I have not blogged any post for months, and of course I do miss this. After writing a lot for newspaper and media organizations, I feel like retreating from the blogging world. However, today I do feel an urge to pen up something that puts me in a bewildering state.
That is about paedophiles caught, arrested and sentenced in Cambodia. I find it hysterical when the Cambodian government issued a new law that seems to give an advantage to the child-sex criminals. Imprisoned from 7 to 10 years is nothing compared to the crime they commit to children. As for people who provide children to those foreigners, there must be a law that punishes them accordingly and yes, severely. But sadly, it is usually parents (Vietnamese or Cambodian) and close relatives that keep pushing their children toward traumatization and nightmares. It is shocking to hear that 50 to 100 dollars could get a 10-year-old boy or girl torn apart. What a world this is. A Cambodian proverb says that however cruel a tiger can be, it will never eat its own child. But these parents are obviously worse than animals, as I see it.
Once, I saw a foreigner walking arm in arm with a young girl. From behind, she looked like a child, but indeed she looked quite old, not suitable to her short, small, thin body. I kept thinking if her present state results from years of rape and abuse, after which she probably gave in to prostitution. It is bad enough to see young women solicit for a living … but what about children who need affection, care, nutrition and years of blossoming? Many cases of paedophilia have occurred ever since 2003, and I can’t count how many paedophiles have been arrested and prosecuted. Perhaps, there are one too many to estimate. However, I’m glad that now there has been a campaign against sex tourism and paedophilia, broadcast on TV, newspaper and expat magazines. I hope this will make people believe that Cambodia is not a destination for sex tourism.
But that won’t leave me feel completely relieved, because that has spread to Cambodian society. Cambodian men, too, are paedophiles. They are even worse, I guess, or as bloodly bad as foreigners. They rape a child as young as 5 to 10. Isn’t this very stupid? I remember once studying upstairs in my room, my sisters were whispering to each other about what they just saw. A guy who was finding grass for his cows almost undress a 5-year-old girl, close to my house. But luckily, the girl was saved on time by her mother, weeding in her market garden nearby. I say, if I ever saw him again, he wouldn’t need to live up till tomorrow.
Left absolutely dumbfounded, I tried to figure out reasons why Cambodia has had this kind of trouble. Since when? Has it always been with human society? Several months ago, surprisingly enough I came across a site that keeps records of about a hundred of women who were charged with paedophilia. “Am I dreaming,” I wondered. People have done incredibly crazy things I have never seen my entire 21 year-life. Maybe I wasn’t born early enough to see more gruesome things like that in the past. But I think for people who find themselves sexually fond of children, they should see a psychiatrist immediately.
Wikipedia has done a great job in explaining what PAEDOPHILIA is.
3 thoughts on “Paedophilia in Cambodia”
Comments are closed.
This problem is not unique in Cambodia, but it must be tackled.
It’s not. But it’s getting worse.
I find it particularly sad that people from developed countries are traveling to an impoverished country like Cambodia to prey on children. Cambodians generally look up to foreigners, particularly Westerners, as role models for fairness, benevolence, freedom and justice. The acts of the sex tourists are threatening to undermine the good deeds of those foreigners who are in Cambodia to do good.