@daniellek-o
Freelancing/stressing in Cambodia. Bylines in some places, about environment, labor issues, scams and occasionally, culture too! Please don't make me join another social media DM me if you have story tips, weird buildings and cat pics.
Laos' massive hydropower supply seemed far more than enough for the rural & mountainous country. Until Bitcoin miners found Laos, and now civilians are even struggling to keep the lights on. Excellent, insightful story from Mekong Eye www.mekongeye.com/2025/11/17/l...
at least there are still some objective truths in this day and age
"At the broadest level, the First Amendment remains an extraordinary gift to the US press, one that many journalists around the world would die to have—and all too often die without."
www.cjr.org/the_media_to...
Plainclothes officers arrested a Cambodian journalist who was reporting in Khmer on deforestation in Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary. He's previously been cited in Mongabay, and had recently been harassed & assaulted.
www.camboja.net/advocacy/art...
While Musk, who is apparently steering the US government, is calling for the complete dissolution of USAID, Cambodian demining experts and NGOs in particular are feeling the effect of the funding freeze. There will probably be more impacts in the future asia.nikkei.com/Economy/U.S....
Cambodian dissidents who fled to Thailand are living "like crabs or frogs..in a cave", hiding out of concern after a former opposition party official was shot in Bangkok. asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Int...
You can't just pull tablecloth off a fully set table and expect that nothing will shatter around you.
Per that USAID stakeholder: "The bluntness, extreme speed of the action, while acknowledging that there are no criteria yet even developed for the 'review' of all foreign assistance programs are the key signs that disruption is desired"
Should Cambodia still be this dependent on foreign aid? Should the US use aid for diplomacy? We can debate the many pros and cons forever over 🍺s. But the fact is 🇰🇭 & many others rely on funds they were already given! This has massive consequences all US needs to realize
🇰🇭 is still an aid dependent country, w/ foreign direct investment reaching 9.3% of GDP in 2023 (compared to 4.3% for 🇻🇳& 1.5% for🇹🇭). Even if 🇺🇸is not 🇰🇭's biggest donor anymore, US gave $110M in 2023 - 90% from USAID. foreignassistance.gov
Anecdotally I've met a tuktuk driver in Phnom Penh who spoke fluent English - when I asked where he learned he said used to work for a health NGO funded by 🇺🇸, but the 💸 ran out, long before this new admin. People drive tuktuks when they run out of options, there will be more
(My personal opinion is that it's moronic & insidious that they make a boogeyman out of DEI, & affirmative action & CRT before it. Simply employing complex terms to cover up the fact they're just making racism/homophobia even more codified into the US gov & policy)
It's also worth noting that most grants & funding, from ANYWHERE, have language that mention diversity & inclusion. I (& the USAID person I spoke to) are wondering what programs will shutter nonsensically bc of the standardized development lingo.
NGO jobs in Cambodia, for foreigners & locals alike, aren't just stable full-time employment. It's often tied to a multiyear grant, given at different times. Sometimes they use grants from multiple places, but often its tied to the big grants - & the US (once) had bigger bucks
How do I know? When I was editor at VOD (no longer there), my $650/mo salary came as "contractor" role for 🇰🇭NGO CCIM, paid by DanChurchAid, implementer for a USAID grant. The 💸came from the US, went thru a few hands then to us to do stuff like this vodenglish.news/enslaved/
An excerpt from an email saying that Internews workshop participants could no longer receive promised story grants because of the U.S. government's freeze on USAID funds
A reporter participated in an Internews-funded workshop earlier this month & got an email on Jan. 27 that they would not get the story grants they were promised. These workshops target freelancers & story grants are huge for us, it helps us report the ideas news outlets don't see
When I first arrived in 🇰🇭, people were wondering how Trump's policy not to fund abortion aid programs (abortion IS legal here) would affect broader health funding, but even then, impact would be a 1+ year later. This Jan 24 decision is NOW
english.cambodiadaily.com/news/trumps-...
The first big difference is that this is immediate, impacting everything. I spoke to an (unnamed) USAID-funded employee who told me this week is just chaos for them, realizing they can't do anything for the next 90 days - probably longer.
www.devex.com/news/exclusi...
Maybe USAID funds getting frozen seems like nothing to many of you, but over here in Cambodia, it means jobs are frozen and people are just stuck - some in critical conditions. Let me give you an example from just ONE country (it's way beyond just 🇰🇭)
cambodianess.com/article/trum...
Nearly 60 South Asian workers pushed through the gates of O'Smach Resort, a casino owned by the recently-sanctioned Cambodian tycoon Ly Yong Phat. Interestingly, they reportedly said they left bc they wanted to work in Poipet, a more populous border town ~200km away.
www.rfa.org/english/camb...
Lim Kimya, a former Cambodian opposition MP was shot & killed in Bangkok on Oct. 7, shortly after arriving from Siem Reap. This comes after several dissidents have been deported from Thailand, raising new alarms about the safety of fleeing to the country www.rfa.org/english/camb...
Laos' Attapeu province is experiencing breakneck deforestation to make way for major Chinese banana and durian farms www.mekongeye.com/2024/12/16/f...
An online journalist was fatally shot last week in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Even though you may never have read his reports, pay attention to these cases. It's always local language journos who suffer first. opc-cambodia.org/blog/2024/12...
CAMBODIA: Cambodia blocks access to 16 crypto exchange websites, incl. Binance & Coinbase, but not their apps. Regulation ordering blocking of 102 websites included online gaming sites, writes @daniellek-o.bsky.social. asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Cr...