Abstract This paper reviews and discusses how Cambodian children suffer under the rule of the Khmer Rouge. According to the paper, education in Cambodia still suffers from the bloody political regimes of almost 30 years ago, and while education falters, tens of thousands of children are imprisoned in the Cambodian sex slave industry and working as child laborers.
Outline:
Introduction / Hypothesis
Review of Literature
Murdering of Cambodian Teachers
Cambodian Children's Propaganda Song
Child Prostitution / Sex Slavery & Child Labor
Methods, Research Design & Analyses
Results, Discussion, Implications
From the Paper "According to the U.S. Department of Labor report, "Incidence and Nature of Child Labor," published August 23, 2006, 44.8 percent of Cambodian children ages 5 to 14 years old were working in 2001 (notwithstanding the labor law sets the minimum age for employment at 15). The jobs held by children included agriculture (the "majority" of children work in the fields), "hazardous conditions on commercial rubber plantations, in salt production," in the fishing industry and in garbage collection. Not only are Cambodian children put into slavery for sexual services, the Labor report asserts that Cambodian children "are trafficked to Thailand and Malaysia" for sexual commercial exploitation or "bonded labor."
Abstract This paper looks at how American immigration and deportation systems have affected Cambodian refugees living in the US and argues that these systems are profoundly unfair . The paper first explains that refugees from Cambodia, which was carpet-bombed by the U.S. during the Vietnam War, were not granted citizenship but rather were allowed into the U.S. only as "permanent residents". The paper then discloses the ways in which the 1996 "Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act" had implications for Cambodians living in the U.S. by making deportation mandatory for all legal permanent residents, who are or had been sentenced to a year or more for aggravated felonies, moral turpitude or using controlled substances. Also discussed are the problems faced by the Cambodians, who are Americans by experience, education, and language, when they are deported back to Cambodia.
From the Paper "A second problem with the Act is the fact that the conviction does not need to have occurred after the Act was introduced. Convictions prior to 1996 are applied 'retrospectively'. This applies regardless of the length of time, which has passed since the conviction, and no matter how minor the offense. When we consider that men of color are more likely to be sent to prison after conviction and are often poorly represented during trial, then it is clear that the law unfairly targets immigrants from African, South American, and Asian countries."
Tags: act, permanent residents, moral turpitude, children, immigration court
This paper discusses the disparities in Cambodian and American culture and the consequential difficulty Cambodian immigrants face in adapting to an American way of life.
Abstract This paper examines the differences in Cambodian and American culture from a sociological perspective as divided into five cultural dimensions and demonstrate examples from each one. Such examples include Cambodians' value of collectivism over independence or their more authoritarian perception of masculinity. This paper also explores the vast differences in the English and Khmeri language as well as how facial expressions, body posture, and hand signals are interpreted differently in the two cultures.
From the Paper "Collectivism is a crucial non-verbal communication, which is faithful both to Hofstedete and to Bond's update of Hofstedete. Collectivism is perhaps the most significant form of non-verbal communication for Cambodians, and is directly related to custom and etiquette, and directly determines how Cambodians will interpret each other's behavior. There was a stark contrast in etiquette when Arun and Chakra reached this country, and they had to integrate what were highly symbolic gestures in Cambodia to seemingly unnoticed or meaningless random physical and cultural gestures in America--not cultural gestures at all, in effect."
Abstract This paper examines the Khmer Rouge and its genocide of the Cambodian people and the reactions of the American public to the survivors of these atrocities. It also looks at the feelings of the United States government and people regarding genocide as a whole and explores the reasons the United States has failed to act to stop modern genocides from happening.
Abstract This paper explains that the Cambodian government has begun to make vast improvements to westernize its housing system in terms of design and in distribution of land. The author points out that, while urbanization plays a vital role in free market trade and democratic governments, the lack of purchasing power, financial strength and the legal loopholes required to obtain a new home in Phnom Penh are problems for the general Cambodian population. The paper stresses that Cambodians, who were colonized by the French in the late 19th and early 20th century, are accustomed to the centralized living styles of French flats, which provide more communal areas; whereas, the American investors are insisting on implementing western style condominiums, which differ in the sense that the facilities provide more privacy and space.
Table of Contents:
Historical Background
The Need for Land and Growth
Culture and Foreign Investment
History of Housing in Phnom Penh
Cambodian Fiscal System
The Development of French Style Flats and Western Condominiums
Legal Requirements for Construction of Housing
The Cost of Living in the New Phnom Penh
Analysis: French Style Flats versus Western Style Condominiums
Conclusion
From the Paper "It is evident that Cambodia has a distinct disadvantage compared to the rest of the Asian countries. Primarily, the remnants of war has left a poverty stricken country with the responsibility of re-shaping its entire government, providing education and health care to needy families and finding adequate professional workers to maintain a new democratic system of public administration. However, there are many advantages to starting over for Cambodia, as the United Nations and the United States have taken a great interest in the rebuilding efforts. With a new, open economy and sufficient developmental programs, Cambodia stands at a crossroads for change."
This brief yet concise paper examines the current status of women in post-war Cambodia, which has drastically changed for the worse since the wars of the 1970s and 1980s.
Abstract This paper explores the widening gap between the sexes in post-war Cambodia. Cambodian women have a long history of playing important public roles and in Angkorian times women served as scientists, astronomers and doctors. However, modern Cambodian society has come to place more value on the woman as a homemaker. This paper details how this situation changed drastically with the wars of the 1970s and 1980s. Many women throughout Cambodia found themselves working outside the home, filling jobs that had been previously occupied by men. Women eventually began protesting their sub-standard working conditions and demanded higher wages. This paper examines the basic needs of women that are not being met by the Cambodian government that strongly believes that boys should be educated, while girls stay home, which accounts for the low literacy rates in girls. This paper also details the various international organizations that are geared towards improving the current conditions for women in Cambodia.
From the Paper "Over the next decade, the general per-capita income was much lower than in the rest of the region. Almost every rural household depended heavily on agriculture, particularly on wet rice cultivation. Rice has been the basis for most of Cambodia's foreign trade, for its national self-sufficiency and for its national revenues. There have been very few attempts to industrialize the country, and the manufacturing now is not yet extensive or large-scale. Most of the service sector is focused on trading activities. Furthermore, one of the legacies of thirteen years of war has been the ongoing depletion of the Cambodian workforce. Today, however, with a tentative peace, the workforce numbers about 4 million strong, and fully 50 percent of that population is made up of women."
Abstract This essay explores sleepwalking as a condition endemic in the modern age as seen in the poetry of Joy Harjo?s, "A Map to the Next World" and Juliana Spahr's "Response". The paper examines the practice of intimately witnessing the modern day world, as seen in the act of witnessing in the Cambodian Genocide Project.
From the Paper "Sleepwalking, also called noctambulism or somnambulism, defined clinically is the nighttime condition where people who perform motor skills (i.e. walking through rooms, talking to oneself, opening the refrigerator) while asleep. Sleepwalking is, in the poetry of Joy Harjo, a locution nuanced differently; it bears an alternative meaning to the household usage. Clinically, sleepwalking is a phenomenon particular to the wee small hours. What Harjo wants to insinuate"the notion she wishes to enliven her reader to"is that it is not unprecedented for people of Western culture to sleepwalk at noontime. This point is another way of stating that, irrespective of the hour indicated via one's watch on one's wrist, people walk through the world physically alert but out of touch with their conscience and spirit."
This paper discusses the Cambodian-Vietnamese conflict from 1975 to 1993: History, major issues, foreign involvement, political, military and cultural aspects and leadership.
1,350 words (approx. 5.4 pages), 6 sources, 1994, $ 47.95
From the Paper "The conflict between Kampuchea, or Cambodia, and Vietnam dates back to the late 1970s, though tensions between the two regions date back centuries to earlier wars and incursions on both sides. The present conflict came about in 1978 when Hanoi launched an offensive with twelve to fourteen divisions and three Khmer regiments, a total invasion force of 100,000 people. The Vietnamese units crossed the Cambodian frontier in five spearheads, initially directed into northeastern Cambodia. It is believed that in concentrating its forces in this way, Vietnam may have had several objectives. One may have been to capture as quickly as possible substantial expanses of Cambodian territory which had earlier been a spawning ground for the Khmer Rouge in the late 1960s. An early occupation would also have preempted ... "
Abstract This paper sheds lights on American operations in Cambodia, commonly known as Cambodian Incursions of 1970. The paper particularly focuses on Nixon's policies in connection with Vietnam War and how flawed policy contributed turned him into a very unpopular president at home.
This paper discusses the reign of Pol Pot, the leader of the Khmer Rouge terror, from 1975 to 1979, in Cambodia, which resulted in one of the saddest effects of the Vietnam War, the Cambodian holocaust.
Abstract This paper explains that Pol Pot's campaign against his own people resulted in the deaths of between 700,000 and 1 million people, either as a result of execution or illness, from hunger and overwork. The author points out four main reasons why Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge came into power: (1) As a response to French colonialism at the end of World War II, (2) rivalry between Vietnamese and Chinese Communists within the party, (3) Prince Norodom Sihanouk's brutal repression and (4) U.S. economic and military destabilization of Cambodia. The paper stresses the U.S. involvement in each of these reasons.
From the Paper "As the bombings only increased after the end of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, over 150,000 Cambodian civilians perished. Ultimately, the Cambodian civilians feared U.S. air attacks more than they feared Pol Pot and his severe tactics. Not surprisingly then, Pol Pot came into power. By April 1975, the CPK had taken over the two largest cities in Cambodia, Phnom Penh and Battambang, and defeated Lon Nol. The terror Cambodians received from the U.S. was now over, but they were entering into the holocaust that Pol Pot would bring about."
Abstract This paper analyzes the social and political ideologies of Pol Pot that led to the genocide of nearly 2 million Cambodians between 1975-1978. It looks at Pol Pot's idealized vision of self and the Khmer Rouge aggressive behavior as a product of a multidimensional set of interacting factors.
Abstract This paper examines how children are affected by poverty, sex trafficking and AIDS in relation to the humanitarian relief being done to help quell these social and economic issues in Cambodia. The author uses statistic to reveal the serious problems facing children in Cambodia today caused by the war-like history of this country. The paper suggests that the decline of Khmer Rouge and the wars might enable Cambodia to recover a stable economy and to create a healthy environment for the children of this region.
From the Paper "This international proposal presents the plight of Cambodian children through a humanitarian perspective. By divulging a recent past history of Cambodia, one can learn the desperation and destruction that seriously injured and maimed children within a war-torn country. This study will reveal how the children have undergone the terrors of poverty, sex trafficking, and a rising problem for contracting AIDS within modern Cambodia. The Vietnam War was a critical point in recent Cambodian history in the year 1970. American power placed an immense amount of pressure on King Norodo Sihanouk to stop helping the Vietnamese involved in the Communist struggles of Ho Chi Min. In this manner, Sihanouk was exiled by the communist opposition party Khmer Rouge led by General Lon Nol, to help "the growing communist opposition to American dominance in Southeast Asia" (Chandler 156)."
Abstract This essay compares the Cambodian and Rwandan genocides to the Holocaust in Europe in the 1930s and 40s. The paper examines who the victims were in each instance as well as whom the perpetrators were that committed these heinous acts. The paper then looks look at the methods and mechanisms used to kill the victims and their degree of efficiency and how they differed in each instance compared to the Holocaust. The paper discusses the time frame and geographic locations, in order to understand the killings better. The paper also tries to explain why these genocides occurred. In conclusion, this paper shows that through methods such as fear and death, all three genocides accomplished the murder of the innocent for the ultimate goal of power none more then the Nazi Holocaust in Europe.
From the Paper "Throughout the twentieth century, many atrocities have been committed against various ethnic groups throughout the world. Some have been on a large mass scale, with extreme precision and efficiency, others were more primitive. These various scales can be looked at by means of the total number of people killed, the time span it took to kill and dispose of the bodies and the number of people removed forcibly from their homes and taken to other counties to be exterminated. The Holocaust in Europe was the most unique genocide in history. There have not been any other genocides that have been the same since the 1930/40s' massacres on the level of scale or precedence. The killing efficiency that was experienced in the Nazi death camps throughout Europe that claimed the lives of countless victims has not been seen since."
Abstract This paper examines how the Pol Pot regime maintained its stronghold over the Cambodian people, through a thorough understanding and manipulation of its peoples? psychological and sociological structures. The first part of the paper looks at how the regime laid the foundations for a successful propaganda machine. It explains that this was done through dismantling important social structures of traditional Cambodian society ? the family, Buddhist religion, urban cities, schools and universities. It then looks at how the regime successfully used its propaganda machine to both punish and discourage dissent. This was done through radio broadcasts, the use of artwork, the institution of "memory sickness" and through long-term strategies like the education of children. It concludes that in its quest for a spartan, collectivized and homogeneous society, the Pol Pot regime resulted instead in a devastated land and people.
From the Paper "Within a week of their assent into power, preying on people's fears of the US bombings in nearby Vietnam, Khmer Rouge soldiers drove the residents of Phnom Penh, Battambang out of the cities and into the countryside. Thousands of the evacuees, mostly the elderly and the very young, died in the mass exodus. Upon reaching the countryside, the city residents were forced to engage in agricultural labor. The new farmers were labeled ?new people.? The new people faced much resentment from the established farmers or "old people" who already tilled the fields and who were treated more favorably by the Khmer Rouge regime (Chandler 1999: 1)."
Abstract This paper details the rise of the the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, looks at the atrocities committed against the Cambodian peoples under the leadership of Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, and talks about how the international community was responsible for the conditions that allowed Pol Pot to take control of Cambodia. The paper also points out that, while those responsible for bringing such a holocaust upon the Cambodian peoples can no longer be held accountable or brought to justice, the international community can hold a 'truth commission' that would bring to light the horrific events of the past and help Cambodia bring about an atmosphere of reconciliation and hope for the future. The paper includes a 1000-word annotated bibliography.
From the Paper "Approximately thirty years ago, in 1975, a murderous government led by a man with a philosophy that is almost impossible to understand, came to power in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge governed the country for only three years but, it was a three years that the Cambodians and Cambodia have not been able to recover from until now. The Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot carried out a holocaust years against ordinary Cambodian citizens that had committed no crime. Almost two million people died and the world did absolutely nothing to stop the killing. As Jerry Adler and Ron Moreau explains in "The Devil's Due," Pol Pot, the leader of this murderous regime, had a philosophy behind the killings. From his point of view, Cambodia and the Cambodian people were hopeless and no reform policies would change the situation or transform them into a developed and educated people."
