Photos © John Brown All Rights Reserved
"Aw kun" (thank you), said Pgo, 14, as a friend from Australia delivered a large sheet of blue plastic to her shack dwelling family in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. "No problem," replied the woman, an anthropologist who has been studying women's health issues in Cambodia for 15 years. "I hope it helps keep you dry during the rainy season," the woman added.
While many of America's urban dwellers may be experiencing the aftermath of the "mortgage meltdown", in Cambodia, life is a bit different. Undisturbed by the need to make mortgage payments each month, many Cambodians have other concerns to deal with. Seemingly invisible to visitors, locals and institutions known by acronyms, they are people who've slipped through the cracks of urban Cambodian society. Living on side streets and in alleyways, pushed against buildings or relocated to the outskirts of towns, they strive to live normal mortgage free lives while enduring horrendous living conditions.
Ironically, some of these people may legally own property somewhere. When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime came to power in 1975, his doctrine mandated removal of citizens from most cities, forcing them to flee en mass to the countryside. Since hundreds of thousands of these people later died, they never returned to the cities to reoccupy their homes. Neither did thousands of their surviving relatives who sought refuge in other countries. As cities were reoccupied after the Khmer Rouge fell, various individuals and factions took over many of these abandoned dwellings and still occupy them. Poorly kept records or their outright destruction makes establishing legal title one of the most lingering and complex issues facing the reconstruction of Cambodia today.
The People's Predicament
Inflation affects poor urban dwellers in Cambodia perhaps more than any other segment of society. The landless among them are without facility to grow their own food. As prices rise, they're forced to pay the going rate for items they consume. Many hold low paying jobs, scavenge for recyclable material or prepare goods for markets, but these activities don't provide enough income for savings. With homeownership starting at roughly $400 USD for a basic wooden house in many cities, poor urban dwellers can't afford their own homes.
While some families squat in public areas, thereby avoiding rent, others are relegated to renter status, paying up to $20 USD per month to secure space on garbage strewn streets. Whatever the case, after locating a little legroom for themselves, they must fashion some sort of shelter, usually constructed with thin plywood, plastic, canvass, paint cans and blankets. A neighborhood entrepreneur may make water available for 500-1000 riels per bucket, (1 USD = 4000 riels) and some shack dwellers "jury rig" makeshift electricity supplies. Just as people in most places, they have daily routines and their days typically begin with children awakening to search for suitable areas to defecate while mothers cook rice.
Rearranging Life
Other groups of people who are living life on the edge may hold legal and verifiable title to land they formerly occupied, but several large domestic and foreign corporations have managed to "purchase" or lease their land with the aid of the Cambodian government. This development has led to the forced relocation of thousands of Cambodian citizens, and many times the relocation packages are of the "take it or leave it" variety.
If compensation is offered at all, many people are transferred far from the city center. Lacking adequate transportation, those who formerly lived close to markets in order to sell their wares now face figuring out how to survive living beyond the reach of economic activity. Some of these forced evictions have been subject to widespread news coverage due to the numbers affected and sums of money involved, but dozens of others have received scant attention.
Two of the better known cases involve thousands of people in Phnom Penh. One reading a glossy Cambodian magazine may see a colorful full-page ad touting future development projects on tap at 7NG Company. While the page's architectural renditions depict glitzy high-rise office buildings and residential development, they fail to show the ultimate disposition of the people that were forced to make way for modernization.
One of 7NG Company's projects involves Dey Krahorm village in Phnom Penh. Residents endured several tactics designed to make them leave including construction workers equipped with sharpened crowbars and hatchets, electricity shut off and roadblocks that prevented people from delivering goods to market. On January 24, 2009, 7NG Company violently evicted citizens from their homes, and those who didn't accept the monetary compensation offered by 7NG before the eviction won't receive any cash now.
According to licadho.org, a Cambodian Human Rights NGO, Dey Krahorm village residents have been subjected to "a three-year campaign of harassment and intimidation of the community to coerce them to surrender their land to 7NG in return for new apartments on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, 20km away, or cash payments of far below the market value of the land."
Another circumstance involves a 900 million USD ninety-nine year lease awarded to the Shukaku Company for development rights to Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak Lake area. On February 6, 2007 Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema signed away 133 ha of the Boeung Kak Lake area on a ninety-nine year renewable lease to this previously obscure firm whose director is Pheapimex's (Cambodia's largest landowner) Yeay Phu’s husband, Cambodian People’s Party CPP senator Lao Meng Khin.
The Housing Rights Task Force (HRTF), a coalition of local and international NGOs, and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), report that the site is home to at least 4,252 families. According to the NGOs, none of these families were consulted about the deal and even though thousands of people will be forced to move, the lake is being filled with sand and cement.
Some moves barely ripple the waters. In Kampong Cham, where Cambodian President Hun Sen's brother Hun Neng serves as Provincial Governor, 39 families were relocated 9km from their Mekong River shoreline community to an isolated area near the city's outskirts two years ago by a local developer. Mention of the developer's name to residents might evoke the response, "Oh, the tycoon." The Khmer millionaire, owner of two large hotels located in the Cambodian tourist town of Siem Reap, offered to relocate the 250 residents to make way for a 200 plus room hotel.
The relocation package included small plots of land for each family unit, a community water well, plastic sheeting for home construction, and 50 kilograms of rice along with $100 USD per family. Although the mogul delivered on most of his promises, at this writing, the 39 families are collectively awaiting $3900 USD according to the village manager. Others are less fortunate, arriving at their new locations after months of bullying and persecution to find they are without electricity, water, plastic, access to schools or much of anything else.
Corporate Responsibility
Some of the transfer package recipients inevitably leave their small isolated plots behind to search for other accommodations, finally settling in areas near markets. Unfortunately, markets generate tons of trash each day and the refuse has to go somewhere. In Phnom Penh, in many cases, the flotsam eventually finds a home in a dumpster maintained by Cintri Garbage Company.
When the bins are empty they make handy urinals but once full, people dump garbage on the street. Confounding as it may seem, some of these trash receptacles are placed just feet from shack dwellers abodes. Accordingly, they suffer with the health hazards that accompany massive quantities of rotting food, including rodent infestation.
It all makes for unhygienic conditions, since many of the people earn their sustenance preparing food for market by beheading frogs or slicing fresh fish on the very streets the garbage is dumped. People jumping over discarded plastic food bags is a common sight, but some of this waste material is eventually washed away during downpours, clogging storm drains and leading to flooded streets and sidewalks.
You Can't Fight City Hall
Upiasia.com guest commentator Sourn Serey Raha, Chief of Mission of the Action Committee for Justice and Equity for Cambodians Overseas, based in Rhode Island USA stated, "Hun Sen's government has often been accused of corruption, human rights abuses, curtailing people's rights to peaceful protests and forcibly evicting poor citizens off their land so that it can be used for commercial development." The government has dismissed these allegations but being a government worker who looks out for the little person isn't easy in Cambodia.
Mr. Touch (not his real name) was a government employee in Phnom Penh. A photograph of Mr. Touch standing next to one of Cambodian President Hun Sen's brothers adorned a wall in his now shuttered restaurant. Apparently, Mr. Touch didn't think destroying Boeung Kak Lake was such a good idea and he wondered where the people living around the lake would go next. After voicing these concerns to people involved in government policymaking, he was quickly shown the door.
Today, beset with health problems, he's looking for a place to call home sweet home himself.
John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
My Mondo Library Photography
My Photoshelter Photography Archive Homepage
GAIA Photography and Photojournalism
While many of America's urban dwellers may be experiencing the aftermath of the "mortgage meltdown", in Cambodia, life is a bit different. Undisturbed by the need to make mortgage payments each month, many Cambodians have other concerns to deal with. Seemingly invisible to visitors, locals and institutions known by acronyms, they are people who've slipped through the cracks of urban Cambodian society. Living on side streets and in alleyways, pushed against buildings or relocated to the outskirts of towns, they strive to live normal mortgage free lives while enduring horrendous living conditions.
Ironically, some of these people may legally own property somewhere. When Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge regime came to power in 1975, his doctrine mandated removal of citizens from most cities, forcing them to flee en mass to the countryside. Since hundreds of thousands of these people later died, they never returned to the cities to reoccupy their homes. Neither did thousands of their surviving relatives who sought refuge in other countries. As cities were reoccupied after the Khmer Rouge fell, various individuals and factions took over many of these abandoned dwellings and still occupy them. Poorly kept records or their outright destruction makes establishing legal title one of the most lingering and complex issues facing the reconstruction of Cambodia today.
The People's Predicament
Inflation affects poor urban dwellers in Cambodia perhaps more than any other segment of society. The landless among them are without facility to grow their own food. As prices rise, they're forced to pay the going rate for items they consume. Many hold low paying jobs, scavenge for recyclable material or prepare goods for markets, but these activities don't provide enough income for savings. With homeownership starting at roughly $400 USD for a basic wooden house in many cities, poor urban dwellers can't afford their own homes.
While some families squat in public areas, thereby avoiding rent, others are relegated to renter status, paying up to $20 USD per month to secure space on garbage strewn streets. Whatever the case, after locating a little legroom for themselves, they must fashion some sort of shelter, usually constructed with thin plywood, plastic, canvass, paint cans and blankets. A neighborhood entrepreneur may make water available for 500-1000 riels per bucket, (1 USD = 4000 riels) and some shack dwellers "jury rig" makeshift electricity supplies. Just as people in most places, they have daily routines and their days typically begin with children awakening to search for suitable areas to defecate while mothers cook rice.
Rearranging Life
Other groups of people who are living life on the edge may hold legal and verifiable title to land they formerly occupied, but several large domestic and foreign corporations have managed to "purchase" or lease their land with the aid of the Cambodian government. This development has led to the forced relocation of thousands of Cambodian citizens, and many times the relocation packages are of the "take it or leave it" variety.
If compensation is offered at all, many people are transferred far from the city center. Lacking adequate transportation, those who formerly lived close to markets in order to sell their wares now face figuring out how to survive living beyond the reach of economic activity. Some of these forced evictions have been subject to widespread news coverage due to the numbers affected and sums of money involved, but dozens of others have received scant attention.
Two of the better known cases involve thousands of people in Phnom Penh. One reading a glossy Cambodian magazine may see a colorful full-page ad touting future development projects on tap at 7NG Company. While the page's architectural renditions depict glitzy high-rise office buildings and residential development, they fail to show the ultimate disposition of the people that were forced to make way for modernization.
One of 7NG Company's projects involves Dey Krahorm village in Phnom Penh. Residents endured several tactics designed to make them leave including construction workers equipped with sharpened crowbars and hatchets, electricity shut off and roadblocks that prevented people from delivering goods to market. On January 24, 2009, 7NG Company violently evicted citizens from their homes, and those who didn't accept the monetary compensation offered by 7NG before the eviction won't receive any cash now.
According to licadho.org, a Cambodian Human Rights NGO, Dey Krahorm village residents have been subjected to "a three-year campaign of harassment and intimidation of the community to coerce them to surrender their land to 7NG in return for new apartments on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, 20km away, or cash payments of far below the market value of the land."
Another circumstance involves a 900 million USD ninety-nine year lease awarded to the Shukaku Company for development rights to Phnom Penh's Boeung Kak Lake area. On February 6, 2007 Phnom Penh Governor Kep Chuktema signed away 133 ha of the Boeung Kak Lake area on a ninety-nine year renewable lease to this previously obscure firm whose director is Pheapimex's (Cambodia's largest landowner) Yeay Phu’s husband, Cambodian People’s Party CPP senator Lao Meng Khin.
The Housing Rights Task Force (HRTF), a coalition of local and international NGOs, and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights (CCHR), report that the site is home to at least 4,252 families. According to the NGOs, none of these families were consulted about the deal and even though thousands of people will be forced to move, the lake is being filled with sand and cement.
Some moves barely ripple the waters. In Kampong Cham, where Cambodian President Hun Sen's brother Hun Neng serves as Provincial Governor, 39 families were relocated 9km from their Mekong River shoreline community to an isolated area near the city's outskirts two years ago by a local developer. Mention of the developer's name to residents might evoke the response, "Oh, the tycoon." The Khmer millionaire, owner of two large hotels located in the Cambodian tourist town of Siem Reap, offered to relocate the 250 residents to make way for a 200 plus room hotel.
The relocation package included small plots of land for each family unit, a community water well, plastic sheeting for home construction, and 50 kilograms of rice along with $100 USD per family. Although the mogul delivered on most of his promises, at this writing, the 39 families are collectively awaiting $3900 USD according to the village manager. Others are less fortunate, arriving at their new locations after months of bullying and persecution to find they are without electricity, water, plastic, access to schools or much of anything else.
Corporate Responsibility
Some of the transfer package recipients inevitably leave their small isolated plots behind to search for other accommodations, finally settling in areas near markets. Unfortunately, markets generate tons of trash each day and the refuse has to go somewhere. In Phnom Penh, in many cases, the flotsam eventually finds a home in a dumpster maintained by Cintri Garbage Company.
When the bins are empty they make handy urinals but once full, people dump garbage on the street. Confounding as it may seem, some of these trash receptacles are placed just feet from shack dwellers abodes. Accordingly, they suffer with the health hazards that accompany massive quantities of rotting food, including rodent infestation.
It all makes for unhygienic conditions, since many of the people earn their sustenance preparing food for market by beheading frogs or slicing fresh fish on the very streets the garbage is dumped. People jumping over discarded plastic food bags is a common sight, but some of this waste material is eventually washed away during downpours, clogging storm drains and leading to flooded streets and sidewalks.
You Can't Fight City Hall
Upiasia.com guest commentator Sourn Serey Raha, Chief of Mission of the Action Committee for Justice and Equity for Cambodians Overseas, based in Rhode Island USA stated, "Hun Sen's government has often been accused of corruption, human rights abuses, curtailing people's rights to peaceful protests and forcibly evicting poor citizens off their land so that it can be used for commercial development." The government has dismissed these allegations but being a government worker who looks out for the little person isn't easy in Cambodia.
Mr. Touch (not his real name) was a government employee in Phnom Penh. A photograph of Mr. Touch standing next to one of Cambodian President Hun Sen's brothers adorned a wall in his now shuttered restaurant. Apparently, Mr. Touch didn't think destroying Boeung Kak Lake was such a good idea and he wondered where the people living around the lake would go next. After voicing these concerns to people involved in government policymaking, he was quickly shown the door.
Today, beset with health problems, he's looking for a place to call home sweet home himself.
John Brown Photojournalist On LIGHTSTALKERS
My Mondo Library Photography
My Photoshelter Photography Archive Homepage
GAIA Photography and Photojournalism
No comments:
Post a Comment