NGOs in Cambodia

[bixaorellana]

Split from: Ratanakiri+in+the+Rainy+Season

Jun 24, 2011 8:41:04 GMT hwinpp said:

We stopped at a Kreung village along the way back ... The village was prospering, the houses were sturdier, there was a classroom and it seemed cleaner overall. The guide said it was because of the money coming in from visitors and a couple of NGOs that had adopted the village as it was right beside the main road... ;D

I came across an article in Magazine and instantly thought of HW's comment quoted above.

The article is overall pretty scathing. I'm hoping HW and others who might come in contact with NGOs will comment.

Among the more prominent (and best-paying) NGOs in Cambodia are the mainstream green organizations. They are also among the most powerful because government ministries dealing with environmental issues are typically underbudgeted and understaffed, so NGOs effectively fund and manage key agencies.
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During recent years, the Cambodian government has sold off vast swaths of land, some publicly owned, including protected areas, and some seized from the urban and rural poor. In the process, hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly evicted from their homes. These deals have been a goldmine for Cambodian oligarchs and foreign investors, who have bought up some of the country's most beautiful areas and prime urban real estate.

You'd expect that international green groups might have a lot to say about this tragedy. You'd be wrong. "The major environmental organizations have kept a near absolute silence over the ongoing land crisis, both in terms of human impact and impact on the protected areas they are working in," says a longtime consultant in Cambodia. [several examples follow that statement]
...
Wildlife Alliance also works closely with the government. In 2004, Hun Sen bestowed a gold medal on its CEO, Suwanna Gauntlett, for her devotion to endangered species and biodiversity.

WA says on its website that it works with villagers who "once were forced to roam the forest as hunters and loggers, diminishing Cambodia's environmental heritage, [and who] now have legal jobs as guides and operators of sustainable trekking, mountain-biking, and river boat tours."

In other words, people who once lived in the forest now hold low-paid jobs serving at the beck and call of foreign tourists who float down waterways and hike in woods that the villagers have long called home.
"The wholesale destruction of Cambodia's environment is an important issue, but hunting and poaching by people eking out an existence in the forest isn't the problem," says a Western expatriate with extensive experience in land issues. "The primary causes are the government issuing massive land concessions to developers and wide-scale logging."
...
Another WA mission involves protecting the rain forest of the Southern Cardamom Mountain Range. As part of that effort, the group's staffers have swooped in by helicopter with Forestry Administration officials who kick out destitute peasants living in the woods and in some cases dismantle and burn their homes, according to the Phnom Penh Post. "They are not people-friendly," the longtime consultant says of WA, "but the trees and animals are all safe."
WA has herded peasants into community agriculture projects linked to its ecotourism ventures. Peasants at one community called Sovanna Baitong benefited with access to education and health care, but some told the Post they felt "trapped in a state of indentured servitude" and had been threatened with expulsion if they refused to work on plots they had been allocated. "I experienced three years and eight months of the Khmer Rouge regime, and this is similar because they ordered us to work like we are in a totalitarian state," said one. "It is really miserable to live there."

There is much more to the article:
www.slate.com/id/2296334

[hwinpp]

This article was discussed a fair bit on the Cambodian boards and most people I know agree with it for the most part.

I think aid has now reached 1 billion USD per year, with hardly any strings attached. Both by Western and Eastern organizations (except the Japanese).

The only way corruption on a big scale can be stopped is by Western governments making laws that allow organizations to be punished at home. The only big case that has so far been examined though is the Biliton exploration (Australia's biggest private mining company, I think, not an NGO) in the northeast.

OTOH the government is now going to implement a law making the registration of NGOs more transparent. This has the NGOs howling that the government wants to control them. Of course they do, it'll make the whole scene more transparent.

[bixaorellana]

Thanks, HW

Interesting point about Western governments making laws to punish the actions of NGOs abroad. I wonder if that is even possible. I'd think not.

I don't doubt that the writer of the article did a good bit of research. However, he also makes his feelings known, as in this paragraph:

Prime Minister Hun Sen's regime has put forth a draft law that would require NGOs working in Cambodia to complete a complex registration process and "gives authorities unbounded discretion to approve or deny registration applications," according to Jeff Vize of LICADHO. Human rights groups and Western governments are up in arms about the law, as they should be. Hun Sen has said it is needed to keep terrorists from setting up shop in Cambodia "under the guise of NGOs," but his government clearly wants to use it against the relatively small number of groups that criticize his government.

That may well be true, but there is nothing to back up the claim that the gov't "clearly" wants to use it to suppress criticism by NGOs. I assume that draft law is the same to which you refer. (article was published on June 20)

I haven't worked my way through the comments at the end of the piece yet.

[hwinpp]

Interesting point about Western governments making laws to punish the actions of NGOs abroad. I wonder if that is even possible. I'd think not.

Not specifically to punish NGOs, to punish anybody who pays bribes overseas. It's already happened with Biliton (Australia) and Siemens (Germany).

Human rights groups and Western governments are up in arms about the law, as they should be.

Some NGOs are, the local HR NGOs. I haven't seen many foreign governments up in arms...

I assume that draft law is the same to which you refer. (article was published on June 20).

Yes, correct.

[hwinpp]

Here's a nice story from the PP Post:

New Angkor Wat 'scam'

AN advisor to Senate President Chea Sim is allegedly raising money to build a US$5.53 billion Angkor Wat-style temple in Svay Rieng province, officials said yesterday. However, a number of people claim the project is a fraud.

Chhoem Mono acts as both an advisor to Chea Sim and president of the Community Buddhist Supporting for Cambodia Organisation, an NGO seeking financial support from “various international donors” to build the temple, said CBSCO Deputy President Chan Sokeath.

He claimed his organisation was approved by the Ministry of Interior in 2003 and planned to build 13 temples in the model of Angkor Wat.

The temples will be built from “cement and brick, not from the original stone such as that from an ancient temple”, he said, though construction has not yet started on the project.

“We will take a very long time to finish the construction of the temple, and after that we will hand it over as a national asset for the government,” he said. Chan Sokeath said CBSCO so far has built only a Buddhist school on the site in Andong Trabak commune in Svay Rieng’s Romeas Hak district.

District police chief Shum Ry confirmed the presence of the school, adding that intermittent construction of some kind at the site has been going on for at least three years.

Chhoem Mono claimed he had received money from Chinese donors, Shum Ry said, though “he did not mention whether it was Chinese business or government officials” who made the donations.

Chhoem Mono is said to be touting a number of apparently fake documents, seen by The Post, including a letter of support from the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and a blueprint of the temple with the ministry’s seal, to convince potential donors his project is real.

Among the documents, which are fraught with misspellings, is a list of projects planned by CBCSO. Those include the Svay Rieng temple, “premary schools”, a “drincing wateir well”, and a “wasted treatment plant facility”, among others, totalling $19.63 billion.

Also included is an apparently forged letter of intent from Barclays Bank to release billions of euros to a person named as Bradley L Heinrich. There is no information as to how Heinrich is connected to Chhoem Mono, and Barclays said it was company policy not to disclose information about clients.

Chhoem Mono also reportedly carries with him an “award contract” that implies $500 million has been transferred between someone named Tony Nin Thorng, an alleged 70-year-old Cambodian holding a Canadian passport, and an account at ANZ Royal Bank held by Chhoem Mono.

The letter, dated April 2007, is from an organisation called the Tofic Foundation in Montreal, Canada. The Post could find no proof of such a foundation, and a man speaking Mandarin who answered the listed number said he had no knowledge of the organisation.

ANZ Royal Bank Chief Executive Officer Stephen Higgins said the project, and the documents used to legitimise it, were a fraud. “The common feature to a lot of these scams is using implausibly large
numbers, which seems to convince some people that it is a legitimate transaction,” he said.

He said that, to his knowledge, no Cambodian bank has ever received a one-time transfer of $500 million and only four banks had total deposits of more than that amount. “The Cambodian economy could not cope with a one-off cash infusion of that size. It is an out and out fraud,” he said.

Higgins said fraudsters often use ANZ Royal’s name to lend legitimacy to their transactions, “but we simply don’t get associated with people such as this”.

ANZ Royal first heard of the alleged scam when a man who said his family had been duped into investing in the project brought the documents to one of the bank’s Phnom Penh branches. The man declined to speak with the press, as he feared for the safety of his family.

Chhoem Mono could not be reached for comment. Officials at the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts said they were unaware of the construction in Romeas Hak district, while officials at the Ministry of Cults and Religions said they did not know of CBSCO. Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, also said he had not heard of CBSCO.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING SINUON PECH AND DON WEINLAND

www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2011070850288/National-news/new-angkor-wat-scam.html

[hwinpp]

One of our favourite blogs:

stuffexpataidworkerslike.com/

Untreated PTSD

Using words in obscure languages, being married to someone of another race (possibly someone you went native with), having a tribal tattoo or Chinese character tramp-stamp, and sporting some sweet Chaco tan lines are all okay… Incorporating the word “Nomad” into a twitter profile or blog URL, putting pictures of war junk up on Facebook, dressing like the locals and conspicuously bitching about HQ are similarly laudable.

But today’s Expat Aid Worker who is truly serious about clarifying her or his field cred for the world will have untreated PTSD.

Few things make the point that this EAW has been around enough to have seen some shit go horribly sideways, yet remains sensitive and feels things very deeply, quite like those subtle and overt signs of PTSD. The guy, just in from someplace ending in “stan” or “ia”, who makes the point of saying, “Can we trade seats? I never sit with my back to the door…” immediately conveys the gravity of his past and also that should armed militants burst into Starbucks in search of fresh hostages, he would not be taken easily. The aid chick who dives under the nearest desk every time a door slams shut is letting those around her know that she’s learned the hard way how to look after herself in some pretty badass places.

A common mistake among newbies and poseurs, however, is trying to pass off as PTSD what is, in fact, simply garden variety personal drama. It’s important to keep in mind that while of course personal drama is one of the key stepping stones that leads to PTSD, it is not the same thing as actual PTSD. (See also below)

For true PTSD to be truly effective as a field cred establishing measure it must be embraced, celebrated and nurtured. Never treated.

This is very important to get right because actually taking a break, taking a less dangerous or stressful job, and maybe getting professional help can make the EAW appear less hardcore – which would never do. “Really, what shrink can possibly get what I’ve been through… what I’ve seen?“, underscores the EAWs’ dilemma. Far better to drink more, smoke (to calm one’s nerves whilst on deployment), adopt socially awkward behaviors and hobbies, and insist at strategic moments that one could never survive in so cushy an environment as, say, Cambodia or Malawi. Second and even more importantly, getting proper treatment would disrupt the natural order of things in the EAW experience:

Putting Aid Work First –> Personal Drama –> Cynicism –> PTSD–> Finding Themselves.

So next time you meet an EAW with a conspicuous eye-twitch, who insists on describing in lurid detail to total strangers traumatic events witnessed and experienced, and who will only consider front-line positions in active war zones, buy him or her another round, offer a light, but above all be sure to envy him or her. You’re talking to someone who has almost achieved EAW nirvana. Like “consumption” in 1800s, untreated EAW PTSD is the mark of intelligentsia, of the elite. You’re in the presence of greatness.

[bixaorellana]

Oh gosh, the ptsd piece is great! ;D

But the scam is almost nauseating in its blatancy and the stupidity of what it claims to be planning.

Some great misspellings, though. I've often thought I'd benefit from some treatment at a wasted treatment plant facility.

[hwinpp]

Where's my treatment? Oh, it's in bed, completely wasted!

;D ;D ;D