Cambodia hosts USA vs China
on Phnom Penh Pal (Cambodia), 21/Jan/2013 12:13, 34 days ago
We live in a flat above a family who live in the two ground floor apartments. Gran and Grandpa (the owners), live in one, and their daughter and her husband live in the other. We generally have small conversations, only ever in the courtyard, discussing whether we are going out to eat or what food we have bought to cook; how hot it is or whether it will rain; and lately, when our parents are coming to visit or have they left yet. All stuff we can manage and then there is a realisation that the conversation can go no further, we say thank you, smile, bob our heads and scurry away.But one day, who would have believed it, change happened.Of the six flats you can see, ours is bottom left - kind of above my Dad's head.This year, Cambodia is the chair of ASEAN (kind of like Asia's EU or Africa Union) meaning that Cambodia had a much larger role in regional affairs, and played host to lots of conferences and motorcades. And it was as Obama's plane arrived into Phnom Penh that Gran, going straight past the usual conversations, invited Claire into her home to watch Obama step onto the tarmac and into a motorcade that would snake through Phnom Penh.The arrival of Obama had been talked about for weeks before. People began preparing protests to appeal for his help with land and human rights issues, or to release prisoners believed to be innocent. The media began speculating about who he would meet while in Cambodia and what he would say. The US Presidential election even became news.In an interesting aside, my boss wanted Obama to win the election because he felt wars would be more likely if Romney won. But for the other 50 weeks of the year, it is not Obama or America that dominates, but China. In 2011, Chinese investment totalled $1.9bn, ten times that of the US. In 2012, China has given $500m in soft loans and grants to Cambodia, plus a $24m gift that Cambodia can use as it wants. Behind these numbers are the Chinese people and businesses playing a larger role in every day life, such as building a major new bridge that will replace one built by the Japanese.The 2012 investments came at the same time as China was showing "appreciation", in the words of the Cambodian Secretary of State for Finance, for how Cambodia kept the issue of sovereignty over some islands in the South China Sea off the ASEAN agenda. This dispute involves Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia (all ASEAN members) and China (not a member but attends meetings).Obama, Hun Sen (PM of Cambodia), Wen Jiabao (Premier of China)So it was considering all of these things that I asked my boss, Rithy, whether more Cambodians have heard of Barack Obama or Wen Jiabao or Hu Jintao. He had no doubt that it was Obama. And whilst Wen Jiabao and Hu Jintao have come and gone with motorcades, flags and fanfare, Gran had never invited us to watch these on TV. In fact, I'm not sure they were even on TV.I bet if you asked the Cambodian youth, especially in Phnom Penh, if they want to live a life like people in China or America do, they would choose America. Whilst China has cash, America has allure.GordonPS, just referring back to paragraph one, if you are ever in Cambodia and somebody asks you whether you will fry your eggs, just say yes rather than trying to explain scrambled eggs in Khmer.