Cambodia Nostalgia

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ladislav
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Posts: 4040
Joined: September 6th, 2007, 11:30 am

Cambodia Nostalgia

Post by ladislav »

Look at Cambodia in the '60's. Looks so sweet, clean, civilized and proper.

Soon, the country would descend into a holocaust and be bombed into the Stone Age.



And this is De Gaulle's visit to Cambodia in 1966. An event of Olympic proportions. Look how much Cambodians used to love France.
This was before the KR and the war that ensued.

A brain is a terrible thing to wash!


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CannedHam
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Posts: 274
Joined: May 27th, 2012, 9:25 am

Re: Cambodia Nostalgia

Post by CannedHam »

Word is it's been overrun (like much of SE Asia) by mainland Chinese looking to economically pillage the place...
ladislav
Elite Upper Class Poster
Posts: 4040
Joined: September 6th, 2007, 11:30 am

Re: Cambodia Nostalgia

Post by ladislav »

This is what I have learned about the Cambodian colonial experience.

The French never technically " colonized" Cambodia. They were invited by the country to protect it from Thailand and Vietnam.

They later did go further and included it into the French Indochina, though.

They did good and they did bad. While they were here, no one dared attack Cambodia. They also set to help rebuild the former glory of the Khmer Empire by helping create all these Khmer-nouveau buildings and then fuse both Khmer and French styles to create very curious hybrids. They built France- like cities with parkways and boulevards reminiscent of Champs Elysees and the Riviera. They also did a lot of archeological works.

They opened schools and institutes.

No significant effort was made to convert people into Christianity or impose the French language except as a second one. They appeared to have quite a bit of respect for the local culture and did not remove the Monarchy.

They also did bad: they taxed the people excessively causing rebellions. They separated people into races by having Chinese and Vietnamese areas and importing the latter for management positions.

While on a one on one basis, they apparently were not disrespectful to the locals, as a system, they did not help them rise that much. The French lived well, the Chinese ran the economy ( but were never richer than the French) and the Vietnamese were the top working class. The Khmers, except for the elite did not have too many opportunities to seriously advance. The French did not give Khmer people much credit in any endeavor, making it look as if it was only the French that were doing anything of merit here.

Cambodia did not fight a war for independence; it was negotiated diplomatically, and the French left in 1953. No genocides were committed by the French in this country.

Cambodian people do not seem to hate the French - they actually like them- and they like imitating their culture to a point. The relationship between the two countries is still strong, and they are kind of used to each other after being tied together for a bit less than a hundred years.

Many Khmers live in France, and French people are still coming to live in Cambodia. You can hear French spoken quite often.

But English is supplanting French as a second language of choice because English means money. French no longer does.
A brain is a terrible thing to wash!
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