Changes in Kampuchea-Krom

My family and I escaped my home in Slapang commune, Preah Tran Peng province Kampuchea-Krom when I was about five years old. Back then I brought along with me only a blur memory of our sufferings in our village. Twenty-three years later I returned home. I’m seeing the same suffering my villagers endure until today.

It seems nothings have changed – small houses built with bamboo and palm leaves. People are still working on the land including rice farming while others dug up the rice paddies to turn into shrimp/prawn ponds. Young and old speak Khmer to each other wherever you go (except to the market largely occupied by Vietnamese). And we still have our Wat (Buddhist temples).

But a lot have changed. The new paved road opens ways for easy transportation into the city. Lured by mobile phones, TV and motor cycles; teenagers as young as 12 head to Saigon to look for opportunities leaving behind their family, farmland. There is now a shortage of labour to work in the farm. People are faced with the two choices – sell up for cheap or leave the land empty and move to find work in the city.

Away from the village, I have been living in Prey Nakor (Saigon) for the past four months. When I first got here, I was told there are many Khmers here but I couldn’t work out a way to identify them until recently – just look out for anyone with slightly darker skin and work as labourer such as your motorbike parker, cleaner, house maid, construction worker, etc.

To sum it all up, simply Khmer are still second class citizen without the lands we once used to have.

Heavy rain in Saigon

Right now it’s raining as some would call it… like cats and dogs. This is the heaviest rain I have seen since I have been here. Very loud thunders follow by lightings.

When I was in Tra Vinh last night, my uncle echo optimism for this season of rice growing. Previous years, he said, due to not enough or irregular rain fall many have suffered lost. I heard a lot of people (including one of my uncles’) are abandoning rice farming altogether and leave their land empty heading to the city to work instead.

I was explained to why this is this case. First, they are either don’t have enough land to grow rice to the scale that’s profitable due to the cycle of land divisions among the children. Second, there isn’t enough labourer to do the work as majority of working adults (age 14+) go to the city to work, nobody is willing to stay and work in the farm for much less wage then it is paid in the city.

Right now the power is out at my office. The UPS will keep me online for another few minutes. I think this is due to the lightning strike. The power can go out any time here. Some day there is no power at all. Having a generator is way too expensive. Companies rather let their workers go home for a whole day because less costly than having a generator. I’m going home…