Miss Ya...Miss the time we had fun together in the camp...If chance is given, i will go and visit each of ur homeland...

???????????

2007-11-30T11:32:00.000+07:00

Do you think it is appropriate to share negative news, i mean bad news in our blog...
If you think it not good, stop right here dun continue reading this text.

Well, you all sure know that in last weekend, Phnom Penh held the annual water festival along the river side in front of the royal palace. No difference from any other year, people from the countryside poured in the city which made travelling difficult to make. But it's not the point m gonna tell you guys. Do you know that this year's water festival was more auspicious. Asean boat race was added. Ok let's get right to the point. ON the first or second day of the celebration, a terrible thing had happened. I was sad when watching this dreadful news on tele. 5 singaporeans were killed/drown in an accident. While rowing the boad along the river near the Phnom Penh Port just for fun after the tired competition, 22 singaporeans with boat were suddenly pulled into the river by the powerful TEK KUOCH (dunno what to write in English, you guys can help) because it was near the port. Among the 22, only 17 were saved.The rest were missing and their bodies were found the day after the accident after a searching compaign using more than 10 boats and 3 heli was made all day and night. A mourning ceremony had been held in Calmet Hospital where the bodies were carefully kept. Some senior officers and Ambassor of Republic of Singapore were there as well.

U see? This one is a very sad you. It sadden me lots. I am so attached with Singapore, I remember how happy my trip was in Singapore last two years. Often times I wonder why such thing happened when everyone was enjoying the celebration so much. Why????? I'm really sorry for the victims' families and relatives. M afraid that they might have bad impression that Cambodia is a dangerous place. OH??????

Food program at ICA

2007-11-22T12:44:00.000+07:00

Dearest brothers and sisters

How have you been? I do hope everyone is ok and ready to join The Water Festival Ceremony that it is coming soon. While we are happy to join the Water Festival, we also never forget our special program (Food Program)

The Food Program will be conducted on 2 Sunday December, 2007 at Initiatives of Change Association (ICA). Cooking will be started at 3pm and then we will leave from ICA at 6 pm.

Your presentation will be helped us to achieve this program.

Any information please, contacts the number:

012 279 913
012 625 205
012 561 665
012 821 757

Best Regard

Thornin

My Mum

2007-11-17T16:35:00.000+07:00

This following text is dedicated to LIDA, for she has encouraged me to post this piece of writing for you all to read....Hope you enjoy.

“Intelligent, diligent, independent, ambitious, strict but reasonable” are the best adjectives to describe my mother’s unique characteristics. Despite of the many hardships that has stormed in her miserable life, my mother still remains strong which, I would say, makes her one of the rare but best mothers in Cambodian society. In fact, in my family, the expense on everything, counting from those on our daily meal 3 times a day to the one on education of both my brother and I, has become a heavy burden of my young mother since the death of my father 12 years ago. As a young widow, she has to play both the role as mother and father. Everyday morning, she does all what an ordinary housewife normally does, sweeping and wiping the house, boiling the water, waking my lazy 10-year old brother,...etc. After finishing all the chore, she goes to the market to open her small store up. There, she spends almost 10 hours a day selling clothes. Backing home at 6 pm, my mum has to make the dinner ready and wait for us to have our dinner. Honestly, I don’t usually help her cooking, as both my little brother and I study till 7 pm. Frequently, I feel quite guilty that I cannot help easing the burden of my mum, not even one of the simple tasks at home every morning. My only chore is to do the washing up every weekend since my mum has to open up her store everyday, regardless of the weekly day-off most people enjoy. Though she is busy and tired from her day-work, she always finds time to be with my brother and me. She always advises us to study hard and need not to doubt about everyday school’s expense. Often, she warns us on how hard a life would be without good education, that’s why she sends us to one of the best institutions in the country, no matter how much she has to pay. Not a single second has she complaint about her hard work. Her wise advice, care and endless effort to get my brother and I high education, are all my inspirations to remind myself to study hard and to get a very high score at school, if not the highest, must be one among the highest. What I achieve in school, in return, plays as an effective role to encourage my mum to work harder in order to earn for our living. Everyday I usually try my best in my study, so that my mother’s effort is not in vain. She is the best mother in the world!

The 3 stuffs...........

2007-11-17T16:14:00.000+07:00

What is our favorite number? I just find several convincing points to choose number 3. Wanna know...? Keep reading...You are on the right track...

1: I started to go to school (kindergarten, of course) at the age of 3
2: I have lived in 3 different houses since I moved to Phnom Penh.
3: 3 is my lucky number...why so?
-I was the 3rd to be interviewed by Mr. Lau Keezong, then the organizing committee’s director of SYC 05. And I passed which was a contrast to my expectation at that time.
- Also, just yesterday, I was the also the 3rd to be interviewed by the PSP alumni for a volunteer work, and I did passed. (actually I didn’t expect I was selected)
- When I was in year 1 at IFL, I was the 3rd most outstanding student in the morning shift (I am not bragging te na)
4: In order to apply for IFL Debate Club membership, 3 recommendations for 3 lecturers needed to be submit along with the application form
5: Out of 4 IFL lecturers this year, 3 are males.
6: Most of the major holidays in Cambodia last for 3 days right?
7: Most competitions give awards to the top 3 right? see only 3 competitors are chosen.
8: In my favourite stories—Harry Potter series and The Chronicle of Diadem series— there are 3 main characters. (Harry, Ron, Hermione & Score, Pixel, Helen)
9. There are 3 series of Shrek, 3 series of the Pirate of Caribbean, 3 series of X-Men, 3 series of The Lord of the Ring and so on and so forth. See even the movie makers choose number 3

So you see.......Number 3 famous... See why It’s my favourite number....

P.S. Since number 3 is my favourite number, if you plan to send me Christmas gift, make sure it’s in 3 packets with 3 gifts ok? :-))

Simple Quiz...

2007-11-15T13:23:00.000+07:00

what are these Emoticons :-9 mean?

1/ (@_@)
2/ (>:8[)
3/ :-"
4/ :8)

Some pics from VN

2007-11-09T14:52:00.000+07:00

with my relatives in a hotel in Hochiminch City before leaving for Dalat
Due to some problem with Internet here, I will post more pics later

My trip to Vietnam

2007-11-09T14:14:00.000+07:00

It's been nearly two weeks after I was back from my 5-day-holiday to Vietnam's Hochiminh and Dalat city. I've been kept very busy since then, so I hardly found time updating my blog. But eventually here I am, telling you about my trip.

Well, if you have been to vietnam, i guess ur first impression will be just like mind. Hochiminh city is full of motorbikes, I would say more than that in phnom penh, though there's less cars. ( I was informed that tax is 350% of the car's cost). Also, the width of most house is so small that I can't imagine how to live in such small space. Again I was informed that land's price there is extremely expensive. Land in the city centre (Hochiminh City) can reach up to US$7000 a square metre. OH how expensive! And traffic there is just as mess up (or even messier) than that in Phnom penh. Motorbikes just rides...inorganizedly. Suprisingly or curiously, I wonder why the vietnamese has the habit of having coffee at nearly midnight. And you believe it? A bookstore as big as IBC or perhaps bigger doesn't sell a single English book. But the vietnamese language version of Harry potter and the deadly hallow is now available in most bookstores and street bookstores in Hochiminh City. And you can get it for a good price, if you can read vietnamese.

However,I really appreciate vietnamese farmers for being industrial. Along from Hochiminh to Dalat, we past 3 mountain's range. You know what my impression is? Oh almost everywhere is ful of plantation, of coffee, tea, rubber, vegetable, fruit. They just have the habit of not leaving a single land unfarmed. The tour guide told me that the whole vegetable plantations in Dalat alone could support every household in Hochiminh City and even leave some for export to Cambodia. You know vietnamese vegetables we see in market are from Dalat City. Oh they are just hard-working farmers. Interestingly, Hochiminch city is named as the heart of VN's economy, whereas Hanoi is named as the heart of VN's politics. Yes! No doubt that the heart of VN economy is based in Hochiminch. Along the roads in the city's suburbs lie many factories, Suzuki, Toyota, food industries,...more and more. Compared to Cambodia, VN has more foriegn investments. That's why its economy is ahead from Cambodia's. And an underground road is now being built in Hochiminh and is due to open for travellers in 2010. Hopefully we will also have one in Phnom Penh.

P.S I write this text rushly... I apologize for the many mistakes I have made.

VN, here I am

2007-10-29T14:23:00.000+07:00

Now I am in front of a PC in Da Lat town, a French-style city in the middle of Vietnam. The weather here is pretty cold, 23 degree celsius on average... The town locates on hills just like Sen Monorom Town of Mondulkiri, Cambodia. Bye, gotta go n enjoy sightseeing now... I will leave for Hochiminh city tomorr..

More from SYC 05....

2007-10-06T13:38:00.000+07:00

Our eyes were bind... "Are we in the right track?"

"We find it, hurray"

Oh it's high!!!

"Dararith, you will make it.. Kom Breng leung!"

"Yes, you make it, Bravo"

Lunch time

Belaying rule

"We are all #1"

playing the first puzzle game..."hey give me, I need it, Han Long"

the second puzzle game... all the groups must work together

"we are in this together, i'll give u"

time to go back to RELC

Jum reap lea "good bye"

bye OBS centre!!!

SYC 05...

2007-10-05T14:21:00.000+07:00

Ready for OBS time!

In a boat to OBS centre (Outward Bound Singapore)

introduce each other

game time!

They were not running, just fast walking

Group one will win the award, Hurray!!!

my OBS team member

SAVE THREE LIVES FOR $5!

2007-10-05T14:11:00.000+07:00

Here is a call for contribution taken from the Cambodia Daily, Thursday Oct 04th

The Cambodia Daily Mosquito Net Campaign was started in 1997 to collect for mosquito nets for Cambodia’s rural poor. To contribute to this campaign and save 3 lives for only $5 (the purchase of one family net) send you donation (cash or check) or bring it in person to Nuon So Thero or Sing Seda at the Cambodia Daily, 129 street 228, Phnom Penh. For details telephone 855-23-427. Checks should be made out to the Cambodia Daily Mosquito Net Program. Donations may also be deposited directly into account number 30-060-2750 (Mosquito Net Appeal) at the Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia. Credit Card donations are also accepted. Please provide your name, credit card type, card number, expiration date and billing address by fax to 855-23-426-573. Or mail to aafc@camnet.com.kh. Donations are tax deductible in the US and Japan.

More about Cuba

2007-09-30T13:06:00.001+07:00

Since I have watched an inspiring and appealing movie "I am Cuba", I'm quite interested in Cuba.... Here is a text about Cuba, before and after the Revolutionary....

The Batista Dictatorship ( Pre- Fidel Castro Revolution)

In 1952 Batista returned from the United States to run for president. When it became apparent that he did not have strong support among voters, Batista organized a bloodless military takeover and became dictator. Batista, however, found that the situation was very different than it had been at the time of his earlier coup in 1934, when he had considerable popular support and was able to build a successful coalition of political groups. In 1952 he faced Cuban citizens who respected their constitution. Organizations opposed to Batista seemed to appear everywhere. Most of these groups had one goal: the removal of Batista. Only university students, the Communists, and Fidel Castro articulated programs for a post-Batista government.

In 1953 Castro attracted a following of young people who shared his desire to topple Batista and reinstate the constitution. On July 26, Castro and 150 armed followers entered the Moncada Military Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Guards set off an alarm and quickly captured the attackers. Castro and several dozen men escaped, but were later arrested. The army brutally tortured and killed 68 insurgents, an act that made heroes and martyrs of Castro’s group.

Castro defended his action in a court hearing, arguing that the government, not his movement, was in violation of constitutional law because it took power illegally and because it had committed atrocities against defenseless prisoners. In a courtroom speech, he promised to lead a revolution that would oversee land reform, industrialization, housing construction, greater employment opportunities, and expanded health and welfare services. After a brief deliberation, a tribunal sentenced Castro to 15 years in prison.

Other revolutionary groups contested Batista’s dictatorship. The Federation of University Students organized rallies and called for Batista’s removal. Most of the students came from the middle class, and although they sympathized with the problems of workers, they did not formulate policies to assist them. In 1955 some of these students concluded that radical action was needed to remove Batista from office. They founded the Revolutionary Directorate to carry out bloody clashes with the army and to attempt to assassinate Batista.

In 1954 Batista won the presidential election, running unopposed after other parties refused to participate. The following year he felt confident enough to free all political prisoners, including Castro. Castro soon left for Mexico with a small number of followers to plan a revolutionary movement they would call the 26th of July Movement (M-26) after the date of the Moncada Barracks assault.

Cuban Revolution

Castro Leads Rebels In 1956 Fidel Castro led a guerrilla force, the 26th of July Movement, in a revolt against the government of Fulgencio Batista. In 1959 Batista resigned, and Castro became leader of Cuba’s new revolutionary regime.Archive Photos

Unrest continued in Cuba. In mid-1956 Batista faced dissension within the military as several officers conspired to overthrow him and reinstate liberal, democratic politicians. The leaders were court-martialed and jailed. On March 13, 1957, the Revolutionary Directorate attacked the presidential palace, intending to assassinate Batista. The president barely escaped as the rebels shot their way onto the grounds. José Antonio Echeverría, the directorate’s leader, was gunned down and the rest of his men were captured, killed, or forced into hiding.

On March 13, 1957, the Revolutionary Directorate attacked the presidential palace, intending to assassinate Batista.

Meanwhile Castro had been raising funds, acquiring weapons, and training a small band of guerrillas in Mexico. On November 29, 1956, Castro and about 80 men crammed themselves into a small fishing vessel, the Granma, and set out to invade Cuba. All did not go as planned, however. Bad weather delayed their arrival, and the rebels landed 30 miles south of the point where weapons and reinforcements awaited them. As they waded ashore, Batista’s army ambushed them, and only a handful of men escaped. They formed a small guerrilla army in the Sierra Maestra, the mountains of southeast Cuba.

From his base in the mountains, Castro organized raids on military installations to acquire weapons and worked closely with the rural population to build a base of support. He invited Herbert Matthews, a New York Times correspondent, to the Sierra Maestra to report on the 26th of July Movement. Matthews’ reports brought international attention to Castro’s movement. New recruits joined him, and urban guerrilla groups, such as the Civic Resistance group, founded in 1957, became auxiliaries of the 26th of July Movement.

Castro as a Rebel Leader In 1956 Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro and about 80 armed followers returned from exile in Mexico and landed on the southern shore of Cuba. Government troops killed most of the rebels during the landing, but Castro and a handful of men escaped to the mountains of eastern Cuba, where they continued a guerrilla campaign to oust Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista. Batista fled the island on January 1, 1959, and Castro emerged as the leader of the new government in Cuba.Corbis/Hulton Deutsch

Well into 1958, U.S. State Department officials misread the Cuban population’s profound dissatisfaction with Batista, as U.S. diplomatic dispatches from Havana indicated that Batista had the opposition under control. Eventually, as Batista’s dictatorial tendencies grew and the extent of opposition to his regime became apparent, the alliance between the United States and Batista weakened. The United States discussed with Batista the possibility of working with the moderate opposition and scheduling free elections. Batista refused. The United States considered an armed intervention, but instead decided to force Batista to resign by withholding arms shipments. Meanwhile, the opposition was unifying around Castro. In March 1958, 45 civic organizations signed an open letter supporting Castro’s guerrillas.

Conditions deteriorated for Batista during the following months. On April 9, 1958, a general strike to protest the Batista government did not paralyze the country, but it did throw doubt on Batista’s ability to govern. In April and May Batista failed to suppress two major rebel offensives. In May Batista began an assault on Castro’s stronghold in the Sierra Maestra. In July more than 10,000 government soldiers failed to dislodge Castro’s men during the Battle of Jigue. In late August the rebel army moved out of its mountain sanctuary onto the plains.

The rebels made steady advances throughout the remainder of the year. In November government troops lost control of the central highway into Santiago. In December rebel forces won a bloody battle for control of Santa Clara, a city in central Cuba. Batista understood that his downfall was imminent. After his annual New Year’s Eve party, he and his closest advisers secretly boarded a plane for the Dominican Republic.

Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2005 © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

I am Cuba

2007-09-30T13:04:00.000+07:00

I am Cuba....( 1964)
Directed by Mikhail Kalatosov

Yesterday noon, Longdy and I went to see a free-admission movie at PUC’s Srey Dim Conference Hall. The title was “I am Cuba”. From the title, you could guess where the movie was from, right?

Well... to me, it’s such an inspiring movie, displaying all the real past of Cuba before Fidel Castro came into power. (Now Cuba is the only remaining American Country governed by Communist leader) The movie itself was sub-divided into story of other four different individuals.

The first story was about a young girl named Maria (also known as Betty on her night job). She was the fruit street-sale(er) and also worked as a dancer in a nightclub (&also prostitute). From this part, we could see the great gap of living between the foreigners there and the Cubans. (I think) Maria was forced to sell herself because of poverty. If you had watched the scene, you would see how miserable her life was, living in a damp place surrounded by hungry-looking neighbors. This was much a contrast to the night city life in which dominated by those sucking foreigners.

Then, the second part depicted a rural life of at-about-50-year-old widower, who was living with a teenage son and daughter. Their living depended on their sugar cane field. However, life was not really easy for this 3 unfortunate farmer. Just as the time their sugar canes were ready to be harvested, a fat middle-age man who referred himself as the landowner of the land in which the farmer was living and growing crop. Thus, the crop yield had to put into his property and none of the profit was needed to give to the farmers for their sweat in growing and taking care of the plantation. So much desperate and angry, the father (whose name I didn’t know/remember) decided to set fire to his located-in-other people’s land-home and to all the sugar cane he planted with his and his children’s hand. So that the claimed landowner would not benefit a single penny from his claimed land.

The third one, my most favourite, brought audiences to a city life which was full of protests organized by students against the corrupt government of pre-Castro era and of course had to pay their life for the belief and demonstration.

The final one was about a family who lived in mountain, hoping to get away from the battle in city and to live in peace. But they wouldn’t enjoy their living long. Their house was destroyed by the government’s bombing campaign. Their son was killed in the bombardment. The husband whose named was known as ...... (haha I forgot bat heuy)oh yeah Mariano (???) decided to join the rebellion to liberate Cuba from the corrupt government. The liberation itself was leaded by no one other than Cuba’s former president Fidel Castro (now he’s too old to rule, so his power is transferred to his brother)

I kind of like the movie, and cant wait to see anther free movie, Rice People ( a khmer one). If you interest, go to PUC’s SREY DIM conference hall on October 6 at 3pm.... J now the only remaining American Country governed by Communist leader

HOPE to HAVE and SEE YOU THERE!!!!

Another Problem....

2007-09-28T14:34:00.001+07:00

Oh Please help me!!!

During a one month-break from school last month, I felt that I really really wanted to go to IFL, to study, and to have fun with my friends. But.....but at the time that my holiday nearly ended, I felt that oh I didn’t want to sit in class, listening tiredly to the lectures. Oh.....!!! Why is it like that??? Is it the same as you???? To tell you the truth, my motivation to learning now is not as strong and energetic as that when I was in year 1. Everyday at school is boring... is it because of the course or the lecturer or me? No, Cant be the course ços subjects I learn in year 2 are interesting.. cos of Lecturers? No, cant be bcos none of their teaching seems to be the boring like that of my least favourite lecturer in year one.,, So it must be because of I myself do not put effort and interest in learning, right. Frankly, even one night before my CE quiz, I didn’t revise my lesson at all.... I spent the whole night sleeping and dreaming, a bad dream if you ask! Oh help me,,, do you know how to cope with sleepiness? I only study in one university which means that I have more free time and less tired than most of my classmates.... so why I always feel sleepy at night????? Should i drink coffee to keep my self awake??

My voluntary work at VI, veteran international

2007-09-28T14:28:00.000+07:00

Yesterday, I, along with other 5 volunteers at the Cambokids association, went to the Veteran International, an NGO who helps rehabilitating disabled people in Kean Klang near Chroy Changva bridge. It was so fun playing with those disabled chidren and the one from the nearby community (whose bodies are in normal condition). We, the volunteers, helped creating fun activities for the children. We told them folk tales and interesting children stories, coloring the sketch models designed by the Cambokids staff, and of course dancing the khmer traditional dances together (Coconut dance, Butterflies dance and more). The activities was finished with a great applause from those children and with a promise by the volunteers to go to the center again next thursday....Cant wait!!!!

*** Children there are so cute but little bit mischievous... Oh and you know? At my very first time in VI last week, I met a baby... hmm he was only 3 months old, but pitily had to undergo an operation. I later learnt that his legs were Kvean since birth... But despite the hurt from the operation, he didn’t cry and even laughed when a total stranger like me carried him unlike some other babies I met who always cried when seeing me (my baby cousin in particular).

P.S do you happen to know what “Kvean” is in English? Tell me pong...

It's better to light one candle than to cause the darkness

2007-09-28T14:09:00.000+07:00

I. How many times I’ve packed away so often afraid. Told others I’d be counted on and left them all betrayed. I’ve said that there’re nothing I can do in the world that’s turned. So sour where ther hope of freedom is fading by the hour. But...

Chorus: It’s better to light one candle than to cause the darkness. Better to let it bright light, show where you stand. For its glow will melt the darkness like the coming of a new dawn. And hope will be born from the small flame in your hand.

II. There are many echoes in the world but few voices. Many roads for us to take but few make choices. Will we always wait till it’s too late and things seem all but lost. Afraid to leave the shadow, afraid to face the ghost.
*** >>>Chorus

III. But if you stand up and leave your fears behind you’ll show a light for all those who are blind. It will spread around the world, a light that cannot be ignore. For the spirit of man.......is the candle of the truth.

My comment: I really like this song very much. It inspires me to help making a change of our beloved country, Cambodia, who indeed needs help from each and every one of us, Cambodian children and teenagers. So have you done anything to light the candle in your community? If not yet, start from this very moment. If you have already, continue what you are doing right now. A Better Cambodia is not very far away if we all work and unite together.....
*** If you don’t want to light the candle, at least, please don’t help putting out the light, okay?????

MY Writing Problem

2007-09-19T16:15:00.000+07:00

Help! Help!

Despite of the many years learning English, I havent yet reached to the point that I hope my writing would be. I really really want to be a talented writer (in English) ... But My writing is just so lame and not interesting either. :-)) Reading my own piece of writing, I feel that the grammatical structure and the use of vocabulary is indeed boring and always in the same form, no variation. I wish I could write a good text like some of my friends do, if not better!!! Hopefully things would improve as I have to submit a lots of writing work to my lecturer this semester.....

Some photos of UNi life

2007-09-19T14:15:00.001+07:00

Spy Girls

super girl

Around the corner, a vanished friend.

2007-09-16T12:32:00.000+07:00

Read Alone.....

Especially the Poem I believe whatever is in store for us will be for us. The poem is very true, unfortunately. Make sure you read the poem!

CASE 1: Kelly Sedey had one wish, for her boyfriend of three years, David Mars den, to propose to her. Then one day when she was out to lunch David proposed! She accepted, but then had to leave because she had a meeting in 20 min. When she got to her office, she noticed on her computer she had some e-mail. She checked it, the usual stuff from her friends, but then she saw one that she had never gotten before. It was this poem. She simply deleted it without even reading all of it. BIG MISTAKE! Later that evening, she received a phone call from the police. It was about DAVID! He had been in an accident with an 18 wheeler. He didn't survive!

CASE 2:
Take Katie Robinson She received this poem and being the believer that she was she sent it to a few of her friends but didn't have enough e-mail addresses to send out the full 5 that you must. Three days later, Katie went to a masquerade ball. Later that night when she left to get to her car, she was killed in that spot by a hit-and-run drunk driver.

CASE 3:
Richard S. Willis sent this poem out within 45 minutes of reading it. Not even 4 hours later walking along the street to his new job interview with a really big company when he ran into Cynthia Bell, his secret love for 5 years. Cynthia came up to him and told him of her passionate crush on him that she had had for 2 years. Three days later, he proposed to her and they got married. Cynthia and Richard are still married with three children, happy as ever! This is the poem:

Around the corner I have a friend,

In this great city that has no end,

Yet the days go by and weeks rush on,

And before I know it, a year is gone.

And I never see my old friends face,

For life is a swift and terrible race,

He knows I like him just as well,

As in the days when I rang his bell.

And he rang mine but we were younger then,

And now we are busy, tired men.

Tired of playing a foolish game,

Tired of trying to make a name.

"Tomorrow" I say! "I will call on Jim Just to show that I'm thinking of him."
But tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes,

And distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner, yet miles away,

"Here's a telegram sir," "Jim died today."

And that's what we get and deserve in the end.

Around the corner, a vanished friend.

Remember to always say what you mean. If you love someone, tell them. Don't be afraid to express yourself.
Reach out and tell someone what they mean to you. Because when you decide that it is the right time it might be too late. Seize the day. Never have regrets. And most importantly, stay close to your friends and family, for they have helped make you the person that you are today. You must send this on in 3 hours after reading the letter to 10 other people. If you do this, you will receive unbelievably good luck. *NOTE* the more people that you send this to, the better luck you will have. SMILE, even through your tears!!!!!

Good Luck!!!

I spent nearly one unpleasant hour in a Traffic Jam

2007-09-16T11:47:00.000+07:00

Few-year-ago Phnom Penh, though considerably more populated than any other towns in the Country, didn’t usually have much traffic jam except during the annually celebrated water festival. But today traffic jam is no more than a simple aspect in this city dwellers’ life. In fact, though I used to be stuck among the crowded unmoving vehicles for many times, I have never experienced an irritating one like I did yesterday noon for nearly an hour, just to cross the approximate 500-metre mornivong bridge. At first I thought it wouldn’t take that long since it was not really crowded. But because of the many disorder and uncontrollable vehicles crossing the bridge, motorbikes in particular, things started to get worse. We were hardly able to move!!! Those who couldn’t stand to endure the waste of their precious gasoline on this still still situation and realized that it wouldn’t finished very soon, switched off their vehicles’ engines and waited ( **I was one among them). For several minutes later, the situation was progressively better, at least we could roll the gear and rode (or did the so-called turtle’s crawling style) at a speed of around 0.25metre per minutes in average **thanked to our hardworking policemen**. Oh Damn it!!! It took me 30more minutes, to my relief, to eventually be on the other side of the river... And I just realized then that the cause of that sucking traffic jam was because a big 1000 year-old (or maybe not that ancient) truck (KaMAS) broke down on the 1/3 way up the bridge (1/3 refer to the bridge’s length** SIC mind my grammar mistake :-)) Oh alas!!! what a shame that such thing has happened in our country...

In my opinion, I think there are 3 reasons (and/or more if I can think of later) regarding this issue (big and irritating issue to me):
1. the width of road in Phnom Penh and in the other towns is as narrow as the ant’s path ( in the developed or fast growing economic (SIC) nation’s standard **mind my grammar mistake in adjective’s order**)
2. Vehicle users still have little knowledge about traffic or their commitment to be unselfish and law-obeying drivers are limited. (I am excluded in that case, and YOU?)
3. Strangely different from the regional country, there is no public transport *even if there is one, people wont use it* in Phnom Penh city which lead to the increase of the use of private transportation in the city &&(is motortaxi counted as public transport too? if yes please change my point to “ there are too many public transport, having motortaxis as a majority”)

Any other reasons? Help me ok??? :-))

To My true friends

2007-09-15T10:18:00.000+07:00

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A girl asked a guy if he thought she was
pretty,
He said...no.

She asked him if he would want to be with her forever...and he said no.
She then asked him if she were to leave would he cry, and once again he replied with a no.
She had heard enough. As she walked away, tears streaming down her face the boy grabbed her arm and said...
You're not pretty you're beautiful.

I don't want to be with you forever, I NEED to be with you forever!
And I wouldn't cry if you walked away...I'd die...
SO NOW I WILL SAY:
I like you because of who you are to me...A true friend.
And if I don't get this back I'll take the hint.
Tonight at midnight your true love will realize they like you.

Something good will happen to you1:00-4:00 PM tomorrow.
It could be anywhere -- AOL, Yahoo, outside of school, anywhere.
Get ready for the biggest shock of your life.

Please send to 15 people in 15 minutes.
Remember:

"A good friend will come bail you out of jail....

But a true friend will be sitting next to you saying
"WE screwed up!"(Touch Wood!!!)
Proud to be your Friend!
Make sure you read all the way down to the last sentence, and don't skip ahead.
I've learned...that life is like a roll of toilet paper.
The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
I've learned...that we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.
I've learned...that money doesn't buy class.

I've learned...that it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.
I've learned...that under every! one's hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.

I've learned...that the Lord didn't do it all in one day.
What makes me think I can?
I've learned...that to ignore the facts does not change the facts.
I've learned.

I've learned...that the less time I have to work, the more things I get done.
To all of you...make sure you read all the way down to the last sentence.

It's National Friendship Week.
Show your friends how much you care.

Send this to everyone you consider a FRIEND, even if it means sending it back to the person who sent it to you.

If it comes back to you, then you'll know you have a circle of friends.

HAPPY FRIENDSHIP WEEK TO YOU!!!!!!
YOU ARE MY FRIEND AND I am

honored !!!!!!

My High School friends

2007-09-13T15:36:00.000+07:00

kru Snae, kompong tang samati rok srey saart...

assistant of kru snae, on phone with customer

a customer, too attracted by kru snae that c called for her friends to join

everyone not ready yet, that y it looked bit messy

a trip to kiriom after BACII

Looking back....

2007-09-12T15:25:00.000+07:00

Looking Back....
Looking back in the past, I was such a cheerful young spirit though I was likely to cry much more than an ordinary child...Here are fews photographs of mine when i was still 4 or 5... dun laugh at me ok?

at the seaside with my aunt...Like I said here I was about to cry...

Two Young Cute Pupils (I was with my same same age uncle), ready for their first day at Kindergarten. After arriving school, the little cute girl, I, cried so hard cos realizing that mum would leave me there.

a cheerful sovan and her friends in a park in riverside

MY favourite story books.....

2007-09-11T16:37:00.000+07:00

A walk to remember – Nicholas Sparks

“There was a time when the world was sweater...when the woman in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses and the men donned hats...”
Every April when the wind smells of both the sea and the lilacs, Landon Carter remember 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he’d been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he’d fall for was Jamie, the shy, almost ethereal daughter of the town Baptist minister... Jamie, who was destined to show him the depths of the human heart- the joy and pain of living.

Holes – Louis Sachar

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with hi no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment- redemption.

The Chronicles of Narnia- C.S. Lewis: The Magician’s Nephew

NARNIA... where the woods are thick and cool, where Talking Beasts are called to life... a new world where the adventure begins.
Digory and Polly meet and become friends one cold, wet summer in London. Their lives burst into adventure when Digory’s Uncle Andrew, who thinks he is a magicaian, sends them hurtling to... somewhere else. They find their way to Narnia, newborn from the Lion’s song, and encounter the evil sorceress Jadis before they finally return home.

Enter this enchanted world countless times in The Chronicles of Narnia. There are seven books in all:
The Magician’s nephew
The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
The Horse and His Boy
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the DaWn Treader
The silver chair
The last battle

Stay Alive, My Son--- Pin Yathay

On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge guerrillas filed into Phnom Penh, signaling the start of a reign of terror which would devastate an ancient culture and cause the deaths of over two million Cambodians in just three years. Moving from camp to camp, Pin Yathay and his family became the ‘New People’ – displaced city dwellers forced to live and work as peasants.
Astonishingly, Pin Yathay, a successful, highly educated professional, survived that terrible time. But he and his wife were faced with a decision that no couple should ever have to make: whether to abandon their six-year-old child. In the era, Pin Yathay escaped the ‘killing fields’, but in his heart is etched the memory of the seventeen members of his family who lost their lives

When Broken Glass Floats--- ChanRithy Him

In a mesmerizing story, Chanrithy Him vividly recounts her trek through the hell of the “killing fields.” She gives us a child’s-eye view of a Cambodia where rudimentary labor camps for both adults and children are the norm and modern technology no longer exists. death becomes a companion in the camps, along with illness. Yet through the terror, the members of Chanrithy’s family remain loyal to one another, and she and her siblings who survive will find the redeemed lives in America.

Falling leaves, Adeline Yen Mah

Adeline Yen Mah’s childhood in China during the civil war was a time of fear, isolation and humiliation. the cause of this was nor political upheaval but systematic emotional and physical abuse by her step mother and siblings, and rejection by her father. Falling Leaves is the story of a ‘fifth Younger Daughter’ and her determination to survive the pain of a lonely Childhood.

Cry Freedom(Simplified Edition by Oxford Bookworms Library)by John Brilry

They said Steve Biko was a man of violence; then why did he talk of peace? They said he wanted revolution; so why did he talk of friendship? They said he died of hunger; why was his body broken and bruised?
This is the story of a man’s fight with the government of South Africa.It is the story of all people who prefer truth to lies. It is the story of all people who cry ‘Freedom’ and who are not afraid to die.

Diadem, book of sign---by John Peel

Score, Renald, and Pixel are drawing closer to the heart of Diadem. And as they do, the danger heigtens. The evil is stronger. The magic deceives.
The chosen Three must track down a magician who can change both shape and form. They do not know whether she will help them – or kill them. But they must move forward. The fate of the Diadem hangs in the balance.

Diadem, book of Thunder --- John Peel

Score, Helaine, and Pixel thought they had triumphed over evil. But evil reappear in different forms. Danger wears many disguise.
Thunder, the leader of the unicorns, is in trouble. An intruder has broken in to his kingdom. Now the chosen three must summon their ultimate powers to prevent Thunder’s fall. For the stranger has dark magic on his side. And he will stop at nothing to destroy the land of the unicorns.

Diadem, book of Nightmares --- John Peel

Welcome to the planet Zarathan, where nothing is ever what it seems. Nightmares come to life. Ghosts can kill. Terror waits around every corner.
Pixel is a prisoner in the horrific world. Score and Helaine must race to save him. They cannot, under any circumstances, stop to rest. For if they fall asleep, they will stay asleep...forever.

Yang the Second and Her Secret Admirers --- Lensey Namioka

Yinglan Yang couldn’t careless that her brother and sister have adopted all sorts of American customs. She misses China and doesn’t want to fit in here. Her siblings decided that Yinglan needs help to make friends in America. They join forces and play matchmaker between Yinglan and Paul Eng, a Chinese American baseball player. They’re certain Yinglan will never find out. Or will she?

I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade --- Diane Lee Wilson

Born on the Mongolian steppes during the reign of Kublai Khan, Oyuna’s fate is sealed when, as an infant, her foot is crushed by a horse. Her clan believes she has been cursed by bad luck, and she is confined to her family’s tent to cook and sew. But Oyuna believes in the words of her shamaness grandmother, and dreams of riding a swift horse and winning a great race – thereby bringing honor and good luck to her family.
Disguised as a boy, with only her beloved old mare and heroic cat for company, Oyuna sets off in search of her swift horse. Together they trek across the vast Gobi desert and desolate mountains, all the way to the court of the great Khan himself. And Oyuna finds herself on the journey of a life-time – a journey that will change her luck forever.

......more to be continued

The Zodia, which one is yours?

2007-09-05T16:36:00.000+07:00

This is mail I just got from Kanitha...check out.

Once you have opened this e-mail, there's no turning back. Below are true descriptions of zodiac signs. Read your sign, then forward it on, with your zodiac sign and label on the subject line. This is the real deal, try ignoring or changing it, and the first thing you'll notice is having a horrible day starting tomorrow morning - and it only gets worse from there.

VIRGO - The Perfectionist Dominant in relationships. Conservative. Always wants the last word. Argumentative.. Worries. Very smart. Dislikes noise and chaos. Eager. Hardworking. Loyal. Bea utiful. Easy to talk to. Hard to please. Harsh. Practical and very fussy. Often shy. Pessimistic. 7 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

SCORPIO - The Intense One Very energetic. Intelligent. Can be jealous and/or possessive. Hardworking. Great kisser. Can become obsessive or secretive. Holds grudges. Attractive. Determined. Loves being in long relationships. Talkative. Romantic. Can be self-centered at times. Passionate and Emotional. 4 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

LIBRA - The Harmonizer Nice to everyone they meet. Can't make up their mind. Have own unique appeal. Creative, energetic, and very social. Hates to be alone. Peaceful, generous. Very loving and beautiful. Flirtatious. Give in too easily. Procrastinators. Very gullible. 9 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

ARIES – TheDaredevil Energetic. Adventurous and spontaneous. Confident and enthusiastic. Fun. Loves a challenge. EXTREMELY impatient. Sometimes selfish. Short fuse. (easily angered.) Lively, passionate, and sharp wit. Outgoing. Lose interest quickly - easily bored. Egotistical. Courageous and assertive. Tends to be physical and athletic. 16 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

AQUARIUS - The Sweetheart Optimistic and honest. Sweet personality. Very independent. Inventive and intelligent. Friendly and loyal. Can seem unemotional. Can be a bit rebellious. Very stubborn, but original and unique. Attractive on the inside and out. Eccentric personality. 11 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

GEMINI - The Chatterbox Smart and witty. Outgoing, very chatty. Lively, energetic. Adaptable but needs to express themselves. Argumentative and outspoken. Likes change. Versatile. Busy, sometimes nervous and tense. Gossips. May seem superficial or inconsistent, But is only changeable. Bea utiful physically and mentally.5 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

LEO - The Boss Very organized. Need order in their lives - like being in control. Like boundaries. Tend to take over everything. Bossy. Like to help others. Social and outgoing. Extroverted. Generous, warm-hearted. Sensitive. Creative energy. Full of themselves. Loving. D oing the right thing is important to Leos. Attractive. 13 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

CANCER - The Protector Moody, emotional. May be shy. Very loving and caring. Pretty/handsome. Excellent partners for life. Protective. Inventive and imaginative. Cautious. Touchy-feely kind of person. Needs love from others. Easily hurt, but sympathetic. 16 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

PISCES - The Dreamer Generous, kind, and thoughtful. Very creative and imaginative. May become secretive and vague. Sensitive. Don't like details. Dreamy and unrealistic. Sympathetic and loving. Kind.. Unselfish. Good kisser. Bea utiful. 8 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

CAPRICORN - The Go-Getter Patient and wise. Practical and rigid. Ambitious. Tends to be good-looking. Humorous and funny. Can be a bit shy and reserved. Often pessimists. Capricorns tend to act before they think and can be unfriendl y at times. Hold grudges. Like competition. Get what they want. 20 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

TAURUS - The Enduring One Charming but aggressive. Can come off as boring, but they are not. Hard workers. Warm-hearted. Strong, has endurance. Solid beings who are stable and secure in their ways. Not looking for shortcuts. Take pride in their beauty. Patient and reliable. Make great friends and give good advice. Loving and kind. Loves hard - passionate. Express themselves emotionally. Prone to ferocious temper-tantrums. Determined. Indulge themselves often. Very generous. 12 years of bad luck if you do not forward.

SAGITTARIUS - The Happy-Go-Lucky One Good-natured optimist. Doesn't want to grow up ( Pete r Pan Syndrome). Indulges self. Boastful. Likes luxuries and gambling. Social and outgoing. Doesn't like responsibilities. Often fantasizes. Impatient. Fun to be around. Having lots of friends. Flirtatious. Doesn't like rules. Sometimes hypocritical. Dislikes being confined - tight spaces or even tight clothes. Doesn't like being doubted. Bea utiful inside and out.

14 years of bad luck if you do not forward. ~Send away!!~ ready ........ set............ GO!
1-3 people= 1 minute of luck
4-7 people= 1 hour of luck
8-12 people = 1day of luck
13-17 people = 1 week of luck
18-22 people = 1month of luck
23-27 people = 3 months of luck
28-32 people = 7months of luck
33-37 people = 1year of luck
38 and more = a very lucky life!

Coming Sooooon....!

2007-08-25T13:40:00.000+07:00

Hey guys!! ARe you a book crazy-er? Would u like to read story books? Adventurous? romantic? life-struggling? If yes, then stay tune in this blog, in a week time, I will post some interesting titles and/or summary... Would u find anything interesting, share me pong... Okay wait and see na....

An introduction to me

2007-08-22T10:48:00.000+07:00

Hi! My name is Sovan, 18 years old by the 4th of June 2007, Cambodian.... I am a student of IFL .... and I'll be in my second year this mid-Sept... Cant wait for the school to start!!! Well I like reading story books so if u happen to know anything interesting, share with me pong na!!

An inspiring article to share

2007-08-13T00:30:00.000+07:00

This is essay written by a lecturer at IFL has won a first prize at the Cambodia Essay Competition 2007, which was launch by YRDP in collaboration with the World Bank Cambodia Office. I found this article very interesting and inspiring and I think I would like to share it with those who haven’t read in the hope that It would inspire them like it has inspired me. :-)) It’s bit long, but I think the text is worthwhile to read...
P.S: Posting the other people’s text in my blog without asking permission from them means stealing their intelligent property or not?

A Walk to a Better Community: Nothing is a Miracle—By Mr. Nguon Pheakkdey

Though the definition of community might vary according to contexts, the World Book of Community (2001) defines it as a group of people living in the same arena who share similar beliefs, customs, and a sense of belonging and feel an obligation toward other members of the group. Likewise, community, in a Cambodian context, refers to a group of people living together and sharing the same interests and traditions. There is no denying that every community has problems of its own. Some communities, for example, might have problems in getting access to modern technological appliances while others, such as Cambodia, might not even have access to basic healthcare services. In fact, as one of the poorest countries in the world, Cambodia has lots of problems, including a high rate of HIV/AIDS infections, discrimination against people infected and affected with HIV, misunderstanding of gender role, and illegal use of guns.

Albert Einstein once said “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though everything is a miracle. The other is as though nothing is a miracle.” I personally prefer the second options because if we are just hoping, without actually doing something, that for example, all the problems in Cambodia and other developing countries will one day eradicated, the end result is that nothing may improve. Therefore, this essay describes my experiences as a volunteer for individuals in the community, especially for those who are alienated because they have or are affected by AIDS. I will first of all list the names of the associations and organizations that I have worked for, followed by the people who I have helped, the achievements and the challenges that I have faced, and the measurement of the results of my work respectively. This essay also provides reasons why I think the work that I am doing is innovative. Finally, it looks at possible strategies that would help improve my impact on reducing the HIV/AIDS infection rate, and the advice that I would give to young people who want to replicate my experience.

It all started when I was in high school. From 200 to 2002, I worked as a Peer Group Educator at the Reproductive Health Association of Cambodia (RHAC). I participated in activities aimed at increasing the social understanding of gender roles, family planning and the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the community. First of all, after the RHAC’s selection procedures, I along with other students from different high schools, were given special training at the organization about the methodology of how to share with fellow students and people in our community the information we received regarding the prevention of HIV/AIDS, STDs, family planning, and the gender roles. Having completed our training, each of us was sent back to our own high school to share with students in our school what we had learned. Firstly we requested the permission from the school principal and the timetable of the entire 10, 11, and 12 grades. We then had to figure out the period that the students were free so that we could go and teach them. The class normally started with a thirty-minute presentation followed by the question and answer time. We then had to keep record of each class so as to not to teach the same topic next time.

On top of that, RHAC in associations with other organizations had arranged lots of opportunity for us to go and talk with people in our own community about the aforementioned topics. For example, in 2002, RHAC with its partners held an educational concert at my very own high school, and I was the master of ceremony. The theme was Youth and HIV/AIDS. In addition, on the 1st of December, RHAC and its partnered annually sponsored an educational tour to provinces in Cambodia. For instance, on December 1st 2001, we went on a trip in Kampong Charm, one of Cambodia’s largest provinces. It was great fun because we stopped at lots of villages along the way to our destination and asked village people questions about such topics as HIV, STDs, gender role, and family planning. The answers that we got were shocking as few people know what gender role or family planning was. Fortunately, most people were aware of HIV and STDs and their consequences.

During my time with RHAC, I was generally working with people may own age or older. However, there were both achievements and challenges. For instance, regarding the age factor people at school, especially those of my own age group, were comfortable talking with me about their personal problems, while other people in my community were reluctant to share their problems with me. Therefore, it was hard for me to really understand their problems so as to give advice. This is understandable because of our conservative culture. In fact, this culture also gave me challenges. The problem was that some people, old people to be specific, did not really listen to my advice because they might have thought that I was too young to tell them solutions to these kinds of problems. Some people even thought of me as a sexually active teenager, which was not good. Realizing these obstacles, the RHAC produced anther kind of peer group educator by selecting some middle age people from the community and school. In the end, after two years of hard work, we were very pleased that the percentage of people infected with HIV in Cambodia was gradually decreasing.

Although, I stopped working with RHAC once I commenced university, I was still involved with other kinds of volunteer work. In October 2003, I joined the Control Arms campaign, which was sponsored by Oxfam in association with Amnesty International and IANSA. The aim of the campaign was to push for an international treaty to control the arms trade which stimulates conflict, poverty, and human rights abuse all over the world. The campaign called for effective arms control to make people authentically safer from the threat of armed violence. To carry out the task, volunteers were assigned to go around Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital city, and ask people to sign the petition in the form of drawing a face on a piece of paper in support of stopping the use of weapon in Cambodia and the world as a whole. Surprisingly, it turned out to be a great success because not only thousands of citizens agreed that we should put an end to the problem, but the Cambodian governments also pledged their support for an international Arms Trade Treaty. This milestone announcement came just two months after the Control Arms campaign was launched. High Excellency Sar Kheng, Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia said “as a country that has been severely affected by weapons, Cambodia will support the international Arms Trade Treaty. The Royal Government of Cambodia is committed to controlling weapons which have such a great impact on humanity, society, the economy and peace.”

In 2004, I was awarded, as the first Cambodian recipient, the International Development Program’s (IDP) Peace Scholarship Program to study for two semesters at the University of Tasmania., Australia. During my stay there, I was not only doing the academic work at my faculty, but I was also involved with volunteer work. In November 2004, I volunteered for the Forever Women Conference held at City Gate, Hobart. My job during that conference involved catering, ushering, and cleaning. The main theme of that conference was for women to help bring up their children to walk with Jesus Christ. Although, it was a Christian conference and I have been brought up a very strong Buddhist, I still did my thing. Many people criticized me, but I took little notice because I am an open-minded person. I believe that every religion is good provided that it leads people to live their lives happily and morally correct according to the norms in society.

During my stay in Australia, I was lucky enough to be invited to Oxfam’s formal dinner at the Tasmanian Parliament House. From the president of the Oxfam organization report, I realized how people, especially children, in other parts of the world manage to survive through harsh periods such as wars or natural disasters. Suddenly, an idea sprung to mind, the idea that we are not alone in this seem-to-be very lonely universe. Someone, somewhere far away is thinking of us, taking care of us and loving us. I believe this is the greatest message of all. This is demonstrated by the projects that Oxfam carry out to help people in developing countries improve their living conditions through enormous support from communities across the globe.

I was in fact able to personally participate in this concept through the Samaritan’s Purse Organization. Some time before Christmas, I was informed that there was a project called Operation Christmas Child 2004 organized by the Samaritan’s Purse Organization. The program aimed to send Christmas gifts to the world’s hurting children in developing countries. The simple message for those children was, as I mentioned earlier, that someone from somewhere in the world is watching over them and loves them. Therefore, I singed up as a volunteer and collected and wrapped the gifts received from the community, put them in shoeboxes, and sent them overseas. I donated a shoebox myself hoping it would at least make one child somewhere on this planet happy.

To my surprise, during the Franklin Graham Festival in Tasmania, I discovered that some of the shoeboxes were also sent to Cambodia. I was overwhelmed by emotion and cried of happiness when watching the video report and seeing all the happy faces of my people as well as other children around the world. I never imagined that the shoeboxes would be sent to Cambodia. I hope someone here received my box because I wrote a letter in Khmer sending the recipient my love and best wishes for Christmas.

So far, most of the work that I had done concerned HIV and children. I am actually very passionate about working with children who are infected by HIV/AIDS. Therefore, upon my return home from Australia and since October 2005, besides being a senior student at university, I also work as a volunteer for the Servants International Organization under the TASK/Project HALO, as a curriculum facilitator and a teacher for the Children’s Safety Project. There are four classes consisting of 25 to 30 students I am teaching now. The four classes are divided into two groups according to the student’s age. The first two groups are made up of children from seven to eleven years. The other two consist of children between twelve and seventeen. Each class takes place once a week on Thursdays; thus one theme is introduced per month. My main responsibility is to design a curriculum for the themes that the organization wants to get across to the children and teach them. Some of the topics are for example concerned with the dangers of drug use, discrimination, disability, HIV/AIDS, and sexual abuse towards children.

One thing that really upsets me about my class is that all the children’s parents who come to my class are HIV positives. Some of them have already passed away leaving the children with their relatives or no one at all. Even some of the children are HIV positives themselves. It really breaks my heart every time I see them. As far as I am concerned, the biggest challenge for me doing this work is that I am not sure. For instance, I sometimes am unsure of the effectives, usefulness of my teaching. Most of the time, I am anxious, aggravated, intimidated, and terrified. For example, sometimes I am very exasperated with the thought of the parents ruining their children’s lives with AIDS. There are also times that I sit down and ask myself how the information that I am presenting to the children will be of any usefulness to them because they are already infected. In addition, some of the people I know, knowing that I am working with children infected and/or affected with HIV, tell me that my work is useless because the children will sooner or later pass away like their parents. However, I have to really thank my family, friends, and colleagues for their encouragement to keep me running this race. They told me that acknowledging the fact that some of the children are positive, it would be great that I could teach them how to live with HIV/AIDS.

Fortunately, the good news is that the program is working very smoothly because all the students are really involved in the learning process. They are very energetic and enthusiastic now, though they were very shy at first because of our traditional culture. In fact, I am very pleased to see that the children can now understand that it is fun to work and learn together as a group. To measure my teaching success and also to check how much information the students have obtained so far, the first progress test will be conducted in April. Then after another six themes, which is going to take approximately six months, there will be a second progress test followed by the final examination.

What the organization and I myself as a teach want to achieve is to build the children’s confidence and show them that they do have the same value as other children in their community and that they deserve to be loved and treated fairly. They need to believe that the fact that they are poor and their parents are infected by HIV/AIDS does not make them any different. In addition, I would not hesitate to disregard an individual who discriminates against my students and other people infected with HIV because these children do deserve their dignity as other people in this country. I have to tell people, sometimes even some of my friends hundreds of times, to distance themselves from the virus not from those affected or infected. I think that poor and unfortunate people in this country are just as smart and talented and hardworking as everybody else, and they have a might to make their voices heard. It was just that most people were unfortunate that they are infected. In some case, it is not even their mistakes at all that they have the disease. I also believe that all they need is a leader who can prove to other people in the community that they are also people as they can walk, talk, use their brain and dare to speak their minds to make informed decisions. That is my ultimate and hidden goal for each and every student in my four classes.

There are many problems in Cambodia for which I may not be able to contribute a solution. However, if any one asked me how I feel about the work that I have done, I would say that it is innovative as it has two implications. The first one is that it would more or less change people’s perspectives about youth from being obsessed with useless things to actually participating in building a better community. Moreover, I personally have a lot from my current teaching work because I can apply things that I am learning at school such as the principles of teaching, the psychology of learning, and the methods of testing, into the real world. I normally think of this job as an extra curricular activity that I enjoy doing. Secondly, I strongly believe that my work could be considered as a model for other youths, in particular Cambodian youth, showing them that they too, could make a difference to their community. This is because in Cambodia, young people are regarded as inferior to older people lacking the power, for example to make their voices heard or to propose solutions to problems.

Looking ahead, if I could improve my impact on reducing problems in the Cambodian community, the first thing that I would choose to reduce would be the spread of HIV/AIDS infection rate. I would encourage non-government organizations to have special workshops or training courses for parents to understand that their children, especially girls, need to know the basic information about how to protect themselves from the virus. I would also suggest another program that helps girls build their confidence and skills in negotiating safe sex with their boyfriends or partners, because just knowing about HIV/AIDS or how devastating the results might be, is not sufficient to change the way they behave. Furthermore, I strongly believe that this disease preys most on those who lack power, and girls are the most susceptible, because they are often forced or pressured into having sex, or are deprived of information they need to help them make conversant decisions. They also lack the skills to negotiate with boys or men and the confidence to challenge them to practice safe sex. Finally, I would propose anther project for youth and parents living in the slum areas in Phnom Penh to be aware of HIV/AIDS and its consequences. They need to know that the consequences are not only affecting them but also their children.

In retrospect, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the RHAC, Oxfam, IDP’s peace Scholarship Program, Energizer Life Church in Hobart, Samaritan’s Purse Organization, and the Servants International Organization for letting me be a part of their tremendous work, because it has lead me to where and what I am doing now. I believe that a better and more peaceful world is not too far ahead of us, if each and every one of us stand up and fight for it. I also believe that we can offer to our community, society, and country. Finally, if I was to give a piece of advice to people on how to be more active and involved in their community, it would be to grasp any opportunity that comes along offering you chances to work with other people because you never know where it leads or what to expect. Just like Forest Gump said in the film with same name “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” We are all needed because nothing is a miracle.