PREVENTING GENOCIDE AND MASS ATROCITIES

Tufts University, 2020 EPIIC International Symposium

Kudos to the EPIIC team in persevering to bring this Symposium together in spite of the Corona! Sad not to be in Boston, but delighted to be a part of the Zoom version.

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RIPRBG

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The director of the infamous S-21 prison

is

dead.

A few pertinent facts hardly reported by the media:

1. Duch was not one of the "senior Khmer Rouge leaders" but only one of "those most responsible"—the only 2 groups of perpetrators the Khmer Rouge Tribunal (or ECCC) has "personal jurisdiction" or legal authority to put on trial.

2. Tuol Sleng is only one of 200 detention centers created by the KR. Other prisons claimed more victims, eg, Bung Rei where I was imprisoned claimed 30,000 lives.

3. Tuol Sleng is famous because of (i) its location in the heart of Phnom Penh; (ii) victims were prominent people, (iii) including many foreigners from different countries thus drawing international, diplomatic attention; (iv) the political, diplomatic effort exerted by the Vietnamese military overlords-conquerors in 1979 in curating Tuol Sleng for exclusive tours to diplomats, journalists and photographers/filmmakers (everyone else barred)—to justify its invasion and occupation of Cambodia.

4. This Hun Sen regime (many senior officials formerly Khmer Rouge), which never wanted the KRT/ECCC, wants to scapegoat Duch, making him bear the bulk of responsibility for the horrors of the KR regime. But remember, he was only one of 200 prison directors, not a "senior Khmer Rouge leader" with authority over the whole of Cambodia like Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Khieu Samphan, Ieng Sary, Ieng Thirith...

See my posts  "Tuol Sleng and the Rewriting, Remaking of History" and on "genocide" verdict .

Watch my Skype interview with Al Jazeera (2 September 2020) and listen to my interview with Radio Free Asia tonight (2 Sept. 2020).

And a more in-depth TV via Skype interview with Radio Free Asia (Khmer), 3 September 2020.

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As I’ve posted a couple of years or so ago, my This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it has been hijacked and I have not been in control of this account since (even if I am still able to view the emails received and send from it for the time being). Please inform me if you receive emails from these two fake accounts purporting to be from me: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

This was a message that came in yesterday, 17 August 2020. Interesting that the hacker had created another email baring my full name ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

At the very beginning of finding out that someone else had control of this account, I stayed quiet for a time as I was still able to receive emails and send from it because I didn’t want the hacker to know that I know.

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Jared Genser

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penisbroken pleaseusefinger

The use of commas allows for more word spacings.

It’s already problematic with the premier language already employing the full array of punctuation marks to have issues with word spacing. Now think of languages, ex. Khmer, Thai, that do not use punctuation as a system and simply use the space as a comma (or in the case of Thai, as a full stop).

Punctuation is THE KEY to development.

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Plant Power

Tumeric flowers from my garden

A friend's plant-based protein company

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Andrew Sullivan

[Excerpts]

The background of the drama is England’s “War of the Roses”, the civil war between two regional dynasties from which Richard emerged. And that’s often key in tyrant narratives: it’s when societies are already fractured into tribes, and divisions have become insurmountable, that tyrants tend to emerge, exploiting and fomenting chaos, to reign, however briefly, over the aftermath.... But he has one key skill, Greenblatt notes, the ability to lie shamelessly: “‘Why, I can smile and murder whiles I smile, And cry ‘Content!’ to that which grieves my heart, And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, And frame my face to all occasions.’” It’s a skill that serves him well — and there seems no limit to the number of those eager to believe him. His older brother George, Duke of Clarence, told by thugs that Richard wants him dead, exclaims: “Oh no, he loves me, and he holds me dear. Go you to him from me.” At which point the hired goons reply — “Ay, so we will” — and merrily murder him, taking him to Richard as a corpse. (In a good production, that can get a laugh.) One of Clarence’s young sons, told that his own uncle hates him, declares, “I cannot think it.” Others witness obvious depravity but can’t quite call it out. One official receives clearly illegal orders from Richard, and follows them, asking no questions: “I will not reason what is meant hereby, Because I will be guiltless from the meaning.”

Denial. Avoidance. Distraction. Willful ignorance. These are all essential to enabling a tyrant’s rise. And keeping this pattern going is Richard’s profound grasp of the power of shock. He does and says the unexpected and unthinkable in order to stun his opponents into a kind of dazed passivity. It’s this capacity to keep you on your heels, to keep disorienting you with the unacceptable (which is then somehow accepted), that marks a tyrant’s relentless drive. He does this by instinct. He craves chaos, lies, suspense, surprises — not because he’s a genius, but because stability threatens his psyche. He cannot rest. He is not in control of himself. And whenever the dust settles, as it were, he has to disturb it again.

Reality trumps presidential reality star.

Trump and Flotus test positive for Covid-19.

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Structural Racism:

Definition and Example

David French

,,,

Magawa the Hero Rat

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Cambodia has only 3 industries: garment, tourism, and within the last decade, construction. I remember being deeply involved with the first labor union in 1996 working alongside Chea Vichea, the popular union leader slain in broad daylight in January 2004. Then US-president Bill Clinton gave Cambodia most favored nation status and overnight a garment industry mushroomed on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, drawing hundreds of thousands of young women from the countryside to the capital, for most of them the first time outside of their commune, disconnected from the familiarity of the stunning world of nature known to them into a world of crowded concrete confinement, working 12-14 hour days in slave-like condition without proper regulations or rights monitoring, left to the caprice of the factory overlords. I remember helping to lead and participating in demonstrations in front of factories that have fallen grossly afoul of basic standards, protesting against horrific working conditions weekly, at times twice a week, after paying visits. There were no Smart phones, or for that matter, sufficient affordable handphones or trustworthy reliable telecommunication system, or Facebook to get the message out. We were fire-hosed and chased down by baton wielding thugs--private, governmental or otherwise in the lawlessness of the day, as we weaved and ducked and jumped on motorbikes to get to safety . The EU later gave the EBA status to Cambodia. All to say, Cambodia's economy is extremely fragile as this main industry that employed at its height almost a million young Cambodians, mainly women, was a propped-up industry, not competitive on its own. Now, because of the persistent, broad, systemic atrocious violation of rights by this Hun Sen regime, the EU has rightly stripped Cambodia of this lifeline; Hun Sen's economic reliance on China is no antidote, to put it mildly. (See Vietnamization: China responds)

Free Rong Chhun!

See Vietnamization: China Responds

I love Khmer homes.

No more Khmer homes in existence in Phnom Penh city center. My awesome rental of 8 years ago was demolished for skyscraper apartment complex.

So happy with my new Khmer home.

Blast to the Past

2001? — Organizing, holding a conference in Washington, DC, advocating for the US to rescind the new immigration law targeting Southeast Asians in the US who have paid in full the penalty of their crimes and misdemeanors with the law and/or unwittingly entered into a plea bargain years (some a decade or two) earlier and paid RETROACTIVELY with deportation to Cambodia. Some of them were born in the Thai refugee camps, not ever having been/seen Cambodia before. For all intents and purposes, they were American; but they never formalized their citizenship. To this day the deportation continues.

Remember to RECYCLE.

Trashy                 and          Not-So-Much

(Left) In Sihanoukville strutting my stuff in a fashion show to raise awareness about the need to recycle. All the outfits modeled were made from rubbish. (Right) Oh, I don't know...

Both photos I believe from 2008.

RECYCLE, YES! But, let's be Buddhist about it.

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