07.27.08
Posted in Life and the happenings there of at 9:06 pm by Kaihaku
Yesterday, around ten o’clock in the morning, I was riding around Phnom Penh watching the election take place. Coming south down the dike road, I turned down a busy dirt road leading to the Choeung Ek killing fields, the Royal University of Agriculture, and Amy’s old homestay. There was a pagoda in sight and I thought it would be a voting site. Coming over a small dam holding back brackish water colored a sickly dark gray with sewage, I came into a large crowd of people staring at something happening off to the right side of the road. I followed their gaze to see a man pushed into a corner between two walls by another man. I’ll refer to them by the color of their shirts, Blue was the man in the corner and Violet was the man keeping him there. There was another man who was involved, Tan, standing nearby.
Blue’s shirt was ripped and his face flushed, his eyes were desperate…but his eyes weren’t terrified…more resigned but not completely, he was accepting the other man’s abuse but quietly attempting to escape it. I don’t know to describe it, he was strangely calm without being calm. He wasn’t defiant but he wasn’t defeated either. I think I’ve seen the emotion before in dogs fighting, one backs down and submits to another’s might, but it doesn’t completely yield. Submitting until escape is possible. I know it’s a bad comparison but it’s the only that came to mind. Blue was a young man about in his twenties and the other two were only a little older.
I came to a stop as Violet backhanded Blue and pushed him roughly into the corner, saying something angrily but not loudly. I was just outside the first ring of spectators, in easy sight of everyone involved, somehow I thought a ‘barang’ presence would change things, it didn’t seem to. Everyone else in the crowd was also watching but doing nothing. Tan was standing in the closest crowd of spectators and at first I didn’t realize he was involved. There was a moto sitting unattended nearby, the same model as we use at MCC. There was also a large old van bearing a prominent CPP emblem alongside the road. Violet continued to threatened, push, and occasionally backhand Blue. Tan looked around at the crowd and his demeanor caught my attention, he seemed uncomfortable. Now everyone seemed uncomfortable but he was uncomfortable in a different sort of way, he was uncomfortable with the crowd. As I watched, he talked to another man and then pulled out his wallet, handing the man a ten dollar bill. I thought he was affiliated with Blue and trying to pay off whatever offense Blue had committed. The man who had been given the ten dollar bill then ran off in the direction of the pagoda and Tan turned back to the corner where he joined Violet in threatening Blue. I almost intervened at this point, foolishly I considered reprimanding them or trying to shame them into stopping. I decided to take pictures but the office camera shutter wouldn’t fully open… It’s been a recurring problem with this camera but I never minded it much until this moment.
The stupid camera and it's stuck shutter.
About a dozen police officers suddenly arrived from the nearby pagoda and immediately began clearing away the crowd and closing in on the fight. I remained where I was, close to the fight, thinking that my presence as a foreigner might prevent a bribe or something of the sort from happening. In retrospect, I think the bribe had already been passed on with the man running off with the ten dollars. Tan and Violet spoke with the police captain while Blue remained in the corner. They silenced him when he attempted to talk. Violet pulled out two cellphones, checking one and calling on another. The crowd began to clear and the police, while not approaching me directly, were waving me on. I went a short distance down the street but remained in clear sight, watching the proceedings. Violet and Tan began to alternate, one talking to the police capital and one manhandling Blue. At several points, they both pushed him back into the corner when he attempted to talk to the police captain. I removed my helmet at this point, just to make certain that there was no doubt that I was a foreigner and I pulled out the camera and manually opened the shutter. The police captain and Violet seemed to reach some sort of understanding, all but three of the police officers returned to the pagoda. I should note that this was a very busy stretch of road with government officials, foreign tourists coming and going to the killing field, military, police, and people from all walks of life almost constantly passing by. The three remaining police kept nearby but clearly relaxed, watching the crowd, talking to each other, and eventually laughing at some joke.
The best photo I got. You can see the three police in green leaning against the wall, the small crowd of onlookers, and a glimpse of the man in the violet shirt.
Not ten feet away, Tan and Violet were back harassing Blue. I watched this for about twenty minutes, getting more upset as events progressed. The police standing there with the submachine gun unofficially approving of this public beating in broad daylight drastically changed my thoughts of intervention. I should note that this entire time, Blue did nothing to retaliate, the most forceful action he took was to try, on several occasions, to get out of the corner; each time he was shoved back in place. He seemed to attempt to reason with his assaulters. Violet paused on several occasions to check his dual cell phones and call someone, I don’t know why.
Beyond all that traffic, a man is being assualted in front of the police.
Two foreigners drove by on a large 250cc motorcycle, I thought they might not be tourists, and for a moment I had a flare of hope that they might join me, then though they clearly saw what was happening they drove on. As they passed, I saw that their motorcycle had RCAF tags, a common sign of corruption seen across the country…only military vehicles are suppose to have RCAF tags. I suspect that the two were tourists who had rented the motorcycle from someone with connections. It began to seem like Tan and Violet were trying to convince Blue to do something. I took several pictures but they turned out terribly, I have never been so frustrated with a camera.
The only photo I got clear of traffic, figures the camera ruined it.
The helplessness of the situation brought tears to my eyes. I should have done something more. But what? I wish I were an intervention specialist or at least had some idea of how to approach a situation like this. I came close to just walking up and pulling Blue away with me, getting both of us on the moto and leaving. Even at the time, I didn’t really think this would work. There was just an overwhelming urge to do something. If I did not intervene, at the least I was a witness. Though, the low quality camera hindered that. I was shaking with emotion when, at last, Blue agreed to whatever Tan and Violet were trying to get him to do. Too late, too slow, I realized that Blue was being lead to the moto and getting on between Tan and Violet. The van with the CPP logo was left parked there, leading me to believe that the three may have come together on one moto or that Tan and Violet came across Blue walking. The police stood there, watching but clearly unofficially allowing, approving, validating this. The moto sped off and five seconds later it struck me that I should be following them. Clumsily, I started after them but by the time I got to the dike road they were out of sight and I failed to see which direction they had headed in.
I was shaken. I spent most of yesterday and last night thinking about the event. Thinking about what I could have done. Cursing the camera. Worrying about the victim. Wondering what sparked the assault. Feeling the pain and sorrow.
I think I realized the single biggest mistake I made. I have the language skills, I should have asked someone what was going on. I should have gathered more information, gotten some names and figured out the motives. I was right not to blindly act but I was wrong not to take concrete steps to inform myself so I could act. It’s a mistake I’ll try not to make again. I hope that Blue was related to Tan and Violet, that the three young men were familiar and it wasn’t a political attack… I hope that their departure wasn’t a kidnapping but a unfair resolution of the conflict. Regardless of what the event was, I failed that young man. I pray that I won’t fail another.
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07.26.08
Posted in Life and the happenings there of at 7:09 pm by Kaihaku
I’m shaking. I spent most of this morning riding around the capital watching people vote. Half an hour ago, I came across two men beating another man. There was a huge crowd of people watching but no one did anything. I just stopped the moto close to them and looked at them. I just hoped that me being there would do something. It didn’t mean anything. Then the police came, a dozen of them and cleared away the crowd. I moved down the street when the police told me to. But I didn’t leave, I stayed and watched. Watched as the police stood there while the two men continued to beat and threaten the man. Watched as the police kept a crowd from forming and traffic from stopping, but did nothing as they kept on hitting this man. I felt so powerless. I took pictures, it didn’t mean anything. I took off my helmet so it was clear I wasn’t a Cambodian. After a year and a half of constant stares and attention, the one time I wanted being a ‘barang’ to matter it didn’t. I started crying. The police just stood there, telling jokes and laughing, while the two men beat this man. Then, the men got on a moto with their victim between them and the police let them take him away. They let them take him away. I should have followed. I should have done something. I was…shaking, I tried to follow them too late. I lost them. I lost… I don’t know.
I don’t think it was a political thing, there was corruption but I don’t think it was political. I’m…yeah. The piece of crap office camera only took two of the pictures and corrupted the rest. I can’t even be a witness. I failed that man. I utterly failed him.
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07.25.08
Posted in Life and the happenings there of at 3:53 pm by Kaihaku
Recently, the MCC Cambodia program has been thrown into chaos with the departure of the Groff’s and the abrupt resignation of Sreimom. Larry’s replacements, Bud and Sherry, will not arrive until late September. In the interim, Larry asked the Asia Regional Director, Joe, to come to Cambodia for a month and kind of manage things. I could rant at length about the entire situation…but perhaps I might ‘niyeey koch’ so I’ll pass.
Joe came out to visit the Prey Veng Office, coining the term Field Office, and spent a few days visiting our partners, meeting with Miles about his role as Team Leader, and meeting with us to discuss the transition period. That was all well and fine, but he brought his simply amazing family who we greatly enjoyed hosting.
While Joe was visiting Me Sang district with Scott on Tuesday, I decided that I needed to do something to justify writing “sucking up to the boss’ kids” as an expense in my monthly financial report. So, I suggested that we hire a pony cart to take the family on a tour of Prey Veng Town and in short order we were on our way, stopping for coconuts, seeing farms with literally thousands of ducklings, and passing grazing water buffalos. I think the kids were more struck by the duckling Carol bought for them the next day, but I enjoyed biking alongside the pony cart.
Returning from Me Sang, Joe complained at length about the absence of mud and about how good the roads were. I told him that he’d have mud tomorrow when he accompanied me to Pea Reaing to visit the Krachap Prek irrigation dam. My pledge was true, the next day Sakheourn led my area director through muddy water at some places up to his knees. Joe managed to fall off his motorcycle, the massive 250cc model, not once but twice en route to the dam site.
That water in the distance isn’t a canal but the flooded road we came in on. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I took of it. The Krachap Prek renovation project was the last project completed by PVIO in partnership with MCC and CIDA. It serves three villages in northern Pea Reaing and southern Sithor Kandal. We met with the Farmer Water User Committee who are responsible for managing maintenance for the dam, settling disputes between farmers over water, and passing on training from PVIO staff to the farmers about responsible agriculture methods such as natural fertilizer and pesticide alternatives. After Joe ran out of questions to ask the FWUC and I failed to understand their final question to us, it was either asking for additional aid or thanking us for accepting their proposal, the wording was weird either way, we decided to move on to visit the water gates and a vegetable garden established as part of the training in Lam Loung village.
This is a picture of Joe, myself, and the FWUC. I’m aware that I look really stupid. We had a good meeting before returning to Prey Veng. Over the next few days we spoiled Joe’s kids rotten, only they’re so good that they didn’t get rotten. Carol drove them to the airport so Joe could fly to Bangkok for meetings on Thursday and Faith told her, “You know what I like best about not knowing how to get around, the language, or anything?” Carol said she didn’t know. Faith replied, “That fun people like you get to take us everywhere.” 
Of course, I’m not quite as cool as Carol, the duck bringer, but I’m not too far below. I tried to bring them a baby animal from the province too, but Joe wouldn’t let me. 
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07.24.08
Posted in Current Events, Life and the happenings there of at 6:40 pm by Kaihaku
Kem Sokha is the elected leader of Cambodia’s largest new opposition party, the Human Rights Party. The political party was organized out of the work of a Human Rights NGO, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, which Kem Sokha founded. Interesting in contrast though not perhaps not in relevance, this journey from non-political to political is the opposite of that of Thun Saray who was arrested for attempting to form an opposition party in the late 80s and upon release founded one of Cambodia’s strongest Human Rights NGOs, ADHOC. Though, in truth, Kem Sokha’s journey was closer to political to non-political to political to non-political to political. There’s a storm of debate over why Kem Sokha started a new political party instead of giving his support to one of the already existing opposition parties; there have been no clear statements from either party explaining the reasons behind this though there is endless speculation to be heard.
There’s not much known about Kem Sokha in the countryside. There’s not an abundance of official information to illuminate his early life. As near I can tell, Kem Sokha’s family is not traditionally a political one. He was born in Takeo province, in 1953, and studied Law in Phnom Penh until 1975. Though I’ve found no accounts of his experiences, he remained in Cambodia during the Khmer Rogue years and as an educated student must have had a difficult time. His father and brother were killed during this time. After the ‘liberation’ in 1979, Kem Sokha was granted a position as a District Deputy Chief in Phnom Penh. He claimed that he was threatened for having a political opinion and giving rice to members of a ‘Khmer independence’ movement. After being threatened, he resigned from his position and accepted a scholarship to study in the Czech Republic where he became the leader of a Khmer student union. Returning to Cambodia after receiving a degree in Biochemistry, he was an engineer at a factory in Kompong Som; he claims that he taught his fellow co-workers how to grow pepper plants and how to use their free time more effectively.
From 1992 to 1995, Kem Sokha joined the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party under Son Sann and, eventually, became it’s General Secretary. In 1995, the Buddhist Liberal Democratic Party split and Kem Sokha continued to serve as General Secretary for the Son Sann Party. In 1997, Son Sann, who had been a Prime Minister in the 1960s and remained something of a legendary figure in Cambodian politics, left the country due to his ailing health. The Son Sann Party did miserably in the 1998 elections, a fact which Kem Sokha attributed to corruption in the electoral system. In response, he takes credit for being one of the leaders who prompted the “tens of thousands” who took to the streets in protest after the election and were then subjected to a harsh military crackdown. In 1999, Kem Sokha merged what was left of the Son Sann Party with FUNCINPEC and was given the position of Deputy General Secretary under Prince Norodom Ranariddh. In the coalition government, Kem Sokha became a Senator and was appointed Chairman for the Commission on Human Rights and Reception of Complaints in the Senate.
In 2002, Kem Sokha left the government in order to found the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, which as a non-government organization claims to be non-political. In July 2006, the government arrested Kem Sokha on charges of “defamation” for a banner critical of Prime Minister Hun Sen. This was shortly after the series of “defamation” charges that caused Sam Rainsy to flee the country and two other opposition party parliamentarians to be arrested. He was released seventeen days later after strong international protest.
In 2007, there was the surprise announcement from Kem Sokha that he would stepping down from his position as director of CCHR in order to form a new political party, the Human Rights Party. The impetus for this, according to Kem Sokha, was a joint petition signed by 200,000 Cambodians asking him to create a political party. Kem Sokha justified his actions by pointing out that, “For almost five years, I have educated citizens about human rights and democracy. Now the citizens ask me to enter politics.” Further, he promoted the idea of people power in a speech though he still personally formed the Human Rights Party. “I told them that I don’t want to create a party. I want them to create a party themselves and then I help them.”
Almost miraculously, the Human Rights Party spread like wildfire across the country within a year, rivaling or even surpassing the Sam Rainsy Party in most areas. Kem Sokha claims to be the only elected leader of a political party, criticizing opposition leaders like Sam Rainsy for not having two year term limits in place for their party leaders. There has been a great deal of debate among opposition supporters as to why Kem Sokha founded a new party instead of joining an existing one, such as the Sam Rainsy Party. There are no clear answers, though both opposition parties have pointed fingers at the other in blame.
Pen Sovan, born in 1936, was the first Prime Minister of Cambodia following the Khmer Rogue regime and one of the leaders of the Vietnamese ‘liberation’ of Cambodia in 1979.
A little publicized fact is that in 1962 the Cambodian Communist Party split into pro-Chinese and pro-Soviet factions. Through a long series of bloody purges promoting increasing radicalism the Khmer Rogue rose from the pro-Chinese faction. The majority of the pro-Soviet faction was purged by the pro-Chinese faction or joined the pro-Soviet North Vietnamese in their ongoing war, the “American” war as the Vietnamese refer to it. Pen Sovan was one of the latter, spending a quarter of a century in Northern Viet Nam.
In 1979, at the head of a mixed band of Cambodians and the Vietnamese army, Pen Sovan and other survivors of the pro-Soviet faction of Cambodian Communists returned to liberate their country from the Khmer Rogue. After a quarter of a century of training and study, they viewed themselves as competent experts and equals of the Vietnamese. Among them were some scattered former Khmer Rogue leaders such as Chea Sim and Hun Sen.
Appointed Prime Minister in 1981, Pen Sovan immediately began to displease his patrons in Hanoi. He supported policies that promoted National autonomy and financial independence.
Pen Sovan was elitist, viewing himself above the former Khmer Rogue officials surrounding him and preferring to focus his attention on the surviving intellectuals – including many non-communists. After twenty-five years in Viet Nam, he lacked the personal connections to secure his power base and failed to curb the former Khmer Rogue as they began to pull together vast patronage systems to broader their influence. Pen Sovan claims that he received two warnings from Hanoi after establishing trade deals with Russia and other Communist states. He says that his response was defiance, “I wouldn’t listen to them. I was leader of Cambodia.” Then on December 2, 1981, after creating a tax on foreign planes landing in Cambodia, the Cambodian Prime Minister was arrested by Vietnamese troops. Pen Sovan claims that then Foreign Minister Hun Sen accompanied the troops and said that Sovan’s economic and political policies had “betrayed communist principles”, had engaged in “narrow-minded nationalism”, and had taxed Vietnamese airplanes. Pen Sovan was sent “for a long rest” in Hanoi and remained there for the rest of the decade. In my opinion the quarrels were rooted in the fact that Pen, like Ho Chi Minh himself, was a nationalist first, a communist second, and loyal to his foreign patrons third. He mistakenly believed that the leaders of Viet Nam were pursuing an idealogical agenda instead of a political one.
Pen Sovan returned to Cambodia in the early nineties and established the Cambodia National Sustaining Party in 1997. After poor results in the 1998 and 2003 elections, Pen Sovan considered merging it with the Sam Rainsy Party in 2005. Then, in 2007, he came aboard the newly formed Human Rights Party.
My Opinion:
I had a holy **** moment while researching Kem Sokha and the Human Rights Party, I really thought that Pen Sovan was the more interesting figure, which he is historically, but politically that is certainly not the case. The Human Rights Party strikes me as a new face to Kem Sokha’s old party, many of the high ranking members of the Human Rights Party, such as Kiet Sokun and Son Soubert, are former members of the Son Sann Party which Kem Sokha lead in the nineties.
“Before we started this party there were more than 200,000 Cambodians signed petition to request me to form the party. Why? Almost five years now spent in the countryside visiting every community to educate them on human rights and what are their rights and how they can exercise their rights and what democracy means.”
Then, there’s Kem Sokha’s justification for his return to politics. A petition of 200,000 people doesn’t just spring into existence, there has to be a central organizer and signature collection mechanism. Who collected those signatures? I don’t know but all signs seem to point towards the Cambodian Center for Human Rights not only for organizing the petition but for organizing support for the Human Rights Party across the country; under the NGO community organizing took place in each of Cambodia’s 85 districts and in every one of Cambodia’s 1,621 communes. This was purported to be education on democratic process, rights, and issues in the country. I worry that Kem Sokha used his NGO as a tool to promote his political agenda. The way that the Human Rights Party sprung up across the country seems to lend itself to the idea that more than Human Rights were on the agenda for CCHR community organizers.
I came across a comment by Peng Poh, a Cambodian, questioning Kem Sokha’s motives and I have to agree with many of his points.
Dear all,
I do wonder wether Mr. Kem Sokha is a good politician or just a man that needs power, money, gambling and srey sa’art. As a Cambodian before I did like him and i used to listen his voice and ideas by air about human rights in Cambodia. And i do remember well about his speech that said that “I will spend my whole life for democracy in Cambodia and I don’t need power ………”. But what does he actually need now? In khmer we can say “ni yay chos niyay leng si ach kluon eng.” He is a kind of man that we can not trust on.
From,
Peng Poh
Then, there are quotes like Kem Sokha claiming that “the CPP is not that
strong, but the democrats are weak.” That kind of talk really bothers me, what does Kem Sokha consider strength? Strength of arms? Overwhelming popular support? Then there are rumors that Kem Sokha is receiving personal advisement from Wilfried Hermann, an expert from Friedrich Naumann Stiftung which is one of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights major funders. Hermann, a former officer of the Bundeswehr, has reportedly advised Kem Sokha to cultivate “unpredictability” in his political and public relations.
Kem Sokha is not a pure champion of Human Rights sallying forth into the political arena to bring about change. He is a seasoned politician, involved in Cambodian politics since 1979, who has made regular escapes from the political sphere to rally his resources only to return in a stronger position. The Human Rights Party eerily resembles the Son Sann Party, it’s political validity enhanced by the support by a former Cambodian Prime Minister, Pen Sovan, though oddly enough, once again, one whose role in the party is primarily symbolic.
I originally thought Kem Sokha was extremely naive, now I suspect that he, like Lol Rith and Norodom Ranariddh, is pursuing power under the shield of ideology.
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07.21.08
Posted in Current Events, Life and the happenings there of, Media at 5:47 pm by Crystal Graber
Brigitte Gabriel, a 48-year old U.S. immigrant from Lebanon uses this book as part memoir, part political research, and all Anti-Muslim/Zionist propaganda. How did I, a dedicated independent pro-tolerance peace-obsessed radical come to read this book? Possibly the only way I ever would—my father gave it to me and said “I think she’s more wrong than right.” And I find myself caught between persuasion and vomit as I make my way through…
She begins with sweeping statements regarding Islam. The cover of her book reads:
“As an Arab Christian, and victim of radical Islam during the Lebanese Civil War, I refuse to stand by and let the same thing happen to my adopted country, the United States. Even after 9/11, there are those who say that we must “engage” our terrorist enemies, that we must “address their grievances.” Their grievance is our freedom of religion. Their grievance is our democratic process. Islamic religious authorities and terrorist leaders repeatedly state that they will destroy the United States and Western civilization. Unless we take them at their word, and defend ourselves, they will succeed…BECAUSE THEY HATE.”
Within the Introduction she writes a brief history and opinion piece strongly stating her belief in the Islamic war of hatred. She coolly points out the rise of Radical Islam beginning in WWII and continuing through to modern day, strengthened but not reliant on the Israeli state. She openly mocks any who consider Islam a moderate religion, insisting that their true creed is of violent and intolerant religion intent on converting the world in whatever way they see fit. She says “Even the Nazis did not turn their own children into human bombs, and then rejoice at their deaths as well as the deaths of their victims.” (xi).
Throughout the first chapters she mixes her own experience growing up in Lebanon with her critique of Arab culture and Islam in particular. She calls Lebanon the cultural hub of the Middle East and describes her wealthy childhood with many comparisons to the United States. She considers her government magnanimous in accepting refugees from Palestine, and her country raped and murdered by those refugees who choose to form the Palestinian Liberation Organization and wage war on Israel from the welcoming, cultured, Western country of Lebanon. She recoils at the Muslim increase in population, both from the acceptance of refugees who were dominantly Muslim, and from the high birth rate of Lebanese Muslims. And she compares all of this to the United States, consider America the great, naïve host to many nationalities who will use their entrance to the U.S. to wage their wars.
As she moves away from her sweeping and uncited statements, (such as “Islamic communities are harboring terrorist cells within, their mosques are teaching hate against infidels both Christian and Jewish—p.22), she delves deeply into her own childhood trauma.
At the age of 10, Gabriel’s bedroom was blown to bits by rockets aimed at the military base up the hill from her house. The artery in her arm was cut and she bled heavily as her elderly parents waited for the shelling to stop so they could take her to the hospital. Throughout the following war and years after, she and her parents suffered the horrors of war, the hunger and thirst and fear and lack of information. And here my heart softened to her message. No one should deny her suffering, or the suffering of any of the Lebanese people. Her story is painful and personal and deeply tragic and I wish to God that something more effective had been done by the international community than a non-interference U.N. force.
She and her family’s suffering was relieved by Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. Gabriel experienced the Israeli soldiers who liberators and protectors and repeatedly found herself in love with Israeli culture and in abhorrence of Arab customs. After being treated well in an Israeli hospital, she felt humiliated and belittled when her family and friends were ashamed of her wearing shorts in public. She felt women were treated better in Israel and that she might have a future there, and so she pursued her English and sought out jobs with them.
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Posted in Life and the happenings there of at 3:59 pm by Kaihaku
Coming into Phnom Penh last Wednesday, I crossed the Mekong on the ferry at Neak Leoung. Though it hadn’t been raining much in Prey Veng the last month, the high choppy waters brown with mud showed ample proof that it has been raining heavily up stream. As the large ferry slipped over the river, a man approached me and asked me if I wanted a ride to Phnom Penh. He was driving a beaten old white car, typical of taxis here, and had three passengers already. When I asked him the price, he answered to my surprise 10,000 Riel. With the surging price of gasoline, that’s an excellent price, just about half of what’s typical. I quickly agreed and he picked up another passenger before we reached the west bank.
I slowly deduced that this was, in fact, not a typical taxi. No, this isn’t going to turn into another ambushed by Cambodian Mormons story. Thankfully. A young woman in the back began to practice her English with me and I eventually surmised that the driver, her, the older woman in the back, and the young kid were all family traveling back to Phnom Penh. Oddly enough, they wouldn’t tell me where they were coming from but I heard them mention Svay Antor and Kompong Cham a few times to the other passenger. The driver spoke very quickly and very mumbled Khmer, making it nearly impossible to understand him…which balanced out because he was a terrible listener too and couldn’t understand what I was saying. I’m exaggerating a bit, I was able to understand about seventy percent of what he said, enough so that he said that I knew how to listen to Khmer but didn’t know how to speak clearly, though the people in the backseat seemed to understand me without much difficulty. He gave me a hard time, as many Cambodians have, when he found out that I was a “volunteer” but that the organization I worked for provided me with food and lodging. Most Cambodians live “rork see” or from day to day, so it’s difficult to explain how I’m a volunteer if all of my basic needs are met; how is that different from work?
At one point, as we drove into a massive thunderstorm, the driver verbally shared my aesthetic appreciation, to my surprise, for the beautiful interplay of the lighting, sunlight, and thick billowing clouds. A common complaint of foreigners is that few Cambodians seem to have an appreciation, aesthetic or otherwise, for nature.
I later discovered that the driver was a low ranking soldier. That made me a little nervous and I was glad that I hadn’t brought up the election. He tried a few times to convince me to find a job for his daughter and hinted, as happens too often, that maybe I could marry her. By now, I have formidable skills in warding off such suggestions. He also mocked her a good deal for studying English for ten years and still not being able to translate directly for him, though she said I should ignore him as she had only studied for three years. She asked me how she could improve her English and at first I gave her the stereotypical answer, talk to foreigners…but then I expanded it to listen to the radio and read books. She told me that she read a lot of books and then she went on to list her grammar books. I don’t know many Cambodian youth who read anything more than magazines, their school books, and an occasional newspaper.
As we neared Phnom Penh, we passed a not uncommon sight… Two westerners wearing goofy bike helmets, button-up white shirts, black pants, and satchels; young Mormon lads in Cambodia for their year of service. I’m a little more bitter towards them than I was in the past. Over my time home in Arizona I was frequently mistaken for a Mormon when I said “I was overseas with the Church”. Oddly enough; clarifying that I was a Mennonite only made matters worse. “Mennonite? Is that some sort of cultish off-shot of Mormonism?” Well, actually, Mennonites predate Mormons by about two hundred years, but whose counting? The Mormons have a massive church in the capital and are building another; it looks like they plucked up a North American church and triplied the size then set it down on a sleepy backstreet.
So, as we passed the Mormons, I turned to the girl in the back and asked, “They’re very strange, aren’t they?” She looked back at them, then turned to me with a smile and explained, “Oh, they’re here to study.” I almost laughed. It hit me with such clarity, of course that’s what a Cambodian would think. The Mormons dress just like the Cambodian students who ride their bikes to school everyday. It was just another reminder of different cultural perspective can be.
The soldier let me off near the World Vision building, that bloated waste of a building, and I bid my fellow travelers farewell. It was a surprisingly good trip in and I enjoyed the conversation, even if there were a few tense moments.
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Posted in Current Events, Life and the happenings there of, Spero Cras at 6:46 am by Kaihaku
The first candidate presented is the leader of the established opposition party, Sam Rainsy of the Sam Rainsy Party. Mr. Sam has a reputation in Cambodia of being something of a slanderer; well actually, in point of fact, he also has the criminal record to back it up. Since he was expelled the FUNCINPEC party and thus his government position as Minister of Finance in 1994, Mr. Sam has been the most outspoken surviving critic of what passes for democracy in Cambodia. Despite constant threats and several attempts on his life, Sam Rainsy has only grown more bold in confronting the current powers that be. No one doubts that Mr. Sam is driven and brave, the question is why is he so driven? Two weeks ago, a Cambodian told me his views which sum it up nicely, “I’m not sure about Sam Rainsy, but he is the only one who has never made a deal with the CPP.”
The Sam family is not a new one to Cambodian politics. The grandfather of Sam Rainsy was a prominent politician in the 1940s. Sam Sary, the father of Sam Rainsy, had been a close aide to King Norodom Sihanouk in the 1950s and was eventually appointed to the post of Deputy Prime Minister and later Ambassador to England. The leader of the Democrat Party at the time, Keng Vannsak, who was thrown into prison following the 1955 election, remembers a darker side to the relationship between the King and Sam Sary. He said that Sam Sary was “the evil genius behind the repression” and a “bestial man” who “as an investigating magistrate in the 1940s, had beaten suspects to death with his own hands.” He further claims that “after Sihanouk decided to use strong-arm tactics, Sary handed out money and arms to hire ruffians to come and break our meetings.” Regardless of the nature of their relationship, Sam Sary was engulfed in a scandal while Ambassador involving a female house-servant, Soeung Son Maly, who he had impregnated and then who went to the London police because he was beating her. The British Press latched onto the story and Norodom Sihanouk, as he details vividly in his memoirs, felt deeply embarrassed and betrayed. He immediately recalled the Ambassador from his post, but before returning to Cambodia Sam Sary issued a statement in which he explained that it was a Cambodian custom to beat women. The King was mortified by this explanation and how it presented his country to the world. On his return, Sam Sary found that he had fallen out of favor with the King. Outraged at being so discarded, he joined the many who had a feud with Sihanouk; starting his own newspaper in which he openly criticized the King and attempting to start his own political party. In January 1959, Sihanouk gave a speech claiming that he knew of US intelligence plots to overthrow him and a week later Sam Sary fled to Thailand. He remained there until he mysteriously vanished in 1962. Many loyal to the King claim that he was killed by his CIA patrons while others claim that it had been Sihanouk who ordered Sam Sary’s death.
I spent most of last Saturday searching for Sam Rainsy’s autobiography but, perhaps not unsurprisingly, it was not to be found in Phnom Penh. Certain details of his life, including much of his early life and his time in France, is not common knowledge and I know little of it, so this periods of his life may be a bit sparse.
Sam Rainsy was born in Phnom Penh in 1949, his mother, In Em, was the first Cambodian woman to complete High School and pass the “baccalaureate” exam. He moved to France in 1965, where he studied economics and then worked for various French companies. In 1971, he married Tioulong Saumura who now serves alongside him as a member of Parliament. He and his wife remained in France during the turbulent war years and only returned to Cambodia in 1992. Long a supporter of Prince Norodom Ranariddh on the international front, Sam Rainsy was a founding member of the then opposition party FUNCINPEC and was elected to parliament for Siem Reap province in the 1993 elections. In those elections, FUNCINPEC was the clear victor but the threat of violence forced them to form a coalition government with the ruling CPP as a lesser partner. As the new government coalesced, Sam Rainsy was appointed Minister of Finance. In his dry but insightful book, Cambodia After the Khmer Rogue, Evan Gottesman shares his opinion, based on his years of researching Cambodian government and political documents, that FUNCINPEC fell into corruption almost immediately upon joining into the coalition government. He states fairly bluntly that “Most FUNCINPEC officials were more concerned with satisfying their superiors than with changing the way the country was governed.” In effect, FUNCINPEC at the time was interested in obtaining the absolute political power held by the CPP not in changing the way the political system was arranged. Gottesman holds up Sam Rainsy as an exception to this. During his term as Minister, Sam Rainsy pushed for a transparent approval process for foreign investors, supported anti-corruption laws, and complained openly about corruption in the government, even criticizing Hun Sen. Both Prime Ministers, seeking to amass political influence not curb corruption, came to view him as an annoyance. In 1994 he was removed from his position in the Ministry of Finance and a few months later he was expelled from the FUNCINPEC party.
In 1995, Sam Rainsy formed the Khmer Nation Party and began to rally voices of opposition against the coalition government. On March 30th, 1997 a KNP rally led by Sam Rainsy was subject to a grenade attack which killed sixteen people and wounded nearly a hundred more, including an American. Sam Rainsy himself was saved from death only by the sacrifice of a bodyguard who threw himself atop the politician. Within hours, Prime Minister Hun Sen reacted by ordering Rainsy’s arrest. He claimed that Sam Rainsy had thrown the grenades himself, killing his own supporters, in order to arose sympathy for the KNP and to frame the CPP. The demand was so outrageous that, for once, even the Cambodian Police ignored it.
Rich Garella and Eric Pape were westerners in the Cambodia at the time and maintain a website entitled A Tragedy of No Importance sharing their view of the 1997 grenade attack.
In the months leading up to the 1998 election, a clever legal maneuver involving election registration allowed a Khmer Nation Party defector to effectively steal the party’s name and claim that the entire KNP had defected with him. Afraid of a similar technique being used again, Sam Rainsy gave the now nameless party his own name to ensure that no defection save his own could again steal the party’s name.
As detailed in my Meet the Candidates prelude, opposition party leaders during the 1998 elections were subjected to widespread threats, assault, and even murder. The former Khmer Nation Party gained fourteen percent of the vote, though small compared to opposition hopes and independent pre-election estimates, it was a foothold into the government. Sam Rainsy was elected to parliament for Kompong Cham province. He remained a weak but constant voice of protest in years leading up to the 2003 elections, living up to his party’s emblem, a single lit candle.
On April 26th, 2003, King Norodom Sihanouk cleared the name of Sam Sary of all trespasses and acknowledged the contributions of Sam Rainsy’s father to Cambodian Independence. This was widely taken as sign of political favor, Sihanouk shifting to support Sam Rainsy over his son, Norodom Ranariddh. The declaration negated personal attacks that Ranariddh had leveled against Sam Rainsy’s family. Sam Rainsy has met with Sihanouk on a number of occasions since his return to Cambodia in 1992 and this acknowledgment signified, in my own words, that “the ‘sins’ of the father were forgiven”.
On March 29th 2003, the Sam Rainsy Party presented an updated version of the party’s political platform. A summarized version of the platform is presented here and many of the steps have been adopted, as shall be seen, by other opposition parties in the 2008 elections.
To promote an effective government:
- Ensuring a clear separation between the State and the ruling party, and preventing State revenues from being diverted into the ruling party’s coffers.
To fight against corruption:
- Adopting an anti-corruption law, and establishing a national counter corruption commission.
- Imposing a declaration of assets and their sources by all high-ranking government officials.
- Re-examining all public contracts in view of ensuring legality and protecting national interest.
- Investigating all parcels of land of 100 hectares and over to verify legitimacy of acquisitions.
- Pursuing to recover and return to the Khmer people all stolen State funds transferred overseas by corrupt government officials.
To help improve living conditions:
- Providing modern health care to all the poor, free of charge, to help cut the currently appalling death rate.
- Setting up a minimum salary of 400,000 riels (or $100) per month for all public servants.
- Raising the minimum wage for factory workers and company employees to 280,000 riels (or $70) per month for a 44-hour week.
- Reducing the current petrol retail price of 2,500 riels per litre to 1,500 riels (same level as in Thailand).
To reduce the gap between the rich and the poor:
- Establishing a wealth tax system.
To defend farmers:
- Prohibiting confiscation of land, or removal from land that has been occupied for more than five years.
- Reviewing thoroughly land confiscation in any form since 1989 up to now. If the confiscation is deemed illegal and unjust, the land will be returned to its rightful owner.
- Issuing land titles, free of charge, to all farmers who have no documents in order to certify their ownership of the land they are living on.
To promote democracy and justice:
- Requesting the United Nations to immediately create a Khmer Rouge Tribunal outside Cambodia.
- Redistributing frequencies for radio and television broadcasts without bias.
- Granting Khmer citizens living overseas the right to vote, like their counterparts at home, by providing voting facilities abroad.
To protect the environment:
- Revising or canceling all forest concessions, and taking further initiatives to end deforestation.
To fight criminal or immoral activities
- Stopping the construction of casinos and the development of the gambling industry controlled by the Mafia.
To defend Cambodia’s territorial integrity:
- Abolishing border treaties the previous regime signed with Vietnam in 1979, 1982, 1983, and 1985.
- Requesting the Paris Peace Conference to reconvene in order to demand a respect for the 1991 Paris Agreements in relation to Cambodia’s territorial integrity.
For a year following the 2003 elections, Sam Rainsy and his former leader, Norodom Ranariddh, refused to join with the CPP in coalition and delayed the formation of a government. There was talk of a coalition of opposition parties and even an alliance for a time. Then, abruptly, Norodom Ranariddh led FUNCINPEC in joining once more into a coalition government with the CPP and his betrayer, Hun Sen. Sam Rainsy declared that the Prince had been bribed and had sacrificed the well being of the nation for his own personal gain. He accused the new coalition government of corruption.
On January 22, 2004, during the Chinese New Year celebrations, the charismatic leader of the Free Trade Union of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Chea Vichea, was assassinated. Chea Vichea had strong ties to the Sam Rainsy Party. As detailed in the documentary The Plastic Killers, which is a poor translation of the Khmer title which is closer to ‘the manufactured killers’, two men, Born Samnang and Sok Sam Oeun, were arrested for the murder within days despite both having solid alibis. On the March 22, 2004, the case’s Investigating Judge, Hing Thirith, threw out the charges against the two men, citing a lack of evidence and questionable police credibility. The next day, Hing Thirith was removed from his position in the Phnom Penh Municipal Court and his ruling was later overturned. On August 1st, 2005, the two men were found guilty in a hearing in which no witnesses or forensic evidence were presented. They were sentenced to twenty years in prison and ordered to pay $5,000 dollars of compensation each to the victim’s family. Chea Vichea’s family refused to accept the compensation, stating that they did not believe that the two men were the true murders. I met one of the men’s wife on the street in Phnom Penh near the Olympic Stadium about a year ago, she was handing out papers about her husband and begging people to help him. She had a weary but inexhaustible strength about her, the kind that comes only from desperation.
Sam Rainsy claimed that officials in the government had ordered the murder of Chea Vichea and were now placing the blame on innocent men who had nothing to do with the murder. He went so far as to directly accused Hun Sen of involvement.
In February 2005, the National Assembly stripped parliamentary immunity from three SRP members of parliament; Sam Rainsy himself, Chea Poch, and Cheam Channy.
Sam Rainsy fled Cambodia stating fears of imprisonment without trial for the charges of “defamation” laid against him for his claims of “corruption” against other members of the government. He was tried in absentia in December 2005 for defamation and was sentenced to eighteen months in prison and to pay a total of $14,000 USD in fines and compensation.
Chea Poch, a representing Prey Veng province, was also accused of “defamation” and fled the country, only to return to face the charges leveled him.
Cheam Channy had faced the threat of his parliamentary immunity being revoked before in 2003. In December 2002, the leader of a group of villagers resisting “land grabbing” in Kompong Chhnang Province, Moeun Mel, was being held on charges of “defamation” for denouncing the local authority for “abuse” and “corruption”. Hearing of this, parliamentarian Cheam Channy lead the local villagers in protest to the court. There, he found that the judge and the other officials of the court had fled the marching villagers, leaving Moeun Mel unattended in an abandoned courtroom. In the new year, the National Assembly began to discuss removing Cheam Channy’s parliamentary immunity and punishing him for “obstructing court proceedings”. In May, Norodom Sihanouk defended Cheam Channy in a public letter to the National Assembly President, his son Norodom Ranariddh: “In my humble opinion, stripping a National Assembly member of his parliamentary immunity is a very serious case. A National Assembly member is stripped of his immunity only when the concerned parliamentarian has committed a fault pertaining to a crime, or has betrayed the nation. The action deployed in defending a group of citizens is not a crime.”
However, Cheam Channy was not arrested by the Municipal Court on charges of “obstructing court proceedings” for leading those villagers in 2002. He was arrested by the Military on charges of “an offence against the order of the Co- Commander-In-Chief of the Cambodian Armed Forces, an offence of conspiracy to create an armed group for organised crime, and an offence of fraud”. These charges were later summarized as “organising an illegal army”. In point of fact, Cheam Channy was a member of the Sam Rainsy Party’s Committee No. 14. This committee’s charter is to act as a “shadow ministry” assigned the task of monitoring corruption and abuse throughout the government; the members of the group are armed with pencil and paper. Cheam Channy was seized the same day that his immunity was revoked and held without trial for six months. The European Parliament adopted a resolution demanding that the Cambodian government “immediately and unconditionally” release the parliamentarian. Instead, he was sentenced by the Military after what many Human Rights Groups claim was a show trial to seven years in prison.
This revocation of parliamentary immunity of key opposition leaders was met with strong international condemnation. Despite this, Cheam Channy remained in solitary confinement in the Phnom Penh Military Prison until he, Chea Poch, and Sam Rainsy received a royal pardon from King Norodom Sihamoni in February 2006. Sam Rainsy returned to the country within a week of receiving the pardon.
In April of this year, while giving a speech at the Choeung Ek killing fields, Sam Rainsy claimed that several key members of the Cambodian government were former Khmer Rogue. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court has since made a request to the National Assembly to once again strip Sam Rainsy of his parliamentary immunity so that a defamation and disinformation suit can be leveled against him. The editor of a newspaper affiliated with Sam Rainsy Party newspaper, Dam Sith, was arrested on a related of charge of defamation and disinformation for quoting the remarks in an article. The arrest of Dam Sith sparked a flare of international protest and after a week in prison he was released, during which time Sam Rainsy proclaimed, “Let me take his place in prison.” After a week of imprisonment, Dam Sith was released on bail. The opposition claim that his arrest was to intimidate journalists.
Not waiting for his parliamentary immunity to be removed, on July 8th, Sam Rainsy went to the Phnom Penh Municipal Court to present evidence supporting his claims. I don’t know if it was a result of this visit, but Hor Namhong, one of those accused of being former Khmer Rogue, quietly dropped his defamation charges against Dam Sith.
On July 11th, Khim Sambo, a journalist for Dam Sith’s newspaper, and his twenty-one year old son were killed in broad daylight in Phnom Penh near the Olympic Stadium. The brazen killing has cowed many sympathetic to the opposition and caused an uproar of outrage from international observers and the opposition party. I wish it were to make amends for abandoning justice in its 1997 investigation but surprisingly the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation offered to assist in investigating this murder on July 15th.
In spite of this dual murder, this election has been spared widespread violence comparable to that seen in past elections. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect that this is more to guard foreign business interests than human rights and Cambodian democracy.
As the election nears, the CPP continues to lay charges against the Sam Rainsy Party and its members, claiming, for example, that they threaten and physically attack defectors, that Committee No. 14 is an illegal army, and that the 1997 “coup” in which Hun Sen crushed his Co-Prime Minister Norodom Ranariddh was orchestrated by the Sam Rainsy Party and FUNCINPEC.
Popular support for the Sam Rainsy Party has weakened with several high level defections to the CPP, Hun Sen openly promising high level positions in the government to any defectors from the opposition party, and with the advent of the Human Rights Party which is cutting into the SRP support base. Despite this, the Sam Rainsy Party remains strong on several fronts, most notably with its youth movement of over 180,000 registered people under the age of thirty. It should be noted that Sam Rainsy, like most Cambodians, is unapologetically racist in regards to the Vietnamese who he refers to as “Youn”.
My Opinion:
Originally I was very skeptical of Sam Rainsy and his political party, that skepticism remains but it has been greatly weakened. In a country of power-hungry megalomaniacs, Sam Rainsy is at the least a megalomaniac of a different sort, one who represents himself with a simple candle on a blue background and pulls worn wooden carts at political events instead of sitting up on a golden throne. Perhaps, he’s more than that, maybe he really is a genuine voice calling for justice. I’m reluctant to believe in a political leader, my trust suffered a great blow with the fall of Ralph Nader, but maybe here on the edge Democracy still produces leaders of quality and maybe here is a man that can be believed in. Imperfect but perhaps good.
I don’t know. Is he like Nader, a man obsessed with his own mythic role as the last champion of good in a corrupt land? Is he like his father, caught up in a personal vendetta against the powers that betrayed him? Or, is he what so many believe him to be… I find that my views agree with the Cambodia I spoke with two weeks ago, “I’m not sure about Sam Rainsy, but he is the only one who has never made a deal with the CPP.” It’s not light praise to say that someone in Cambodian politics has never made a deal with Hun Sen.
I’ve decided to head into the capital this weekend while some other foreigners fearfully leave the country to watch the elections from the safety of a vacation spot in Thailand or Vietnam. I want to see what is to be seen.
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07.18.08
Posted in Life and the happenings there of, The Pursuit of Wisdom at 9:55 pm by Kaihaku
I’m not a huge proponent of political correctness, quite the opposite really. I prefer Starfish to Seastar, even if the later is more ‘proper’. There are some potent exceptions to that sentiment however in regards to offensive sexist and racist terms.
In Cambodia, the Vietnamese people are referred to as the “Youn”. Even the liberal and educated universally use this term. Originally, I called the Vietnamese “pro chea chune Viet Nam” or just the “Viet”. Eventually though, as I became more fluent in colloquial Khmer, I also began to use the term “Youn” to refer to the Vietnamese.
An MCC comrade, yes comrade, recently told me about an event that I found striking. I might not be a little off on the details, please pardon, but the point remains. Human trafficking is rampant throughout Southeast Asia and disproportionately minorities are the common victims of this abuse. There’s a shelter for rescued trafficked women in the capital. Ethically, there are few Khmer but many Thai and Vietnamese. A gathering of some sort, perhaps a training or counseling session, was taking place and a traditional sour soup was served for lunch; Vietnamese sour soup or somlar ma’cheu youn. Many of the abused Vietnamese women began to cry on hearing the name of the soup and some left the room. Just hearing their ethnicity referred to as “Youn” evoked that strong of a reaction from them. It was a lesson to the people struggling to help these women; woman who have been dehumanized not just through their gender but also through their race.
I have often read that “Youn” is a derogatory word but I didn’t know that it is, in fact, a Vietnamese word meaning “worm that crawls on the earth”. In English, “maggot” might be a closer translation catching more of the viciousness behind the word. All of us should seek to cleanse our vocabularies of words which dehumanize and oppress others because of race or gender. To do this, we need to educate ourselves and understand the full meaning of a word before we adapt them to our use. “Youn” is a word that I will be removing from my Khmer vocabulary.
Before I close, “renig” is not a derogatory term meaning to “renigger” as some have told me in chastisement. It is the misspelling of “Renege” which is derived from the Latin, renego, or rather nego, meaning to “deny”. I acknowledge the common misspelling and wrong definition, but I’m not going to stop using the word but rather ensure that I use it properly; “Renege” not “Renig”.
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07.15.08
Posted in The Pursuit of Wisdom at 5:50 pm by Kaihaku
Or some examples of why people should consider the Bible and Biblical context in their faith.
For nigh a thousand years, Christian laymen learned their faith from priests. The Holy Bible was sealed away in Latin and, at times, it was considered sacrilege to allow those unsanctioned by the Church to read the words of Christ. The advent of translations of the Bible in the native language of Christians revolutionized the faith. The privilege of reading our holy texts should not be taken for granted.
Instead of reading their Bibles and trying to understand the words contained within, most Christians I know in the United States have instead become content to study the Bible piecemeal, following the steps outlined by their “teachers” who back up their arguments with very specific examples. I contend that the Bible cannot be truly understood when it is taken out of context and stripped down into verse-sized puzzle pieces which are assembled to back up the arguments of said “teachers”. In my opinion, the most harmful example of this is “rapture theology”, but I’ll be using the Bible to counter that point by point at a later time.
Now, instead, I’m going to talk about some of the names of the Devil; Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Satan.
In dominant Christianity theology, the Devil is presented as an opponent of God, seeking to corrupt souls who will then spend eternity in damnation with him. I’m not so convinced that the “Devil” is a single entity and I question the truth of the Devil’s rivalry with God.
Interestingly, in Judaism, Satan is not presented as an opponent of God but rather as a servant. In Hebrew, Satan means “prosecutor”. This is most clearly seen in the Book of Job. Satan is the adversary of humankind not God. His role is not to collect souls but to prove that humans are corrupt to the ultimate Judge, God. Why do Christians live in fear of Satan if Christ saved us from sin? Our defense attorney won the case already.
Beelzebub is Ba’al Ze’bub. Ba’al is a title meaning ‘Master’ or ‘Lord’ and applied generically to a multitude of ‘false gods’ throughout the Old Testament and the Ancient World. It was commonly used by religions in situations where it was forbidden for common people to speak the holy name of their gods or as a term of reverence. It has been suggested that Ze’bub meaning “flies” is a deliberate corruption of Zebul which meant “Prince”. So, there is a good possibility that the title ‘Lord of the Flies’ is an intended insult against a god claiming the title of the “Lord Prince” or “Lord of the Princes”. Hundreds of years later, Hebrew mysticism developed the idea that Beelzebub was a demon, but this was not it’s original usage. I think Beelzebub should be considered a title for ‘false gods’ in general, not a demon to fear but a danger to avoid.
Lucifer is not the Devil. Lucifer is not Satan. Lucifer is not Beelzebub. Lucifer, the day star, was a title given to a King of Babylon. Reading the entire chapter of Isaiah where “Lucifer” is introduced, incidentally the only Biblical passage where Lucifer is mentioned, clearly shows this.
Isaiah 14
For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob.
And the people shall take them, and bring them to their place: and the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the LORD for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were; and they shall rule over their oppressors.
And it shall come to pass in the day that the LORD shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!
The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers.
He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth.
The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing.
Yea, the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us.
Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations.
All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.
They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?
All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house.
But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.
Thou shalt not be joined with them in burial, because thou hast destroyed thy land, and slain thy people: the seed of evildoers shall never be renowned.
Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities.
For I will rise up against them, saith the LORD of hosts, and cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew, saith the LORD.
I will also make it a possession for the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with the besom of destruction, saith the LORD of hosts.
The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
That I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon my mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders.
This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.
For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?
In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden.
Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.
And the firstborn of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety: and I will kill thy root with famine, and he shall slay thy remnant.
Howl, O gate; cry, O city; thou, whole Palestina, art dissolved: for there shall come from the north a smoke, and none shall be alone in his appointed times.
What shall one then answer the messengers of the nation? That the LORD hath founded Zion, and the poor of his people shall trust in it.
Taking those three verses in context, they fit with the rest of the chapter which is pronouncing judgment against the King of Babylon. There was no angelic rebellion against God. The rebellion against God is a human one. Writing the rebellion off to an angelic Lucifer lessens humanity’s responsibility. Additionally, Lucifer is the actually the Latin word for “light bringer”, a title for the planet Venus. The passage should not contain the untranslated Latin word “Lucifer” but rather the English “day star”, as many newer Biblical translations now do.
This might not be the most meaningful example of taking Bible verses out of context, but I thought it was one of the more striking examples and a good introduction to the topic
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
Christians are called not only to devote their bodies and souls to God, but also their minds. It is a sign of laziness and complacency to blindly accept the lessons of “teachers” without studying the Bible for one’s self. Study guides might provide good insight but Christians should be wary of accepting the lessons they offer without thinking over them for themselves. Above all, Christians should read their Bibles from cover to cover and understand the context of the words contained within. There are martyrs who sacrificed themselves to earn Christians the right to read the Bible in their native language, to forgo that right in favor of being spoon fed is an insult to them and to God.
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Posted in Current Events at 5:56 am by Kaihaku
A disgruntled software engineer has hijacked San Francisco’s municipal computer network. Although arrested, he is refusing to give authorities the passwords necessary to restore access to the other system administrators, who he locked out.
Compared with the other clashes between the technology and law this month (Blizzard and Viacom), this one is refreshingly straightforward and, hopefully, a difficult case for the legal system to screw up. It’s also humorous, if you ignore the possible security leaks and millions of dollars at risk. I meant, forget pirates versus ninjas, it’s nerds versus hippies.
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