The Magic Hour

Olympic Stadium

Phnom Penh, Cambodia
5:30 AM

Portraits

Evictions at Dey Kraham

24 January 2009

Cambodian security forces and demolition workers forcibly evicted over 150 families from the Dey Kraham community leaving many homeless. Starting at 2AM, military polic and workers from 7NG, the local construction company that bought the land from the municipality began moving people out of the shanty town with tear gas.
By 6AM, bulldozers moved in and started levelling the community. By mid-morning, nothing was left standing.
I showed up just after 10AM and took some of these pictures. Hopefully, I will have a multi-media presentation of the pictures up soon. Am slowly but surely learning Final Cut Pro with a little help from Pretty Ricky.

Liberation Day North Korean Style

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the liberation of Phnom Penh by the Vietnamese army from the Khmer Rouge. It was marked with speeches by Chea Sim and other notable CPP officials. I am not usually one to go to these things willingly but once I heard from a reporter that it was going to have a parade like you see in North Korea, it was something I couldn't miss.

The dancing was a bit underwhelming but still quite cool

Troops at attention

Police presence was high as officials feared more bombs might be planted

The CPP ship of love

All state vehicles, all Lexus brand

2008 Election Viewing Party in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Yesterday Democrats Abroad hosted an election viewing party at the FCC in Phnom Penh. A crowd of about 150 watched the election returns on several screen interspersed around the restaurant. As it was a Democrats Abroad function, it was overwhelmingly pro-Obama.
It was a fun and festive occassion with the crowd cheering every time Obama took a state.

Volunteer Roberta McLaughlin

Reuters came for the fun!

Even Obama showed up!

Seconds after CNN called Obama as the next president of the United States

The ensuing celebration

One very happy couple

Boeung Kak lake being filled

On the 27th of August, contractors began pumping sand into Boeung Kak lake. It is the starting point for a 133 hectare development project that was awarded to developer Shukaku Inc. in February 2007. The 79 million U.S. dollar 99-year lease has come under fire for not publicly releasing an environmental impact assessment along with offering less than market property rates for residents.
I went down a couple of days after to see if I could take some photos of the pumping. I was able to take about 15 shots before the foreman saw me and asked me to leave. So here are a couple of shots from the shores of the newly formed sand bar at Boeung Kak lake.

Kids will be kids

A little romp in an alleyway

A couple of days ago, three of us decided to go take some shots on an old colonial hotel near the National Post Office. Featured in the movie City of Ghosts, it is currently closed to the public. We were able to find out where the owner lived and knocked on their gate to see if we could get permission to take some photographs. Unfortunately, the only person we could talk to was a guy in a KFC shirt who demanded 30 dollars for entry. Not what we expected. So we headed to a crumbling colonial building on the corner of 108 and Norodom.

A homeless mother and her kids in front of the hotel

The building on 108 was actually built around and had a thriving alleyway filled with people playing a game very similar to BINGO.

The view of the building from Norodom Blvd

BINGO Cambodian style

A peek inside shows the state of the building

The 12 story Canadia Bank building looms in the background.

Sam Rainsy protests the 2008 Cambodian National Elections

Sam Rainsy

The Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) held a protest a day after the official results of the 2008 Cambodian National Elections were released siting numerous cases of fraud, intimidation and vote buying by the Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP). About 300 supporters fared rain and mud to protest the election results. The Sam Rainsy Party won 21% of the vote while the CPP won over 58% (statistics by the Committee for Free and Fair Elections).

Sam Rainsy speaks to the crowd

SRP Parliamentarian Mu Sochua uses a megaphone to get people into the protest