Cambodia: what tourists don't see

via Boon Teoh

Tuesday, 3 January 2012, 20:17

People, if this posting does not open your eyes, I don't know what will.

As side tour to Angkor Wat, tourists should be taken to see this community.

Millions of USD from the Worldwide Funds is spent on reviving the temple but none to feed this people???

Are we getting our priorities all wrong?????????????

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Just 30 kilometres from Cambodia's world famous Angkor temples is an astounding sight tourists don't see.

 

Tucked away from foreign eyes on the outskirts of Siem Reap is a community of about 500 people who live - or survive - in a rubbish dump.

 

Spanish photojournalist Omar Havana spent seven months from October 2010 to April 2011 getting to know the people at the dump and documenting their lives.

He says what he saw was was "from another world", but that the people are happy.

Here Havana shares his photos and stories with ABC News Online.

Photo: Children and parents sift for food. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

One day in Cambodia a boy told me he had been living for many years in the rubbish dumps. I tried hard to get permission to visit them but I didn’t, so I made the decision to go without permission. What I saw there was from another world.

In total there are about 500 people working there, most of whom also live, sleep, eat and drink there. After working for several months in the dumps I even saw a child birth.

Photo: A woman feeds a baby under a shelter at the dump. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

With 34 per cent of the total population living on less than $1 a day, those in the dumps, at least they can find food and shelter. They earn about 35 cents per day for 14 hours' work.

Photo: A boy scales a bin in search of food. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

They are nomads. They move from dump to dump when the one they're at is full, normally every four years or so. Their whole life they are living in the dumps; they just move from one to another.

Photo: A young girl smiles, surrounded by waste. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

They are normal people. Most of the little children are aged between three and 15 and they are always smiling - that was what shocked me most.

The smell is so strong that it gets into your throat. You can taste the smell. Your eyes become full of tears. It is awful, but with time you get used to it.

Photo: People scrounge for food as fresh waste arrives. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

One day a little boy carrying a bag of blood asked me why the people in my country never smile. I didn’t know what to answer. While he looked at the blood he was carrying as a treasure to eat, he explained to me 'I smile all the time, I’m lucky. Today I’m going to eat this and tomorrow I will see the sun again'.

Photo: A boy shows off his find. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

They seem immune from the rubbish. Normal sickness is rare; more common is diarrhoea and stomach illness or colds. Something very common there is to suffer cuts and bruises, as most of the children are barefoot in the middle of tonnes of rubbish.

Photo: Two young friends embrace. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

Basically the dump is their shopping centre. Everything that they need to survive comes from the dump. They always tell me that they are lucky if they find bananas because they are clean under the skin.

Photo: A woman fetches water. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

The rubbish is coming from Siem Reap, the main tourist city in Cambodia, where there are many hotels including a few that have rooms for over $1,500 a night. It is a city of almost 150,000 people.

Photo: A pile of scraps. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

They deserve to be known, they deserved to have a voice, and I think their smiles are the best way they can show themselves. They are happy just because tomorrow they will see the sun.

Photo: A young girl sits among the rubbish. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

I have to be honest, I didn’t find that place sad. I was happy every time that I was with the people living there.

Photo: Girl laughs while rummaging for food. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

The sadness and the tears come after, when you are in your hotel room surrounded by material things and you don’t see the smiles and the faces of the people living there come to your memory - that is when the sadness invades you.

Photo: Children of the dump. (Supplied: Omar Havana)

I call Cambodia the Forgotten World. With photography we cannot change the world, but we can change minds and touch hearts. That is the reason why I’m a photographer ... to give a voice to those in silence.

 

Malaysia: Most Haunted Places 

1. Highland Towers, Genting
The famous Highland Towers. In 1993, a whole block collapsed, leading to 48 deaths and from then on, multiple reports of hauntings and things that go bump in the night. Now, especially since that the apartment isn’t exactly in the best shape and is surrounded by overgrown jungle, Highland Towers might just give you one heck of a shock the next time you’re there. 

2. Abandoned Bungalows, Bangsar
This location couldn’t be pinpointed by the source over at a local online forum, but reportedly has djinn, pontianak, and other spirits haunting these Bungalows. There’s a slew of the other stories around the abandoned bungalows, notably a story about a guard going crazy and murdering some children 

3. Kellies Castle, Perak While there’s never been a sighting at Kellies Castle, there are reports of doors opening and closing on their own, as well as piercing screams in the middle of the night. Creepy enough! 

4. St. Michael’s Institution, Ipoh A school built in 1912 by Catholic missionaries, St. Michael’s Institution was used as a base for the Japanese in WWII, and was also reported a torture chamber. Till this day, it’s said a monk can be seen praying in the fourth floor chapel, headless. Yeah, seriously. 

 

5. Karak Highway The Karak Highway is home to numerous freak accidents and paranormal activity, with drivers reporting the invisible presence of ‘another person’ with them, whether it be a car or motorcycle. Beyond that, there’s an urban legend of a yellow Volkswagen that may chase you on the highway- carrying a ghostly passenger. 

6. Lady Templer Hospital, Cheras Apparently haunted by a ghost of an old lady, the Cheras Policlinic (as it’s also known) may be inhospitable for the intrepid ghost hunter- some eyewitness accounts place the ghost as unwelcoming to ‘cari pasal’ ghosthunters. 

7. Villa Nabila, Johor Bahru
Situated on a hillside facing Johor’s popular Danga Bay, Villa Nabila is prime property, which may lend credence to the stories that it’s haunted, as a prime property house like that isn’t commonly abandoned. Apparently the family home to a rich family, the house was robbed and the occupants killed, leading to it’s current haunting at the hands of the restless souls within. Some intrepid ghost hunters have reportedly gotten ‘lost’ in the villa, only to escape at dawn, and no sooner. 

8. Aeroplane Bungalow (Mona Fendy’s house), Behind Leisure Point, Cheras
For those who don’t know, Mona Fandey was a popular bomoh back in the 90′s, and reportedly used black arts to help many politicians achieve power. She was executed in 2001 for murdering politician Mazlan Idris in 1993 while conducting a ceremony to invest him with power. It’s reported that Mona, along with her husband, had Mazlan lie down while they conducted a ceremony, before dismembering and partially skinning Mazlan. At her execution, she claimed “I will never die,†and her house is supposedly haunted due to the black arts she practices there.

Say bye-bye to Uric-acid problems...Gouts, etc....!!!
 
 Just try if you've got uric acid after all no harm done.
 This is a really effective, just mix green papaya cubes to the ordinary
green tea, my cousin brother tried and found it very effective. I have also
shared with a friend with gout to try this (his "toe joints" started to
deform), after a week of drinking this formula there is significant
improvement, after two weeks the toe joints heal and revert to normal state.
It is almost three years now, the joint pain is gone, but he maintains the
intake between 1-3 times monthly to avoid relapse.
 Other friends suffering from years of gout problem have also recovered. It
is good for all, even those without gout.

 Good formula! Do share with the people in need!

 An improved sequence by Professor Lai from the China School of Pharmacy :

 *Cut green papaya into small cubes, place into the water, bring to boil,
then add green tea leaves, similar to the tea-making process. *Clinical
tests show that this brings better effects *for treatment of gout*, subject
to frequent drinking of this formula.
 Mr. Liu Qing, Chief of the Rende Town in Tainan, was suffering for years
from severe stomach pain around the posterior wall of stomach. He used green
papaya as a tea pot to prepare the family tea daily, after a month his
chronic disease condition was much improved. His family members with high
uric acid were also healed by the same papaya tea. For this Mr. Liu planted
a lot of papaya to share with relatives and friends with similar sickness.

 According to Mr. Liu, in selection of the green papaya as tea pot, pick
those the shape of which is fat and short, with larger capacity. Cut off the
top part of the papaya, clear away the seeds, open a small hole at the upper
side wall to facilitate pouring of tea. Create a small ventilation hole at
top cover, put in the tea leaves, pour in boiling water, place the top cover
back to papaya, you may use the toothpicks to secure the top cover. Similar
to normal process of preparing tea.

 Liu like to use Oolong tea as the taste is good. He was pleasantly
surprised that the stomach pains he suffered for many years was healed after
a month of drinking tea from the green papaya pot, without taking any other
medication. He passed some green papaya leaves to a friend who worked at a
Medical Center to test and analyse the content. The tests confirmed that the
healthy enzyme present in papaya is beneficial to human health. Now as
papaya in Mr. Liu's orchard is yeilding suitable size fruits, he would share
the fruits with family and friends.

 Xu Fuchang, an experienced papaya farmer, said the green papaya refers to
papaya that is not ripe, where the skin is still green in colour. Generally,
the papaya takes about four months to fully mature and ripe, but the healing
effect would be lost after it is fully ripe. Green papaya should be
harvested when the papaya is approximately three months old, when the fruit
is still firm, and the "papaya milk" contains high papaya enzyme and other
healthy ingredients.
 Not only the green papaya can be used in tea drinking, you may also cut
them into cubes, and boil with the ribs, or even slicing the green papaya
into fine long pieces and fried with garlic, very tasty, and no adverse
effects on the human body.

CHINA..............

Don't matter whoever invented whatever in centuries past. 

It is whoever capitalised whatever past invention to propel forward into the future that matters most.

Cheers!

China has 19% of the world’s population, but consumes

... 53% of the world's cement
... 48% of the world's iron ore
... 47% of the world's coal
... and the majority of just about every major commodity.

In 2010, China produced 11 times more steel than the United States.

New World Record: China made and sold 18 million vehicles in 2010.

China currently has the world’s fastest train and the world’s largest

high-speed rail network.

China is currently the number one producer in the world of wind

and solar power.

  

China currently controls more than 90% of the total global supply of rare earth elements.

In the past 15 years, China has moved from 14th place to 2nd place

in the world in published scientific research articles.

 

China now possesses the fastest supercomputer on the entire globe.

As at the end of March 2011, China has accumulated US$3.04 trillion in foreign currency reserves - the largest stockpile on the entire globe.

Chinese consume 50,000 cigarettes every second …Not an enviable

record though …

Malaysian Cartoons

 

Another way of looking at the present situation in Malaysia. Hope all of you will enjoy these witty cartoons.

Hahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaa.

"Anything that happens is determined by the presence of the necessary conditions." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Royal Palace for the Malaysian King

New Royal Palace for the Malaysian King

Original cost was supposed to be RM500 millions but end up RM935 millions!!!

  

THE NEW (Rm935m?) PALACE! Wow!!