17^th May 2013

The Cambodia Daily reports that labour rights activists and a government official have accused the International Labour Organisation’s Better Factories Cambodia (BFC) programme of culpability in the collapse.

Penh Pal isn’t sure if this was because the BFC inspectors were all standing at the time on the mezzanine section above the factory floor when it collapsed under their weight?

The labour programme head of the Community Legal Education Centre, Moeun Tola, blamed the BFC for ineffectiveness by failing to disclose the names of factories that have flouted the nation’s laws on health and safety in factories. The director of the Ministry of Labour’s occupational safety and health department echoed these sentiments.

However Jill Tucker, technical advisor for the BFC countered that the factory in question was not part of the monitoring programme as it had only recently started to cover shoe factories. So far, it has only managed to bring nine of the 45 footwear factories currently exporting from Cambodia on board.

David Welsh, country director of The Solidarity Centre, also noted that if the BFC was too aggressive in it approach, many factories would simply opt out of the programme, which is voluntary.

This is not the first time of late that the BFC has been attacked. A report released in the middle of February, “Monitoring in the Dark,” by researchers from Stanford Law School, accused the BFC of failing to improve the lives of Cambodian garment workers. In fact, it claims, wages and basic job security have actually declined over the past dec­ade during the time the BFC has been in operation.

Multinational clothing retailers have been considering Cambodia as one of several countries that could be alternatives to Bangladesh for manufacturing after the disaster three weeks ago at the Rana Plaza factory complex there that killed at least 1,127 people but yesterday’s accident at the factory in Tream Tbal, about an hour’s drive southwest of Phnom Penh, is a reminder that workplace accidents and shoddy construction are not confined to Bangladesh.

Dangerous building practices appear to behind this accident as well, rather than the more usual problems of industrial fumes or inadequate sustenance – something that is not part of BFC’s remit.

A report just last month by BFC highlighted concerns about workplace safety, including “a worrying increase in fire safety violations.”

While the cause of the ceiling collapse was not immediately known, the secretary general of the Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC), Ken Loo said that steel beams holding up a concrete-floored storage area at mezzanine height between two buildings had given way. One of the workers injured in the collapse said the mezzanine was “overloaded” with materials.

The factory, Wing Star Shoes, which opened about 18 months ago, employs about 8,000 people, was making shoes for Asics, an athletic shoe company based in Kobe, Japan, which are popular with runners, particularly in the United States.

16^th May 2013

Kindly prepared by Samatha Hill

This week marks the beginning of Coeliac awareness week.  Currently affecting 1 in 100 people, Coeliac disease is widely undiagnosed. Indeed, only 10-15% of people with the disease actually get diagnosed.

So what is Coeliac disease?

Despite common misconceptions, it is not a food allergy. It is an immune reaction that is triggered by the consumption of gluten, malt, barley, rye and sometimes oats. This immune reaction damages the lining of the small intestine.

Undiagnosed or untreated Coeliac disease could lead to complications such as osteoporosis, infertility and some rare cancers. This highlights the importance of detecting whether or not you have it. There is no specific age when Coeliac disease starts but the average age of diagnosis is between 40-60 years old.

Delayed diagnosis is common, and according to Coeliac UK research, the average time it takes to be diagnosed is 13 years. And not everyone displays symptoms.

For example, I was only diagnosed after nine months of recurring mouth ulcers, which led to my own research into possible causes. Some common symptoms are bloating and abdominal pain, anaemia, nausea or vomiting, fatigue, chronic or occasional diarrhoea, and/or headaches.

Once diagnosed, a life long strict gluten-free diet must be taken up. This poses a few problems when travelling. However, after a few days in Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, I realised that it wasn’t going to be too hard to find gluten-free food, as there is an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables sold everywhere, from street markets to restaurants.

Just down the road to where I am staying, for instance, is the Russian market, selling plain fish, vegetables, rice and eggs – all of which you can cook up back at your apartment.  Local supermarkets sell canned baked beans and soups, some of which are gluten-free.

Eating out gluten-free is slightly trickier, but I have managed to find some excellent places that understand the concept of strict gluten free dining.

K’nyay, St 268

Hidden down an alley next to the Independence Monument, K’nyay is a wonderful restaurant that caters for vegetarians, vegans and Coeliacs. Their food is locally sourced and freshly prepared. All of their dishes are gluten free unless it states otherwise on the menu. This was the first time for me to try the national dish, Amok, which is a coconut-based fish curry steamed in a banana leaf. They also offer sweet potato & taro fries, curries, soups, meat dishes, and desserts, all of which are gluten free. This is a lovely place to eat, with a great atmosphere and very reasonable prices.

The Vegetarian, St. 200

This place also caters for gluten free, vegan and vegetarian diets. Their food is fresh, healthy and ethically sourced. They have a selection of Asian and Western dishes from rice noodle soups to coconut milk banana dessert. Perfect for a light lunch or an evening meal.

Cafe Yejj, St 450

This is my favourite place to sit, eat and write. They serve fresh fruit bowls with honey and yogurt. They also serve fish dishes and salads that are naturally gluten-free, just opt for no dressings.

Bloom Café #40 St 222 

This is fun and creative cafe to sit and get your sugar fix. They offer delicious gluten free cup cakes and this month they have Blueberry and Lemon Cake and the Orange and Almond Cake. Beautifully decorated and at a very good price. Bloom are also opening up a sister company in Siem Reap this September called Blossom.

ARTillery Café, St 240½  

Offering homemade, organic food, this café caters for vegans, Coeliacs and those with lactose intolerance. They offer fresh salads, tapas, smoothies and yogurts – great for a light lunch.

Jars of Clay, St 155

A quaint cafe just by the Russian market, they offer baked potatoes with a selection of gluten free toppings. They also serve fresh coconut for dessert.

Vego Salad Bar, St 51 & 21B St 294

Offering fresh salads throughout the day, this place is reasonably priced and offers free home delivery. You can create your own salad from a choice of healthy greens, fruit and cheeses.

Luna D’Autuno, St 29

This Italian restaurant offers a variety of gluten free tapas and risottos. They also offer salads and fruit dessert. They have an outside and inside dining area, with live music once a month.

Overall, Phnom Penh has a lot to offer in terms of gluten free produce. Hopefully this is the shape of things to come. Happy dining!

15^th May 2013

At last it can be revealed who is really behind the land grab here in Cambodia “causing widespread evictions, illegal logging and food insecurity.”

It is the two Western financial institutions, Deutsche Bank and the International Finance Corporation – the World Bank’s private lending arm – that have bankrolled the two Vietnamese firms responsible, according to a year-long investigation by Global Witness.

The report names two of Vietnam’s biggest companies, the privately owned Huang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL) and state-owned Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG), working with the explicit support of the authorities here that authorised the “economic land concessions.”

Current figures show that Cambodia has leased nearly three-quarters of its arable land – 2.6m hectares – in economic land concessions (ELCs), 80% of which were turned into rubber plantations, and 14% of which went to Vietnam.

Vietnam accounts for one-third of the world’s rubber market, while Cambodia is an increasingly dominant player with rubber exports bringing some $US200m a year, making it the ninth-largest natural rubber producer.

Global Witness, which has previously exposed the invidious nature of resource management in Cambodia, discovered that HAGL and VRG between them had been handed more than 200,000 hectares (nearly 500,000 acres) of land, including protected forest, to grow rubber trees.

It is the usual tawdry story of local residents without title being forced off land they have occupied, sometimes for decades, without their consent or being compensated. Instead they are expected to work on the rubber plantation for wages.

Actually, this is unlikely. Usually workers are brought in to do the work, often from across the border. Meanwhile, displaced villagers often face destitution and are usually forced to move elsewhere.

The Global Witness report alleges the IFC invested $US14.95m in a Vietnamese fund that holds 5% equity in HAGL, while Deutsche Bank owns some $US4.5m-worth of HAGL shares. Deutsche Bank is also said to have 1.2m shares in a subsidiary company of VRG amounting to more than $US3m.

However, in a statement sent to Global Witness and reported by The Guardian, VRG said it was licensed to operate in both Cambodia and Laos, while HAGL released a statement confirming that the company’s subsidiaries invested in rubber plantations in both country but the firm “denies seizing land, illegally exploiting wood and other corruption [sic] behaviours in Laos and Cambodia.”

Deutsche Bank rebutted Global Witness’s claims that it was “financing Vietnamese rubber companies” and said, in a statement: “Deutsche Bank is not providing financing to Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAGL) … or Vietnam Rubber Group (VRG), according to the report by The Guardian. “The DWS fund shares referred to are held on behalf of investors. Deutsche Bank provides only clerical trustee services to HAGL, as it does to thousands of listed companies globally.”

In a written response to Global Witness seen by The Guardian, the IFC confirmed its shares in HAGL and said: “IFC works with financial intermediaries, such as funds, because they can contribute to sound, inclusive, and sustainable financial markets that are essential to eradicating poverty and job creation.”

While not disputing the accuracy of the Global Witness report, many analysts here are wondering what exactly the point of this exercise is?

In countries where the Rule of Law is weak and the locals regard forests are resources to be ruthlessly exploited (and where 40% of the country’s forests have disappeared in the last four decades), this behaviour is almost to be expected.

The controversial Wildlife Alliance (WA) discovered this a week ago when locals in Koh Kong province’s Mondol Seima district submitted a complaint saying they have been prevented from farming in the area after WA arrived and implemented a forestry conservation project in 2004.

Apparently WA riled the villagers when it intervened to stop one of them clearing a spot in the forest in order to claim it as part of the land-titling programme taking place a the time.

What is interesting about VGR and DWS is that they appear to be actually developing rubber plantations and not simply using this as a cover to remove all the valuable timber from the vicinity.

While acknowledging that there are undoubtedly injustices around land clearances here in Cambodia, one wonders if there isn’t something of a “noble savage” attitude towards development here on the part of Global Witness?

14^th May 2013

‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’, goes the popular saying but now the UN is telling us it is time to get over our cultural aversion to one of Nature’s primary sources of high-protein, low-fat nutrition: insects.

A new report, “Edible Insects: Future Prospects for Food and Feed Security” from the UNs’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is recommending that we learn to overcome our squeamishness of an abundant food source. Some of the reasons are:

1. They are good for you

The FAO estimates that there are between 1,000 – 1,900 edible insect species. These are a “highly nutritious and healthy food source” chock-full of protein, vitamins, and fibre. Looking to score some omega-3s? Eating mealworms will give you the same amount of the healthy fatty acids as eating fish.

Biologists agree, claiming that certain types of beetles, ants, crickets, and grasshoppers offer nearly as much protein per gram as lean red meat or broiled fish. Insects can also be rich in copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium and zinc. They are also a source of fibre.

 2. They are more sustainable for the environment

Crickets need twelve times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein, while chicken and pigs require double the feed, according to the FAO. Less feed means fewer resources are needed to produce your meal.

We have long known that raising beef is a huge waste of resources, as the animals trample as much grass as they eat, and later, in food lots, only convert a small proportion of the food they consume into protein that humans can eat. And in China, which consumes 60% of the world’s pork, pigs compete directly with humans in terms of what they are fattened on.

Insects also don’t emit as much methane and ammonia as traditional livestock, plus they can be reared on “organic side-streams,” things our digestive tracts are unable to process, into forms that we can (them!).

3. You eat lobster, don’t you?

So you are probably already eating them. Think about it, lobster, prawns and shrimp, like tarantulas and centipedes, are arthropods (think about that exoskeleton next time you crunch through it – no different from other arthropods). They are effectively the insects of the water, and scavengers at that, eating all the detritus that accumulates on the bottom, helping keep our sea and waterways clean. They were once considered “poor-man’s food,” unfit for refined palates.

If you can’t bring yourself to pop a bug into your gob, an alternative would be to raise them as animal feed, the report says, but if you are uncomfortable with eating meat of animals reared on a diet of common houseflies that have been fed on human faeces and abattoir blood, recall that cows in the US have commonly been fattened in food lots on a combination of grain mixed with chicken manure. Yum!

4. Insects are usually not vectors of diseases that threaten our survival

Unlike Chickens and pigs, insects are generally not repositories of infections, such as avian influenza and the recently discovered Sars-like coronavirus that poises a constant risk to us humans. Often we come into contact with these viruses through birds and pass them on to pigs where they can mutate into more dangerous forms of the disease. Given the mortality rates (above 50%) of these viruses, raising these animals could well be a threat to our very survival.

5. They are good for economic development

Starting a cattle farm, especially in the developing world, can be costly and uses a lot of space that could be better used to grow crops. According to the FAO, raising insects is a great option for poor rural farmers as insects take up little space, are easy to raise, and reproduce quickly for a fast return on an initial investment.

This has already turned into an increasingly profitable small-scale industry in rural Thailand, where increasing numbers of people are learning to tuck into deep-fried insect snacks. Raised in captivity, they could also be kept in sterile conditions and, importantly, avoid the risk that they were collected after being poisoned with insecticides in the wild.

6. Plenty of people already eat them

The FAO estimates that two billion people already eat insects regularly worldwide, especially in tropical countries like here in Cambodia, where insects are big and plentiful. With temperature rises predicted that could make raising livestock increasingly problematic here, eating insects could become a matter of survival.

Better to get used to the idea, as meat from animals is likely to price itself out of the market within your lifetime!

12^th May 2013

Malaria spreads in human populations because female Anopheles mosquitoes carrying malaria-inducing Plasmodium parasites bite people and pass it into their bloodstream. Now a new study has demonstrated that it may be possible to use a bacterium that stops the parasite developing in the mosquito and create a stable population where female mosquitoes pass this parasite immunity onto their daughters.

It has been described as a bit like probiotics for mosquitoes.

In a paper reported in the journal Science on 10^th May, lead investigator Zhiyong Xi from Michigan State University (MSU), explains how it works.

In the study, Xi and colleagues infected the mosquitoes with a bacterium called Wolbachia, which commonly occurs in insects and is already known to stop malaria-inducing Plasmodium parasites from developing in Anopheles mosquitoes.

There are five types of malaria parasites that affect humans: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium knowlesi, and Plasmodium ovale. Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are the most common, while Plasmodium falciparum is the most serious – accounting for most malarial deaths.

Here in Cambodia, the two main mosquito carriers are Anopheles Minimus and Anopheles Dairus, two of four species of mosquitoes that carry malaria, but in this study the scientists focused on Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, the primary carrier in the Middle East and South Asia.

“Wolbachia-based malaria control strategy has been discussed for the last two decades. Our work is the first to demonstrate Wolbachia can be stably established in a key malaria vector, the mosquito species Anopheles stephensi, which opens the door to use Wolbachia for malaria control,” Xi explained. “You could just release large number of infected females and establish Wolbachia in a mosquito population”

The challenge now is that Wolbachia appears to inhibit the mosquitoes chances of reproducing – reducing by half the number of eggs that hatch – a big disadvantage for the malaria-resistant mosquitoes out in the wild as they wouldn’t be able to compete with their bacteria-free cousins.

If a successful strain could be developed, however, this could have significant implications for Cambodia, where clinical trials in 2007-2008 orchestrated by the WHO confirmed the emergence of artemisinin resistance by falciparum malaria parasites along the Thai-Cambodian border.

This is extremely serious because resistance to a number of formerly-effective malaria drugs originated from the Thai-Cambodian border and then spread west to South Asia, then Africa – where most malaria deaths occur. If this were to occur with artemisinins, millions of lives could be at risk. It would also be a huge setback to intense international efforts over recent years to combat the threat of malaria globally.

Australian scientists have already started such testing for dengue fever, another disease transmitted by mosquitoes. A few years ago, a team at Monash University in Melbourne figured out that Wolbachia infection makes the Aedes aegypti mosquito resistant to the dengue virus.

This approach has a number of important advantages over spraying pesticides for dengue and malaria control as it would be permanent because the system is self-propagating.

Now, if only they could figure out how to turn off the sound the mosquitoes make when they are hovering around your head in the middle of the night!