No joke. This exists:
The Cambodian Ministry of Cults and Religions
A Cambodian’s Perspective on American Politics
Earlier today I had a slightly serious, slightly humorous, but mostly enlightening conversation with a Cambodian man who’s been generous enough to spend the past two days teaching me about rural economic development here. Here’s what he had to say about American political history: He really likes John McCain and John Kerry because they fought communists. He thinks Bill Clinton won the presidency because he’s good looking and all the American women must have voted for him. But he’s glad that Clinton won, because he’s a good man and the economy grew while he was in office. He believes Ronald Reagan was a bit old to be President. In fact, he thinks John McCain is too old to be president too,
Fried Tarantula
I had this for lunch today: It actually wasn’t all that bad. The usual chicken analogies apply.
Obama High Power
Cambodian car batteries. High power. Like President Obama.
Various Links
For anyone who’s interested (mom?), I enjoyed these: 1. Great article on momentum investing, an approach I tend to agree with. Kid Dynamite had a good post on the same topic a couple years back. 2. Scott Sumner compares happiness with utility. I’d skip part three, unless you’re really craving some macro economic commentary. 3. From Ezra Klein: “If you only read one John Kerry speech today…” 4. Thunderstorms Shoot Antimatter Beams Into Space!
Well Hello, Mr. Jefferson
The other day I paid for lunch, and this is what I was given for change: The waiter found there to be absolutely nothing unusual about this.
Murphy’s Law Kind of a Morning
Yesterday morning my commute was humorously disastrous. I had three meetings scheduled for the day, the first of which was set to begin at at 8:30am. I found the meeting location on my map, determined it was about 25 minutes away, and left the apartment at 7:40am, leaving a little room for error. I flagged down a tuk tuk driver, showed him where we were going, negotiated a price, and then was on my way. By 8:00am, we appeared to be within a half mile of the office, so I was feeling pretty good. I even started looking around to see if there was a nearby cafe so I could relax and read for the spare 20 minutes. And then things
Slightly Disturbing Picture
The darker side of rural farming: They’re alive, and the driver fully intends to ride them between villages.
Exploring Kampong Chhnang
We took the day off from work and drove from Phnom Penh up North to Kampong Chhnang, a small town on the Tonle Sap river. The town is known for its floating villages – small groupings of houses that float on the banks of the river, and rise and fall with the unpredictable river movements during the monsoon season. The best part of the trip was spending a couple hours with a bunch of kids we met along the riverside. We all played with origami animals and paper airplanes, and it was a blast. I had read that many kids in Cambodia love to see themselves in photographs and movies. So we shot a few pictures and short videos on
Quite Literally Nothing To Do
Later this week I’ll be visiting some rural villages with a local development organization to learn about effective agricultural, sanitation, and water purification technology dissemination strategies. The trip is likely to include a number of stops at some pig farms, and one of the places I might visit is a town called Svay Rieng. Here’s what my guide book had to say: “Svay Rieng is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it provincial capital that many travelers whistle past when making the journey between Phnom Penh and Ho Chi Minh City. There is quite literally nothing to do here.” Well, uh, Lonely Planet must not know about the pig farms!