Cross-Cultural Dating
Having a relationship with someone from a different cultural background is fraught with difficulty.
Can love work between couples from different language backgrounds and different cultures? If I look at the family of my older sister and of my boss, I think it can. However, it’s never easy, and making it work is far more complicated than just overcoming the issues of language and culture. For, in reality, I know that my boss and my sister have had to accept more than just their partners’ cultural traits.
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Getting around corruption anyway I can
I was the Director of an Anti-Poverty program and all of my staff were convinced I needed to pay a bribe. They all gave me my opinions on how much I needed to pay. 30% of the overall value and a bottle of Jack Daniels was the consensus.
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Myanmar to follow Cambodia’s lead in documenting recent history
Myanmar is in the process of setting up a documentation centre to reflect on decades of human rights abuses. It’s using the records of Toul Sleng prison as inspiration.
When Chit Min Lay first visited Toul Sleng last month, the cramped cells and blood-splattered walls were eerily familiar. It looked just like “his jail”: the concrete box in Myanmar where he spent 14 years as a political prisoner. He saw the photographs of victims, and turned away.
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Chinese Cambodian community: the swing of the pendulum
Contrary to what is implied by general concepts like “Overseas Chinese” or "Chinese immigration" the Chinese Cambodian community can’t be simply analysed according to a general model of Chinese expatriation or in analogy with the other Chinese communities in neighbouring countries. In fact, the distinctive features of a Chinese Khmer community have to be searched for in a three-centuries-old history. Even if it is tempting and maybe useful to refer to such concepts as “Chinese identity in Cambodia” or “Chinese Khmer identity”,
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The Rule of Law - an Example from China
Considering the many cases where there were contradicting opinions about what this wording “the Rule of Law” means, I would like to share an example from the Chinese eastern coastal Province of Zhejiang which borders on Shanghai to the north.
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New generation of Cambodian teenagers discovers telephone sex
PHNOM PENH (Cambodia Herald) - Seth Bunsath describes some of the language used when having telephone sex with his girlfriend. "Lip to lip, tongue to tongue ... rolling my tongue from her neck to her ear.”
Is it a new style? It may be for some, but Seth Bunsath said he's been engaging in telephone sex with his girlfriend for about five years already.
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Sex Work and Dignity in Cambodia – Not Everyone’s a Victim at That Girly Bar
Sex work is still stigmatized in Cambodia, a largely conservative nation, despite what Street 51s more than healthy hostess bar trade may lead you to believe. A group of sex workers has decided to create a union and ask for the right to work—and most interestingly, they want to let people know that they don’t consider themselves victims, and they are not asking for anybody’s sympathy.
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After the International Women's Day 2012
Good traditions – but looking towards the future – should be developed. The following is such an attempt, following on publications during the past years. On 11 March 2007, I had written about the origins of the International Women's Day, related to the first all women’s strikes in the garment industry, in Lowell in Massachusetts/USA. What I consider worthwhile here is to think about the fact that the first strike of women textile workers, as described above, took place in Lowell/USA,
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Trash Uncle
This story won the grand prize for "Story by an individual” award in the LIN Volunteer Stories Competition 2011. The competition was organised by LIN Center for Community Development, a philathropic institution that supports grassroots non-profit organisations in and and around Ho Chi Minh City. Words by Nguyen Huong Dao. Translated by UNV volunteers
I would like to tell you a story about the Nam Dinh Trash Team. It is special for me, and hopefully for you too. I am pretty sure about this.
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Why such selective law enforcement?
While I was in Myanmar for a week, there were also the celebrations for the 65th Union Day, remembering events in 1947 which led to independence from colonial rule. In his speech at the occasion, U Thein Sein, the President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, did not only look back, but also into the future, reflecting the new policies of the new government:
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