Impact Project

As the person responsible for screening the submissions for this week’s Angkor Photo Festival in Siem Reap, Francoise Callier sees a little more misery from around the globe than most. Disasters, natural and man-made, are the stock-in-trade for many photographers. But Callier curated the Impact Project, which screened on Tuesday night at the FCC Angkor, to tell positive stories through photography about individuals, groups and organisations doing something to help with social and environmental issues. “There is a story about a hummingbird whose forest went up in flames,” she said in an interview before the screening. “All of the animals stood and watched, overwhelmed, but the hummingbird flew to the river, collected a few drops of water, and then released them on the fire. “The other animals mocked him for his futility, but he replied by saying, ‘At least I did what I was able to do’. “We all can do that, and that is what I wanted to show with this exhibition.” Among the stories featured in the Impact Project was one of a priest in Kenya who has helped villages find water in their parched environment, as witnessed by Alain Buu in War Over Water. Also shown was Alex Masi’s Tale of Hope in Bhopal, site of the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster, which has garnered international acclaim. His photpgraph of a young girl, Poonam, bathing in the monsoon rains won a Photographers Giving Back Award of $5,000. Masi has directed that sum, along with other funds since raised, towards educating Poonam and her sister.

Koh Kong villagers

Villagers angered by the continued drive by Chinese firm Union Development Group to evict them from their homes in Koh Kong province have been threatened with force after they blocked a road leading to the district governor’s house. On Tuesday, about 30 security guards from the company entered Prek Smach village in Kiri Sakor district, which is protected against forced relocation by a government order, intending to destroy houses. Villagers intervened, according to a community representative, 71-year-old Prak Thorn. But the guards returned the same afternoon with a dump truck full of sand, which they used to block access to village. “So we decided early this morning to block another road in front of the district governor’s office, which is a new road that was built by the district governor himself,” Thorn said. “The Union Development Group still wants us to move from here, even though they know we won’t move, and the authorities cannot do anything because they get money from the company,” he said. UDG was granted a 36,000-hectare land concession in Kiri Sakor and Botum Sakor districts in April 2008 for a $3.8 billion mega-tourism zone. Another adjacent concession for a hydropower dam brought the total land under the firm’s control to 45,000 hectares. In Kong Chit, the provincial coordinator for rights group Licadho, said the company has been ordered to halt forced evictions in the area and refrain from using violence. “A lot of people know that most of the authorities, including the district governor and the chief of the commune, get money monthly from the company to listen to their wishes,” he claimed.

sparks increase in fishing

Cases of illegal fishing were on the upswing in 2014, with the Fishery Administration blaming the rise on a lack of communication between its officials, fishermen and local authorities. At a press conference yesterday to announce the results of a yearlong crackdown on illegal fishing, Nao Thouk, the director of the Fishery Administration, said his department had been hampered by poor communication and cooperation. According to a report released at the meeting, there were 4,347 cases of illegal fishing over the past 12 months, compared with 3,700 in 2013. Of the 166 people that were charged with illegal fishing during 2014, 114 were imprisoned, he said, adding that those convicted were fined more than 448 million riel (about $112,000) in total. Illegal fishing hot spots were in provinces surrounding the Tonle Sap river basin, including Battambang, Siem Reap, Kampong Thom, Pursat, Kampong Chhnang and Kandal, the report revealed. During the meeting, officials discussed the challenge of bribery, saying military police were known to receive bribes from illegal fisherman in exchange for information about the fishery’s crackdown. However, Thouk said the allegations were unsubstantiated. “I overheard people say the administration has taken bribes from illegal fishermen, but we can’t say that without evidence,” he said. As part of its blitz, the fishery administration destroyed hundreds of thousands of metres of nets as well as trawlers and electro-fishing tools.

Lucky bastards

With its high, peaked roof, patterned floor tiles, curved alcoves and cut-out bricks, Che Culo – a new Australian-owned bar in BKK1 – has something of a Mediterranean theme. The food too has Greek, Spanish and Italian influences; small tapas-style dishes at night and light pastas, salads and sandwiches during the day. “It’s loosely based on that whole [Greek island] Santorini, Italian and south of Spain feel, but done really well using local materials,” said manager and co-owner Nick Hattingh, 31, a typically laconic 15-year veteran of the hospitality industry in Australia who has a tattoo of the bar’s logo on his left arm (acquired following a particularly boozy free-flow Sunday brunch at the Sofitel). “We haven’t imported anything. Everything has been locally sourced. Even all our ceramics – plates and stuff – are made in Siem Reap.” Hattingh opened the bar earlier this month with fellow Australians, Locky Paech, 34, who Hattingh had worked with back home setting up and running various award-winning drinking holes such as Sticky Bar, the Norfolk Hotel, Eu-de-Vie and The Forresters, and architect and builder Daniel Jury, 34. Che Culo manager and co-owner Nick Hattingh mixes up tasty cocktails. Che Culo manager and co-owner Nick Hattingh mixes up tasty cocktails. Eli Meixler Hattingh said he had been on his way to open a bar at Koh Rong Samloem when he got a call

Rights Groups Want Cambodian

Two human rights groups have called on the Cambodian government to immediately close all detention centers that arbitrarily detain people outside the criminal justice system, following the controversial death of a homeless man who had been taken to one such facility. New York-based Human Rights Watch and Phnom Penh-based Licadho cited the Nov. 26 death of an ill homeless man named Phea, saying he was denied medical treatment in the notorious Po Senchey Vocational Training Center in Prey Speu, outside the capital. Security forces had picked him up on Nov. 2 during a routine “sweep” of people considered “undesirable” in Phnom Penh to clear the streets for Cambodia’s Water Festival on Nov. 5-7. The social affairs center, which has come under fire in years past for abusing people detained there, has continued to abuse human rights and leave sick people to die without medication, claimed senior Licadho investigator Am Sam Ath. “This is a serious human rights violation,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service. “The Prey Speu center was criticized long ago. The detention center detains people illegally because only prisons can detain people.” Officials at the center and the Ministry of Social Affairs, which oversees the operation of such centers, could not be reached for comment. “Keeping Cambodia’s detention centers open is an endless invitation to the authorities to violate the human rights of people deemed ‘undesirable,’” said Naly Pilorge, director of Licadho, in a statement. “The systematic abuse of Cambodia’s most vulnerable people occurs at these centers and the government should close them immediately.”