31^st May 2012

Australia’s Fairfax Press reports that the country increasingly recognised as the “Russia of the South Pacific” or the “Land of the South Sea Oligarchs” will slash up to 150 diplomatic jobs in the largest cuts to the Foreign Affairs Department (DFAT) in more than a decade, after the department was required to find savings of between $A25-30 million.

DFAT Secretary Dennis Richardson has confirmed a memo has been sent to all staff foreshadowing that between 100 and 150 jobs are set to go. This is apparently in the pursuit of greater “efficiency’ (surely an alien concept in any government bureaucracy, still “cutting DFAT” has a certain resonance. ed).

A frisson of fear rippled through the appropriately bunker-like complex down on the road opposite the National Assembly yesterday when the deeper-than-expected cuts were first announced. Daiquiris were spilt as paper-shufflers digested the news.

But then it became clear that this mooted change will come through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies and will affect mostly Canberra-based staff.

Overseas postings are to be spared the knife.

Phew!

Mind you, we can’t really understand why most of these jobs can’t be outsourced to India or The Philippines. We’re sure Gina, Twiggy and co would all approve.

31^st May 2012

Zimbabwe’s President Mugabe, who signed an agreement to co-host a UN tourism conference, now has an honorary position as envoy. Despite his long record of human rights abuses, this new title is apparently recognition for Mugabe’s agreement to co-host a UN general assembly meeting of the World Tourism Organization next August, along with Zambia.

This demonstrates creative thinking at a time when tourism dollars are likely to shrink because of the slowly compounding economic crises facing the world. When only the one percent can afford to travel, it makes sense to explore new avenues that are lively to appeal to their interests.

Zimbabwe is clearly just such a destination. It provides endless opportunities to witness electoral fraud, policing of opponents, beating of protesters – all useful, and no doubt necessary skills in today’s world – up close and personal.

Mugabe was quoted by the independent Zimbabwe newspaper NewsDay as saying. “For the UN World Tourism Organisation….the signatures testify to the confidence and trust that was bestowed upon us.”

Here at Penh Pal, we feel it is time our Prime Minister received a similar level of recognition. Perhaps as a special envoy to the UNHCR?

28^th May 2012

The Bangkok-based English language newspaper, The Nation, reports that the 2001 memorandum of understanding between Thailand and Cambodia is being proposed as the guideline for negotiations to solve the territorial dispute between the two countries over their overlapping sea claims so that petroleum exploration in the area can begin.

The Thai Department of Mineral Fuels is apparently proposing this to PM Yingluck Shinawatra and Army leaders in advance of a meeting she will hold with the latter in June. If the Thai parties agree to this approach, and it passes cabinet and the Thai parliament, negotiations with Cambodia could then begin and, if a consensus is reached, exploration of the disputed area would follow.

Back in 1971, Thailand granted private companies exploration rights, but then terminated these exploration licences in 1975 due to other border disputes with Cambodia, mainly over the area surrounding the Preah Vihear temple.

However, if the dispute over these overlapping territorial claims covering the more than 26,000 square kilometres of sea is settled, both sides stand to benefit. Thailand, for instance, expects to increase its reserves of natural gas by 30%, thereby extending the life-span of its gas resources in the Gulf of Thailand (thereby lessening its dependence on gas from Myanmar).

At issue is how to divide possible gas deposits that stretch across the border. The negotiations are expected to be divided into two parts: the upper territory that is demarked by the border boundary, and the remaining overlapping territory, which is to be developed jointly.

Failure to resolve the dispute would result in lost opportunities for both countries. At the same time, policing division of the spoils could prove tricky.

However, under a joint venture exploration programme with Malaysia, an estimated 10 billion cubic feet of natural gas was found and the benefits were split 50:50, with operations managed through a joint Thailand-Malaysia company.

Meanwhile, in another dispute, an agreement was struck with Vietnam that established a boundary line that gave Vietnam 33%, while Thailand got 67%. Thailand’s PTT Exploration and Production undertook both exploration and development of the areas covered by the agreement and is currently producing about 330 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

In March of this year, Cambodian tycoon and Senator Ly Yong Phat and Thailand’s Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Plc, signed a joint-venture agreement to develop a 1,800 megawatt coal-generated electric power plant in Koh Kong province, with 90% of the power to be sold into the Thai power grid.

It will be interesting to see where the Cambodia’s share of any gas discovered goes under this proposed framework?

24^th May 2012

In an opinion piece in today’s Bangkok Post,  the paper’s military and security affairs reporter Wassana Namuam writes the Thai army are using the continuing unresolved dispute over Preah Vihear to extort the largest chunk from the country’s defence budget for the next fiscal year.

Despite the current Pheu Thai Party government led by PM Yingluck Shinawatra, enjoying good relations with Cambodia due to amicable history of ties between her brother Thaksin and PM Hun Sen, the focus of future military spending appears to be on border security preparations, with priority given to the border with Cambodia.

Army chief Gen Prayuth Chan-ocha appears keen to keep the pot boiling and has ordered the 2nd Army Region to stay alert ahead of the 2013 budget, now in the Thai parliament, being approved. Gen Prayuth has strong support for this from his former classmates from Class 12 of the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School, which control key army units and are also considered hawkish on this issue. These include Supreme Commander Tanasak Patimapakorn, and his close friend Worapong Sa-nganet, the Thai Armed Forces’ chief of staff, the team leader in the Joint Working Group (JWG) in negotiations with their counterparts from Cambodia.

The International Court of Justice is expected to rule on the sovereignty of the land around the Khmer temple disputed by Thailand early next month.

So far, the Thai military has stymied efforts to respect an injunction from the World Court troop withdrawal from the disputed zone and allow Indonesian observers to oversee the area until its ruling is handed down. The Thai Army’s dragging its feet on the issue, Khun Wassana contents, is raising Thai government concerns that failing to follow the directive “could paint a negative image of Thailand as a ‘bad boy’, which could possibly affect the court’s decision.”

The first meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) with Cambodia, held on April 4^th-5^th in Bangkok between Cambodian Deputy Defence Minister Nieng Pad and General Tanasak, failed to address the sensitive issue of a troop withdrawal. Instead, an agreement to clear landmines in the area was the only outcome.

While Gen Tanasak played down the Thai military’s intransigence in a statement made at the armed forces leaders’ meeting on the border issue at the air force head office last week, his position is to continue to bang on about bilateral talks to resolve the conflict rather that allow the international court to rule on it, and to insist that the Indonesian observers are not needed.

Khun Wassana says the army’s reluctance “stems in part from military leaders wanting to avoid going down in history as the ones responsible for withdrawing troops or giving up land claimed by Thailand” as, once the Indonesian observers are in place, Thailand will be required to ask for their permission to enter the area, which would suggest Thailand has implicitly recognised that its claim to the territory is open to doubt.

When Thai Defence Minister ACM Sukumpol Suwanatat meets privately with PM Hun Sen on the sidelines of the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting in Phnom Penh next Monday and Tuesday, this issue is expected to be high on the agenda, although the signing of an agreement to foster unity and security cooperation to build trust among the bloc’s 10 members is the key topic.

For Cambodia, clearing landmines in the disputed area in line with the agreement from the last JWG meeting, under the auspices of a new National Centre for Peacekeeping Force, Mine and Explosive Remnants of War Clearance, is more pressing, as it awaits the outcome of the International court’s ruling, which is expected to favour the country.

However the sensitive nature of dispute for nationalists on both sides of the border, but especially the “yellow shirt” People’s Alliance for Democracy, who may try to use the issue to revive their flagging movement, and their allies amongst the Royalist military figures determined to stymie the pending return to Thailand of their hated adversary, Thaksin, make the whole border dispute fraught if not potentially explosive – especially for the Puea Thai government.

If Thaksin’s threat to return in the next couple of months materialises, expect to see a flare-up of trouble at Preah Vihear.

20^th May 2012

Why would anyone want to eat pond scum, you might ask? On its own (usually dried and in capsule form), it looks and tastes disgusting. However, advocates say it is the perfect food supplement that offers all the micronutrients that body may be missing out on.

This could be good news for ordinary Cambodians, as malnutrition remains a problem despite the fact that the vast majority these days actually have enough to eat.

Now a Swiss-registered charity has announced through the Cambodian Parents’ Network that it is seeking distributors for the product here in the Kingdom. Presenting itself as an NGO, it says it is producing Spirulina in Cambodia “as a way to fight malnutrition” and is looking for people “interested in making additional pocket money by buying and selling Spirulina in their own interpersonal network.”

In other words, it is multilevel marketing (or pyramid selling) business.

Spirulina is the name given to a blue green algae more closely akin to bacteria than to seaweed, that produces its own food through photosynthesis. Aside from being an energy booster, it has been claimed that Spirulina can treat obesity, is good for the skin, and is rich in vitamins and protein. In fact, it is regarded by some as a veritable cure-all. (For a review of Spirulina as a supplement, see the Wikipedia entry)

Back in the 1990s, Spirulina became a fad amongst the whole-earth, alternative lifestyle crowd, fuelled as much by greed as faith in its purported healing properties after The National Inquirer published an article in 1981 promoting it as the latest weight loss miracle. It was also claimed to be “a complete whole food,” contains “60% protein with all the essential amino acids in perfect balance,” and “the highest chlorophyll content of any plant.”

Claims for Spirulina’s health benefits are largely based on the notion that it is an ideal food, dense in nutrients and in perfect “balance.” The Swiss NGO says in its pitch that “Spirulina is a great, natural food supplement for health. It is highly recommended for pregnant and breastfeeding women and young children (6 months to 5 years), but really, it is good for anybody who wants to keep healthy and energetic.”

Unfortunately, as a food supplement, Spirulina products contain negligible amounts of nutrients, as they are largely marketed as small capsules or tablets. As such, they are usually very expensive and contain no nutrients that cannot be found in other foods at considerably lower costs. Consequently, they are typically consumed not as food but in small amounts for their alleged drug-like health benefits.

Although sold for its alleged nutritional value, it is usually packaged and used like a pharmaceutical.

The idea that it is all about perfect nutritional balance that will allow the body to heal itself also means Spirulina doesn’t have to meet the rigours of government approval, which requires going through the time and expense to prove scientifically that one’s claims are actually true.

Nevertheless, proponents often claim Spirulina’s health benefits have been demonstrated with scientific research Unfortunately, this conflates basic science research with clinical research. The first happens in the laboratory while the latter actually looks at the results on human subjects. The problem is that basic research alone is a very poor predictor of the final health effects of a substance on the human body. Human physiology is far too complex to make such extrapolations with confidence, and the last century of medical research has demonstrated that only a very small minority of substances which look promising in the test tube actually prove beneficial to people.

Another sales pitch is that Spirulina is packed with vitamins, but nutritionists say you’ll get more vitamins from normal servings of broccoli and other green vegetables. And because it has a considerable amount of vitamin B12, Spirulina is usually recommended to strict vegetarians who can’t get this vitamin from plant sources. But Dr. Varro Tyler, a world renowned authority on herbs at Purdue University, has said Spirulina’s vitamin B12 content is due mainly to contamination with insect or animal faecal matter. This is not surprising as the algae often grows on open lakes and ponds before it is dried.

In Health Schemes, Scams and Frauds, Dr. Stephen Barrett wrote that an FDA analysis of one of the earlier Spirulina lines, called Blue Green Manna, contained “15 whole or equivalent adult flies, 164 adult fly fragments, 41 whole or equivalent maggots, 59 maggot fragments, one ant, five ant fragments, one adult cicada, one cicada pupa, 763 insect fragments, nine ticks, four mites, 1,000 ostracods, two rat or mouse hairs, four bird feathers, six bird-feather barbules, and 10,500 water fleas.”

Of course, Penh Pal has no way of knowing if the “Swiss NGO” has recognised and addressed these issues. It appears from their video that the algae is grown on purpose-build ponds that are covered to prevent contamination, for example. If the Spirulina they produce is added in significant quantities to other foods and then sold in quantities and at prices poor people can afford – and evidence is then demonstrated this successfully addresses deficiencies in the diet of poor Cambodians  – we say good luck to them.