Many NGOs Contribute to Cycle of Corruption: Filmmaker

Cambodia is facing a cycle of continued aid dependency and corruption, an American filmmaker says. Tim Sorel, who produced the short documentary, "The Trap of Saving Cambodia," told VOA Khmer that local and international NGOs are complicit in the nation's corruption because they allow it or abet it. However, some NGOs are starting to stand up to it and refusing to pay bribes or tolerate other forms of corruption, he said. (Men Kimseng with TV interview in Washington studio.)

Families harm own children to beg

Meas Oun (centre), 45, sits with two of her four children (front) in Poipet town on Friday. Meas Oun and her children earn a living by begging in Thailand. Photograph: Pha Lina/Phnom Penh Post

Sen David and Cassandra Yeap
Tuesday, 15 May 2012

Dice roll and cards are dealt every day in the seven casinos along the Poipet-Thai border, but just five kilometres away in the ramshackle village of Kbal Spean, gamblers of a different sort are playing for much higher stakes: betting their and their children’s lives as they struggle to eke out a meagre living as beggars in Thailand. 

The more than 100 families waiting there to cross the border hail from all over the country, says villager Mean Veasna, 36, rattling off Kampong Thom, Kandal, Kampot and Kratie provinces as some of the more common origin points. 

Most of his neighbours came to work as beggars across the border, he says. 

But while the stakes are high, the payoff is low – about 50 baht (US$1.60) per day. 

Crossing over illegally, the would-be beggars risk arrest and detainment by the Thai authorities. 

And even if they make it safely across, they still have to walk hundreds of kilometres to the urban centres of Pattaya and Bangkok. 

Sometimes, parents make seemingly unfathomable decisions to ensure their children’s ability to earn. 

“There are many cases of children’s legs being broken,” says Mean Veasna. “They [parents] bring small children to be beggars and they inject their legs with medicine, before breaking them. 

“This makes them [children] more pitiful, so they can beg a lot,” he adds. 

Nita, 6, is asked to stand up and walk to demonstrate the point. Her right leg is crooked, and she hobbles lopsidedly for a short distance before sitting back down. 

Girl begging at Angkor Wat

The main causeway of Angkor Wat, once highway of national glory and symbol of Khmer dignity has now been exploited as the nation's multi-million dollars cash cow. Yet, ironically the poorest are drawn to it for nothing more than crumbs in pocket change from tourists needed for daily survival as the known commercial “side effects” or benefits of a mass tourism continue to evade them - School of Vice.

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