The Phnom Penh Post is a bi-weekly paper that prints somewhat extensive coverage of news stories that are making waves in Cambodia. They have one section in particular that is a must-read, if you are inclined to stories of a slightly morbid nature. It's basically a police blotter, detailing all the nefarious acts of violence that occurred through Cambodia in the previous two weeks.
Aside from the usual tales of robbery and incest, there are -- for a westerner -- crimes that seem uniquely, well, odd. (Not that robbery and incest aren't, you know, odd, but I'm talking about odd odd, uniquely Cambodian odd.)
Cases in point:
1) Acid attacks. If a woman finds out that her husband is cheating on her, it is rather disturb-ingly common for the wife to get a jar of acid, confront the guilty mistress, and douse her from head to toe (or as much flesh as she can possibly reach.) This does a nice job of scarring and disgfiguring the guilty tramp for life.
2) Anything involving an axe. There are gun crimes here, of course, and they usually involve AK-47s. But more common are axes. Oh, and knives. Can't forget about the knives. I think it's easier to shoot someone, personally -- not that I've ever done it, although I wouldn't mind trying. (A joke. A joke.) But an axe. Man. That takes proximity. That takes in-your-faceness. That takes metal striking flash. And blood, as Anthony Perkins moaned in Psycho. Blood...
Not that I'm an expert, but it seems here that crime is often triggered by something petty, and small, and sometimes slightly ridiculous -- like a cow that wanders over into the wrong field, or a pig-castrater being attacked by an unruly mob. (Then again -- is there any other kind of mob but an unruly one? I guess not.) And yes, there are such jobs as pig castrators, and it's not as easy as it looks.
The thing is, Cambodian society is, for the most part, very relaxed, laid-back, congenial. People have warm smiles and friendly eyes. But there's a lot of anger and frustration being reigned in. A lot is being witheld. And when tensions rise, and the temperature soars, and the stomach is empty -- stuff happens.
People are good, people are kind, and the world really could fit, quite comfortably, into an episode of FULL HOUSE -- I do believe all of that, to a certain extent. The majority of people do not want to strike out and bash someone. The majority of people are not interested in dousing acid in people's faces.
And yet --
Poverty tends to erode the moral values that we grow up with. Relentless, unending poverty does more than erode those values; it can, over time, obliberate them in a single, red-tinged blast. When you have no job and you have nothing to eat and you've never drinken clean water in your life and you have six kids to feed and it looks like the rain won't come for awhile so you can kiss those rice crops good-bye for another few weeks, thank-you very much --
When that's the case, and your angry neighbor comes on over to yell at you about your cow, and that axe is hanging just over there, on the wall, well.
Blood happens, sometimes.
Which doesn't justify it. Which doesn't condone it. But you gotta be able to piece together why bad things happen to good people, as the book says.
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Speaking of piecing things together, here's one more thought about the reaction to Bush's re -
election, and it has to do with empathy. It has to do with imagination. It has to do with pro -
jection.
The great lateral thinking guru Edward Debono (www.edwdebono.com) talks about universes and logic. More specifically, 'logic bubbles'.
Everybody is in their own little universe. Doesn't matter whether you're black, white, Canadian or Cambodian, you're in your own little world. As Frasier asked Cliff Clavin on Cheers:
"What colour is the sky in your world, Cliff?"
Well, we're all Cliff Clavin's. We all see the sky a little bit differently. And, based on how we were raised, and by who we were raised, we all think and act differently. We all react according to our own logic.
So all those millions of Americans and Canadians and Europeans and Japanese and everyone else in the world who are flabbergasted, absolutely gobsmacked by Bush's reelection, and just can't believe how an idiot like that could be elected again, well, all of those people are approaching the issue in the wrong way, I think.
Meaning, they're judging book according to their logic bubble. According to their logic and the way that they see the world, view the world, understand the world, there's no reasonable manner in which anyone, well, reasonable could possibly vote for Bush. It doesn't add up.
Well, yes, but...
Look.
Look closer.
Step out of your logic bubble. Let it burst -- but just for a moment. You can go back to it. I promise.
Look at it this way.
You are a born-again Christian, as a heck of a lot Americans are. You got two kids. Church on Sunday. A mortgage you'll be paying for a good twenty more years. A nation under attack.
And the man leading your country is also a born-again Christian. He talks in a way that you can understand. He says he's gonna protect your country, and he's done that for the past three years. He believes what you believe. And the French and the Italians may not like it, but, well, heck, you weren't planning on going over there anyways anytime soon. Gotta look after your own soil first, right?
If you try and think about things according to not your own logic bubble, but somebody else's, well, I think it's easy to see how Bush was re-elected. I think it makes sense if you look at it that way.
I'm not saying it's good that Bush won. I'm not saying I would have voted for him. (And I'm Canadian, and I can't vote, but you get the drift.)
I'm saying this lack of understanding reflects a lack of curiosity, and a lack of imagination -- an imagination that requires to step outside of our own beliefs and values and try to under -
stand somebody else's -- not agree with those values, or even respect them -- just understand.
And if I'm a hard-core Christian, what' s the most important thing in my life?
My relationship to God and Christ.
And if there's a leader who shares those identical concerns, and is a tough, plain-speaking son of a gun to boot, well, he's got my vote.
Simple.
Never underestimate the power of religion in American society.
And remember that your logic bubble is extremely, completely irrational to millions of other people.
In Ontario, if a fifteen year old decided to shave his head and don the robes of a Buddhist monk for a few years, he would probably be taken to a counsellor.
In Cambodia, he would gain the respect of his family and the reverance of the whole society.
It's all about perspective.
Last thing: You can't reason somebody out of something that they weren't reasoned into believing.
Are people reasoned into their particular religious beliefs? No. It comes from childhood, or it comes from emotional crises, or it comes via revelation.
You can reason all you want, via facts and figures and news articles, about how much of a twit Bush is.
But if he's a Christian, and I'm a Christian, well, he ain't usin' reason to get my vote.
He's speaking to my beliefs.
And beliefs will trump reason every single time.
You gotta project.
Break out of your logic bubble every now and then.
Consider life from that strange, distinctly other way of life, and you may be surprised what you find.
