Monthly Archives: March 2009

For Eva Rhode

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After years of learning ‘news writing’ with Eva Rhode, I’ve developed a great skill to a great extent thanks to her efforts she has put into instilling journalism into our veins.
I can never be here without Eva. She taught me from writing a piece of hot news to features. She taught me journalism eithics, rights and wrong of journalism, and the whole journalism atmosphere. She is a tough woman who doesn’t let you feel free at school without doing your homework. :) She has a tremendous sense of humor. She works very hard for all the students at our media department.
Having taught here for three years, Eva has melted, freezed and heated our heart. She has strengthened our commitment to perform the best for the betterment of the media in Cambodia. She deserves all the compliments and everything from us students. We have also had a lot of fun being with her. We traveled to several provinces like Kratie, Stueng Treng to report. We felt very excited since we were acting like professionals traveling to different countries to report news for the people in our country. So much fun! She’s the one who struggled to find funds for our traveling and reporting. She had different probjects in mind, on the row. She worked hard along with her husband whom achievements owed greatly to.
Our achievements include:
+ writing a great many pieces of stories/articles for EVa
+ traveling to Stueng Treng and Kratie and coming back writing fascinating articles for Eva
+ establishing a press conference attracting a good number of local and foreign media like the Phnom Penh Post
+ creating a multi-media website that contains all the news we students wrote: including legal reporting and court reporting
All she has done is to show us that things have its reasons and ways of doing. We journalists need to have a spider sense to catch things from different directions. We did enjoy your time for years– we spent good and bad times together– and it is very sad that Eva is leaving us soon for her next journey in another country. It’s always like this: Life. The old ones go and the new ones will replace. It’s very sad to be sad about this circle process– but we’ll remember ‘Eva’. We learn a mere great thing from her, “Work hard now or never.”

Gender Roles Changing as Time Flies

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Happy Women’s Rights Day!!!
If you look at the past times, women had to get involved most in family’s work. They had to look after the children and husbands. Even thousand years ago, women stayed in the caves, looking after their offspring and their men went out to hunt for animials and pick fruits and vegetables. But as time passes, the gender roles of men and women are, too, changing throughout the world. Women aren’t just women now.
Women can go out and have a job to earn an income, so she can take part in raising the kids as well as financially supporting the family. This draws like and dislike, admiration and complaints from many people. But this is inevitable because at one point, the two people are equal in contributing change to society. Therefore, women should be given opportunities to education, unlike what had been given to Cambodian girls in the past years. 50 years ago, not many Cambodian women could read or write much since they were believed to do immoral things like ‘so-called’ writing love letters to their loved men.
How funny their perception had been! Women can feel, sense, listen and hear to everything. They have bigger brains and without resorting to discrimination they are just like men. All my life, I’ve refused to do what friends want me to do: sweep the floor, clean the class’s mirror and cook something for them. They often leave a bitter remark: “This is what a girl ought to do.” But the world is changing now. The gender roles are changing as well. It’s time that women should not be confined to the kitchen and from time to time ought to go out and see the world for themselves.
Cheers to the women— but actually it should not be the only day that more rights are given to them. It should be every day :-)

How could I forget my birthday?

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I reached a point where I did not realize that March 6th 2009 was my birthday. The night before, I hit the sack early since I was very tired rushing around classes and some freelancing work. My brain was littered with school work and my own job, and especially DEATH LINE (deadline) of my story to be finished, for my editor.
How could I forget my birthday? When I look back, I smile. Without the admistrator unconsciously emphasizing the date, I would never realize. “Today is March 6th,” she said. “March 6th?” I thought, surprised within myself. 21 years ago, a girl was born, without realizing what she would be like in the future. Her parents had no clue—her father wanted her to be a boy– but she demanded her rights to be born as a girl but with a boy’s spirit… Haha.. it is not a fairy tale, at last.
After my mother delivered me, my father came to our side. He raised me up and looked at the place which could tell him exactly if I was a boy or a girl. He beamed when he saw me. But after some inspection, “Heyya, a girl again,” he thought. :D Months before, my mother in her pregnancy showed a sign of me to be born as a boy. She dreamt of a dark green-gemmed blacelet before I was born. Cambodians believe that if women dream of anything that belongs to a girl, the baby will be a girl. Father wanted me as ‘a boy’. How could I suite his taste? :D And, at last, I turned out to be like him, quite brown, though female. :D That offsets everything, doesn’t it? :D