Reflection 2 on Phnom Penh City

This is maybe the last reflection paper that I write in this foundation year for Khmer Studies.  During this foundation year, I am really enjoyed studying Khmer Studies as I could learn about Khmer history, culture, custom, architecture, music, painting, festivals and many more. For this last reflection paper, I choose to write about Phnom Penh city. Phnom Penh city had been mostly destroyed during the 1970s and very few people living in the city during that time (ghost city), whereas, Phnom Penh nowadays is very crowed and much more modernizes than before. Phnom Penh has been the capital city of Cambodia since Angkor Era, but it had been once abandon for 360 years from 1505 to 1865. Later, Khmer king moved the capital city back to Phnom Penh during the French colonize period and it represents as the capital city of Cambodia since then. It has been developed noticeably after the civil war in Cambodia ended.  Below, I will reflect about the improvement of education standard and living condition in this city and the main issue which is happening now in Phnom Penh (land grabbing).

Many people in the countryside in Cambodia are moving to live in Phnom Penh city in order to find a better living standard or education. This illustrates that the living standard and the education system in this city is very good if we compared it to other provinces and cities in Cambodia. I could also see many foreign students studying in Phnom Penh; and many international schools and universities operating each year in this city such as Zaman University (2010). One of my foreign friends told me that he decided to come to study in Phnom Penh because the price of education in this city is much cheaper than his country as well as the price of living. This demonstrates that the education standard and living condition in Phnom Penh is international; together with low price compared to other countries in Europe. I am very proud as I could get an international education standard in my own city or country. However, it will be better if the Cambodia’s government could also develop the education standard and living condition in other provinces or cities in Cambodia as well in order to avoid crowed, which is not good at all. It is rare to see foreign students study at universities or schools outside Phnom Penh city in Cambodia. I can imply that foreign students did not choose to study at other universities or schools at universities or school outside Phnom Penh in Cambodia because the education standard in other provinces and cities in Cambodia is not well developed like in Phnom Penh. Coincidently, it is not safe to have many people just in one city, since there will be more traffic congestions, pollution and crimes. If the Cambodia’s government could improve the education standard and living condition in other provinces and cities, I believe that Phnom Penh will become less crowed, clean, and safe which will  attract more foreigners to visit or study in this city. As more foreigners come to visit or study in this city, it will also improve the economic in this city/country.

For the main issue which is happened nowadays at Phnom Penh city is land grabbing. I could see that many people living in some areas in Phnom Penh city such as Borei Kela and Beoung Kak were forced to move or evict from their homes in order to renovate or develop that areas. Most of the families that were forced to leave their homes in the developing or renovate areas were treated unfairly by the government or private companies which get authority to develop those areas from government. In this respect, they were given improper compensated homes or insufficient household as they have to leave their homes or lands. From this point of view, it shows that the development projects in Phnom Penh are not always good by seeing that a lot of the residents in the developed or renovate areas usually suffer from those projects. The Cambodia’s government should solves this problem as soon as possible since many of the residents in Phnom Penh now is really angry with this issue and there are usually many protestors march around the city recently, which gives a bad eyesight view to the city as Phnom Penh city seems to be unsustainable or in a turmoil. This also leads to the increasing the number of the crimes within this city.

In conclusion, the education standard and living condition in Phnom  Penh has been develop noticeable lately as many universities and schools operates each year in this city. However, the Cambodia’s government should pay more attention to develop the education system and living condition in other parts of the country too in order to avoid many people moving to live in this city which could create many problems such as crimes, pollution, and traffic congestion. Recently, there are a lot of complaints from the residents over the development projects as they have been forced or evict their habitats in order to develop or renovate some areas in Phnom Penh and they were treating unfair as they got improper compensated homes or insufficient households. I suggest that the Cambodia’s government should reconsider about those development projects and treats their residents fairly. Personally, I love to live in Phnom Penh city as this city is much less crowed than any other neighboring countries’ cities such as Bangkok and Ho Chi Min and the people living in this city are very friendly.

Euthanasia: A Person's Right to Die or an Act of a Murder

Euthanasia has been a popular discussion among many people around the world and even I also once had discussed about this issue with my family. According to BBC, Euthanasia is the termination of a very sick person's life in order to relieve them of their suffering ("Ethics of euthanasia," 2012). Euthanasia is illegal in most countries, but there are still some doctors carry out euthanasia. It is hard to decide whether euthanasia is a person’s right to die or an act of murder. However, I think euthanasia is a person’s right to die as long as it is a personal’s choice, a way to end the life of a terminally ill patient who is undergoing severe pain and suffering, and eliminate a burden to other people who take care of the terminal ill patients if patients got an incurable condition.

            To begin with, a person should have a right to decide to die since our bodies are our own. In this way, we should be allowed to do what we want with them and it seems unfair to those who wants to die as we forbid them to live longer than they want. Additionally, even we help or try to keep those who want to die to continue to live on this earth, their mind had already gone and they are just become more and more stressful with their lives. In fact making people go on living when they don't want to violates their personal freedom and human rights ("Ethical problems of," 2012). Furthermore, when one person wants to die by euthanasia, but we forbid them, they will still try other ways to end their lives. Thus, we should allow them to decide to continue to live or to die.

            As a human nature, it is hard to see by eyes for a terminal ill person who is undergoing severe pain and suffering. Why don’t we just help them to end their suffering without any longer pain and let them die peacefully? I find it is also a good deed to help ending the server pain and suffering for a terminal ill person. Very often people call euthanasia 'mercy killing', perhaps thinking of it for someone who is terminally ill and suffering prolonged, unbearable pain ("Ethical problems of," 2012). There is only a little chance for a terminal ill person to get recover and if they could manage to do so, it will take a very long time.  Consequently, euthanasia could help reducing unbearable pain for many patients and the majority of them will thank to euthanasia as they cannot manage to end their lives so.

             It is just a waste of time and money if we keep the patients with an incurable condition. In this respect, people who take care of those patients have to spend a lot of their time taking care of them and coincidently, spending a lot of money for treatment, buying medicine, and feeding the patients. It is better to finish their life earlier in order to reduce their pains and save the resources which needed to take care of those patients. Similarly, it is all right for a rich family to keep the patients or their family members as they have enough financial support and whatever the result is okay for them.  Most of the middle and poor family need to borrow money in order to cover the medical expenses for the patients in the prolong term. The patients can later paid the debt which borrow by their family if they can get recover; however, the majority of them do not recover, so their families have to pay the debt and the patients do not get recover. As a result, we should end up the terminal ill person with severe pain and suffering in order to avoid a prolong burden for the patients’ families. In addition, the patients sometimes also do not want to be dependent on other people. 

            In conclusion, there are many different ideas or perspectives toward euthanasia and most of the main reason people seek euthanasia is unbearable pain. However, euthanasia was ban by the law in most countries, but there are still some circumstances which allow euthanasia to be legal. In my view, euthanasia is a person’s right to die because it is a personal’s choice, an effective way to relieve pain for a terminal ill person, and eliminate a burden for other people.  It is up to each individual to decide whether euthanasia is a person’s right to die or an act of murder. Before making decision, you can imagine that you are in an incurable condition and decide whether you choose euthanasia or keep going on until the end of your life.

References

Ethics of euthanasia – introduction. (2012). Retrieved from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/euthanasia/overview/introduction.shtml#top

Ethical problems of euthanasia. (2012). Retrieved from

            http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/euthanasia/overview/problems.shtmll

                        Word counted: 812

Mizuno Thay

Social Network: A Virtual Friend or Real Enermy

More and more people around the globe are using social networks and it becomes very popular in this generation. According to online dictionary, social networks are networks of friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts ("Dictionary.com," 2012). By the time it becomes more and more popular, many arguments arouse over social networks, whether it is virtual friend or real enemy. For the word “virtual friend” means someone who is in fact does well to you and for “real enemy” means a true person who hates you and wants to harm you ("Dictionary.com," 2012). In other word to the argument, a network of friends, colleagues, and other personal contacts does well to you or it is just harms you. In my opinion, social networks are virtual friend due to three main reasons that it facilitates my life: share and receive information, advertising, and connecting with other people.

             There are many things happening around the world everyday and a lot of people around the globe can receive the information immediately through social networks. In this way, people on social networks are likely to share the information that they got to their friends and other people around the globe. The majority of people on social networks can expose to the information quickly as a lot of people on social networks are like to share information or any interesting events every day on social networks. From this point, we can assume that social networks also serve as a media to spread information.

I always look at the advertising on social network websites as I find it is very interesting rather than on television or other advertising Medias. I also have mentioned above that some people are very busy with their works and they do not want to spend their time with shopping at all, so social networks has helped them a lot since there are a lot of small businesses advertise their products or services on social networks. Many people are shopping through social networks these days and they can save a lot of time by doing these since many small businesses now make most of the products or services available online which includes clothing, furniture, stationary, and many other stuffs. What is more interesting about social network is that, people or customers can buy stuffs or make their payment directly through the social networks as well. Not only do social networks facilitate customers for their shopping, it also allows many small businesses to get into the market quickly. In this respect, many small businesses are beneficial from social networks since they can advertise their products or services for free of charge and coincidently, they can have millions of customers known their businesses in a very short time. As a result, social networks  really help a lot in shopping and advertising for both customers and businesses.

There are millions of people on social networks nowadays such as on face book and twitter, and people can get to know each other very easily through these social networks. Similarly, there are many people in our generation who got more than one thousand friends, and this is because of social networks which allow people to make new friends much easier than the past. In the past, people would know each other when they meet outside only and they seem to not have much contact with many other people far away from them at all, whereas, a lot of people today are vice versa. We could see the potential of social networks which can make people to be more socialized than in the past.  Personally, I also got a couple thousand of friends through social networks and I would not get that much of friends without social networks. Hence, social networks really help a lot people in making new friends. Furthermore, people are really busy nowadays and they do not have much time to keep in touch with their friends or other personal contacts outside at all. Social networks have worked best to solve this problem for many people since people can communicate through social networks easily without spending a lot of time going out together or meet around and they still can communicate with each other through online. Communicate through online also can save more time and spend less money than meeting outside. As a consequent, thanks to social networks that it can maintain people’s relationship with one to another with little less time and money in order to avoid loneliness which could cause a lot of problems to one people or losing contact with our old friends or personal contact .

In conclusion, social networks become more and more popular internationally and it is growing days by days. Social networks are virtual friend rather than real enemy because it helps to connect people and help people to make new friends much easier than before, provides many business opportunities for many small businesses, and spread information around the globe. There will be some people who encounter about the points that I have made for social networks; thus, you should make sure by yourself that social networks do good to you or it is just harm you and other people.