That Botswana station was so Americanized. If it weren't for the odd African song thrown in, that station could've been in any US metro area. We may be the dominant entertainment culture in the world, but daaaaaaamn...
Let's try something a bit more exotic today. Y'all want to head toCambodia ?
Let's try something a bit more exotic today. Y'all want to head to
first, some orientation...
About 90% of Cambodia's 15 million people consider themselves to be Khmers, descendants of the Angkor Empire that dominated the region for a couple of hundred years back about a thousand years ago. There's still massive ruins from their empire, and it's capital,
But like the Huns and Visigoths and Vandals that weakened
A government was set up and ruled for almost two decades. It was officially neutral during the Cold War, but everyone thought they sympathized with the communists. They had pretty sour relations with
Angkor Wat from above. Reminds Ellen of the monkey city in The Jungle Book.
The new government that was established was the
The Royal Palace in Phnom Penh
OK, so now we've got the Khmer Rouge in power and over the next 4 years Pol Pot starts this insane agrarian revolution. He clears out the cities and moves everyone to the country and destroys anything Western in an attempt to recreate the model from the earlier empires from over a thousand years ago. Of course, it didn't work. DUH. And, through their unadulterated cruelty, heavy handed tactics, and ensuing disease and starvation, the Khmer Rouge ends up killing about a fourth of their population - especially the Buddhist monks. They killed off every single one of them they could find, and there were a lot at the time. The Khmer Rouge basically gutted that institution. By the late 1970's there were less than a thousand left. The Khmer Rouge tried to kill all the intellectuals, too. Just wearing eyeglasses was a death sentence. (Watch out, Ellen!)
Pol Pot dictating his crazy to the masses.
The Vietnamese invaded in the late 70's, and civil war ensued until peace accords in 1991. The last of the Khmer Rouge didn't give up until the late 90's though, and today, there are still an estimated 4 million landmines in a country the size of
Although
Anyway, Cambodia is building up their agriculture, garment, and oil industries, too. Although there have been a few hiccups, they're pretty stable politically and are actively rebuilding their society. It's a poor nation with a poor infrastructure, but they're a resourceful people and are doing everything they can to flourish. Check out the bamboo trains! Gotta use what ya got!
Well, guess that about does it for now. Hope y'all enjoy
.
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