3 ms·

I live in Cambodia and I see this all the time from tourists and expats. It's actually stunning how nearly all of them parrot the same stereotypes about the cou

by 3131s 8y ago

I live in Cambodia and I see this all the time from tourists and expats. It's actually stunning how nearly all of them parrot the same stereotypes about the country, even though they've barely spent any time here and have only read secondhand information from racists who came here before them. A mild but classic stereotype is something about Asians and "saving face", as if avoiding embarrassment whenever possible isn't a shared tendency of everyone all over the world. Another favorite is complaining about a "foreigner tax" (raising the price for foreigners), when in fact that is actually quite rare and is only perceived to happen because touristy spots and expat bubbles have higher rents and thus higher prices. This is not even getting into the more malicious variety of shitheads and degenerates that come solely to exploit the country, all while endlessly complaining about and stereotyping the people here.

Karishma1234 8y ago
I just saw a episode about Angkor Wat on Travel channel where the narrator totally misrepresented the purpose of temple and shiva-lingam. He made the Khmer look like some kind of savages beating slaves to build a the temple to gain supernatural powers from the lingam. In reality the Angkor Wat was a Vishnu and later a Buddhist temple not so much of Shiva temple. Foreigner tax can be seen as discount for locals. This is a common practice in USA too where locals get discounts and often free entry into the places like Botanical gardens, public parks and so on. Hunting licenses in your home state are around 10x cheaper than another other state in USA. All the H1b, Gc petitions can be seen as a "foreigner tax". US government forces H1Bs to pay social security but does not allow them to benefit from it. That is far more significant tax than what Cambodia might charge the occasional tourist.
- 3131s 8y ago
  Yes, entrance to Angkor Wat could be considered a valid example of a foreigner tax (for those that don't know, entrance is free for Cambodian citizens). But I was more referring to drunken old men who think that their pineapple was overpriced by 25 cents.

by 3131s 8y ago

Karishma1234 8y ago

I just saw a episode about Angkor Wat on Travel channel where the narrator totally misrepresented the purpose of temple and shiva-lingam. He made the Khmer look like some kind of savages beating slaves to build a the temple to gain supernatural powers from the lingam. In reality the Angkor Wat was a Vishnu and later a Buddhist temple not so much of Shiva temple. Foreigner tax can be seen as discount for locals. This is a common practice in USA too where locals get discounts and often free entry into the places like Botanical gardens, public parks and so on. Hunting licenses in your home state are around 10x cheaper than another other state in USA. All the H1b, Gc petitions can be seen as a "foreigner tax". US government forces H1Bs to pay social security but does not allow them to benefit from it. That is far more significant tax than what Cambodia might charge the occasional tourist.

3131s 8y ago
Yes, entrance to Angkor Wat could be considered a valid example of a foreigner tax (for those that don't know, entrance is free for Cambodian citizens). But I was more referring to drunken old men who think that their pineapple was overpriced by 25 cents.