No more 50 shades of grey; kill the Lexus
on Phnom Penh Pal (Cambodia), 29/Apr/2013 09:32, 34 days ago
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Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-USJAX-NONE/* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;}I want to take a key and score the whole side of a Lexus. And not just one; I want to scratch all of them. This is what Cambodia has done to me.You don't want to be shy about it do you?Usually, I have an ability to see shades of grey in everything; something I inwardly dislike about myself sometimes. Rather than this being a result of deep consideration, I fear it is a coward's way of avoiding saying what I believe. There are friends who seem to know what is right or wrong - they can see the black and white clearly despite the shades of grey. I'm sometimes jealous of them for this although I know that it can mean that you are quick to judge or unable to ever change your mind.In Cambodia, I have found myself losing the grey and seeing the black. Black Lexus cars.I don't want to be racist - I want to do the same to white Lexus (plural - Lexi?) too.One of the first things I noticed in Cambodia was that there were three types of vehicles that people owned: bicycles, motos and huge 4x4 cars. There were very few small or medium sized cars. If you had enough money for a car, then you had enough money for a massively expensive one.These cars symbolise the grabbing of a country's wealth by a small minority of people. All of the gem stones have been mined, the forests cleared and the land sold and the most visible sign of benefit from all of this are the huge 4x4 cars owned by a few. I see a Lexus and I am repulsed.Before Toyota Lexus sue me, I feel the same about Range Rovers which are becoming the new desire as Lexi (plural Lexus...) are too ubiquitous now. In the UK, I did not care if a person had a huge, expensive car. I was not impressed, neither was I repulsed. But in Cambodia, I find that I am. This could be a little righteous indignation (I'm here to help your country folk and you're wasting money on a flash car), but I think it comes from knowing that some people's wealth has come at the cost of others.I'm not talking about an unequal spreading of wealth, but people getting rich because others have lost their land, their farm or their forest where they collect food. The fact that they can't even drive the damn things seems to make it even worse! But, unsurprisingly, I have found some grey that means I can avoid taking my key to the sides of Lexus.I would much rather do what this kid is doing - just with better aimIf your whole family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins etc numbered 20 in 1975 and only 2 in 1979, what would you do to protect your family? You would feel that you have a debt to your ancestors and a responsibility to those who are left to keep the family safe. You could quite easily feel that you would do everything you could to make sure that you had enough wealth and power to protect your family or send them away if civil war erupted again. And I guess that means having a Lexus.Gordon