Sunday, March 9, 2008
Raoul Marc Jennar
Today I was lucky enough to spend the morning with the amazing, author, historian, Oxfam researcher and now an advisor to Hun Sen, Mr. Raoul Marc Jennar. Raoul first came to Cambodia in 1988 working undercover for the Belgian Government. Today he spends 6 months in Cambodia and 6 months in his home in France which is part of a castle from the 12th century filled with treasures he has collected from his travels around the world and over 800 books on Cambodia. He talked a lot about his first trip here, driving to Phnom Penh from Ho Chi Minh. He said he was amazed that the city had not changed at all since Pol Pot came to power and evacuated Phnom Penh in 1975. Cars remained on the side of the road that had not been driven for over 12 years and army barracks still lined the river front. He also talked about how much the government had changed, when he first came the people in the government were humble, Hun Sen used to get around on a bicycle and many Government officials lived in simple wood houses. I asked what he thought of Hun Sen today and he said that – “Hun Sen has become a very good student of Margaret Thatcher.” He also said that Hun Sen “Is an angel compared to Sihanouk”.
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9 comments:
It's me georgie (Maas) (I'm using my blogger handle)!
Was the Margret Thatcher comment a good one or a bad one?
Perhaps its easier to blame the big bad West for all the evil in the world (remember who are the donors that prop up international aid) -but people do forget that it was the Cambodians (in the guise of the Khamer Rogue)who murdered millions of their fellow citizens all because of some ideology written in the 1800's.
Mao would be most pleased.
Sure the likes of Mr Pilger will blame the US-but without economic growth,property ownership,the rule of law,low taxes and encouragement of small buisness can bring the much needed stability so needed in the Third World,then the third world will be still stuck in the dark ages.
Help them by building schools and infra-structure which is praticle sure,but handing cash in the form of international welfare allows this sort of 'progress'....
Comment was ambiguous.....
lets not forget that america and the UK supported Comrade Ox for more than a decade, from 1979- 1991 and that before that they supported the Lon Nol government and bombed Cambodia to pieces.
check out
www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb05/Pilger0217.htm
interested in your opinion,,,,,
big hig
Hmmm....
Ambigous perhaps...factually correct probably.
Before we go down the John Pilger skool of revisionist history-I think you will find the the KR was supported by the Chinese,espcially during the Chinese invasion of Vietnam in 1979....
I think also that the British never had much involvement in Vietnam (we were busy elsewhere) and the funding for various groups was stopped after the Church Report in 1975....
But you already knew that didn't you?
and yes China - along with the US and UK.... Vietnam was supported by Russia
Hmmm....
I'm afraid I've never seen this quote that you profess in seeing-perhaps my interest in Cold War history has ommitted this-please provide the quote and I'll be more than interested.
Secondly the British where never in Veitnam-I believe the Democrat government started that adventure in 1968 (Kennedy then LBJ) back by the Australian,New Zealand,South Korean ,Tiawan and other forces.
To be specific Thialand,Burma and China provided the weapons and training to counter Soviet expansion....
Finally there are five members of Perement Members of the Security Council USA,UK,France,China and USSR as she was known then,plus Fourteen rotating members who have the voting rights WHO joins the security council...To suggest the UK and US (funny those names always crop up on left wing blogs) just decided to "allow" the KR to join is very ambigous at best.....
Perhaps Georgie you might want to have a look at France's record,or for that manner the record of the left BEFORE you blame the usual suspects?
Always a pleasure never a chore :)
you keep talking about Vietnam - i am talking about Cambodia..
a neutral country....
and post cold war
will find quote ...
at least France stayed till the end - USA backed Lon Nol then left Cambodia to PolPot
Now I am confused:
Thatcher Government:1979-1990
Ho Chi Mihn trail (which went through Cambodia and Laos) and US interdiction in Cambodia-1970 to 1972
US bombing of Laos-1970-1970
Communist insurgency in Cambodia-1969-1975
France "left" South East Asia-1956
End of the Cold War-Failed coup in Russia 1991
Veitnamese invasion of Cambodia-1976-1980
Now you are talking about post cold war period when Thatcher and Regan had long left office?
Sorry to be pedantic-My interest in history centres around the Cold War....
:)
sorry - i meant Cambodia - not post Cold War but for Cambodia the war was over... years 1979 - 1991....
us bombing of Cambodia 1965-1973
georgie
Hi, Georgie - why don't you tell your friend Gordon to study a little of history? Though full of opinions, he is ignorant of the basics concerning Cambodian history and the Second Indochina War. --- Hal
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