Where Christmas isn't Christmas, New Year isn't New
Year, and its 2105
POIPET: 4th January 2006 -- Poipet, Cambodia, near the
Thai border - most are Buddhist, so despite the Christmas decorations
for tourists, and the 'Happy New Year' flashing outside the casinos,
it's actually neither for the locals. And for the boys who
frequent the Don Bosco Childrens Home and School, and the Youth Centre,
it became a forward glance to 2105 rather than the end of 2005.
But for them, Christmas and 'New International Year' did exist, since
the Christ child was born for all, and the Salesian community in Poipet
made a point of letting the boys know this. DBCH is a place where
many of them have found hope, so it makes sense to properly name the
reason for that hope. They also asked them to think ahead - to
write a letter to whoever might live in Poipet and DBCH in a hundred
years time, hence the 2105 letter, which has now been buried beneath
the Marian altar in the garden. The letters include a comment
that they, the authors, are doing their best to build a better Cambodia
and a better world.
The end of the international year 2005 was also a
sports occasion at the Youth Centre: members of the English school at
the Centre, the gym students and members of eight different soccer
teams had a great day of games. There were also two girls soccer
teams. This was the first really big effort from the new Youth
Centre which opened only in November. They were keen to see that
it went off well.
2006 (2548 in the Cambodian calendar) has opened
with two pieces of news that are particularly significant for Cambodia
- Prime Minister Hun Sen used the occasion of a National Conference on
Management of Natural Resources to Reduce Poverty to point out that
more than 250,000 hectares of Cambodian forest has been grabbed by the
rich and powerful over the years since hostilities ceased.
Illegal land seizure on this scale is 'normal' in Cambodia he says and
not only affects the lives of the poor, farmers especially, but
destroys natural heritage, since forests have only one purpose for
those who hijack them, and it is not conservation. The other news
comes from the UN Khmer Rouge Trial delegation finally to get underway
in February. A $36,000 grant from the Australian Government has
helped this process. The gathering of information will be well
underway by the time the real Cambodian new year begins, some time in
mid-April.
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