Theary, this Sunday morning at home before meeting with Free Trade Union representatives, some 80 members representing about 40 factories across Cambodia, in Phnom Penh, 14 July 2013, as the FTUWKC's newly appointed Senior Advisor.

Over 600,000 garment workers in Cambodia, most are young women, still teenagers--uneducated, living in one room with 10-15 other similarly situated women in the city from their remote villages, working from morning to night at least 6 days a week, only to survive for that day, as daily food and rent eat into their paltry $80/mo.

I will advocate more and more in my capacity as Free Trade Union's Senior Advisor as well as the Founding President of CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education for their education, health and safety, and a living wage of least $150 plus benefits:

(1) one Saturday per month of education on factory time, conducted by NGOs (e.g. CIVICUS Cambodia) and other educational institutions;

(2) factory provides an orange or a banana for each worker each morning, to supplement their non-nutritious food they can now only afford,

(3) the safety accord similar to one recently adopted for Bangladesh (see below), among others.

- Theary, Phnom Penh, 16 July 2013

MY RECOMMENDATION:

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety

in Cambodia

(modeled after the one enacted for Bangladesh), inter alia:

1. The companies would agree that they would take responsibility and immediate action wherever serious safety problems are found. They would pledge “to insure that sufficient funds are available to pay for renovations and other safety improvements.”

2. The accord would allow labor groups to take clothing brands that refuse to live up to their commitments to arbitration or, failing that, to court in the companies’ home countries. This would give unions a crucial tool to help ensure that industry keeps its word;

3. LEGAL LIABILITY (accord legally binding, not voluntary; companies subject to lawsuits in their respective country, arbitration failing);

4. Accord would give labor unions a role in overseeing its implementation;

5. A FOUNDATION underwritten by clothing companies will send inspectors to identify hazards and propose safety measures at factories that make clothes for brands like H&M, Zara and Tommy Hilfiger.

6. The cost of repairing factories and paying workers who are temporarily furloughed would be covered by the companies, loans from international financial institutions, and Cambodia and foreign government funds.

7. Retailers would commit to keep buying from factories that agree to make repairs and would stop buying from any that refuse.

8. The foundation would be run by clothing companies and global and local labor groups.

Theary Seng, FTUWKC's Senior Advisor, with factory workers, one at Tack Fat before it was closed.  I remember demonstrating in front of Tack Fat beginning in 1997, being water-hosed and chased down by security forces (Phnom Penh, 14 July 2013)

Approx. 80 representatives from about 40 factories across Cambodia of the FTUWKC met this Sunday, among the item of business was the vote for the CNRP as a union, 76 CNRP vs. 3 CPP (more a pity vote than anything else).

FTUWKC president Chea Mony and accountant Mam Senghak

FTUWKC reps voted 76-3 for the Union to vote for CNRP on July 28.  (The 3 is really a pity vote for the CPP.)

. . .

Free Trade Union of Workers

appointment of Ms. Theary C. Seng

as its Senior Advisor

Phnom Penh, 13 June 2013

Decision re the Appointment of Senior Advisor of Free Trade Union of Workers of the Kingdom of Cambodia, dated 13 June 2013:

Decided:

1.  Appoint Ms. Theary Seng as FTUWKC Senior Advisor.

2.  Ms. Theary Seng has the authority to make decisions and statements in the name of the FTUWKC.

3.  The FTUWKC Executive Committee, Representatives at every level, and Members in every province shall implement this decision.

4.  Effective from 13 June 2013.

(Copy lodged yesterday officially with Ministries of Interior, of Justice, of Social Affairs; ILO, GMAC, FTUWKC branches and its networks...)

Signed: FTUWKC President Chea Mony

. . .

It's a great honor and privilege for me to be appointed officially by the Free Trade Union of Workers in the Kingdom of Cambodia as its Senior Advisor.  I take seriously this position and the trust bestowed on me by the FTUWKC.

I see this position to be greatly complementary to my work as the Founding President of CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education.

I have been active with the FTUWKC since its inception in December 1996 -- the oldest, most well-established and most popular union in Cambodia.

We used to demonstrate almost every other day on the streets of Phnom Penh, oftentimes water-hosed and chased down by the security apparatus of the State.

Hence, this Senior Advisior position is only new in terms of OFFICIAL appointment, not new in terms of work, familiarity, or passion for workers' rights.

- Theary, Phnom Penh, 9 July 2013

. . .

A Promising Approach to Factory Safety

The New York Tims | Editorial Board | 11 July 2013

The accord goes further than previous voluntary efforts to monitor factories. For instance, it allows labor groups to take clothing brands that refuse to live up to their commitments to arbitration or, failing that, to court in the companies’ home countries. This would give unions a crucial tool to help ensure that industry keeps its word.

American retailers like Wal-Mart, Gap and Target have refused to sign the agreement because they object to its binding nature. On Wednesday, these and 14 other companies announced a separate plan. Though it would provide loans, their program basically puts the onus for improving conditions on the factories and does not subject the American companies to legal liability. It also does not give labor unions a role in overseeing its implementation.

Under the European-led deal, a foundation underwritten by clothing companies will send inspectors to identify hazards and propose safety measures at factories that make clothes for brands like H&M, Zara and Tommy Hilfiger. The cost of repairing factories and paying workers who are temporarily furloughed will be covered by the companies, loans from international financial institutions, and Bangladeshi and foreign government funds. Retailers will commit to keep buying from factories that agree to make repairs and will stop buying from any that refuse.

The foundation will be run by clothing companies and global and local labor groups.

I will attend the meeting tomorrow (Sunday, July 14) of some 60 representatives of the Free Trade Union of Workers in the Kingdom of Cambodia (FTUWKC) from factories across Cambodia and will advise pushing for this labor safety approach adopted in Bangladesh. - Theary, Phnon Penh, 13 July 2013

. . .

Clothiers Act to Inspect

Bangladeshi Factories

The New York Times | 7 July 2013

...the companies agreed that they would take responsibility and immediate action wherever serious safety problems are found. They pledged “to insure that sufficient funds are available to pay for renovations and other safety improvements.”

Very few American companies have joined the effort. Several said they disliked the plan because it was legally binding, might subject them to lawsuits and included some ill-defined potential obligations. Several European retailers and labor groups asserted that these concerns were overblown and that the Americans were mainly worried about the cost of the plan.

Walmart, Gap, Target and many other American retailers have instead joined an alternative plan for which they are working out details with help from former United States Senators George J. Mitchell and Olympia J. Snowe. That group said it hoped to announce details of its plan by mid-July. Critics say the United States plan will do far less to improve factory safety in Bangladesh than the European-dominated plan.

These safety measures and inspection are also needed in Cambodia. Cambodian needs to demand similar oversight.

- Theary, Phnom Penh, 8 July 2013

Catching up with my good friend Chea Mony of the Free Trade Union and brother of slain FTU leader Chea Vichea (Phnom Penh, 6 July 2013)

. . .

Psychology

8 New Ways of Looking at Intelligence

Our brains can be strengthened (and weakened) in many more ways than we ever thought.

TIME Magazine

. . .

Society

Reading Literature Makes Us Smarter and Nicer

"Deep reading" is vigorous exercise from the brain and increases our real-life capacity for empathy

TIME Magazine

To understand why we should be concerned about how young people read, and not just whether they’re reading at all, it helps to know something about the way the ability to read evolved. “Human beings were never born to read,” notes Maryanne Wolf, director of the Center for Reading and Language Research at Tufts University and author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. Unlike the ability to understand and produce spoken language, which under normal circumstances will unfold according to a program dictated by our genes, the ability to read must be painstakingly acquired by each individual. The “reading circuits” we construct are recruited from structures in the brain that evolved for other purposes — and these circuits can be feeble or they can be robust, depending on how often and how vigorously we use them.

. . .

The Khmer language is in crisis and does not allow for deep reading, as we're constantly entangled at the very beginning stage of the reading process, paralyzed at the mere separating of the physical words as well at the decoding of words.  At this early point, we are already spent to pursue further reading for content, the "deep reading — slow, immersive, rich in sensory detail and emotional and moral complexity" — that allows for critical thinking, learning and deep enjoyment.

- Theary C. Seng, Phnom Penh, 25 June 2013

. . .

The Decline and Fall of the English Major

The New York Times Editorial Board | 22 June 2013

What many undergraduates do not know — and what so many of their professors have been unable to tell them — is how valuable the most fundamental gift of the humanities will turn out to be. That gift is clear thinking, clear writing and a lifelong engagement with literature.

Maybe it takes some living to find out this truth. Whenever I teach older students, whether they’re undergraduates, graduate students or junior faculty, I find a vivid, pressing sense of how much they need the skill they didn’t acquire earlier in life. They don’t call that skill the humanities. They don’t call it literature. They call it writing — the ability to distribute their thinking in the kinds of sentences that have a merit, even a literary merit, of their own.

Writing well used to be a fundamental principle of the humanities, as essential as the knowledge of mathematics and statistics in the sciences. But writing well isn’t merely a utilitarian skill. It is about developing a rational grace and energy in your conversation with the world around you.

No one has found a way to put a dollar sign on this kind of literacy, and I doubt anyone ever will. But everyone who possesses it — no matter how or when it was acquired — knows that it is a rare and precious inheritance.

. . .

Reading MARK

ដំណឹងល្អ រៀបរៀងដោយ លោកម៉ាកុស

Background Notes

Recently, I discovered the sermons of my college pastor online.  While at Georgetown University (1991-95), I, along with 10-20 other Georgetown friends, attended Fourth Presbyterian Church, a 10-15 minute drive from campus through the manicured estates of Northwest Washington, DC to the leafy suburban neighborhood of Bethesda in Maryland.

We drank in the deep wisdom of our college director, Chuck Jacob (now a senior pastor at Knox Presbyterian in Ann Arbor, MI) and of Dr. Rob Norris on Sunday mornings (and at times, classes he taught during the week days).

When I attended, the US Vice-President Dan Quayle and his family (and security detail), my Georgetown professor former UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick, and many other well-known names from politics, academia and media, also attended.  Dr. Norris' predecessor was then-chaplain of the US Senate, Dr. Richard Halverson.

All to say, if all of these accomplished people came Sunday after Sunday and benefited from Dr. Norris' sermons, maybe we too can find intellectual as well as spiritual nourishment from these talks?

It does not take long before one is taken in by the profundity and the humor -- not to mention, the accent! -- of Dr. Norris's exposition.

Sermons of Dr. Rob Norris by chapter

| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 15 | 16 |

www.box.com (Complete Gospel of Mark)

. . .

This is the vision when

Cambodians currently read.

NO ONE can be made to enjoy reading if the mangled language frustrates and confuses them, giving them headaches from the burden and work of having to decipher and fight the printed page before they can get to the content.

And here, the content is another layer of morass because of the messy or incorrect translation.

And the above-mentioned barriers of reading haven't even factor in the deep trauma and social living conditions which inhibit reading...

This is the vision when Cambodians read with punctuation

(as a consequence, use of punctuation automatically allows for more word spacing)

I deeply believe EVERY CAMBODIAN can be habituated to love to read if given INTERESTING reading materials, and WHEN THE LANGUAGE is cleaned up with correct, clear translation (if translated, which currently the majority of published materials are) AND with PROPER, CONSISTENT, SUFFICIENT PUNCTUATION.

Use punctuation so your mind

can see with 20/20 vision.

. . .

Khmer Grammar -- Punctuation

www.box.com

Thank you very much, Dr. Phalkun Tan, for forwarding this gem of a resource to me!

Theary Seng with the most humble, most generous Dr. Phalkun Tan (Long Beach dinner reception for Sam Rainsy, March 2012)

Click here for more authority, examples. rules of Khmer punctuation

. . .

Why Punctuation? (And its development)

. . .

Cognitive Learning

. . .

Why we praise...

. . .

Old vs. New books

("Spiritual Reading" by C. S. Lewis)

. . .

. . .

The Country that Stopped Reading

Education through Imagination:

A Closed Mind is a Beautiful Thing to Lose

Theary C. Seng, June 2007

Read. Read. Read.

A critical component of the development of the imagination is reading. We Khmers need to read, read, read and read some more. When we read, we prepare ourselves for any and all opportunities which otherwise would pass us by. The Chinese have it right it defining 'success' by combining the character for preparation (internal individually determined) with the character for opportunity (externally determined).

The majority of Khmer live in a harsh reality of abject poverty, crimes and abuse. More than ever we need to keep in mind that reality can be 'beaten with enough imagination'. Imagination, then, is the gateway to wisdom and change, and ultimately to personal and social development.

. . .

Losing our mother tongue

Opinion by Soprach Tong

The Phnom Penh Post, Feb. 9, 2013

Some young people seemingly pretend to be unable to speak their mother tongue...

But when writing in Khmer, which is their native tongue, no one seems to care about accuracy. Even if the dictionary of Patriarch Chuon Nat is installed on their computer, they never bother to open it...

"Khmer citizens must know the national language clearly, in both oral and written form, to ensure it survives."

. . .

Rare reading materials in the Khmer language that have been edited for clarity and easy comprehension!

With the scarcity of available reading materials in the Khmer language in electronic form where I can edit to raise my larger point of the NEED FOR USE OF PUNCTUATIONS, I am glad I can illustrate using the Khmer Bible.

If you ONLY know English, and this is how you have been habituated to read English, how far would you go in your education?

For the KHMER reader, click here and read this chapter from the book of JOSHUA.

(The verse numbers are acting as a punctuation, but without them, the chaos would be UTTER CHAOS.)

For the ENGLISH reader, click here and read this chapter, but imagine there are no proper nouns (no capitalized words) and no punctuations except for the full stop.

The vocabulary (translation) is very good -- as it done by a committee with checks and rechecks, unlike most of the other translations being produced in the whole of society. But without commas and other punctuation, is the Khmer chapter clear and understandable?

This is how Cambodians read the Cambodian language. For Cambodians with means or an opportunity to rely on another language, after they're stuck with the Cambodian language (which is very early on), they rely on their 2nd language for knowledge.

But for the MAJORITY of Cambodians who do not know a 2nd language, they have to fight the printed page and mangled language (of misspelling, of "creative" texting-style punctuation, or just run-on phrases) to get even a scant piece of knowledge.