The Post Article

This is the Link to the article but I posted it below for your reading enjoy ment. http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012072557588/Lifestyle/cambodians-and-expatriates-take-back-the-night.html 

Cambodians and expatriates take back the night

Wednesday, 25 July 2012 Dagmarah Mackos

Even a newcomer to Cambodia is familiar with one grim fact about the country: its reputation of widespread sexual violence and human trafficking.

With a refreshing take at tackling this throbbing issue, last week several NGOs joined forces with Cambodian and international artists hoping to reach a larger audience through visual arts and discussion.

Take Back the Night, a global-scale initiative, saw its local incarnation from July 18 to 21 through a series of special events organised by Artworks for Freedom, within the framework of Meta House’s month-long Free Your Minds Festival.

AWFF founder Kay Chernush said she wanted to breathe new life into an old issue, and “involve many artistic expressions, so that it could provide new entry points into a very dark subject that some people don’t know about or don’t want to know about”.

Her idea materialised in the intimate setting of Phnom Penh’s Meta House where a small group of foreign and Cambodian guests delved into the horrors of victims’ lives as they watched Fields of Mudan – a short drama about a young girl whose dreams of a better life are ruined by the brutal reality of a Chinese brothel.

Dancing boys of Afghanistan, a documentary by Afghan journalist Najibullah Quraishi, followed suit, and long-standing NGOs like Action pour les Enfants continued with a slide show and discussion on their work around the issue.

The more curious visitor would have been drawn to the colourful T-shirts hanging innocently on laundry ropes – a display prepared by two American activists, Elizabeth Johnk and Eileen McCormick, and a handful of Cambodian volunteers who succeeded in convincing child victims to pour their feelings onto the garment canvas.

It’s the second time that the young international social workers, who aren’t affiliated with any local organisation, focus their efforts on a problem which they believe hasn’t been adequately addressed despite many existing initiatives.

But if the cause is admirable, they admit that touching gender issues in a foreign land is often frowned upon.

“We put up with all the expats who were saying they had already helped the orphans. Some people would simply say it’s a stupid idea,” said Johnk, adding that she’s even been called a “feminazi” by critics.

So can foreign hands meddling with what may be perceived as local traditions or customs do any good? As the old controversy rages on, these activists trust that “there’s a respectful way to go about it”.

“Adults and children from all different backgrounds participate in a project like this and even if they’re only thinking about this on a slightly different level than before, I guess I’m OK with that,” said Johnk, who is looking forward to next year’s challenge. 

Meta House Opening

I think I mentioned a few times about the 2^nd part to my take back the night project and it went down this past month. There was a free your mind exhbit and we got to part take in it by adding the shirts from take back the night. For a few month we have been putting this together designing how we would set up the rope etc and there was also a slideshow to show the making of the project how it started sort of a deal which I posted up already try to let it fully load before you play it. The slideshow took a supper long time to make because choosing music to fit the situation I have a new found appreciation for movie and tv shows who ever job it is to pick the music. Well I wanted the volunteers to come but in order to this I had to suck up the cost of 40 dollars to rent out a van which pretty much put me and broke this month luckily today I get paid bc I ran out of money on my phone and internet and have been counting down to be able to buy more time for both. Along with the volunteers from my village coming my students came as well o yea I guess I might not have mentioned but in order to afford Khmer lesson I am exchanging that for me teaching one hour of conversational eng everyday. Well me and my khmer tutor thought it would be a good experience to let the students come to the art gallery to one see what an art gallery is and two practices there English with people from other countries. However I had to go in early to Phnom Penh to set up and that left me in trusting my khmer tutor to make sure everyone was on time and left when I said which NATURALLY DID NOT OCCURE SIGH. Well that morning me and liz waited around for meta house staff to set up the rope etc which took far longer then excepted then liz had to run off to work that’s the thing about being a pcv lots and lots of time to do the little stuff that people who have a real job cant do. Part of the exhibit we took close up pictures of people and cut out the eyes and placed mirrors in them and placed them on the line a lot of people seemed to really freak out when looking at these pictures. We did this to symbolize how violence is not happening to only one person but all of us and if you had to see your self though a victims eyes what would you do? Well that night when the event started not that many people showed up and my Khmer tutor left an hour late so that screwed up things. With traffic and everything else they did not make my part of the show so to speak there was other ngos and presenters there to show a movie and sex trafficking which they did make the students had a lot to say about the movie. One of the NGO’s APLE went out of there way once they realized I brought villages in to have everything translated into khmer which I thought was really nice. I know that seems something that should be protocol but honestly in the Ngo expat community it tends to be English only =( and most people don’t care or think about making it in the local la. Well the event over all was pretty uneventful the people who did come thought it was an interesting way to educate about violence in Cambodia the Phnom Penh Post came and while she was not planning on it she started to interview people and write up an article on the project ill post that in another post. We tried to sell shirts etc to make money for next year but that was a fail. I felt sort of bad by the time we got back to the village it was 11 at night I hope the students parents were not to mad at me I think it was an over all good experience until next time peace out from the other side of the world!

Summation of this summer thus far

This summer has been flying by with colors and sorry to report I have not kept you updated. First ill go into the cream of wheat guy came back aka my host sisters husband always a ranging good time. Issues number one everyone seems to assume bc I am American and he is America we will get along and have a great time. Things they fail to see he is as old as my dad speaks supper slow is racist and is not capable as seeing Khmer people as people. If this is all coming out bitter it’s because this last trip was a real dammed if you do dammed if you don’t type of situation or in khmer as they say on land there is tiger in water there is crocodile. This time around he took away the little candor he had the first time he came to vist and this caused a lot of issues for jentee and they’re for me. How to explain everything first ill start with “saving face” this is a khmer cultural concept that is used all the time and the rules are real hard to follow and I mess up on them all the time in all honesty ex if someone wrongs you its you who will lose face if you yell at them in public so basically being pissed off in public is bad. Well cream of wheat guy was pissed the whole time it rained to much he didt want to be in the village he didt want to be around chury the 3 year old or around my host mom the list goes on. However he did not just act agitated but stomping feet etc like a child who is not getting what they want. Now to save his face jentee says he is not angry im supposed to go along with this however here is the dammed if you do dammed if you don’t situation in America when someone is that pissed and you ignore them and treat them like a child it is really insulting and rude. Well I thought it was to obvious to play dumb and I hate how Jentee goes into denial with cream of wheat guy about almost EVERYTHING and it for the most part is actually hurting her relationship by American standards and in my option a form of self mutilation at best. My actions where the following I told him I understood even if most times he was being rude and to the people around him he was offending just saying he doesn’t understand and is slow. Well this makes jentee lose face bc you know saying someone is stupid is not nice in any culture but cream of wheat dude is not normal that’s all I know but ironically thinks he is soo much smarter then Khmer people it’s a train rec to watch. If you think this is all bad it gets worse well for someone like me I guess its no shocker to most of you but I have a pretty big hang up on human rights and even more so in women’s rights and while it takes every fiber of my being to tolerate him but for him to talk to me about his moral objectification to prostitution is where I went in the bathroom and scream no really. I don’t think I had any conversation that was not worry some however him telling me how much he thinks guys who sleep with prostitutes and especially child prostitutes should have there dick chopped off and how he wanted me to know that women get sold in Cambodia all the time…. I AM NOT KIDDING YOU I left went to the bathroom screamed came back out and then asked him about marrying someone he knew for 2 secs hoping he would connect the dots no such luck. I could go on about cream of wheat dude but ill spare you instead he informed me he was not coming back to Cambodia until my host sister has her interview which I don’t know if that will happen bc all the document I told him to bring where supposed to be new and he brought the ones from 2007 I swear I think he is playing stupid or something with me I cant figure cream of wheat dude out but it reminds me of the book of 48 laws of power. Well there is always two sides to every story right and seeing it from not the same cultural view point inevitable leads to issues which is was happened with me and my host sister jentee both of us were deff not exactly happen with each other but I just sat her down which im sure is not culturally the thing to do but I don’t care and just sort of hacked out a lot of stuff and things have been really good now with me and her. On other news the Asean meeting took place and Hillary Cliniton was in Cambodia at the last min Peace Corps invited some volunteers from a lotto system to attend a small meet and greet with her and I was lucky enough to get picked.  It was held at the Raffle’s Hotel with a small group of people about 60 people all embassy workers and a special photo op setup for the kids of the embassy workers. Security was tight we had to show up real early and wait for a few hours then after had to wait more time so she could take more pictures out side the door with the military staff. Meeting her was interesting she has such a stoic clam presence and I thought it interesting to see how they “made her up” for south east Asian culture what I mean by this is she had on just the type of clothes and makeup that impress Cambodians her hair was slicked back and she wore this huge diamond necklace that the American media would have crucified her or any politicians for wearing. She only spoke for like 10 mins and it was pretty typical stuff of where Cambodia was and where they are now and how America played a role in helping achieve that. I mean don’t get me wrong I get its all saying shit for political stuff but its like every country not just American that comes into Cambodia says the same stuff and never calls out how corrupt so much of this stuff really is. However I also realize I am no better bc I have to work with in the system to. Some good new I found an apartment its 3 bed rooms wrap around porch and even has hot water in it!!!!! Its supper nice im sharing it with Liz and her boy friend Pon its all been exciting. My Khmer tutors younger brother just recently informed me about some course being offered in development at a local university that is made by NYU staff so me and him are planning to take some classes in the fall together I guess I should mention its taught in English and the classes are offered on weekends and I think it could be interesting to take a few classes to get a better handle on grant writing and development in general so these are I guess what im working towards for next year. Until next time peace out from the other side of the world! 

shaking hands 

my host moms 65th bday

kids playing jump rope

jentu made it to the party from the rain

a storm is coming 

Meta House Slideshow TBTN

So this is the Slideshow we had playing the night of the opening at Meta House I will update a full blog soon about the Exhibit with pictures until then enjoy the slide show!