Weight
February 19th, 2008 at 7:26 am (Progress, cambodia, thailand, travel)
There’s been too much happening in the past two weeks to adequately represent in a blog post. In short, I’ve been thinking about:
- the Khmer Rouge and how deeply they destroyed Cambodia in the 70s and onwards. You look in the faces of the people who are older than 35 or so and wonder what their stories are. And they all have stories. Our tuktuk driver’s parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge and buried in the Killing Fields. A policeman we met at Angkor, his parents were killed by the US bombing in Cambodia, and his siblings by the Khmer Rouge. He’s been in the army on both sides, and then as a policeman, to keep himself from getting killed as well. What does this do to a nation’s collective psyche? Horrifying and sad.
- the stark difference between Cambodia (and Laos) and Thailand, even when you first cross the border, and then especially when you compare Phnom Penh to Bangkok. Two different worlds entirely.
- plastic, trash, landscapes, and pollution.
- Communism. Capitalism. Progress. Modernity. Constructed authenticity.
- a seemingly infinite amount of other subjects and nuances on these subjects.
Massive topics that are all essayable, but I’m not really in the place to write essays right now. Good fodder for future conversations at least, and a whole hell of a lot to think about.