Mind and Body

Cleanliness, Says the old proverb " is next to godliness". This saying simply emphasises the great importance of cleanliness. But in practice it has some times been interpreted in a different way, and made to mean that godliness can dispense with cleanliness. In the Middle Ages in Europe, and insome places and classes in India. Godliness was associated with dirt. The old ascetic monk, and the Indian Yogi, was considered to be all the more holy for being filthy. But true godliness surely means cleanliness of soul and body; and the old proverb should read " Cleanliness is a part of godliness ".

Cleanliness of body is necessary for physical health. Dirt and disease go together. Disease germs breed and thrive and multiply in dirty; and the epidemic diseases which sweep over a country and carry off thousands, are the results of the dirty habits and surroundings of the people. No one can keep healthy who does not keep clean. Not only the regular washing of hands and face but the frequent and thorough bathing of the whole body, and the wearing of clean clothes, are conditions good health. Cleanliness of body is also necessary for self - respect. No one can expect to mix with decent society if he is not clean and neat. It is an insult to respectable people to meet them with dirty face and hands, and soiled and evil smelling clothes. A gentlement would feel ashamed if he could not keep himself scrupulously clean.

But even more important than cleanliness of body is cleanliness of mind. To call a mind "clean", or " dirty " is to use metaphorical language. Just as light is the symbol of truth and goodness, and darkness of ignorance and evil, so dirt is the symbol of moral evil and cleanliness of moral purity. Sin is dirt; and in all religions the sinner prays to God for cleansing. " Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow", cries the Psalmist; and " Cleanse thou me from secret fault ". A man may be clean in body, but if his mind is full of impure desires, dirty thoughts and unclear, imaginings, he is a dirty man, however much he may wash his skin. True cleaniness, then is not only next to, but a part of true godliness.

0

Earning money for what?

👮  👯 👰 👱 👲 👳 👴 👵 💂
People work because they need money to live. Although people work to earn money, money is not the main reason people stay in their jobs. They also work because they enjoy working. they receive job satisfaction, and they like the sense of accomplishment.

Most people work for work's sake. They enjoy going to an office, or store, or school each day. They like to interact with other people. They like to help people solve problems, learn something, or get a product. People like to help other people.

A lot of people keep the same job because the job gives them a lot of satisfaction. They genuinely enjoy what they do. This is true for most teachers. A teacher's pay is not very great, but the job satisfaction can be very high. Helping someone learn is one of the greatest things anyone can do.

People enjoy their work because they like the sense of accomplishment. They like to know what they finished a project. People, who work in factories, take pride in  the car they produce or the television they assemble. When they see a car on the street, they can feel a sense of accomplishment. They helped make that car.

Money is nice, but it is not the only reason people get up and go to work each day. I believe that people work because they enjoy the act of working; they find their work personally rewarding; and they like the feeling of a job well done.

0

Different kinds of people

We spend more time with our co - workers during a week than we do with our family. Thus, it's important for our co - workers to be people we can get along with. I've worked in a lot of Companies, and I've found there are certain characteristics that all good co - workers have in common.

A good co - workers is very cooperative. He does his best to get along with others. He tries to keep his end of things flowing smoothly to help others in the company. He realizes that if onobjecte person doesn't get his work done, it can hold up every one else. He has a positive attitude that creates a pleasant working environment.

A good co - worker is adaptable. He is not stubborn about changes in schedules or routines, and doesn't object to having his job description revised. That can make life miserable for everyone around him. A good co - worker is willing to change his schedule to accommodate another worker's emergency, he has no problem with new procedures and welcomes changes when they come.

A good co - worker is helpful. He pitches in when someone falls behind in his or her work. He's willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. He doesn't keep track of how often he has to finish another's work or take on extra work. Some co - workers do their own job, period. They have no sense of company community. They only want to do their work, get paid and go home.

A good co -worker is a sympathietic listener, and never uses what he learns against people. He doesn't gossip. A bad co - worker uses negative rumors to take advantage of others.

Being a good co - worker isn't too hard, but some people just can't seem to manage it. Wouldn't it be a wonderful world if everyone could?

0

Bird of a feather flock together - 物 以 类 聚

We naturally seek the company of those whose tastes are the same as our own. " Bird of a feather flock together ". Fools do not like the company of wise men and wise men avoid fools. Studiously - minded people do not find much in common with frivolous and pleasure - hunting folk: and the frivolous think book - worms are dull dogs. Sinners feel uncomfortable in the presence of saints, and saints do not seek the company of sinners.

We can, therefore, as a rule judge a man's character by the sort of people he chooses as his companions. " Tell me who are a man's friends, and I will tell you his character ". If a man chosen comrades are silly, empty - headed, worldly people, the presumption is that he is the same, or he would scarcely choose such company. If they are of a criminal class, he is probably criminally minded. If they are serious earnest and honourable gentlement, he is probably of the same type himself. Lambs don't make friends with wolves of doves with hawks.

At the same time, it is not always safe to judge men by this standard. People have sometimes made sad mistakes by thinking a man must be the same as the company he keeps. A good example of this is the case of Henry V, King of England. Before he came to the throne, he was apparently, as Prince Hal, a wild and vicious young man, the boon companion of men like Sir John Falstaff and his drunken, roistering and worthless crew. Yet as soon as he became King, he dropped all his bad companions, and became one of bravest, wisest and best Kings England has had. His after - life proved that, though he kept bad company in his youth, he was not a bad man.

So before we judge a man by his companions, we must know why he seeks such companions.

0

FBI seeks to monitor Facebook

FBI seeks to monitor Facebook, oversee mass social media data collection

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is planning to aggressively harvest information from Facebook and Twitter, a move which is likely to cause a clash between the agency and social media platforms.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the FBI has recently sought proposals from third-party vendors for technological solutions able to harvest publicly-available information in bulk from Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets.

The law enforcement agency says the data collected will be used "to proactively identify and reactively monitor threats to the United States and its interests."

The request was made several weeks before the most recent shootings in the US involving cities in Texas and Ohio.

US President Trump blamed social media as the providers of areas for "disturbed minds" to become radicalized and called for the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to work with vendors "to develop tools that can detect mass shooters before they strike."

Law enforcement has requested the means to "obtain the full social media profile of persons-of-interest and their affiliation to any organization or groups," to keep track of users based on their neighborhood, and keyword searches, among other tool functions.

Vendors have until August 27 to submit their proposals.

While the FBI believes that such tools can work in harmony with privacy safeguards and civil liberties, the mass collection of names, photos, and IDs -- when combined with information from other sources -- may do just the opposite.

Back in July, for example, there was a public outcry after it was discovered that the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) were plundering databases belonging to the DMV for surveillance and investigative purposes.

The solicitation request is likely to raise the hackles of social media platforms. Facebook, in particular, has agreed to a $5 billion settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over the past mishandling of user data and is currently working to comply with new privacy policies imposed by the agency including a "comprehensive data security program" and the prevention of the misuse of public data.

(After www.zdnet.com)

0

China's internet is designed more like an intranet

China's internet could continue to operate as a national intranet in the case of a cyber-attack or foreign intervention.

The structure of the Chinese internet is unlike any other country, being similar to a gigantic intranet, according to research published by Oracle last week.

The country has very few connection points to the global internet, has zero foreign telcos operating within its borders, and Chinese-to-Chinese internet traffic never leaves the country.

All of these allow China to disconnect itself at will from the global internet and continue to operate, albeit with no connectivity to western services.

"Put plainly, in terms of resilience, China could effectively withdraw from the global public internet and maintain domestic connectivity (essentially having an intranet)," Oracle's Dave Allen said. "This means the rest of the world could be restricted from connecting into China, and vice versa for external connections for Chinese businesses/users."

VERY FEW PEERING POINTS

The most obvious sign that China is different from any other country in terms of how it structured its internet infrastructure is by looking at how the country is connected to the rest of the internet.

Normally, most countries allow local and foreign telecommunications providers to operate within each other's borders. These companies interconnect their infrastructure at physical locations called Internet Exchange Points (IXPs), and all the internet is a giant mesh of IXP peering points interconnecting smaller telco networks.

But China doesn't do this. Rather than allowing foreign telcos to operate within its borders, this market is completely off limits. Instead, local telcos extend China's infrastructure to foreign countries, where they interlink with the global internet.

This way, Chinese ISPs form a closely-knit structure capable of exchanging traffic among themselves. All connections that need to reach foreign services must go through the country's Great Firewall, reach foreign IXPs via closely selected telcos (China Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile), and then land on the public internet.

This entire structure is very much akin to a corporate intranet, and has quite a few advantages.

First, China can impose its internet censorship program at will, without needing to account for foreign telcos operating inside its borders, and have to deal with their sensitive customer policies.

Second, China can disconnect from the internet whenever it detects an external attack, but still maintain a level of internet connectivity within its borders, relying solely on local telcos and data centers.

INTERNAL TRAFFIC NEVER LEAVES THE COUNTRY

But another advantage of this structure is that traffic meant to go from one Chinese user to another never leaves the country's borders.

This is very different from most internet connections. For example, a user from an Italian town wanting to access their city's website might find it surprising that their connection often goes through servers located in France or Germany before reaching the city's website.

Such "weird" connection paths happen all the time on the internet, and in many countries, but not in China. Here, because local telcos peer primarily with each other and have a few tightly controlled outlets to the external world, internal traffic has no reason to leave the country.

MORE "NATIONAL INTRANETS" TO FOLLOW

The main advantage of this is that foreign intelligence services have very little insight into Chinese traffic, unless users connect to foreign services, and the traffic must cross China's borders.

From a national security standpoint, this is ideal; however, only China has such a system in place -- at least, for now.

"While China's structure is unique in the way it is physically set up to be separate from the rest of the world, other countries have begun to adopt the theoretical approach to cyber sovereignty that China is promoting," said Oracle's Dave Allen.

One of the countries that's trying to replicate this Chinese "national intranet" model is Russia. This March, President Vladimir Putin signed a new law giving the government expanded control over the internet. The law basically forces local internet providers to install devices that route Russian web traffic through government-run servers, where intelligence services are given free will to analyze the traffic.

Furthermore, the country has also been busy building a local backup of the Domain Name System (DNS), and has conducted tests to disconnect the country from the rest of the internet, as part of a planned experiment.

Russia may be a few years behind China, but the writing's on the wall as to Kremlin's intentions.

(After www.zdnet.com)

0

Limited area of ​​internet freedom in Asia

Malaysians downed the road to protest and demand the freedom for  the internet

A new article published in Forbes magazine rated Vietnam topped the ranking of internet user control in Southeast Asia.

Freedom House, a US-based non-governmental research organization, just released the annual Freedom of the Net report last week and showed a rather pessimistic situation.

Overall, within six consecutive years, internet freedom in the world is getting worse as governments increase censorship and control messaging applications. Southeast Asia remains a limited area of ​​internet freedom, although there are still worse places like Saudi Arabia or Bangladesh- when blogging about religious freedom.

The annual report is thousands of pages thick, announcing the five countries with the worst internet freedom in Southeast Asia. The report for this year 2016 only considers the internet freedom situation of 65 countries, but there is no Myanmar, because it has been on the 2015 list.

Among the five countries in Southeast Asia are believed to censor the internet, Cambodia is in fifth place.

Forbes' article mentions the case of Kong Raya, 26, who is a Facebook user who was sentenced to 18 months in prison for calling "a color revolution of Cambodia's institutional change". However, English content seems to be unmanaged, including the Twitter account of Prime Minister Hun Sen and Cambodia Daily.

One thing to note is that if arrested in Cambodia will be detained for several months before being brought to trial, and once court is in place, it may be sentenced without evidence, or be tried in absentia. , if the person being tried is an opposition component of the government.

Assessment: Only partially free.

Indonesia ranked 4th: According to the report, the largest Muslim country in the world has no sympathy for online content on gay topics, typically the pressure on the LINE messaging application to remove those content related to gay people in 2014.

In the same year, a law was enacted to allow internet service providers the right to reject content that violates Indonesia's moral or national security, making names like Netflix, Reddit, Imgur and VIMEO suffer. banned for many different reasons.

There are 144 cases still being tried for posting banned content on the internet.

Rating: Only partially free.

Malaysia in third place: Malaysia's internet freedom situation has declined sharply after the government began censoring news, reports and information about the scandal involving Prime Minister Najib Razak - it is unclear whether embezzlement millions of dollars from an investment fund or not.

Sites like Malaysian Insider, Malaysia Chronicle, and Asian Sentinel are all blocked due to posting content related to the Prime Minister's scandal. Blogging or articles that criticize or ridicule Islam all cause trouble for internet users and social networks.

The report said Malaysia blocked 1,263 websites in 2015 and 399 pages in the first two months of 2016.

Assessment: Only partially free.

Thailand: Freedom House's report shows that Thailand censors less internet than Vietnam, but that is when no event King Bhumibol died on October 13 and there are no stories around Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn , strictly prohibited by the act of not insulting the Royal Family. Including international news agencies, it is only allowed to report on the time when the King was healthy, not the time of illness and near death.

In addition, postings on Facebook, Twitter or private messages that contain only the Thai military government can make Internet users arrested and imprisoned.

Assessment: No freedom.

Vietnam is at the top of the table: Vietnam does not have internet freedom due to the Communist Party's leadership - supposedly not to accept criticism or ridicule. The report said that in 2015, 15 bloggers were serving a prison sentence and three more were convicted. Internet users in Vietnam often pay attention to and avoid sensitive topics, while Facebook and some sites are sometimes blocked, depending on the time.

Human Rights Watch reports that 40 bloggers and human rights activists have been using force by plainclothes police in 2015.

Assessment: No freedom.

(After BBC News)

0

Bad habits of Vietnamese people

Vietnamese people admitted:

" Customs and habits, both 'good' and 'bad', reflect specific features of a nation’s culture. Identifying bad habits and implementing proper changes are important.

This time, we will talk about Bad habits of Vietnamese people. Besides inheriting many proud traditions from our ancestors, Vietnamese people also have a considerable number of Bad habits that may leave bad marks in the eyes of international friends.

1. Punctuality is a necessary habit in all public affairs of a civilized society. It is one of many ways to show professionalism. However, Vietnamese people seem to have problem with this and the term “cao su” has become really familiar with us.

- Do you often come late? What is the most popular justification?

- Can you share one story you know about this bad habit making foreigner partners or friends offensive? What do you think and how do you feel of this situation?

- Why are Vietnamese always late, in your opinion?

2. If you read on the internet, it is normal to see many foreigners complain that Vietnamese people lack minimal social etiquettes. Can you name 3 social etiquettes that you perceive bad in our society?

3. It’s sad that some foreigners declare “I’ll never return to Vietnam” due to theirbad experiences with Vietnamese people. Do you know any stories? Can you share with us?

- In your viewpoint, what behaviors or habits of Vietnamese people bother visitors the most?

- Does that make Vietnam ugly in the eyes of international friends?

- Do those things happen when you travel to Thailand? Japan? Singapore? India? China…? What makes the differences?

4. Can we change our bad habits and How? "

0

Imaginized Daddy Cool

Bobby Farrell Singer

She is crazy like a fool

What about it Daddy cool

She is crazy like a fool

What about it Daddy cool

I'm crazy like a fool

What about it Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

She is crazy like a fool

What about it Daddy Cool

I'm crazy like a fool

What about it Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

She is crazy about her Daddy

Oh

She believes in him

She loves her Daddy

She is crazy like a fool

What about it Daddy cool?

I'm crazy like a fool

What about it Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

Daddy Daddy Cool

0

Internet censorship in China

Internet censorship in China is the control and suppression of published or viewed material on the internet in the People's Republic of China. More than sixty online restrictions have been created by the Government of China, which have been implemented by provincial branches of state-owned ISPs, companies, and organizations.[1 According to CNN, China's Internet censorship is considered more extensive and advanced than that in any other country in the world. The Chinese government not only blocks website content, but also monitors individuals' Internet access. Many controversial events are strictly prevented from being broadcast on news services, blindsiding many Chinese citizens as they have little to no knowledge of any of their government's actions. Such measures have earned the nickname "The Great Firewall of China."

Different methods are used to block certain websites or pages including DNS poisoning, blocking access to IP addresses, analyzing and filtering URLs, packet inspection, and resetting connections.

Amnesty International notes that China has "the largest recorded number of imprisoned journalists and cyber-dissidents in the world"and Paris-based Reporters Without Borders stated in 2010 and 2012 that "China is the world's biggest prison for netizens."Commonly reported offenses include communicating with groups abroad, signing online petitions, and calling for government reform. The escalation of the government's effort to neutralize critical online opinions comes after a series of large anti-pollution and anti-corruption protests, as well as ethnic riots, many of which were organized or publicized using instant messaging services, chat rooms, and text messages. The size of the Chinese internet police force was reported by the state media to be 2 million in 2013.

Carrie Gracie wrote that local Chinese businesses such as Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba, some of the world's largest Internet enterprises, benefited from the way China restricted international rivals in the market.

Although the censorship affects the whole nation, it does not affect China's special administrative regions such as Hong Kong and Macau. These regions enjoy a high degree of autonomy, as specified in local laws and the "One country, two systems" principle. However, it was reported that the central government authorities have been closely monitoring Internet use in these regions.

The Ordinance regulation further led to the Security Management Procedures in Internet Accessing issued by the Ministry of Public Security in December 1997. The regulation defined "harmful information" and "harmful activities" regarding internet usage. Section Five of the Computer Information Network and Internet Security, Protection, and Management Regulations approved by the State Council on 11 December 1997 stated the following:

• No unit or individual may use the Internet to create, replicate, retrieve, or transmit the following kinds of information: 
• Inciting to resist or obstruct the implementation of the Constitution, legislation or administrative regulations; 
• Inciting to overthrow the government or the socialist system; 
• Inciting division of the country, harming national unification; 
• Inciting hatred or discrimination among ethnic groups or harming the unity of ethnic groups; 
• Fabricating or distorting the truth, spreading rumors, destroying the order of society; 
• Promoting feudal superstitions, obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, murder, terrorism or encouraging criminal activity; 
• Publicly insulting or distorting the truth to slander other people; 
• Defaming state organizations; 
• Other activities against the Constitution, legislation and administrative regulations 

Fines and short arrests are becoming an optional punishment to whoever spreads undesirable information through the different Internet formats, as this is seen as a risk to social stability.

In 2001, Wang Xiaoning and other Chinese activists were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for using a Yahoo! email account to post anonymous writing to an Internet mailing list. On 23 July 2008, the family of Liu Shaokun was notified that he had been sentenced to one year re-education through labor for "inciting a disturbance". As a teacher in Sichuan province, he had taken photographs of collapsed schools and posted these photos online. On 18 July 2008, Huang Qi was formally arrested on suspicion of illegally possessing state secrets. Huang had spoken with the foreign press and posted information on his website about the plight of parents who had lost children in collapsed schools. Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, used his Yahoo! email account to send a message to a U.S.-based pro-democracy website. In his email, he summarized a government order directing media organizations in China to downplay the upcoming 15th anniversary of the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists. Police arrested him in November 2004, charging him with "illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities". In April 2005, he was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment and two years' subsequent deprivation of his political rights.

In mid-2013 police across China announced the arrests of hundreds of people accused of spreading false rumors online. Chinese authorities have said the crackdown is directed at abuses such as fraud, fakery, and slander. But the accusations against many of the arrested microbloggers have a political edge with many of the rumors called outrageously false by the government dealing with the sins of officials: corruption, venality, and sexual escapades. The suspicion is that the crackdown is intended to break up online networks of like-minded people whose ideas could challenge the Communist Party. Some of China's most popular microbloggers have been arrested. In September 2013 China's highest court and prosecution office issued guidelines that define and outline penalties for publishing online rumors and slander. The rules give some protection to citizens who accuse officials of corruption, but they say that a slanderous message forwarded more than 500 times or read more than 5,000 times could result in up to three years in prison.

0

The Best of Enemies

1971: at Durham, in North Carolina, Ann Atwater tries to get better housing conditions for poor black people, and is ignored by the all white judge panel. C.P. is the president of the KKK, and has a family with children. It's shown that he loves and cares for his family. Ann's daughter's school is set on fire, and C.P. is afraid that the black children will come to the white schools. Bill Riddick sets up a meeting with the both of them, to arrange charettes to discuss segregation and other issues.

At first, both of them refuse since they hate each other, but then they are convinced. C.P. is a proud racist and refuses to even sit with Bill and Ann, since they are black and he is white.

They agree to pick some people randomly from the group to vote on the issues at the end of the meeting sessions. C.P tries to talk to these selected to vote, but is mostly rebuffed. A black reverend asks Bill if he can play gospel music at the end of each session. C.P. hotly refuses, saying that if the blacks want to sing gospel music at the charette, he should be allowed to put out his KKK items to display. Ann refuses, but Bill agrees.

At one meeting, a group of black teenagers try to destroy the KKK items, but Ann stops them and tells them to instead understand what the KKK is. All this is observed by C.P. from afar.

Then Bill makes the blacks and whites in their group sit next to each other in the cafeteria and eat. He makes C.P and Ann sit together alone. They eat in tense silence, then Ann asks C.P. if he has a boy in Murdock. C.P. hotly says that he won't talk about his boy. Murdock is a facility that takes care of disabled boys.

C.P. is called to Murdock, and he rushes over. His disabled son, Larry, has been put in the same room with another disabled boy. The other boy is screaming, upsetting Larry. C.P. demands that his son be placed in a room of his own, but the nurses there tell him that he can't afford it. Later, Ann visits Larry and asks a favor from Bernadette, who works there to put Larry in his own room.

C.P.'s wife, Mary, is overjoyed, and goes to visit Ann to thank her. Ann asks her if C.P. has always been racist, and Mary says yes. Bill takes Ann, C.P., and the rest of their group to visit the black school that was burned. C.P. is shocked by how dark and smelly it is, thanks to the damage. Ann's daughter says hi to Ann, but looks at C.P like he's evil when she finds out who he is.

The night before the final vote, C.P.'s KKK troublemaking friends go and threaten the selected voters to vote for segregation. C.P. finds out about this and is dismayed. Ann also finds about it and screams at C.P., calling him a coward.

During the voting, all the issues pass, coming down to the final issue of desegregation. One by one, the voters vote. Ann votes for it, and C.P., surprising everyone, does the same, realizing the KKK is hateful. Also, he makes a speech and rips up his KKK membership card, much to the fury of his watching KKK friends. They threaten him and try to set the gas station that he owns on fire but C.P. puts it out. Now that the white community won't buy his gas anymore, his station is going out of business. Ann and Bill visit him with smiles and they bring in the black community to buy from him instead.

It is said that the real life Ann and C.P. went around to different cities together, to talk about their experiences and remain friends.

0

The Killing Fields

Mass graves at Choeung Ek

The Killing Fields is a 1984 British biographical drama film about the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, which is based on the experiences of two journalists: Cambodian Dith Pran and American Sydney Schanberg. It was directed by Roland Jofféand produced by David Puttnam for his company Goldcrest Films. Sam Waterston stars as Schanberg, Haing S. Ngor as Pran, Julian Sands as Jon Swain, and John Malkovich as Al Rockoff. The adaptation for the screen was written by Bruce Robinson; the musical score was written by Mike Oldfield and orchestrated by David Bedford.

The film was a success at the box office as well as being an instant hit with critics. At the 57th Academy Awards it received seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture; it won three, most notably Best Supporting Actor for Haing S. Ngor, who had no previous acting experience. At the 38th British Academy Film Awards, it won eight BAFTAs, including Best Film and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Ngor.

In 1999 the British Film Institute voted The Killing Fields the 100th greatest British film of the 20th century. In 2016 British film magazine Empire ranked it number 86 in their list of the 100 best British films.

In the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, during May 1973, the Cambodian national army is fighting a civil war with the Khmer Rouge, a result of the Vietnam War overspilling that country's borders. Dith Pran, a Cambodian journalist and interpreter for The New York Times, awaits the arrival of reporter Sydney Schanberg at the city's airport but leaves suddenly. Schanberg takes a cab to his hotel where he meets up with Al Rockoff. Pran meets Schanberg later and tells him that an incident has occurred in a town, Neak Leung; allegedly, an American B-52 has bombed the town.

Schanberg and Pran go to Neak Leung where they find that the town has been bombed. Schanberg and Pran are arrested when they try to photograph the execution of two Khmer Rouge operatives. They are eventually released and Schanberg is furious when the international press corps arrives with the U.S. Army.

Two years later, in 1975, the Phnom Penh embassies are being evacuated in anticipation of the arrival of the Khmer Rouge. Schanberg secures evacuation for Pran, his wife and their four children. However, Pran insists on staying behind to help Schanberg.

The Khmer Rouge move into the capital, ostensibly in peace. During a parade through the city, Schanberg meets Rockoff. They are later met by a detachment of the Khmer Rouge, who immediately arrest them. The group is taken through the city to a back alley where prisoners are being held and executed. Pran, unharmed because he is a Cambodian civilian, negotiates to spare the lives of his friends. They do not leave Phnom Penh, but instead retreat to the French embassy.

Informed that the Khmer Rouge have ordered all Cambodian citizens in the embassy to be handed over and fearing the embassy will be overrun, the embassies comply. Knowing that Pran will be imprisoned or killed, Rockoff and fellow photographer Jon Swain of The Sunday Times try to forge a British passport for Pran; the deception fails when the image of Pran on the passport photo fades to nothing, as they lack adequate photographic developer. Pran is turned over to the Khmer Rouge and is forced to live under their totalitarian regime.

Several months after returning to New York City, Schanberg is in the midst of a personal campaign to locate Pran. In Cambodia, Pran has become a forced labourer under the Khmer Rouge's "Year Zero" policy, a return to the agrarian ways of the past. Pran is also forced to attend propagandist classes where many undergo re-education. As intellectuals are made to disappear, Pran feigns simple-mindedness. Eventually, he tries to escape, but is recaptured. Before he is found by members of the Khmer Rouge, he slips into a muddy cesspool filled with rotting human corpses; in doing so, he stumbles upon one of the infamous killing fields of the Pol Pot regime, where as many as 2 million Cambodian citizens were murdered.

In 1976 Sydney Schanberg is awarded a Pulitzer prize for his coverage of the Cambodian conflict. At the acceptance dinner he tells the audience that half the recognition for the award belongs to Pran. Later in the restroom, he is confronted by Rockoff, who harshly accuses him of not doing enough to locate Pran and for using his friend to win the award. Schanberg defends his efforts, saying that he has contacted every humanitarian relief agency possible in the time since Pran's disappearance. Rockoff suggests that Schanberg subtly pressured Pran to remain in Cambodia because Pran was so vital to Schanberg's work. This accusation hits close to home, and Schanberg begins to wonder whether he put his own self-interest ahead of Pran's safety. He finally confesses that Pran "stayed because I wanted him to stay".

Pran is assigned to the leader of a different prison compound, a man named Phat, and charged mostly with tending to his little boy. Pran continues his self-imposed discipline of behaving as an uneducated peasant, despite several of Phat's attempts to trick him into revealing his knowledge of both French and English. Phat begins to trust Pran and asks him to take ward of his son in the event that he is killed. The Khmer Rouge are now engaged in a border war with Vietnam. The conflict reaches Pran's region and a battle ensues between the Khmer Rouge of the compound and two jets sent to destroy the camp. After the skirmish has ended, Pran discovers that Phat's son has American money and a map leading to safety. When Phat tries to stop the younger Khmer Rouge officers from killing several of his comrades, he is ignominiously shot.

In the confusion, Pran escapes with four other prisoners and they begin a long trek through the jungle with Phat's young son. The group later splits and three of them head in a different direction; Pran continues following the map with the fourth man. However, Pran's companion activates a hidden land mine while holding the boy. As Pran pleads with the man to give him the boy, the mine goes off, killing the pair. Pran mourns for a time and continues on. One day he crests the escarpment of the Dângrêk Mountainsand sees a Red Cross camp near the border of Thailand.

The scene shifts to Schanberg calling Pran's family with the news that Pran is alive and safe. Soon after, Schanberg travels to the Red Cross camp and is reunited with Pran. He asks Pran to forgive him; Pran answers, with a smile, "Nothing to forgive, Sydney", as the two embrace.

0

Chinese domination of Vietnam

The Chinese domination of Vietnam began in 111 BC, and is usually considered to have ended in 938 AD. A fourth, relatively brief, 20-year punitive invasion by the Ming dynasty, 400 years later, is usually excluded by historians in discussion of the main, almost continuous, period of Chinese colonization from 111 BC to 938 AD, as is the brief occupation of northern Vietnam by Chinese forces at the end of the Second World War.

First Chinese domination of Vietnam (111 BC–39 AD) Chinese imperial incursions, followed by the Han-Nanyue War (111 BC), established Han-Chinese rule in Vietnam. This was briefly interrupted by the revolt of the Trưng Sisters (40–43 AD).
Second Chinese domination of Vietnam (43–544) ended by the revolt of Lý Nam Đế who led a rebellion taking advantage of internal disorder in China and the weakness of the waning Liang dynasty. This secured 60 years of independence for Vietnam, but following regime change and consolidation of power in China, the new Sui dynasty sent an overwhelmingly large army south to reestablish control over northern Vietnam in 602.
Third Chinese domination of Vietnam (602–938) starting with the peaceful abdication by Lý's successor in the face of overwhelming Chinese numbers, and marked by entrenchment of mandarin administration. The period concluded with the internal collapse of China's Tang dynasty and Ngô Quyền's destruction of the Southern Han armada at the naval Battle of Bach Dang River (938).
Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam (1407–1427) a 20-year occupation by the Ming dynasty army, from Vietnamese defeat in the Ming–Hồ War (1406–1407) to Vietnamese rebellion and Lê Lợi's defeat of the Chinese at the Battle of Tốt Động – Chúc Động and Battle of Chi Lăng - Xương Giang (1427).

Geographical extent and impact

The four periods of Chinese colonization or occupation do not correspond to the modern borders of Vietnam but to Vietnam as a cultural entity. During the first three Chinese periods of domination, Vietnamese society was primarily in the northern part of modern Vietnam. Ten centuries of Chinese colonization left a substantial demographic footprint, with settlement by large numbers of ethnic Han-Chinese, while opening up Vietnam for trade. Against this the second period of Chinese colonization saw almost 500 years of revolt and war, though the third period (603-939) was more harmonious.

In addition to administration, and making Chinese the language of administration, the long period of Chinese domination introduced Chinese techniques of dike construction, rice cultivation, and animal husbandry. Chinese culture, having been established among the elite mandarin class, remained the dominant current among that elite for most of the next 1,000 years (939-1870s) until the loss of independence under French Indochina. This cultural affiliation to China remained true even when militarily defending Vietnam against attempted invasion, such as against the Mongol Kublai Khan. The only significant exceptions to this were the 7 years of the strongly anti-Chinese Hồ dynasty which banned the use of Chinese (among other actions triggering the fourth Chinese invasion), but then after the expulsion of the Ming the rise in vernacular chữ nôm literature. Although 1,000 years of Chinese rule left many traces, the collective memory of the period reinforced Vietnam's cultural and later political independence.

0

Ming invasion of Đại Việt,

Jiaozhi (northern Vietnam) when it was under Ming occupation

The former ruling dynasty of Đại Việt, the Trần, had relations with the Yuan and Ming Empire as a tributary. However, in 1400, Hồ Quý Ly (胡季犛) deposed and massacred the Trần house before usurping the throne. After taking the throne, Hồ renamed the country from Đại Việt to Đại Ngu (大虞). In 1402, he abdicated the throne in favor of his son, Hồ Hán Thương (胡漢蒼).

In October 1404, Trần Thiêm Bình (陳添平) arrived at the Ming imperial court in Nanjing, claiming to be a Trần prince. He notified the court of the treacherous events that had taken place and appealed to the court for the restoration of his throne.

The Yongle Emperor of the Ming Empire issued an edict reprimanding the usurper and demanding the restoration of the Tran throne, a pretext to the annexation of Vietnam. As the party crossed the border into Lạng Sơ, Hồ's forces ambushed them and killed the Trần prince that the Ming convoy were escorting back.

In the winter of 1406, the Ming armies began their invasion. Zhang Fu and Mu Sheng departed from Guangxi and Yunnan respectively to launch a pincer attack into enemy territory. On 19 November 1406, they captured the two capitals and other important cities in the Red River Delta. Hồ Quý Ly and his son were captured on 16 June 1407, they were caged and brought as prisoners to the Yongle Emperor in Nanjing.

Revolt of Trần aristocrats

There was several revolts among the Vietnamese people against the Ming authorities, only to be crushed by the Ming army. Among the people who led the rebellion were, Trần Ngỗi (revolted 1407–09), a young son of the late Trần emperor Trần Nghệ Tông and Trần Quý Khoáng, a nephew. These revolts were short-lived and poorly planned but they helped lay some of the groundwork for Lê Lợi's war for independence.

Lam Sơn uprising

Lê Lợi, one of Vietnam's most celebrated heroes, is credited with rescuing the country from Ming domination in 1428. Born of a wealthy landowning family, he served as a senior scholar-official until the advent of the Ming, whom he refused to serve. After a decade of gathering a resistance movement around him, Le Loi and his forces finally defeated the Ming army in 1428. Rather than putting to death the captured Ming soldiers and administrators, he magnanimously provided ships and supplies to send them back to China. Le Loi then ascended the Vietnamese throne, taking the reign name Lê Thái Tổ and establishing the Lê dynasty(1428–1788).

Economy

The Ming government began a harsh rule of both colonization and sinicization. Valuable artifacts such as gems, jade, gold, pieces of art as well as craftsmen were transported to China. The Chinese had greatly encouraged the development and the use of gold and silver mines. But right after the silver and gold were extracted they impounded them and sent a fraction of these minerals to Beijing. They also imposed salt taxes, but a slightly heavier tax against those who produced salt in Annam.

Military and administration

It was instructed that the Ming army should free the prisoners from various countries who were taken captive by so-called Li bandits in Vietnam.

To keep the people under control in Vietnam, the Ming government issued, and utilized the "So Ho" system, (literally meaning Family Book) at the lowest village community level. Whenever there was a change in a family, a change in the book was recorded and approved. Based on this information, they created a systematic military service enrollment process for all young men deemed fit enough to serve in the future for the Imperial Chinese Army. This process was no different than what other governments did to subjugated areas, nonetheless, this had created a negative feeling against the Chinese government. In addition, many talented Vietnamese individuals with varying trades and backgrounds who could make significant contributions were allowed to become government officials in China where they served in the Chinese imperial government.

The Ming's ethnic Vietnamese collaborators included Mac Thuy whose grandfather was Mạc Đĩnh Chi who was a direct ancestor of Mạc Đăng Dung.

Vietnam received firearms from Ming dynasty rule over Vietnam.

The conquest of Champa was enabled when Vietnam's north received gunpowder weapons from the Ming dynasty along with Neo-Confucianist thought.

It was recorded that the union of Vietnamese women and Chinese (Ngô) men produced offspring which were left behind in Vietnam, and the Chams, Cẩu Hiểm, Laotians, these people, and Vietnamese natives who collaborated with the Ming were made into slaves of the Le government in the Complete Annals of Đại Việt.

There was no mandatory required reparation of the voluntarily remaining Ming Chinese in Vietnam. The return of the Ming Chinese to China was commanded by the Ming and not Le Loi. The Trai made up the supporters of Le Loi in his campaign. He lived among the Trai at the border regions as their leader and seized the Ming ruled lowland Kinh areas after originally forming his base in the southern highland regions. The southern dwelling Trai and Red River dwelling Vietnamese were in effect locked in a "civil war" during the anti Ming rebellion by Le Loi.

The leader Lưu Bác Công (Liu Bogong) in 1437 commanded a Dai Viet military squad made out of ethnic Chinese since even after the independence of Dai Viet, Chinese remained behind. Vietnam received Chinese defectors from Yunnan in the 1400s.

0

Đại Việt invasion of Southern Lands

Việt Nam at its greatest territorial extent in 1829 (under Emperor Minh Mạng), superimposed on the modern political map. Map of Vietnam showing the conquest of the south (nam tiến, 1069-1834)

Nam tiến (Vietnamese: [nam tǐən], lit. "southward advance" or "march to the south") refers to the southward expansion of the territory of Vietnam from the 11th century to the mid-18th century. The territory of Vietnam was gradually expanded to the south from its original heartland in the Red River Delta. In a span of some 700 years, Vietnam tripled its territory in size and more-or-less acquired its elongated shape of today.

The direction of expansion to the south could be explained by geographic and demographic factors. With the South China Sea to the east, the Truong Son Mountains to the west, and China to the north, the Vietnamese polity pushed south, following the coastal plains. The 11-14th centuries saw battle gains and losses as the frontier territory changed hands between the Vietnamese and Chams. The 15-17th centuries following the failed Ming conquest (1407-1420), the resurgent Vietnamese took the upper hand, defeating the less-centralized state of Champa, forcing the cession of more land. By the 17-19th centuries, Vietnamese settlers had penetrated the Mekong Delta. The Nguyen Lords of Hue by diplomacy and force wrested the southernmost territory from Cambodia, completing the "March to the South".

History

The native inhabitants of the Central Highlands are the Degar (Montagnard People) peoples. Vietnam conquered and annexed the area during its "march to the south" (Nam tiến).
Cham provinces were seized by the Nguyen Lords. Provinces and districts originally controlled by Cambodia were taken by Vo Vuong.
Cambodia was constantly invaded by the Vietnamese Nguyen Lords. Around a thousand Vietnamese settlers were slaughtered in 1667 in Cambodia by a combined force of Chinese and Cambodians. Vietnamese settlers started to inhabit Mekong Delta that was previously inhabited by the Khmer and in response the Vietnamese were subjected to Cambodian retaliation.The Cambodians told Catholic European envoys that the Vietnamese persecution against Catholics justified retaliatory attacks launched against the Vietnamese colonists.
Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mang enacted the final conquest of the Champa Kingdom after the centuries long Cham–Vietnamese wars. The Cham Muslim leader Katip Suma was educated in Kelantan and came back to Champa to declare a Jihad against the Vietnamese after Emperor Minh Mang's annexation of Champa.The Vietnamese coercively fed lizard and pig meat to Cham Muslims and cow meat to Cham Hindus against their will to punish them and assimilate them to Vietnamese culture.
Minh Mang sinicized ethnic minorities such as Cambodians, claimed the legacy of Confucianism and China's Han dynasty for Vietnam, and used the term Han people 漢人 (Hán nhân) to refer to the Vietnamese. Minh Mang declared that "We must hope that their barbarian habits will be subconsciously dissipated, and that they will daily become more infected by Han [Sino-Vietnamese] customs."These policies were directed at the Khmer and hill tribes.The Nguyen lord Nguyen Phuc Chu had referred to Vietnamese as "Han people" in 1712 when differentiating between Vietnamese and Chams.The Nguyen Lords established đồn điền after 1790. It was said "Hán di hữu hạn" Hán tự: 漢夷有限 ("the Vietnamese and the barbarians must have clear borders") by the Gia Long Emperor (Nguyễn Phúc Ánh) when differentiating between Khmer and Vietnamese. Minh Mang implemented an acculturation integration policy directed at minority non-Vietnamese peoples. Thanh nhân 清人 or Đường nhân 唐人 were used to refer to ethnic Chinese by the Vietnamese while Vietnamese called themselves as Hán dân Hán tự: 漢民 and Hán nhân Hán tự: 漢人 in Vietnam during the 1800s under Nguyễn rule.
Extreme anti-Vietnamese sentiment due to Vietnam's conquest of previously Cambodian lands which are now the Mekong delta part of modern day Vietnam and hundreds of years of Vietnamese invasions, Vietnamese settlers in Cambodia and Vietnam's military subjugation of Cambodia, has led to extreme anti-Vietnamese feelings against ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia and against Vietnam, and in turn has led to pro-China sentiment among the Cambodian government and the Cambodian opposition, including in the South China Sea, leaving Americans unaware of this to be puzzled by pro-China leanings in Cambodia.

Champa (Cham: Campa; Vietnamese: Chăm Pa) was a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is today central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd century AD before being absorbed and annexed by Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mạng in AD 1832.The kingdom was known variously as nagara Campa (Sanskrit: नगरः चम्पः; Khmer: ចាម្ប៉ា) in the Chamic and Cambodian inscriptions, Chăm Pa in Vietnamese (Chiêm Thành in Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary) and 占城 (Zhànchéng) in Chinese records.

The Chams of modern Vietnam and Cambodia are the remnants of this former kingdom. They speak Chamic languages, a subfamily of Malayo-Polynesian closely related to the Malayic and Bali–Sasak languages.

Champa was preceded in the region by a kingdom called Linyi (林邑, Lim Ip in Middle Chinese), or Lâm Ấp (Vietnamese), that was in existence since AD 192; although the historical relationship between Linyi and Champa is not clear. Champa reached its apogee in the 9th and 10th centuries AD. Thereafter, it began a gradual decline under pressure from Đại Việt, the Vietnamese polity centered in the region of modern Hanoi. In 1832, the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mạng annexed the remaining Cham territories.

Hinduism, adopted through conflicts and conquest of territory from neighboring Funan in the 4th century AD, shaped the art and culture of the Champa kingdom for centuries, as testified by the many Cham Hindu statues and red brick temples that dotted the landscape in Cham lands. Mỹ Sơn, a former religious center, and Hội An, one of Champa's main port cities, are now World Heritage Sites. Today, many Cham people adhere to Islam, a conversion which began in the 10th century, with the Royals having fully adopted the faith by the 17th century; they are called Bani Cham (from Arabic: Bani). There are, however, Balamon Cham (from Sanskrit: Brahman) who still retain and preserve their Hindu faith, rituals, and festivals. The Balamon Cham are one of only two surviving non-Indic indigenous Hindu peoples in the world, with a culture dating back thousands of years. The other is the Balinese Hinduism of the Balinese of Indonesia.

0

Kingdom of Cambodia

Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is 181,035 square kilometres (69,898 square miles) in area, bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the northeast, Vietnam to the east and the Gulf of Thailand to the southwest.

The sovereign state of Cambodia has a population of over 15 million. The official religion is Theravada Buddhism, practised by approximately 95 percent of the population. Cambodia's minority groups include Vietnamese, Chinese, Chams and 30 hill tribes. The capital and largest city is Phnom Penh, the political, economic and cultural centre of Cambodia. The kingdom is an elective constitutional monarchy with a monarch, currently Norodom Sihamoni, chosen by the Royal Throne Council as head of state. The head of government is the Prime Minister, currently Hun Sen, the longest serving non-royal leader in Southeast Asia, ruling Cambodia since 1985.

In 802 AD, Jayavarman II declared himself king, uniting the warring Khmer princes of Chenla under the name "Kambuja". This marked the beginning of the Khmer Empire, which flourished for over 600 years, allowing successive kings to control and exert influence over much of Southeast Asia and accumulate immense power and wealth. The Indianised kingdom facilitated the spread of first Hinduism and then Buddhism to much of Southeast Asia and undertook many religious infrastructural projects throughout the region, including the construction of more than 1,000 temples and monuments in Angkoralone. Angkor Wat is the most famous of these structures and is designated as a World Heritage Site.

Neak Loeung Bridge

After the fall of Angkor to Ayutthaya in the 15th century, a reduced and weakened Cambodia was then ruled as a vassal state by its neighbours. In 1863, Cambodia became a protectorate of France, which doubled the size of the country by reclaiming the north and west from Thailand.

Cambodia gained independence in 1953. The Vietnam War extended into the country with the US bombing of Cambodia from 1969 until 1973. Following the Cambodian coup of 1970 which installed the right-wing pro-US Khmer Republic, the deposed king gave his support to his former enemies, the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge emerged as a major power, taking Phnom Penh in 1975 and later carrying out the Cambodian genocide from 1975 until 1979, when they were ousted by Vietnam and the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea, supported by the Soviet Union in the Cambodian–Vietnamese War (1979–91).

Following the 1991 Paris Peace Accords, Cambodia was governed briefly by a United Nations mission (1992–93). The UN withdrew after holding electionsin which around 90 percent of the registered voters cast ballots. The 1997 factional fighting resulted in the ousting of the government by Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party, who remain in power as of 2019.

Cambodia is a member of the United Nations since 1955, ASEAN, the East Asia Summit, the WTO, the Non-Aligned Movement and La Francophonie. According to several foreign organisations, the country has widespread poverty, pervasive corruption, lack of political freedoms, low human development and a high rate of hunger. Cambodia has been described by Human Rights Watch's Southeast Asian Director, David Roberts, as a "relatively authoritarian coalition via a superficial democracy".

While per capita income remains low compared to most neighboring countries, Cambodia has one of the fastest growing economies in Asia, with growth averaging 7.6 percent over the last decade. Agriculture remains the dominant economic sector, with strong growth in textiles, construction, garments and tourism leading to increased foreign investment and international trade. The US World Justice Project's 2015 Rule of Law Index ranked Cambodia 76 out of 102 countries, similar to other countries in the region.

Date	Name	Notes
50/68 AD – 550 AD	Funan Empire	Nokor Phnom – (alternate name)
550–802	Chenla Empire	Division of Land Chenla and Water Chenla in the 8th century AD.
802–1431	Khmer Empire	One of the most powerful empires in Southeast Asia.
1431–1863	Cambodia	Middle Period (Chaktomuk era, Longvek era, Oudong era)
1863–1941, 1945–1953	Kingdom of Cambodia (French Protectorate)
1941–1945	Under Japanese occupation
1953–1970	Kingdom of Cambodia	The period of Sangkum Reastr Niyum (People's Socialist Community)
1970–1975	Khmer Republic	(US bombing, Civil War)
1975–1976	Kampuchea	(Khmer Genocide)
1976–1982	Democratic Kampuchea	(Khmer Genocide) – Retained UN recognition[28][29]
1982–1990	Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea	Retained UN recognition
1990–1993	National Government of Cambodia	Retained UN recognition
1979–1989	People's Republic of Kampuchea	Not recognized by the UN
1989–1991	State of Cambodia
1991–1993	United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia
1993–present	Kingdom of Cambodia

Khmer Rouge regime, 1975–1978

Rooms of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum contain thousands of photos taken by the Khmer Rouge of their victims.

Choeung Ek, a known site of mass grave for genocide victims during the Khmer Rouge era

The Khmer Rouge reached Phnom Penh and took power in 1975. Led by Pol Pot, they changed the official name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea. The new regime modelled itself on Maoist China during the Great Leap Forward, immediately evacuated the cities, and sent the entire population on forced marches to rural work projects. They attempted to rebuild the country's agriculture on the model of the 11th century, discarded Western medicine and destroyed temples, libraries, and anything considered Western.

Estimates as to how many people were killed by the Khmer Rouge regime range from approximately one to three million; the most commonly cited figure is two million (about a quarter of the population). This era gave rise to the term Killing Fields, and the prison Tuol Sleng became notorious for its history of mass killing. Hundreds of thousands fled across the border into neighbouring Thailand. The regime disproportionately targeted ethnic minority groups. The Cham Muslims suffered serious purges with as much as half of their population exterminated. Pol Pot was determined to keep his power and disenfranchise any enemies or potential threats, and thus increased his violent and aggressive actions against his people.

Forced repatriation in 1970 and deaths during the Khmer Rouge era reduced the Vietnamese population in Cambodia from between 250,000 and 300,000 in 1969 to a reported 56,000 in 1984. However, most of the victims of the Khmer Rouge regime were not ethnic minorities but ethnic Khmer. Professionals, such as doctors, lawyers and teachers, were also targeted. According to Robert D. Kaplan, "eyeglasses were as deadly as the yellow star" as they were seen as a sign of intellectualism.

Religious institutions were not spared by the Khmer Rouge either. Religion was so viciously persecuted to such a terrifying extent that the vast majority of Cambodia's historic architecture, 95% of Cambodia's Buddhist temples, was completely destroyed.

Vietnamese occupation and transition, 1978–1992

In November 1978, Vietnamese troops invaded Cambodia in response to border raids by the Khmer Rouge. The People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK), a pro-Soviet state led by the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party, a party created by the Vietnamese in 1951, and led by a group of Khmer Rouge who had fled Cambodia to avoid being purged by Pol Pot and Ta Mok, was established. It was fully beholden to the occupying Vietnamese army and under direction of the Vietnamese ambassador to Phnom Penh. Its arms came from Vietnam and the Soviet Union.

In opposition to the newly created state, a government-in-exile referred to as the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) was formed in 1981 from three factions. This consisted of the Khmer Rouge, a royalist faction led by Sihanouk, and the Khmer People's National Liberation Front. Its credentials were recognised by the United Nations. The Khmer Rouge representative to the UN, Thiounn Prasith, was retained, but he had to work in consultation with representatives of the noncommunist Cambodian parties. The refusal of Vietnam to withdraw from Cambodia led to economic sanctions by the US and its allies.

Peace efforts began in Paris in 1989 under the State of Cambodia, culminating two years later in October 1991 in a Paris Comprehensive Peace Settlement. The UN was given a mandate to enforce a ceasefire and deal with refugees and disarmament known as the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC).

Restoration of the monarchy

King-Father Norodom Sihanouk's funeral procession in 17 October 2012

In 1993, Norodom Sihanouk was restored as King of Cambodia, but all power was in the hands of the government established after the UNTAC sponsored elections. The stability established following the conflict was shaken in 1997 by a coup d'état led by the co-Prime Minister Hun Sen against the non-communist parties in the government. In recent years, reconstruction efforts have progressed and led to some political stability through a multiparty democracy under a constitutional monarchy.

In July 2010, Kang Kek Iew was the first Khmer Rouge member found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity in his role as the former commandant of the S21 extermination camp and he was sentenced to life in prison. However, Hun Sen has opposed extensive trials of former Khmer Rouge mass murderers.

In August 2014, a UN-backed war crimes tribunal, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (also known as the Khmer Rouge Tribunal), sentenced Khieu Samphan, the regime's 83-year-old former head of state, and Nuon Chea, its 88-year-old chief ideologue, to life in prison on war crimes charges for their role in the country's terror period in the 1970s. The trial began in November 2011. Former Foreign Minister Ieng Sary died in 2013, while his wife, Social Affairs Minister Ieng Thirith, was deemed unfit to stand trial due to dementia in 2012. The group's top leader, Pol Pot, died in 1998.

Human rights

Cambodia's deputy opposition leader Kem Sokha (left) has been arrested in September 2017 while opposition leader Sam Rainsy (right) has lived in exile since November 2015
A US State Department report says "forces under Hun Sen and the Cambodian People's Party have committed frequent and large-scale abuses, including extrajudicial killings and torture, with impunity". According to the 2016 Global Slavery Index, an estimated 256,800 people are enslaved in modern-day Cambodia, or 1.65% of the population.
Forced land evictions by senior officials, security forces, and government-connected business leaders are commonplace in Cambodia. Land has been confiscated from hundreds of thousands of Cambodians over more than a decade for the purpose of self-enrichment and maintaining power of various groups of special interests. Credible non-governmental organisations estimate that "770,000 people have been adversely affected by land grabbing covering at least four million hectares (nearly 10 million acres) of land that have been confiscated", says Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights.

Tourism 

The tourism industry is the country's second-greatest source of hard currency after the textile industry. International visitor arrivals in 2018 topped six million, a ten-fold increase since the beginning of the 21st century.
Besides Phom Penh and Angkor Wat, other tourist destinations include Sihanoukville in the southwest which has several popular beaches and Battambang in the northwest, both of which are popular stops for backpackers who make up a significant portion of visitors to Cambodia.The area around Kampot and Kep including the Bokor Hill Station are also of interest to visitors. Tourism has increased steadily each year in the relatively stable period since the 1993 UNTAC elections.
Most international arrivals in 2018 were Chinese. Tourism receipts exceeded US$4.4 billion in 2018, accounting for almost ten percent of the kingdom's gross national product. The Angkor Wat historical park in Siem Reap Province, the beaches in Sihanoukville, the capital city Phnom Penh, and Cambodia's 150 casinos (up from just 57 in 2014) are the main attractions for foreign tourists.
Cambodia's reputation as a safe destination for tourism however has been hindered by civil and political unrest and several high-profile examples of serious crime committed against tourists visiting the kingdom.
Cambodia's tourist souvenir industry employs a lot of people around the main places of interest. The quantity of souvenirs that are produced is not sufficient to face the increasing number of tourists and a majority of products sold to the tourists on the markets are imported from China, Thailand, and Vietnam. Some of the locally produced souvenirs include:
Krama (traditional scarf)
Ceramics
Soap, candles, spices
Wood carvings, lacquerware, silver plate
Painted bottles containing infused rice wine

0

Before travelling to VN

Things you should know before travelling to VN

She was a tourist and sobbed like a child when her handbag was robbed, lost all her papers

Tourists usually complain about over-aggressive street vendors, tour operators with a bad attitude and dangerous driving. However, with a cool head and sensible planning, one can avoid these problems.

1. Wear a lot of jewellery or take a bag with you. Violent crime is highly unusual in Vietnam, but petty crime is more apparent. If you have a bag, or tout a digital camera around your neck, you are a potential target.
2. When taking a ride by motorbike taxi (xe om) make sure your bag, if any, is not on display or easy to grab. Bag snatches, although still rare, are probably the most likely crime a tourist would encounter, and it raises the probability immensely if you are tailing a camera or a laptop in the wind.
3. Don’t wear singlets, shorts, skirts or dresses, or revealing clothes to temples or pagodas.
4. Physical displays of affection between lovers in public are frowned upon. That’s why you may come across couples holding hands but not hugging or kissing.
5. Losing your temper in Vietnam means a loss of face. Keep a cool head and remain polite, you’ll have a greater chance of getting what you want.
6. Remember, this is Vietnam, a developing country, and things don’t quite work as you are maybe used to. Don’t be paranoid about your safety, just be aware of your surroundings.

0

Is Vietnam safe to travel?

In Vietnam, traffic accidents kill more people than pandemic diseases

Vietnamese roads are ranked among the world’s worst for motorcyclists.
Traffic accidents remain the biggest single cause of fatalities in Vietnam even as the country has been working to make local roads safer.
Last year, road traffic deaths were 30 times higher than the number of people killed by pandemic diseases, Nguyen Thien Nhan, chairman of the Vietnam’s mass political organization Fatherland Front Central Committee, said at a conference Wednesday.
“Traffic-related accidents in every three years kill as many people as pandemic diseases do in 100 years,” said Nhan, as cited by local media.

According to the World Health Organization, on average, road traffic accidents kill approximately 14,000 people in Vietnam every year and are the leading cause of death among those aged between 15 and 29 years. Motorcyclists account for more than half of the fatalities.
Official statistics show that in the past five years, the death toll has decreased by 21 percent to about 48,000 and the number of injured people has shrunk by 22 percent to 162,000, compared to the previous five-year period.
Vietnam is trying to reduce road traffic fatalities to fewer than 20 per day, or 7,300 per year.

Traffic congestion, inadequate law enforcement, poor driving skills and bad street conditions are often cited as the main reasons for road crashes.

0

Vietnamese Environment

Environmental issues in Vietnam number many, due to the effects of the Vietnam War, as well as the country's rapid industrialization following the economic reforms in 1986 known as Doi Moi. According to the State of the Environment 2001 published by the government, the main issues are land degradation, forest degradation, loss of biodiversity, water pollution, air pollution and solid waste management. More recently, climate change was added as a major concern because Vietnam is considered to be one of the most seriously impacted by climate change according to a World Bank study in 2007.

The Vietnam Environment Administration, a branch of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), is responsible for environmental issues in Vietnam. At the provincial level, the Departments of Natural Resources and the Environment (DONRE) bear responsibility. Non-governmental organizations, such as the Institute of Ecological Economics, also play a role

Between 1961 and 1971, U.S military forces dispersed more than 19 million gallons of herbicidal agents over the Republic of Vietnam, including more than 12 million gallons of the dioxin-contaminant commonly known as Agent Orange. Research that studied subsequent effects of the contamination have been comparatively limited. Data from 2009 totalled the amount of arable land for total land use to be approximately 20 percent, while permanent crops that do not require replanting after harvest total approximately 7 percent of the entire available land.

The people of Vietnam have shown significant growth in development through economic reform plans that were initiated in 1986, known as Doi Moi. The business and agricultural reforms successfully created more than 30,000 private businesses, and poverty declined from about 50 percent to 29 percent of the population from the early 1990s to 2005. However, reports have shown that due to the significant population growth as a result, protected areas within the environmental sector are often overlooked when nearby land is developed, which creates conflict between area conservation plans versus land development and planning.

Fresh water is accessible to 99% of the citizens in the range of one kilometer. In the urban water supply exists a big difference between large and small cities. Tap water is a readily available water supply in large cities such as Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, covering nearly the entire population, whereas in smaller cities, there is a 60% variability.

In rural areas, fresh water within a one kilometer range is accessible for 75% of the population, but only 51% of rural households have access to hygienic latrines.

Around 60% of the Water Producing Companies (WPCs) are involved in the water market in urban areas. However the supply so far is in the hands of the Government. The WPCs reduce their activities to the production of water.

In rural areas, hand dug wells remain the most important source of water as 39%-44% still rely on it. Only 10% of the rural population is supplied with piped water.

Water pollution causes the greatest damage in the Mekong Delta. The delta is considered as Vietnam´s rice bowl. Water pollution caused by the rapid growing industry results in high rates of diarrhea since most people in this region depend on surface water of the river.

Common waterborne diseases in Vietnam are cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, bacterial diarrhea, and hepatitis A. In the case of Cholera, even though the number of death caused by cholera hasn’t been more than 2 since 1996, the number of reported cases of Cholera is still significantly high. Caused by drinking water contaminated by bacterium, the number of reported Cholera is well above 500, reaching 1900 in 2007, and 600 in 2010. The fatality rate of Cholera has been close to 0% since 1999. In 2009, the number of diarrhea diseases reported was 296000 in total. According to WHO, the number of water, sanitation, and hygiene attributable death in 2004 in Viet Nam was 5938. A surprising fact was that out of 5938 deaths, 4905 were children under 5 years which means that the children were the main victims of the water, sanitation and hygiene problem.

Air pollution
Vietnam is a rapidly developing country, with over 95 million people as of 2017. Rapid development combined with deforestation, few or nonexistent vehicle emission standards, polluting gasoline motorbikes, and poor urban planning have caused poor air quality in major cities.

2016 Vietnam marine life disaster

The 2016 Vietnam marine life disaster was a water pollution crisis which affected Hà Tĩnh, Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên–Huế provinces in central Vietnam.

Fish carcasses were reported to have washed up on the beaches of Hà Tĩnh province from at least 6 April 2016. Later, a large number of dead fish were found on the coast of Hà Tĩnh and three other provinces (Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên–Huế) until 18 April 2016. Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a steel plant built by the Taiwanese corporation Formosa Plastics, discharged toxic industrial waste illegally into the ocean through drainage pipes. After denying responsibility for months, Formosa accepted responsibility for the fish deaths on June 30, 2016

0