Youth in Cambodia

Here’s a link to my latest story.

Last Thursday, the United Nations Development Programme, in partnership with the BBC World Services Trust, released a comprehensive survey of young people in Cambodia.  The results are pretty interesting.

Incredibly, 70% of Cambodia’s population is under the age of 30 – a result of the Khmer Rouge wiping out huge swaths of the older generation – so attempts to understand their attitudes and behaviors are frequent.

One piece of info that I found interesting, but that didn’t make it into the article deals with corruption.  Because of sensitivity concerns, the survey didn’t directly ask any questions about corruption.  Instead, it attempted to broach the subject tangentially with the following statement: “Government jobs should be filled based on individual skills instead of personal and family connections.”

Respondents had to say whether or not they agreed.  Only two-thirds of respondents agreed; 8% were neutral, 13% said they didn’t know, and 13% disagreed.

This was disturbing.  13 out of 100 Cambodian young people think it’s acceptable to award jobs – government ones at that – to friends and family instead of on the basis of merit.  That’s a frightening mindset for the country’s future leaders, even if it’s only 13%.

Suburbs, streetball, and SUVs

The other week, my roommate Dan and I went on a bike ride across the Japanese-Friendship bridge to the other side of the Tonle Sap river.   This leads to the Chroy Changvar peninsula, technically within Phnom Penh proper, but far removed from the hustle and bustle of the mainland city.

Wikileaks drama

Last week was a pretty crazy news week for the Phnom Penh Post.  On Tuesday morning, Wikileaks released about 500 cables from the US Embassy in Cambodia, so most of Wednesday’s paper was devoted to presenting choice passages and overarching themes.

I basically read cables all day; it was fascinating to work with such primary documents.  The paper’s coverage was comprehensive, but here are some odd passages and bits that I personally enjoyed reading.  Consider it the Lynch Cliff Notes version.