awritersinspirations:

Drifting in and out of sleep he kept squeezing my hand three times– hard enough so I wouldn’t mistake it for a twitch. He never looked at me, never opened his eyes, but I knew what he was telling me.

inkbomb:

“Parental anxiety over a child’s relations in a previous life runs through many of these accounts. In much of Southeast Asia, parents fear that the child might abandon them, leaving them without support in their old age…Given their more recent experiences under Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, Khmer say that their fear of losing children has, if anything, increased. In the United States, many parents feel that their children are “all they have left” and cling to them tenaciously.“

-Khmer American: Identity and Moral Education in a Diasporic Community (1999)

vongalong:

When my parents were my age, they were trying to survive the holocaust of their own people, a mass killing of Cambodians known as the Khmer Rouge. They witnessed innocent people getting raped and killed, some of which were their siblings and children.

Everyday, I face many ‘bumps in the road’. A test, stupid friend drama, or a little financial crisis. Even with all these bumps in the road, never do I take anything for granted. I can have the shittiest day ever, but I remind myself that all the things I go through isn’t just a bump in the road, it’s a privilege.

I’m blessed to have the opportunity to receive a higher education, have friends that come from any cultural background, and I’m even blessed to have the [minute] amount of change in my pocket.

I never hesitate to say my parents are my heroes. They came from nothing… and now have everything they could ever want/need.

I thank them for raising me to believe that I already have everything I could possibly need. They’ve taught me that friends come and go and have helped me learn that you don’t need to do something amazing to have an extravagant day.

Unfortunately, one thing they haven’t taught me is to believe in my talents… because I don’t think even think they believe in it. Typical Asian parents, but it’s okay… I still love them. At least they support me and that’s all I can really ask for. My parents fought and fought to get to where they are… they never stopped - And I’m going to do the same.

khmergrllll:

Cambodia is my home.

That’s where my heart is. That’s where I live part-time. I learned how to speak Khmer before I learned how to speak English. That’s where my parents are from. I might not look it on the outside, but the blood that runs through my veins are as Khmer as the Mekong running through the country.

And my country, my beautiful homeland is being plagued with violence and death because of our dictator of a Prime Minister, Hun Sen.

No one knows about Cambodia’s history. You learn about the Holocaust in school and the Armenian Genocide, but how many people have been educated about the Khmer Rouge? Where millions of people got brutally murdered and executed by our own people? My parents had to flee the country and they made it out alive, but countless didn’t. I have so many aunts and uncles I will never meet because they were killed before my father’s eyes.

My father’s fingers bend in an unnatural way because they tortured him and tested his pain tolerance. My mother has told me stories of eating dirty snow from the ground because they weren’t given any food for days. I have only met ¼ grandparents because the other three were tricked into thinking they would be free and get to head to Thailand for safety, when instead, they were lead to their execution. 

The Khmer Rouge was lead by Pol Pot. A person of pure evil who supervised the killings of millions of his own people. You know who was also part of the Khmer Rouge? Hun Sen.

He is our current Prime Minister and he has been in power for almost 30 years. THIRTY YEARS. Even crazy Communist leaders in China knew their limit after 10. It is 2014 and this man is getting away with murder. That is a saying, but in this case, it’s the full truth.

I went to Cambodia for the first time in 1996 when I was 5. That was during an election. Hun Sen didn’t want to be overthrown, so he had his army kill anyone that got in his way. Literally. I remember looking down from the top floor window and seeing dead bodies sprawled on the street. The TV warned us not to stand near windows or on balconies in case a shot would fire and hit us. My parents grabbed me and my sister and we had to run away to Thailand for safety and refuge. It doesn’t matter that I was only 5 years old – something like that, you can never forget or erase from your memory.

From that moment, I learned that there is true evil in this world.

Hun Sen has control over everything in Cambodia. I was there this past summer, and one moment I’m driving down to go to my favorite boba place (Cha Time wassup) and then after I’m about to go back home, the road I JUST took was completely blocked off with dozens of armed military men. What the f? My dad told me that this happens often. Whatever Hun Sen wants, he gets. If a TV channel is broadcasting his crooked antics, in a second he can obliterate that entire TV station.

Also during the summer was the election. I have scarring memories about being in Cambodia during elections. Things got violent but not as bad as in 96. But there were still nights where we had to shut off all the lights, turn off the TV, and stay silently still to make it seem like no one was home, so we wouldn’t be a target for rioters going down our street.

This election was the first time in decades that someone actually had a chance of running against him. Sam Rainsy won. He won. I don’t care what Hun Sen’s TV channels promoted, he won. Cambodia wants change and Hun Sen is afraid of that. He’s terrified by it. He’s scared shitless that someone will take over him, so his way to deal with it? Make hundreds of thousands of fake ballots and put them in the voting boxes so that he “wins” by a landslide. Oh, and Sam Rainsy’s ballots? Hun Sen had his men throw them into the river.

There have been huge rallies and protests over the past few weeks. Garment factory workers are having peaceful protests asking for a raise. But things have turned ugly and signs of Pol Pot are showing in Hun Sen.

When will it stop?

Innocent people are being killed in my home country, my beloved Cambodia, because they are asking for a raise that they rightfully deserve.

All they are asking for is $120 dollars a month and this evil dictator we call our Prime Minister won’t allow it. The workers have every single right to protest and fight for what they deserve. In America, people can make $120 easily in a week, but so many Cambodians have to risk their lives to fight for that amount of money after working for a MONTH. These workers would use that amount to provide for their entire families, yet they aren’t being granted.

If you shop at stores like H&M, check the tags on your clothes, because a $25 dollar top will say “Made in Cambodia” and the person MAKING that shirt by hand gets the amount you paid for it after slaving away for WEEKS.

The protests have been peaceful until yesterday, when our evil PM had his army open fire on dozens of workers, killing at least 4 and injuring many others. Why did they deserve to die? Because they peacefully rallied and asked for more than $90 a month?

Why is this not on CNN? Because Hun Sen has control of what leaves Cambodia. Try and do a news report of the protests in front of Hun Sen’s men and consider yourself dead. PLEASE, spread the word and let others become more educated about what’s going on in my beloved country. It’s not right and we need help.

I don’t understand how a person can kill his own innocent people. He has been in power for almost 30 years. Step the fuck down and let someone else rule who will actually take care of our people and our country.