| Cambodia: Facing New Challenges, The Same That We All Face
One’s perception of Cambodia is, like our perception of anything, influenced and conditioned by our age, experiences in life, interest in and understanding of a subject, theme, topic or place, and our willingness and ability to investigate and learn, hopefully with a wise and open heart.
Having lived in Asia for close to twenty years, I realized long ago that the people of the various countries in this region of the world are just as confused and lost, angry and impatient, and given to unwholesome states and tendencies of greed and desire, as people anywhere else in the world are.
Just yesterday afternoon while I was doing some work on the computer, a large bomb exploded down the block from where this writer lives, which fortunately did not injure anyone, though it did frighten a lot of people.
It is widely speculated and accepted that this bombing, which took place at the home of a former Prime Minister and current advisor to the King was a result of the ongoing political crisis here in Thailand.
As regards Cambodia, a country that this writer has visited 28 times over the last four years and is currently involved in doing volunteer work in, the people of this small country are still dealing with the results of the years of war, corruption and poverty that plagued this country throughout the seventies and eighties.
But at the same time, we see new forces emerging, ones that those people from modern and advanced countries can easily identify with.
There are nice hotels for people to stay in, cable television available to all who can afford it, good food in clean restaurants, development of roads and towns and a general air of improvement taking place in all aspects of the society.
This is not to say that there are still not people who are exploited, in poverty, have little or no health care and education or are denied opportunities in life because of their status or who they know or do not know.
But with modernization, Cambodia does now face new challenges regarding living, challenges that all countries and people face.
One major one is the preoccupation with drinking, which seems to be and is becoming more and more widespread and accepted as a form of relaxation and socializing.
This drinking is leading to all sorts of problems, from alcoholism to wife and family neglect and abuse, the same things that we face on a daily basis in the west and among the more advanced and developed countries of the world.
There is also anger, individual confusion and alienation, tendencies to condemning others behind their back and to their face in both subtle and overt ways and the desire for revenge when one feels that they have been slighted or wronged.
These issues are not related to the development of one’s country, but are instead related to the development one of ones mind, consciousness and understanding about themselves and others.
Buddhism and its priestly and material aspects that are so widely seen and represented throughout Asia seem to have made little or no impact on the day to day attitudes and life of the people, perhaps because of the extreme need and poverty of some, but also because Buddhist values seem to clash with the values of the society, where status and wealth seem to be the things that are most highly esteemed or sought or where people are extremely competitive with each other in order to get that status, or at the least feel good about themselves as being a success and worthy of another’s recognition and respect.
The people of Cambodia, just as the people of Thailand, China, Japan and The United States, and all people of the world, can benefit when they become more mindful about how they can live wisely, what they can offer others and what their potential is as human beings.
Perhaps educational systems and countries have a duty to actively teach people these things, instead of make them competitive or make them feel that they have to have done such and such or possess such and such in order to be worthy, wise and successful human beings.
Perhaps such an attitude and approach, one that is nicely explained and summarized in Yoga and Buddhist teachings, would be something that we could also benefit from reflecting on and learning about, so that we can better understand and accept our place in the world, and act in a skilful, healthy and wholesome manner within that place.
©2006 John C. Kimbrough/Yoga is for Better Health and Living |
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Camboya - Español
. Short time ago, we founded an organisation to support the villagers and opharn kids in Cambodia. We are suching for people an Organisations for cooperation and inforation-change. 
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Shanti Volunteer Association (Japan, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia)