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I read that there are 50,000 Lexus cars in Phnom Penh alone, and I could see that this was probably about right. Yet Cambodia is dirt poor, so how could this be?
I saw a log jam of Lexuses outside the Central Markets. It was being shuffled around by a parking attendant to enable one of them to get out. A motor bike parked behind one was skittled when it got shuffled backwards into it. The worried looking motor bike owner came running over, but said nothing as he picked up his machine. You don't tangle with Lexus owners.
There are lots of stories about how luxury vehicle drivers, with all the right connexions, get off scott free when they are responsible for fatal accidents even, and they never get tickets for parking or any other traffic infringement.
I had another encounter with the Lexus army in the town of Kompong Thom, when I tried to book into the main hotel there (rooms with ensuite, TV & AC for $8). The nice receptionist kindly warned me that all the quiet rooms away from the karaoke room were taken, and suggested that if I didn't like loud music until 3am I might want to try their guesthouse next door (rooms with ensuite, TV & fan for $5). I took the guesthouse option and it was fine.
I saw later that the hotel was being used for a World Food Programme meeting of some sort, and was surrounded by Lexus and other big 4-wheel drives. I was told that the international aid machine in Cambodia had pretty well become a giant circus of junketeers, funnelling money into the country, but really just going to endless meetings and karaoke sessions, and providing well paid cushy jobs for members of the ruling party and their cronies. Nobody I spoke to thought any of the aid effort was doing a lot for ordinary Cambodians.
Cambodia is a multi-party democracy these days. The problem is that government hasn't changed hands for 30 years. The Cambodian Peoples Party has successfully used all the tricks in the book to hold onto power. The majority of the populace are uneducated rural folk, and their support is easily bought. Very little is actually done for the poor, while those with the connexions play karaoke and ride around in the Lexuses.
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Budd Gibbons is an American Vietnam War veteran, who now lives in Cambodia with his Cambodian wife, and runs what he describes as his personal, private aid organisation.
He used to work for a larger charity which made and fitted artificial limbs to amputees. (There are lots of these around because of all the landmines). He observed though that many of the recipients would soon remove their prosthesis and go back to their former profession of begging. The attempt at aid had backfired, by reducing the recipient's earning power.
So now he and his wife own and operate the Santuk Silk Farm, a few kilometres out of Kompong Thom. They employ and train local women in the traditional craft of silk weaving. Like so many such traditional arts and crafts, it had died out during the Khmer Rouge years. Most of the silk is actually imported, but they have a silk farming demonstration set up, mulberry bushes, silk worms and all.
You can pick up any number of (probably imported) cheap silk scarves in Siem Reap and elsewhere, and the ones here are more expensive, but with the impeccable pedigree, the guaranteed high quality (I was assured), Budd's hospitality, and the experience of meeting the weavers themselves, I was delighted to purchase a few samples to give to Fenella, my own textile and fabric afficionado.
To inspire his staff, whenever there's a sale Budd identifies the relevant weavers and gets them to pose with their creations. Keep up the good work, people.
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