Throughout our trip, we haven't only been meeting with NGO's, we have also visited with some social entrepreneurs such as Small World, NRG Solutions, Agile Development and more. As a result, we have also been talking about the differences between the two.
Basically, the biggest difference I see, is that social enterprises don't rely on donations and grants to get the money they need for their projects; they have a structured program that will get them a steady income. This might be better because money wouldn't be as big of a focus for the group and instead, they could be focusing their time and energy towards whatever cause the organisation is working towards; money wouldn't be as much of a question mark or inconsistent aspect. Consequently, enterprises are more of a business, so they can also develop other businesses through what they're doing. Like Small World empowers other people to start their own companies, NRG Solutions encourages micro financing and more. Generally, the entrepreneurs for world development issues like the ones we met with will also make the slightest bit of an income as well so that he/she has a bit of money to live on.
On the other hand, an NGOs' biggest challenge is generally getting the funding for their projects. They will always be writing grants or looking for ways to increase donations and money, as a result, is more problematic. An organisation might, one month, be doing very well and have a great sum of money for tackling their issue but then, the next month, won't have had any donations and would be struggling to continue the programs they had started the month before. For big organisations, this isn't as big of a problem, but for grassroots that are just starting off, it is extremely common. Also, unlike most enterprises, people who work for NGO's are strictly volunteers: they don't make any personal money for what they do.
Personally, based off what I've heard through the last couple of days, I think that social enterprises might be better because they are more sustainable and I find that sustainability is one of the most important factors when working on service projects like these. An NGO might not last and get to the change they want to bring due to their financial issues. It is common for groups to start off as NGO's because they believe that that way they will really only be helping others and not make their own money because that's not what helping others is about, then they'll start to face these challenges with funding and will then change to social enterprises. Generally if an organisation is serious about the work that they are doing and that it's based off world development, when they become businesses they really limit their personal income to the essentials.
Neither option is bad, it's just a matter of how you want your program to run; whether you are prepared to tackle the financial challenge or you won't be able to and need to alter the system to ensure that your organisation will still succeed.
LM
Yes, by the end of June I had accepted Cambodian culture and life which means that I had also adapted to it first. What caused me to reach this level of tolerance was the ability to empathise and understand what it is like to be Cambodian. This came from the acknowledgement of their history through visiting the Tuol Sleng/ S-21 Prison and the killing fields and through the different presentations we got about the Khmer Rouge. I saw the horror that is their past and because of that I am able to, at least to a certain extent, recognise the hardships that previous generations faced. Surprisingly, this is what caused me to accept this group of people and let me continue to the next steps.
After tolerance, comes letting them teach us new things. This has already started: I have learned a variety of different things from the aforementioned historical sites, from our local Cambodian staff, from the current political campaign, from all the different NGO's and social enterprises we have visited and more. It's day 4 and I've already learned so much, I can't even begin to imagine all the new knowledge I will have acquired by the end of the trip.
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After a quick conversation with Tas while watching a documentary on Hurricane Sandy (while we were getting ready for bed), many relevant thoughts and a problem that I have with our society surfaced... since it connects to Cambodia, I figure why not share it.
Americans, for the most part, have portrayed 9/11 to be the worst thing to have ever happened in the world, or at least they make it seem that way. I'm not saying that what happened isn't bad, but terrorist attacks happen constantly all around the world. If someone just mentions those two numbers together, then everyone knows what you're talking about. But, if, on the other hand, you say Khmer Rouge, at least half of the people won't know what that is. Who determines which event deserves to be better known?
If you look at what happened in Cambodia next to 9/11, so many more people were not only killed but also tortured (2,753 people were killed during the New York attack while 2,400,000 were murdered by communists in the Khmer Rouge). The main difference I found was that Cambodia just didn't have the means to publicise it to the extent that the United States did; it wasn't all over the news. So, just because the US is a more developed country than Cambodia, it's as if they deserve more awareness on things that happened to their country, but that's not true; it's twisted and it's wrong.
This means that just because the media through which society receive their news is, mostly, American-based we are led to the assumption that 9/11, the 'Dark Knight' massacre, the Boston marathon explosion and more are the worst things happening in the world, when, in reality, there is so much worse. For example, here, in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy hit the States everyone, everywhere, knew about it and were, for lack of a better word, freaking out about it. But, 71 people died. Only. I'm not saying that that's not horrible or that the number of deaths is the way to measure the severity of an event but, come on, SO many tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes and every other natural disaster you can think of have hit India, Bangladesh, the Philippines and many other countries in Southeast Asia, without the majority of the world (that has access to sources of news) knowing about it.
I find this horrible because, as a result, events like these that occurred in the West will receive a lot of aid (pity, donations, volunteering and more) while those elsewhere don't, when, arguably, they need it more. I know that this is a touchy subject and I don't want to be misunderstood, but I'm just saying that as a result of our source of information we are more exposed to Western issues and are sheltered from those of the rest of the world, which leads us to assume that the events that have happened in North America are the worst out there, when, they're not.
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There are a lot of different kinds of NGO’s in Cambodia, a lot more than I was expecting actually. And I’m not saying that what they’re doing isn’t amazing, but at the same time, how can we know the truth about what really happens? How do we know what they do with the money they receive or whether they are really doing what they say they are doing? This could apply to any organisation really, not only in Cambodia, but I was thinking about it lately. It’s part of human nature to assume the best in people and we will always want to believe that there ARE non-profit organizations helping others from the good of their heart. But how do we know for sure? Did you just donate $50 to what you think will go to education for homeless children, but will really go to buying a nice computer… how are we supposed to know?
What triggered all of these thoughts was when today, at the Riverkids Foundation, the founder was telling us about financials and how tight it is funding wise for the organisation and was emphasising that the program is non-profit and that even he, himself, didn’t make an income because he worked as a volunteer and so on. Just as he was saying these words, what sounds like the standard iPhone ringtone goes off. Believing what he just said was the truth, I assumed the best, and thought, ‘hey he got the Apple ringtone to work on his phone, that’s cool’. I didn’t even want to consider or imagine that it was what it seemed to be, until he pulled the brand new white iPhone out of his pocket, muted it and shoved it back in. Now, I’m not saying that the foundation is lying or that the work they say they do is invalid, it just got me thinking about these things, and I found it all very ironic.
So, maybe there are benefits to being skeptical, maybe it can stop you from throwing money at illegitimate projects. Or maybe, on the contrary, it just leads to unnecessary paranoia. Who knows? Just those 5 seconds, that one simple action got me to doubting the validity of the organization and I found that interesting.
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After a day and a bit here, I’m starting to notice a common trait among Cambodians: gratitude. On the first day when all the people kept playing their sports in the pouring rain because they were grateful that they had the opportunity to play. When we were talking about politics and our local staff mentioned how grateful they are, to this day, that the CPP brought an end to the Khmer Rouge. When we were visiting the NGO Tiny Toones and all the kids kept breakdancing in the rain because they were grateful that they knew how. I find Cambodia to have such an appreciative and hopeful young population. Even our local staff was telling us about their dreams of Cambodia growing and developing into a better country. And frankly, this happiness, hope and gratitude is contagious. It makes me wonder, if they have the ability to be happy when their means and conditions are so much worse than ours, then what’s stopping us from being the happiest people ever? Greediness perhaps? Ungraciousness? The lack of understanding of the privilege we have to have what we have?
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As horrible as learning all this was (not that that even compares to the horrid that was living through it), what not only shocked me, but genuinely bothered me is the fact that 2 hours before the tour of the prison, I had never heard about any of this. I had heard the words “the Khmer Rouge”, but I didn’t know what it was and I had no idea that any of this had happened. And this struck me since this entire history of events and Pol Pot and everything else was such a huge, extreme point in history and very few things can compare to it. I’m beating myself up for not knowing about it, but how could I have? I’ve never talked about this in history class, I never heard anything about it on the news or any other source of media and that disturbs me beyond belief. How do I have the right to get mad at someone for not knowing basic parts of history, such as what the Holocaust was, when I didn’t know about this? It makes me wonder how blocked off our society is and what else there is that is this big, or even bigger, that I don’t know about. But then again, do I have the right to blame society for not being aware of this? Or can I only blame my own ignorance?
The only thing, at the moment, that bothers me more than the fact that I was unaware about any of this, is that if you were to say 9/11 to practically anyone in any developed society around the world, they will know exactly what you’re talking about, but if you were to say Khmer Rouge Regime, probably half of them won’t know what that is. I find that despicable especially since the two are nowhere near to being on the same level; the latter is worse by a landslide.
The tour guide said something that I found interesting, she said that, of those who were alive during the time of the Khmer Rouge Regime, everyone was either tortured and killed through this reign or was related to someone who was. On the actual historical aspect, the thing that I found most shocking was that there was no foreign aid from any country; no one tried to support Cambodia or help get them out of this. And I know that it was tough to know exactly what was happening at the time, but still… it makes me wonder if anything has changed…. If something like this were to happen today, would it be different? Would foreign support be able to bring it to an end?
Also, of course, I find it completely unfair how Pol Pot was never put on trial and so conveniently died, almost as if he got away with it, which is disgusting to think about. I’m trying to understand the level of paranoia he must have had, for killing even his own men and accusing them of being in the CIA or the KGB. Finally, the story of the seven survivors is beyond amazing and the fact that we got to meet two of them is really cool. As for the actual prison, I don’t know what to say… for the actual current museum that is there, I like the fact that they kept one of the buildings in its original state, in some ways I saw it as the uncensored version of what happened in the prison.
I need time to think through everything I learned today because that’s a lot to take in in a 1-hour tour…
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The political elections just started when we got here and I can’t help but notice how different it is to, well, how the most of the rest of the world does things. Rather than the opposing parties giving speeches and stating their position on different topics, the actual people running are practically never seen. Instead, both parties pay people (generally college students looking to make a little extra money) to be supporters and hold pep rallies of some sorts around the city. Other than that, there is also the sort of, let’s say, brainwashing propaganda music that becomes the background music of life in Cambodia during this time. The parties get big cars with loudspeakers to blast the same 3 songs about the elections from dawn to dusk every day, no exceptions. Seems to me more like they’re trying to inject the idea of voting for them into the population’s minds through their subconscious, rather than actually persuading them to vote for them based on the parties’ beliefs. I would say that, at the least, that’s rather interesting.
After talking to a few local people, I’m getting the impression that they think the Cambodian’s People Party will win again. The older generation will, generally, continue to vote for them because they are the party that released them from their horrible history that was the Khmer Rouge Regime. Understandable. But, for the most part, the younger generation wants a change and movement towards a more democratic system. Regardless of their want for change though, the CPP will still probably win, according to them. It is just tough to change Cambodia’s political system when it has had such a ruthless history.
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Your first day in a new country, there will always be that list of things that struck you as different or even odd. For me, that half hour drive from the Phnom Penh airport to the hotel where we would be staying was the time where my eyes were wide open and soaking up this new environment; it’s where I started my list for this trip.
So, the things that made an impression on me or left me shocked are as follow:
1.The lack of traffic control. And by the lack of I mean none whatsoever. If there were even traffic lights, no one listened to them… along with the lanes on the road, the direction you were supposed to be driving, the speed limit (if their was one)… everything. Sitting in our van driving forward there would be people driving all sorts of directions on every part of the street. It’s all just one big clump of whose-the-most-aggressive-and-will-fight-to-get-to-where-they-want-to-go-first.
2. Along with the skewed traffic, the amount of motorcycles shocked me. There were, by far, more motorbikes than cars… which might also be why the traffic rules are so nonexistent.
3. Like I said in my last blog entry, the pork and alcohol availability shocked me. But that’s not just Cambodia; whenever I leave our corner of the world it takes me a while to get used to. [By the end of the trip, when we went to restaurants, I was ordering every meal with a side order of bacon].
4. Oh the wonderful rain. Though our group member who lived in London wasn’t too fond of it, Tas and I took advantage of every second of it. It rained more in the two weeks that we were there than it has in the UAE for the last one… maybe two years.
5. Along with the rain, the clouds were definitely different than what we are used to. I had never really thought about it, but after seeing the big white fluffy clouds there I realized that the UAE is more or less cloudless. And if there are clouds, it’s nothing like the ones there.
6. And finally, when visiting Olympic Stadium and just, in general, I was pleasantly surprised by the locals’ motivation to keep exercising and doing sports despite the conditions they were doing it in. The soccer fields we saw had no grass, the basketball court was one wooden hoop with a cement floor and so on. That didn’t stop them though. And even when it started to pour and they were drenched in 2 seconds, they didn’t mind; everyone still continued playing. And I think that action in itself reflects what I noticed in a lot of Cambodians throughout the trip: they are grateful, hopeful and they don’t let the little things get in their way.
This list of things, among with others, were the initial factors I had to get used to in order to adapt to the country and eventually accept its ways.
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...What a great way to start our trip...
After our flight is delayed 1 hour leaving Abu Dhabi, we arrive in Bangkok just as our transit flight to Phnom Penh is leaving, so, we miss our flight. After running around through the airport, trying to understand the Thai accent, getting new tickets, getting frustrated at very aggressive, short-tempered airport staff, finding a way to contact Rustic Pathways staff and more, we finally get a chance to chill out before our new connecting flight.
Walking through the airport, we can already notice the culture shock; yes we were prepared for it and we knew what to expect, but still. Rustic Pathways set us up to believe that the dress would be very conservative and it would be something we won't be used to. And yes we aren't used to it, but that's because it's LESS conservative than the UAE. But again, we understand how different people from the States would view this way of dress and for them, it would probably also be a change. Other than that, we were also in awe when walking up to Burger King to see "Bacon Burger", "Ham Breakfast Burger", "Pork Patty"... pork?! Almost as if we forgot it existed... The availability of alcohol and pork is not something that we see often in the UAE...or at all for that matter, so maybe, for Tas and I, that will take a little more getting used to than the way of dress.
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When arriving in Cambodia, before we can really focus enough to bring sustainable change, we will first have to adapt: to the food, culture, language, societal conventions and the overall way of life. But that’s not enough. There is a difference between adapting to a new country and accepting or tolerating its ways. We won’t be doing any good if we don’t accept Cambodian customs because we will not be able to do anything that can really aid their society. We have to be able to overcome the culture shock to the extent where we will allow for them to teach us, and that will only come through tolerance. This might take a day, a couple days… or for some, without realizing it, will never come- they will stop at only adaptation.
I imagine that it would probably be easier for Tas and I to take that step beyond adaptation than it might be for some others on the trip since we are constantly exposed to cultural differences. We have both been to Thailand, have learned first hand about Asian culture, are more used to the conservative ways of the country and hopefully, we will be able to reach tolerance in very little time. Acceptance with it will bring knowledge and that is very important for this trip.
LM
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