Comments on: Making a Real Difference: Rebuilding Cambodia

By: how to help a country to help itself? | things that make me tick

how to help a country to help itself? | things that make me tick — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 07:57:47 +0000

[...] something else’. Another article said that the best way to help Cambodia move forward is to by helping its women, in particular in providing housing. As a budding architecture student with very limited funds, I [...]

By: Cambodia

Cambodia — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:34:59 +0000

Cambodia relies too much on two industries: textile and tourism. These industries are particularly vulnerable to the global economic downturn. We need to focus our efforts on our natural strength, which is agriculture, not tourism or textile.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:24:52 +0000

Here’s a sinker: we could give money for education and think “ah, education is a good contribution! no way they can use the money badly then?” – but no, what if local governments then merely conclude “great, the foreigners are spending to get our people educated, so we can spend our money on other stuff”, with the net effect that aid money kinda goes into funding other stuff anyway… hrmph…

By: Hugo

Hugo — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:54:18 +0000

Appeasement? I’m not asking for appeasement. Or what I’m asking for certainly isn’t a “temporary fix”. I’m just asking for the choosing of your battles. If the place you or your organisation contribute is in direct education, on secondary or tertiary level for example, then it is best to not tick off the government. Let another organisation do the ticking-off. Maybe have two organisations of your own, though that might be dangerous: you don’t want them to be connected in any way.

Does that make sense?

Hmm, I should do more explicit agreeing, I think. I do “look for the good” in comments as well, but I acknowledge it in my head and move on, rather than acknowledging in writing. Then people think I’m disagreeing with things I’m actually agreeing on.

Pieter sent me some links demonstrating Obama’s open approach to government, pretty cool! (E.g. http://change.gov/page/content/discusshealthcare)

In other news, if Helen Zille gets her way, we might be able to vote:
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Politics/0,,2-7-12_2430514,00.html
I’ve not seen any follow-ups on that yet.

By: gerhard

gerhard — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 10:42:43 +0000

pieter : that applies to politics aswell , half the responsibility is to make sure , that governemnt which is for the people stays as such
its like south africa, it is the way it is because the people make it such.

Let me remind you to register and to vote

hugo : ehm, apeasement isnt a fix. its a temporary fix. I would argue that all you’re doing is legitimizing the ‘authorities-with-too-much-power.’ by recognizing and respecting them.
War is kuck but fuck … the alternative is to compromise morality turning it into a relative thing. I wonder where the world would have appeased hitler and stalin a lil bit more. One can’t run from the bad by compromising on the good.
I know i know , i criticize america as much as the next guy for invading iraq for doing what i just proposed. I just think they went about it the wrong way.. inventing reasons when they had plenty to act on anyway…

Don’t even get me started on that illegal nazieque country called israel which thinks apartheid is an ideal.

By: Pieter

Pieter — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 04:37:27 +0000

I like this. Half of charity is being willing to give, but equally important is for staying responsible where your money is applied.

@Don: If you teach how to fish it is hard to go wrong? I wish that didn’t sound so patronising though.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:44:37 +0000

I wrote #8 without seeing #7. I’d like to read that paper, thanks!

By: Hugo

Hugo — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:42:50 +0000

Gotcha!

Say, would you be interested in writing a short piece on your experience working in Cambodia, that I’d publish as a guest post here? It isn’t worth much in the grand scheme of things, but you’re commenting anyway. It’d be just like writing a couple of comments, more focused on the good, and with a clean slate (i.e. not responding to my post).

If you would be interested, with regards to what I’d like to share most on this blog, something focusing on how important that local context and understanding is, maybe something about what is necessary to keep things sustainable, the importance of self-reliance and the danger of a “colonialistic” attitude towards humanitarian help (I’m sure you know what I mean… “we, from the west, shall come down to your third world country and solve all your problems for you, for we know best”.)

In short, that previous comment of yours, but maybe with a couple more interesting details, and written to be relatively independent of this conversation we’re having?

Only if you feel you’ll enjoy writing it! I’m sending you an email.

By: Don

Don — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:40:21 +0000

Dear Hugo: I have written a draft paper on “the Cambodian Dependency Syndrome” which I can share with you as background if you can give me an e-mail address to which I can send an attachment. The paper is based on much thought and long discussion with David Chandler and other Cambodia experts. I have also circulated it to many Cambodians in Cambodia as well as in France and the US for feedback, which has been mixed (for reasons that are clear when you read the paper) but quite a few thoughtful Khmer and other long term Cambodia observers feel that it raises critical issues which normally do not get much attention. Let me know if you would like to see it. Best regards, Don

By: Don

Don — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:30:16 +0000

There is no doubt that the money is being spent wisely in my view. But Cambodians have a strong tendency to depend on others to help them rather than doing things for themselves. (This observation is based on 40 years working in Cambodia and with Cambodians.) Outsiders thus tend to fill roles that should be taken by Cambodians, who do not do so as long as others are willing to carry the load. My key point is that unless this weakness can be addressed any effort to improve education, or anything else, in Cambodia will not be sustained. Much more emphasis thus needs to be placed on encouraging Cambodians to become more self-reliant in order to assure long term development success.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:23:10 +0000

Don, I’ve added a new paragraph right at the top. Please let me know if this helps frame the post a bit better, or point out which bits are the most misleading. Maybe I could tune down the title? Though I feel a contribution/difference doesn’t have to be huge to be “real”. (The “much better than nothing” argument, yes.)

Hmmm… the context out of which I wrote this post was one of “real” versus… well, whatever… if I were to rewrite this post from a more “global impact” perspective, I’m sure it would look quite different. I don’t think I want to do that.

So does that new paragraph help?

Thanks for the feedback.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:07:40 +0000

Oh, for sure, there is a lot of work. I mean, this is only $40,000 per year. A little drop in the ocean. But I think it is a $40,000 well spent. (Well “invested”, if you consider any positive human benefit to be a return-on-investment.)

As long as people don’t use supposed “realism” as an excuse for why they rather don’t help out anywhere, it’s fine.

I suppose the problem with this blog post is that the words chosen kinda create an inflated impression of how much impact this one small foundation is making? I didn’t mean to create the impression that they’re single-handedly rebuilding Cambodia. At most, I wanted to point out that as a way to spend $40k, this way is certainly good.

Compare this now with the impact of Jarrod Davidoff and his “Save the World Foundation”, for example… For the record, the guesstimate R2 million is nearly $200,000 – or nearly five times the budget that the Harpswell Foundation is spending. Not that I necessarily trust Jarrod’s numbers. But that is just the kind of thing I’m comparing to.

After reading something like that, try telling me that the Harpswell Foundation isn’t spending money wisely.

By: Don

Don — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:09:07 +0000

Dear Hugo: Thanks for your response. But it takes more than hope to promote development. I would classify this effort as an important and well meaning attempt by thiose involved to address the education problem in Cambodia but in fact only a drop in the bucket in terms of what is needed to remedy the problem. I guess you could say that it is better than nothing. But a lot more will be needed to promote real change there.

By: Hugo

Hugo — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 09:32:46 +0000

Leadership, as in government? Hmm…

In terms of this contribution, I believe the hope is that those 36 women become those very leaders that will then further promote education. It certainly sounded like this endeavour is really in partnership with the Cambodians.

By: Don

Don — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 07:28:06 +0000

This is a very touching story. I agree that education is critical to Cambodia’s future development but do not believe that this can be done only by outsiders. Unless it can be put on a sustainable track managed and funded by Cambodians themselves it will only touch the surface of the problem. The key is thus to educate the Cambodian leadership on the importance of education so that they will devote adequate resources to this important area.