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Faces of victims, some of them are so young... the Khmer Rouge killed not only perceived enemies but their entire families as well. There are 2 rooms full of pinboards covered in faces. |
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| A prison that was a school |
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| A prison cell - some of the classrooms were divided into smaller cells. |
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| The rules of the prison |
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A map showing the places that were 'evacuated' by the KR - Phnom Penh, Battambang, Kampong Cham, Siem Riep |
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| The national anthem |
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Distinct influence of the Chinese Communist Party in both the National Song and the propaganda picture - the picture is idiotic plagiarism - having the technical expertise required to build a factory would have been sufficient grounds for being executed under the regime. |
From Choeung Ek I went to the Khmer Rouge Prison, Tuol Sleng. It was a converted school, that still looks like a school from the outside, albeit in dilapidated condition. Three stories high. Three buildings around a central grassed quadrangle.
On closer inspection it is much more grim. It was built in the early days of the Khmer Rouge and housed opponents of the revolution, initially members of the previous govt., intelligensia and later Khmer Rouge cadres who were considered a threat to Pol Pot's rule. (There was an uprising against the KR in the Eastern provinces in 1978.) It was used until the time of Vietnamese occupation in 1978. The KR documented the prisoners who went there, taking photos and forcing people to write confessions. It didn't matter what people wrote, only 7 people who went there survived - out of at least 17,000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng
If you are interested, wikipedia has more detail on it.
I am reading a biography on Pol Pot at the moment and another biography on Sihanouk. It's quite clear from reading and to some extent from looking around yesterday, that the way we were taught in High School - which is a reflection of what the board of studies sets down to be learned - is frustratingly skewed to putting the focus of event in Indochina on the western participants, ignoring the local politics and local grievances. Ideological development and conflict between idigenous conservative and socialist forces in Indochina, not to mention the role of Thailand is totally ignored. Teaching the Vietnam war in History of South East Asia, it was quite apparent that the for the textbook writer (forget who it was - but it was an Oxford book and they should know better) SEAsia was almost a side show. Shihanouk apparently wanted education of Khmers discouraged because he thought it would make them harder to govern...
hmm....
I haven't read enough or thought enough to have an alternative theory of my own though.
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After that grim venture into History I continued with the plans for the Russian market. They have a lot of good clothes there among other things and prices are cheap enough that you don't need to haggle much. A lot of clothes companies have factories in Cambodia and the clothes that wind up there are, unlike Thailand, originals not fakes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuol_Sleng
If you are interested, wikipedia has more detail on it.
I am reading a biography on Pol Pot at the moment and another biography on Sihanouk. It's quite clear from reading and to some extent from looking around yesterday, that the way we were taught in High School - which is a reflection of what the board of studies sets down to be learned - is frustratingly skewed to putting the focus of event in Indochina on the western participants, ignoring the local politics and local grievances. Ideological development and conflict between idigenous conservative and socialist forces in Indochina, not to mention the role of Thailand is totally ignored. Teaching the Vietnam war in History of South East Asia, it was quite apparent that the for the textbook writer (forget who it was - but it was an Oxford book and they should know better) SEAsia was almost a side show. Shihanouk apparently wanted education of Khmers discouraged because he thought it would make them harder to govern...
hmm....
I haven't read enough or thought enough to have an alternative theory of my own though.
++++++++
After that grim venture into History I continued with the plans for the Russian market. They have a lot of good clothes there among other things and prices are cheap enough that you don't need to haggle much. A lot of clothes companies have factories in Cambodia and the clothes that wind up there are, unlike Thailand, originals not fakes.
2 comments:
I hope you do get a chance to ask a monk about karma. Reading your entries about the prison and grave makes me think that every human at a fairly young age should confront how cruel we can be by seeing history with their owm eyes- the 17 stupa, a holocaust concentration camp. We all can't and many never will so all of a sudden your role as a history teacher takes on new meaning. The material is often taught as curiosities, entertaining- sometimes not so entertaining episodes but it is much more than that. History inevitably always seems to repeat- I imagine how many in the not so distant past shook their heads and thought "never again" after the holocaust, yet up until now genocide and mass killings continue to occur through the hands of government and religious dictums.
The world seems to be shrinking but yet when events like this happen, it seems so far away and disconnected. This is where the importance of history teachers lay. To connect these "stories" to the current life of the current student. To make an impression enough to perhaps shed a few tears about the past and future to want to do something, even if it is small.
BUT- a big problem is being only to travel through books. Books are great but as often quipped "reality is stranger than fiction", imagination cannot often compensate for the scale of reality.
Reading your entries has made me realize the power of first hand account. History teachers should be able to see and investigate in person throughout their lives these places so they can communicate it effectively with their students, discuss it actively and share photographs.
Where does the hate come from that instigates these events? A parent, grandparent, mentor, influencial friend, an experience that grew bigger and no outlet to deal with it logically?
The history of Muslims in India has produced such a huge prejudice and how many fears and stereotypes are fed us little indian children growing up- even in Canada. But growing up in a place that preached, regardless of the reality of it, "tolerance and understanding", it was much more easier to dismiss. But when everyone is taught the same thing and take the hate for granted even if they have had no direct involvment themself- well we know alot about how humans drop the rules in mob mentality.
I am curious how this experience will effect you and your students.
I am curious how "God" feels with us humans often using him/her as an excuse for so much. I am not particularly religious but Masa and I have uncomfortably joked how convenient it is to use God as an explanation sometimes with Tomo because he goes to a protestant preschool.
PS
Interestingly, the word verication below to post this comment is "excutwa".
In my History of SEAsia course for the summer I hope to take the students to both a mosque and a temple with English speaking people to explain both Islam and Buddhism, perhaps to a church as well as Christianity is the dominant religion of East Timor and Philippines with a significant minority in Vietnam as well.
I have a feeling there isn't going to be a satisfactory answer. I will ask a German Jew I met in Chiang Mai last year - he is in Berlin I think and devotes much of his time to Holocaust education as well as being a Thai massage teacher.
It always made me feel quite sad when I was in Japan that the teachers at the schools I worked at had no time for holidays. Literally the whole holidays - a week at most in summer was free - was spent doing club activities and other pointless activities that they could have paid a university student a pittance to run.... The English teachers had no time to go overseas and speak English, the geography teachers had no time to go and look at forests or volcanoes, the history teachers no time to go even to Kyoto for meaningful inquiry...
When we were doing the Holocaust I mentioned to one of my classes that every time they complained about a teacher because they were philipino they were speaking with the same mentality as the Nazis.... One of my students, a good boy mostly, replied ... but we don't kill them....
It's interesting your comment about Muslims in India. One of my Indian students was adamant it was a Muslim that killed Gandhi, she was so adamant I told her I would check incase I was wrong... I wasn't wrong, it was a Hindu nationalist... but the prejudice is definitely there.
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