A Nation Lacking In Faith In Their Fellow Man
One of the things I enjoy the most in the five weeks I’ve spent in Khmer Country is the friendliness of the people. Of all the people I’ve met I can remember only one who has been rude to me, the man at the orphanage. Everyone else has been exceedingly nice, kind, and willing to offer help at the slightest sign that I need help.
But there is another side to the country that has been bothering me. Everywhere you go there are walls topped with barbed wire and razor wire. Every store has metal grates that completely seal it off from entry when closed. Every modern house has a gate and walls with the above if large enough. If it’s an apartment, then the lower unit has the same metal grates that gets closed and locked at night.
My own uncle Chheang’s apartment on the second floor has a metal gate at the top of the stairs that gets closed and locked at dusk. How many times have we had to yell down the hallway or make a phone call because it’s locked and there is no buzzer? The home I lived in for the last month even had a padlock on the door onto the patio. And every window I’ve seen is barred to include every hotel room, the therapy room, and all of the windows at CSC.
When you go to a restaurant or eatery that is larger than a cart, there is either a guard on duty or a man will come to you, lock your motorbike, and give you the key. The medical complex at Kien Kleang has a guard post and gate. When people walk through the markets with backpacks they wear it backwards, on the front.
The reason for the last minute rush to find a place to live tonight is because I was supposed to rent out the second floor of Lyna’s sister’s home. At the last minute she backed out because if I live there she wouldn’t be able to go out of town overnight; that is, she didn’t trust me to the place without supervision.
I would find this offensive if not for all of the above examples of an entire country’s insecurity. As quoted in Dune, “Everything is shielded, and with this shielding, we are invulnerable.” Often I think of Robert Frost’s poem concerning walls. I too do not like walls.
December 3rd, 2007 at 10:08 am
barred windows, walls with barb wire or broken glass, steel gates, armed guards at fast food places, etc are all typical fare for places in asia like that. it is the same way in the philippines. but you don’t have to go to cambodia/philippines to see barred windows and gates at doorways - just go to nyc or any grimey city here in the states, it’s the same.