Granted… that might just be b/c they haven’t… actually, where I’m at right now… even I can’t help but to stare when I see another westerner wandering around… I’m currently in Kompong Cham… Cham is the name of the Muslims who settled here and in Vietnam… very small minority… I’m actually out here on assignment.
I’m checking out a land rights case where the first time they tried to have a trial, our client (the defendant) showed up with 85 witnesses… the trial was postponed b/c the authorities had a few safety fears… He is now only allowed to have 4 witnesses (can we say violation of an individuals right to defense, and to call and question witnesses)… I guess I should start over a bit… at least for those of you interested in this kind of thing… or interested in the kinds of corruption issues going on… basically a bunch of people have been living on land since 1982… they were poor… so they didn’t apply for a title… but they built on the land and began cultivating it (cashews, rubber plants, aloe trees, etc)… in 1996, someone moved in, then filed for title in 1997. *the law says something like to claim ownership of occupied land you must occupy the land for 5 years… so the title is super shady… basically illegal… and our clients… the occupants have been on the land since 1982 w/out incident until 2003… but the guy w/ the “title” is rich… and rulings fall in favor of the money. So I opted to come out and see this trial… and our defendant called this morning and said he was boycotting… So it’ll be interesting to see what exactly happens tomorrow.
The trip here was just a continuation of the excitement of the weekend… I’m traveling with Ravute, our translator… who I like to call spock… hopefully I’ll grab a picture of him at some point and you will all know why… now Spock is a bit of a pain in the ass… he treats me as if I’m about 5 and have never left the house on my own before… he also presumes I have absolutely no knowledge or background on Cambodia… which kind of promotes the whole being treated like I’m 5… but I’m dealing. So he told me he would take care of the bus tickets and lodging and things… today rolls around, he’s 20 minutes late… we get to the first bus station too late… same with the next one… and finally get seats on the third…
I’ve had 2 uber sketch meals today… I can’t even identify the meat I ate at dinner.
Meeting w/ the other lawyers was interesting… they explained their civil law criminal system… I gave them my bastardized version of the common law criminal system… which I then think Spock may have translated it to being even more off then what I said… maybe someone else out there can answer this question better…. At what point does the trial judge get the case to review before trial?
Now before I had left, I had asked Jeff if I should book reservations at the hotel he recommended… and he was like… no no no… it should be empty… If it isn’t empty, I’ll pay for your room… Yeah… apparently this week is examination week for secondary school and all the teachers come into town to proctor exams…. EVERYWHERE is out of vacancies in Kompong Cham… Except this one little guest house… which is now full btw… now it doesn’t seem too sketchy to start off with…. Seems nice and clean… no a/c… but there’s a fan…
that I go to move closer to my bed, and it came apart when I picked it up… the windows don’t close… they are like blinds… and there is no screen… but plastic weavings to keep out mossies…
with big holes where people stuck their fingers through…. And then theres the sink…
that has no drain pipe… there used to be a pipe… but now its just a hole that splashes to the floor… where there isn’t a drain… but rather a hole in the side…
I had to buy toilet paper… and they sprayed the room for mossies about half an hour ago. But hey, its $3 a night… can’t really beat that.
I have a new theory as to why Buddhists hold all life sacred… even that of bugs… actually this pertains mostly to just bugs… its b/c there are soooo friggen many of them here… that it’s a futile waste of time to try to kill any of them… the only way not to go insane is to just embrace their existence and go with it… except mossies… mossies are just evil dengue in the day, malaria in the night carrying bastards that should just be wiped off the planet.
But in all seriousness, its pretty awesome here… despite my bitching… The architecture is beautiful, the people are friendly… everyone hangs out down by the river in the evening… its nice… they say that the invention of the air conditioner has resulted in the downfall of western culture, society, and community… and I have to say that I agree… everyone here just sits outside, or the whole block eats dinner together on the corner… And no, it isn’t tv… they all have tvs… but they still prefer to congregate together outside in the heat b/c its cooler than inside… with air conditioning we keep ourselves inside, windows shut… closed off from interaction with everyone else.
Rather than ending the post there, I opted to keep all of Kompong Cham together as one post....
First let me sum up what happend with the trial for those of you interested in that sort of thing...
The common practice in Kompong Cham is to schedule a trial for 8am and then not actually show up or begun until 8:30am. In this case, the judge scheduled a meeting at the time that our trial was to take place. At first we were told the trial would last until 10am, but it ended up running until 11:45am; being so close to lunch, the judge postponed the trial until the afternoon. Present at the trial was the judge, plaintiff’s lawyer, and a prosecutor representing the state there to determine if the state had any interest in the case, or wished to file criminal charges against our client. Our client did not show up out of fear of being detained. Then our lawyer decided not to show up in protest of the proceedings. The trial moved forward. No witnesses were called; their statements were just read by the clerk, along with the statement made by defense. It really was one of the more bizarre situations I have been in… especially when the judge asked us if we had anything to say as representatives of the CDP.
This here is the court house... please note that the court house has a volleyball court.
This here is the court room... not exactly what we are used to at home.
