How to be a Sociologist

I...am not...a psychologist.

I am...and probably always will be...a sociologist.

Normally these distinctions don't bother people. But this one bothers me. I don't do feelings. I don't do hormones. I don't do "how's your relationships with your mother." I am...and will continue to be...a sociologist.

This distinction recently surfaced at work. Why are people poor, someone asked. This was easy for me. "It's because they don't have access to resources, or they are being exploited of their resources." This is what Marx or Weber or Schumacher would say and as a sociologist, I'm obligated expound on their correctness.

I've been delighted recently to introduce my colleuges to theories and paradigms within international development...there's Modernization...and Growth with Equity...and Liberation from Dependency...all of which will eventually feature in their own blog postings.

But introducing my sociological paradigms has helped me understand some key differences in approaches. Viewing the world from the top down--like a sociologist--affords it's own challenges and blessings. On the one hand, it allows us to see "the big picture" of global issues, to understand how things came to be (ex. the NY Stock Exchange, Russian Communism, Feminism) and how they interact (ex. globalization, integrated approaches to international development). This...is where I live. But then there's the social work influences. How are individuals affected by events and people and how do they take these experiences and interact with the world around them? How do individual choices affect society? There is a complexity here, perhaps a greater complexity then how supply and demand affect geopolitics.

There is no one right way to look at the world. Everyone has their own perspective, and I dare say that perspective is influenced by personal experience and preferences. But in the end, I see the world is systems and structures where cultures and societies swirl around in organized manners following unspoken rules until someone throws a wrench in and disrupts the prescripted expectations. I look at movements and trends and ooze enthusiasm about how things will change.

The other ways aren't wrong. I just really love my little sphere and the lenses I've adapted to give meaning to global chaos. But self-awareness of personal bias is the first step towards integrated approaches to worldviews.

How to Ride a Bamboo Train

Riding this train has perks

Once upon a time, a friend from college sent me a link about Cambodia’s dying phenomenon of the bamboo train. He wanted to know if I’d seen them. My interest in bamboo trains went from zero to a million in the time it took to read the article.

Last week, we had our national retreat and went to Siem Riep in northwest Cambodia. Siem Riep is only five hours from Battambang. Battambang is the only place where bamboo trains are still running. Therefore, the decision to take a five hour bus ride with terrible Chinese movies from 1984 dubbed over in Khmer was easy.

The French were in Cambodia for 90 years (officially) from 1863-1953. They built two main railway lines, one from Phnom Penh to the Campong Saoum port (or Shanoukville) and another from Phnom Penh to the Thai border via Battambang (Battambang at the time was the second largest city in Cambodia). The railway system fell into decay after independence, especially during the Khmer Rouge Era and Vietnamese occupation. (Incidentally, the KR made the railway operators train young uneducated farm boys how to run the trains, after which they killed the railway operators.) The Phnom Penh Campong Saoum line is currently under restoration. The line going through Battambang is not.

The “nori” has died from use, mostly because the moto (with its own attached flatbed) is the new means to move goods. The ones in Battambang are primarily for tourists coming through. You can ride for seven kilometers along the warped train rails before turning around and coming back to the original station. It’s a slightly terrifying ride; flying along at a pretty brisk speed on a home-make train car on rails over 150 years old that have probably never been repaired.

Over time though, Cambodians decided to innovate a way to use tracks. They built flatbed “cars” out of bamboo with moto-sized engines on the back to move goods along the line for strictly local use. Each car is free-standing, they aren’t connected and an individual engine powers each car. The cars are completely collapsible in that two people can take it off the tracks in less than a minute (with no cargo). This is mandatory because there’s no system to coordinate the trains. Every time two cars meet on the track, there’s a friendly debate about who is going to get off the tracks.

Totally worth the $5. Even worth that bus ride. The icing on the cake was getting completely drenched coming back on the train. It’s not supposed to rain in March, ever.

How to Bring Hope to Lent

Lent 2011 has arrived. Lent is a special time to think. It doesn’t even have to be “religiously themed.”For this Lent season, I find myself thinking extensively about Cambodia and what it means to live and work here. A phrase repeatedly comes to mind…grasping for droplets of hope…

It’s hot season in Cambodia. We won’t see a single raindrop until June or July. Every day I wake up and the sun beats down on me from a cloudless tropical sun. I just want to see rain.

Every day I wake up and hear about some form of injustice in Cambodia or around the world; the pending Cambodian NGO law which will make it easier for the government to regulate our local partners, trying to find funding for truly good peacebuilding, trying to convince people that change is good, trying to encourage critical thinking and questioning, and learning that it’s okay to be indirect in every way which is just inefficient. I was never an idealist, and even the most hardened realist can be discouraged but the mountains of systemic problems facing not just Cambodia, but the entire region.

And then it’s so hot, and I want to see rain. I want to see family. I want to be with my friends. I want to ride my bike. I want to tell people point blank exactly what I’m thinking.

But this Lenten season, I’m trying to give up hopelessness. Hope is magical. Hope never dies. Hope is what fuels people through any situation of any injustice. Hope motivated protesters in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. Injustice moves us but it’s because we hope for something better. Change can never come if we don’t hope and plan for something different and better.

In June, I will see rain. And sometimes within the remaining two and a half years of my time here, I’ll see bits of the change I’m hoping and praying for.

How To Travel in Phnom Penh

There are endlessly amusing facets of transport in Phnom Penh. Soon enough, they can become annoying because you’re just as serious about transport as anyone else here. But still, there are several elements here that would not be observed in other contexts, which—just like the Pakistani “jingle trucks”—make Cambodia ever so unique. I have a 20 minute commute along a fairly busy road everyday. This affords massive amusement on a daily basis.

Off-Roading: This routinely occurs. In the event that traffic is gridlocked or waiting a stoplight, it’s perfectly acceptable to drive on the sidewalk, through gravel, through patches of nonexistent grass or any available space an object does not exist in order speed up your trip. Yesterday, I drove thorugh a construction site to get around hairball gridlock. I was hardly the only one. This will inevitably create a bigger hairball, but driving lesson number one: no one cares! Be aggressive or have aggressiveness done to you. Just don't get mad. That's an unattractive Western quality.

Stuff on Motos: If only I could create a list of all the strange things I’ve seen on motos. This week it was an entire queen sized mattress. I also saw about eight live chickens hanging by their feet off the side of another moto with more in a cage on the back. Four people on a moto isn’t uncommon either. However, legally you’re only allowed two and legally, only the driver needs to wear a helmet. Typically there are so many vegetables hanging off the back, the front, and the sides, sometimes with a tiny Asian woman just barely sitting on the back of all of it, that it’s a mystery the driver can balance. My theory is they pack it all on while he’s sitting on his moto and unload with him wedged in there.

Moto Flirting: This is an amusing almost cultural quirk. Public displays of affection are completely non-culture. Except on a moto, and then you’re allowed you snuggle really close, unnecessarily close, downrightly disgustingly close. You totally don’t need to hold on when top speed is 40kph—I don’t!--much less hang on like the Titanic is sinking. On the back of a moto, no PDA rules apply so people go for it, really go for it. It’s also very common for young people to drive motos next to each other and chit-chat (“moto flirt” as a coworker describes it). The only people who don’t think it’s cute, are the people behind who are trying to pass them.

Bikers: I still don’t understand why bikers don’t die. I am a biker. That is the essence of the Americana me. But not a chance in Phnom Penh. Bikers are at the bottom, the very bottom of the totem pole. Sometimes I even shove around them myself. Yet in the end, the persecuted biker is remarkably resilient and they just keep going, even while everyone else disrespects them, honks at them, and cuts razor close.

Body Coverings: Cambodians prize “white skin.” No one wants to be dark or tan because that’s “ugly.” So girls will completely cover up to insure no tanning while driving. This includes: floppy hats, gloves, long skirts, wearing multicoloured knee socks on with multicoloured flip-flops, wearing jackets on backwards, and often a mask over one’s face. It’s also between 88F and 95F degrees everyday. Beauty has always come at a high cost.

How to Celebrate Chinese New Year: Rabbit Edition

Welcome to the Rabbits. Happy Chinese New Year. Happy Lunar New Year. Happy New Year.

When you're as big, as wealthy, and as influential as China currently is, your specialized New Year is celebrated regionally. Actually, it's because most Cambodians have some Chinese origins. The public schools and most businesses close for the three day Chinese New Year even though the royal Cambodian government doesn't acknowledge it as an official holiday.

I didn't think Chinese New Year would be anything significant in Phnom Penh. I virtually forgot about it. There was a lull in the Cambodia holiday schedule (which conveniently coincided with when I started working) with the next massive break in April for Cambodian New Year.

Yet on the first day of Chinese New Year, I went out on errands and was shocked to learn I could drive across town in less then five minutes when it normally takes upwards of 10 or 15. There was no traffic...which in Cambodia means free reign to run red lights...which I may have done...maybe. Almost everything was closed and people stayed home with family and friends.

The one exciting bit is the dragon dancing. Businesses will hire dragon dancing troupes to perform in front of their establishments. Banks will have fabulous dancing for a long time. Smaller businesses have less elaborate performances for shorter durations. People will scurry around neighborhoods to catch the dragon dancing. It's that popular and I still see some sporadic dragon dancing though the holiday was two weeks ago.

My treat to myself for the second new year of 2011 was working from coffee shops instead of the office, just because I couldn't pass up getting across town so fast. In reality though, I used the lull of Phnom Penh insanity to learn to drive with a passenger. It was highly rewarding and now I can drive in 5pm traffic in Phnom Penh's busiest roads with someone riding on the back on my moto.

Everyone needs several New Years! I think it was my family who pointed out the real value of two--or three--new years is the ability to restart your resolutions if you fail the first time around. Incidentally, many of the lanterns are still up. Maybe the strategy is to wait until Cambodian New Year and double up.

How to Visit Pre Veng

I've not really been anywhere in Cambodia yet-aside from the overnight whirlwind trip down to the beach back in December. This was partially intentional. You only have to get over your gut-twisting terror of new places first before your linguistic skills are good enough and your mastery of foreign currencies and foreign food takes over and you're outrageously outgoing.

This post-fear stage ended last weekend when I went two hours southeast of Phnom Penh to Pre Veng Province to stay with friends in Pre Veng town. I needed to leave the thriving metropolis of Phnom Penh in all it's traffic and insanity (actually, I adore Phnom Penh but I had the travel itch). I thought I was going to the sticks--one coworker describes it it as living at the last stop on the Pony Express--but I was pretty sure my friends had a hot shower so I figured it couldn't be that bad. This is why I only went for three days.

Pre Veng town is a actual town. In some ways, it reminded me visiting a close friend in Filer Idaho; smallish houses, wide roads, not a lot of traffic, few trees and a lot of agriculture. Probably half the populous travels by bike, the other half by moto. There were significantly fewer Lexus to prick my indignation. There's one market, many colorful traditional wooden houses each on an actual piece of property, and way more plastic bags on the ground because in Phnom Penh they try and keep it clean for us "brongs." There's a "waterfront/lake" which is currently receding as we're entering the dry season yet will fill back up beginning the end of May with the rains.

The real reason for going was that my entire being craves riding a bike. I got to ride a bike in Pre Veng. It was hardly my specialty 24.5 lb road bike. It was an orange Chinese cruiser...and yes...there was a basket. But that's what everyone else rides in Pre Veng and given that Pre Veng is as a flat as Holland, gears aren't necessary. I went out with my coworkers on the dusty dirt roads of rural Cambodia, through the lotus and rice fields, adjacent to a Mekong River tributary, crossing the river on hand-crafted ferry, through rural villages where small children practice their English vocab ("hello!"), and drinking iced sugar cane juice out of a plastic bag. It was even further then the last stop on the Pony Express....and possibly the most epic Cambodian experience thus far.

This makes for a good weekend. We all need weekends away. And we always love when we feel comfortable enough in new places to begin venturing out.

How Border Disputes Continue

I have high hopes for 2011. I almost phrased that sentence in past-tense. But optimistically, I think it still will be a good year, if only because South Sudan will become it's own nation on 9 July 2011. That alone makes 2011 a good year.

Alas though, slightly less then four months after I arrive, Cambodia and Thailand resumed their boarder disputes last Friday and are still continuing. The main issue is a 900 old temple, Preah Vihear, which both countries claim. The International Court ruled in 1962 that the temple was Cambodia's even though it's on semi-deputed ground and the entrance is on the Thai side. In 2008 UNESCO ruled the same temple a world heritage sight. This didn't exactly please Thailand. Regardless, the temple receives little tourism traffic due to remote location and the militarization which has mushroomed up around it doesn't encourage even the most fearless backpacker.

This is not the first time we've been fighting over this temple. It's not unusual to shoot at each other a few hours every few months. This however is the longest sustained exchange of violent hostilities. However Cambodia has requested UN intervention for mediation. Thailand suggests it can be resolved in negotiations.

No one knows who started this latest incident. No one knows how long it will continue. No one knows what the other's motive is. We do know the disputed 11th century temple has now partially collapsed and we know several people have died and several thousand have been displaced. Last week in Cambodia two Thai nationals were jailed for espionage which is attributed as the spark for this fire. People are bothered, but at the same time, life just carries on and people have faith things will just resolve themselves out sooner or later. That's the Cambodian way. If anything, it's tapping into some discontent that the Cambodia government hasn't pushed harder earlier to resolve the border dispute. That's being perceived as a sign of weakness.

I guess what continues to impress me is that intimidating one's neighbors is still the golden standard of international relations...military power first and then economics. It happens all over the world. Does taking what we want really warrant respect? Does expansion of our economic power afford the same respect? Border disputes continue and concessions and talks are signs of weakness. I don't know how to fix it. I doubt anyone truly does in our world of realpolitik which predates the Renaissance. It's a shame. It's a shame to everyone living in disputed territories who aren't given the dignity of living in stability.

And so India and Pakistan continue to war over Kashmir. Thailand and Cambodia dispute over Preah Vihear. Israel and Palestine have been deadlocked for over half a century. And Ethiopia and Eritrea continue to amass troops over the legitimacy of each other's existence. Oh yes...and the Middle East is restructuring. Indeed, I still hope 2011 will be a good year....

Photo Credit: Reuters