Don’t laugh, it’s not funny
Fwd: Don’t laugh, It’s not funny, originally uploaded by James & Cesca.
Subject: Don’t laugh, It’s not funny
Here we see a sign on the side of the genocide museum in Phnom Penh. The ex school building was renamed S-21 and processed ‘traitors’ to the cause of the Khmer Rouge. Processing was torture, rape and death of the most horrific kind. Over 8000 people came through here, only 7 survived. During my visit I met one of these 7 — he smiled and greeted us and I could not see anything in his eyes to show the horrors he suffered.
Among the tortures was the simulated drowning practice known as “Waterboarding”, which us still in use today by the Americans aginst their traitors (now called Terrorists or Insurgents). How slow we
are to learn the lessons of history.
The normalness of the killers and victims hand the fact that all this happened in my lifetime is for me more harrowing than the images of the dead, which are hung up here in their hundreds. My natural reaction is not to cry or get anguish but in fact to feel a kind of cold rage. I would die before I would let my country do these things. After a few moments reflection I worry that this is the sort of feeling that the killers felt, or how else could they do it? The fact of the matter is that they had no choice. That is what the KR took from the Cambodian people. Once that ‘freedom’ is gone all horrors become possible. The most important right is the right to say ‘no’. Without that men will kill, rape and torture without remorce, as is shown here by the normalness of the guards and their stories.
Many of those guards were eventually sent here themselves and had their fingernails pulled out, children raped and killed in front of them, bodies beaten and eletrocuted and finally their throats cut.
So, the sign says not to laugh…
- absolutely god damn right -
it’s not funny.
Ankor Wat is a national treasure of the Earth. Some of the most
amazing places I have ever visted and a feast for the eyes and camera.
Even the iPhone takes great images here, such as this one!
This year Christmas was very special for us as we watched the sunrise
over Angkor Wat and then tried banana pancakes Cambodian style. We
wish you all a wonderful festive season with family and friends. love
Cesca and James xxx
Happy Christmas everyone!
Here is a short film of Cesca and I giving all our Christmas greetings from sunny Cambodia!
We have been away for 6 months now — half way! — and are missing all our friends and families, especially around Christmas, however the modern cost of mobile roaming is too high. This way we can speak to all for only the cost of a little web time.
See you all soon. Coming next is a series of articles about South East Asia — watch this space!
Basho
There is much more to be written on the subject of the secret war in
Laos, but it is the people of Laos who suffer everyday with it’s
legacy. Thousand have lost their lives and limbs since the war due to
the exessive use of cluster bombs. The millions of bombletts that
remain unexplored await farmers and children. COPE is an organisation
dedicated to telling the world about these evil devices and picking up
the pieces afterwards by building new limbs for those maimed by the
“bombies”
Not very clear on the photo, but this is a shot of a “virus found“
warning… On a cash machine! Gotta love Laos!
