Ethical Dilemmi

Image by alex.ch via Flickr

When I search for prospective recipients for the next microproject, I like to see a positive aspect of building something.When people are brought together for a common positive purpose they are generally willing to throw aside differences for the greater good. However, it is impossible to consider building anything in a place where there is no recognition of the rule of law in a given country.

I know we are all busy in our lives, but if you have seven minutes please take that time to watch the first part of this video.

If you don't have time to watch the video, here is the synopsis. After the Khmer Rouge fell there was nothing but chaos in terms of land ownership on the capital, Phnom Penh. This was due to the fact that most of the residents had been forced out of the city and murdered by the Khmer Rouge.

To help alleviate the ownership chaos a law was established that entrenched squatters rights. If you lived on land for five years, it was yours.

Now the land has become valuable and people who have clawed out a tiny dream in the echo of the most unspeakable aspect of the human experience are having the rug pulled out from under them by their own government once again. They may not have much, but they have made homes that have electricity and running water and they are being evicted into what are essentially refugee camps outside the city.

No power, no schools, no running water.

So here are my dilemmi.

• Am I supporting this obscene corruption and defilement of human dignity by visiting Cambodia or does my presence and bearing witness to this situation help, (even if it is in the tiniest way).
• Should I contribute to a microproject in a place where the government could simply steal it for its own greedy needs?
• Should I support the people who are fighting this fight?
• Should I find one small group of people who are being evicted and give them enough to bribe a judge?
• Should I try and build something in these refugee camps that these people are being banished to?
• Should I even go to Cambodia at all?

Eyes On The Prize

Image by Smithsonian Institution via Flickr

I love getting mail, and I mean real mail, not bills or the endless junkmail that usually pollutes my inbox and our environment, but real honest to God mail.

Recently, I have been very busy busy, working two jobs, slowly building content for my website and adding other platforms to present that content on social networking sites.

As a result, you can now view my content on my website Facebook,and MySpace. In addition I am also Tweeting and I have a YouTube channel.

Integrating all of these platforms is still a work in progress and all of this infrastructure building has strayed me from my main purpose. Near as I can recall that purpose was to plan a trip to The Mekong Delta and to create a small microproject in the region, like The Omenako School Project

Oh yeah; that

Anyway, as did my weekly mailbox check, among the twenty flyers and one bill was an unexpected envelope from my brother and sister in-law. The envelope contained a cover article from the July 2009 issue of National Geographic

The article is a fascinating account of trying to understand why Angkor Wat was abandoned and forgotten.

In its heyday, Angkor Wat and the surrounding area was home to hundreds of thousands of people. In 1860 it was "rediscovered" by Alexandre Henri Mahout who was tipped off by a French missionary. Publication of his journals and drawings reintroduced this marvel to the modern world.

Make no mistake, this lost city rivals anything that human beings have accomplished anywhere ever.

http://goyestoeverything.com