Just as there is throughout Asia, here’s an appetite for golf courses in Cambodia, bringing with it wealthy plane loads of Koreans, Japanese and Chinese tourists. They come to Siem Reap with their fabulous fashion and umbrella accessories, walk all over the sacred temples in the morning, play golf in the afternoon, and most likely visit the prostitutes in the evening. Of course, that’s a mass generalization but today I’m angry with them. 
With the demand for golf courses and more five star hotels, entire ‘residential’ areas, slum and every day are literally being bulldozed by and ‘bought out’ for a pittance by wealthy developers. As such, families are being pushed to the outskirts of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap putting an incredible strain on the workforce and food supplies. (Apparently even the new Australian Embassy is guilty of this). Also, the demand for water for the golf courses and hotels is raising the water table, causing increased acidity which will affect the condition of the temples.
I learned of a man whose relatively nice house was burned to the ground by a developer in an effort to steal his land. The man challenged the developer but instead of receiving justice, was himself imprisoned for two years. He’s just been released and is now living in a slum area where his children collect rubbish for $0.75 cents a day.
A story in today's Phnom Penh Post tells of a 23 year old activist who was beaten unconscious and arrested while attempting to deliver a petition to Ban Ki-moon while he was visiting the Kingdom this week. The man was part of a group of approximately 100 people who gathered outside the Cambodian Russian Friendship Hospital during Ban's visit to the facility to protest against their impending eviction from the Boeung Kak Lakeside in Phnom Penh. Rights groups estimate that approximately 4,000 families will be evicted from the area to make room for a 133 ha development owned by a ruling party senator.
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