tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394970631882184382.post9047392243464251143..comments2023-03-03T05:19:16.210-08:00Comments on A Cantor Speaks: On to CambodiaCantor Jack Chomskyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12414342586627037339noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394970631882184382.post-57704881988619776732016-03-07T13:01:25.640-08:002016-03-07T13:01:25.640-08:00Dear Kevin --
(And I'll make sure to check i...Dear Kevin -- <br /><br />(And I'll make sure to check in with you face to face. . . )<br /><br />As you may know, we've now returned. I didn't know that you had posted this comment until today -- over a month later.<br /><br />What a deep and perceptive and well-informed sharing on your part. . . 1/3 to 1/2 of Cambodians suffering PTSD? My wife conjectured 100%. Who WOULDN'T be suffering? (Although I guess we know from the history of the Holocaust and its survivors that somehow, many humans DO have the capacity to overcome this impossible cruelty.)<br /><br />As I may have said, I really wasn't eager to see Phnom Penh -- but that's where our cruise left us. . . so we had to catch a van across country (what a mess THAT was). But ultimately (as I think I wrote), I was grateful to see Phnom Penh and spend a few hours there. <br /><br />The upside of the tale -- even the worst places on earth can have a future. The downside -- how many generations until it can be a normal place?<br /><br />Looking forward to seeing you soon.Cantor Jack Chomskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12414342586627037339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8394970631882184382.post-55755470343370980462016-01-30T17:15:36.626-08:002016-01-30T17:15:36.626-08:00Reading the opening line of this blog, the first t...Reading the opening line of this blog, the first thing that came to my mind was: And you went anyway?<br />As it happens, in recent weeks I have been doing my second stint of intensive reading on the subject of Cambodia, Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge regime, and I was fascinated by some of your insights from visiting that country. You mentioned that Cambodians don’t seem all that grateful to the Vietnamese for ending the nightmare Pol Pot wrought, but I wonder if by then they were capable of feeling much of anything, coupled with the centuries-old enmity that existed between the two peoples.<br />In his introduction to “The Pol Pot Regime,” Associate Professor of History and Director of the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale University Ben Kiernan writes:<br />“In the first few days after Cambodia became Democratic Kampuchea, all cities were evacuated, hospitals cleared, schools closed, factories emptied, money abolished, monasteries shut, libraries scattered. For nearly four years freedom of the press, of movement, of worship, of organization, and of association, and of discussion all completely disappeared. So did everyday family life. A whole nation was kidnapped and besieged from within.”<br />The biggest revelation for me in this round of reading was contained in “Cambodia’s Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land” by Joel Brinkley, son of David. He discusses studies that show how widespread post-traumatic stress disorder is among those who survived the Khmer Rouge years, something like one third to half of all Cambodians suffering from it.<br />“Won’t the nation grow out of it?” Brinkley writes. “After all, nearly two-thirds of the population is now under thirty; they were borne after the Khmer Rouge fell from power. But in fact, Cambodia is the only nation in the world where it has been demonstrated that symptoms of PTSD and related traumatic illness are being passed from on generation to the next.”<br />I can think of nothing that shows how devastating that must have been than to read about this awful form of psychological osmosis.<br />I’ve been enjoying the blogs, and appreciate you taking the time to take those of us back in Columbus along with you on your adventure.<br />I’ll leave you with this. In his delightful series of mysteries about the oh-so-cynical national coroner of Laos back in the early 1970s, Colin Cotterill says there is an expression of Laotians: “Cheer up. Things could always be worse. You could be Cambodian.”<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15940912252157069544noreply@blogger.com