International Students @ Concordia

Siem Reap - Cambodia: Angkor Wat Photoblog 2009

Day 1, 2009

Peacefully,

 the reflection of the temple in the water,

Awakens the day.

 

Angkor What?

"This temple is 1,5 km² x 1,3km and built by Suryavarman ІІ and is considered the biggest Asian pyramid. It is 65m high and divided in several layers. The central part has on the four corners four towers in the shape of a lotus flower. This temple is the largest and most breathtaking temple of the whole complex. The most famous decorations of Angkor are the heavenly nymphs (Apsara), there are more of 300, each one is unique and in total we can group them in 30 different styles. The central temple complex is an 800 meters long bas-reliefs, includes the Battle of Kurukshetra, the Army of Suryavarman II, Heaven and Hell, Churning of the Ocean of Milk, Elephant Gate, Vishnu Conquers the Demons, Khrisna and the demon King, Battle of the Gods and the Demons and the Battle of Lanka."

From: http://www.angkorwhat.net/news/angkor-wat-temples.html

Between jungles and temples

Sunlight and shadows,

a man appears.

Everyday, he guards his temple.

As tourists come and go,

he sits in contemplation.

He draws in silence.

He smiles,

He's proud.

Ta Phrom Temple

"Still covered by the jungle this place is exactly left as they found it. The Ta Prohm is not only a possibility to imagine how the whole temple complex looked like when re-discovered in XIX century The trees swallowed the temple and nature takes back its space, and it has been left like this.  Don't miss this astonishing mix of nature vs humans. The charm of this temple is, you don't know where (or when) the nature finish and the human work starts or vice versa." 

From: http://www.angkorwhat.net/news/angkor-wat-temples.html

***

Anyone that comes to Angkor Wat,

 becomes a photographer from the heart.

It is inevitable.

***

Deborah Groves 

Once, just a tourist from Australia that decided to help Cambodians by taking pictures: 

“I have now formed a non-government organisation called Helping Hands Cambodia, we have a director (a Cambodian) and a committee (a group of people in Australia and France), and are officially registered in the Kingdom of Cambodia.  Helping Hand's projects have grown from just helping one family with a sick father, to, amongst other things, building a bridge, supplying over 240 bicycles, helping set up small businesses and building and operating a school with approximately 300 students.”  

From: http://grovesphotography.com/biography.htm  

Look at her AMAZING pictures here:

http://grovesphotography.com/galleryandonlineshop.htm

John McDermott

"John McDermott has been photographing Southeast Asia since the early 1990s. From 1993 to 1997, McDermott was the Chief Photographer for Manager, a Bangkok-based English-language monthly magazine that covered business, culture and lifestyle throughout the region. During his travels, McDermott developed a strong personal interest in the many cultural heritage sites and ancient historical ruins spread across the continent.Thus began his long-term fine art photography project documenting UNESCO World Heritage Sites and other historical places in various parts of the world, beginning with the countries of Southeast Asia."

From: http://www.asiaphotos.net/info.php?info=about_the_photographer

To look at one of his most FAMOUS pictures

"The Causeway - Angkor Wat, 2000"

Click Here:

http://www.asiaphotos.net/photo.php?id=351

Cu Chi Viet Cong Tunnels – Vietnam War

December 30, 2008

Upon arrival to  Vietnam, I took a bus for about two hours, which took us 70 km Northwest of Ho Chi Min City (previously Saigon).

The countryside is green, with palm trees and rice fields one after the other.

 From time to time, you can see people working on the fields, with their rice-peak-hats, looking up and down on a typical humid, hot and sunny day.

But you can also see people taking a break. Outside their houses, they are laying down in hammocks, some sleeping, some talking or relaxing.

Kids are everywhere. On their bicycles. Playing, jumping around or racing.

The bus stopped and we got off at the Cu Chi District's Vietcong Tunnel site for tourists.

What I had seen through the windows now felt now real: It was humid, hot and sunny. 

Humid, hot and sunny...

How did the Viet Cong soldiers survive the Vietnam War living in this Tunnel City?

Imagine you are the enemy, walking through the forest with your uniform on. 

You look down at your boots, and you catch between the leaves a small, square wooden entrance.

This is how the Viet Cong soldiers entered their tunnels:

But if you are stepping around as the enemy, it's almost impossible to survive.

You can step into traps, or even FALL into traps.

You are killed by your own material as well. Viet Cong soldiers recycled rubber from the enemy's boots to make themselves sandals. 

They also recycled the material of the napalm bombs and shells that were dropped around to make the traps.The enemy falling into their own traps...

Napalm is a mixture of gasoline and other chemicals. 

It BURNS at a temperature of 1 000 degrees celcius.

When I asked the guide if he knew about the girl in the picture, Kim Phuc, he knew she was now safe back in Toronto, Canada.

I knew that too. I had a chance to talk to her before when she came to Concordia University in Montreal to do a speech.

"So where is Kim Phuc's village?" I asked him.

"Just about 40 minutes away from here."

It was a humid, hot and sunny day...

For more information, check these links:

http://www.cuchitunnel.org.vn/content/index.php?var=1&more=1&lan=1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/720577.stm

Building a Human Wall

As Alexandra Harney tells us, there are popular protests against the health situation of workers in manufacturing companies in China. Everyday work is a threat to people's health.

But the symptoms of an unhealthy society uncovers a bigger issue: The Great Economic Wall of China. And not only in China but the Great wall is expands into international waters...

In other words, the social impact of the World Economic Wall System is unethical...

But is there really an alternative?

What is it about this system that is constraining us to change?

Ursula Franklin has an answer: We are prisoners of PRESCRIPTIVE TECHNOLOGY societies.

(Franklin, Ursula. The real world of technology. The Massey Lectures. Toronto: Anansi Press, 2-25. 1990.)

“When work is organized as a sequence of separately executable steps, the control over the work moves to the organizer, the boss or manager. The process itself has to be prescribed with sufficient precision to make each step fit into he preceding and the following steps. Only in that manner can the final product be satisfactory.” (p.16)

  “Prescriptive technologies constitute a major social invention. In political terms, prescriptive technologies are designs or compliance. When working within such designs, a workforce becomes acculturated into a milieu in which external control and internal compliance are seen as normal and necessary. Eventually, there is only one way of doing something. The Chinese could probably not have imagined making bronze in any other manner, just as we can’t imagine cars being manufactured in any other way.” (p.16)

Somehow, this last quote is exactly what Alexandra Harney illustrates in her book. 

Somehow, this is also what Kafka was trying to say in between the lines.

The universal common question between Kafka, Harney and Franklin for me comes to this:

How paradoxical is the building of our contemporary GREAT WALL 

at the same time de-humanizing us?

Conclusion: Any Wall, to be GREAT has to be HUMAN. 

To a certain extent then, I consider that the 2008 Chinese Olympics was an attempt.

THE CHINA PRICE: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage

I admire the book that journalist Alexandra Harney just published in 2008. 

Actually, you can look at the webpage here:

http://thechinaprice.org/home.html

I picked it up in the airport when I was on my way to Vietnam.

Having been to the Silk Market, here are a couple of quotes that made me ANGRY:

I kept a question in mind: Who is paying the true cost for what I am buying?

This is why Chapter 3: The Physical Cost is most striking...

“Dotted across the Chinese landscape are “cancer villages,” towns full of widown whose late husbands worked in the same toxic industries, enclaves where women give birth to babies with deformed limbs and other disabilities. Eastern Jianxi province’s Shangshan village was once renowned for its gold mines. Today the village is heavily in debt caring hundreds of farmers who contracted silicosis working in the mines. Some of these “widow towns” owe their fate to environmental pollution; others to a common workplace.” (p.57)

 

“More than 200 million Chinese workers in 16 million companies are exposed to dangerous working conditions. As of the end of 2005, China had recorded 665, 043 total cases of occupational illness; of these 606, 891, or about 90 percent, were pneumoconiosis, an umbrella term for a group of debilitating lung diseases.” (p.57)

 

“In a sign of the seriousness of the problem, Beijing has become increasingly frank about the long-term effects of the country’s rapid industrial growth on public health. ‘In the past few years, people ignored work safety amid fast economic growth,’ Su Zhi, deputy director of the Ministry of Health’s law enforcement and supervision department, said in 2004. ‘But vocational disease cases will increase in the coming years… The troubles planed in the past will be exposed in the coming few years.’ The Workers’ Daily, a Chinese newspaper, has warned that pneumoconiosis will be the most serious social problem in rural China by 2010. One official claims that the spread of pneumoconiosis is sparking popular protests.” (p. 58)

 My conclusion: 

Think again about the price you pay....

 Think again how ethical it is for you to say it's cool to buy so cheap.

The true cost of the Chinese price has people's lives at stake.

To stay up to date and awake, don't miss out on The China Price blog here:

http://thechinaprice.blogspot.com/

The Great Economic Wall of China

December 26, 2008

The ‘Silk market” in Beijing: After visiting the Great Wall of China, I went back to the capital for some shopping. I wasn't done reflecting about what it meant to have created a common cause for people to unite in order to build a national border. With this in mind, I went through the doors. I wasn't exactly sure what I wanted to buy yet. At first, I was only curious to explore what I would be offered at first sight.

It was overwhelming.

Chinese men and women approached me with their calculators ready to set a price to negotiate. Prada bags, wallets or belts? Gucci, Dolce & Gabana, or their favorite: Louis Vuitton???

"No, no thanks. Just looking around," I would say as they told me the prices and held me down only because instead of looking, I made the mistake of touching.

"How much lady? How much you buy?" 

"Don't go, cheaper for you," They insisted.

Not only that, but as hundreds of shoppers are deciding between Lacoste, Tommy Hilfiger or Polo T-Shirts, they were able to recognize many languages.

One lady demonstrated to me she could negotiate prices in Spanish, Japanese, Russian, German and well, English was a given.

Buying and selling. It can also get very competitive, especially when it comes to WATCHES.

Channel, Hermes, Rolex and Crazy Watch. EXACTLY!!! Very Krazy indeed.

Money is like monopoly there. The more cash you use, the more fun the game gets. 

It is only by the time you try to figure out why you bought so much that it hits you:

"I'm just such a good bargainer!!!"

To get a perfect illustration of what I mean, read the following blog:

http://blogs.sun.com/arungupta/entry/beijing_silk_market_shopping_bargain

As the author puts in the chart, the silk scarves offered at 650, were finally sold at 55!!!

But in the end, you are only kidding yourself.

Plus, there has to be something very wrong at the other end of the line...

Who is paying the REAL price for what I am shopping for?

The Great Wall by Kafka - Answer to Question Two

* * * 

Passages that help answer Question Two:

Was the Wall supposed to make people feel safer against an imaginary enemy?

“How can protection be provided by a wall which is not built continuously?  In fact, not only can such a wall not protect, but the structure itself is in constant danger.  Those parts of the wall left standing abandoned in particular regions could easily be destroyed again and again by the nomads, especially by those back then who, worried about the building of the wall, changed their place of residence with incredible speed, like grasshoppers, and thus perhaps had an even better overall view of how the construction was proceeding than we did, the people who built it.”   

  “Against whom was the great wall to provide protection?  Against the people of the north.  I come from south-east China.  No northern people can threaten us there.  We read about them in the books of the ancients.  The atrocities which their nature prompts them to commit make us heave a sigh on our peaceful porches.  In the faithfully accurate pictures of artists we see the faces of this damnation, with their mouths flung open, the sharp pointed teeth stuck in their jaws, their straining eyes, which seem to be squinting for someone to seize, whom their jaws will crush and rip to pieces.  When children are naughty, we hold up these pictures in front of them, and they immediately burst into tears and run into our arms.  But we know nothing else about these northern lands.  We have never seen them, and if we remain in our village, we never will see them, even if they charge straight at us and hunt us on their wild horses.  The land is so huge, it would not permit them to reach us, and they would lose themselves in empty air."

  “So if things are like this, why do we leave our homes, the river and bridges, our mothers and fathers, our crying wives, our children in need of education, and go to school in the distant city, with our thoughts on the wall to the north, even further away?  Why?  Ask the leadership.  They know us.  As they mull over their immense concerns, they know about us, understand our small worries, see us all sitting together in our humble huts, and approve or disapprove of the prayer which the father of the house says in the evening surrounded by his family." 

“Our land is so huge, that no fairy tale can adequately deal with its size.  Heaven hardly covers it all.  And Peking is only a point, the imperial palace only a tiny dot.  It’s true that, by contrast, throughout all the different levels of the world the emperor, as emperor, is great.  But the living emperor, a man like us, lies on a peaceful bed, just as we do.  It is, no doubt, of ample proportions, but it could be merely narrow and short.  Like us, he sometime stretches out his limbs and, if he is very tired, yawns with his delicately delineated mouth.  But how are we to know about that thousands of miles to the south, where we almost border on the Tibetan highlands?"

"Around the emperor the glittering and yet mysterious court throngs—malice and enmity clothed as servants and friends, the counterbalance to the imperial power, with their poisoned arrows always trying to shoot the emperor down from his side of the balance scales.  The empire is immortal, but the individual emperor falls and collapses. Even entire dynasties finally sink down and breathe their one last death rattle.  The people will never know anything about these struggles and sufferings.  Like those who have come too late, like strangers to the city, they stand at the end of the thickly populated side alleyways, quietly living off the provisions they have brought with them, while far off in the market place right in the middle foreground the execution of their master is taking place."

"If one wanted to conclude from such phenomena that we basically have no emperor at all, one would not be far from the truth.  I need to say it again and again: There is perhaps no people more faithful to the emperor than we are in the south, but the emperor derives no benefits from our loyalty.  It’s true that on the way out of our village there stands on a little pillar the sacred dragon, which, for as long as men can remember, has paid tribute by blowing its fiery breath straight in the direction of Peking.  But for the people in the village Peking itself is much stranger than living in the next world. Could there really be a village where houses stand right beside each other covering the fields and reaching further than the view from our hills, with men standing shoulder to shoulder between these houses day and night?  Rather than imagining such a city, it’s easier for us to believe that Peking and its emperor are one, something like a cloud, peacefully moving along under the sun as the ages pass."

  "It’s true that in the main things the blame rests with the government, which in the oldest empire on earth right up to the present day has not been able or has, among other things, neglected to cultivate the institution of empire sufficiently clearly so that it is immediately and ceaselessly effective right up to the most remote frontiers of the empire.  On the other hand, however, there is in this also a weakness in the people’s power of imagining or believing, which has not succeeded in pulling the empire out of its deep contemplative state in Peking and making it something fully vital and present in the hearts of subjects, who nonetheless want nothing better than to feel its touch once and then die from the experience."

* * * 

The Great Wall by Kafka - Answer to Question One

When I was in high school, I remember reading Franz Kafka’s “the Great Wall of China.” But reading is not automatically understanding: I came back and read it again, this time having in mind I had really been there.

In the first person, Kafka writes through the eyes of a young Chinese village boy. He was observing his father being told something to his ear. Then, his father revealed to the most unbelievable news as he told him:

“[A strange boatman – I know all those who usually pass here, but this one is stranger – has just told me that a great wall is going to be built to protect the emperor. For it seems that infidel tribes, and demons among them, often gather in front of the imperial palace to shoot their black arrows at the emperor.]”  (p.70) *

(Kafka, Franz. The Great Wall of China and other short works. Trans. From German by Malcolm Pasley. Penguin Books, 2002.)

* : The reason why this part is in brackets is because, as the authors explain, this paragraph was considered by Kafka as a work in progress.

Kafka helped me pick out from the wind the answers I was trying to answer. To better understand what I mean, I suggest you read the e-version of Kafka’s work:

http://records.viu.ca/~Johnstoi/Kafka/greatwallofchina.htm

* * *

Passages that help answer Question One:

How did a nation come together to finish this Wall?

“One could not, for example, let them lay one building block on top of another in an uninhabited region of the mountains, hundreds of miles from their homes, for months or even years at a time.   The hopelessness of such a hard task, which could not be completed even in a long human lifetime, would have caused them distress and, more than anything else, made them worthless for work.   For that reason they chose the system of building in sections.  Five hundred metres could be completed in something like five years, by which time naturally the supervisors were as a rule too exhausted and had lost all faith in themselves, in the building, and in the world.”

“Thus, while they were still experiencing the elation of the celebrations for the joining up of a thousand metres of the wall, they were shipped far, far away.  On their journey they saw here and there finished sections of the wall rising up; they passed through the quarters of the higher administrators, who gave them gifts as badges of honour, and they heard the rejoicing of new armies of workers streaming past them out of the depths of the land, saw forests being laid low, wood designated as scaffolding for the wall, witnessed mountains being broken up into rocks for the wall, and heard in the holy places the hymns of the pious praying for the construction to be finished.  All this calmed their impatience.”

  “The high regard which all those doing the building enjoyed, the devout humility with which people listened to their reports, the trust that simple quiet citizens had that the wall would be completed someday—all this tuned the strings of their souls.  Then, like eternally hopeful children, they took leave of their home.  The enthusiasm for labouring once again at the people’s work became irresistible.  They set out from their houses earlier than necessary, and half the village accompanied them for a long way.”

  “On all the roads there were groups of people, pennants, banners—they had never seen how great and rich and beautiful and endearing their country was.  Every countryman was a brother for whom they were building a protective wall and who would thank him with everything he had and was for all his life.  Unity! Unity! Shoulder to shoulder, a coordinated movement of the people, their blood no longer confined in the limited circulation of the body but rolling sweetly and yet still returning through the infinite extent of China.”

  “What was the need for the wall, which was definitely something concrete, the result of the labour and the lives of hundreds of thousands of  people?” (p. 62)

  “The only conclusion left is that the leadership deliberately chose piecemeal construction.    But building in sections was something merely makeshift and impractical.  So the conclusion remains that the leadership wanted something impractical.  An odd conclusion!  True enough, and yet from another perspective it had some inherent justification.”

* * * 

The Great Questions on the Wall of China

Dec. 24, 2008

 

I climbed the infinite staircase,

Step by step.

 

I struggled to keep my breathing rhythm at a normal rate:

Inhale, exhale.

 

I stopped.

 

How did a nation come together to finish this Wall?

 

I looked at the horizon,

The violent wind hitting my face.

 

Blink.

 

I realized the presence of my existence. 

 

Stone after stone, people sacrificed their lives to construct a barrier.

 

Was the Wall supposed to make people feel safer against an imaginary enemy?

 

The wind blew stronger this time, as if spirits had awakened and they were trying to tell me I was asking dangerous questions.

 

The wind blew again, giving me a rainbow of answers.

 

BEIJING: the second capital of China

Quick Facts:

 

Population: Over 15 million. The second largest city in China after Shanghai. 

History: The People’s Republic of China was proclaimed in 1949. Recently, the 2008 Olympic games were hosted in Beijing.

Language: Putonghua, Standard Mandarin Chinese

Religions: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism

Currency: Yuan

GDP: expected around $146 billion dollars thanks to the Olympics

 

December 23, 2008

Tiananmen Square: the Great Hall of the People. Reading CBC correspondent Patrick Brown's Butterfly Mind about the student protests in 1989 made me standing there a little nervous.

Read more here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/yourquestions/2008/08/patrick_brown.html

But Tiananmen Square today is also home to the Chinese Parliament. A new policy passed which Chinese people are proud now. 

Read “China Announces Land Policy Aimed at Promoting Income Growth in Countryside” by Edward Wong: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/world/asia/13china.html

Forbidden City: Home to China’s Imperial Dynasties. You can read about the most recent renovations being done here: 

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2008-12/29/content_7350255.htm

 

Imperial Summer Palace: This is how the Emperors lived the good life! Take a look at it here: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/880

 

The Temple of Heaven: Along with the Forbidden City and the Imperial Summer Palace, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, and I quote from the UNESCO website:

 “The symbolic layout and design of the Temple of Heaven had a profound influence on architecture and planning in the Far East over many centuries.”

 

 

HONG KONG, the “Fragrant Harbor”

 

Quick Facts:

 

Population: 7 million

History: It became a British territory in 1842 until it was recently transferred back to China in 1997.

“One country, two systems” Policy: Hong Kong maintains relative independence, remaining a financial capital with a beautiful skyline.

Language: Cantonese

Currency: Hong Kong DollarHong Kong Dollar

GDP: $ GDP: 293.311 billion (2007)

December 21, 2008.

The skyline:  In twilight, turns into a light show during Christmas. Tall, wide and continuing skyscrapers announce merry x-mas with santas, spheres and x-mas trees in different patterns of neon blue, red yellow and green outside each building.

Hong Kong Never sleeps. The colors reflected in the bay waters are constant, and from time to time, the waves of the coming and going ferries shift their patterns.

The tallest building now is the Two International Finance Centre, at 415 meters high.  But the International Commerce Centre will be the tallest building in 2010, with 118 floors, at 484 meters high! It is a symbolic figure: 8 is the number for wealth and prosperity. Have you heard of Fung Shui? It is also interesting to notice that mostly, all buildings avoid any the 4th floor, because it is the number of Death so it has a negative connotation.

Today, local people are celebrating the end of winter. Big families sit in round tables (up to 16 people) in crowed restaurants eating and exchanging presents. They also go to the temple, pray and light candles, offer presents to their ancestors and burn poems to make their wishes come true.

Hong Kong is a mix of traditions. The air still feels hot and humid with a touch of coldness coming in soon.

---

Ladies market: It is FULL in the afternoon.  When the traffic picks up, there are so many faces, that you cannot distinguish between one and the other. Everything is moving so fast that details are hard to grasp or even remember.

Everyone is shopping, picking, moving, looking, telling, clapping, laughing…

No one stops.

Everyone is playing with a cell phone or looking through a camera or connecting to this or that…

There are so many signs and so colorful that they become misleading, as they compete to each other.

But when I crossed the street once I was leaving the market, there was a man, bold and old, with a plastic water bottle on one hand standing in the middle. He had a blue uniform and black slippers. He was reciting something that sounded like it rhymed. Was it a poem?

He sang with a very powerful and almost angry voice. He would repeat it every time the red light turned green as hundreds of shoppers would cross by. He was probably recalling the communist era of China, the times of Mao Zedong… Maybe he was making a statement against all this capitalist consumerism culture.

Was anyone listening though? I wouldn’t be surprised if some people even hit him with their multiple shopping bags.

--- 

December 23, 2008

Aberdeen: it is the active fishing harbor. Observing from a Sampan, a traditional small boat. The reason why Hong Kong was called a fragrant harbor was because there was a small inlet between Ap Lei Chau island and the south side of Hong Kong Island (known as Aberdeen Harbor) that smelled like the incense coming from the north of Kowloon, which was stored in Aberdeen Harbor for export.

Many ‘boat people’ live onshore and have been fishing for generations. But are they happy? Do they really want to stay there? What are their alternatives anyway?