Behind the smiling face
By CARE
One of Phnom Penh’s main streets, uncharacteristically empty (photo: Prum Seila)
Welcome to Cambodia, says a small-rectangular billboard, standing handsomely on the right hand side of the road heading east to the city centre of Phnom Penh from the airport. You will smell the air of the kingdom of wonder with thousand of ancient temples waiting for you. And you would feel like arriving in a developed country with hundred of modern cars overtaking as you are being driven down Russian Boulevard. Normally, it takes you around forty minutes by tuk tuk crawling through the crowded road to Beung Keng Kong – the beautiful part of the city in which the western tourists prefer to stay – or to Beung Kork Lake, the paradise for the backpackers.
Discovering the truth…
Obviously, there are lots of places and things to see and do in Phnom Penh city. With those things, some people can earn very handsome benefits for their living while the majority is still living from hand to mouth. The beggars, for example, are seen everywhere in the city strolling around and winging their hands out for money. Moreover, they are inevitably weakening this city’s image. There are all kinds of beggars sitting or toddling along the streets to seek kind people for money. Most of them are orphans, amputees, and homeless people – young and old. You might wonder how those people live on with little begged money – most of them earn less than 4,000 riel per day (can afford to buy a loaf of bread here in Germany). The answer is: they are living close to starvation, and sometimes, they sleep with their stomach empty.
One day, while taking my bumpy lane home from the university, I was stopped by a few children. One in her early teens looked very pale and tired wearing a dirty shirt and carrying a broken pitcher containing a few small Cambodian notes. The other looked smaller than his age 15, he told me, and he held in a naked baby sleeping with his eye half-open. I whispered to myself ‘’beggars’’ because it was not my first time to come upon them. I sighed with a heavy heart before I gave out 1,000 riel (about € 0.20 cents) each. I was wondering how many more of them whom I haven’t met yet. We don’t have an exact figure, from what I know; there are no less than thousands around the country.
A handicapped person begging in front of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh (photo: Kunila Keo)Most of beggars are children and amputees, especially the ones who physically suffered from the civil war, from the rural provinces. The majority of those children drop out of school while the others don’t even have a chance to go to school. Moreover, there are hundred of children crossing the border everyday to beg in Thailand where they say it is easier to make money than Cambodia. But it is risky when they meet police.
Time for a change
While most Cambodian people are living below the poverty line, it is not easy for beggars to make a living. The people usually ignore the beggar’s jar rather than dropping some coins. Sometimes, the starvation forces the beggars to pickpocket and dare to do everything to keep their lives going even though they know it would end up in the prison. “Living in the jail is better than starving on the street,” they said, “At least we have rice to eat.” Come to visit Cambodia, you have to be careful, those people always have their eyes on your belongings – camera, wallet, phone, or other precious things even food – waiting for good chance.
Recently, the government claimed to take a hot action on those beggars, because, some use the begged money to buy drug, they are decaying the nation’s image and making the social insecure.
It is true that my country experienced very bitter chronic civil war, and it left behind the big poverty. But I believe we can do something better than just winging hands out begging for money. I accept the fact that every country in the world can not reject this thing, the beggar. But the size of beggars in Cambodia is very big that makes it stands out among those countries. I don’t really want the bad culture of begging to take root in the country of smiling-faced people. However, I long to see the culture of working hard taking place in this country.
Tags: Asia, Cambodia, Cambodian Diary
