The “Great Giant China” – a book by a veteran Cambodian journalist

You may have read many books written by Cambodian authors on general topics.

But this one entitled –The ‘Great Giant China’ – an English equivalent for its Khmer title - is perhaps a book with a difference.

Its format is different, so is its topic.

The book – written in Khmer – is in fact a sort of compilation of analytical articles by a veteran Cambodian journalist – focusing on China as well as its geopolitics.

Jean-François Tain – who is now Khmer Service director of Radio France International – is the author.

“I think this book provides some knowledge to Cambodians who do not have access to or cannot afford to read books in foreign languages in order to understand about China and its geopolitical complexity as well as what international relations mean. And this is my contribution to the Cambodian society,” Mr. Jean-François Tain said.

The book has 128 pages and contains a total of 38 articles – all about China.

It interestingly ends with an article entitled, “China is an indisputable world superpower.”

So, if you want to find out more about China, you may want to grab a copy of the book from bookshops or newsstands around town. It costs you around 4 dollars. SOURCE: CNC TV

My interest in journalism: how did it begin?

Today’s post is about how I became interested in journalism and how it started.

It was the reading of the English-languaged newspaper with a view to learning the language that inspired me to enter the journalism world – of course, unknowingly.

In September 1996, I first set my foot in Phnom Penh after I left high school in my home district of Koh Sautin.

In the same month, I began my English classes one hour a day in Preah Yukunthor high school – starting with a book called Headway Elementary. About three months later, I started reading the English-languaged newspaper, The Cambodia Daily, although I could read and understand just a few sentences in the entire paper.

I entered the classroom every day with The Cambodia Daily in my hand, but I had no idea what the day’s coverage was about. I consulted with the dictionary for almost every word in the headlines.

I always admired the authors of the articles and thought one day I would be able to write just like them. After three years I read The Cambodia Daily with more confidence and better understanding of the content. I often memorized some articles of my personal interest so that I could converse with my foreign teacher. By that time, I not only read but also critiqued every article in the paper. I followed articles by certain reporters to find out that some passages or quotes they put in the stories were biased.

In January 2001, I got my first full-time job as a translator at a company, which was commissioned by the country’s leading mobile phone company to create the first bilingual Internet portal – everyday.com.kh.

There, I was fortunate to work under the supervision of a veteran journalist - Mr. Ouk Kimseng, who is now an adviser to the ministry of information and deputy director general of Agence Kampuchea Presse (AKP). At that time, he was helping the company to create Khmer and English news content for the portal. First, he assigned me to translate news articles from English to Khmer and vice versa. Sometimes, he asked me to rewrite stories based on local newspaper articles. I must say he was my first journalism instructor. He taught me how to write a news story. I learned it with enthusiasm. Later on, another journalist joined the team – Mr. Khiev Phirum who now works for the Phnom Penh Post Khmer. That’s when I started to get involved in journalism.

In 2002, I applied for a scholarship for a three-month advanced journalism course, which was advertised in The Cambodia Daily. The course was intended for working journalists from Cambodia, Loas, Myanmar (I like to call it Burma, anyway) and Vietnam.

I did not really meet the selection criteria – applicants must be either working journalist or someone with basic journalism training – but I was selected for the scholarship – as I found out later – because of my knowledge of Internet. The instructor thought I would be helpful to other participants when it comes to Internet and email use.

The course was organized at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and the instructors were Jeff Hodson and Peter Starr as well as Bonnie Huang (I am not sure if I spell her name correctly here). The course was very useful for me and it did help me improve my journalism knowledge.

In mid-2003, during the national election time, I quit my job at the company maintaining the everyday.com.kh web portal and took a position as information consultant at The Asia Foundation. I was part of a team responsible for the creation of an election Website – bohchnout.info. (For some reason, the site is no longer on the world wide web now).

In November 2005, I left The Asia Foundation to join Radio Free Asia’s Phnom Penh-based bureau as a web editor. This time I was involved with online journalism. I was sent to the United States twice for trainings on how to use content management system (CMS), online journalism and multimedia. Again, these short-term trainings further improved my journalism skills.

Late last year, I decided to join a PR company, Quantum Publicity (www.quantumpublicity.asia). The company was run by Mr. Glen Felgate, former General Manager of CTN, the country’s number one TV channel. He is also former BBC and Reuters journalist. Besides doing PR work for our clients, I am currently responsible for the production of daily 30-minute English news bulletin for the new 24-hour news channel CNC under the supervision of my boss Glen Felgate.

He has trained me in camerawork, story writing, editing, and news presentation. Officially, I am now a TV news producer and sometimes a presenter. 

And that’s it. Hope you enjoy reading my post. Have a nice weekend!

Becoming a TV producer--out of the blue

This is a sample clip of The This Is Cambodia program - aired on CNC at 8:30pm from Mondays to Fridays.

I was trained in journalism back in 2002. And ten years later, I have the chance to use this skill - unexpectedly.

A daily frustration

When it comes to traffic on the streets of Phnom Penh, there is too much to complain about.

Motorists encroach on the lane reserved for their fellows from opposite direction.

People use too much horn – and most often unnecessarily. It might sound like a nonsense complaint to some, but the noises that those car and motorcycle horns produce can be annoying.

People are not aware of the road signs and do not respect the priority signs or traffic lights. Sometimes, you will find yourself unable to move forward even when the traffic light for your direction turns green as those “bloody idiots” keep coming even when the traffic light for their direction turns red.

Then, there are motorcycles or tuk-tuks that cross the road in front of you at their will within too close a distance that you are forced to abruptly pedal your brake or you will hit them.

...

Last but not least, there are some sons of a bitch who love to endanger the lives of other innocent road users with their risky motorcycle – or even car – stunts. I bet some of you may also have seen these.

Although my personal observations represent the minority of ill-behaved road users, the roads can never be safe and traffic jam free if these problems continue to be ignored and left unresolved. 

I believe that the solution starts from each individual road user. While traffic police and relevant authorities should do their job the best they can, road users should abide by the laws and drive responsibly.

Trying a habit change

On a floating hut along the Mekong River at Bakheng

September 15 was not my typical day-- It's the first attempt of mine to apply a change in the way I kill my weekend free time.

Normally, my weekend free time - when I don't have any freelance work - is spent on meeting friends or "Good Samaritan" brothers which, most often, lead to some sort of party.

The party usually involves with drinking. It starts with a lighter first round but it gets heavier in second - or even third - round(s) and, almost always, I end up being drunk.

This time, however, I was determined to kill my weekend free time in a different way. Instead of accepting a call for a party somewhere in the outskirt area, I drove some 10 kilometers from the heart of Phnom Penh to my cousin’s house. It was a visit with a purpose – fishing.

When I arrived at his house, my cousin – knowing beforehand that I would visit him - was already prepared with two fishing rods and a small plastic bag of bait.

Meeting new friends with a difference

A man enjoys fishing with his son (not pictured) on Saturday, Sept 15.

We walked about a hundred meters from his home to the river. There, there were three floating wooden huts roofed with corrugated sheets of iron.

On one of the huts, two people were fishing – a father and a son. However, they did not look like career fishermen to me. In fact, according to my cousin, they often came to fish here – especially on weekends.

By the time I arrived, at around 2:45pm, they caught roughly 3 kilograms of fish.
The father – in his mid-40s – seemed to enjoy the fishing and on many occasions he smilingly talked to his son – in his early-20s, apparently.

According to my cousin, the man has only one son and no daughter, and his family is considered by the neighbors as wealthy. What impressed me was the fact that the son appeared to enjoy sharing his father’s fishing hobby while many of other youth at his age tend to spend their weekend hanging out with friends, boyfriends or girlfriends – a habit that seemed to be trendy among children from rich urban families.

After all, they became my new fishing friends. I talked to them briefly about fishing, and then paid my attention to my fishing rod at a different hut.

My cousin and I spent nearly three hours, but it was an unlucky afternoon for us. We couldn’t catch a single fish. However, I enjoyed it until the rain came at around a quarter to six o’clock. We got back home empty-handed – no fish for dinner dishes. My cousin’s wife made dinner dishes with pork and chicken. And I had the pleasure to be their guest for the dinner.

Although it was a fruitless fishing day, my first try on changing the way to kill time was satisfactory. And I am hopeful that I could convince myself to stick to this hobby.