Overwhelmed by work

Dear Friends,

Forgive me for not writing more, I've been working a lot during the past days: the team needs to finalize the plan of electric and network circuits, take some architectural decisions, check the quotations of the suppliers (and, most time-consumingly, coordinate ourselves on how to do all of that according to the rules of public markets...)

Yesterday we had the visit from a very eminent linguist, Alain Daniel, who is a counselor on the project, and from the German ambassador. I didn't try my German... Also a team from The Cambodia Daily was writing a report on Rithy Panh so two journalists and a photographer spent their day following his footsteps, which meant spending most of the day in our office... We feel honoured indeed.

I've rarely seen such a worn camera as the photographer's F90, but I'm certain it still works perfectly.

I bought a book of pictures taken by Roland Neveu, published in Bangkok, called "The Years of Turmoil". The pictures are excellent and go back to 1973. The cover page has a picture of the Khmers Rouges entering Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975.

See the Time Magazine review of the first edition and the cover of the second edition.

Tonight there is a lecture by Père François Ponchaud, who had been here for already ten years in 1975, who tried to let the world know about the Khmers Rouges's regime, but was not heard until his book "Cambodia, Year Zero" was published in 1977.

Did you know that the daily Le Monde chose the headline "Phnom Penh libéré" on the day the Khmers Rouges entered the city?

A lot of foreigners were in the French Embassy when Phnom Penh fell to the Khmers Rouges and they witnessed the sick and the wounded being forced out of hospitals...

(My sources of information so far are an article in Amnesty International's "La Chronique" monthly, merci Michelle, and Roland Neveu's introduction to his book. I hope to get some first-hand information tonight...)

What is the saying? That those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it?

À bientôt everyone!