Cambodian monks force nation's first rock opera off air [-Will the Tum Teav story be banned next?]

PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Cambodian monks have persuaded authorities to ban the country's first rock opera, which features actors dressed as clergy who break into song and dance, saying it insults Buddhism.

In a letter sent to the ministry of cults and religion, as well as to the media, the Supreme Sangha Council of Buddhist Monks also demanded an apology from the show's director, writer and actors.

"Where Elephants Weep", a modern take on a traditional Cambodian love story that merges pop and rock music with more traditional and historical Cambodian tunes, played in Phnom Penh from late November through early December.

It tells the story a Cambodian-American man who returns after the demise of the 1970s Khmer Rouge regime to reconnect with his roots. While he is a monk, he falls into a doomed love affair with a pop singer.

The last straw came when the show was aired by a local television station last week, prompting the monks' council to write to complain.

Cambodia is predominantly Buddhist and monks are expected to be austere and eschew worldly pleasures such as entertainment.

"Some scenes in the story insult Buddhism," the letter said in asking the ministry to "ban the performance and airing of the opera."

The council objected to many scenes, including one in which the actor "left the monkhood and slept with a woman, but a moment later (he) put the robe back on to be a monk again..." said the letter, dated December 30.

The show "oppresses Cambodian Buddhist monks, causes more than 50,000 monks to loss their honour, value and to express frustration," it added.

Religions minister Min Khin duly stepped in and the television station was ordered not to go ahead with a second broadcast planned for New Year's Day.

The show had a successful US preview last year and, after its run ends in Cambodia, it is expected to tour South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan before returning to the United States.

Organisers behind the opera were not immediately available for comment.

Police find explosive devices near TV3 headquarters: A gift from Hun Mana's former husband to her?

Police find explosive devices near Cambodian defense ministry

PHNOM PENH, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Police on Friday found explosive devices at two locations in front of the National Defense Ministry and another one near the headquarters of TV3 in downtown Phnom Penh.

Mine clearance group disassembled these materials, without causing any damage and casualty.

"We found them at 0300 p.m. local time (0800 GMT) and have been investigating the case to catch the perpetrators," said Sao Sokha, chief of the National Military Police.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the deadly placements yet.

The explosive substances were placed in cans of mosquito-killing spray when the police found them in the public garden before the ministry and on the sidewalk beside the TV headquarters, according to the police.

Australian scientists claim dengue breakthrough

The villain: Aedes mosquito - File photo

Friday January 02, 2009
AFP

Dengue is a virulent threat in Thailand, striking thousands into hospital beds per year, and killing hundreds. Last year alone, the fever killed 17 people in Thailand and affected more than 21,000, according to the health ministry.

In Cambodia, at least 132 people died, and the disease caused three deaths among 3,600 cases in Singapore.

University of Queensland researchers said they have successfully infected the mosquito which spreads the tropical disease with a bacterium which halves its 30-day lifespan, thereby reducing its ability to transmit dengue to humans.

Scientists hope their work will help halt the spread of the painful and debilitating disease which affects millions of people each year.

"The key is that really only very old mosquitos are the only ones that are able to transmit the disease," said researcher Professor Scott O'Neill.

"What we've done is put this naturally occurring bacteria into the mosquitos that actually halves their adult lifespan so they don't live long enough to be able to transmit the virus."

The research published Friday in the journal Science is the result of injecting 10,000 mosquito embryos with a bacterium that occurs naturally in fruit flies but has never been detected in dengue-carrying mosquitoes.

O'Neill said the test was designed to see whether the bacterium reduced the lifespan of the insects without killing them or preventing them from breeding and was able to be passed on to offspring.

He said while the laboratory tests, which involved researchers allowing the bacteria-infected mosquitoes to bite their arms because the species needs human blood to breed, had been successful, it would be several years before the technique would be tested in the wild.

"It's really a preventative strategy for preventing dengue fever outbreaks and what we've done is show that it's possible to be done in a laboratory," he told AFP.

"The next stage is now to move it into a more realistic field setting."

There is no known cure or vaccine for dengue fever, which is transmitted by mosquitos and kills more than 20,000 people each year. Also known as "breakbone fever," symptoms include high temperatures and muscle aches.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation donated 10 million dollars to an international research team led by the University of Queensland into a means of defeating dengue fever in 2005.

Child trafficking in Cambodia

Thursday 01 January 2009
By Michaël Sztanke
France 24

Special Report - Caring: humanitarian reports around the world

Caring investigates child trafficking in Cambodia. Despite stricter legislation, the problem is still rampant. On one side are parents who want to foster a child, and on the other, Cambodian parents' poverty which pushes them to sell their own.

Child trafficking, a loose term with negative connotations, is essentially when young offspring are given away to wealthy foreigners in exchange for money.

For lucky adopters, the actual sum is inconsequential. Exhausted after costly and upsetting attempts in their own countries, many gratefully look to smaller, developing nations in their bid to find a child, countries like Cambodia, where widespread poverty forces many locals to consider desperate ways to make ends meet.

Dazzled by the promise of a better life for their loved ones, parents and families readily relinquish control and sign away their offspring. But an increasing number of abuses of the system by rogue adoption agencies has prompted many Western governments to immediately suspend all adoptions of Cambodian children.

In France, the government has only just recently lifted the ban that had been in place for some five years, but French authorities are enforcing stringent tests and vetting on would-be parents.

In Cambodia, there are as yet few laws against the widespread corruption and not enough incentive to make parents stop this tragic practice of selling their children.

An official from the royal palace appeal to members of the royal family to quit politics

Radio Free Asia
1st January, 2009
By Phan Sophath
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization

An official of the royal palace, who is also a member of the royal family, has appealed to all members of the royal family to quit politics for the interests of the Throne and to help in the royal duties of the king.

Prince Sisowath Thomico (pictured with garland), advisor to the royal cabinet, has told Radio Free Asia that, currently, despite there is no laws to ban the royals from politics, the voluntary exit from politics of the members of the royal family would be the best option.

Prince thomico said: “as long as the members of the royal family stay in politics, serve political interests of political parties, the attacks on those members of the royal family is like the attacks on the person of the king or the Throne and that would make the position of the king and the Throne weakened. When people attacks the those members of the royal family it is like they are attacking the king and the Throne.”

Recently, there are some members of the royal family, including Prince Norodom Ranariddh who used to be president of the Funcinpec Party and ex-Prime Minister, had announced their retirements from politics.

After their announcements to stay out of politics, Prince Ranariddh and a certain numbers of princesses have been appointed by the king to be his personal advisors and advisors to the royal cabinet, the positions that are equivalent in ranks to the prime minister, ministers, secretaries of state and under-secretaries of state.

Mr. Khieu Kanharith, government spokesman, said that it would be good for the Throne if the royals leave politics voluntarily. He said: “In short, if we want to consider the king as a symbol of national unity, if the royals engage in social works, I believe that we can preserve a better monarchy and the people will respect them more. If they involve in the dirty politics of state, we can see that their actions will affect the monarchy because our nation has just ended civil wars which have severely wounded the monarchy.”

Cambodia has restored the monarchy in 1993, after it was dissolved by a coup in 1970 that declared Cambodia a republic and after that the monarchy was continuously persecuted by subsequent communist regimes.

Under the present constitution, Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy whereby the king reigns but does not rule. At the same time, both the Throne and the state laws did not prohibit the royals from involving in politics.
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One day after Prince Thomico made this appeal, Prince Sisowath Sirirath told the Phnom Post that he remained committed to politics.

Price of goods: Even pro-CPP union calls for Hun Sen’s intervention

Price of goods: A union appeals to Hun Sen

31 Dec 2008
By Nhim Sophal
Cambodge Soir Hebdo
Click here to read the article in French

Chuon Mom Thol, president of the Khmer Union, sent a letter to Hun Sen asking him to act in favor of a lowering of the price of goods.

In this letter, Chuon Mom Thol, president of the Khmer Union – a union known to be pro-government – stressed on the lowering of the price of gasoline and cooking gas whereas the price of other goods has not changed. For example, he cited the price of one kilo of pork meat which is currently sold between 16,000 and 18,000 riels ($4 to $4.50) on the retail market, whereas the wholesale price is only 6,000 riels ($1.50).

“I believe that Samdach Hun Sen could do something on this issue, just like what he did for gasoline, gambling parlors or loan sharks. He had shown in the latter about the efficiency of his intervention. If he is taking action again, he will increase his popularity,” Chuon Mom Thol indicated.

This is the first time that a representative of this union makes a direct appeal to the prime minister to attract his attention to the cost of living condition. According to Chuon Mom Thol, it was through his discussions with female factory workers and his observations that some of these workers earn a better living by working in karaoke bars and beer gardens, that he decided to send a letter to Hun Sen. However, up to now, Hun Sen has not provided any reply yet.

Unions close to the opposition party had already appealed to Hun Sen to take action on these problems, but nothing happened.

Vietnamese censorship muzzles news media

Newspapers and the Internet are read avidly in Vietnam

Vietnamese media sackings shock

Friday, 2 January 2009
By Giang Nguyen
BBC Vietnamese Service, London

In a new year shock the two largest pro-reform newspapers lost their chief editors in the last hours of 2008.
The farewell party at New Year's Eve to Mr Nguyen Cong Khe at Thanh Nien newspaper was described by an insider as "tearful".

Tuoi Tre's boss Le Hoang was reported to have agreed with his redeployment to a new job in the publishing business.

But moves by the ruling party to put more restrictions on the media has not stopped with these Southern newspapers.

More sackings

Vietnamese media reports confirm that two other newspapers, Legality and Saigon Business People, also lost their editors-in-chief in December 2008.

Just two months earlier, Mr Ly Tien Dzung, a veteran journalist and the editor of Dai Doan Ket paper, was 'disciplined' and sacked for publishing a letter by General Vo Nguyen Giap criticizing the current leadership's handling of a public construction project.

But the year 2008 ended most unfortunately for Thanh Nien and Tuoi Tre because their reporters, Nguyen Viet Chien and Nguyen Van Hai, had been picked to stand trial in October for vigorous reporting of a major corruption case.

They seem to fall victim of a new policy pursued by the Communist party to tighten its control over the flow of news and information, both in the state-run media and the private blogosphere that has been booming in Vietnam in the last two years.

For the government, the technological development and commercialisation of the 20-million web-user media market in Vietnam requires more adequate regulations.

Internet dilemma

The need to build new legal frameworks for the media to operate for the good of Vietnam was confirmed by Mr Luu Vu Hai, chief of the Administration Agency for Radio, Television and Electronics Information at the Ministry of Information and Communications.

Last October he was quoted as saying: "Every country has its own law and all activities must follow its laws in order to guarantee the social benefits."

A new law in 2009 explicitly bans bloggers from discussing politically sensitive subjects and demands that all journalists reveal their sources of information.

Those who dare to break these rules set by the Party would face up to $12,000 (£8,000) in fines or 12 years in jail.

At the same time, the government officially encourages Internet use in an attempt to make use of information technologies to modernise the Vietnamese economy and improve business efficiency.

Media watchdog and human rights organisations have raised concerns about restrictions imposed upon both newspapers and blogs.

International donors such as the European Union and the Asian Development Bank have also urged Vietnam to accept a more active role of media in fighting corruption and getting citizens involved in public affairs.

Unhappy new year

However, with Vietnam's economy slowing - with imported energy and food costs pushed up and inflation soaring to more than 20% in the last quarter of 2008 - more social dissenters could want to make their voices heard in the coming months.

For now at least, the government does not have to worry about any rebellious action at the Thanh Nien and Tuoi Tre newspapers.

The two newspapers, still without nominees for editors-in-chief, are run by some deputies acting up.

The staff seem in no mood to celebrate the Lunar New Year coming later this January.

"A sad and miserable new year has come," says Hoang Hai Van, a former Thanh Nien sub-editor in his blog.