Tragedy in Cambodia

(Srey Pov in Nov. 2008)
It’s been a long sad day for people in Cambodia, and driving the streets you can see the offering in front of most houses; a candle, rice, fruit or wine. It’s somber and makes me feel empty. I just returned from the hospital where a former student who I have always been close with is in the hospital after being trampled last night. Fourteen year old Srey Pov was unconscious for 2 hours last night. She awoke and was numb on her lower body, but seems to be recovering ok and even smiled at a few of my stupid jokes. It’s one of those cliché universe-calling-to-me where the only person I knew who was affected by a massive tragedy was the student who I love perhaps more than the rest. She is so special – always the joker and a real tomboy at heart, but there is really no explanation for why we connect so well. She was also evicted early last year and I haven’t been the best at keeping in touch. I did try to buy her a bike and periodically talk to her father who is a tuk tuk driver. It seems she barely escaped with her life, and I thank god she is alive.

As for the 349 people who died, I didn’t know any of them, and I don’t know any of the other 700 injured. Which is good luck for me really. I am sensitive, and this tragedy is more than enough to get to me with only a friend who is going to be alright (I hope).

But the tragedy is so incredibly sad. These were young people, mostly women (I’d guess around 85%), who were out having fun during the big festival. Many were wearing their best clothes, some people were coming to the big city for their first time, seeing the lightning fast transformation of their capital, standing on a new bridge that was covered with rainbow-light-show colors that could be seen from kilometers away. Oh, Cambodia was going to be proud of how so many people could afford to come to celebrate Water Festival (an estimated 4 million out of a population of 14 million), and in just a few more hours they could celebrate that the festival went smoothly. But that dream was stopped short, and Cambodia has a new chapter in its history.

People should to be aware that when police take money and let vehicles through barricades meant to stop traffic, it makes something like this more likely. I hope that the chapter has some good lessons learned, that some people are held accountable, that families grieve and heal. I imagine the investigation will reveal some incompetence but will mostly just blame too many people.

Unfortunately the Cambodians I know seem to want to chalk it up to bad luck and move on. The government has the good fortune of largely representing a population that won’t challenge what they’re told. I really want to know why there was what seemed very much like tight censorship on the TV stations in the hours after the tragedy. I could speculate that they didn’t want to have someone get on TV and say something that would anger a mob and disorder would ensue, or I could speculate that they wanted to protect powerful people if indeed someone was at fault. Whatever the reason I want to hear it. I will ask for it.