The Editor,
Attention NGOs. Thank you for all the legitimate assistance
you have contributed to the rehabilitation and revitalization of the Kingdom of
Cambodia.
Some of you are doing a wonderful job. But some appear to have
their priorities screwed up.
I was appalled to read the recent articles
in the news stating that NGOs actually follow foreigners and stake out parks to
attempt to identify pedophiles. My God! Couldn't your donated monies be better
spent?
You refer to "shoeless, hungry dirty 15-year-old boys sleeping
with foreigners for food and money." This is shocking and we all should be
upset. But, about what? Nobody can justify sexual abuse of any
nature.
But what about the "rapes" you carry out daily? How many shoes,
homes, nice bags etc. would a $40,000 Land cruiser buy? How much assistance
could you give directly by living in a $500 per month house instead of a $3,000
villa? There are many NGO families living in the Cambodiana at over $180 plus
per night. I have heard accounts of salaries of $7,000 a month. Why not give
these kids what they need instead of using donated money to attack foreigners
working or on holiday here? Eliminate the problem of poor, homeless kids and
there will be no source for these perverts.
We all hear stories of poor
families actually selling their virgin daughters so they can get enough rice to
survive and an income to school younger children. The crime really is they have
to do this. The predators are 99 percent Asian men.
These newspaper
reports travel the world. Do we want Phnom Penh seen as another Pattaya or
Manila when it really is not? Why are you trying to make the impression it
is?
Of course human rights are imperative. But if your baby was starving,
if you had no real home or income and your son came home with $10, I bet you
would not complain.
Most people would do anything to survive. You should
be doing more to help that survival. We are hearing that Cambodia has the
highest child death rate in the world and yet you are more concerned about a
15-year-old consenting to a sexual act. Why? Spend more money on health care and
education. Assist in teaching employment skills, or small business
development.
I regularly see people bathing in ditches, drinking unclean
tap water and worse. People are fleeing war zones and you spend thousands of
dollars chasing down one man who may or may not be guilty of an illegal act. I
guess you could be called hypocrites. Oh my, aren't I insulting! Well, I have
picked a dying child up off the street, abandoned because his mother had no food
and he was sick. With the help of the Red Cross Children's Hospital and a little
money, the child lived. We got the mother a job selling bread and last heard
they were doing OK.
I would really like to read your mandates, see how
you are following them and see who finances you
If you cannot help the
poor before they take drastic steps to survive, then go home and give your money
to an NGO that is doing some hands-on good.
- Adam Chew, NGO worker, Phnom Penh and California.
PS. The
Khmer Rouge gets 15 years for killing three foreigners and you want Dr Scott to
get 10 -15 years for what he might have done. Shame on you.
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