Back from Cambodia.....

Hey ... a minimum wage in Cambodia?!!! Or anywhere else in SE Asia. (It was only introduced in the UK in '99) But I know what you mean.
I like the Ugandan ad ... it would work for me but I'm guessing that the men would have double standards ... in the same way the police turning a blind eye to the brothels did.
I'd say the police and the teachers are fairly educated and still get payed a pittance. I think a primary school teacher gets $80 per month and a secondary school teacher something like $120. So everyone has to supplement their wages somehow.

I saw a mother and her two children in PP walking the streets, the children would have been about 9 & 10. They did not have a stitch of clothing on. It was really awful to see and am surprised the the authorities would let this happen.
The locals did not seem particularly perturbed but I was really taken back. I have seen heaps of begging but this was different. I appreciate that the mother was desperate but absolutely no clothes is just a bit too much. I felt so sorry for the children.

It worked then; her "no clothes" gimmick gave her an edge over the others. Were they walking skeletons or had they eaten recently? You can tell the real poor.

Dave

No not really skinny,that's what I am saying it was so degrading for the children. She was dressed I am sure she could have found something for them to put on. It did not encourage me to give her money, but I would have loved to put some clothes on the kids.

Yep, it's a foreign world to we Westerners. At least it's warm enough for them to go without clothes - in Russia I saw lightly-clad beggars literally freezing to death in the snow. Saw a guy in Pnom Penh with only a shirt on - he was staggering about the main road, traffic dodging him, waving his arms madly and roaring at the world. Couldn't make out whether he was pissed a a fart or had totally lost the plot.

Dave

Hi Helen

Yes, that's the book. Thanks for that. It drove me a bit crazy not being able to recall the title. I have to see if I can borrow from the library now that I am back in Oz. Depressing to read but enlightening at the same time. It kind of humbled me and I did have a sense of gratitude to know how lucky I am for escaping this sort of fate. What I am trying to say is that sometimes it is a matter of fate.........that if I was unlucky enough to be born in Cambodia or Thailand, where female children are less valued, that my parents were too poor to raise me or that I was traded for food, money, etc.

Travelling in the poorer Asian countries are quite confronting. I am thankful to be back in Australia.