If you enjoyed the read, please feel free to share itAs usual, the Chinese calendar is playing possum and only telling half the story. More than ever before, people are up and rolling, with a motor attached. Whether it’s a Honda step-thru or a Tata Nano (the world’s cheapest car – which is dying a slow death because, it appears, no one wants to be associated with ‘The World’s Cheapest Car”) or a 150,000 dollar Range Rover… everybody onna move. Blithely skirting around such issues as fossil fuel consumption, air toxicity and ‘greenhouse’ effect, in my world it just means carnage. Rage too, but I’ll get to that later. In Cambodia, where I am working right now, there are, on average, 5 deaths and 14 mutilations daily, courtesy of traffic accidents. Getting even closer to my milieu, most amputations in SE Asia now are the result of ‘moto’ (read: scooter) crashes. It’s mayhem out there. I’m treating lots and lots of moto accidents. I came here to treat landmine victims, but there is the smell of burning rubber in my nose. It’s not as ‘sexy’ (from a media standpoint) as bombs, but motos are ripping more limbs off by far. In a way that’s good news. There were 111 casualties (deaths and horrible mutilations) due to landmines just here in Cambodia in 2013. That’s bad, for sure, but WAY down from previous years. It’s the culmination of decades of effective bomb-clearing and nation-wide education programs focused on Pounding into the people – young and old – to leave the fucking shit alone when they find it. And to report it. Most of the UXO (unexploded ordnance) accidents now are, brace yourself: detonations due to scrap metal salvaging or dynamite fishing. None of us could possibly get our minds around that level of poverty and desperation. Meantime, in Kratie Province (about 3 hours North of Phnom Penh, near the Mekong) 5 out of 10 of Leng Lal’s chickens died all at once. This is the land of Avian Flu. Lal knew it was a bit risky, but the family’s stomach was growling and he ordered his 8 yr-old son to cook ‘em up and have a big ol’ chicken feast....
Read MoreIf you enjoyed the read, please feel free to share it I told you I was Goin’ Global! Please find herewith the list of the participant to your presentation Names Place of work Nationality:T.Venkat PackirisamyTrainerIraqIndiaPTCBarbara RauTech. ref.GenevaSwiss1.Heckman ElsMob.South SudanDutch2.Kalanga AstridRes.RDCRDC3.Kamaran Jaafar MuhammedRes.ErbilIraq4.Mbarari ChelestinoMob.EthiopiaKenya5.Mian Yaqoob JanRes.PakistanPakistan6.Mosa AhmedRes.GazaPalestine7.Navid NabdinMob.SudanIran8.Roussel CatherineMob.ChadBelgium9.Aizas RatherResIndiaIndia Sorry, the above was a chart… I don’t know how to make it cross-over. I’m good with mirrors, though. It’s for an International Committee of The Red Cross presentation I am doing on March 5. These are all therapists. Just check out the number of different countries. HIT IT! The mirror is the message! From January to December 2013, 111 mine/ERW casualties were provisionally recorded by the Cambodian Mine/ERW Victim Information System (CMVIS). This figure represents a decrease of 40% compared with 2012. As in previous years, most of the accidents occurred in the five northern and western provinces (Battambang, Banteay Meanchey, Kampong Chhnang, Otdar Meanchey and Preah Vihear); three of these provinces were covered by the Battambang Regional Physical Rehabilitation Centre. Out of these 111 mine/ERW casualties: – 48 (43%) people were mine casualties and 63 (57%) people were ERW casualties. – 22 (20%) persons killed, 68 (61%) were injured and 21 (19%) persons were amputated. – 77 (70%) casualties were men, 17 (15%) casualties were boys, 11 (10%) casualties were women and 6 (5%) casualties were girls. Didier Cooreman Head of Physical Rehabilitation Project International Committee of the Red Cross 788A Monivong Blvd 12301 Phnom Penh Kingdom of Cambodia Tel +855 12985637 E-mail: dcooreman@icrc.org...
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If you enjoyed the read, please feel free to share itNew friends at the rehab clinic in Prey...
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Read MoreIf you enjoyed the read, please feel free to share it In all earnestness, I think being Frank is serving me well. I’m not beating about the bush with these people and I believe they appreciate it. Lots of times I’ll put my hand on a super-mutilated guy and just say, ‘I can’t help you man. You’re fucked.’ They usually give me a shy smile and a nod of resignation. And, of course, people of all stripes are likely to be more honest right back at you. Reciprocity. I gave a workshop a couple nites ago at Battambang’s nicest café, The Café Kinyei (also called the 1 ½ St. Café). They do all kinds of good things for the Khmer community here and are involved with many of the more valid NGOs. The room was mostly expats, a couple doctors and therapists, a few Khmers who mostly spoke English well, and Untac (!!!), my translator for the evening. It’s relatively rare for me to have such a gathering of educated English –as-a-first –language people, and so nice to be able to get a little more technical and maybe a little more expansive. Well, I kinda blew it. I mean, let’s be frank; I’m a bit of a chatterbox and boy can I digress. I was apologizing afterwards to my new friend Andrew who’s a Brit and a doctor for the Brangelina people, MJP (the Maddox Jolie Pitt Foundation). He laughed and said, ‘No, no, it was OK. It was good; it IS clear though, that you, um, CARE about what you’re doing.’ He went on to say that he’d recently told his boss about me riding around on this goofy bicycle with a giant load of mirrors on the back, and the boss the asked him, frankly, ‘Is the guy a nutjob?’. Maybe. But I’m getting through. Getting through to the clinics, the NGOs, the community and, of course, the amputees themselves. I’m being aided enormously by the fact that public interest has really swung to neurology or even, in more layman’s terms, the mysteries of the brain. Even in the small room at KINYEI there were at least two or three people who had read and been fascinated...
Read MoreIf you enjoyed the read, please feel free to share itYou want me to Go/Come to Cambodia and do a little good, right? You have to help me make it happen! Nothing else will do. Hit this link and contribute to a little good...
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