It is late and I am heading to bed, but I wanted to briefly post some of the highlights from my weekend trip to the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. It was a really fun trip and a nice break from Phnom Penh for a few days:
- On our first day, we stumbled across an IMAX theatre in a giant mall which was showing the new Harry Potter movie on its first day in Malaysia. Not only was it our first movie in a proper theatre in quite a while, but it was Harry Potter, so that was pretty great.
- Taking over the Mikado karaoke bar on successive nights.
- Climbing the KL Tower, the 4th tallest telecommunications tower in the world (#1 is CN Tower) and getting a good look around the city.
- Getting a free guided tour of a small rainforest sanctuary at the base of the KL Tower. Unfortunately we didn't spot any monkeys but it was pretty awesome to escape into the rainforest in the middle of the city.
- Checking out the Petronas Towers, the 2nd and 3rd tallest buildings in the world (I get a little confused about the distinctions in tallest world towers between KL and Petronas, but I trust their claims). Unfortunately all the tickets for going up the Petronas Towers were sold out, but the view from KL is apparently better.
- Making it to an Asian Cup soccer match between Malaysia and Uzbekistan. Better yet, tickets were just over $3 and we were able to sit wherever we wanted in the stadium. Uzbekistan killed Malaysia 5-0, but it was still a fun night out.
Those were the big highlights. I will try to post some pictures soon. Meanwhile, we are in the second last week of the internship here. It looks like I will be teaching some of our HIV/AIDS lessons next week to a couple of groups. This weekend I am also headed to Bokor Hill National Park in southern Cambodia with a few other interns for a quick getaway. June 30th I am off to Bangkok and then some of the Thai islands for about 10 days, and then I fly home on August 9th!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Weekend Update
So, things have been pretty slow here the last week or so, but I thought I would update on what is going on. I have about 3 weeks left in my internship, then I plan on traveling in Thailand for about 10 days until I fly home a month from now.
Work has been somewhat slow as my HIV/AIDS group is finishing up our manual. However, we are planning to meet this week with some other organizations involved in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. We are also planning to teach some of our lessons to see how they work, hopefully at some of these organizations.
I am headed to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday with about 8 other interns for a long weekend. It will be excited to check out a different city, see the world's second-tallest building, catch the new Harry Potter movie, and watch an Asian Cup football match between Malaysia and Uzbekistan hopefully.
We finally made it to the Killing Fields on Saturday. There were actually many Killing Fields all around Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge executed people and left them in mass graves, but this was the biggest one, called Choeung Ek, and also where a memorial site has been set up. Choeung Ek affected me in a different way than the Tuol Sleng prison. At Tuol Sleng it was easy to imagine people being tortured and killed, as things were essentially left as they were during the genocide. However, at the Killing Fields, the setting is very peaceful, it is very green, and there are a lot of trees around. It is hard to imagine that thousands and thousands of people were killed there. There is a big shrine in the middle of the site which has many skulls of people killed by the Khmer Rouge, and that is emotionally affecting, but the rest of the site is not as intense. I think it is a very nice site to remember all those people who were killed by the Khmer Rouge and reflect on the horrible effects of the genocide.
Finally, a few lessons learned from a Friday night in Phnom Penh:
A) Do not go ride home from a bar by yourself
B) Do not carry your credit card, bank card, and driver's license out with you if you don't need to (and you almost never need to)
Yep, I was robbed on Friday night. Two guys pulled in front of my moto just about a block from my house and took my wallet and watch. I was not hurt and the guys were clearly just after my cash, but obviously it was a very scary incident, and I was very stupid to be headed home alone. Anyway, ultimately I realize it is just a big inconvenience and the most important thing is that I am OK.
So that was a bummer and definitely a crappy way to end off what was a long and somewhat boring week. But, there is a lot to look forward to, especially the Malaysia trip, so I am very excited for the last few weeks of my internship!!
Work has been somewhat slow as my HIV/AIDS group is finishing up our manual. However, we are planning to meet this week with some other organizations involved in HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. We are also planning to teach some of our lessons to see how they work, hopefully at some of these organizations.
I am headed to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday with about 8 other interns for a long weekend. It will be excited to check out a different city, see the world's second-tallest building, catch the new Harry Potter movie, and watch an Asian Cup football match between Malaysia and Uzbekistan hopefully.
We finally made it to the Killing Fields on Saturday. There were actually many Killing Fields all around Cambodia where the Khmer Rouge executed people and left them in mass graves, but this was the biggest one, called Choeung Ek, and also where a memorial site has been set up. Choeung Ek affected me in a different way than the Tuol Sleng prison. At Tuol Sleng it was easy to imagine people being tortured and killed, as things were essentially left as they were during the genocide. However, at the Killing Fields, the setting is very peaceful, it is very green, and there are a lot of trees around. It is hard to imagine that thousands and thousands of people were killed there. There is a big shrine in the middle of the site which has many skulls of people killed by the Khmer Rouge, and that is emotionally affecting, but the rest of the site is not as intense. I think it is a very nice site to remember all those people who were killed by the Khmer Rouge and reflect on the horrible effects of the genocide.
Finally, a few lessons learned from a Friday night in Phnom Penh:
A) Do not go ride home from a bar by yourself
B) Do not carry your credit card, bank card, and driver's license out with you if you don't need to (and you almost never need to)
Yep, I was robbed on Friday night. Two guys pulled in front of my moto just about a block from my house and took my wallet and watch. I was not hurt and the guys were clearly just after my cash, but obviously it was a very scary incident, and I was very stupid to be headed home alone. Anyway, ultimately I realize it is just a big inconvenience and the most important thing is that I am OK.
So that was a bummer and definitely a crappy way to end off what was a long and somewhat boring week. But, there is a lot to look forward to, especially the Malaysia trip, so I am very excited for the last few weeks of my internship!!
Sunday, July 1, 2007
Happy Canada Day!
Happy Canada Day to everyone back home in Canada, and I hope everyone is enjoying the day, especially in Ottawa on Parliament Hill and in Newfoundland at the O'Shea Canada Day party.
I was able to celebrate Canada Day here a few days ago. The Canadian Embassy held a reception on Friday night at one of the nicer hotels in town, the Grand Royal. Every Canadian in the country was invited-all I had to do was go to the embassy with my passport and I got an invitation. There are several Canadians in the internship program so we got dressed up (the dress code was "business attire") and headed out on Friday night.
We definitely felt a little out of place at the reception as the crowd was mostly businesspeople and diplomats, but the food was good and the drinks were free, so we didn't mind. There are rumors that the embassy is going to move to Bangkok, and the Ambassador, Donica Pottie, said in her speech that she is leaving Cambodia soon, although I wasn't sure if it was because her term was finished or because she is moving to Thailand.
Anyway, it wasn't a bad way to spend Canada Day away from home, although I do kind of wish I could be in Ottawa or St. John's this weekend.
I was able to celebrate Canada Day here a few days ago. The Canadian Embassy held a reception on Friday night at one of the nicer hotels in town, the Grand Royal. Every Canadian in the country was invited-all I had to do was go to the embassy with my passport and I got an invitation. There are several Canadians in the internship program so we got dressed up (the dress code was "business attire") and headed out on Friday night.
We definitely felt a little out of place at the reception as the crowd was mostly businesspeople and diplomats, but the food was good and the drinks were free, so we didn't mind. There are rumors that the embassy is going to move to Bangkok, and the Ambassador, Donica Pottie, said in her speech that she is leaving Cambodia soon, although I wasn't sure if it was because her term was finished or because she is moving to Thailand.
Anyway, it wasn't a bad way to spend Canada Day away from home, although I do kind of wish I could be in Ottawa or St. John's this weekend.
High-Powered Meetings
First of all, I apologize for the lack of updates. The last week has been a bit slow here, but I will try to post more, perhaps talking a little bit about day-to-day life in Phnom Penh and Cambodia.
I will talk about a couple of neat encounters I had on Friday. First, my group, which is working on the HIV/AIDS legal rights manual, took a field trip to visit NCHADS, which is an off-shoot of the Cambodian Ministry of Health and responsible for, among other things, the country's response to HIV/AIDS. We were lucky enough to meet with Dr. Mean Chhi-Vun, the director of NCHADS, who spoke with us for about 45 minutes about the status of Cambodia's fight against AIDS. Cambodia has struggled a lot with AIDS in the past few years and in fact has the highest AIDS rate in Asia. However, apparently things are starting to turn around and recent statistics showed that the infection rate is slowing down.
NCHADS has been involved with and received funding from, among other groups, the Clinton Foundation and it seems they have become focused on the care of persons with AIDS in addition to the prevention of AIDS, which dominated the government's early work on HIV/AIDS. More and more anti-retroviral (I hope that is correct) drugs are becoming available and there are more and more HIV clinics opening up all over the country.
My second interesting encounter of the day was a presentation we saw on Friday afternoon from Richard Rodgers, who is a lawyer and deputy head of the Defence Support Section at the Khmer Rouge Trials. The trials are finally scheduled to get underway early next year after a lot of debate and disagreement about the rules and structure. Richard gave us the background on the trials and talked about some of the challenges in working for the defence side in a genocide/crimes against humanity trial.
Some people find it hard to believe that anyone could work for the defence of someone like Duch, who ran the Tuol Sleng prison and is the most senior member of the Khmer Rouge still alive. However, for these trials to be effective and fair, the defendants need to have a good defence to ensure that the prosecutors and the judges do their jobs.
There are a lot of obstacles in the way of making these trials fair and effective. Since the KR genocide happened about 30 years ago, it can be harder to obtain evidence. Further, most of the senior members of the Khmer Rouge have already died. Pol Pot, for example, died in 1998. Also, there are concerns about impartiality. Unlike other international tribunals, the KR trials are taking place in Cambodia (just outside Phnom Penh) and with Cambodian judges, many of whom likely had some connection to the genocide, either with family members who were killed or perhaps their own involvement with the KR. So, there are concerns that the judges may be somewhat biased and will not conduct a fair trial.
In any case, it was really interesting to hear about the background to the trials. It is definitely a unique time to be in Cambodia with the KR trials about to start. This marks a significant point in Cambodia's history and it is fascinating to be in the country to witness all of this happening.
I will talk about a couple of neat encounters I had on Friday. First, my group, which is working on the HIV/AIDS legal rights manual, took a field trip to visit NCHADS, which is an off-shoot of the Cambodian Ministry of Health and responsible for, among other things, the country's response to HIV/AIDS. We were lucky enough to meet with Dr. Mean Chhi-Vun, the director of NCHADS, who spoke with us for about 45 minutes about the status of Cambodia's fight against AIDS. Cambodia has struggled a lot with AIDS in the past few years and in fact has the highest AIDS rate in Asia. However, apparently things are starting to turn around and recent statistics showed that the infection rate is slowing down.
NCHADS has been involved with and received funding from, among other groups, the Clinton Foundation and it seems they have become focused on the care of persons with AIDS in addition to the prevention of AIDS, which dominated the government's early work on HIV/AIDS. More and more anti-retroviral (I hope that is correct) drugs are becoming available and there are more and more HIV clinics opening up all over the country.
My second interesting encounter of the day was a presentation we saw on Friday afternoon from Richard Rodgers, who is a lawyer and deputy head of the Defence Support Section at the Khmer Rouge Trials. The trials are finally scheduled to get underway early next year after a lot of debate and disagreement about the rules and structure. Richard gave us the background on the trials and talked about some of the challenges in working for the defence side in a genocide/crimes against humanity trial.
Some people find it hard to believe that anyone could work for the defence of someone like Duch, who ran the Tuol Sleng prison and is the most senior member of the Khmer Rouge still alive. However, for these trials to be effective and fair, the defendants need to have a good defence to ensure that the prosecutors and the judges do their jobs.
There are a lot of obstacles in the way of making these trials fair and effective. Since the KR genocide happened about 30 years ago, it can be harder to obtain evidence. Further, most of the senior members of the Khmer Rouge have already died. Pol Pot, for example, died in 1998. Also, there are concerns about impartiality. Unlike other international tribunals, the KR trials are taking place in Cambodia (just outside Phnom Penh) and with Cambodian judges, many of whom likely had some connection to the genocide, either with family members who were killed or perhaps their own involvement with the KR. So, there are concerns that the judges may be somewhat biased and will not conduct a fair trial.
In any case, it was really interesting to hear about the background to the trials. It is definitely a unique time to be in Cambodia with the KR trials about to start. This marks a significant point in Cambodia's history and it is fascinating to be in the country to witness all of this happening.
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