Joseph au Cambodge

Les merveilleuses aventures de votre serviteur au pays des Khmers

27 March 2006

Why did I not shave this morning?

The story is:

1. My cell phone made an unexpected dive into a creek in the Kirirom National Park on Sunday.

2. I didn't know what time it was this morning when I woke up because my cell phone was not working.

3. I hurried to work without shaving, assuming I was late and arrived at 7.10 am.

Here is the result, with the new glasses...

Comparez / Compare

Les français et les américains ont parfois des façons différentes de voir les mêmes faits : comparez les titres de l'AFP et de l'Associated Press.

  • L'A380 a passé avec succès à Hambourg son premier test d'évacuation ( AFP)
  • Incidents lors de l'exercice d'évacuation de l'Airbus A380 à Hambourg: 33 blessés ( AP)

  • Je n'ai pas encore lu les articles mais je suis sûr que ces américains exagèrent, leur jugement étant altéré par leur sentiment anti-français.

    For my English-speaking readers:

    The title of the first article by French news agency AFP is "A380 passes successfully in Hamburg it first evacuation test". The title of the second one, by the Associated Press reads "Incidents during the evacuation drill of the A380 in Hamburg: 33 injured".

    The French news agency probably considered the injuries a minor detail not worth mentioning when the vital interests of the Nation are at stake, especially in an economic war against the American imperialists.

    22 March 2006

    Hanuman Center: pictures

    Dear All,

    Same principle with the Hanuman Center as with the Stade Olympique: the photos, all the photos, only the photos. Welcome in!

    Joseph

    The façade.




    The front and the left-hand side of the building.



    The ground floor.




    The staircase leading to the first floor.


    The public space for viewing the archives, on the first floor.





    The central patio as seen on the first floor and the second floor.




    Say goodbye!

    Stade Olympique: pictures

    Dear All,

    Here are all the pictures I took on Sunday morning at the Olympic Stadium. I removed none, consider it as a raw contact print: I only changed slightly the order.

    All the best,

    Joseph


    The following three pictures should be viewed side by side to make a panorama of the sports complex you see when you enter.




    Inside the sports complex and in its surroundings








    The stadium itself







    The swimming pool




    Say goodbye!


    21 March 2006

    Glasses

    For those who follow my blog so closely that they even wonder whether I bought new glasses after I broke the old ones, please do not worry, I have brand new glasses and I'll try to post a picture soon... Joseph

    20 March 2006

    Munich, a film by Steven Spielberg

    On Sunday, after an early start at the swimming pool and the gym (you don't believe it, I don't either), a morning spent at the Stade Olympique learning about and admiring Vann Molyvann's architecture, I undertook to watch Steven Spielberg's movie "Munich".

    With a running time of one hundred and sixty four minutes, it is indeed an undertaking to follow Spielberg into Tony Kushner and Eric Roth's script based on George Jonas's book "Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team".

    The film starts with a reminder of the hostage-taking at the Munich 1972 Olympic Games in which 11 Israeli athletes were targeted and eventually killed.

    I will avoid using the term "terrorist", for the more neutral "armed activist", as we all know that someone's "terrorist" is someone else's "freedom fighter" and conversely.

    Is it an effective policy to avenge the victims or does it only radicalize your ennemies?
    Is it right to kill activists who have killed your countrymen?
    Can you still claim that you are better than your ennemies if you use their methods?
    How far should one go to serve his or her country?
    What is the financial price and the human price it costs a state to kill ennemy activists?
    How does a secret agent know that he or she is targetting really harmful people? The information he got might have been fabricated and he might be about to kill innocent people...
    Can one expect to hunt and kill with the most sophisticated techniques without in turn becoming paranoiac?
    If you're a married man, feeling lonely, away from your family, in a hotel, should you accept when a beautiful unknown woman asks you not to let her sleep alone?

    The film asks all of these questions and answers none of them in a conclusive way (except for the last one: I don't want to spoil the movie for you but the short answer is "no, you shouldn't"!)

    Add more questions to these about the legitimacy of the State of Israel and about whether the Jews renounce their soul when they create a state which will inevitably be responsible for injustice and wrongdoings, including murders of innocent people - and murders of non-innocent people, whether that will at the end of the day be labeled wrongdoing or not.

    You get the idea: if you look for easy answers don't go out of your way to watch this movie. The film made a strong impression on me because the acting is very good and the director managed to convey the points in the action, without too many artificial dialogues nor situations.

    PS:

    To read the opinion of Walter Reich who thinks Spielberg does give answers (and the wrong ones) through what he doesn't tell, read this Washington Post Op-Ed.

    Joseph

    17 March 2006

    Congratulations to my cousin

    My cousin Allegra has a good review in the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune for her latest Book!

    Intuition is about "the relationships between a group of scientists working at a research lab. This institute, a thinly disguised version of the Whitehead in Cambridge, Mass, harbors people working in pursuit of grant dollars, the big discovery, fame, support, or enough money to pay for music seminars. Goodman convincingly illustrates life among the scientists, their post-docs and lab techs, plus their families. " (from the first review on Amazon.com)

    Congratulations!

    14 March 2006

    Silk Island

    Dear All,

    On Sunday I visited the Silk Island, just a few kilometers away from Phnom Penh, on the Mekong river.

    With two comrades from the Khmer lessons, one of them driving me on his motorbike, we toured the island, visited two pagodas, chatted with the inhabitants of the island, drank sugar cane juice and palm juice, and befriended a young man named Daew. He was struggling to pull a cart full of wood when he made a pause next to us, we exchanged a few words and offered our help to carry the wood. It worked out that we could pull his cart with one of the motorbikes which brought us to his home where we had a soup...

    A whole day in the sun made me just a little colored (mostly red) and very tired!

    Maybe my friends' pictures one of these days, I didn't take any.

    Joseph

    Children of Gebelawi

    I read a remarkable novel by Egyptian Nobel-prize-winner Naguib Mahfouz: Children of Gebelaawi (أولاد حارتن). Also known as Children of the Alley (Les fils de la médina in French) it is an amazing mixture of realism and mythology, creating an atmosphere I never found anywhere else.

    In an imaginary district of Cairo named after his founder, Gebelaawi, men live a miserable life of gruelling work and injustice under the rule of the futuwahs, the mercenaries of the intendant. They turn their faces towards the mansion of the founder: "Gebelaawi, where art Thou?" - If He did not conceal His face, He would restore justice.

    The book starts with Adham, younger son of the founder being expelled from the paradisal mansion of his father, Gebelaawi. The three Prophets - or the three Impostors ? - come in turn and restore justice for their family and their followers, although their work never outlives them for more than a generation.

    After every prophet has passed away, hardship of life returns and it is described in such realistic terms that I could not but associate it with that of most Cambodians who, like the Gebelaawites, have to push all day long a heavy cart of vegetables to earn a few riels at the end of the day, while being at the mercy of the wealthy and the corrupt law enforcement.

    I read it in Jean-Patrick Guillaume's French translation which is very good. Apparently, for the English version, one should refer to the Stewart translation if you can get hold of it because it is supposed to be much more interesting than Theroux's.

    12 March 2006

    More about my marriage

    Dear Friends,

    I never expected anyone to believe the news of my marriage, I thought everyone would understand it was a joke.

    But I did get angry messages saying: "I'm not talking to you anymore, you got married without telling me." Or friends writing to say Mazel Tov and who is she, what does she do in life, etc.

    So let me state once and for all that I'm still "un coeur à prendre" (a bachelor in other words) and that the news were a hoax.

    The girl you could see on the picture is my boss. (We got dressed only for the movie we were to play in and had the picture taken while waiting for the car to take us.) She's the author of a book I'm currently reading and which I recommend warmly: "Les ONG occidentales au Cambodge" in which she analyzes the NGOs which are present in Cambodia, their fundings, history, aims, means of actio, etc. It's well written and really interesting.

    Sorry to those who thought at some point I could have got married without even mentioning it to them, thank you for the congratulations of others but you'll have to repeat hopefully some day!

    Joseph in Cambodia

    08 March 2006

    La citation du jour

    "Choisir un CMS (Content Management System), c'est comme choisir un moyen de transport : en fonction de la distance à parcourir, du budget et de l'état de la route on prendra le vélo, la mobylette, la voiture, un 4x4, un autobus ou peut-être des choses plus exotiques comme un dromadaire ou un traîneau à chiens."

    Tout ça pour dire que je me dirige vers MODx dont je suis déjà tombé amoureux (pardon à mon épouse dont je dévoile maintenant le prénom : Sabine, comme le rapt des).

    06 March 2006

    Théâtre d'ombres

    Vendredi soir, activité culturelle typiquement khmère : je suis allé voir un théâtre d'ombres : les acteurs jouent les scènes à l'aide de formes découpées dans du cuir, des deux côtés d'une toile tendue avec l'éclairage venant de derrière. Ils jouaient le Ramayana qui s'appelle ici le Reamker, et il y avait théoriquement des explications en anglais mais au rythme d'une phrase toutes les 10 ou 15 minutes, il n'était pas facile de suivre l'action et je suis parti au bout d'une demi heure...
    C'était néanmoins un spectacle très beau avec la musique et les danses des acteurs.

    Ramayana et Reamker sur Wikipedia anglaise
    Ramayana sur Wikipédia française

    01 March 2006

    Architecture tour (photos)

    Dear all,

    Here come a few pictures of Sunday's architecture tour. They are nothing spectacular but I hope you enjoy them anyway.

    Our group passes a construction site on the way from the Institute of Foreign Languages.


    The group enters the Institute,
    Vann Molyvann's work.


    A close-up view of the main building, with the parking and a pond below.


    The entrance to the Library.



    The entrance to the secondary building.


    A meeting room.


    An office.


    The Royal University.


    Our guides, two architecture students, take us into the amphitheater.


    Our group in the amphitheater, amid renovation works.

    Come and study in Phnom Penh!