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My SO's family is from the portion of Gia Lai neighboring Cambodia. Gia Lai itself is fairly poor, but ime the neighboring half of Cambodia is even poorer and d

My SO's family is from the portion of Gia Lai neighboring Cambodia. Gia Lai itself is fairly poor, but ime the neighboring half of Cambodia is even poorer and desperate. It's the same story in the Mekong Delta as well (having had to go to extended family weddings in rural An Giang). And calling out the relative lawlessness in Cambodia is not racism in any shape or form. Based on your comment history, it seems you are reflexively defensive about Cambodia to a startling degree. Cambodia was dealt a bad hand, but so was Vietnam and Laos as well, yet neither have the same degree of institutionalized criminality that you see in Cambodia. The problem at the end of the day lies with the country's leadership, and a quasi-reformed Khmer Rouge member like Hun Sen just isn't the right leader to help Cambodia develop out of the LDC category. Heck, Bangladesh (historically a peer of Cambodia) was also formed due to a tumultuous history and severe instability in the 1970s-90s, but concentrated on state capacity development - something which Cambodia's leadership thumbed their nose at in the 2010s.

bugbuddy 1y ago
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- alephnerd 1y ago
  > How do you know they are “desperate” Based on the fact that Cambodian day laborers come to work as migrant workers in a region that Vietnamese (Kinh or Jarai) try to leave if they can. HDI metrics themselves also represents that fact. Gia Lai - one of the poorest provinces in VN - has a higher Human Development Index (HDI) than all of Cambodia. > Given the recent developments in Bangladesh Yet the average Bangladeshi earns more money, is significantly more educated, and has a longer life expectancy than the average Cambodian. Cambodia's HDI remains well below it's LDC peers across Asia, and that divergence only really began in the 2010s. > Based on your biased opinion given your relative partiality toward Vietnamese... I have been fairly open on HN about my criticisms about Vietnam, such as the authoritarian regression under To Lam along with VN's increased hallmarks of falling into a real estate and export economy induced middle income trap > Cambodia has cooperated with the foreign government consistently South Korea has literally banned Korean nationals from travelling to vast portions of Cambodia today and is considering cancelling aid projects because of non-cooperation from the Cambodian government. > I see no such thing In English, "you" is often used in the 3rd person as well, especially when communicating on a forum where conversations and readers are not only the OP ------------- There is no reason why Cambodia can't pull off a similar developmental story like Vietnam or Bangladesh, yet Cambodian leadership in the 2010s and today has dropped the ball because any attempt at making Cambodia a more open economy would undermine rent seeking activities.
  - jjangkke 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - bugbuddy 1y ago
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      - pmarreck 1y ago
        I may not agree with all your comments here but I do agree that name-calling/pigeonholing of this fashion is simply unproductive
    - alephnerd 1y ago
      I think they are just a hypernationalistic Cambodian, Khmer American, or a former expat in Cambodia. I saw content from similar types of accounts during the Thailand-Cambodia conflict and the Techo Canal crisis. But yea, it's stupid tbh and shows how badly Hun Sen is wreaking Cambodia. The only reason Vietnam is where it's at today is because of being friendly to foreign investors and working on rooting out criminalization in the 2010s. Otherwise, VN would have languished. Cambodia has the right pieces to become the next VN, but is completely squandering the opportunity. This kind of ploy to leveraging hypernationalism to mask weak economic growth (an LDC like Cambodia should not be growing at 5-6%) and increased isolation.
    - dang 1y ago
      Please don't cross into personal attack, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - bugbuddy 1y ago
    Citations needed for almost everything you just wrote. On the other hand, South Korea has the right to do whatever it wants within its rights. I strongly support South Korea in its geo-strategic calculus to isolate Cambodia government. They must have very good reason to believe this is the right course of actions. Cambodian government should learn from this experience and improve its law enforcement and its own geo-strategic planning. > There is no reason why Cambodia can't pull off a similar developmental story like Vietnam or Bangladesh Again with the Bangladesh comparison. Can you google Bangladesh and read news about it in the last year before commenting?

bugbuddy 1y ago

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alephnerd 1y ago
> How do you know they are “desperate” Based on the fact that Cambodian day laborers come to work as migrant workers in a region that Vietnamese (Kinh or Jarai) try to leave if they can. HDI metrics themselves also represents that fact. Gia Lai - one of the poorest provinces in VN - has a higher Human Development Index (HDI) than all of Cambodia. > Given the recent developments in Bangladesh Yet the average Bangladeshi earns more money, is significantly more educated, and has a longer life expectancy than the average Cambodian. Cambodia's HDI remains well below it's LDC peers across Asia, and that divergence only really began in the 2010s. > Based on your biased opinion given your relative partiality toward Vietnamese... I have been fairly open on HN about my criticisms about Vietnam, such as the authoritarian regression under To Lam along with VN's increased hallmarks of falling into a real estate and export economy induced middle income trap > Cambodia has cooperated with the foreign government consistently South Korea has literally banned Korean nationals from travelling to vast portions of Cambodia today and is considering cancelling aid projects because of non-cooperation from the Cambodian government. > I see no such thing In English, "you" is often used in the 3rd person as well, especially when communicating on a forum where conversations and readers are not only the OP ------------- There is no reason why Cambodia can't pull off a similar developmental story like Vietnam or Bangladesh, yet Cambodian leadership in the 2010s and today has dropped the ball because any attempt at making Cambodia a more open economy would undermine rent seeking activities.
- jjangkke 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - bugbuddy 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - pmarreck 1y ago
      I may not agree with all your comments here but I do agree that name-calling/pigeonholing of this fashion is simply unproductive
  - alephnerd 1y ago
    I think they are just a hypernationalistic Cambodian, Khmer American, or a former expat in Cambodia. I saw content from similar types of accounts during the Thailand-Cambodia conflict and the Techo Canal crisis. But yea, it's stupid tbh and shows how badly Hun Sen is wreaking Cambodia. The only reason Vietnam is where it's at today is because of being friendly to foreign investors and working on rooting out criminalization in the 2010s. Otherwise, VN would have languished. Cambodia has the right pieces to become the next VN, but is completely squandering the opportunity. This kind of ploy to leveraging hypernationalism to mask weak economic growth (an LDC like Cambodia should not be growing at 5-6%) and increased isolation.
  - dang 1y ago
    Please don't cross into personal attack, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- bugbuddy 1y ago
  Citations needed for almost everything you just wrote. On the other hand, South Korea has the right to do whatever it wants within its rights. I strongly support South Korea in its geo-strategic calculus to isolate Cambodia government. They must have very good reason to believe this is the right course of actions. Cambodian government should learn from this experience and improve its law enforcement and its own geo-strategic planning. > There is no reason why Cambodia can't pull off a similar developmental story like Vietnam or Bangladesh Again with the Bangladesh comparison. Can you google Bangladesh and read news about it in the last year before commenting?