Category - Inform

Fortune-telling in Cambodia

Fortune telling, a practice of predicting future, has been using through various forms for thousands of years; however, it’s still unclear when it was brought to Cambodia.

By reading Cambodian history books or watching movies reflecting society in the past, we can see in a royal palace at least one fortune-teller whom the king could consult with in different situation ranging from naming King’s children to war fighting.

There are a lot of fortune tellers, mostly are older women, in Cambodia that can tell people what will happen to them and what the solution to deal with their problems. Their methods of predicting future are different from one to another. Some of them reading future from a deck of card, reading palms, according to horoscope or date and time of birth, or simply looking at the people’s face and reading their aura.

Most Cambodians living in either countryside or in the city are familiar with the term “fortune telling”. In the present day, people go to meet fortune-teller to discuss important decision such as when they want to marry somebody or to make sure that they marry on the right month and on the right day.

Some people claim that they believe in science but when there is no solution from scientific method, they usually turn to a fortune-teller for suggestion and sometimes they said it worked.

Some fortune-teller said they have ability to foresee the future because they have communication with dead people’s spirits, mostly happen after they were unconscious for a period of time. Now, there are some of them guess or predict for their customers and charge for the service but some still only need donation.

by: Dara Saoyuth
19/01/2011

Nokia X2-01 launching in Cambodia

[slideshow]

It’s Tuesday afternoon that we don’t have class and want to relax after a big quiz at school in the morning, so luckily I was invited to join a party at the Cambodian Country Club (CCC), about 15 minutes away from Phnom Penh.

At 5pm, I arrived the place looking around to see a lot of journalists except me and my other 4 friends who are all bloggers that only use their hands and keyboards to spread out information to the world.

That is the third time I have joined party organized by Nokia company for its new product launching and it is as good as always since each party were made in different places. I felt warmly welcome by everybody especially a music band which play very wonderful songs in both English and Khmer.

The entire event is made to welcome an arrival of Nokia X2-01, a phone that makes mobile messaging simpler, easier and more affordable. It will be available in Cambodian phone shop from tomorrow on and its price is $99.

A presentation by Mr. Mohammed (Md.) Mesbahuddin, Business Development Manager for Nokia Cambodia and Laos, started around 6pm when everybody arrived. I was really impressed with lots of features including 1-click access to email and chat via Nokia Messaging, 1-click access to social networking directly from homescreen, and 1-click access to music provided by this new mobile device.

A happy game to win Nokia X2-01 came after the presentation and followed by a nice buffet dinner. The program went on and on until 3 different kinds of Nokia cellphones were given to one winner in the game and two lucky people from lucky draw. You know what? Two bloggers among the five who join this afternoon party win 1 cellphone each. (Don’t be confused! I didn’t win!)

Music band was still playing, but for me, it was end at 8pm when it’s time I had to leave that place to prepared myself for tomorrow mid-term exam.

by: Dara Saoyuth
04/01/2011

Pine Plantation Area in Mondulkiri

Dear all Student Blog visitors,

As mentioned in previous post, our trip to Mondulkiri 3 weeks earlier is not only a fun but also a study tour. We were assigned to do a project under Eco-tourism theme. My group has done a short video clip on Pine Plantation Area in the province. Let’s see what we have for you! Cheers,

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4Z7RlSgPcM&hl=en&fs=1]

Fund Raising for Poor Children in Takeo

Institute of Foreign Language (IFL) situated in the Royal University Of Phnom Penh campus. IFL organized a charity program today. This fund-raising ceremony started at 8 O’clock in the morning and end at 3 O’clock in the afternoon. The main purpose of this program is to get money for impoverished children in Takeo province.

There are a lot of fun activities and various ways to get money from participants. I can see lots of sellers which mostly are IFL students selling different types of goods counting from eatable things to readable staffs. I also bought a story book as I want to be part of the program.

There are some photos my friends and I took this morning. Let’s see it together! Cheers,[slideshow]

By: Dara Saoyuth
25/12/2010

Should authorities be blamed on Koh Pich Issue?

[soundcloud width=”100{0a5c1eeb84ccc7c2d601964b33dd4fc73dc6a68f91616e3e53041e90b1033ab3}” height=”81″ params=”show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700″ url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/8309634″] Should authorities be blamed on Koh Pich Issue by saoyuth

My radio production course assigned me to do a commentary with my friend under a topic “Should authorities be blamed on Koh Pich Issue?”.  My friend is on an opposing site that he think that the authorities should be blamed while I am on a supporting side that I have to stat that authorities should not be blamed.

We’ve just finished it as a radio course assignment and we’d like to share this piece with all of you. Cheers,

Blessing for the deceased

Relatives blessing for the deceased / by: Dara Saoyuth

Cue/Introduction: Diamond bridge stampede claimed some 350 people’s lives and injured hundreds last month, on the last day of water festival. Critics and a number of people have been complaining about the tragic incident. They put blame on the authorities for the reason that they have not managed the event well. However, some people have the ideas that no one should be blamed for the incident.

Our program is going to have commentary on the topic “Should the government be blamed for the incident?” Our commentators Sun Narin and Dara Saoyuth will express their point of view on the issue.

Sun Narin (Opposing site): I could not imagine how such incident happen on that day? People got jammed on the bridge and could not get out. Cambodia’s prime minister Hun Sen said that “Nobody will be punished for the incident.”

However, Sam Rainsy opposition party Son Chhay pushed the ruling government to identify the people responsible for “organizing the festival and handling the crowd” and wanted them to be fired from the position. This includes Phnom Penh governor, head of the police and interior ministry.

In my opinion, the government at least should take actions with those officials because they are irresponsible for their duty.

Phnom Penh municipality, relevant ministry and police did not perform their work responsibly and carefully. Why didn’t police facilitate the people’s crossing the bridge? There is not a lot of police force deploying at the incident place at that time.

Moreover, the bridge is for the exit only, why people were allowed to get in and out?  This is the reason causing the mass deaths. Why didn’t police deal with that problem?

Police could not help the victims urgently when the incident happened, keeping people stuck in the crowdedness more than 2 hours. This caused more people dead because of the suffocation in the stampede.

Finally, the organizing people don’t plan the ceremony well. They are not well-prepared to be ready for the unplanned incident. Comparing to other countries, when there is the some special event like that the government must guarantee that the safety for people. They are very careless about this.

I think this is the mass unprecedented deaths, so all these officials should be taken off from the position as the example for the other people.

Dara Saoyuth (Supporting site): Even though most Cambodians can think only who should be blamed when talking about tragedy on Koh Pich, to me, it is an opportunity to learn rather than focus on blame finding.

During the water festival, truck or big cars were not allowed to enter the city and even tuktuk couldn’t drive along riverside to avoid traffic jam and accident. I dared to say that Phnom Penh authorities were well-planned for the festival.

This year, people moved into the city more than the authority expectation, that in the evening of 22 November 2010, the accident happened. There are many reasons causing stampede including the lack of people morality that they push each other back and forth? Why should only authorities be blamed?

As we can see, immediately after the accident, the authorities were trying to help the victims in many ways.

The government ordered the Ministry of Health to pay much attention to the victims and also some officers to send dead people to their provinces with free of charge. The Phnom Penh Capital Hall also started reporting on the tragedy instantly and kept updating with new announcement related to the incident.

No one wants this to happen and also nothing can be changed. Now we should better find the solution instead of blaming.

One facebooker, Samsokrith Chhaly, urges the public to think of those who died during the Water Festival as heroes because they gave us priceless lesson for next year’s preparation. When development sides establish in Cambodia next time, I’m sure that they will think first about an effective risk management system.

Conclusion by Dara Saoyuth:

After listening to both supporting and opposing sides, do you still think that government should be blamed for the tragedy? If yes, what can you get from that? I know that it is Cambodian habit to accuse each other when something bad happen, but I suggest you to be more positive by considering it as a lesson. Again, no one should be blamed. Critics should take the effective risk management system for considering rather than putting blame.

By: Dara Saoyuth & Sun Narin
22/12/2010

Study Tour to Mondulkiri

I joined a 3-day trip last week to the northeast part of Cambodia to visit Mondulkiri province. Around  90 students, teachers, and DMC staffs also participated in this study tour. They took with them plenty of digital cameras, video cameras, sound recorders and some other equipment for finishing their project along the way so as a result I have to drop some of my unused files reserving for thousands of photos as well as other media files.

Have you ever been there? If not, I’d like to bring you along with some of my selected photos from my personal cameras. Cheers,

[slideshow] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5QFg0ZhOsU&fs=1&hl=en_US]

Dara Saoyuth
16/12/2010
Trip to Mondulkiri: Fri-Sun/10-12/2010
Related Story
What’s New about Guest House in Mondulkiri (http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/LIFT/)

សេចក្តីជូនដំណឹងបន្ទាន់

ខ្ញុំ​ទើប​តែ​ទទួល​បាន​សេចក្តី​ជូន​ដំណឹង​មួយ​ច្បាប់​ចេញ​ដោ​យ​អភិបាល​ខណ្ឌ​ទួលគោក ដែល​ជូន​ដំណឹង​ដល់​ប្រជា​ពល​រដ្ឋ​រស់​នៅ​ក្នុង​ខណ្ឌ​ទួល​គោក​ទាំង​អស់ ​ឱ្យ​ប្រយ័ត​ប្រយែង​ជា​មួយ​នឹង​ជន​ល្មើស​​មួយ​ក្រុម​​ដែល​កំពុង​ឆក់​ឱកាស​ធ្វើ​សកម្មភា​ព​ប្លន់​ប្រជា​ពល​រដ្ឋ​។​ ចំពោះ​ពត៌​មាន​បន្ថែម​សូម​អាន​សេចក្តី​ប្រកាស​ពត៌មាន​ទាំង​ស្រុង​នៅ​ខា​​ងក្រោម​៖

សេចក្តីប្រកាសពត៌មាន

សេចក្តីប្រកាសពត៌មានបន្ទាន់

Dara Saoyuth
14/12/2010

Easy way to get free subscription from the Phnom Penh Post

This is a 3 month subscription to the Phnom Penh Post Khmer language edition and “EVERYONE” has the possibility of winning.

The Phnom Penh Post

The Phnom Penh Post English Edition / Image via Wikipedia

  1. The first thing you must have is your account in Angkorone website. Don’t worry! You can register it for free.
  2. LIFT offers every week discussions. Go to the discussions address (angkorone.com/lift) and then share your comments in any topic you interested in.
  3. LIFT/The Phnom Penh Post staffs will judge who should become our member of the week and the result will be release in the next issue of LIFT published every Wednesday.
  4. When you see your name in LIFT magazine, email: lift@phnompenhpost to start getting the best news in Khmer language for free.

“We’ll see you at angkorone.com/lift”

Dara Saoyuth
14/12/2010

KON appears on WEEKEND issue of The Cambodia Daily

An article about the magazine, KON: The Cinema of Cambodia, appears on WEEKEND issue of the Cambodia Daily newspaper issue 665 published on December 11-12, 2010. Though it’s months after the magazine launching, still, I feel happy to see more and more people start to write about it.

Let’s check the original article below:

KON on The Cambodia Daily Newspaper

KON on The Cambodia Daily Newspaper

KON on The Cambodia Daily Newspaper

KON on The Cambodia Daily Newspaper

Dara Saoyuth
13/12/2010

Chance for all Cambodian women

I’ve just received an e-mail which later found it’s very useful and interesting, especially for Cambodian women.

Let’s find out about the Indradevi Award!

Please feel free to pass it on.

For more information, CLICK HERE to go to its official website!

Indradevi Hope Award_English

Indradevi Hope Award_English

Indradevi Hope Award_Khmer
Indradevi Hope Award_Khmer
Dara Saoyuth
08/12/2010