National Bank of Cambodia in Battambang
The most charitable reaction I can attribute to someone’s recent comment to me is that I was taken aback. Somehow, it seemed like a criticism, and whose skin is thinner than mine?
What that acquaintance said is my blog seems to center on money. “It does,” I thought? How can that be?” Then I thought again.
Perhaps he’s right. After all, one of the several important reasons for moving to Cambodia was money: to ensure that I would be able to live well and also have sufficient funds to last my life. Yet I have to label that explanation both banal and superficial.
It may be more to the point to recognize that I am kind of an idealist — a characteristic that led me to my original career as a journalist — who can be pretty judgmental about what I see around me. If money is, indeed, the root of all evil, I have to concede that much of what I observe and chronicle in Cambodia centers on that root and all that issues from it — the trunk, the branches and leaves, each of them reflecting their source.
Looking back , I note that many of my posts touch on the following subjects:
- Corruption in business
- Corruption in government
- Poverty
- The elite
- Runaway building development
- Education
- Exploitation of women and children
- Disregard for the environment
- Loansharks
- Counterfeit goods
You can see, as I now do, that they center on money from one direction or another — whether the poor or the rich. Certainly, I have no intention of refraining from writing about conditions here.
Not only will I find it all but impossible to avoid venting my (arguably naïve) sense of indignation; it is fair to say that I hope my readers will share it. Maybe they — you — will be moved to effect positive change in an arena where I happen to feel increasingly unable to do so personally.
Yet I confess this: I am not all that hopeful.
Email: malcolmncarter@gmail.com
I, on Cambodia 