beauty and destruction

Hello everyone! We have had a busy day today. Covered lots of ground in a very short amount of time thanks to the craziest taxi driver I have ever encountered! We split a taxi with our friends from Australia, Ray and Barry , to the landmine museum. On the road there the taxi driver was driving over 60 mph and passing people and driving down the middle of the road and flying along even when there were small children riding bikes home from school. We tried to tell him we were in no hurry but he did not seem to care. I was pissed. how dare he drive by children so fast! I will get out of the car the next time that happens.

Anyway, we did arrive at the landmine museum and it was amazing. The tragedy of what continues to happen after war is over was made clear today for all of us. It is estimated that Cambodia has more undetonated landmines than any other country. We also learned of the idea behind a landmine which is only to maim and not to actually kill. The idea behind this is another way to win a war in that if a country has to pay to take care of an injured soldier that costs more money than killing one. Also, the average price to manufacture a landmine is between $1-3 but to collect one and clean up an area cost about $300 per landmine. The museum had a great deal of information about the Ottawa treaty which was sign by most nations and is an agreement among the signees to not use this technology anymore. The US had not signed this treaty as yet and continues to justify the presence of all the landmines we have places particularly in the DMZ zone of Vietnam saying their presence there keeps the peace between Northern and Southern Vietnam.

What is most heart rendering is that soldiers are obviously not the people who are currently being injured anymore. The museum has story after story of children and grown ups who have lost their limbs accidently while doing any particular random activity like palying with friends, farming food to feed a family, you name it. While we were looking at the ruins yesterday there were many people begging for our money. Occasionally we encountered a band that had set up that was usually a group of grown men who were missing at least one limb and maybe blind as well. It was humbling. We gave readily to them. They want to stop begging and provide a legitimate way to feed their families.

It was a sobering sight to see children playing soccer hopping along with one leg and a made up crutch to get them along. The NGO that manages the landmine museum also takes children who have been injured in and provides for them so that they may go to school and hopefully learn some type of skill. I was reading a story about one boy on the way and he went on about how their were four children in his family originally but the baby got a fever and died, and then his sister was raped by the Khmer Rouge and another brother was shot. just two of them left now and also his mother drinks everyday and his father is was killed by the khmer rouge. Small wonder that this boy woud want to live at the museum.

This whole concept was developed by a man my age who at the age of ten was a member of the Khmer Rouge and then he defected to the Vietnamese army to fight the Khmer. They trained him in how to use landmines and he became an expert. He now spends all of his time trying to clear them from his country and to make it safe. He spoke of how he really wants to get an education and learn to read and write better because when he should have been learning these things he was killing people.

The most moving item at the museum was a small pagoda style building made of glass that was filled with landmines. Surrounding it was a sweet moat filled with koi fish and lotus flowers growing in the water. Two items that i have come to associate with peace and tranquility and rebirth...perhaps there is a time in the near future when no human in this country faces the accidental tragedy of the landmine and harmony can be restored to a country that has seen so much turmoil in the last fourty years.

thats all for now
willandCODY