News about Japan's catastrophe take front pages of Cambodian papers

Regarding focus of Cambodian media on this tragedy, news angles seems to be anything on the updates of the situation—death toll, possible nuclear explosion and rescue efforts etc.

Despite appearing regularly on news pages and programs, it is apparent that Cambodian media do not treat this tragedy as anything more than one nation’s disaster. This may be due to the on-going affair that Cambodia is having with Thailand over the border dispute.

However, there are those who take the stories to their heart. These often are younger people with more active participation in any kind of national and world event.

Posts by one Cambodian Facebook user about Japan's disaster

They use new media and its applications to retrieve news and spread words on Japan’s event. Facebook is yet again the tool of choice for these people to express their condolence and call for supports for Japan. Beside this, there are those who use twitters to get updates of the event from major newspaper and media outlets.

With news related to Japan appearing every day, Cambodian media show their interest and effort to report more on world’s events despite their apparent challenges in both skills and resources.

Many women are raising to the top now in Cambodia. Chim Sreymao, a 37 year-old platoon leader in the CMAC, is one of them; but her story of success has a very unlikely beginning. Having only a grade 8 education, Sreymao started out as a cleaner in the CMAC in 1996. Her wish then was to find enough money to feed her hungry family. “My family was very poor. I had an old mother and another three siblings. My father passed away long ago,” says Sreymao.

After four years in that position, Sreymao made a big leap in her work which also changed her life. She left behind the brushes and brooms to apply for a deminer position even if it would mean she might have to work in the mine fields. “My family debt was mounting and that was what mattered. I did not care if I had to work with mines.”

She passed the exam and received one year training to become a deminer working with a mine-sniffing dog. In 2001, Sreymao started her first mission in the field, a mine field. “I was a bit frightened then not only of the mines but also of snakes and other venomous animals.” However, against all odds, she continued her operation and started to like her job.

With a good deal of experiences and very strong commitment, Sreymao has cleared the mines and her way to become a platoon leader in March 2005.

“With recommendation from my supervisor, I was promoted to be a group leader. Though I have always been trying very hard with my job, getting this position was far beyond my expectation,” says Sreymao.

Besides her previous work, there is other office work for her to do. She always takes some of her busy time to go to the field and monitor her group member’s work. Sreymao also helps her colleagues with advices and encouragement. “I often tell my female staff that women with less education receive little or no respect in work. So, I want them to prove that they may be weak in physical strength but not in knowledge.”

Sreymao is always optimistic about things and wants to learn more. She says she is ready to accept if the opportunity presents itself. “Though I am not planning to change my career, I still want to get new experience in different job related to mine clearing such as managing heavy machinery and so on,” says Sreymao.

Calling herself rock-turned-diamond, Sreymao accredits her success to her supervisors and her colleagues. “I will not upset them. I’m committed to doing a good job and taking full responsibility for my position,” she promises.

With millions of land mines scattering in Cambodia’s land, Sreymao’s work is nowhere near the end. For her, there are more work to do and more challenges to overcome, both personally as a woman and professionally as a deminer.

I have found out many things. During my research about Germany, I found some interesting facts about this country.

What did I find most interesting, strange, funny, awkward?

I have had Pauline as a partner in this course which is really interesting. She has told me a lot about life as a university student and as a German individual. I think life there is interesting in a way and busy in another. Pauline told about having to study with one lecturer for the whole day. It must have been very tiring, if not boring .:D Anyway, What I found funny about German people is that when I produced a video about bugs and insects that Cambodian eat, I was told that German people do not eat these and are even scary of them. I don’t know about them but I like these bugs…:D

What was easy, what was difficult in the communication process?

The easy part in this course is that we don’t have too many things to do. This is more like finding a friend and keep communicate with him/her. So, it is not an additional burden to my study. However, there are some drags too. The obvious one is the limitation of communicaiton caused by the low capacity of the internet here in Cambodia. There are a lot more technical problems for us to overcome to have a smoother and better communication with people abroad.

What would I still like to find out from the other students?

Oh I really want to know if other students feel interested in this course too. I mean I really feel that this course has helped me understand more about Germany students and also how to communicate across the continental and cultural border.

It goes without saying that life is the longest journey one can possibly have. When I say “the longest” I mean in term of both time and distance. Who would say that fifty or sixty is a short time? And if we travel one mile a day, how many will we have done at the end? So, most of us have tens of years and thousands of miles to go; though we might spend our time and walk our ways differently from one another. A lot can happens during all these years—good things and bad things. We can only wish that we have more good than bad. But, no matter how long it seems, this journey is still not long for some people, if not all. There are always things left undone because of our negligence, forgetfulness or by other reasons. Therefore, to make our journeys worthwhile and reduce the undone, we should always do what we are supposed to do. Never procrastinate.

A long journey will become so boring if it is always on the same old route. A lot of people are worrying about security instead of opportunity. They appear to be more afraid of life than death. So, my idea is to take the most fun out of my life by exploring new experiences every time possible. Whether I spend our life sitting in our houses or go hiking in the mountains the ultimate result is the same: I am going to die. Why should I miss the joys that I can have? I always want to have more spices in my life. Whenever the opportunity presents itself, I always seize it because, to me, there is never a second same chance for anything. Many times I hear people say that their jobs “suck” which simply means they dislike what they are doing. Likewise, because I have to live my life so many years from now, I do not want it to “suck”. I would rather be someone for a day than no one for my whole life. 

I want my life to be adventurous but not dangerous which is why I need to always know where I am going. That calls for thorough planning. I would not mind taking new and different way as long as it leads to my destination or, in plain word, my goal. One may say that having comprehensive plans will kill all the joys and excitement of exploring new things. However, that is just not true. Planning is the core of every success, not to mention your goals in life. Just imagine driving along an endless road without knowing where we are heading. Isn’t it more like losing our way rather than enjoying the trip? In order to have a chance to get more thrills of life and achieve our ambitions, we need to make sure that what we are doing is not the last thing we can do. First we plan then we play.

Despite the fact that I have been trying to live my life up to my self-defined meaning, I always open up and welcome anything that will improve my life. Also, I believe and respect that different people have different definition of their lives. What it all boils down to is that no matter what our meaning of life is, we all share the same ultimate goal to live this life happily. And to me, I just want to make myself worthwhile by getting the most out of my life. As I always believe in learning by doing, I would say that only by fully living our life will we be able to understand the meaning of life