Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Profiling in Cambodia

I was away from my village for two weeks, a long time by rural Cambodia standards. As I was walking back from breakfast, I saw a woman and a man pushing a two-wheeled cart piled high with green bananas. I didn’t know them well, but as pretty much the only Westerner in my village – there are some creepy old guys too, but more on that later- everyone knows me.

The woman pushing the cart said she hadn’t seen me in a while and asked where I had been. I told her I was in Vietnam and Phnom Penh. She asked me if I was happy there (direct translation) then commented that I was darker than before. I responded with my usual bit about how in America, we like dark skin (I really meant being tan, but in the Khmer language you are pretty much either black or white). Like most Cambodians, she was shocked by this. She started talking about how white is so much better, then pointed to the man pushing the cart with her and said that he is not pretty because he is so dark.

My generic morning conversation embodies a broader theme in Cambodian culture: Cambodians say what they see and interpret it based on widely-held stereotypes.

Even though Cambodia is a homogeneous society (95% of the population is Khmer Buddhists) profiling is common and tears apart Cambodia’s social fabric. My friend told me that some of the darker people don’t like being in crowds because they are embarrassed about their skin.

I believe a major reason Cambodians value light skin is because it means you are not out in the fields all day. My Cambodian friend also said it is because whiter people are part Chinese and Vietnamese, so are believed to be smarter and better at business. Because of these sentiments, Cambodians like to cover their heads with scarves, wear hats and even use whitening cream.

Some of the profiling is a result of poverty and lack of education. Also, a lot of people have never learned about issues related to difference among people.

However, the culture of generalizing presents dangers to Cambodia as it develops. Cambodia has a large gap between the rich and poor for this stage in its development (wider than Thailand and Vietnam when they were at the same level). As the gap continues to widen and the rich get richer, profiling could further stratify the society, resulting in strife and a breakdown of services.

For example, skin color can increase the likelihood of being pulled over, like in America. Poor farmers, who generally have darker skin, are the ones pulled over on their motobikes for not wearing a helmet. Helmets are required by law, but the law is not well enforced outside of Phnom Penh. In the countryside, the police pull people over for not wearing a helmet, but just ask for a small bribe. They prefer to target poor people because poor people are not influential, so can be exploited. Pulling over a powerful person could mean trouble for the police officer. Skin color is probably one identifying factor in identifying the powerless.

Generalizing also affects Cambodians’ relationships with foreigners. Cambodians profile foreigners based on their appearance and it has offended a lot of people I know.

Although children yell “hello” to me as I ride my bike, until proven otherwise, I am a borang (French person). Sometimes they refer to me as boo borang, directly translated as ‘uncle Frenchy.’ They usually know that America and France are different countries, but some people have been surprised by this information.

If the villagers have met an American before, they assume I must be exactly like that American. The first time I went to have breakfast at a place the volunteer who lived in my village before me liked to go, they started giving me the food and drinks she liked before I even ordered. And if they haven’t met an American before, they assume everything I do is what all Americans like to do. It’s ironic that part of my job as a Peace Corps Volunteer is to represent diverse America in a foreign culture. Yet, a lot of them think everything I do is what all Americans like to do.

Locals also assume foreigners are rich. This makes some sense because travelers who are able to come all the way to a country like Cambodia you must have some money (and Cambodians are usually poor, so when they say rich, it’s relative). In Cambodian culture, it is not rude to ask about money. Some of the first questions I’m always asked when I meet someone is my rent, salary, parents’ salaries and how much money I spend in a month. No matter what answer I give, the questioner thinks I’m rich and that everyone in America is rich. When I go to buy something, the seller gives me a high initial price (usually double what they give Khmer people) and I have to bargain it down. In my village, they know me, so they give me the real price.

I’m almost used to the money conversation at this point. And other observations and assumptions aren’t too brutal because I’m lean and white. Usually, I’m considered handsome, but have been called fat a few times. And, despite being short in America, I’m “big” here.

It’s much more difficult for volunteers from other backgrounds. Cambodians doubt Asian-American and black volunteers are actually Americans. Some minority volunteers have even been accused by their Cambodian co-English teachers of not really knowing English. And black volunteers get told they are not pretty all the time.

Another serious problem here related to generalizing is what my American friends here term “sex-pats” (sex expatriates). These are western men, typically past their prime, who come here to pursue young Cambodian women. These men sometimes hire prostitutes or spend a lot of money to take a typical young Cambodian woman out. If couple marries, the family of the woman usually benefits financially. Two Western men men in their 50’s with wives in their 20’s live in my district. My host-dad jokes that when one of the old men dies, the Cambodian family will get all his money.

I guess we are guilty of profiling as well because we assume all old white guys with scantily clad young Cambodian girls are sex-pats. What’s worse, Cambodians not only assume the same thing, but assume that this is normal behavior in the West. Even some of my more educated, urban Cambodian friends thought this was common practice!

In the end, profiling in Cambodia affects not only their relationships with foreigners but also with each other. However, I've encountered so many friendly Cambodians that I'm confident they can overcome issues with foreigners as they become more educated and meet more foreigners. But within Cambodian society, there are values and status issues that are beyond my comprehension as an outsider. These run deep and are never openly discussed. Because of that, these issues will be more difficult to take on, but I believe education and economic development would go a long way to solve it.

Friday, October 1, 2010

Vietnam

From allie's SE asia 2010


I’m coming to you from inside the Cu Chi tunnels near Saigon. Well, I’m actually back in Cambodia, but please pretend I’m blogging from the tunnel.

The Cu Chi tunnels are an immense network of small tunnels that the Vietcong used to stage guerilla operations. The guerillas hid in the tunnels by day and farmed at night. The tunnels also protected them from U.S. bombings. Near the tunnels, they set traps, such as this one:

From allie's SE asia 2010


The tunnels are incredibly narrow, so only small Vietnamese people and in many cases child soldiers (male or female) could go through them. Big, fat American “enemies” had trouble fitting in. I crouched and walked 20 yards in a tunnel that was expanded for tourists and I was hurting. Guerillas sometimes spent a week in the tunnels if there were a lot of bombings.

Despite the Vietnamese national pride in killing Americans and “kicking the Americans out” (as one of my Vietnamese friends said), the tunnels are also emblematic of the impression Vietnam gave me. Vietnamese people are nationalistic and proud of their history, but just as the tunnels were expanded for tourists, Vietnam is opening up to the world and inviting people to visit.

I encountered Vietnam’s welcoming of foreigners in many forms: people eager to practice their English, street vendors smiling and laughing when we tried Vietnamese food, nationalistic exhibitions that promote peace and cooperation and young, trendy people telling me what they think about Vietnam’s future and interaction with the rest of the world.

Of course, I do not have the intimate view of Vietnam that I have of Cambodia. In Cambodia, I live and work with the rural people who make up most of the population. In Vietnam, I was mainly exposed to the urban elite as a tourist. So the people I met in Vietnam are probably more progressive than the majority of the population that inhabits the countryside.

I went through Vietnam with Allie, a friend from America. We took a boat down the Mekong River from Cambodia to Chau Doc, a fishing village with a population of about 100,000.

View from the Mekong River:
From allie's SE asia 2010


At the market in Chau Doc:
From allie's SE asia 2010


Our first meal had to be Pho, a Vietnamese noodle soup with beef. The beef is raw and cooks in the soup. We got the Pho from a family-run food cart that had a nice crowd. (When eating street food, always follow the crowds; if people keep going there, they must not be getting sick.) The vendors barely spoke any English, but were delighted as they watched us try the food. The father saw that I liked spicy food and kept trying to get me to eat bigger and bigger peppers.



Then we went for a walk around the park by the water. The park was bustling with women power-walking, children taking karate classes and couples eating food from the various carts and watching their children play. Coming from rural Cambodia, I was happy to see children play in clean areas, sometimes with toys, as opposed to in the dirt, perhaps with garbage.

Allie was blown away when a group of school children surrounded us and started bombarding us with questions in English. At first, we thought this was a trick to rob the foreigners. But, the children genuinely wanted to practice their English and they were too cute for us not to oblige.

Later, another man came up to practice his English and invited us to visit the school where he works. This is common in the Cambodian countryside (when I ride my bike, people frequently pull up next to me on their motos to practice English and I’ve been invited to too many English schools), but I was not expecting it in Vietnam. A student even came up to me at a park in Saigon to practice his English.

After Chau Doc, we made our way to Phu Quoc, a beautiful island, and just relaxed by the beach.

The quiet beach at Phu Quoc:
From allie's SE asia 2010


Then we flew to Saigon. Allie and I saw the War Remnants Museum and a nationalist exhibition in front of the opera house. Both contained propaganda about the Vietnam War, but ended with optimism about the future: Vietnam opening up to the world and cooperating with other countries, even America.

After Allie left, I spent a few more days in Saigon. I did the Cu Chi Tunnel tour with a tour group. Then, I spent the last two days in Vietnam with Tony, a friend I made through couchsurfing.com.

Couchsurfing.com is an amazing project. Briefly, it’s a social-networking site designed so people can share experiences and cultures. You mainly use it to meet people when you travel and perhaps for a place to stay. There are various mechanisms that make it safe to use, like being able to recommend other people. For example, when I was looking for people to meet in Saigon, I saw that a lot of people had recommended Tony, a native of Saigon, and wrote about their positive experiences with him.

So, I met Tony for dinner on Friday. He took me to a nice restaurant where we had a hot pot, which was a soup where we cook the meat, seafood and vegetables at the table. We talked a lot about our travel experiences since he works in tourism. We also talked about our lives and made a lot of cultural comparisons, mostly about the standard differences between American and Asian culture. For example, Americans like to directly confront someone, but Asians will avoid confrontation and use a third party to communicate when there is a problem. My host-brothers sometimes come to me when someone else in a family has a problem with something I did. Tony also gave me some great recommendations for places to get breakfast and coffee the next morning.

Tony looking at the hot pot:
From allie's SE asia 2010


After following Tony's delicious recommendations, I met Tony again on Saturday. He took me to see some temples and markets. Then, we went to a café where we met up with some of his other friends. The group all spoke English well and wore trendy clothes and had iphones.

Here is us at the café:
From allie's SE asia 2010


I ended up spending most of the day with them. For dinner, they took me to a great seafood restaurant where many Vietnamese university students go. We had snails, shrimp and clams, among other foods.

Snail:
From allie's SE asia 2010


I also got to hear their thoughts about Vietnam and its future. Vietnam has experienced a lot of economic growth. Although ruled by the Communist Party, the ruling party is described by the economist as “ardently capitalist communists.” I got the sense Tony and his friends were happy that Vietnam was liberalizing. They were all interested in business and shopping and spoke positively of Vietnam interacting with China and other neighbors and being more open in the future.

View of Saigon:
From allie's SE asia 2010


Businesses are not fearful to work around attempts at control by the government. Internet providers block facebook.com at the behest of the government. However, Facebook still works in some places because, as Tony pointed out, you can just call the Internet provider and they will unblock it for you.

I look forward to coming back to Vietnam as it continues to open up to the world. I’m interested to see what kind of society emerges from the fusion of capitalism and Vietnamese nationalism. However, I hope most of the people and the food will stay the same.