I wrote (below): “If such a gentle people were capable of those atrocities, what society is not? If Cambodians could become so divided that they began murdering other Cambodians, could we? How far must civil discourse erode before “the other” is so reprehensible to deserve killing?”

After today’s shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords I am reminded that our lack of civil discourse is tearing this country apart. We would not survive another civil war.

Reprint below:
By Bob Rogers

After 35 years, the first Khmer Rouge mass murderer has been convicted in Cambodia. We’ve all heard of the killing fields of Cambodia, when the Khmer Rouge murdered between one and two million other Cambodians. It was one of the worst periods of mass murder in history. It was the Chinese Cultural Revolution gone crazy. The Khmer Rouge, in attempting to bring about an agrarian utopian society, sought out and murdered anyone with an education, and anyone associated with them.

I remember following news reports of the carnage in this far away land, and wondering how such a thing could happen in a society. After Claire and I bicycled the length of Cambodia near the end of our In Search of Shangri-la tour, I am even more puzzled, and not a little disconcerted.

While the Cambodians are not as laid back as Lao, or as industrious as Vietnamese, they were friendly. Though not as outwardly happy as the irrepressible Lao, they were reasonably outgoing. And yet, some of the older Cambodians we saw must surely have been murderers. The Khmer Rouge were peasants, and we traveled through the rural countryside at twelve miles per hour, bought food from them at markets and street restaurants, slept in their guest houses. We smiled and received smiles in return. And yet, there was a pall of uncertainty for me, as I watched a landscape roll past, a rice small field that just might have been a killing field.

The Image most people have of the killing fields and mass graves, are of one central location near the Capitol, Phnom Penh. But, the killings took place in villages across Cambodia and the mounded mass graves still stand above the rice paddies, sometimes marked by simple concrete altars festooned with flowers and incense. Someone remembers and makes offerings to the gods, offerings of remembrance, and perhaps a hope that such a thing never happen again. It is an eerie sight to see the rice people working their fields so close to the bones of those killed there.

The reason Cambodia has been so slow to begin the process of justice escapes me, but I am not Asian. I didn’t grow up working dawn to dusk fighting the vagaries of nature, just to have a bowl of rice. From what we saw in Laos and Vietnam, Southeast Asians tend toward forgiveness. They hold no grudges against the former enemies in what they call the American War. Perhaps the Cambodians have passed on opportunities for justice all these years because they are either forgiving, or they are guilty. Now a generation is coming of age with no memory of those times. Perhaps the justice beginning now will educate them.

If such a gentle people were capable of those atrocities, what society is not? If Cambodians could become so divided that they began murdering other Cambodians, could we? How far must civil discourse erode before “the other” is so reprehensible to deserve killing?

For more on Cambodia go to New Bohemians, In Search of Shangri-la

They have no car, motorbike, bicycle, television, radio. Their light is a candle. Their cooking fuel is charcoal, their motive power is muscle. When they get sick, they get well, or they die. Children fall overboard and are lost to the river. The river gives and the river takes away. And yet, sometimes, they smile.

Governments, most notably China have plans to harness the entire river for hydro power. They will also begin dredging long stretches to increase the size of ships that can navigate to Yunnan Province. This will disrupt perhaps the most productive river fishery in the world. And it will threaten, if not end, the life of the boat people of the Mekong. The great hunger of China for power and resources touches all who live in SE Asia. The poorest, Laos and Cambodia, have no chance of standing up to the wealth and power of The Middle Kingdom, China.

We are so thankful to have seen life on the Mekong before it disappears. Our tandem bicycle travels there were not without challenges, but oh, so worthwhile.

Life on the Mekong is profound tactile and immediate. Can you say that for the place where you live? The vitality of their daily experience of living, compensates for the lack of comfort and possessions.

Where do you live?

For more about Asia from the seat of a tandem bicycle; from Chengdu, China across Tibet to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, click on the link: In Search of Shangri-la

It’s easy: just go to the right column of this Home page, and scroll down to article subjects, and click on 2009 Asia Adventure and it will take you to the first blog, Shangri-la; Journey into Myth, search for Reality.

When you get tired of reading, looking at picture or videos, you can just bookmark the blog where you are, so you can start where you left off, the next day, or week. At some point, I’ll have the posts on their own Adventures page, when I decide on a format.

Even if you think you’ve seen all of the posts, you will find things you missed the first time around. If you missed checking for a few days, you probably missed something interesting! With my short term memory, I’ll find something interesting! And don’t forget to look for our articles at Just One Opinion; many of them have basis is what we have learned during our travels.

Your comments are still welcome. Enjoy!

Man throwing a net on a backwater of the Mekong in Cambodia

“With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow – I have still joy in the midst of these things. Riches and honors acquired by unrighteousness are to me as a floating cloud.” Confucius

Before we began our Asian tandem bicycle adventure, I read Confucian quotes and often couldn’t relate.  This I chalked up to lack of depth on my part, and perhaps the enigmatic (to us) nature of Eastern thought.

Muddling my way through jet lag on our return, and as one friend opined, postpartum depression at the end of another adventure, I pondered the above Confucianism anew, and discovered I suddenly understood. Oh, I had known the surface meaning, from earlier adventures involving discomfort, danger, but not the full depth of his thought. I suddenly noticed that he says, “…have still joy…”  not “…still have joy…” as I had first read it. His meaning was hidden from me until I had eaten enough coarse rice, drank enough wood smoke infused water and slept sufficient times with my bended arm for a pillow.

To have a still joy, a quiet joy, a joy devoid of external condition, of riches or renown, is to have a profound joy, a lasting joy. I will look back on the past four months for as many years as I have left. I will remember the struggles, the discomforts, the challenge of the unknown, even the moments of  near panic, and I will smile. Confucius traveled China, seeking knowledge, seeking deep understanding. And Claire and I did also.

On this blog we have shared the light moments as well as the challenges and discomforts. I hope in coming months, as we integrate the lessons learned and share them, that you will be enriched through our seeking. And then I hope some of you will open a new path for learning, and seek out the adventure that fits your nature and capabilities. We all have the desire to continue to grow, to explore the previously unknown, no matter our age or condition in life. To suppress that desire is to suffer loss.

Here’s to your adventurous 2010, and beyond.

Happy New Year

Monkey Business

There are some funny things in the jungle. I don’t know what this thing was about. Bob stop him from grab me. I was scared. I don’t care to be used as a model for Bob’s camera thing. But this time I think I was got carried away to some tree and ate. I don’t want to be ate. I not taste good anyway.

I still enjoy visits to the fallen down old rock buildings. There’s lots  in the jungle. Some of them are getting eaten by big trees. It’s spooky sometimes. Bob and Claire like to climb up to the top on little tiny steps. I hide in Bob’s camera bag; pandas don’t climb high.

A few pictures:

Claire descending the temple of doom under the watchful prayers of three monks

Woman of the Temple Angkor Wat

Nymphs at Angkor Wat

Monk at Angkor Wat

Ankor Wat over the moat

Stairs to Central Tower

A Central Pyramid of Anckor Wat

Offering

Don't know who these guys are?

Intricate Stone Carving Found by the Thousands

Returning to Nature

Passageway at Angkor Wat

More Nymps

Vendor Girls at a Wat; no child care here, they work too.

Thanatopsis

Reflective Monk on the Bad Luck Tower; struck by lightning before completion and abandoned

Time for Reflection

Lucky from Angkor Wat

We took Zippy to  ride yesterday to some place said Angkor Wat. Claire told it was a  important place. It is made of rocks people carved and piled up to make temples to a bunch of gods.

They have scary demons for gods to fight, or something. There is big snakes, elephants, and too, a crocodile carved into walls, and other stuff too.

There are whole armies fighting and different of their big important gods, including Buddha. I’m can’t know how they remember all these gods, but they must have been important for them to do hard work.

Oh, there are 1876 dancing nymphs carved there too, and Bob took a lot of pictures of them.

We went to several other temples that were just as interesting. Claire says we’re going to more today and tomorrow. I’m getting tired, and Bob wants a nap, but Claire says we’ll only be here once, so we gotta keep up to go.

Zippy and me liked the ride back best. It being dark and we no lights. Bob and Claire pedaled fast. We passed bicycles and tuk tuks and even cars. Then me and Bob talked to a little girl selling postcards while Claire got food.

Bob says they’ll put up some more pictures when he finds something called bandwidth. I don’t know what is, but he always grouches about it.

I having fun!

bye,

Lucky