Troubles of one.

My mom was in Cambodia for 10 days recently. This enabled me to see Cambodia again through fresh eyes. And it almost brought me (back) to my knees in grief and depression at what I saw. Feelings I had worked through resurfaced, leaving me feeling helpless.  Fortunately, I have a very intelligent friend who directed my attention to the writings of C. Wright Mills, and challenged me to dig deeper into how the history of Cambodia has affected the individual lives of her citizens. After extensive contemplation, this is what I have come up with (prepare yourself, it's a meaty read ... sort of):

       A country is not what it is without the people that inhabit it. Within a country, each individual and family unit has their own troubles that they struggle through each day.  We do not usually think of these individual troubles as being of much concern to the country as a whole because we generally assume life is not easy, everyone has to work hard.  But when an entire country, an entire generation is struggling with the same troubles, this then becomes a social issue that is worthy of addressing to improve the country as a whole (C.Wright Mills, 1959). In the 1970s Cambodia experienced a mass genocide under the rule of Pol Pot that wiped out 25% of the population. Additionally, the UN sent aid to Cambodia in the late 80s adding a wide-spread HIV/AIDS epidemic that has produced yet another generation of orphans. Now, well into the 21st century, Cambodia is made up of peasants, farmers, and orphans struggling to rebuild a country on shaky foundations and questionable sustainability. Present sustainability projects are being devised by various NGO’s to help the Cambodian people rebuild a society that was lost. Never the less, current social issues of poverty and fatherless families are a result of the individuals’ unified troubles creating a vicious cycle as seen over the past 30 years of Cambodia’s history.

During the rule of the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot in the 1970s, one quarter of the population was murdered under the guise of “purification”. This 25% consisted mostly of the educated, middle-, upper-class, former politicians, government workers, and police authorities.  Entire families were murdered for their allegiance to the former government, and many more of the men.  Despite Cambodia’s remarkable recovery in the recent 30 years, the disastrous affects of the resulting fatherless generation remain. Without fathers to protect and lead the family, mothers were required to find a way to earn a living for their families often leaving children to raise each other.  Children in this generation lacked role models, discipline, and education causing them to adopt aggressive behaviours. Futhermore, instances of foreign aid from the UN in the late 1980s are being blamed for the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has again, begun to kill parents and families (I neither agree or disagree with these accusations). Two parentless generations has forced much of the country into a cycle of poverty, trapped by desperation. 

The effects of these orphaned generations has left so many families and individuals suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that which, going untreated, leaves an individual emotionally unavailable and incognizant to the needs of those around them. This means that many family units appear to lack the nurturing environments of unconditional love Western cultures deem appropriate for proper childhood development. In other words, these kids don’t know what it’s like to feel safe and secure. And parents struggle to be what we would consider “good parents”. All because they simply don’t know how to do so.

What does this mean for NGO’s that want to help? C. Wright Mills puts it well:

“It is not only information they need--in this Age of Fact, information often dominates their 

attention and overwhelms their capacities to assimilate it....What they need, and what they 

feel they need, is a quality of mind that will help them to use information and to develop 

reason in order to achieve lucid summations of what is going on in the world and of what 

may be happening within themselves”

In short, Cambodia knows the social issues needing to be faced to be able to progress. But what she also needs are tools to use what she knows, and guidance on how to apply these skills to the personal worlds as well as the social worlds of her citizens. With the help of both well-established NGO’s such as World Vision, and International Justice Mission, and newer, more independent workers such as Place of Rescue (among numerous other orphanages), Cambodia is being pulled up. Slowly, Cambodia is learning to walk again. She may have a visible limp and she may need crutches for now, but the healing has begun. Anyone will admit it is an exhausting fight against various corrupt powers-that-be, but everyday their are rewards in the smallest forms. Cambodia has humbled herself to accept help where she needs it and is beginning to see sustainable results in the form of skilled employment, available university education and the like.

For myself, I came to Cambodia with a passion on my heart to show love and nurturance to the children of one small orphanage. I don’t know what affect my time here will have, although I hope with all my heart something I do will stick. It’s difficult to see the fruit or even really know what I’m doing because of a giant elephant in the room called Language Barrier ... but I’ve found small ways that are having affects. Patiently teaching. Patiently listening. Never hitting the kids (I had a student wince yesterday as I raised my hand to shoo him out of the classroom ... he thought I was going to smack him). 

It’s almost encouraging to know that the troubles we have at our little spot in the country are not only troubles we struggle with but are country-wide issues that are results of a broken and diseased history. The work being done here is good. I pray, for Cambodia’s sake, that she is learning how to walk on her own, without her crutches

(Keep in mind that while I have thrown out some facts from previous studies and historical research, I have not cited them. This is after all, a blog of my own personal opinions ... if you feel the need to verify some of the facts, be my guest!)

Thanks for reading.

-chelsea.