Sambath Meas's Blog
July 1, 2016
Kids at Risk Cambodia
Since my family’s escape our war-torn motherland in 1979, my father returned for the first in June 1992, before the U.N. sponsored elections, which was estimated to have cost around three billion dollars.
Seeing the people and country firsthand ultimately caused my father further heartache and depression, in addition to his post-traumatic stress disorder. The country and society were badly shattered. After many years of civil warfare and foreign occupation, the people became traumatized, poor, and fearful. His heart ached at the sight of children, adults, elders, and disabled people begging for food on every street corner.
He saw a one-legged beggar violently pushed into the street by the owner of a business establishment. My father helped him up as his fellow traveler asked the pusher, “Why are you treating a fellow human being like this?”
He later saw a United Nations soldier pushing a woman along with his foot and purposely knocking down the battered fried bananas she was selling in front of the hotel he was guarding. My father made small talk with her and gave her five dollars, persuading her to sell her food somewhere else so as not to let this heartless man demean her that way.
At a noodle shop where my father was eating, a man begged for his leftovers, but instead, he ordered a full bowl for him. On the street, he saw children in tattered clothes salivating at the sight of a woman selling Khmer vermicelli noodles and herbal sauce. My father bought all of the woman’s food and told the children to go home and grab their containers. They happily ran home and came back with their pots and pans. To some beggars, he offered money.
Dad knew what he had done brought only temporary relief; hence, he felt utterly depressed. The elections were to be held the next year—something he should have felt positive about—but having seen how Cambodian factions, soldiers, and employees of the United Nations bullied and threatened people, he knew they were not helping to make things much better. He came back home to the United States with a collage of conflicting emotions.
I, too, returned to Cambodia for the first time in 2002. I saw a one-legged soldier begging tourists for money while he strapped his child to his back. Many boys and girls flocked over to me to be my tour guides and asked for a few hundred riels in return. I saw a man with no legs prostrating himself on a filthy, smelly, wet, garbage infested ground as he begged customers and sellers alike for food to eat. A man with half arms ran up to me to beg for money. A toddler who could barely speak ran up to me to beg for one hundred riels. Everywhere I went I saw maimed Khmers begging for food and money to survive. I felt helpless and hopeless. I often thought about what I needed to do to help these people to help themselves. My own financial difficulty deterred me from contributing much.
Seeing what Kids at Risk Cambodia does for Khmer people raises my spirit and I too, want to contribute to its amazing work by raising funds from the proceeds of my book called The Governor’s Daughter: The Scribes of Brahmadhan, to help young Khmer children and their families get nutritional meals, housing, and medical assistance.
According to Norm Schriever, writer of The Huffington Post, Kids at Risk Cambodia is named as one of the “7 Charities Still Doing Great Work in Cambodia.”
Whether through social media or personal encounters, seeing children at risk of starvation, suffering, and dying, its staff would go and search for them to help with whatever they need: food, shelter, education, and medical attention.
Please click on this link to download a copy of The Governor’s Daughter: The Scribes of Brahmadhan. All of its proceeds for the month of July will go to this wonderful organization.
By buying The Governor’s Daughter: The Scribes of Brahmadhan, you are not only giving me a chance to entertain you with my debut novella, but you are helping to maintain the good work of Bart Belanger’s Kids at Risk Cambodia.
May you always be blessed with great health and wealth! Thank you.
Seeing the people and country firsthand ultimately caused my father further heartache and depression, in addition to his post-traumatic stress disorder. The country and society were badly shattered. After many years of civil warfare and foreign occupation, the people became traumatized, poor, and fearful. His heart ached at the sight of children, adults, elders, and disabled people begging for food on every street corner.
He saw a one-legged beggar violently pushed into the street by the owner of a business establishment. My father helped him up as his fellow traveler asked the pusher, “Why are you treating a fellow human being like this?”
He later saw a United Nations soldier pushing a woman along with his foot and purposely knocking down the battered fried bananas she was selling in front of the hotel he was guarding. My father made small talk with her and gave her five dollars, persuading her to sell her food somewhere else so as not to let this heartless man demean her that way.
At a noodle shop where my father was eating, a man begged for his leftovers, but instead, he ordered a full bowl for him. On the street, he saw children in tattered clothes salivating at the sight of a woman selling Khmer vermicelli noodles and herbal sauce. My father bought all of the woman’s food and told the children to go home and grab their containers. They happily ran home and came back with their pots and pans. To some beggars, he offered money.
Dad knew what he had done brought only temporary relief; hence, he felt utterly depressed. The elections were to be held the next year—something he should have felt positive about—but having seen how Cambodian factions, soldiers, and employees of the United Nations bullied and threatened people, he knew they were not helping to make things much better. He came back home to the United States with a collage of conflicting emotions.
I, too, returned to Cambodia for the first time in 2002. I saw a one-legged soldier begging tourists for money while he strapped his child to his back. Many boys and girls flocked over to me to be my tour guides and asked for a few hundred riels in return. I saw a man with no legs prostrating himself on a filthy, smelly, wet, garbage infested ground as he begged customers and sellers alike for food to eat. A man with half arms ran up to me to beg for money. A toddler who could barely speak ran up to me to beg for one hundred riels. Everywhere I went I saw maimed Khmers begging for food and money to survive. I felt helpless and hopeless. I often thought about what I needed to do to help these people to help themselves. My own financial difficulty deterred me from contributing much.
Seeing what Kids at Risk Cambodia does for Khmer people raises my spirit and I too, want to contribute to its amazing work by raising funds from the proceeds of my book called The Governor’s Daughter: The Scribes of Brahmadhan, to help young Khmer children and their families get nutritional meals, housing, and medical assistance.
According to Norm Schriever, writer of The Huffington Post, Kids at Risk Cambodia is named as one of the “7 Charities Still Doing Great Work in Cambodia.”
Whether through social media or personal encounters, seeing children at risk of starvation, suffering, and dying, its staff would go and search for them to help with whatever they need: food, shelter, education, and medical attention.
Please click on this link to download a copy of The Governor’s Daughter: The Scribes of Brahmadhan. All of its proceeds for the month of July will go to this wonderful organization.
By buying The Governor’s Daughter: The Scribes of Brahmadhan, you are not only giving me a chance to entertain you with my debut novella, but you are helping to maintain the good work of Bart Belanger’s Kids at Risk Cambodia.
May you always be blessed with great health and wealth! Thank you.
June 22, 2016
The Scribes of Brahmadhan Series
Dear Mystery and Science Fiction Enthusiast:
Life is a binary opposition. This dictum rings truer in no other places than in the Kingdom of Cambodia, where its beauty will leave you breathless and its darkness will devastate you. Not many people around the world heard of Cambodia, and if they do, it conjures up the following images: the Vietnam War; President Richard Nixon, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and their massive bombardment of Southeast Asia; King Sihanouk Norodom; the Khmer Republic; Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge; the killing fields; bones; deaths; and violence of intergalactic proportions.
But what was this kingdom like before the images of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s haunted and dominated the world’s media outlet?
If you are interested in expanding your horizon and traveling to a world and time beyond your comfort zone, then take a journey with Anjali Chinak, the precocious daughter of a brilliant Khmer detective, who aspires to be a sleuth just like her worldly father. Travel with her to witness the beauty of Khmer people, their culture, language, tradition, and discover what life generally is like in the French colonial Cambodge, specifically in 1920’s Siem Reap. See the movers and shakers of this town and society. Meet the different groups of people occupying Siem Reap—a place of majestic Khmer ruins and opulent French-colonial edifices. Bear witness to how they treat their fellow human beings. Admire the clothes they wear. Be in awe of their technologies. See what delights and entertains them.
You’ll get to know Anjali Chinak, her father, her mother, the man of her dream, her friends, the governor, his daughter, his wife and others. Anjali will take you around town and introduce you to her family, friends, neighbors, and foes.
Life goes on as usual on the surface but underneath it, something dark and sinister lurks in this part of the world. A serial rapist and killer runs loose, leaving stunningly beautiful women of Asian and European descendants dead across Southeast Asia. Authorities sought the help of Anjali’s father. She wants in on the action. Unfortunately, her father sees her as a young and inexperienced girl. Coincidentally, Anjali’s friend is brutalized and her boyfriend stands accused of the crime. Devastated and not the type to back down from an injustice, she muscles her way in to solve the crime and delves into a deeper mystery than she anticipated.
Anjali Chinak’s father holds a book of secrets called the Scribes of Brahmadhan. She will not only take you on an adventure to solve the crime of the century and to catch the killer or killers, but she will seek out who among the townspeople are the Scribes of her father’s book of secrets and find out what the book contains, and what and where is “Brahmadhan.”
Testimony from a reader and a magazine:
Such a great read. Sambath had the ability to captivate my attention; I simply couldn’t put the book down. From chapter to chapter, you just had to find out what was going to happen next. I also appreciated her thorough research into the culture and history of Cambodia in that era, felt like I was right there with Anjali. Look forward to more. – Bory Sok
This book treats an extremely pressing issue of the world with utmost sensitivity. The story has been built such that it keeps the interest of the reader intact till the end, all the while exposing to the reader the cruel realities that plague modern society and how manipulators have mastered the art of misleading, using and abusing their target prey. The Governor’s Daughter is a highly recommended read for people who like fictional treatment of real time issues.—Serious Reading Magazine
Sincerely Yours,
Sambath Meas
Author of The Governor’s Daughter: The Scribes of Brahmadhan
P.S. You can read “The Governor’s Daughter: The Scribes of Brahmadhan” for free, if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited (KU).
Life is a binary opposition. This dictum rings truer in no other places than in the Kingdom of Cambodia, where its beauty will leave you breathless and its darkness will devastate you. Not many people around the world heard of Cambodia, and if they do, it conjures up the following images: the Vietnam War; President Richard Nixon, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and their massive bombardment of Southeast Asia; King Sihanouk Norodom; the Khmer Republic; Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge; the killing fields; bones; deaths; and violence of intergalactic proportions.
But what was this kingdom like before the images of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s haunted and dominated the world’s media outlet?
If you are interested in expanding your horizon and traveling to a world and time beyond your comfort zone, then take a journey with Anjali Chinak, the precocious daughter of a brilliant Khmer detective, who aspires to be a sleuth just like her worldly father. Travel with her to witness the beauty of Khmer people, their culture, language, tradition, and discover what life generally is like in the French colonial Cambodge, specifically in 1920’s Siem Reap. See the movers and shakers of this town and society. Meet the different groups of people occupying Siem Reap—a place of majestic Khmer ruins and opulent French-colonial edifices. Bear witness to how they treat their fellow human beings. Admire the clothes they wear. Be in awe of their technologies. See what delights and entertains them.
You’ll get to know Anjali Chinak, her father, her mother, the man of her dream, her friends, the governor, his daughter, his wife and others. Anjali will take you around town and introduce you to her family, friends, neighbors, and foes.
Life goes on as usual on the surface but underneath it, something dark and sinister lurks in this part of the world. A serial rapist and killer runs loose, leaving stunningly beautiful women of Asian and European descendants dead across Southeast Asia. Authorities sought the help of Anjali’s father. She wants in on the action. Unfortunately, her father sees her as a young and inexperienced girl. Coincidentally, Anjali’s friend is brutalized and her boyfriend stands accused of the crime. Devastated and not the type to back down from an injustice, she muscles her way in to solve the crime and delves into a deeper mystery than she anticipated.
Anjali Chinak’s father holds a book of secrets called the Scribes of Brahmadhan. She will not only take you on an adventure to solve the crime of the century and to catch the killer or killers, but she will seek out who among the townspeople are the Scribes of her father’s book of secrets and find out what the book contains, and what and where is “Brahmadhan.”
Testimony from a reader and a magazine:
Such a great read. Sambath had the ability to captivate my attention; I simply couldn’t put the book down. From chapter to chapter, you just had to find out what was going to happen next. I also appreciated her thorough research into the culture and history of Cambodia in that era, felt like I was right there with Anjali. Look forward to more. – Bory Sok
This book treats an extremely pressing issue of the world with utmost sensitivity. The story has been built such that it keeps the interest of the reader intact till the end, all the while exposing to the reader the cruel realities that plague modern society and how manipulators have mastered the art of misleading, using and abusing their target prey. The Governor’s Daughter is a highly recommended read for people who like fictional treatment of real time issues.—Serious Reading Magazine
Sincerely Yours,
Sambath Meas
Author of The Governor’s Daughter: The Scribes of Brahmadhan
P.S. You can read “The Governor’s Daughter: The Scribes of Brahmadhan” for free, if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited (KU).
