Youth Say They Are Ill Prepared for Asean Inclusion

Say Mony, VOA Khmer 
Thursday, 23 June 2011

Cambodia is slated to fully integrate with Asean markets in 2015, but youth organizers said Sunday the country's next generation is not prepared to take advantage of it. Cambodia is preparing to host a youth summit for the regional body next year.  The Youth Resources Development Program brought together nearly 1,000 attendees, most of them students, on Sunday, to prepare for next year's summit, but organizers said many Cambodians still have little understanding of the benefits of Asean, even as a younger generation will come of age under full Asean market inclusion.

Villagers, Officials See Prey Lang Land Concessions Differently

Say Mony, VOA Khmer
Friday, 10 June 2011

Granting economic land concessions to private companies in the northeastern Cambodia area of Prey Lang means development for the government but to communities depending for generations on the dense forest it means the destruction of their livelihood. Chhoun Long, a 24-year-old farmer in Kampong Thom's Sanden district, says he's concerned about the environmental impact of 'development' in this rural area. Bak Kimsok, 57, is worried for his village's survival.

Delay on Sesan River Hydrodam Unlikely: Officials

Say Mony, VOA Khmer | Phnom Penh 
Saturday, 04 June 2011

Government officials say any delay on the construction of a hydropower dam on the Sesan river in Stung Treng province is unlikely, even though residents along the river say they want more impact studies conducted.

Prach Sun, secretary of state for the Ministry of Environment, told VOA Khmer the government has already conducted an impact study, but that it would still deal with river communities on the issue of compensation.

Last month, representatives of communities living on the Sesan in Ratanakkiri province, 40 kilometers from the proposed dam site, appealed to the government to delay construction of the dam, saying they were concerned about their livelihoods and the amounts of resettlement packages.

Villagers See Negative Impacts from Proposed Dam

Say Mony, VOA Khmer
Tuesday, 31 May  2011

River protection groups and villagers along the Sesan River in Ratanakkiri province have appealed to halt the Lower Sesan Dam II project, insisting more studies are needed on the dam's impact on community livelihoods. The appeal followed the government's approval of the dam project during a Vietnam-Cambodia investment conference in Phnom Penh last month.

Plucked From Garbage Scavenging, a Girl Makes Good

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Tuesday, 31 May 2011

Today Chen Sokha, 16, is a student at a prestigious international school and has even been named one of Newsweek magazine’s top 150 women.

When Chen Sokha was a young girl, she found herself, through circumstance and bad luck, an orphan, and a scavenger at Phnom Penh’s notorious Stung Meanchey dump. Things went poorly from Day One. “While I was scavenging on the side of the trash hill, a bulldozer pushed the trash down and the trash covered one of my legs,” she said in a recent interview, recalling the day years before.

Journalist, Mentor, Teacher, Dies at 47

Pich Samnang and Kong Sothanarith, VOA Khmer
Saturday, 14 May  2011

Reach Sambath, a seasoned reporter, revered journalism mentor and an important public liaison for the Khmer Rouge tribunal to the public, died on Wednesday from an apparent stroke. Reach Sambath started his career as a reporter for the Agence France-Presse, where he earned the respect of his fellow journalists and sources alike. He studied under a prestigious scholarship at Columbia University in New York before becoming a journalism instructor at the Royal University of Phnom Penh.

Schools Not Making Entrepreneurs: Business Leader

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Friday, 13 May 2011

Sila Chy Thmor , national president for the 2011 of Junior Chamber International Cambodia.

A young business leader says Cambodian universities must do better to develop young entrepreneurs, rather than teaching students to become good employees. “In schools, they teach young people how to find jobs, but why don't they teach them how to run their own businesses?” said Chy Sila, president of the Junior Chamber International Cambodia, as a guest on “Hello VOA” Monday.

Few Equate Climate Change With Its Causes: Study

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Friday, 13 May 2011

FILE - In this July 19, 2007 file photo, an iceberg is seen melting off the coast of Ammasalik, Greenland. A new assessment of climate change in the Arctic shows the ice in the region is melting faster than previously thought and sharply raises projectio

The majority of Cambodians have little understanding of the causes of climate change, due to a lack of information, a new poll has found. In a survey by the BBC World Service Trust of 2,401 Cambodians from all walks of life, about 85 percent said they had heard of climate change, although they associated it with disease, farming troubles and drought.

Mekong Dam Hurts Villagers Along The River

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Thursday, 05 May 2011

Lao villagers living along the Mekong river say their livelihood would be harmed by the proposed Xayaburi dam in their country if it is built as planned. Villagars voiced their concerns after the meeting of the Mekong River Commission (MRC) failed to decide if the dam project should go ahead. VOA Khmer's Pich Samnang reports from Vientiane, Laos.

Film Highlights Potential Harm of Mekong Dams

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Friday, 29 April 2011

An extraction from the documentary "Where Have All the Fish Gone? Killing the Mekong Dam by Dam" shows a massive dam under construction on a stretch of the Mekong river in China.

A documentary showing the possible impacts of hydropower dams on the Mekong was screened in Phnom Penh Tuesday night, a week after Mekong countries failed to decide on a dam proposed in Laos. About 200 people, most of them students, watched the film, “Where Have All the Fish Gone?: Killing the Mekong Dam by Dam,” which was directed by journalist Tom Fawtrop and screened at Pannasastra University in the capital.