Campuccino #87
Cambodian State of Mind
Sou Sdei and welcome to Campuccino, your bi-monthly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia with a dash of opinion.
To new subscribers, welcome! I’m Darathtey, a communication consultant, writer, and researcher. Learn more about my work here.
Hello again, dear readers. I have returned from falling off the face of the newsletter earth. The shift of the international development landscape drove me to explore new opportunities which require a new skill set in the form of Monitoring and Evaluation. Learning a new skill is of course a humbling, yet mentally exhausting experience. This was the root of my silence.
- Darathtey
Let’s prime you with some cushiony news before we’re getting to the real punchy ones, yeah?
The Cambodian internet, aka Facebook, fell in love with Kao Menghorng, a young lady who got to live my unfulfilled adolescent dream of speaking at the UN. It was really nice to see that she was given a platform to share her journey to become a tech advocate. In the current world news environment in which I feel everyone is holding their breath waiting for another bad news to drop, this is a breath of fresh air.
A preliminary metro project feasibility study in Phnom Penh has begun. Yes, yes, you read that right, a metro project! The study is conducted by The Ministry of Public Works and Transport and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). This might be all smoke and no fire, but I still think it is exciting to see the option being considered. Traffic congestion and rampant accidents have become such a big problem here that I sometimes struggle to imagine how much worse it could get in 10 or 20 years. Nevertheless, seeing how such a project can take forever from preliminary study to full operation (I’m looking at you HCMC Metro), I wouldn’t bet on it.
After some rocky paths, Cambodia and Vietnam’s diplomatic tie appears to be on the mend. I mean...keep your friends close, keep your next door neighbours closer, right?The Ho Chi Minh City Summit marks a pragmatic reset in Vietnam-Cambodia relations focused on economic benefits rather than ideological alignment. If their cooperation succeeds, both countries would gain enhanced collective bargaining strength with external parties and greater strategic flexibility as major power competition escalates. A lot of positive clues were observed during the summit starting from the summit location to topics discussed. An analysis worth reading.
Alright, now that the comfortable news are covered, let’s get to the not-so-good ones.While the USAID debacle continues to send shockwaves across the nonprofit world in Cambodia and beyond, the Trump administration came up with more stuff that also affects Cambodia. The first item is a draft list of travel bans targeting over 40 countries. Cambodia is on the list under the “yellow” category of countries given 60 days to address US security concerns or risk further restrictions. I’m not planning to go to the US any time soon but it is still unfortunate to see.
The second item is the funding cut for US-based media outlets such as Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. With very narrow space for independent media to operate, let alone thrive, in Cambodia, people, myself included, rely on those outlets from the outside to fill the gap. Taking them away, the already dark path for media freedom will become a little darker. But hey, I don’t think this is something the Cambodian government is worried about though if you know what I mean.
Despite being banished from the Kingdom of Wonder, Gerald Flynn continues to publish his remaining work on Cambodia’s war against its own forest. Before I’m sending you off to read the whole investigative piece that the journalist risked his visa status for, here’s the gist: Cambodia committed to protect a certain amount of forest for the REDD+ carbon projects. In this case, they are the Southern Cardamom REDD+ and the Samkos REDD+ projects. While these forest areas were presumably protected, new irrigation dams were approved on the same area of forest that were supposed to be protected. So yes, if you’re as confused as I am, please go read the piece.
Visually Pleasing
Arts & Culture
🎙️ Asian State of Mind, a collaboration between Japanese Hip Hop artist Awich and four other Asian rappers including VannDa, is making big waves in the region. Each artist raps in English and their languages make for a very unique blend of sound. For his part, VannDa was heard using a term “decolonise” which I found very intriguing. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time a Cambodian-born artist has used such a term in their work. I’m very curious to continue to observe and find out what he meant by decolonising.
🎭 Golden (R)age Performing Art Festival is ready for its debut on 28 March. The 10-day contemporary performing art festival will feature seven performances between three venues across Phnom Phnom – the Last Stage, French Institute, and Factory Phnom Penh. Find more details on the performances and ticketing here.
🙏🏽 Acts of Memory is a two-day hybrid event hosted by Cambodian Living Arts and community leaders around the world to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Phnom Penh’s fall and celebrate the resilience and creativity of the Cambodian people. This year, Acts of Memory will take place on April 17 and 26 among Cambodian communities worldwide including Cambodia, Australia, France, USAD, Canada and beyond.
📰 Bubble Brief is an Instagram-based daily brief of Cambodian news. I stumbled upon their page in my daily dose of endless scrolling on IG (guilty). There is no indication of who exactly is behind this Bubble Brief, but if you’re a fan of moving images to go with mostly “feel good” news about Cambodia, this might be for you.
Worth Watching
Microfinance has become a significant problem in Cambodia, particularly for already vulnerable communities. Predatory microcredit practices and lack of financial literacy have trapped many people in vicious cycles of endless loan repayments, making their situations even more precarious. Strangled , a DW documentary, follows three Cambodian families and their experiences living in seemingly inescapable microcredit debt cycles that have made their lives extremely difficult.
Campuccino is a fortnightly dispatch of key headlines in Cambodia, written by @DarathteyDin.
I’d love to hear from you. If you have feedback or content ideas, please write to me at hello@darathteydin.com
Thanks for all the insightful sources again, Darathtey. As a Cambodian girl abroad, your newsletter keeps me in touch with my roots.
Excellent post Darathtey! As a U.S. citizen, I'm embarrassed that our President is considering not allowing Cambodians to enter our country. He is a horrible person though, so perhaps it is not all that much of a surprise. Keep up the great work. Orkun!