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Cambodia's Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land
A generation after the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia shows every sign of having overcome its history--the streets of Phnom Penh are paved; skyscrapers dot the skyline. But under this façade lies a country still haunted by its years of terror. Joel Brinkley won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting in Cambodia on the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime that killed one quarter of the nation's population during its years in power. In 1992, the world came together to help pull the small nation out of the mire. Cambodia became a United Nations protectorate--the first and only time the UN tried something so ambitious. What did the new, democratically-elected government do with this unprecedented gift? In 2008 and 2009, Brinkley returned to Cambodia to find out. He discovered a population in the grip of a venal government. He learned that one-third to one-half of Cambodians who lived through the Khmer Rouge era have P.T.S.D.--and its afflictions are being passed to the next generation. His extensive close-up reporting in Cambodia's Curse illuminates the country, its people, and the deep historical roots of its modern-day behavior.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published April 12, 2011
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About the author
Joel Brinkley
10 books11 followersA Pulitzer Prize winning reporter at the New York Times for many years.
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October 1, 2014
In his foreword to Marie Alexandrine Martin’s Cambodia: A Shattered Society, Jean-François Baré wrote, “At the head of the list of vanquished, I would obviously be inclined, as would Marie Martin, to place the Khmer people, a martyred people. But the Khmer people also produced the Pol Pots, the Ieng Sarys, the Khieu Samphans, the barely adolescent yothea who, under their leaders’ directions, used methodical and murderous obstinacy in applying Bertolt Brecht’s sorrowful aphorism: ‘If something about a country is wrong, you have to change the people and choose another one’ –this same Khmer people, imbued among other interacting factors with a concept of hierarchy (neak chuo, knowing one’s place) that worked both to help make Cambodia so peaceful and to make the Khmer revolution so terrible when ‘the children were in power,’ through an astonishing and terrible structural reversal.”
So forget about the tribes (whose countries are now called Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam) that migrated from their ancestral home in southern China to Southeast Asia and engulfed the lands of Mon, Khmer, and Malay. Forget about Thailand and Vietnam tug-of-war for supremacy in this region, using Cambodia as a rope, the French ironclad colonization, the American bombing, or Vietnam and China’s influences. Disregard the fact that the Khmer Rouge leaders consisted of ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese and studied Marxism in Paris, France. What Jean-François Baré is driving at in his foreword is, there’s no one to blame for Cambodia’s weakness and demise but the Khmers themselves.
No one revels in this sentiment more than Joel Brinkley. He devotes his entire book to show how the Khmer leaders (psychopathic, autocratic, and kleptocratic) and people (ignorant, stupid, lazy, foolish and gullible) are a hopeless case and therefore, can’t be saved. Basically, the donors should not give Cambodia’s government any more money and should pack up and go home.
In fact, the premise of Cambodia’s Curse is to debunk those who attributed the American bombing to the rise of the Khmer Rouge regime, which ultimately killed almost two millions of its own people and destroyed its entire nation.
Brinkley reflected, “In this climate William Shawcross, a British journalist, wrote his seminal book, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia. It concluded that the American bombing of Cambodia, intended to destroy Vietcong sanctuaries there, drove the peasantry to the Khmer Rouge and ensured their victory. The liberal media (and I was a card-carrying member; I read and admired his book while flying to Cambodia in 1979) heaped adulation on Shawcross.”
Brinkley has come to a realization that “now, thirty years later, with passions cooled, it is quite clear that his conclusion was wrong.”
In this tragedy, he points his finger directly at King Grandfather Norodom Sihanouk for the rise of the Khmer Rouge. He retorts King Grandfather acquiesced to the bombing, which began a year before the Lon Nol coup; and thereafter, under the mediation of China, called out, via the radio, to the peasants to join the Khmer Rouge to fight the corrupt Lon Nol regime. Brinkley claims that majority of Khmers, unlike their neighbors, couldn’t read nor write, still lived primitive lives since ancient time, and owned no televisions or radios. Therefore, how could they know about the King’s call to join the revolution? Secondly, he misses or ignores the reports about King Grandfather’s outrage over the bombing that indiscriminately killed his people, and even severed ties with the United States due to this issue. Plus, when he was in power he diminished the communist rebels.
Moreover, Brinkley accuses King Grandfather of spending a decade “cultivating” the Chinese leadership, Mao Tse-tung and Zhou Enlai, since the late 1950s. “They grew to be Sihanouk admirers and friends—at a time when China had very few friends. Mao gave Sihanouk a magnificent mansion on Anti-Imperialist Street in Beijing and feted him every time he came to town—which was often.” Again, Brinkley must be wearing blinders. Didn’t Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger try to “cultivate” their own long-term vision or relationship with China? Dr. Kissinger even wrote a book about it called On China.
King Grandfather did turn to western leaders for help but to no avail. Their disparagement and cold-shoulder pushed him to the only country that was receptive.
… like every American official then, Rostow regarded Cambodia as an irrelevant little country.
As representative Tip O’Neill said during the floor debate, “Cambodia is not worth the life of one American flier.”
Given such attitude, not that China had Cambodian’s interests at heart, who and where could Brinkley possibly expect the King of Cambodia to turn to for help? He doesn’t even mention Mr. Nixon and Dr. Kissinger’s contempt for this “insignificant” ruler of this “irrelevant” country.
Crediting the American bombing for delaying “the Khmer Rouge’s ultimate victory,” he refers to Marshall Lon Nol as “a different animal with different motivations.” He blames him for giving “the Americans carte blanche to bomb wherever they pleased,” citing his love for the U. S. dollars more than the love for his own people. “The Lon Nol government supported a large expansion of the target area for American bombers more or less in exchange for cash. The U. S. Embassy in Phnom Penh wasn’t interested in the victims. And among the other Westerners in town, undoubtedly some of them agreed with Gen. William Westmoreland, the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam. ‘The Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does a Westerner,’ he said in 1974. ‘Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient.’”
This is to say that Khmers don’t even value each other’s life, so why should Westerners?
To support his argument that Khmers have no one to blame but themselves, in accordance with the views of Cambodia’s biased neighbors, journalists, and chroniclers before him, Brinkley points to the barbaric nature of Khmer people, which he says has not changed since ancient time. However, he doesn’t have to reach far back into history to show such examples.
Whether out of guilt, pity, or true sympathy, the United Nations spent three billion dollars to give Khmer people a fresh start, to bring peace and democracy to Cambodia, only to be undermined by the Cambodian’s leaders, especially Prime Minister Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Ranariddh themselves. Brinkley writes, “Cambodia’s leaders, all of them, were plotting, scheming, bribing, and backstabbing to come out on top, as if the election had never taken place.”
Even the elitist and United States’ golden boy, Sam Rainsy, who only looks to score political points, loses touch with the common folks and his own party members. Moreover, Brinkley holds Mr. Rainsy accountable for sabotaging the FBI’s investigation of the 1997 grenade attack on demonstrators, which was only inquired into because an American official was hurt. Mr. Rainsy is now seen as nothing more than a whiner or complainer.
Currently, only one party, Hun Sen’s CPP, rules Cambodia, killing, exploiting, and destroying its own people and country for its own gain. Officials sell titles, positions, forests, and lands to the highest bidders and foreign companies while they dehumanize and truck their own people out of their homes and lands. The country is corrupt from top to bottom. The bigger guys get the bigger piece of the pie while the police and military officers and teachers get the smaller piece. The peasants are the victims in all of this. They get squeezed from every direction. They have no one to turn to, because the judicial branch of government is not independent and it’s corrupt, just like all public and private sectors in the country.
CPP’s motto is, at least they don’t kill people in massive numbers as Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. They like to think that Cambodia only has one choice: pick the lesser of the two evils.
All in all, Brinkley finds Khmers as unreasonable, stubborn, and uncompromising people. In a debate or argument, instead of agreeing to disagree, the loser gets defensive and turns to hostility and violence, as a way of “saving face.” In accordance to studies done by Raoul-Marc Jennar, a Belgian who worked for the United Nations in Cambodia, Brinkley concludes that, “killing was an automatic tactic for eliminating differences of opinion.” Therefore, political opponents are threatened, stabbed, hacked, mutilated, and killed. Servants or subordinates are abused, killed, or tortured to death, as the case of colonel Ou Bunthan, who accused his employee, Leang Saroeun, of stealing from him without reason or proof, poured gasoline on his victim and set him on fire, alive. The corrupt system in Cambodia caused the doctor to violate his oath (possibly there is no such thing as a doctor’s oath in Cambodia, not these days anyways) by refusing to treat this tragic victim, because the wife didn’t have money to pay him. Heartbreakingly, the charred man died at home, in unimaginable physical and mental pains, as his poor and distressed wife attended to him.
Given the situation they’re in, Brinkley is also harsh on the Khmer people for not rising up and for enduring such misery. Considering that over fifty percent of the population is under twenty-five, they would rise against such oppression. However, he sees that they inherited complacency and fear of authorities from their parents. According to Brinkley, Khmers don’t trust each other. They lack unity and want to be left alone. Eighty percent of them are illiterate.
Khmer people are supposed to be protected and served by their government, but instead, they are abused and killed with impunity by said administration. Peace and democracy will not work in Cambodia, because psychopaths, suffering no consequences of their evil actions, run the country and the people remain docile and complacent. Their only hope is to wait for these butchers/torturers to die from old age (like the Khmer Rouge leaders); their bad health to catch up with them, as a result of their over indulgence or gluttony; and if the people are really lucky, these monsters will be caught in mother nature’s fury and die from lightening strike, as it was the case for the most barbaric police chief in Cambodia, Hok Lundy.
Moreover, because people buy their ways into government, positions, and schools, no one is educated or competent enough to run the country, run sophisticated networks, and compete with their neighbors and the outside world. They can’t even outsmart their neighbors’ aggressions against their country. Brinkley reminds the readers that no one is at fault but the Khmers themselves. If foreign pedophiles rape young boys and girls, he blames the Khmers (parents and authorities taking bribes and payments) themselves for allowing it to happen.
Brinkley sees no hope for Cambodia. He sees no courageous and adept leaders rising out of this small kingdom. All he sees are fools looking out for themselves. According to him, Darfur, North Korea, Haiti, Rwanda, etc. are way better than Cambodia. Ouch!
Cambodia’s Curse is painfully engrossing. Granted that Joel Brinkley knowledge of Khmer history, language, tradition, religion, and culture are as limited as the Chinese chronicler, Zhou Daguan or Chou Ta-Kuan (1296 -1297), resorting to hearsay and misinterpretations by misinformed individuals, just like the bigoted Chou Ta-Kuan, but his findings and observations of Khmer’s problems, attitude and behavior are not too far off.
Lastly, Brinkley may have been sarcastic about seeing change coming to Cambodia in his epilogue, but it was change that brought Khmers out of the Dark Age to become known as one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia for thousands of years. That power lies in education and knowledge. With knowledge Khmers built strong social and religious institutions and reigned supreme. Khmer presence still remains through out Southeast Asia.
Eleanor Mannikka, the scholar and author of Angkowat Wat: Time, Space, and Kingship, said it best when she wrote, “The architects of Angkor Wat were brilliant and well educated—true sages whose knowledge ranged from architecture to Sanskrit poetry to astronomy to religious rituals. They were extraordinary human beings for any society, in any era.”
That power was removed when newly arrived groups of people invaded the country, looted it, killed its people and scholars, and captured those extraordinary ones to build their own civilizations. Khmers lost that power and plunged back into the Dark Age, but the good news is, Khmers are survivors. It will take us a long time to gain new and old knowledge, but we are struggling to get it back. Khmers, like the Mayans and Aztecs, are one of the oldest groups of people in the world, but contrary to them, we are struggling against internal and external negative forces to stay alive. If anything, Cambodia is blessed. Let's educate and help improve the lives of the 80 percent of Khmers who are illiterate and poor.
So forget about the tribes (whose countries are now called Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam) that migrated from their ancestral home in southern China to Southeast Asia and engulfed the lands of Mon, Khmer, and Malay. Forget about Thailand and Vietnam tug-of-war for supremacy in this region, using Cambodia as a rope, the French ironclad colonization, the American bombing, or Vietnam and China’s influences. Disregard the fact that the Khmer Rouge leaders consisted of ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese and studied Marxism in Paris, France. What Jean-François Baré is driving at in his foreword is, there’s no one to blame for Cambodia’s weakness and demise but the Khmers themselves.
No one revels in this sentiment more than Joel Brinkley. He devotes his entire book to show how the Khmer leaders (psychopathic, autocratic, and kleptocratic) and people (ignorant, stupid, lazy, foolish and gullible) are a hopeless case and therefore, can’t be saved. Basically, the donors should not give Cambodia’s government any more money and should pack up and go home.
In fact, the premise of Cambodia’s Curse is to debunk those who attributed the American bombing to the rise of the Khmer Rouge regime, which ultimately killed almost two millions of its own people and destroyed its entire nation.
Brinkley reflected, “In this climate William Shawcross, a British journalist, wrote his seminal book, Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia. It concluded that the American bombing of Cambodia, intended to destroy Vietcong sanctuaries there, drove the peasantry to the Khmer Rouge and ensured their victory. The liberal media (and I was a card-carrying member; I read and admired his book while flying to Cambodia in 1979) heaped adulation on Shawcross.”
Brinkley has come to a realization that “now, thirty years later, with passions cooled, it is quite clear that his conclusion was wrong.”
In this tragedy, he points his finger directly at King Grandfather Norodom Sihanouk for the rise of the Khmer Rouge. He retorts King Grandfather acquiesced to the bombing, which began a year before the Lon Nol coup; and thereafter, under the mediation of China, called out, via the radio, to the peasants to join the Khmer Rouge to fight the corrupt Lon Nol regime. Brinkley claims that majority of Khmers, unlike their neighbors, couldn’t read nor write, still lived primitive lives since ancient time, and owned no televisions or radios. Therefore, how could they know about the King’s call to join the revolution? Secondly, he misses or ignores the reports about King Grandfather’s outrage over the bombing that indiscriminately killed his people, and even severed ties with the United States due to this issue. Plus, when he was in power he diminished the communist rebels.
Moreover, Brinkley accuses King Grandfather of spending a decade “cultivating” the Chinese leadership, Mao Tse-tung and Zhou Enlai, since the late 1950s. “They grew to be Sihanouk admirers and friends—at a time when China had very few friends. Mao gave Sihanouk a magnificent mansion on Anti-Imperialist Street in Beijing and feted him every time he came to town—which was often.” Again, Brinkley must be wearing blinders. Didn’t Richard M. Nixon and Henry A. Kissinger try to “cultivate” their own long-term vision or relationship with China? Dr. Kissinger even wrote a book about it called On China.
King Grandfather did turn to western leaders for help but to no avail. Their disparagement and cold-shoulder pushed him to the only country that was receptive.
… like every American official then, Rostow regarded Cambodia as an irrelevant little country.
As representative Tip O’Neill said during the floor debate, “Cambodia is not worth the life of one American flier.”
Given such attitude, not that China had Cambodian’s interests at heart, who and where could Brinkley possibly expect the King of Cambodia to turn to for help? He doesn’t even mention Mr. Nixon and Dr. Kissinger’s contempt for this “insignificant” ruler of this “irrelevant” country.
Crediting the American bombing for delaying “the Khmer Rouge’s ultimate victory,” he refers to Marshall Lon Nol as “a different animal with different motivations.” He blames him for giving “the Americans carte blanche to bomb wherever they pleased,” citing his love for the U. S. dollars more than the love for his own people. “The Lon Nol government supported a large expansion of the target area for American bombers more or less in exchange for cash. The U. S. Embassy in Phnom Penh wasn’t interested in the victims. And among the other Westerners in town, undoubtedly some of them agreed with Gen. William Westmoreland, the commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam. ‘The Oriental doesn’t put the same high price on life as does a Westerner,’ he said in 1974. ‘Life is plentiful, life is cheap in the Orient.’”
This is to say that Khmers don’t even value each other’s life, so why should Westerners?
To support his argument that Khmers have no one to blame but themselves, in accordance with the views of Cambodia’s biased neighbors, journalists, and chroniclers before him, Brinkley points to the barbaric nature of Khmer people, which he says has not changed since ancient time. However, he doesn’t have to reach far back into history to show such examples.
Whether out of guilt, pity, or true sympathy, the United Nations spent three billion dollars to give Khmer people a fresh start, to bring peace and democracy to Cambodia, only to be undermined by the Cambodian’s leaders, especially Prime Minister Hun Sen and Prince Norodom Ranariddh themselves. Brinkley writes, “Cambodia’s leaders, all of them, were plotting, scheming, bribing, and backstabbing to come out on top, as if the election had never taken place.”
Even the elitist and United States’ golden boy, Sam Rainsy, who only looks to score political points, loses touch with the common folks and his own party members. Moreover, Brinkley holds Mr. Rainsy accountable for sabotaging the FBI’s investigation of the 1997 grenade attack on demonstrators, which was only inquired into because an American official was hurt. Mr. Rainsy is now seen as nothing more than a whiner or complainer.
Currently, only one party, Hun Sen’s CPP, rules Cambodia, killing, exploiting, and destroying its own people and country for its own gain. Officials sell titles, positions, forests, and lands to the highest bidders and foreign companies while they dehumanize and truck their own people out of their homes and lands. The country is corrupt from top to bottom. The bigger guys get the bigger piece of the pie while the police and military officers and teachers get the smaller piece. The peasants are the victims in all of this. They get squeezed from every direction. They have no one to turn to, because the judicial branch of government is not independent and it’s corrupt, just like all public and private sectors in the country.
CPP’s motto is, at least they don’t kill people in massive numbers as Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge. They like to think that Cambodia only has one choice: pick the lesser of the two evils.
All in all, Brinkley finds Khmers as unreasonable, stubborn, and uncompromising people. In a debate or argument, instead of agreeing to disagree, the loser gets defensive and turns to hostility and violence, as a way of “saving face.” In accordance to studies done by Raoul-Marc Jennar, a Belgian who worked for the United Nations in Cambodia, Brinkley concludes that, “killing was an automatic tactic for eliminating differences of opinion.” Therefore, political opponents are threatened, stabbed, hacked, mutilated, and killed. Servants or subordinates are abused, killed, or tortured to death, as the case of colonel Ou Bunthan, who accused his employee, Leang Saroeun, of stealing from him without reason or proof, poured gasoline on his victim and set him on fire, alive. The corrupt system in Cambodia caused the doctor to violate his oath (possibly there is no such thing as a doctor’s oath in Cambodia, not these days anyways) by refusing to treat this tragic victim, because the wife didn’t have money to pay him. Heartbreakingly, the charred man died at home, in unimaginable physical and mental pains, as his poor and distressed wife attended to him.
Given the situation they’re in, Brinkley is also harsh on the Khmer people for not rising up and for enduring such misery. Considering that over fifty percent of the population is under twenty-five, they would rise against such oppression. However, he sees that they inherited complacency and fear of authorities from their parents. According to Brinkley, Khmers don’t trust each other. They lack unity and want to be left alone. Eighty percent of them are illiterate.
Khmer people are supposed to be protected and served by their government, but instead, they are abused and killed with impunity by said administration. Peace and democracy will not work in Cambodia, because psychopaths, suffering no consequences of their evil actions, run the country and the people remain docile and complacent. Their only hope is to wait for these butchers/torturers to die from old age (like the Khmer Rouge leaders); their bad health to catch up with them, as a result of their over indulgence or gluttony; and if the people are really lucky, these monsters will be caught in mother nature’s fury and die from lightening strike, as it was the case for the most barbaric police chief in Cambodia, Hok Lundy.
Moreover, because people buy their ways into government, positions, and schools, no one is educated or competent enough to run the country, run sophisticated networks, and compete with their neighbors and the outside world. They can’t even outsmart their neighbors’ aggressions against their country. Brinkley reminds the readers that no one is at fault but the Khmers themselves. If foreign pedophiles rape young boys and girls, he blames the Khmers (parents and authorities taking bribes and payments) themselves for allowing it to happen.
Brinkley sees no hope for Cambodia. He sees no courageous and adept leaders rising out of this small kingdom. All he sees are fools looking out for themselves. According to him, Darfur, North Korea, Haiti, Rwanda, etc. are way better than Cambodia. Ouch!
Cambodia’s Curse is painfully engrossing. Granted that Joel Brinkley knowledge of Khmer history, language, tradition, religion, and culture are as limited as the Chinese chronicler, Zhou Daguan or Chou Ta-Kuan (1296 -1297), resorting to hearsay and misinterpretations by misinformed individuals, just like the bigoted Chou Ta-Kuan, but his findings and observations of Khmer’s problems, attitude and behavior are not too far off.
Lastly, Brinkley may have been sarcastic about seeing change coming to Cambodia in his epilogue, but it was change that brought Khmers out of the Dark Age to become known as one of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia for thousands of years. That power lies in education and knowledge. With knowledge Khmers built strong social and religious institutions and reigned supreme. Khmer presence still remains through out Southeast Asia.
Eleanor Mannikka, the scholar and author of Angkowat Wat: Time, Space, and Kingship, said it best when she wrote, “The architects of Angkor Wat were brilliant and well educated—true sages whose knowledge ranged from architecture to Sanskrit poetry to astronomy to religious rituals. They were extraordinary human beings for any society, in any era.”
That power was removed when newly arrived groups of people invaded the country, looted it, killed its people and scholars, and captured those extraordinary ones to build their own civilizations. Khmers lost that power and plunged back into the Dark Age, but the good news is, Khmers are survivors. It will take us a long time to gain new and old knowledge, but we are struggling to get it back. Khmers, like the Mayans and Aztecs, are one of the oldest groups of people in the world, but contrary to them, we are struggling against internal and external negative forces to stay alive. If anything, Cambodia is blessed. Let's educate and help improve the lives of the 80 percent of Khmers who are illiterate and poor.
March 20, 2013
It took me to the end of this book to feel like I could trust this author. He made too many sweeping, disparaging statements that unveiled a disconcerting disgust for Cambodia, the country and people. Books like this-- broad investigative explorations of a contemporary nation-- should be at their foundations labors of love. Critical and penetrating, by all means, but this book is beyond cynical; it's contemptuous and generalizing. Joel Brinkley is a Pulitzer Prize winner and the eminent historian of Cambodia, David Chandler, gives a blurb on the back of this book, calling it "sure-footed analysis." I don't know enough about Cambodia to make my own judgement call, but Brinkley's tone raised enough skepticism in me to look up some of his sources in human rights and environmental justice. I just felt like he was missing a basic element of respect for Cambodian people, especially rural victims of decades-on violence, corruption, and malnutrition; Brinkley's voice is so matter-of-fact and repulsed by everything he is reporting that he brings little emotional connection to the work, and it reads really distantly, with colonial overtones in his romantic USA-centric comparisons.
With that disclaimer in mind, I have to say by the end, I was moved by the depth and breadth of Brinkley's reporting. He interviewed people across the country and at most levels of government and civil society, including many, many rural poor people, whose narratives and analysis he often centered. Clearly Brinkley was immersed in the human aspects of his research and focused on the human impacts of the everyday horrors he muckrakes. From deforestation to land grabs to the export of rice and simultaneous graft of food aid; from pedophilia destination tourism to sweat shop clothing manufacture to absent education and healthcare; from inter-generational Khmer Rouge PTSD to ongoing political assassination to domestic violence, Brinkley exposes the structural causes and effects of corruption at every level of Cambodian society and the shocking extent that Western and Chinese meddling-- donor funding, diplomacy, and even a few years of complete UN control of the country-- has propped up and supported a system of total exploitation of the country's people and ecosystem.
What a failure of development and democracy, of Western ideals and effort. No wonder the book reeks of disdain: it's a litany of unsolvable disappointments of misdirected or abused/abusive neoliberal (US) and social democratic (UN) development. This was quite the overview of modern social and political woes in the country and its references provide a thorough jumping-off point for follow up. I'm putting this down feeling much more knowledgeable about modern Cambodia, but still with the feeling that the author's perspective prevented a full accounting of the country today. There's definitely more to understand.
With that disclaimer in mind, I have to say by the end, I was moved by the depth and breadth of Brinkley's reporting. He interviewed people across the country and at most levels of government and civil society, including many, many rural poor people, whose narratives and analysis he often centered. Clearly Brinkley was immersed in the human aspects of his research and focused on the human impacts of the everyday horrors he muckrakes. From deforestation to land grabs to the export of rice and simultaneous graft of food aid; from pedophilia destination tourism to sweat shop clothing manufacture to absent education and healthcare; from inter-generational Khmer Rouge PTSD to ongoing political assassination to domestic violence, Brinkley exposes the structural causes and effects of corruption at every level of Cambodian society and the shocking extent that Western and Chinese meddling-- donor funding, diplomacy, and even a few years of complete UN control of the country-- has propped up and supported a system of total exploitation of the country's people and ecosystem.
What a failure of development and democracy, of Western ideals and effort. No wonder the book reeks of disdain: it's a litany of unsolvable disappointments of misdirected or abused/abusive neoliberal (US) and social democratic (UN) development. This was quite the overview of modern social and political woes in the country and its references provide a thorough jumping-off point for follow up. I'm putting this down feeling much more knowledgeable about modern Cambodia, but still with the feeling that the author's perspective prevented a full accounting of the country today. There's definitely more to understand.
May 14, 2020
Another book on an Asian country written by a Western journalist that should be taken with a grain of salt.
September 18, 2011
Grim Grim Grim. I only finished it because I paid real money for it. Its a workman like summing up of the period since the 1970's but doesn't seem to offer much hope for the future. I kept hoping for some kind of good news story. Was I wrong? There are plenty of Cambodians who struggle onwards and achieve something despite the dreadful system. I met some of them when I travelled there. Joel seems to offer no hope which is a bit of a cheap and easy out.
To say that Cambodians (and he appears to mean all Cambodians)are naturally passive becasue of thousands of years of autocratic rule is to dismiss a whole nation. Nor is it a sign of passivity to say you are happy with Hun Sen's rule when your only real alternative seems to be chaos and the Khmer Rouge. He does make give us a two page summary in the final chapter of signs of improvement. I would have liked more.
I get a bit sick of Westerners pontificating so rightoeusly about the hopelessness of otherpeoples systems. Our democracies have developed over hundreds of years of ordinary folks struggling onwards and some of us still have pretty crap public health systems.
To say that Cambodians (and he appears to mean all Cambodians)are naturally passive becasue of thousands of years of autocratic rule is to dismiss a whole nation. Nor is it a sign of passivity to say you are happy with Hun Sen's rule when your only real alternative seems to be chaos and the Khmer Rouge. He does make give us a two page summary in the final chapter of signs of improvement. I would have liked more.
I get a bit sick of Westerners pontificating so rightoeusly about the hopelessness of otherpeoples systems. Our democracies have developed over hundreds of years of ordinary folks struggling onwards and some of us still have pretty crap public health systems.
March 18, 2014
"Cambodia's Curse is a horror story. I started this book on my first day in Cambodia. As I traveled across the country I was quickly charmed by the smiling, gentle people I encountered and by the lush green landscapes, and I even imagined myself returning to Cambodia for a much longer stay. By the time I finished this book I felt overwhelmed by the rot under the surface of what I was seeing and experiencing. Cambodians have suffered centuries of abuse and neglect at the hands of the most venal rulers on earth. The world imagined that when the nightmare of the Khmer Rouge era ended in 1979 that Cambodia would finally find redemption, but the nightmare continues under the despotic rule of the dictator Hun Sen. The world has failed Cambodia. I feel enormous grief for the Cambodian people and deep anger towards their rulers and the international community that enables those rulers. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand Cambodia.
February 13, 2020
This book was published in 2011. I read it before traveling to Cambodia in 2014. I remember being impressed by the book. I returned to SE Asia the next two years visiting Cambodia each trip. I fell in love with the Cambodian people and moved here three years ago. Recently, I decided to read Cambodia’s Curse again. I didn’t finish it this time because I found the book so repulsive.
Beginning with the title of the book the author makes the assertion that Cambodia is a place of horrors and assaults the reader with page after page of stories and anecdotal evidence to prove his assertion. He makes no attempt to be objective. He describes the Cambodian people as primitive, unmotivated and potentially violent. We are led to believe that the Cambodian people shuffle through the countryside in rags with blank, zombie-like expressions on their faces. There is no way that he spent time actually getting to know any Cambodian people if her ever came here.
There is no denying that Cambodia does have deep problems. In 2019 Transparency International ranked Cambodia as the 18th most corrupt country in the world. Recent data is not available but last data I saw was that Cambodia was about the 45th poorest country. Hun Sen remains in power and has made it clear that he will do anything to maintain his position. Cambodia has been stripped of most of its forests. Basic quality healthcare is not available for most Cambodians. Due to the corruption, there are critical issues regarding even basic human rights.
However the real story of modern Cambodia is not its curse but the resiliency of the Cambodian people. From 1975-79 all of Cambodia’s institutions and culture were effectively destroyed. Probably 1/4 to 1/3 of the population perished in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. The Khmer Rough targeted anyone who had an education. The included doctors and teachers, engineers etc. 80% of the monks were killed. Vietnam invaded in 1979 and occupied until 1989.
Today, Cambodia has a market economy. According to the World Bank Cambodia has made significant economic improvement over the past few decades, reaching lower middle-income status in 2015. Economic growth between 1998 and now has been over 7%, measured by GDP, making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. According to the World Bank, extreme poverty rates fell from 47.8% in 2007 to 13.5% in 2014. Cambodia has made significant progress in maternal and child health, early childhood development, and primary education in the rural areas. When you visit the larger cities in Cambodia, they appear to be vibrant centers of economic activity. There are also many universities in the more populated areas. No matter where you go in Cambodia, you will observe children in their uniforms traveling to and from school.
I spend 90% of my time exclusively with Cambodian people. I find them to be warm, generous and honest, often a little shy. They smile easily and often. I have been all over SE Asia and really like the people I met in all the countries. Cambodians are my favorite.
All the progress was happening during the time the author was writing his book and certainly before it was published. So why is any of this not in the book? It simply did not fit his narrative that he wanted to sell us. I think he was blinded by his own bias and racism. If you want a modern history of Cambodia, you will have to look elsewhere.
Beginning with the title of the book the author makes the assertion that Cambodia is a place of horrors and assaults the reader with page after page of stories and anecdotal evidence to prove his assertion. He makes no attempt to be objective. He describes the Cambodian people as primitive, unmotivated and potentially violent. We are led to believe that the Cambodian people shuffle through the countryside in rags with blank, zombie-like expressions on their faces. There is no way that he spent time actually getting to know any Cambodian people if her ever came here.
There is no denying that Cambodia does have deep problems. In 2019 Transparency International ranked Cambodia as the 18th most corrupt country in the world. Recent data is not available but last data I saw was that Cambodia was about the 45th poorest country. Hun Sen remains in power and has made it clear that he will do anything to maintain his position. Cambodia has been stripped of most of its forests. Basic quality healthcare is not available for most Cambodians. Due to the corruption, there are critical issues regarding even basic human rights.
However the real story of modern Cambodia is not its curse but the resiliency of the Cambodian people. From 1975-79 all of Cambodia’s institutions and culture were effectively destroyed. Probably 1/4 to 1/3 of the population perished in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. The Khmer Rough targeted anyone who had an education. The included doctors and teachers, engineers etc. 80% of the monks were killed. Vietnam invaded in 1979 and occupied until 1989.
Today, Cambodia has a market economy. According to the World Bank Cambodia has made significant economic improvement over the past few decades, reaching lower middle-income status in 2015. Economic growth between 1998 and now has been over 7%, measured by GDP, making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. According to the World Bank, extreme poverty rates fell from 47.8% in 2007 to 13.5% in 2014. Cambodia has made significant progress in maternal and child health, early childhood development, and primary education in the rural areas. When you visit the larger cities in Cambodia, they appear to be vibrant centers of economic activity. There are also many universities in the more populated areas. No matter where you go in Cambodia, you will observe children in their uniforms traveling to and from school.
I spend 90% of my time exclusively with Cambodian people. I find them to be warm, generous and honest, often a little shy. They smile easily and often. I have been all over SE Asia and really like the people I met in all the countries. Cambodians are my favorite.
All the progress was happening during the time the author was writing his book and certainly before it was published. So why is any of this not in the book? It simply did not fit his narrative that he wanted to sell us. I think he was blinded by his own bias and racism. If you want a modern history of Cambodia, you will have to look elsewhere.
August 13, 2012
A profoundly bleak, selective account of Cambodia’s recent woes at the hands of a morally defunct leadership, feeble opposition, ineffective international bodies and international donors who are happy to enable an environment of endemic corruption. I’m not sure who the target audience for this book is. Anyone who knows Cambodia would already know these stories, so presumably it is pitched at people with limited familiarity with the country. However I can’t reconcile Brinkley’s portrait with my own experiences in Cambodia. Yes, Cambodia is a cesspit of corruption and human rights abuses, and there are a heartbreaking number of people living in extreme poverty. However I don’t agree that everyone outside of the cities is living like peasants and there is no hope for the situation to improve anytime soon. Brinkley doesn’t address how improved access to technology and the development of small and medium enterprises are driving significant changes. Very US-centric in his approach, and laced with a white saviour industrial complex mentality, Brinkley presents an incomplete picture of contemporary Cambodia.
July 16, 2024
Written in 2011, this book is undoubtedly dated. I picked it up after my trip to Cambodia, and it still provides some history background for people knowing little to nothing about the country. Would not say it's a brilliant book, because it apparently was written from American point of view. Nothing wrong about this, but think critically at the same time.
Overall, I'd say the country is growing despite various challenges. Worth a trip or two to Angkor Wat.
Overall, I'd say the country is growing despite various challenges. Worth a trip or two to Angkor Wat.
February 9, 2025
本书属于一组细致但在条理和深度上都有所欠缺的新闻速写的合集。
而在本书出版十多年后的今天，在去到柬埔寨的短短九天里，我发现虽然经济有了显著的增长，但书中描写的许多柬埔寨的社会症结依然存在。除了贫穷之外，许多柬埔寨人对于国家未来的悲观程度之深也令我大受震撼。对他们来说，也只有拿红色高棉的历史创伤作比较时，现状才变得比较可以忍受。从这个意义上讲，柬埔寨依旧没有从那段历史中走出来，如今只是把它转变成了一种旅游业的卖点而已。
“现今的柬埔寨人被动消极，幸存者是那些善于装聋作哑的人。”这么一句简单却有力的评语，许多中国读者想必是更能感同身受的了。
而在本书出版十多年后的今天，在去到柬埔寨的短短九天里，我发现虽然经济有了显著的增长，但书中描写的许多柬埔寨的社会症结依然存在。除了贫穷之外，许多柬埔寨人对于国家未来的悲观程度之深也令我大受震撼。对他们来说，也只有拿红色高棉的历史创伤作比较时，现状才变得比较可以忍受。从这个意义上讲，柬埔寨依旧没有从那段历史中走出来，如今只是把它转变成了一种旅游业的卖点而已。
“现今的柬埔寨人被动消极，幸存者是那些善于装聋作哑的人。”这么一句简单却有力的评语，许多中国读者想必是更能感同身受的了。
February 17, 2016
Great read! Picked this up before my trip to Cambodia and it was a real eye-opener. I expected Khmer Rougue and sex-trafficking, because that's almost all I knew about the country. The author does touch on these, but that is definitely not what the book is about. Those are two pieces of the puzzle, but the author weaves in a dozen more, giving the reader a great overview of the roots and recent history of the Cambodian state and politics.
I'e been in the country a week now visiting a friend (who is one of the many aid workers the author discusses!) and everywhere I turn I've seen pieces of this book in real life. It has absolutely given me a completely different trip to the country than I would have had without reading it. Wish I had something this revealing and accessible for every new place I visit.
The editing isn't perfect (I noticed the author introduce a piece of evidence as if for the first time repeatedly a few times.) And I didn't quite buy into his hammering home of the idea that today's leaders mirror ancient Khmer kings in greed and competency. (It's an interesting, relevant argument, but I felt he stretched it a bit far for the sake of a coherent story/thread throughout the book. I don't buy into the historical determinism that he seems to espouse.) However, overall a great introduction to modern day Cambodia and its underpinnings.
Other reviewers note that the author seems to place most of the "blame" for the country's problems squarely on Cambodian's shoulders. Perhaps controversially, he writes that the US bombing of Cambodia is not primarily to blame for the rise of the Khmer Rogue, but instead the machinations of Cambodian elites.
It is difficult to say if he is right. I think you'd need to be a Cambodian to really understand the psyche. I don't think Cambodian people are as blind to corruption as he states, but I have only met more educated Cambodians probably. I think that because the US is a superpower, we rarely seem to blame other nations for our problems- we have a strong internal locus of control. Problematically, as a people, we think we have a lot more control over international events than we actually do. The US accepts blame and guilt for things that happen all over the world- whether or not we can control them. So, as an American, it is hard to understand how Cambodians might not have a majority stake in their own country. I think that's where Brinkley is coming from, and I can see his point.
I'e been in the country a week now visiting a friend (who is one of the many aid workers the author discusses!) and everywhere I turn I've seen pieces of this book in real life. It has absolutely given me a completely different trip to the country than I would have had without reading it. Wish I had something this revealing and accessible for every new place I visit.
The editing isn't perfect (I noticed the author introduce a piece of evidence as if for the first time repeatedly a few times.) And I didn't quite buy into his hammering home of the idea that today's leaders mirror ancient Khmer kings in greed and competency. (It's an interesting, relevant argument, but I felt he stretched it a bit far for the sake of a coherent story/thread throughout the book. I don't buy into the historical determinism that he seems to espouse.) However, overall a great introduction to modern day Cambodia and its underpinnings.
Other reviewers note that the author seems to place most of the "blame" for the country's problems squarely on Cambodian's shoulders. Perhaps controversially, he writes that the US bombing of Cambodia is not primarily to blame for the rise of the Khmer Rogue, but instead the machinations of Cambodian elites.
It is difficult to say if he is right. I think you'd need to be a Cambodian to really understand the psyche. I don't think Cambodian people are as blind to corruption as he states, but I have only met more educated Cambodians probably. I think that because the US is a superpower, we rarely seem to blame other nations for our problems- we have a strong internal locus of control. Problematically, as a people, we think we have a lot more control over international events than we actually do. The US accepts blame and guilt for things that happen all over the world- whether or not we can control them. So, as an American, it is hard to understand how Cambodians might not have a majority stake in their own country. I think that's where Brinkley is coming from, and I can see his point.
July 16, 2020
Let me be clear: Joel Brinkley's overarching thesis for the book is absolute nonsense. The idea that Cambodia has always been full of lazy bribe takers for thousands of years is absolute foolishness borne of the author's own frustration, occasional ignorance, and probable despair at a country he wishes could be free of it's corrupt overlords. He comes back to this bizarre thesis over and over again to frame all his points, and it is WRONG.
HOWEVER. The book is a few years old now, but many things still hold true- and I think it is important to understand recent history in order to understand what is happening in Cambodia today. It is a little too heavy on American foreign policy, but that is, unfortunately, an important part of what we see today.
There are not many books that explore Cambodia post-genocide, and post-Khmer Rouge. Brinkley's reporting is solid, and his understanding and explanation of the sly mechanisms and corruption behind what we see in Cambodia is excellent. And, of course, he clearly explains the ugly role that the international world has played in making it so. The author is not impartial- he is angry and frustrated, and it comes through, even when it would be better left out.
Like some other reviewers, I travel to Cambodia, and have experienced extraordinary kindness and I have worked with and befriended kind and good people. One could say I even fell in love without it. But Brinkley is right- it will break your heart, because kindness and goodness do not get you anywhere. Not when the police need to be bribed, the health centre needs to be bribed, your land gets stolen, your babies get sold, your family members die of preventable disease, and to add insult to injury, some tourists swan around like it's a brand new colony. The forests and biodiversity are destroyed, China is there to bring in money to line the pockets of the already-wealthy and continue the destruction, and the plastic just piles up everywhere. Those who protect the forest get murdered. There is very little justice. And Hun Sen lies and lies and lies.
But I believe that there will be change soon. The momentum is building, and the power is there. There is a new generation in Cambodia- and there are far too many voices to silence.
HOWEVER. The book is a few years old now, but many things still hold true- and I think it is important to understand recent history in order to understand what is happening in Cambodia today. It is a little too heavy on American foreign policy, but that is, unfortunately, an important part of what we see today.
There are not many books that explore Cambodia post-genocide, and post-Khmer Rouge. Brinkley's reporting is solid, and his understanding and explanation of the sly mechanisms and corruption behind what we see in Cambodia is excellent. And, of course, he clearly explains the ugly role that the international world has played in making it so. The author is not impartial- he is angry and frustrated, and it comes through, even when it would be better left out.
Like some other reviewers, I travel to Cambodia, and have experienced extraordinary kindness and I have worked with and befriended kind and good people. One could say I even fell in love without it. But Brinkley is right- it will break your heart, because kindness and goodness do not get you anywhere. Not when the police need to be bribed, the health centre needs to be bribed, your land gets stolen, your babies get sold, your family members die of preventable disease, and to add insult to injury, some tourists swan around like it's a brand new colony. The forests and biodiversity are destroyed, China is there to bring in money to line the pockets of the already-wealthy and continue the destruction, and the plastic just piles up everywhere. Those who protect the forest get murdered. There is very little justice. And Hun Sen lies and lies and lies.
But I believe that there will be change soon. The momentum is building, and the power is there. There is a new generation in Cambodia- and there are far too many voices to silence.
July 9, 2019
This book fails at being a good history book; it is filled with outdated and inaccurate information. For example, this book states that the Khmer empire was a nation state. Anybody who has taken a basic southeast Asian history course would recognize this misinformation. This just shows that this book is under-researched and cannot live up to its title as a "history book"
With that being said, the author has done a fairly good job in reporting the current issues of Cambodia, disproportionately, from american views. Most of his sources are interviews and conversation with American ambassadors, officials, and personnel. While it is valuable to see the world view of this influential actor towards Cambodia's issues, it does not offer a full picture of the problem. There are more factors involving in this issue (as the author coined "curse") than only the US. This book fails to illustrate the relations and involvement of other actors, such as China, Thailand, or Vietnam. Although this is a good book for the study of Cambodia-US relations.
With that being said, the author has done a fairly good job in reporting the current issues of Cambodia, disproportionately, from american views. Most of his sources are interviews and conversation with American ambassadors, officials, and personnel. While it is valuable to see the world view of this influential actor towards Cambodia's issues, it does not offer a full picture of the problem. There are more factors involving in this issue (as the author coined "curse") than only the US. This book fails to illustrate the relations and involvement of other actors, such as China, Thailand, or Vietnam. Although this is a good book for the study of Cambodia-US relations.
September 2, 2011
Awful! Veers repeatedly toward racism. The San Francisco Chronicle's review gets to the heart of the problem: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...
June 12, 2020
An engrossing and astonishing account of Cambodia since the fall of the Khmer Rouge.
I've read and studied the Khmer Rouge period fairly extensively, and even some of the time that led up to it. However I realized that I knew little of what happened after the Vietnamese invaded and ran the KR out of Phnom Penh in January, 1979. How did they get from the Vietnamese invasion to the rule of Hun Sen, dictator and former KR soldier, in the present day? This book tells that story.
Brinkley is an accomplished journalist who, as a cub reporter in Kentucky, got his first big international assignment covering the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. This was in a different era when regional papers sent correspondents to cover events like that. He returns to the country almost 30 years later to find out what happened, why the attempts to build a new state by some of the most powerful nations and organizations in the world failed, what happened to all the money they spent, and what kind of condition the country and her people were in now. The answers are not uplifting.
We are introduced to a country where, in a stunning description, much of the populace lives similarly to how they did 1000 years ago. They are farmers, using ox-power and rudimentary tools to plow rice fields, sleeping in thatched huts and dying of preventable diseases which are almost non-existant in the rich world. They have leaders, or at least people who occupy somewhat powerful positions in a layered bureaucracy, who are identifiable simply by the paunch bellies they carry around. This book is a detailed description of the immense corruption and graft which run Cambodia society, how the foundation for this corruption was laid, and why no one seems to do anything about it.
We are given multiple examples, and Brinkley does a good job breaking the book up into chapters that each discuss a facet of society and how it is manipulated for gain by the powerful: farming, land ownership, healthcare, the judicial system, civil service, the military, etc. We learn of doctors who over-prescribe Cesarean sections because the operations pay them more money; judges who rule in favor of the highest bidder; land owners specifically granted building permits on land they've been given in exchange for political contributions and favors. There is a litany of examples of gross corruption by officials preying on the helpless and destitute.
This is all enough to make one sick, but none of these acts in and of themselves seem terribly surprising in a corrupt dictatorship. However, Brinkley's knack for historical explanation comes out as he describes all of this in the context of what has happened in the country over the preceeding 30 years. Once the Americans end the Vietnam War and leave Southeast Asia, the West seems to have little interest in what does on there, allowing the Khmer Rouge to take power in Cambodia. Since the KR leader Pol Pot could not help himself from antagonizing the Vietnamese across their shared border as his government disintegrated around him, the Vietnamese decide to invade and put an end to his antics once and for all. They proceed to install a puppet government, then tired of administrating it and leave themselves in 1989. The United Nations, and more generally the West, take an interest in helping to rebuild Cambodia as the true horrors of the KR period become widely known and confirmed. The UN proceeds to pour gigantic amounts of money (over $3 billion) into a rebuilding project on a scale unseen since post-WWII Germany and Japan. These efforts then become horribly ineffective, encourage and nurture an already-existing power struggle in the country, and fuel a fight for power and wealth at a major cost to everyday Cambodians. And the governments and agencies just keep pledging money.
Brinkley's ability to intertwine historical narrative with personal, human storytelling is superb and is what makes this book stand out in the literature on Cambodia. As with many works on genocide or its aftermath, there are some passages which are difficult to read. That's just how it is. My only slight criticism (besides that the chapters don't have names but only numbers, so it's somewhat difficult to go back and pinpoint certain topics) was that I noticed that many of the examples of suffering that they people have gone through come from their personal anecdotal stories, which by nature are almost impossible to confirm with secondary sources. Very few people living in such a corrupt state would stand up and go on record saying something critical of the government or one of its ministers, no matter how vicious or tame the accusation. Here I give Brinkley the benefit of the doubt as a highly-experienced, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. I feel confident that he did his due diligence and research for this book; it was just something I noticed and thought about.
I highly recommend this work for anyone interested in Cambodian history, efforts at international nation-building, or how geopolitical policy (or the combination of all three) can and did go so horribly wrong.
I've read and studied the Khmer Rouge period fairly extensively, and even some of the time that led up to it. However I realized that I knew little of what happened after the Vietnamese invaded and ran the KR out of Phnom Penh in January, 1979. How did they get from the Vietnamese invasion to the rule of Hun Sen, dictator and former KR soldier, in the present day? This book tells that story.
Brinkley is an accomplished journalist who, as a cub reporter in Kentucky, got his first big international assignment covering the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia. This was in a different era when regional papers sent correspondents to cover events like that. He returns to the country almost 30 years later to find out what happened, why the attempts to build a new state by some of the most powerful nations and organizations in the world failed, what happened to all the money they spent, and what kind of condition the country and her people were in now. The answers are not uplifting.
We are introduced to a country where, in a stunning description, much of the populace lives similarly to how they did 1000 years ago. They are farmers, using ox-power and rudimentary tools to plow rice fields, sleeping in thatched huts and dying of preventable diseases which are almost non-existant in the rich world. They have leaders, or at least people who occupy somewhat powerful positions in a layered bureaucracy, who are identifiable simply by the paunch bellies they carry around. This book is a detailed description of the immense corruption and graft which run Cambodia society, how the foundation for this corruption was laid, and why no one seems to do anything about it.
We are given multiple examples, and Brinkley does a good job breaking the book up into chapters that each discuss a facet of society and how it is manipulated for gain by the powerful: farming, land ownership, healthcare, the judicial system, civil service, the military, etc. We learn of doctors who over-prescribe Cesarean sections because the operations pay them more money; judges who rule in favor of the highest bidder; land owners specifically granted building permits on land they've been given in exchange for political contributions and favors. There is a litany of examples of gross corruption by officials preying on the helpless and destitute.
This is all enough to make one sick, but none of these acts in and of themselves seem terribly surprising in a corrupt dictatorship. However, Brinkley's knack for historical explanation comes out as he describes all of this in the context of what has happened in the country over the preceeding 30 years. Once the Americans end the Vietnam War and leave Southeast Asia, the West seems to have little interest in what does on there, allowing the Khmer Rouge to take power in Cambodia. Since the KR leader Pol Pot could not help himself from antagonizing the Vietnamese across their shared border as his government disintegrated around him, the Vietnamese decide to invade and put an end to his antics once and for all. They proceed to install a puppet government, then tired of administrating it and leave themselves in 1989. The United Nations, and more generally the West, take an interest in helping to rebuild Cambodia as the true horrors of the KR period become widely known and confirmed. The UN proceeds to pour gigantic amounts of money (over $3 billion) into a rebuilding project on a scale unseen since post-WWII Germany and Japan. These efforts then become horribly ineffective, encourage and nurture an already-existing power struggle in the country, and fuel a fight for power and wealth at a major cost to everyday Cambodians. And the governments and agencies just keep pledging money.
Brinkley's ability to intertwine historical narrative with personal, human storytelling is superb and is what makes this book stand out in the literature on Cambodia. As with many works on genocide or its aftermath, there are some passages which are difficult to read. That's just how it is. My only slight criticism (besides that the chapters don't have names but only numbers, so it's somewhat difficult to go back and pinpoint certain topics) was that I noticed that many of the examples of suffering that they people have gone through come from their personal anecdotal stories, which by nature are almost impossible to confirm with secondary sources. Very few people living in such a corrupt state would stand up and go on record saying something critical of the government or one of its ministers, no matter how vicious or tame the accusation. Here I give Brinkley the benefit of the doubt as a highly-experienced, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist. I feel confident that he did his due diligence and research for this book; it was just something I noticed and thought about.
I highly recommend this work for anyone interested in Cambodian history, efforts at international nation-building, or how geopolitical policy (or the combination of all three) can and did go so horribly wrong.
July 2, 2025
I think this book is important in the sense that there is a tendency to fetishise the history of Southeast Asia in a way that becomes resolutely ahistorical. Vietnamese history becomes the sum of the Vietnam war and Cambodian history becomes solely about the genocide - most backpackers will have been to the killing fields but barely any could tell you who’s in charge now (incl me). If the majority of knowledge about these states has ossified in the 1970s it elides these nations as world players today. Also like I have a degree in politics (or half) but I know little to nothing about the actual functioning - and floppage - of the UN protectorate in Cambodia?? I think it’s fascinating to read about especially now that the UN is so wholly impotent. Fukyama and liberalism in the 90s really be running wild anyway that’s a tangent.
Lastly and importantly however I do think this book was limited in the way it often cast “Cambodians” in broad strokes that yes, felt vaguely orientalist. Obviously there is a need to make generalisations but I think it tended to err in a way that was often a bit icky to me.
Lastly and importantly however I do think this book was limited in the way it often cast “Cambodians” in broad strokes that yes, felt vaguely orientalist. Obviously there is a need to make generalisations but I think it tended to err in a way that was often a bit icky to me.
December 20, 2022
Molto approfondito e documentato. Ho imparato tante cose e ora mi sento di capire un po' meglio come si vive in Cambogia oggi. Una lettura consigliata per chi ci va in vacanza, per rendersi conto di cos'è la Cambogia, oltre l'esperienza turistica dei templi e i memoriali degli Khmer rossi.
Molto interessante anche l'intreccio tra il genuino desiderio delle istituzioni straniere di aiutare il popolo cambogiano, l'esigenza di autoconservazione delle ONG, e la corruzione del governo: sono meccanismi di potere che riproducono anche altrove e hanno valenza generale.
A volte ho trovato il libro fin troppo dettagliato e qualche volta ripetitivo, ma il difetto principale è l'insistenza con cui l'autore afferma che una delle cause principali degli enormi problemi della Cambogia è la cultura cambogiana stessa, il che, non essendo approfondita seriamente, è una tesi che potrebbe sembrare razzista. Si capisce però che nasce soprattutto dalle più che legittime indignazione e frustrazione dell'autore.
Molto interessante anche l'intreccio tra il genuino desiderio delle istituzioni straniere di aiutare il popolo cambogiano, l'esigenza di autoconservazione delle ONG, e la corruzione del governo: sono meccanismi di potere che riproducono anche altrove e hanno valenza generale.
A volte ho trovato il libro fin troppo dettagliato e qualche volta ripetitivo, ma il difetto principale è l'insistenza con cui l'autore afferma che una delle cause principali degli enormi problemi della Cambogia è la cultura cambogiana stessa, il che, non essendo approfondita seriamente, è una tesi che potrebbe sembrare razzista. Si capisce però che nasce soprattutto dalle più che legittime indignazione e frustrazione dell'autore.
March 7, 2017
Interesting on the time when Cambodia was a UN protectorate (the only time this has been tried, and it probably never will be again, especially now that the UN is in thrall to a bunch of Islamists and their dictatorship-loving chums in the West), and on the civil war that kind of happened in the 1990s while nobody was looking. Interesting too on the UN's pointless faffing and delay and lack of scrutiny that nearly prevented the Khmer Rouge Tribunal from being set up ten years ago, much later than planned, so that many of the genocidal criminals are dead or have dementia, and all of them are very old. Very interesting on the incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder among older Cambodians who survived the Khmer Rouge ( about half that population, at conservative estimates), and on how this is being passed on to their descendants in the form of familial violence and substance abuse. But dark and inhuman, and borderline racist in his generalisation of all Cambodians as passive victims. If this is the only book you had read about Cambodia you would conclude that there are no Cambodians working for a better country, better governance, and human rights. There are, and they are many. It's difficult to see how the corrupt, thuggish one-party regime led by turncoat former Khmer Rouge commander Hun Sen (deport me, I dare you) can be dislodged from power. But one day it will happen. I currently live in Cambodia, and I do not recognise (fortunately) the country he describes after travelling around it in 2008 and 2009. He has the audacity to compare Cambodia with countries like South Sudan and Haiti, whose people have at times risen up against their governments, and says in his epilogue, disgracefully, "Cambodians are incapable of that". The people of this ancient and beautiful land deserve better than this.
May 22, 2022
Goddamn. An extra star because my pal worked on it 🥰
December 5, 2023
A grim, bleak, pessimistic retelling of Cambodia's modern history. It does not paint a flattering picture of the country and offers only a few paragraphs of hope, reserved for the epilogue.
The book ends in 2010 and leaves me with the need to learn what has happened between then and now. I fear there is a bit of bias and perhaps even racism coloring the author's depiction of Cambodia and its people, but I know so little about the history of SE Asia that I'm not even sure.
It is a fairly brief and not-too-dense introduction to the history of Cambodia and has piqued my interest in the country. If you are hardened to the uglier side of human nature I would recommend this book.
The book ends in 2010 and leaves me with the need to learn what has happened between then and now. I fear there is a bit of bias and perhaps even racism coloring the author's depiction of Cambodia and its people, but I know so little about the history of SE Asia that I'm not even sure.
It is a fairly brief and not-too-dense introduction to the history of Cambodia and has piqued my interest in the country. If you are hardened to the uglier side of human nature I would recommend this book.
June 19, 2020
It is recommended to read this book with extreme moderation and pre-cautions and open-mindedness.
January 31, 2019
If there is something I could notice before reading Joel Brinkley's "Cambodia's Curse" myself, it is that this book for sure stirred up controversies. This is probably the reason why I decided to read this book in the first place. I was curious to see for myself, if those controversies were justified or not and it was also the occasion for me to explore a topic I barely knew of, namely: post-khmers rouges Cambodia.
Now that I am done with the reading, I can somehow understand this criticism against Brinkley. As a matter of fact, he seems to have ambivalent feelings for Cambodia and its people: on the one hand compassion, but on the other hand frustration, that he harshly formulated. Indeed, Brinkley is uncompromising with Cambodian people and do not hesitate to hold them responsible for their lot, nor to point out (and perhaps inappropriately) Cambodian cultural traits, that he considers to be the roots of all evils haunting contemporary Cambodia, in other words: corruption, idleness and submissiveness. This is something Brinkley redundantly hammers home in his work, which can create a feeling of discomfort for the reader on the long run. This even more true, when he belittles Cambodia while comparing it to its more successful and powerful neighbours (Thailand and more specifically Vietnam).
It does not mean, that Brinkley forgot to expose Western responsibilities in Cambodia's curse. On the contrary, he rightly reminds us that US strategists not only ignored the Khmers Rouges threat, but also quietly and subtly supported them, especially through China as part of their common global strategy against Moscow, while European intellectuals were denying Khmers Rouges crimes.
Finally, Brinkley perfectly demonstrates in this book the impotence of the United Nations and how the UN and the western NGO failed almost everything they have attempted to implement in Cambodia despite several billions of dollars invested. At the end of the day, the UN and the NGO were not able neither to import democracy in Cambodia, nor to ensure the development of this country. We may give them credit though for at least having been able to put the few remaining (and aging) Khmers Rouges on trial, although those fine gentlemen hardly faced any serious sanction. Last but not least Brinkley briefly mentions in the epilogue a new foreign actor in Cambodia, which might have put in jeopardy all what Westerners were striving for: China. Thanks to (or because of) this newcomer, Cambodian elites have found a creditor, whose services do not depend neither on efforts put on an ideological shift towards democratisation nor on a fight against corruption. Regardless of its dubious ethic and unclear intentions, China largely contributed in the modernisation of the Cambodian infrastructures... More than what the UN could do in two decades of presence in Cambodia. This is definitively a slap in the face of the UN and the western NGO, whose efforts and massive spending might have been in vain after all.
Surprisingly enough, Brinkley concludes his book with optimism for the future. Quoting David Chandler, the reference for Cambodian History, living standards are slowly but surely increasing. Cambodia is benefiting from the economic momentum in the region and the steady growth of its neighbours. Tourism ensures incomes, the access to (basic) education improved and most importantly, high-ranking policy makers (especially within the army) are apparently striving for changes as well.
Although it is of course not an academic work, "Cambodia's Curse" provided me with the informations I needed and I appreciated the honesty of Brinkley, who moreover does not take sides with anybody (and seems to equally despise all participants in the Cambodian politics, including the royal family). In spite of the redundancies, I could get acquainted with topics completely new to me such as Hun Sen's personal rule, the PTSD affecting a large part of the population and which seems to have been partly transmitted to the next generation and finally the merciless struggle for power between Hun Sen, Norodom Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy in the mid 1990s, which climax almost plunged the country in a new civil war before the very eyes of helpless UN officials.
Despite the redundancies and the tone that may be unpleasant for some, Brinkley's "Cambodia's Curse" proposes a fair account on contemporary Cambodia that was able to answer some of my questions while increasing my awareness on matters new to me. Thus, "Cambodia's Curse" fairly deserved three stars.
Now that I am done with the reading, I can somehow understand this criticism against Brinkley. As a matter of fact, he seems to have ambivalent feelings for Cambodia and its people: on the one hand compassion, but on the other hand frustration, that he harshly formulated. Indeed, Brinkley is uncompromising with Cambodian people and do not hesitate to hold them responsible for their lot, nor to point out (and perhaps inappropriately) Cambodian cultural traits, that he considers to be the roots of all evils haunting contemporary Cambodia, in other words: corruption, idleness and submissiveness. This is something Brinkley redundantly hammers home in his work, which can create a feeling of discomfort for the reader on the long run. This even more true, when he belittles Cambodia while comparing it to its more successful and powerful neighbours (Thailand and more specifically Vietnam).
It does not mean, that Brinkley forgot to expose Western responsibilities in Cambodia's curse. On the contrary, he rightly reminds us that US strategists not only ignored the Khmers Rouges threat, but also quietly and subtly supported them, especially through China as part of their common global strategy against Moscow, while European intellectuals were denying Khmers Rouges crimes.
Finally, Brinkley perfectly demonstrates in this book the impotence of the United Nations and how the UN and the western NGO failed almost everything they have attempted to implement in Cambodia despite several billions of dollars invested. At the end of the day, the UN and the NGO were not able neither to import democracy in Cambodia, nor to ensure the development of this country. We may give them credit though for at least having been able to put the few remaining (and aging) Khmers Rouges on trial, although those fine gentlemen hardly faced any serious sanction. Last but not least Brinkley briefly mentions in the epilogue a new foreign actor in Cambodia, which might have put in jeopardy all what Westerners were striving for: China. Thanks to (or because of) this newcomer, Cambodian elites have found a creditor, whose services do not depend neither on efforts put on an ideological shift towards democratisation nor on a fight against corruption. Regardless of its dubious ethic and unclear intentions, China largely contributed in the modernisation of the Cambodian infrastructures... More than what the UN could do in two decades of presence in Cambodia. This is definitively a slap in the face of the UN and the western NGO, whose efforts and massive spending might have been in vain after all.
Surprisingly enough, Brinkley concludes his book with optimism for the future. Quoting David Chandler, the reference for Cambodian History, living standards are slowly but surely increasing. Cambodia is benefiting from the economic momentum in the region and the steady growth of its neighbours. Tourism ensures incomes, the access to (basic) education improved and most importantly, high-ranking policy makers (especially within the army) are apparently striving for changes as well.
Although it is of course not an academic work, "Cambodia's Curse" provided me with the informations I needed and I appreciated the honesty of Brinkley, who moreover does not take sides with anybody (and seems to equally despise all participants in the Cambodian politics, including the royal family). In spite of the redundancies, I could get acquainted with topics completely new to me such as Hun Sen's personal rule, the PTSD affecting a large part of the population and which seems to have been partly transmitted to the next generation and finally the merciless struggle for power between Hun Sen, Norodom Ranariddh and Sam Rainsy in the mid 1990s, which climax almost plunged the country in a new civil war before the very eyes of helpless UN officials.
Despite the redundancies and the tone that may be unpleasant for some, Brinkley's "Cambodia's Curse" proposes a fair account on contemporary Cambodia that was able to answer some of my questions while increasing my awareness on matters new to me. Thus, "Cambodia's Curse" fairly deserved three stars.
June 16, 2012
Cambodia’s Curse is an account of the country’s recent history and the factors behind it and how they continue to affect the country’s development. It’s also an extremely depressing work, especially for one living here and seeing such behaviors continue. Anyone that wants to have a clear idea of the factors they’ll face when operating here should read it.
That said, the book is not without its problem. The first and perhaps the biggest is the fact that the author, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Joel Brinkley, appears to ascribe to the notion of social or cultural determinism. It’s the theory that one’s social context or cultural upbringing will for the better part determine future events and behaviors. One can’t completely eliminate those factors when ascribing reasons for certain things – such as the amount of graft and corruption Brinkley describes in the book, but you also can’t use it as an excuse. Brinkley does.
Secondly, Brinkley doesn’t delve into the contributing factors as to why time and again nations such as the US, Japan, Germany, etc provide aid well in excess of what Cambodia has requested when those very nations continue to call for reforms but receive nothing in return. That lack of exploration left me dumbfounded, though I have my own theories as to why such aid continues to flow unfettered, and undermines Brinkley’s point that it’s the Cambodian people’s fault, in particular their leaders.
Given that the book, which was published in 2011, covers the last few years including the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the start of the War on Terror and includes brief mentions of the War on Drugs, he never broaches any of those subjects and how they have affected US or other countries’ foreign policies when it comes to Cambodia. The truth is there is quite a large US presence here including the DEA and CIA working with the Cambodian authorities and so the type of aid supplied to Cambodia is more than direct financial assistance – something that is never mentioned.
Time and again he highlights through compounding examples the hole into which Cambodia has dug itself and while there was a brief chance for change in the early 1990s when UNTAC had just entered Cambodia it was squandered. Brinkley is quite adamant about that and cites sources from all sides that back up his opinion, leaving me wondering so why did anything continue then? Whether it’s education, health or even construction there is very little beyond the police, military and tax services that the government of Cambodia actually does. They seem most content to allow NGOs, IOs and other governments perform the services that any other government would be expected to handle, according to Brinkley.
Cambodia’s Curse, can come across as racist unless you see the blame being placed on the prime minister, who has been in power since the mid-1980s and not the people as a whole. Those issues aside it is well written, engaging and ultimately sad. Maybe even polemic, but that’s because Brinkley doesn’t live in Cambodia where such a voice would be crushed either through violence or charges of defamation and incite – two common reactions as Brinkley highlights when it comes to any opposition. Give it a read, and then ask yourself, “what’s my country’s role in this?”
*Note: Copied from my blog at http://worldwritsmall.wordpress.com/
That said, the book is not without its problem. The first and perhaps the biggest is the fact that the author, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Joel Brinkley, appears to ascribe to the notion of social or cultural determinism. It’s the theory that one’s social context or cultural upbringing will for the better part determine future events and behaviors. One can’t completely eliminate those factors when ascribing reasons for certain things – such as the amount of graft and corruption Brinkley describes in the book, but you also can’t use it as an excuse. Brinkley does.
Secondly, Brinkley doesn’t delve into the contributing factors as to why time and again nations such as the US, Japan, Germany, etc provide aid well in excess of what Cambodia has requested when those very nations continue to call for reforms but receive nothing in return. That lack of exploration left me dumbfounded, though I have my own theories as to why such aid continues to flow unfettered, and undermines Brinkley’s point that it’s the Cambodian people’s fault, in particular their leaders.
Given that the book, which was published in 2011, covers the last few years including the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and the start of the War on Terror and includes brief mentions of the War on Drugs, he never broaches any of those subjects and how they have affected US or other countries’ foreign policies when it comes to Cambodia. The truth is there is quite a large US presence here including the DEA and CIA working with the Cambodian authorities and so the type of aid supplied to Cambodia is more than direct financial assistance – something that is never mentioned.
Time and again he highlights through compounding examples the hole into which Cambodia has dug itself and while there was a brief chance for change in the early 1990s when UNTAC had just entered Cambodia it was squandered. Brinkley is quite adamant about that and cites sources from all sides that back up his opinion, leaving me wondering so why did anything continue then? Whether it’s education, health or even construction there is very little beyond the police, military and tax services that the government of Cambodia actually does. They seem most content to allow NGOs, IOs and other governments perform the services that any other government would be expected to handle, according to Brinkley.
Cambodia’s Curse, can come across as racist unless you see the blame being placed on the prime minister, who has been in power since the mid-1980s and not the people as a whole. Those issues aside it is well written, engaging and ultimately sad. Maybe even polemic, but that’s because Brinkley doesn’t live in Cambodia where such a voice would be crushed either through violence or charges of defamation and incite – two common reactions as Brinkley highlights when it comes to any opposition. Give it a read, and then ask yourself, “what’s my country’s role in this?”
*Note: Copied from my blog at http://worldwritsmall.wordpress.com/
June 22, 2013
Joel Brinkley has done a good job in researching and describing the tragedy that recent Cambodian history is. One thing I like in particular is that it's usually quite clear what his sources are and from what perspective he's looking at Cambodia - something that other authors can learn from.
However, I don't recommend reading this book. The reason is that I've never come across an author who gives himself up to preformed opinions as much, who starts with the answer and adjust data as much as Joel Brinkley. I'm not an expert on Cambodia, but I've studied Vietnam for a couple of years and I can tell that almost everything he writes about Vietnam (and unfortunately he does write about Vietnam) is complete nonsense and that also makes me wonder how serious I can take this book on Cambodia. He wrote an article about Vietnam a few months ago which the newspaper soon had to take down because it was so full of prejudice and just didn't meet even basic standards of journalism. For example, he claimed that the Vietnamese have been a war-loving nation for a long time, which he supports with the 13 or so wars it has fought with China. As far as I know, China attacked Vietnam in all of these wars, which hardly makes Vietnam very war-loving.
In this book, too, everything he writes about Vietnam is embarrassing. At one point he writes that Vietnam used to be known as Champa (no, they were two separate countries, with the latter later absorbed into Vietnam); and that the Vietnamese are the ancestors of the Chinese or the other way around (which is nonsense).
Another thing I didn't like is that none of the chapters has a title. When I have a book with over 300 pages I expect to know what each chapter is about, so that I can choose which one to read. In this case it's not even so much a structure problem - some of the chapters are quite focused on particular issues such as corruption, education. I really wonder why the author wouldn't tell readers what each chapter is about.
However, I don't recommend reading this book. The reason is that I've never come across an author who gives himself up to preformed opinions as much, who starts with the answer and adjust data as much as Joel Brinkley. I'm not an expert on Cambodia, but I've studied Vietnam for a couple of years and I can tell that almost everything he writes about Vietnam (and unfortunately he does write about Vietnam) is complete nonsense and that also makes me wonder how serious I can take this book on Cambodia. He wrote an article about Vietnam a few months ago which the newspaper soon had to take down because it was so full of prejudice and just didn't meet even basic standards of journalism. For example, he claimed that the Vietnamese have been a war-loving nation for a long time, which he supports with the 13 or so wars it has fought with China. As far as I know, China attacked Vietnam in all of these wars, which hardly makes Vietnam very war-loving.
In this book, too, everything he writes about Vietnam is embarrassing. At one point he writes that Vietnam used to be known as Champa (no, they were two separate countries, with the latter later absorbed into Vietnam); and that the Vietnamese are the ancestors of the Chinese or the other way around (which is nonsense).
Another thing I didn't like is that none of the chapters has a title. When I have a book with over 300 pages I expect to know what each chapter is about, so that I can choose which one to read. In this case it's not even so much a structure problem - some of the chapters are quite focused on particular issues such as corruption, education. I really wonder why the author wouldn't tell readers what each chapter is about.
April 25, 2015
I found this an interesting read - but it definitely has a very negative bias. The discussion of corruption and politics of Cambodia I found interesting - but I didn't agree with the way that the Cambodian people were portrayed - as passive victims or as corrupt and ruthless villains. Whilst many Cambodians do live in abject poverty - he glosses over those people who aren't passive and who are doing what they can to better both their own lives and those of people around them. I also disagreed with Brinkley's presentation of American diplomats as the only ones trying to the situation in Cambodia (even if only sporadically) and all other foreigners in the country whether diplomats or NGOs are only there trying to protect the cushy lifestyle that they are able to lead there.
This doesn't correspond to what I saw in the country - yes there is corruption, people can be passive - but there are also people who demonstrate for land rights, who act out against child prostitution and violence against women and so on as well as people who work hard, educate their children etc in order to ensure a future.
So the three stars are for what it does say about some of the problems Cambodia faces - but would be much better if it gave a whole picture - rather than presenting everything in black and white with a drastically simplified apportioning of blame onto historical traditions and Buddhist beliefs creating a population who is passive and apathetic combined with the destruction and horror created by the Khmer Rouge years further disabling society all the while absolving external forces of destabilising the region (ie the US with its paranoias about the spread of communism or France through colonisation etc..)
This doesn't correspond to what I saw in the country - yes there is corruption, people can be passive - but there are also people who demonstrate for land rights, who act out against child prostitution and violence against women and so on as well as people who work hard, educate their children etc in order to ensure a future.
So the three stars are for what it does say about some of the problems Cambodia faces - but would be much better if it gave a whole picture - rather than presenting everything in black and white with a drastically simplified apportioning of blame onto historical traditions and Buddhist beliefs creating a population who is passive and apathetic combined with the destruction and horror created by the Khmer Rouge years further disabling society all the while absolving external forces of destabilising the region (ie the US with its paranoias about the spread of communism or France through colonisation etc..)
October 9, 2015
What a briefly depressing journey through Cambodian history! I have no intention to disagree with what Brinkley described Cambodia in this book. However, it'd be more accurate and fair if he had included more of the bright sides of Cambodian society since most of the horrors, Khmer Rouge and civil war are well-known internationally. After the Khmer Rouge, Cambodians expected peace to shine in this pitifully ancient country again, but everything backfired. Moreover, corruption becomes well-known and nationally practice from the top to bottom of the government and public services. Behind the smiles Cambodians provide tourists, suffer and god-knows-how-bad memories secretly lie deep down within those who survived Khmer Rouge and continue to suffer through the following decades.
If I were one of the ruling party members, I'd recommend my colleagues to read this book in order to fix all the negative points of the government management. Some people choose to vote for the opposition party not because it is the best choice; it's because it's the only suitable choice they have left.
If I were one of the ruling party members, I'd recommend my colleagues to read this book in order to fix all the negative points of the government management. Some people choose to vote for the opposition party not because it is the best choice; it's because it's the only suitable choice they have left.
January 31, 2017
This book covers Cambodian history and politics over the past 40 years with a strong focus on the post-Khmer Rouge era. The author points out many of the problems that Cambodian society is dealing with in that period. The strong point and the weak point of this book is that it relies on a lot of quotes from interviews. This is good in that it provides a very personal account of the various issues troubling the country. The downside is that it rambles a bit.
This is a very dark and dour book. The author has a primarily negative view of Cambodian culture and society. He claims that Cambodian society has been subject to bribery since the times of the Angkor culture. Therefore, he holds little hope that Cambodian culture can change and improve. That is until the last five pages of the book where he points out that change may be possible with the new generation of college educated Cambodians. His advice in the end? Wait until the current leader is dead, and then some changes might be possible. Not very inspiring advice.
This is a very dark and dour book. The author has a primarily negative view of Cambodian culture and society. He claims that Cambodian society has been subject to bribery since the times of the Angkor culture. Therefore, he holds little hope that Cambodian culture can change and improve. That is until the last five pages of the book where he points out that change may be possible with the new generation of college educated Cambodians. His advice in the end? Wait until the current leader is dead, and then some changes might be possible. Not very inspiring advice.
July 11, 2017
An interesting read about Cambodia over the period 1979 to 2010. It focuses on the corruption endemic in a lot of the country's institutions - political, administrative, education, land ownership, afforestation... So it tends to be a very negative and sad read. Still I learned lots and found the book a fast read.
July 8, 2015
Although I didn't finish before ebook expired and I arrived in Cambodia, this book gave me a clear impression of Cambodia's recent history and its contribution to current reality. Brinkley is insightful and blunt. His insights gave me a touchstone on which to build understanding of today's Cambodians.FYI, you can buy hardcover in Siem Reap.
November 21, 2016
Finish it on the two weeks of my journey going throughout Cambodia and Vietnam. A friend recommend it after I went to the Killing Fields. And yes my first reaction was also being angry. The blunt honesty that just making Cambodia going into such a hellish circle ride and not coming out. Am still digesting this book.
July 30, 2020
I have to say I totally agree with all the reviews that mention the language used in this book towards Cambodian people. Joel almost appears to be disgusted by Cambodia, and this is at times hard to stomach- very well written and well researched, but some of the damning statements, which I did not agree with.
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