Southeast Asia Sounding: 1/18/2010

• Anne Elizabeth Moore is back in Cambodia, and has revivified her blog, camb(l)o(g)dia. Among her choice recent offerings is this one about interviewing garment factory workers. [link]
• Dengue Fever is coming back to Cambodia! [DAS] Whoo-hoo! And just in time, they’ve made a mix tape of sorts. I. want. to. go. there.
• A very rare 8th Century Cham Buddha image is currently on display in the Hoch! I. also. want. to. go. there. [link]
• The Bakan (the uppermost level/shrine in Angkor Wat) is reopened! Rock! [link, via]
• I previously mentioned a review of the “Chomsky/Cambodia” debate. For those not familiar with this eternally recurring ideologically-driven nightmare, Noam Chomsky, internationally the most respected intellectual in the world (if one is to judge by citation, a common measure), is repeatedly accused of having been a Khmer Rouge apologist during the years 1975-1979.  It is implied in most of these critiques that Chomsky’s immense influence with US architects of foreign policy somehow made the suffering of  Cambodians under Pol Pot’s frankly evil regime worse.  Horse-hockey.  Here is the latest set of articles in this debate.  If you read any of them, please do yourself a favor and read all of them, and to very carefully weigh the arguments made by each, and consider what position is more solid.  I know my answer, but I’m convinced that the silly ad hominems and pseudo-moralism passing for serious discussion and debate is not worthwhile, and that careful, personal examination of the real facts is more persuasive.
  • “Lost in Cambodia,” by Andrew Anthony. Times of London, January 10, 2010
  • “Malcolm Caldwell: a carefully redesigned version of history,” by Noam Chomsky. The Guardian, January 17, 2010
  • “Never apologize, never explain,” by Oliver Kamm. Times of London, January 17, 2010.