When Jon and I planned to go to Cambodia, our main focus was seeing Angkor Wat as well as the other historic and majestic temples outside of Siam Reap. I knew that genocide had once been a harsh reality for Cambodians, but outside of vaguely remembering the chorus of a hardcore song "Holiday in Cambodia," I was pretty clueless. Little did I know that Phnom Penh (Cambodia's capital) was the target of mass genocide a mere 30-ish years ago. Americans mostly focus on the war in Vietnam when remembering international politics in the 1970s, but just next door the Khmer Rouge (a Marxist-Stalinist anti-capitalist group) was starting "year zero" to wipe out all currency and all forms of "traditional" ties to the government and the culture. This entailed rounding up the "old people" (urbanites, intellectuals, foreigners, old and young...), torturing them systematically, and killing them all....approximately 2 million of them.
How did I miss this? How could every one of the numerous history courses I took in middle school, high school, and college (as well as my various interactions with news) fail to include even a mentioning of this tragic occurrence? If I did come across it, perhaps I wasn't ready to hear it, or perhaps it wasn't worthy enough for the kind of glamor and pizzaz we tend to like when watching the news.
My historical and cultural updating took place at the Tuol Sleng Museum in Phnom Penh, which proved extraordinarily powerful and transformed Cambodia's historical facts into a personal reality; nothing regarding the structure or environment of Tuol Sleng, which was a school turned torture/imprisonment camp (also referred to as S-21), had been altered. It was a place for extermination of an entire mass of people, a genocide, just like the Holocaust; we must recognize it as carrying equal weight in the load of our collective existence.
I feel very fortunate to have learned more about Cambodia's history and very sad that our own humanity was responsible for it....both for being the direct perpetrators and for allowing it to take place. It was also very important for me to learn about these historical events in order to understand the severity of Cambodia's landmine problem: the fact that thousands, if not millions, of landmines continue to wound and maime Cambodians, mostly children, as a result of the civil war and the bombs dropped by Vietnam and the United States. Truly truly sad. I encourage all of you to watch "The Killing Fields" for a bit of history and entertainment in one (plus, it's got John Malkovich, so there's really no excuse to pass it up...).
-Emma
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2 comments:
It's true - we hear very little about the Cambodian massacres here. I've heard of the Killing Fields, and Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, but beyond having heard about them, I know none of the details. I also know that Lowell, Massachusetts, where our cousin Dave lives has the highest concentration of Cambodians living anywhere outside Cambodia - many of the first of them moved there to escape the massacres.
You're probably hearing a lot about how jealous people are at your trip - count me among them. Sorry about the mix-up with your Chinese flight destinations, but it's sort of hilarious, and you'll have some more stories to tell. Always remember - peculiar traveling suggestions are dancing lessons from god.
Amazing blog Em. I too am jealous of your trip. Life changing indeed.
Hopefully my Cambodian volleyball story makes a little more sense now.
You both be safe and have an amazing time.
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