Cambodian Killing Fields Privatized
According to a recent article in Time, the site of the genocide at Choeung Ek is to be turned into a private tourist attraction:
According to a contract signed on March 18, the new operator, JC Royal Co., is expected to “increase revenue for the state and develop and renovate the beauty of Choeung Ek killing fields.” JC Royal is to pay the municipality of Phnom Penh $15,000 a year. In return, it will be allowed to jack up entrance fees, charging foreign visitors up to $3 instead of the current 50 cents.
Hopefully this Japanese company will do a better job of taking care of a war atrocity memorial than the usual Japanese “it wasn’t so bad… ” or “it didn’t happen like that” …
| This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2005 at 9:31 pm and is tagged with cambodian killing fields, phnom penh, private tourist, japanese company, entrance fees, atrocity, recent article, tourist attraction, 50 cents, genocide, municipality, ek, job. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback. |
3 Responses to “Cambodian Killing Fields Privatized”
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I am so sad that I’ve never heard of the genocide posted here…
i was pol pots friend
I am Japanese, though. I haven’t never heard about the news. I guess almost all Japanese don’t know the news and are apathy since any Japanese TV doesn’t air these. According to the article of International Herald tribune released on 10/26/2005, the Japanese company, JC Royal, have gotten lots of blames. I fully understand the sad and terrible memories should not be sold, but I guess exploiting the heritage to improve Canbodian standard of living is a good idea. But the point is not to earn money but to improve their lives. Although I am not familiar with the politics in Cambodia, I guess political corruption is rampant there. I’m afraid that this contract make money just fot Cambodian officials. I hope the company will not forget its origainal purpose, improving Cambodian lives.