smile_n_cuddle | (no subject)

I've been reading up on the genocide in Cambodia in the late 70s. (The Killing Fields is a movie about this.) What happened was so awful and tragic. Two million people massacred in a few short years... Yet, why didn't anyone do anything about it? Likewise, why isn't anyone doing anything about Darfur, Sudan? Is it because there's no oil there? Because there's nothing of value? It disgusts me that we focus so much on the horrors of the Holocaust - which WERE horrible - and ignore the fact that it's going on RIGHT now.

Just yesterday, the BBC had a report from the UN re: the violence in Darfur.

Darfur 'Death Toll' Much Higher

And yet, I don't hear any calls for peace and democracy in Sudan. I see no reports of Allies planning to swoop in and combat the evil perpetrators of death and rape. Right now, the UN is trying to decide whether they should impose sanctions against the 'Worst of the Perpetrators' at all. Sick.

Anyway, I have been reading about the Cambodian genocide a bit this week, and also studying the long-term effects of the Khmer Rouge occupation on the refugees here in America. The following are some excerpts from a great article.

Sixteen years after one of the greatest tragedies in modern history, Cambodian survivors are fading into obscurity. As this report is being written, textbooks in Cambodia are being rewritten and reference to the bloody reign of the Khmer Rouge is being removed. Only three short months ago, the United States Congress denied the reality of the Cambodian experience by simply changing their status from refugee to alien and declaring them ineligible for Social Security Supplemental income and Medicare. Survivors themselves live in fear of retaliation if they speak of their experience and identify their persecutors. It is within this context of denial and fear that Cambodian community workers and health care providers face the overwhelming tasks of addressing complex problems with diminishing resources. Those who care for suvivors of massive trauma must now take on the role of witness and advocate in order to alleviate pain and improve the quality of life for people who most certainly have earned entitlement to care.

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In a variation of this same theme, a heavy set Cambodian boy terrorized his teachers and then turned into a clinging, frightened child when he was with his parents. He was able to function well in a structured environment but became belligerent and hyperactive in a mainstream classroom.

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Khmer Health Advocates frequently encounters families in which the children have no idea of the circumstances of their resettlement in the United States. One young man who is from an ethnic Lao family from Cambodia had no idea that he came from Cambodia or that his twin brother had died during the Khmer Rouge. He always thought that the reason his mother never came out of her bedroom was because he made so much trouble for the family.

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Violence has long been a part of Cambodian life and survivors often have their trauma experiences re-enacted in the home and on the streets. In California, Cambodians have been rumored to have the highest murder rate of all of the Asian groups. Statistics from the Department of Corrections in California show that 40% of the 64 Cambodians presently serving sentences in prison are there for killing some-one. Another 11% are there for assault. Despair and violence are most obvious in areas with large concentrations of Cambodians such as Southern California and Lowell, Massachusetts where incidence of murder are often stunningly shocking in their brutality. A mother shot through the heart while nursing her baby, three children attacked and murdered with a machete by a boyfriend who feared being rejected.

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In Cambodia, domestic violence is considered to be at epidemic levels. A research project found evidence of as many as a quarter of a million women seriously injured by domestic violence. Essentially one out of six women is a victim of this problem. Sima Wali reports that research conducted by Refugee Women in Development finds that women who were raped during their escape from their country are more likely to be victims of domestic violence.(Wali, 1993) Trauma victims need for control is cited as an important aspect of domestic violence and loss of control is often felt to be life threatening.

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The expression of violence is found in all age groups. Among Cambodians, youth gangs are common and violent, perhaps replacing the youth groups of older siblings. The gang problem is most serious in Long Beach, California, where, according to Detective Sorensen of the Long Beach Police Department, there are about 30 homicides involving Cambodian gangs each year, and continuous violence between the Cambodian gangs and the Hispanic gangs. The gangs also target Khmer businesses and families for robbery and extortion. The gangs are beginning to spread beyond their birthplaces: Detective Sorensen tells of gang members traveling across the country to escape the police, who simply join gangs again in their new home. Khmer Health Advocates is aware of gang related assaults and deaths in New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. Cambodian adult survivors see gangs as a continuation of the Khmer Rouge influence, stealing their children and turning them into strangers, a problem compounded by the very real language barriers between the generations.

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In 5 studies completed between 1980 and 1984, Cambodians with a postive TB skin test numbered between 39-57% of those screened.

(In 1949, when the Nazi concentration camp survivors were tested as they came to the US, the incidence of TB was 18%.)

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The majority of KHA adult patients report "hearing sounds or noise" that can be annoying or distressing. On questioning, some patients will confide that they believe the sounds to be the voices of ghosts and when asked for details, they are able to identify the voices which are most often associated with a trauma event. This leads to the speculation that auditory flashbacks are a much more common symptom than originally observed.

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Other mysterious symptoms include severe motion sickness that can prevent survivors from seeking medical care or having a social life as the trip to the doctors office or to the wed-ding is so distressing that it is not worth the effort. The complexity of Cambodian survivors health problems are overwhelming. Even under the best of circumstances where there are sensitive, trained translators and health care providers familiar with severe trauma, treatment is complicated and long term . As survivors of torture, it is often terrifying for Cambodians to undergo having blood drawn or CAT scans that enclose them in a small space. Medications are unfamiliar and frightening to people who hear rumors of addictions and complications of using traditional and western medicine together.
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Ah, politics... We can police the States that have Oil, while turning a blind eye to the killings of millions from whom we have nothing to gain. Gotta love it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Of course, what's happening now in Sudan is terrible--but in a way, it fits with precedent, because the Allies turned a blind eye to the Holocaust while it was happening, too.

To echo exactly what avivalasvegas just said, no, this shouldn't be all that surprising to us. The Holocaust went on for a long time before we stepped in to end it. It's a horrible thing, but history does repeat itself and has done so over the past several thousand years.

These situations are found all over the world, even if to lesser extents. There are countries in Africa that are a perfect example of this. I'm not saying this is okay, far from it, just that humanity has a terrifying capacity for evil and will likely continue to exercise it until the end of time.

Hey... I tried calling you. Give me a call :-)

Was that you? Dude, leave a msg! My phone sucks. *growls at phone*

OK, we're playing phone tag.. :-P

I tried calling you again, cuz I saw that you called me :-)