Vuthy's Sharing Mission

" October 31, 1922 - Born in Phnom Penh to King Norodom Suramarit and Queen Sisowath Kossamak

April 23, 1841 - Crowned King of Cambodia by then-colonial ruler France

March 1945 - Japan gains de facto control of Indochina through the acquiescence of the Vichny government in France. Months later, control returns to France with Japan's defeat

1952 - Marries surviving wife Paule Monique Izzi, later HM Queen Norodom Monineath Sihanouk, the final of seven marriages

November 9, 1953 - Presides over Cambodia's formal independence from France, the culmination of a vigorous campaign dubbed his "Royal Crusade"

March 2, 1955 - Abdicates the throne in favour of his father in order to enter politics

September 1955 - Elected prime minister.

August 31, 1959 - Survives a failed assassination attempt against him by South Vietnamese politician Ngo Dinh Nhu.

1960 - Wins nations's first independent election with his People's Socialist Community, becomes head of state.

1963 - Then-King Father Norodom Suramarit dies; Prince Norodom decrees himself head of state for life.

1965 - Strikes agreement with PRC and North Vietnam to facilitate Ho Chi Minh trail supply route

August 1966 - Feature film Apsara is released, the first of 19 feature-length films he would direct

1967 - Policy of collecting rice harvest in a bit to stop the illegal rice trade leads to a peasant revolt dubbed the Samlaut Uprising, which is violently quelled

March 1970 - Prime Minister Lon Nol leads National Assembly in deposing Sihanouk while he is out of the country. From China, Sihanouk calls on Cambodians to support the Khmer Rouge against Lon Nol.

April 1975 - Khmer Rouge take over Cambodia; Sihanouk is installed as puppet head of state.

1975-1979 - Five of the king's children are killed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.

April 1976 - Sihanouk removed from office, imprisoned in the Royal Palace

1978 - King freed before occupation by invading Vietnamese forces, gives six-hour press conference after fleeing to New York

1979 - Publicly supports Khmer Rouge in opposition to Vietnamese occupation

1981 - Founds political party Funipec

1982 - Attempts unsuccessful political marriage between Khieu Samphan and Son Sann

1991 - Paris Conference leads to Sihanouk's reinstatement once again as head of state. He is later made King.

1993 - Influences son Prince Norodom Ranariddh to accept co-prime minister position with Hun Sen after Ranariddh wins first post-war democratic election

2004 - Abdicates throne in favour of son, Prince Sihamoni. Moves to Pyongyang and later, Beijing

October 15, 2012 - Dies of a heart attack in Beijing "

• Clearey wanted to join an "English Camp" in which the total cost was reasonable; 300USD for accommodation, transport, and others. 

• He found himself sleeping in a room of 5 to 6 people, and was woken up at 5:30AM. They later told Clearey that the teaching is much different and larger agenda which centered on the religious theories of Ock Soo Park, a Korean preacher and founder of Good News Corps, the sponsor of the English Camp

•  Associates gave supplementary “Mind Lectures” on biblical passages as interpreted by Mr. Park, who asserts that the human heart is lodged with “filth and evil.”
• Security guards at the doors to the ballroom of the hotel, the Intercontinental in Dallas, discouraged anyone tempted to skip out. 
• Volunteers who turned up late for 6 a.m. sessions of calisthenics and group massage were ordered to perform squat thrust exercises.Those who skipped sessions were tracked down by teachers and ordered to explain their absences.

“The whole concept of their theology was that your heart is evil and that you need to have an ‘open heart,’ ” 

“I was the victim of a scam,” Mr. Cleary said.

Mr. Park said that before going to Texas for training, the volunteers could have attended local workshops and learned about the religious dimension. Most people knew what would be involved, he said, and of those who went to Texas, only about 20 dropped out before going on to Mexico for the camp, which lasted for three days.

2. Review by my Thai friend: Suwimon 

- Most of the activities is sitting in the hall, listening to "teacher" (he called himself that) talking about testament in Korean and have someone to interpret in Thai
- I think me myself is pretty open to listen and learn, but even that, it was so insane for me, you have to sit like 4 hours and eat and then sit and listen again for another 4 hours.
- In each group has trainer who will blame us when we fall asleep and can't even read a book
- In the evening, there's always a conversation in group, the trainer kind of convince us to change religion and if you seem stubborn, you will be pushed to be invisible
- I do like Christian, and the way they treat the others, they pray for the other is so nice and warm. I like to see them carefree because god loves them, but to accept and believe we have to do it by ourselves, not to be forced.
- My Christian friend doesn't like this org too, she said it maligns Christ
- You know in the states, people talk about Buddhism and meditation, they do practice in meditation camp too. The religion is supposed to be like that, people are supposed to be willing to, not be forced to
- I do believe Christ is a nice religion, it's warm and carefree but just this org spread it not appropriately at all
- Exercise at 6:00AM just like the program in the link above, I think it's pre-world camp. 


3. Review by Vuthy

The content you are going to read below is wholly written by Thierry Schwarz, on May 10, 2012. This is his sample answer of a final exam : Monetary and Fiscal Policies: Implication for Cambodia, one of the subjects that I learned during my master in Public Management. 

I believe that it is important for all Cambodians to know about some pertinent history, drawbacks of the dollarization, and the some suggestions on how to de-dollarize. Thus, I would like to share them here. 
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Dollarization in Cambodia
ADB Report



The national currency, the riel, represents now less than 10% the money circulating in the country; the riel is a declining currency in the Cambodian economy. The share of the dollar among the currencies used in Cambodia has increased with the growth of the country; Cambodia is now a "dollarized" economy.

The situation is not the result of an explicit decision made by the RGC; it is the consequence of a loss of trust in the value of the riel dating back to the period of very high inflation during the years 1988-1991. Massive Central Bank financing of current budget deficit led to inflation in the range of 90-177% a year. Inflation and devaluation eroded public confidence in the national currency, and economic agents looked for a substitute currency capable of being used as a reliable unit of account, mean of payment and store of value.

The trend was reinforced by the arrival of UNTAC whose spending reached about 2 billion USD - when the GDP of Cambodia was no more than 4 billion USD. The dollar then became the de facto curerncy of the country.

Dollarizaiton has one main drawback: a loss of a part of our sovereignty in the determination of our monetary policy. It has one main benefit: macroeconomic and financial stability, but this benefit can one day a handicap if Cambodia stops being a net receipt of USD and if growth does not materialize for a few consecutive years.

1/ Dollarization reduces the independence of Cambodia monetary authorities and imposes on all economic agents discipline and competitiveness.

2/ Because dollarization can be sustained only in a context of continued inflow of dollars and high growth, Cambodia must strengthen confidence in the riel in order to be ready to face possible deterioration of the international and/or of the domestic economic context.

Since dollarization can be sustained only in a context of continued inflow of dollars and high growth, Cambodia must strengthen confidence in the riel in order to be ready to face a possible deterioration of the internatioal and/or domestic economic context. 

a/ a dollarized country must permanently attract dollars and sustain growth
Since USD cannot be 'printed' in Cambodia, dollarization can only be maintained by a permanent inflow of USD. That inflow of USD allows the Central Bank, the RGC and the commercial banks to keep a stock of USD to stabilize the value of the riel, to balance the capital account, repay the debt, pay the imports and provide liquidity to the economy; it allows the RGC to balance its budget deficit with grants and loans in USD. The inflow is provided by exports, tourism, development partners, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and remittances from Cambodian working or residing abroad.

Exports in 2010, mostly paid in USD, reached 5 bilion USD; almost 3 million tourists visited Cambodia in 2011; funding by development partners was about 1 billion USD; FDI was around 800 million USD. Amount of remittances are not known.

But among these five sources of USD, at least three of them are fragile:

• Cambodia exports have a very narrow based - mostly garments - and depend on trade arrangement with the US and the E.U;
• Development assistance will gradually decline in line with Cambodia development;
• FDI are mostly dedicated to the garment sector and are as fragile as the sector itself.

Some measures into that direction have already been taken:

• Civil servants and public contracts are paid in riels;
• The price of listed companies at the Phnom Penh stock exchange is in riels (although actual transaction are USD dominated or USD based);
• Interest rates on deposits in riels are higher than for USD deposits. 

Monetary experts use the expression "seigniorage revenue" to name the difference between the face value of a currency and the cost of producing it. A dollarized country does not benefit from seigniorage revenue; but that loss revenue is not the main issue. The real issue is that by abandoning our seigniorage rights we also abandon part of our sovereignty. A carefully and gradually managed "re-rielizaiton" process would take us on the path towards a fully recovered sovereignty.