1^st July 2012

Last Friday, 29^th June, The Cambodia Daily reported that student volunteers are to be deployed to measure land as part of an ambition land-titling programme announced by the Prime Minister. Intended to reach all villagers living inside land concessions and state forests within the next six months, the 734 students are meant to spend the next two months measuring approximately 350,000 hectares of land occupied by around 100,000 rural families in eight provinces.

Dressed in military uniforms and divided into 61 groups, they will fan out to assist 486 local land and cadastral officials from the Land Management Ministry as well as 281 provincial officials. Once finalised, the data will be sent to the PM for approval to privatise the state land where the villagers live and issue them legal titles.

At least, that is the theory. So far the government has had a very mixed record on instituting property rights – to say the least.

A large part of the problem goes back to the Khmer Rouge period, who outlawed ownership of private property in 1975 and followed this by destroying most of the land titling records. During this period and its immediate aftermath, large numbers of people moved around the country, either into new areas or back to their original provinces where they squatted on any land they could find. Many have remained where they settled ever since and understandably regard the land they have developed or farmed as their own.

In the first decade of this century, the World Bank (WB) funded a Land Management and Administration Project (LMAP) to implement a systematic land-titling programme in the urban and semi-urban areas of Phnom Penh municipality and Siem Reap district, as well as other urban areas in the country to try and formalise the existing arrangements as well as remedy the inevitable disputes that arose.

The project was based on property rights theories that people are more likely to invest resources in productive activities when they are confident that they, or their heirs, will enjoy the benefits in the future. In particular, the project owned its genesis to the theories of Hernando de Soto – popular at the time – who argued that the poor in developing countries actually possess substantial assets, albeit in forms of “dead capital” and that governments should provide property ownership in the form of legal titles so that the poor can use this as collateral to raise credit for investment both in their own property or in small business, leading to significant reductions in poverty and improved well-being.

One million titles were to be issued during the first phase (2002–07), but the project quickly ran into trouble when it came up against other government “priorities.”

Eventually, after accusations that the Bank itself was simply contributing to the problem rather than solving it, an investigation in 2009 by a WB Inspection Panel found its “operational policies had been breached by the failure to enforce implementation of social and environmental safeguards” tied to the failure of the system in regard to the Boeung Kak lake debacle. However, when the Bank tried to force the issue, the Government responded by abruptly cancelling the programme, citing the Bank’s “complicated conditions” as the reason for its decision.

In many ways this dispute represents diametrically opposed development models as well as the divergent interests of the government and subsistent farmers, or poor people occupying what has become valuable urban real estate.

In Thailand, for example, over half the population live and work in agriculture but the sector makes an increasingly smaller contribution to the national economy. In fact, many families in the countryside live on hard-scrabble farms where they eke out a subsistence but increasingly earn cash off the farm. Without scale, most of these farms are uneconomic and their owners pay nothing in tax to the central authorities but, as citizens, are demanding more and more in the way of services. Consolidation of farms whereby surplus rural labour migrates to find work in factories has failed to ameliorate the situation or promote efficiencies in farming practice.

Here in Cambodia, the government – as well as many ordinary Cambodians – sees agriculture as a linchpin in the economic development of the country.

“Land and cultural resources are the two major potentials Cambodia possesses (which) can be used to develop the country,” according to Im Chhun Lim, the Minister of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction. So “there should not be a question to why Cambodia” uses its large tracts of land “for attracting investors for developing (the) country.”

However, rampant land seizures – especially for commercial development, either for real estate development or for plantation agricultural ventures – are increasingly politically explosive. Economic land concessions have become an increasingly controversial, with the government granting some 800,000 hectares (two million acres) last year alone to well-connected private firms, according to local rights group Licadho, and the displaced appear increasingly willing to confront armed police, soldiers and security guards: a combustible mix.

The area granted for land concessions rose six-fold between 2010 and 2011, and a further 300,000 hectares have been leased already this year, Licardo says. Such concessions typically involve clearing forest land for plantations to grow cash crops such as rubber, cassava, oil palm and sugar cane on 99-year leases.

While the figure represents only around 5% of the country’s entire land area, the concessions are usually sited on highly desirable arable land, such as on red volcanic soils, or just happen to include valuable stands of trees. Frequently these grants have put the new owners into direct conflict with locals that have regarded the land as theirs, despite having no formal land titles.

What the whole scheme has clearly demonstrated is that in countries like Cambodia where the threat of eviction is tangible, the possession of a land title is highly valued.

Back in early May, the Prime Minister has announced a moratorium on issuing new leases for economic land concessions, following an outcry earlier this year, saying the government would take back land from any firms that breach their lease by “cutting trees to sell, without developing the economic land concessions… and grabbing villagers’ or community land”.

This apparent turn-around came as a surprise and has been greeted with scepticism in may quarters, especially as the government has continued to hand out further concessions. The premier insists that these were simply deals that had already been done prior to the government’s change of heart.

In December 2011, the Tumpoun people in Ratanakiri Province became one of the first three such communities to receive land titles for their territory, under a new pilot scheme funded by the Danish Agency for International Development (DANIDA) aimed at protecting their way of life and identity.

Mind you, giving title to individual families in cultures that have traditionally practised communal ownership is itself controversial.

Indigenous peoples like the Tumpoun make up around 3% of Cambodia’s population and are among the most vulnerable groups in Cambodian society have increasingly come under threat from deforestation, mining and agricultural businesses. The scheme, in operation since 2005, has focused on three provinces with the highest population of indigenous peoples: Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri and Preah Vihear.

Whether this represents a sea change or is merely a ploy to store up support for the CPP out in its rural heartland is too early to tell. How the circle is squared without a repeat of the Thai situation is also still hard to see.

28^th June 2012

The news agency of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (IRIN) cites the examples of two migrant workers both trafficked from Cambodia into neighbouring countries and forced to work as unpaid labour in frightful conditions. 

“Nara” (not his real name) was just 20 when he was approached by a smuggler in 2008, who offered him a factory job in Thailand with a monthly salary of US$200, roughly three times what he would get for similar work in Cambodia. But by the time he realised that he had been tricked, he had been forced onto a boat that set out for Malaysian waters and docked once a month on desolate islands – and in the grip of a violent skipper.

He only escaped after three years when the boat had to put into port and, through the help of an anti-trafficking NGO, was eventually repatriated home.

“Kunthea”, who also asked that her real name not be used, was offered a job as a domestic servant in Malaysia at aged 18 by a recruitment company here in Phnom Penh. She claims her employers only fed her one meal per day, regularly beat her and refused to pay her. With no friends or family and unable to speak the language, it took her a year to pluck up the courage to seek help. Since then, her attempts to seek reimbursement through the recruitment agency have failed.

Desperate poverty, few fungible skills, little in the way of job opportunities, plus the lure of higher wages outside Cambodia make desperate Cambodians like Nara and Kunthea easy prey for unscrupulous middlemen, while a lack of legal recourse means such migrant workers are unable to take perpetrators to court, or even seek compensation. IRIN says rights workers who monitor the trafficking of Cambodians to Thailand to work in the fishing industry, for example, report they are not aware of a single successful prosecution – despite the scale of abuse,.
 
Women like Kunthea are particularly vulnerable to abuse, and unable to hold their abusers accountable because domestic work is not recognised as an official category of work under either Cambodian or Malaysian labour law.

“Criminal law does not provide restitution for a range of work-related abuses, like withholding pay, overtime provisions, and other decent work standards like maternity leave and disability protections,” IRIN quotes Max Tunon, a senior officer of the International Labour Organisation, as saying. “Migrants should be able to benefit from collective bargaining agreements, and to negotiate for improved terms of employment and working conditions.”

Victims also fear reprisals or are reluctant to step up as witnesses because they are often kept in government shelters during subsequent legal processes, and this might prevent them from working and being with their families while their case is going forward, according to Lisa Rende Taylor, chief technical advisor at the UN’s Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking (UNIAP).

According to UNIAP, in 2009 an estimated 20,000 Cambodian deportees from Thailand were labour trafficking victims – a figure likely to increase given Thailand’s growing shortage of low-skilled labour for its industries.

18^th June 2012

Slavery and human trafficking are a huge problems in this part of the world. Up to a decade ago, much of this trafficking was of girls and young women to meet the insatiable demands of the region’s sex industry.

However, huge resources were focused on this scourge and fortunately this part of human trafficking has been successfully addressed to a large extent. Not eliminated, but much less of a problem than it was in the past.

Instead, most of those who are trafficked these days are victims of employment scams. And this does seem on the increase. Recently there were reports that young Lao women were now being trafficked into Vietnam, where they have their travel documents confiscated and are forced to work essentially for nothing in all sorts of medial jobs.

Here in Cambodia, it is the trafficking of domestic workers to Malaysia or young men press-ganged onto Thai fishing trawlers that regularly made the headlines.

However, this is not the picture you get if you listen to many in the equally large “humanitarian” industry here that feeds off this sordid trade. Clearly the story of people being ruthlessly exploited in their workplaces doesn’t resonate nearly as powerfully as a narrative about young women – or better, children – being sold into the sex trade.

This is significant because most of these “humanitarian” organisations are hungry. There are a seemingly endless number and they have many mouths to feed, especially the expat staff that invariably manage most if not almost all of them. Sex sells, and graphic tales of sexual horror helps to raise donations like no other.

A cynic might even think the two are symbiotic.

The latest to exploit this tactic is Kate Kennedy, chief executive for Hagar Australia that purportedly “restores the lives of abused women and children in our region through rescue, medical and legal support, education and finance,” in an interview with Australia’s Fairfax press.

Now I happen to think Hagar actually does good work, especially in vocational training for young women in preparation for the type of jobs for which there is a demand here in Cambodia: low-skilled but honest work in the garment or hospitality industries. Their work with victims of domestic violence, which is rife in the Kingdom, is also exemplary.

However, the narrative she regales us with is the same tired formula used by nearly all of these organisations involved in the anti-trafficking industry.

“Our clients have often been raped, have been relocated to different countries, so have no community, or are severely traumatised due to severe exploitation. They may have been trafficked when they are very young, so there is often no chance of reintegration back into a community because they don’t know where they are from; they have no economic or community backdrop that will support them for their future. And pretty consistently there is a really deep level of trauma that comes from the combination of human rights abuses,” she says.

She follows this with specific harrowing cases – unfortunately giving the impression that this sort of thing continues to happen here on an almost daily basis – such as mentioning the case of the Russian paedophile recently arrested here and about to (finally) be deported from Cambodia, but making it sound as if his crimes had happened yesterday.

Any pervert stupid enough to think they can come here to indulge their proclivities with impunity, is asking to be run to ground by these organisations and prosecuted. Such lurid tales are good for business.

One thing that most of these anti-trafficking organisations have in common is that they are faith-based (invariably Christian). Hagar, for example was spun out of World Vision. These see themselves not only doing good works but almost inevitably, being on a “civilising mission.”

You might think honesty would be a value.

While I doubt they would admit that they believe that the locals, with their Buddhism overlaying their deeper shamanistic beliefs, are really in league with the Devil, the frequent dysfunction in many poor rural communities here in post-Khmer Rouge Cambodia probably confirms such chauvinism.

However, it is the blatant dishonesty, the manipulation of the ill-informed and the grasping avariciousness of these groups with their legions of Western consultants making a handsome living from this ‘industry’ that makes it hard to stomach.

Then there is the impact on tourism, an important revenue source and significant employer in this very poor country. Why risk going to Cambodia if there is any chance that someone could whisper that you might just be a paedophile?

Given how important tourism is to Cambodia, Hagar are certainly not doing the country any favours by perpetuating this nonsense.

14^th June 2012

Having just learned that Facebook is no longer cool (one analyst even suggested, based on its current business model, the stock should really have débuted at $US13.80 a share, as it is not clear it will ever figure out how to monetise its vast pool of users) and may go the way of Yahoo! over the next five years, now we are discovering that the evil empire also plans to intrude on our ‘private’ conversations on Skype.

The days of ad-free Skyping are ending, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times’ story.

Here in Cambodia Skype is a service that expats increasingly rely on to keep in touch with family and friends back home. It is also increasing used as a business tool.

Microsoft, which bought the company for $US8.5 billion last year, announced on Wednesday that it plans to insert display ads into our conversations with our friends. These ads will appear during audio calls next to the image of the contact being called.

However, if you have a Skype credit or subscription, for now, these ads won’t appear, but if you have a free account and use Skype for Windows, you’ll see these ads. It is likely the conversation ads will start to appear on other platforms, too.

In a chirpy post on Skype’s official blog, the company said it is “excited” to introduce a new ad service as a way for marketers to reach its hundreds of millions users in a place where they can have “a meaningful conversation about brands.”

Great! Just what I want when I’m talking to my mum.

The good news is that at least the ads will be silent and non-expanding. That’s something at least.

However, the release ominously promises “additional commercial experiences in the future.”

Non-personally identifiable demographic information (e.g. location, gender and age) will be used to target ads in order to “ensure that non-paying users see ads that are of greater interest and relevance to them,” according to Microsoft. However, users will be able to ‘opt-out’ of allowing Skype to use some of this non-personally identifiable information from the Privacy menu in Tools, but ever if they choose this, they will continue to receive advertisements “relevant to their location.”

Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer noted at the time of the takeover that Skype was loved by hundreds of millions of people around the world.

As the LA Times article notes, only time will tell how much the new ad policy at Skype will change that.

13^th June 2012

Some cynics have suggested that that greatest good most NGOs and charities here in Cambodia do is to provide ordinary Cambodians with jobs that allow them to enjoy middle class lifestyles.

It is generally accepted that terms and conditions, including fringe benefits, for most local employees working for many NGOs often exceeds those offered by either the public or the private sector in the Kingdom, making them highly desirable employers.

Locals also find they like working for foreign-managed NGOs because the working environment is more collaborative and they are frequently given more respect, with clear career paths that permit them to scrabble up the greasy poll rather that simply being used by their superiors to do the grunt work (for which the boss takes the credit).

Just as foreign aid was often faulted for dumping surplus produce and especially grain from the developed world into poor countries, thereby undermining local producers, so it is quite common for NGOs in the developing world to siphon off the better skilled and deter them from putting their talents to work for the economic benefit of their societies, working in the civil service or even the private sector, so critics say.

However, a new problem is emerging. As the decline in economic prospects for young people accelerates in the developed world, increasingly these, often well-educated and credentialed Westerners are choosing to burnish their CVs by coming to Cambodia to volunteer at a NGO.

This is much preferable to standing around on windy street corners in sub-zero temperatures in some benighted Western country. Some even garner a stipend from their own governments to come here, as this helps to shrink the unemployment numbers at home.

Others actually pay companies specialising in finding such jobs for the privilege of a placement.

It is clearly an attractive option. Volunteering at an NGO here often doesn’t involve you doing very much – and this town is such as cheap place to party!

But is it ultimately that good for country? Do the “good works” these NGOs workers do outweigh the opportunity cost for Cambodians that might otherwise do the work?

Euphemistically called “Interns”, the anecdotal evidence is that these young foreigners are displacing locals as workers in many of the low-paid jobs in the sector because of their higher levels of productivity and the fact they often come free to the NGO in question.

As they say in business, its hard to compete with free.