Cambodia struck me and deeply troubled me with its contradictions. I had seen the painful disharmonies of developing countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, but never such stark contrasts, seemingly so self-destructive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The country known to the world for the extraordinary and harmonious blend of history and nature seen in the temples of Angkor, for the sweetness of the faces and smiles of its women and children, for the elegance of gestures and movements in its dance, shows contradictions that go \u2014 in my opinion \u2014 far beyond the inevitable (at least, as history has shown us so far\u2026) disharmonies of development processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some images and bits of news deeply affected me, especially in Phnom Penh \u2014 a city emotionally and physically unbearable, at least for me \u2014 from which I soon felt a strong urge to flee.\nThe electrified barbed wire crowning the \u201chouses of the rich,\u201d in a city still so deeply scarred by the violence of its recent past, where the walls of S21 still seem to bleed \u2014 a mere detail, perhaps.\nEverywhere, security guards and various forms of protection shield the homes of the wealthy from the poverty surrounding them. But the fact that this protection takes the form of barbed wire, so blatantly visible and not concealed, seemed to me the trace of an unhealed trauma resurfacing from the city\u2019s very walls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we saw many other \u201cindigestible\u201d traces of trauma during the interesting yet painful cyclo tour of the city \u2014 to which, perhaps not for purely physical reasons, my body reacted with a collapse that kept me in the hotel for the rest of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fragments of architectural beauty from the colonial past (a staircase, a railing, a decorated ceiling) resurface in the homes of the poorest families, from which beautiful, smiling children appear everywhere, their faces lit by sweet smiles \u2014 and you wonder how they can still carry such light amid the ugliness surrounding them.\nChurches, temples, pagodas \u2014 traces of a past not yet processed or overcome, but devoured by a present of poverty and disfigurement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same country that at Angkor displays the breathtaking beauty of the harmonious integration between the remnants of a glorious past and the unstoppable vitality of plants pushing through stone and taking root everywhere \u2014 in Phnom Penh seems to declare that no future is possible, or at least that the collective mind envisions none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is this, too, the effect of recent trauma \u2014 of the destruction of the educated class, of the assault on culture (arts, education), and on traditions (family, villages) upon which this country built its history?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Or is there something deeper in the culture and history of this nation that seems to be killing its own future?\n\nFrankly, I could not understand it. But I was deeply struck by the sacrifice of the children \u2014 forced from a young age to dedicate the energy they should spend studying and building their own tomorrow to finding the resources needed for the survival of their parents and grandparents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fragments of images and thoughts:\nWhat future is possible for a city now exposed to constant flood risk due to the filling of its surrounding lakes \u2014 floods that can no longer symbolize the blessing of a rich rice harvest, as they once did in the villages?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And who among us didn\u2019t wonder, looking at the tangled masses of electric wires lining both sides of Phnom Penh\u2019s streets \u2014 the poor and the elegant alike \u2014 and those seemingly unprotected electrical boxes in a city lashed by monsoon fury, that a simple short circuit could easily spark a devastating fire?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Surely, I haven\u2019t seen or understood enough \u2014 I hope I haven\u2019t seen or understood enough \u2014 but I wanted to share with you the feelings that accompanied this journey.\nThis is what I saw and perceived, though by nature I struggle to embrace such a negative outlook. So I\u2019ll close with a contrasting note: a waiter at our hotel told us he\u2019s studying to become a teacher and return to his village, because in education lies the future of his country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI agree,\u201d I simply commented, hoping that many of his peers think the same way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elena<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cambodia struck me and deeply troubled me with its contradictions. I had seen the painful disharmonies of developing countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America, but never such stark contrasts, seemingly so self-destructive. The country is known worldwide for its extraordinary, harmonious blend of history and culture. [\u2026]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonianze"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4155,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions\/4155"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ilnodoonlus.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}