Playing cards in the dirt (Part I): "Same hand, different suit"


Throughout Cambodia, in the gutters off the tarmac, under a spattering of dust on country roads, from the sandy shores to the banks of the river-ways consistently and inexplicably lie the remnants of playing cards.

After a while, you expect to see one. In the resort host of Sihanoukville, the backwater river station of Andoung Teuk, the silty capital of Phnom Penh, and the sleepy jungle village of Chi Phat, a creased ace of diamonds or a maimed seven of spades pops into view the moment you stop looking for one.

Are they for the spokes of children's bicycles? A makeshift replacement part for the ubiquitous tuk tuks? Or just a sign of the prior night's street-gambling shenanigans? I never asked. Whatever their plight and purpose, these cards resurfaced eerily throughout our recent travels to Cambodia.

Nine of spades in Siem Reap	Six of spades in Andoung Tuek

The trip brought with it the usual thrills of the expected (temples, jungles, beaches, and rice patties) and unexpected (village home-stays, obscure acquaintances, near capsizings, and lavish village feasts). But what amplified the experiences and the character of the Cambodians we shared them with was a macabre historical backdrop. Not until we understood the suffering the country had overcome were we able to appreciate its people's graciousness.

Therefore I must attempt to first tell the story of Cambodia in the last half of the 20th century in order to tell any story at all. Because Cambodia induced so many reflections, here just the first entry in the series Playing cards in the dirt.

The dealers

In April of 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh, and Cambodia entered the darkest days of its 1500-year history. Advancing with their Chinese rifles and rocket launchers, in their simple black attire, Ho Chi Minh rubber-tire sandals, and traditional, checkered krama scarves, the mostly young and impassive "liberators" were deceptively peaceful in the takeover of Cambodia's capital.

The Khmer Rouge had been fighting against the government of Lon Nol, who had incompetently run the country since the ousting of Norodom Sihanouk, the man credited with effecting Cambodia's independence from the French. Sihanouk too, more politically savvy than those who dislodged him, had nevertheless been prone to nepotism and backscratching.

Norodom Sihanouk	Lon Nol	Pol Pot

Although apprehensive about the little-known group of rebels who were now wresting control of their country, many Cambodians harbored great hopes for a regime that would finally lead their nation to the benefit of all citizens. Many were simply elated at the end of conflict and violence. But neither fair leadership nor even peace followed.

Same hand, different suit

The Khmer Rouge gave the citizens of Phnom Penh little time to speculate about their intentions. Two days after the fall of the capital, soldiers ushered the city's inhabitants out of their homes and into the countryside - to begin on a radical process of "purification," to rid them of imperialist influence and their bourgeois attitudes.

As the shocked citizens packed what they could of their possessions, the Khmer Rouge had already begun to surreptitiously execute civil and spiritual leaders, bludgeoning rather than shooting to save precious bullets. The exodus went on for days; those who fell dead along the road - the ill and the elderly - were a premonition of the horrors to come.

Most of the "New People," as they were called, those of higher education and accustom to city life, were placed in cooperatives, where they learned the chores of "the Ancients," those who still tilled the land for rice and fruits. Angkar, the faceless government established by the Khmer Rouge tasked the "New People" with clearing land, ploughing fields, and collecting dung - granting them only meagre rations of rice slop as sustenance. Many died of diseases tied to malnutrition, as food was scarce and modern medicine de facto abolished by the new regime. All of this in the name of purification toward a radical communist ideology. The consequences were akin to those of Stalin's Holodomor and Mao's great leap forward.

"Angkar will take care of you" was the repeated mantra. In soft polite tones, the Khmer Rouge guards would reassure the sufferers. However, dissenters mysteriously disappeared, some found later, skulls crushed and in shallow graves, by their fellow laborers.

Khmer Rouge soldiers	The victims: nearly two million Cambodians died from 1975 - 1979

It was an experiment, employed in accordance with a rigid ideology and enforced with draconian measures. Once again, the Cambodian people were being dealt out in a new game. But never before had the game been so cruel and destructive. Arguably, however, with their wanton killings and fear of revenge and rebellion, the Khmer Rouge cadres and their leader Pol Pot, betrayed the fact they knew early on their regime was fated to fail.

Overcoming a legacy of hate

It is estimated that as many as 1.5 million Cambodians, nearly a quarter of the population, perished at the hands of the Khmer Rouge. From 1975 - 1979, the country functioned as its own people's concentration camp. Not until the Vietnamese deposed the Khmer Rouge did Cambodians' lives start to improve. The government set up by the Vietnamese, although loyal to that country, brought relief not necessarily by providing food, but simply by allowing the afflicted population to eat. Eventually, in 1992, free elections were held, overseen by the U.N., and a shaky peace returned to Cambodia.

Today, peace endures - but corruption continues, immobilizing many who would advance along with their country. One of the many visible examples: Those driving the expensive cars don't bother to attach license plates. It is a subtle way of saying to law enforcement officials, "My father is someone important in the government; pull me over and lose your job."

Yet despite recent atrocities and a resultant cultural psychosis, and despite the prevalent corruption in the country even today, these beautiful, impoverished, smiling people are trudging forward, brushing off their rough lot and exploring a notion they hadn't dared to just years before: hope.

"Our friend Lim": upcoming post	"Hope is for those who are not yet born": upcoming post

It is against this socio-historical setting that I would like to introduce the upcoming posts, the first of which is entitled: "Our friend Lim". Lim lost his father to the Khmer Rouge, and you can see the dark history of the country in his face. Although a child of heinous crimes, he is a father of hope for his country, with the determination to improve the lives of his fellow Cambodians and the scruples to better the standing of his nation. We were blessed to have made his acquaintance, and then to become his friends, through a most serendipitous encounter...