31 August 2005

The Vienamese cone hat-English translation


Cambodia: The cone hat (“moork doorn” in Khmer) ruins the picture perfect of morning rowing to school.



In Cambodia it's great when I see people are wearing baseball caps or other western safari hats. I thought it's cute and stylish.

But, it really bothers me when I see people in my country are wearing “moork doorn” or cone hats. I am trying to assimilate my thought and don’t want to appear as a bias person. But I have my reason. For the quest of Ho Chi Min’s ideology that Vietnam-Cambodia-Laos is to become the Indochina federation really scares me. I don't want to be part of Vietname. I want my own country, my own house, my own culture, my own relegion. That’s why every time I see “moork doorn” I really dislike them.

13 comments:

seserak said...

I am with you Thom.

According to an American scholar on Southeast Asia, Donald J. Steinberg, an estimated 291,596 Vietnamese, constituting more than 7 percent at the total population, resided in Cambodia in 1950.(http://countrystudies.us/cambodia/46.htm)

The number keeps increasing, especially after 1979.I heard at present day as many as one million Viets are illegally residing in Cambobodia(Although there's no exact data).

They've almost made up ten percent of the whole Cambodian population.

Not any small number, to say the least.

p+k said...

It bothers me too but when we say this it's like we discriminate. I just don't want us to sound that bad u know. I know, We just wanna live free of annoying and worrying. We're worried that someday we don't have a place called HOME. That would be so sad for Cambodian.

Blog By Khmer said...

Seserak,
Thanks to the link Country Studies. That's a great website to learn about our contry. Back then in 1950 (accodring to the lik you gave), "They were concentrated in Phnom Penh, end in Kandal, Prey Veng, and Kampong Cham provinces" . Not true any more. Now Vietnamese settle all over the country. Even in the western provinces at Banteay Meanchey, Koh Kong, Battambang. Yea, I agree with you but I would add their numbers inside cambodia AT LEAST 1 million. Perhaps 2 million. If the number is keep on increasing, very soon us Khmers will become minorities in our very own land.


P+K,
True, we don't want to sound bad. Yea, we just want our place that called HOME. We want our land so we can plow. Surely, we are weak. That's doesn't mean the more powerful could come to take our land and home.

Thanks both of you for your reply.

thom

Anonymous said...

What have you done for that?!!!

Anonymous said...

Nice web site.

http://khmerkromrecipes.com/announce/newyear2005.html

Anonymous said...

http://khmerkromrecipes.com/announce/newyear2005.html

Anonymous said...

Hi,

http://www.jendhamuni.com/#

Anonymous said...

A film Documentary Aekasa Khmer.
You need Real Player 10 and a fast speed internet to watch.
True stroy.

http://devaraja.free.fr/khcrucial-event/sihanouk-crime/sihanouk-crimekh.rm


Thank you!

Anonymous said...

i can understand your desire to be safe in your homeland, but how do you even know that women in the photograph is vietnamese? i've seen many khmer people where that hat too. if she is from vietnam, so what?

should we kill her? kill all the vietnamese? arrest her and send her back to vietnam? what if she was born in cambodia? what if her grandparents were born in cambodia?

whoever is wearing that hat, she's just trying to make a living. she has done nothing to you. you have no reason to hate her.

Anonymous said...

no race is pure. that is the idea of pol pot and hitler.

Blog By Khmer said...

Hi DAS,
Thanks for your understanding of my property's right. That is the right to my very own home. I have a home I wouldn't want a poor homeless man to come lingering around or putting up a tent in my backyard at all. I would call the police to send him back to wherever he belongs.

In this case, yes, we would never know if the woman in the picture is Cambodian or Vietnamese. If she is Vietnamese and came to Cambodia illegally, we should send her back. You may say "oh, she's a poor and widow who try to make a living". You portraying her as victim in your argument. But, she has no reason to come to Cambodia. Vietnam is twice richer than Cambodia. Therefore, Vietnam standard of living is much higher than Cambodia. According to World Bank statical data here , Vietnam GNI (Gross National Income) per capita is US$540, while the poorer Cambodia is US$350 per capita.

History did tell that Vietnam is truly an expansionist state. Completely destroyed Kingdom of Champa into oblivion. They settled southward took over all of the coastline and islands and Khmer Krom. Now there's no where else to go except westward, Cambodia.

Vietnam is rich. It has no reason to encourage it population comming to settle in Cambodia unless it has an agenda to annex Cambodia as it own province.

Thom

Anonymous said...

Khmer wearing that hat is ignorant. They don't know thier own history or potitics. or can read or write their own language. It shows many illegal yuons in an evidence. if it in the u.s.a , united state law will deport them all. Smart people will do. Legaly is ok by me.

Anonymous said...

This truly saddens me because it shows how one sided Khmers can be. Were we not expansionist ourselves? Do our fellow citizens not cross into the borders of foreign countries? Of course, I'm not defending illegal immigrants, but somehow it has become fashionable for Khmer youth to scapegoat the Vietnamese as the pest, as Hitler has with the Jews, and Americans with Mexicans. It also shows how ignorant we are, the percentage of Khmers in Cambodia was lower twenty years ago than today. It seems like we want to blame them for our woes more than anyone else, because they are different from us, they unlike our Thai neighbors, have nothing in common with us.