Author Archives: Kounila Keo

About Kounila Keo

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." A journalist in the making, I have a lot to argue about and inform people...

ON|OFF event in Jakarta

Posted on by
2

I had a great opportunity to join ON|OFF event, formerly known as Pesta Blogger, which hosted bloggers from nine of the 10 ASEAN member countries today.

The ON|OFF event on December 3rd attracted between 1,000 and 1,500 participants, most of whom are bloggers, social media users, tech enthusiasts, celebrities, fashion designers, entrepreneurs, writers and other Indonesian communities.

I heard that ON|OFF is a evolving form of Pesta Blogger, Indonesia’s largest annual gathering of the Indonesian bloggers having run since 2007. It’s interesting to note that the ON|OFF was picked to replace ‘Pesta Blogger’ because the organizing committee must be aware that there are other social media platform rather than just blog to express themselves.

We, bloggers from Southeast Asia, have been invited to share and exchange their experiences and perspectives about blogging and social media use in our countries. The only invited blogger who could not attend the event was from Myanmar because he had to take photographs of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s historic visit to his country.

Below is the list of the bloggers from Southeast Asia I got from the ON|OFF website: http://seasianbloggersxchange.onoffid.org/the-bloggers/

Muhamad Reeda Malik | Brunei Darussalam | Http://Anakbrunei.Com.Bn/

Reeda is the founder and Manager of #Brunei Channel on an Internet Relay Chat Network called the Undernet, which is one of the largest real-time chat networks in the world, with approximately 45 servers connecting over 35 countries and serving more than 100,000 people weekly. He is also founder of anakbrunei.org, a popular Bruneian photoblog with social commentary on the current events related to Brunei Darussalam and Bruneians both at home and abroad. Contributing writer from Brunei Darussalam for cnet Asia technology blog, Kurapak Teknologi.

 

Kounila Keo | Cambodia |  Http://Blueladyblog.Com/

Kounila is a graduate of Media & Communication at the Department of Media & Communication at Royal University of Phnom Penh. She has been freelancing for Agence France Presse and some international media publications since 2008. So far, she has attended workshops and conferences on traditional and new media in Asia and Europe. When she does not write, Kounila blogs prolifically about Cambodia at Www.Blueladyblog.Com. New media is her newly-found passion.

 

Iman Usman |Indonesia | Http://Imanusman.Com/

Iman is a 2nd year student of Universitas Indonesia majoring International Relations. His passion in social activism and community development takes him to lead Indonesian Future Leaders and Youth Parliament Indonesia. In his spare time, he also actively contributes to promote ASEAN Community as ASEAN-Indonesia Youth Ambassador. In the beginning of 2011, his blog was named as the 1st winner of Microsoft Bloggership 2011 Competition, and he is invited to New York as one of Recipients of Global Teen Leaders 2011 by We Are Family Foundation.

 

Sounay Phothisane |Laos | Http://Blog.Sounay.Com/

Sounay is a website design freelancer who loves to dedicate his time and effort on building websites, blogging, and utilizing social media for the Lao community. Besides being a temporally employed specialist lecturing in Mahasarakham Business School in Thailand, he has contributed to his talents by promoting Laos to the social online community. He has published websites relating to Laos and its rich culture,VientianeHour.Com.

 

Marcus van Geyzel | Malaysia | Http://Www.Loyarburok.Com/

LoyarBurok.com is the only community blawg in the known universe. In 2006, Lord Bobo Barnabus, the Wonder Typewriting Monkey, mind-controlled several homo sapiens with the Lord’s awesome powers of telepathy and got them to start LoyarBurok, to provide a forum for everyone with an interest in anything and who do not wish to take themselves too seriously – to pontificate (with their tongues firmly lodged in their cheek) on frivolous issues such as those concerning the state of the world, human rights, government, legal profession, judicial system; and to to create awareness and activism on issues of concern such as to help redress violations of human and animal rights, and to seek improvements in the way they order and structure their lives. Continuing their quest for world domination, there are now more than 300 LoyarBurok writers from around the world, steered by more than 20 faithful editorial MastHead minions. LoyarBurok has also birthed on-the-ground activities, advocating human rights and justice.

 

Flow Galindez | Philippines | Http://Angsawariko.Com/

Flow is a blogger and a proud advocate of UN World Food Programme, WFP’s Philippine Connector and advocates causes like climate change and HIV/ AIDS awareness, education, child and women’s rights. He blogs about various topics, such as advocacy, entertainment, events, lifestyle, news, tech and gadgets, movies and theaters and foodie stuff.


Zheng “William” Wei | Singapore | Http://T.Qq.Com/Zhengwei_zaobao

 

William is the online editor / Assistant Vice President for Zaobao – the largest Singapore-based Chinese-language newspaper. In 1994, the newspaper launched its online version, Zaobao.com, and today it serves a a news portal that also draws news from other parts of the region. William developed this online news portal even more, increasing its pageviews more than 5 times since he took over, and brought Zaobao to win “Best Print Media Website” for 3 consecutive years.

 

Arthit Suriyawongkul | Thailand | Http://Bact.Cc/

He’s an avid blogger from Thailand, and is very active in promoting freedom of expression, and creative commons in Thailand’s social media sphere. He is a Pedestrian-in-Residence at Opendream, Coordinator for Thai Netizen Network and also a board member of Creative Commons Thailand that works in providing licenses for creative works on the internet.  He’s working in the areas of ICT for developments, internet freedom, journalism, and information rights. Right now he’s approaching his final year as a graduate anthropology student. Traveling regularly in Southeast Asia.

 

Tai Tran | Vietnam | Http://Www.Taitran.Vn/

Tai blogs about finance, investment, fund management as that is his passion. He has three-years experience as Business Consultant and Analyst. He’s also a Funds Management postgraduate with top score and scholarship. Possesses solid domain knowledge of Technology. He has been blogging about his area of expertise since 2002.

 

Night Noodle Soup To Survive in Phnom Penh

Posted on by
14

You’re sleeping, and suddenly a rhythmic sound of sticks comes out of nowhere. It’s getting closer to you as you listen to it more and more. You can’t help but think it’s creepy. 

No, its not a cheap ghost story I’m gonna tell. It’s merely a way as to how night noodle soup is sold here in Cambodia.

Night rice noodle, called in Khmer as “Kuy Teav Pok Pak“ is sold between 4pm and 2am — at very few blocks in Phnom Penh. I certainly have no idea why the seller finishes selling it very early in the morning.

But one thing for sure is that they don’t sell it at a stall or their home but with a cart loaded with noodle and soup, they walk from one block to another.

We call it Pok Pak, maybe because of the sound which sellers make by hitting two bamboo bars, walking through a village or town. It usually involves two dudes — one pushes the cart, and the other becomes a musician.

Who eats rice noodle soup as early as 2am? If you ask this same question, you’re on the right track. ;-)

His hard work paid off at the end. At least, I bought his soup after having found what he did creepy for a few days. =D

I heard from my mother who lived through the Khmer Rouge regime that back to Sangkumreasniyum regime (when former king Sihanouk ruled), Cambodians, young or old, liked having rice noodle soup very late at night.

Really? Why can’t they have it during the day? Teehee. My mother asserted that it’s always been like that since the past.

Ching said that he's 21 years old this year, and sells noodles from 4pm to 2am.

Also, I wonder if the boy has been scolded by people whom he can wake up by his bamboo bars. Now that I’ve heard of it a lot, I, however, began to think it’s quite a pleasant rhythm. (I wish I could convert the audio I recorded into an mp3 file) T__T Who could help me here?

Yes, I ate it, savored it...:P

xoxoxo

Movies about Cambodia

Posted on by
9

After I scanned through several entertainment posts related to Cambodia in KhmerBird blog, I’ve started to realize that I have missed something nice!

On my way back from Paris, I was put on Air France that has a direct flight from Phnom Penh to Paris with a short stop-over in Bangkok.

On the plane, they had a small audio-visual device for us passengers to watch a list of nice movies through.

I spent hours watching some Hollywood and Indian (Tamil) movies instead of this movie.
1. We can’t change the world, but we wanna build a school in Cambodia

is a 2011 Japanese film directed by Kenta Fukasaku (wikpedia) and made out of a real story about a medical student called Kota who tried to find meaning in his existence by volunteering in a poor Southeast Asian country (Cambodia).

He later wrote a book based on his personal experiences which became an Internet sensation and was later made into this beautifully hit film!

Noteworthy as it is, many tourists come to this country and fall in love with it only to find their heart broken by the harsh reality that unfolds as they spend more time here.

Later Kota finds no more meaning in collecting money so he and his friends take the matter into their own hands, travel to Cambodia and encounter a once-in-a-lifetime situation.

Japan and Cambodia are totally a far cry from each other. Children in Japan can have every meal but in Cambodia many school kids miss breakfast before school.

I dare say that this film makes a substantive point about volunteerism, education system and the fact that we are short of school buildings and above all else, good teachers.

2. The City of Angkor — 1296AD

When I first watched this on Khmerbird blog, I was in awe. That’s because I never dared to dream that somebody somewhere cared to discover the very old history of Cambodia.

The City of Angkor – 1296AD took 3 years to complete and was run by Monash University for a National Geographic magazine and website special on Cambodia.

Even though this trailer doesn’t say much about why it features Angkor in the year 1296, I am certain that this animation film is a remake of the diary of Zhou Daguan (wikipedia), a young Chinese diplomat sent to the Khmer empire in 1296.
His accounts of customs of Angkor was widely translated into English.
There were quite a few books dubbed into English from Zhou Daguan’s original diary, but I think the one very close to his accounts was this book by Peter Harris and David Chandler (an article in the Cambodia Daily).

VIA: www.khmerbird.com