Sou Sdei and welcome to Campuccino, your fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia with a dash of opinion.
To new subscribers, welcome!
In the last issue, I kept it brief due to Pchum Ben. Hence, this week I have a lot to fill you in on. For those who wrote me a personal email saying happy 1st birthday to Campuccino, I really appreciate it. Thank you, that was really nice :)
- Darathtey
In this issue: Covid-19 updates with the reopening of Cambodia, land concessions, Ream naval base, heritage buildings, and more.
Let’s start with the Covid-19 update this week. The Cambodian government has announced that the country is moving toward full reopening. More businesses are allowed to resume normal operations while the quarantine period for inbound travellers is reduced. All schools across the country will reopen from November 1. I guess the Pchum Ben test went well then. Honestly, I wouldn’t know. But hey, reopening is good. The Ministry of Health also announced that the vaccination campaign would be expanded to new groups such as pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and other groups of elders.
For more information on travel conditions, implementation of health rules and quarantine in Cambodia for inbound travelers, you can read the unofficial translation of the Ministry of Health announcement done by GMAC here. Looks like only 7 days of quarantine for new arrivals. Unless you’re a business traveller, then the virus will make an exception and you only have to quarantine for 3 days.
It is worth noting that the government made a decision to call off this year’s Water Festival just weeks before the announcement of the reopening of the country.
Remember the Ream naval base? Yep, the base claws its way back into the news again because it’s never gone anywhere. To put it simply, the US saw satellite images showing that the so-called Chinese construction at Ream naval base has made a lot of progress. Honestly, I don’t think that is going to stop any time soon just because it makes the US unhappy. In the long run though, I would like to see how the Cambodian government balances the relationship, if at all.
This section is dedicated to land-related news. As I honestly run out of comments to make on the matter, I will just list down all the relevant news articles that you can dig in at your own convenience:
Thousands of Hectares of State Land Privatized in Latest Decrees
Interior Ministry Will Sell Boeng Tamok Land to Pay for Office Renovations
Kandal villagers report feeling pressured into accepting land compensation
More Than 800 Families in Line for Land Lottery in UDG Settlements
While consistently privatising state land, the government also has a great plan for Sihanouk province, it seems. The Ministry of Economy and Finance entered into a consultancy contract with the Urban Planning and Design Institute of Shenzhen (UPDIS) on October 18. Under the contract, UPDIS will design a master plan that will turn the province into a model multi-purpose special economic development. When will all these amazing things happen you may ask? Well, no date was given when these changes would take place.
Visually Pleasing
Arts & Culture
🏛️ I’m a sucker for heritage buildings. Therefore, I welcomed the government’s recent decision to protect them instead of running them to the ground one by one. I still have reservations when it comes to implementation though. Being a 90s kid, I had the privilege to grow up in a period where I got to see many of those buildings still standing but I wasn’t old enough to appreciate them. Now that I am old enough, many of them are no longer there, replaced by characterless steel and cement buildings. I believe that these buildings are parts of the country and each city’s identities as much as ancient temples. Also, can we just agree that the bright yellow on the UNESCO office building just doesn’t work?!?
♀️ Last week, a trendy local TikTok song titled “Are You Okay?” caused a stir in Cambodia’s social media after a big production made a music video for it. The MV was deemed inappropriate due to language, but mostly because of girls wearing short skirts while holding guns. Now, I’m against all kinds of weapons and the uproar on that point was totally justifiable, but that was all to it. I couldn’t help but think what if it were men that were holding guns in the MV. Would people have paid any mind at all? Furthermore, people seem to pay no attention to the guy’s part of the lyrics suggesting that they should have sex in the classroom. One word: disgusting.
💃 Speaking of too much attention on the female’s anything. Cambodian rapper YungLady just released a song titled “តម្លៃស្ត្រី” (women’s value) taking the piss at those hypocritical double-standards we, Cambodian women, are being held up against in everything that we do. The lyrics are in Khmer, so apologies to my international readers. However, I brought up this song because of what I saw in the Facebook comment section after the artist posted this song. Comments were mostly made by men who, of course, thought she was a bitch (for merely holding a mirror), while some went as far as accusing her of violating the Constitution. 😂
🎨 ‘Imagine Material’ is a contemporary art exhibition by artist Prak Dalin. In this new body of work, Dalin explored different types of materials, scales and forms to create sculptures, installations and digital images. To learn more about the artist, you can watch her video profile here.
Overheard on Twitter
🔊 Thing I love
Since I got back to Cambodia, which was roughly 4 months ago, I noticed many things have changed. One of those changes is the increasing number of small businesses run by young Cambodians. I think this is great, and some businesses are producing pretty cool stuff. I try to support them as much as I can, whenever I can. So, I would also like to give them a shout-out here so those of you who are in Cambodia can check them out and those of you who are not, at least get to know them. Definitely, #notsponsored.
Coffee Muoy is a petite coffee shop tucked away in one of the quieter streets in Borey Peng Huot Beoung Snor. I came across this place by accident while trying to find a meeting spot with a friend around the area. While serving your usual caffeinated and decaffeinated beverages, Coffee Muoy also has an offshoot cold brew brand called Cold Brew Lab serving interesting cold brew experiments with funky names such as Cambodiano (I would be worried if Cambodiano was a newsletter ;)). The cold brew came in a flask-shape glass bottle which I have been happily using as my plant propagation vessels.
Campuccino is a fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia, written by @DarathteyDin from Word & Visual.
I’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback or content ideas, please reach out via tey@wordandvisualmedia.com