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Friday, August 22, 2014




Cambodia’s Financial Mainstay: The Textile Workers Protest Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Political “Repression and Low Wages”!
I occasionally write a blog that relates to issues that may not seem important in a world rife with headline grabbing tensions, conflagrations and instabilities. Such is the case with this post which attempts to address the concerns of my readers in Cambodia who have caught my attention with their recent political protests.
As I have mentioned in the past,  I had been involved in the 1991 Paris Peace Conference on Cambodia which officially ended Vietnam’s occupation of Cambodia and as a result eventually installed Prime Minister Hun Sen as the leader of the Cambodian People’s Party.  Recently,  Hun Sen correctly criticized America for our ‘double standard and triple standards’ when it comes to Missouri’s handling of the Ferguson unrest.
(see article posted earlier by Khy Sovuthy)

Of course,  it would be easy for me to make all kind of pretentious pronouncements about the relatively autocratic rule of Hun Sen.  However,  I would offer to compare his handling of  “CPP’s disputed election victory as well as meager wages in the garment industry…. At least five workers were shot dead by military police…” to decades of Khmer Rouge/King Sihanouk’s dysfunctional tenure where millions of Cambodians were murdered.
Through kleptocracy,   Hun Sen brought limited foreign investments and the expert courting of China into a financial vortex that created a booming economy that could become one of the main textile manufacturers in ASEAN [Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Myanamar, et. al].  The issue for the Cambodian people is one that results from a concentration of wealth and power in a small group of elites which controls this textile industry through 600 factories spread over the country.  The garment industry in Cambodia amounts to 80% of its exports ($2.65B).
The average Cambodian garment worker made $80-$95 per month,  compared to Bangladesh which paid $38 per month and Vietnam which paid $89-$123 per month, making Cambodia a highly sought after manufacturing-export market.  However,  Sam Rainsy,  the leader of the anti-government Cambodia National Rescue Party has claimed electoral fraud and demanded the garment wages be raised to $160 per month.
Hun Sen conceded to give the workers $100 per month.  But Sam Rainsy and his cohorts demanded that 30,000 workers strike in the streets [accompanied by violence]. And they did.  Now,  Cambodia has what one would euphemistically call ‘political uncertainty’.  These labor strikes in the streets of Cambodia are a far cry from the auto genocide of the Khmer Rouge where 1.2 million Cambodians killed each other.  Caution should be taken on both sides of this political confrontation.  Allow Hun Sen to make certain concessions which workers should accept if they want to be competitive in the low wage world of global textile industries.
 

However,  when we appointed Hun Sen as the new leader of Cambodia, it was not intended that he become a deity or ruler for life. We had that nonsense with the French created Sihanouk Family.  It is now time for Hun Sen to step down and allow a younger, more enlightened Cambodian civilian to rule the country in the 21st century.  We Americans have trained his son at West Point.  Yet, I would strongly hint that a military succession will not benefit the Hun Sen family … nor the Cambodian people.
I see this internal struggle as part of the normal growth process that all new nations have to pass through in order to become a viable  nation-state… whatever that form might take.  Remember, Cambodia, all you have to do is to look back at the history of the American Garment Industry in the 1900’s-1940’s till WWII broke out to see how America solved it’s own Garment/Textile Internal War.
Good luck, Cambodia!!  Please practice restraint and compromise …. On both sides!!!  

  

17 comments:

  1. Dr Steve, If people want to know the real truth about this ISIS mob this site below reveals all!
    Rothschild Agent US Senator John McCain´s and Israel´s Strategy: ISIS Caliphate, Tripartition of Iraq, Greater Israel, Final Religious War, “True Light of Lucifer´s Doctrine”
    Abstract: When the Balfour Declaration was created in 1917 by Walter Rothschild’s Round Table and the British government, the intent was not to rectify the wrong / God´s punishment in the years of 70 and 132 AD by the Romans - but to promote British interests in the Middle East through a trouble-center among the Arabs. Through Israel, the Middle East was destabilized after WWII.
    Gradually, radical sects (Al Qaeda, IS(IS)) emerged among the Arabs, founded and promoted by Israel´s founders, the Rothschild dynasty and its vassals, the U.S., EU, NATO. Together with USA´s Arabian Spring, those powers created rebellions and civil wars among the Arabs with Western interventions based on false flag operations. A year ago, former Israeli Prime Minister, Olmert, said for this reason that Israel had never been more safe than now. The old Roman strategy: divide and rule, has proven efficient once again.
    This post shows how Israel and its vassal, the United States, have long been working to divide Iraq into a Kurdish, a Sunni and a Shiite state, Iraq then no longer being a danger to Israel.
    The present tool for this is IS(IS), financed, trained and equipped by the West and Israel. Remember: Al Qaeda and IS(IS) never threaten to attack Israel!
    Rothschild agent, U.S. Senator John McCain, Chairman of the international espionage and subversive organization, IRI, has close ties to known ISIS terrorists, and his NED along with George Soros’ Open Society and Otpor are the decisive factor behind the Arab Spring. He stands behind all colour revolutions as well as a series of attempts to oust the dictators of the world - and latest the legal President of Ukraine.
    The actual government of the United States, the Council on Foreign Relations, wants to intensify USAs bombings in Iraq to expand them on Syria (to do what the U.S. military and Congress prevented a year ago to the great dissatisfaction of the Jewish lobby). Kurds and Iraq should provide the ground troops.
    Obama is now waging an unconstitutional war without Congressional authorization - and certainly does not want to stop IS(IS) because it performs Muslim Brotherhood member Obama’s dirty work.
    Israel is under the influence of the Chabads Lubavitch working towards the last war of humanity in concordance with the recipe of Freemason guru Albert Pike and the biblical prophecies (Ezekiel 38-39, Jeremiah 25, etc., as well as the Talmud tales). They might also have Luke 21, Matt. 24 in mind. Israel claims to have biblical rights to a Greater Israel, which is shown here - even though God has long ago terminated his pact with the disobedient Israelites (e.g. Jeremiah 34: 13-22, 3:17, Luke 21, Matthew 24 : 1-2).
    The Jews are energetically preparing for the construction of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount/Zion - a precondition for the appearance of their Messiah, ben David, a brilliant politician and general, who shall lead Israel to gain world domination (Israel’s founders, the Rothschilds, already holds this domination). This requires a major war with the Islamic world over the Mosque on the Rock.
    http://new.euro-med.dk/20140822-rothschild-agent-us-senator-john-mccains-and-israels-strategy-isis-caliphate-tripartition-of-iraq-final-religious-war-and-true-light-of-lucifers-doctrine.php

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    1. The Jewish guy who owns American Apparel makes everything in a factory in Los Anglese and pays living wages there.

      The sole reason why the garment workers in such places as Bangladesh, Haiti and Cambodia are paid nothing is because the craven businessmen who run that industry today keep the difference between the wholesale price and the miniscule production cost....pocketing huge profits which used to go to the workers before GLOBALIZATION.

      This is another example of the failure of free markets when applied to global trade. The US and EU need to end all these free trade arrangements.

      Secondly someone like George Soros needs to form a covert group of intl operators to penetrate governments like this one, and along with a labor movement get rid of these robber barron politicians and their regimes.

      The Khmer people are interesting in many respects, but their fate was sealed when Kissinger and Nixon couldn't prevail against the North Vietnamese and out of frustration and anger and rage started bombing the shit out of all the villages in eastern Cambodia, thereby murdering and maiming hundreds of thousands of ordinary people.....

      That plus the CIA installation of pro-US Juntas in Cambodia led to the ultimate blowback of the American-resident/short order cook and dishwasher Pol Pot.....and that was not a good thing.

      Thank God the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, just as the US should invade Mexico today..because like the Russians in Ukraine and the Germans in Cechoslovakia and Polant, when a country on your doorstep has fallen apart you should act. But this only applies to states on your own borders and not far flung places like Vietnam or Iraq vis-a-vis America.

      Delete
    2. Because of what Nixon and Kissinger did to the Cambodians both are now in hell.

      Nixon is a Rotweiller but has Nixon's head instead of a dogs, and Kissinger is a Poodle with Kissinger's head of course.

      Nixon is on top of Kissinger screwing him from behind....

      KISSINGER:

      This is so undignified....If I had known I would spend eternity being fucked by the President I would have thought twice about bombing anyone.....

      NIXON:

      This is the thanks we get for trying to maintain the honor of America. It's not fair. It' not fair...

      KISSINGER:

      I don't think I can take an eternity of this because it's been only three weeks and already my vagina is sore as hell....so to speak.

      NIXON:

      You know me Henry...I've never been a quitter!

      Delete
  2. Hun sen probably has a very good point! I've tried to find a little about the garment industry during 1900-40 in America with no success, but I'd wager on some form of immigration being at the forefront! The garment industry has always traditionally been a very low paid occupation with the factories over here in England labelled "sweatshops" Manchester was labelled as cottonopolis where the lower working classes would manufacture the cotton for very low wages and often in terrible conditions! I think Friedrich Engels lived in Manchester at the time and labelled the places of work as the"dark satanic mills" and pushed for socialist reform, anyway the Jewish immigrants of the time would then make the garments from the the cotton or woolens only to be overtook by the Asians from Pakistan/ India ect then eventually its production moved over to the sub continent and far east as it is today! Its a big ethical issue about the garment manufacturing over there but I'd hold the big companies responsible whom make the billions however there is also the fact that if a machinist for example makes three dollars a day its three dollars they need to make to actually live because big they don't do it someone else readily will! So its a vicious circle and maybe an issue we should all address! Having said that the unrest in Cambodia regarding the garment industry ect seems to have a chance to end through negotiations! The pay is 80- 90$ the workers want 160$ the regime offers 100$! I think a middle ground will be found and what won't happen is thousands of garment workers will be thrown on the scrapheap like they were here in the UK and I suspect in the USA also! As regard to criticism from the west regarding Cambodia I have a message! people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!!!!!

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  3. "Beheaded" James Foley - His Secret Life and the CIA"
    James Foley was a key propagandist in sparking the U.S. air invasion of Libya, in 2011. The proof is here. Believe it or not, it was through his kidnapping then ALSO... part of it spent on a posh resort island! Just about a year after his 'release' from that, he's kidnapped AGAIN! This time, he's calling us to attack Assad... apparently.
    There seems to be plenty of evidence, that we have NOT been told the truth about Foley's life at all - AND, perhaps not surprisingly, that he works for the CIA... under "press" cover. Does he have a second, secret life that is udeful for these warmongering exercises?
    The Corporate Media skunked AGAIN. Or are they the skunks? The 'beheading of James Foley, 'reporter', revealed for what it really is - another cheezy propaganda FAKE meant to somehow justify a new mindless war against Syria. AGAIN!
    Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=531_1408677775#AA3ybVi5H7edXWgE.99

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    1. Speaking as an actual CIA Operator I have to say.....

      Foley was no CIA operator.

      Delete
  4. A movie I like from the 1970s is "Save the Tiger," in which Jack Lemon is a Jewish garment maker, the owner of "Capri Casuals," in Los Angeles.

    He's facing such financial hardship that he goes to an arsonist to seek to burn down his business and collect the insurance.

    In New York we used to call this, "Jewish lightening."

    Anyway it's a pretty good film like "Harry and Tonto" and a lot of other 70s movies made "under the influence" of the French New Wave of the 60s.

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    1. But I liked Jack Lemon more in 60s films like "Good Neighbor Sam" and of course "The Days of Wine and Roses" in which he intices his Norwegian beauty spouse, Lee Remick [who Dr.P used to have a crush on] to become a raging alcoholic with himself....

      The Days of Wine and Roses
      Laugh and run away
      Like a chld at play
      Through the neverland that leads to the new door
      The door marked, "nevermore....."

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    2. Two other films from the 70s I recommend if you can find them are MAN ON A SWING with Joel Grey about a psychic who is suspected of being the perpetrator of a string of killings...

      The other film i like is BEYOND THE MINNESOTA STRIP about a runaway teen who ends up in New York as a prostitute for pimp Leon Isaac Kennedy.

      Delete
    3. It's called "Off the Minnesota Strip" and was written by David Chase of all people....

      The girl is played by Mare Winningham and Hal Holbrook is her father who molested her.

      Pretty good film.

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    4. I heard that someone has just registered a television series which is a dramatization of all the characters involved in the Kennedy assassination. It's registered with the New York Writers Guild and titled, "Nevermore." Let's see what happens.

      Delete
    5. A woman wears a certain look when she is on the move
      And a man can always tell what is on her mind
      I hate to have to say it...
      But that look's all over you.....

      Woman...

      Woman..

      Have you got cheating on your mind......on your mind?

      Delete
    6. Just a passing breeze
      Filled with memories
      Of the golden smile that introduced me to...
      The days of wine and roses...

      And you.

      Delete
    7. Mare Winningham was an excellent actress as a teenager...incredible actually. Far, far better than "Jody Foster" or the others....

      She ran away from home at fourteen or so after her father molested her and winds up being pimped by Leon Isaac Kennedy who buys her from another lesser pimp for $3,000. To Winningham this is a badge of honor for her. Kennedy drives around in a Rolls Cornish and acts like the biggest pimp on the block.

      But she leaves New York and returns home to father Hal Holbrook and her mother, Michael Learned. They try their best to get along and put everything behind them but they just can't seem to make things work...

      It ends with Winningham leaving again and going back to New York to resume her hooker life..

      Very...very sad story but repeated thousands of times in real life.

      Why can't there be more films like this or real situations and people?

      What's wrong with the real drama of real life and characters anyway???

      Just my opinion.

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  5. Watched Man on a String...pretty good. I like cliff Robertson in Flowers for Algernon.

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