That was my era- I remember the disbelief, and outright lies told to spin the story away from the horror it was.
As my old friend from long-dead boards, ALOHA RONNIE like to say
"Never Forget!"
Posted on 10/02/2005 8:08:43 AM PDT by FreedomPoster
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A new Cambodian cafe is offering diners a slice of life under the Khmer Rouge, with a menu featuring rice-water and leaves, and waitresses dressed in the black fatigues worn by Pol Pot's ultra-Maoist guerrillas.
Newly opened across the road from Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng "S-21" Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture center, the cafe is meant to remind Cambodians of the 1975-1979 genocide in which an estimated 1.7 million people died.
But the set "theme menu" of salted rice-water, followed by corn mixed with water and leaves, and dove eggs and tea at $6 a time is proving too much to swallow for many visitors.
"Our grandfather and other relatives lost their lives under Pol Pot's regime," said 17-year-old manager Hakpry Agnchealy, whose brother owns the business. "This is more than just a restaurant. It is to remind us of those who died."
"We opened two weeks ago, but have only had two Europeans coming here to eat. We don't know how much longer we can go," she said.
Faithful to the Khmer Rouge era, when many victims starved to death after a disastrous attempt to transform the country into a peasant utopia, the waitresses are barefoot and clad in the black pajamas and red-white scarves of the guerrillas.
Speakers blare out tunes celebrating the 1975 toppling of U.S.-backed president General Lon Nol and the walls are adorned with the baskets, hoes and spades Pol Pot hoped would power his jungle-clad south-east Asian homeland to communist prosperity.
Recognizing that many tourists might not be able to stomach such a close brush with the Killing Fields, the "Khmer Rouge Experience Cafe" is also promoting itself to those wishing to shed a few pounds.
"It's good for me to slim down," said Tan, a 40-year-old Malaysian visitor.
For some who survived Pol Pot's rule, the cafe served up too many chilling reminders of one of 20th century history's darkest chapters.
"My mother visited me here once, saw the Khmer Rouge style and has never come back again," Hakpry Agnchealy said.
Newly opened across the road from Phnom Penh's notorious Tuol Sleng "S-21" Khmer Rouge interrogation and torture center, the cafe is meant to remind Cambodians of the 1975-1979 genocide in which an estimated 1.7 million people died.
But the set "theme menu" of salted rice-water, followed by corn mixed with water and leaves, and dove eggs and tea at $6 a time is proving too much to swallow for many visitors.
"Our grandfather and other relatives lost their lives under Pol Pot's regime," said 17-year-old manager Hakpry Agnchealy, whose brother owns the business. "This is more than just a restaurant. It is to remind us of those who died."
"We opened two weeks ago, but have only had two Europeans coming here to eat. We don't know how much longer we can go," she said.
Faithful to the Khmer Rouge era, when many victims starved to death after a disastrous attempt to transform the country into a peasant utopia, the waitresses are barefoot and clad in the black pajamas and red-white scarves of the guerrillas.
Speakers blare out tunes celebrating the 1975 toppling of U.S.-backed president General Lon Nol and the walls are adorned with the baskets, hoes and spades Pol Pot hoped would power his jungle-clad south-east Asian homeland to communist prosperity.
Recognizing that many tourists might not be able to stomach such a close brush with the Killing Fields, the "Khmer Rouge Experience Cafe" is also promoting itself to those wishing to shed a few pounds.
"It's good for me to slim down," said Tan, a 40-year-old Malaysian visitor.
For some who survived Pol Pot's rule, the cafe served up too many chilling reminders of one of 20th century history's darkest chapters.
"My mother visited me here once, saw the Khmer Rouge style and has never come back again," Hakpry Agnchealy said.
Oops, sorry, double posted the article as my comments. If an Admin Mod happens to look in, feel free to whack the comments to nothing.
As an aside, the best succinct response to Lefties who call for immediate withdrawl from Iraq, that I have seen, is "Wasn't Cambodia enough?"
Most don't get it, needless to say, since their knowledge of history is typically weak.
A trip I hope Carter plans. Hey Jimmy...go visit your legacy.
Actually, that was well under way when Carter took the Presidency. It really happened because the Dem Congress during the latter days of Nixon, and then Ford, reneged on our promises to the South Vietnamese, and it all really got rolling in the wake of the Fall of Saigon.
By the time Carter took office in '77, we were pretty much totally out of SEA.
Bizarre one ping.
Ahhh, the utopia of communism. reminds me of this song...
Imagine there's no heaven,
It's easy if you try,
No hell below us,
Above us only sky,
Imagine all the people
living for today...
Imagine there's no countries,
It isnt hard to do,
Nothing to kill or die for,
No religion too,
Imagine all the people
living life in peace...
Imagine no possesions,
I wonder if you can,
No need for greed or hunger,
A brotherhood of man,
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...
You may say Im a dreamer,
but Im not the only one,
I hope some day you'll join us,
And the world will live as one.
To me this would be the equivalent of a person opening a restaurant across from a concentration camp site that featured boiled shoe leather soup, moldy bread and weevil infested gruel. Or whatever else concentration camp victims were given to eat. Or how about the Gulag Dance Hall?.
The tragedy of Cambodia will always be raw and fresh to those who suffered in it or who lost family and friends.
I see nothing good about this enterprise and everything that makes me sure that if there is intelligent life in space they are avoiding us for very goood reason.
Nicely done, as usual.
That was my era- I remember the disbelief, and outright lies told to spin the story away from the horror it was.
As my old friend from long-dead boards, ALOHA RONNIE like to say
"Never Forget!"
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