milesinnz

1 hour ago, placnx said:

I was surprised to discover that Cambodia was more bombed than Laos (2.7mn tons vs 2mn tons). Here's a good analysis which suggests that the bombing contributed to the rise of the Khmer Rouge:

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/02/what-the-us-bombing-of-cambodia-tells-us-about-obamas-drone-campaign/273142/

On Laos bombing:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37286520

Cluster bombs are a terrible legacy to this day.

 

yes, I know the bombing led to the rise of the Khmer Rouge.. before the US started bombing Cambodia, Pol Pot were just a rag bag band of bandits in the North East.. Pol Pot said he fought for the Vietcong, but all he was was a cook... when the B52's dropped from above cloud, the farmers didn't hear them and the next thing that happened was bombs were going off around them, not surprisingly they literally <deleted> themselves.. and were ready recruits for the Khmer Rouge.. I am not sure if by population or land area, Laos by I think at least one of these measures was the most heavily bombed country... there are some pseudo real time videos of the bombing missions over the period of time.. you can see how they start off small and isolated and then progress rapidly to the whole country.. I did read when it all started that the B52 crew were not given their co-ordinates until they were in the air... so they didn't really know they were bombing Cambodia, that must have been early on when they were trying to take out the Ho Chi Minh Trail - which was the original justification... so that if American factories make bombs and sold to someone, and those bombs are used against some other enemy, does that give a right to this other enemy to come and bomb America ?

11 hours ago, olfu said:

Life sentence too harsh?

Lets ask victim's relatives opinions.

and from someone in the USA, who dropped 3 1/2 times more bombs on Cambodia than they did on Japan in WW2.. and this was a country that the USA was not even at war with.. oh the utter hypocrisy.. who in the USA ever went to prison for this ? oh, and what about Agent Orange which still affects people today... ??? you want to comment or run for it ?

"The spokesman said that the Royal Thai Police are engaged in looking for the fugitive. ".. is he under the desk ? no.. behind the door... umm no, maybe he is hiding in the toilet, ah no.. I guess we had better look again tomorrow...

don't worry folks, the UK will soon be stealing all the news.. Boris has been taking lessons from the Thai government.. not sure if he has ordered any more submarines yet, but I am sure that can be fixed too...

So instead of just destitute Thais, the government will have to handle "sick destitute Thais" ..

They know you cannot get blood out of a stone - but be assured, interest will continue to be added....

Where are all the trolls trying to tell everyone that the Chinese vaccines are good ??? hiding under their beds I guess...

15 hours ago, Kerryd said:

So it's not just dumb blonde female college students that fall for the old "I'll pay you to carry this on the plane for me trick". 

You'd think someone from Columbia would be smarter than that.

Unless of course he knew what he was doing all along. Don't think I'd want to spend "life" in a Cambodian prison. (Or any other one for that matter.)

Talking about smart, I think ColUmbia is a county in the US ?

Maybe it's time to have another religious holiday ?... and pray more as that will be certain to work.. oh, the wonders of religion...

Did I hear that right.. 25 tourists on the first plane.. I don't know what plane it is, but I would guess there would have to be 175 empty seats, and the tourists will be outnumbered by the airport reception employees.. a great financial success... ?

Ah, now I know what the submarines were for... to make sure there will be no seaborne escapes from Phuket...

5 hours ago, cclub75 said:

Perfect illustration of the destruction created by the "Zero Covid" ideology...

 

Most of the countries in SEA can not afford this ideology.

 

How many "Covid deaths" in Cambodia ? 9 per million... And in Thailand ? 10 per million (source Worldometer)

 

UK = 1 872... France = 1 654....

 

We destroy economy, lifehood of millions of people.... to achieve what exactly ?

 

To please the WHO ? To please the western medias ? Or the chinese medias ? To please the western Big Pharma companies ?

Guess India followed your recommendation and they still have lockdowns... you wish this on Cambodia ?

and would they ever "reverse" any changes in the future ??? how much trust would you have in a Thai government ?

Pornthep should be giving a brown envelope to this family every week for the rest of his life....

For a very weak economy with a dubious banking system, I find is quite surprising that the government has managed to maintain a stable exchange rate Riel/USD . perhaps because in value terms the Riel is small beer.. but if it takes over as the main pricing mechanism, for a country that has a balance of trade deficit and a now non-existent tourist sector, how can the Riel maintain a stable value against the USD - will China provide a never ending amount of "soft" loans.. something is not adding up...

It's going to be interesting when some of Cambodia's big brand name customers, when pushed by their retail customers, about only buying from countries with good environmental standards.. a lot of investment could soon be standing idle...

7 hours ago, dddave said:

Last time I was in Siem Reap; pre-Covid, there were daily rolling blackouts due to a shortage of energy.  I believe they were buying 25% of their power from Thailand. 

If they have domestic coal supplies, why wouldn't they use them?  The Global Warming crisis is a result of Western and Chinese interests totally ignoring warnings for 100+ years, as long as coal was profitable to burn.  Now that they have other sources such as LNG, the big powers are pressuring smaller, poorer nations to do what they weren't willing to do themselves.

Garment exports are I think about 80% of Cambodia's exports. Many have western brand names. Buyers increasingly want to know that what they are buying comes from countries with good employment and environmental credentials - this "development" may well come back to bite Cambodia very hard. Of course even with the industrial development that has taken place in Cambodia, the CO2 emissions PP is still a tiny fraction of those in a country such as the US. In the case of the coal fired power station and this mining activity, what would be interesting to see, is just who were the (few) people who benefited. I bet it was not and is not the Cambodian people - and that is the bigger and buried point...

17 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

I must admit to being baffled. Surely Thailand has committed to building a new vaccine production facility, you know the one announced with big fanfare, "we are the big boys of SE Asia, and we will save you all". Other countries in the region were relying on Thailand to have this facility up and running this year as promised, but now Thailand is ordering 35 million doses from AZ instead of manufacturing them. 

 

Ah, it is tied in with Thailand's space program, the sacred cow said the vaccine will need some cheese from the moon....

11 hours ago, ourmanflint said:

Is there anyone out there can fathom the mentality of people that do this?

Yes, if you have access to the details of the childhood, 0-2 critical, then 3-8 .. and less as they get older... but "people" don't want the answers.

They want to believe there is some almost magical unexplained reason because the truth becomes too uncomfortable.

I am always happy to discuss such matters but almost all just start running, covering their ears and making up nonsense to support their position..

33 minutes ago, Rmac442 said:

Catch 22 really ..and it has been further exacerbated by the recent involved, like in so many countries, of China.

Prove work, food and support at people level so they might fight this injustice ..

ah... it does not work that way.. how can you fight when the other side fire live bullets at you... and assassinates any leadership of the people.. the same is happening and much worse in Nigeria now... it is close to civil war.... what you are suggesting has absolutely zero credibility.. so what you say, "don't do this", but you have nothing credible to suggest in return, so just how helpful is that ????