“You are
a voyeur who has the luxury to romanticize a situation that you know nothing
about.”
So writes Scott Neeson to me in
Sept 2011. Scott is the founder and Executive Director of the Cambodian
Children’s Fund.
 |
| Sokayn's family dwelling (background) rests on top of a 30 foot pile of decayed and decaying rubbish |
Scott’s ‘voyeur’ observation is
in relation to filming I had done over the previous few years with a family
that worked and lived in the Phnom Penh rubbish dump.
 |
| Sokayn's dad, Chuan, and mum, Ka |
“Your
view that this family had a richer life than you and your community in Sydney
is the paternalistic nonsense of someone who gets to fly in, film their
hardship, then fly back to the luxuries of home, to pass judgment on those of
us who remain here… Having Sokheng (Sokayn) remain on the garbage dump with her family
may have fulfilled your vision of a life-lesson on the human condition.”
I had neither written nor implied
what Scott suggests here but, as will become apparent, Scott does not allow the
facts, the truth, to deflect him from the expression of his self-righteous
indignation.
“Sokheng
and her family loathed living on the garbage dump – the squalor, ill health,
degradation and other conditions you are blissfully unaware of – and wanted
nothing more than to transcend that existence.”
On this point Scott and I are in
complete agreement.
 |
| Sokourn (older sister) and Sokayn at home - 10 square feet of open space with a roof made of plastic sheeting |
It is Scott’s next sentence that
is problematic:
“CCF gave the children a
Western-quality education and provided the parents with a new life back in
their homeland. We provided real, tangible help to them.”
The problem with this assertion
of Scott’s is that it is simply not true. At the time he wrote it the mother
and father of the family, Ka and Chuan, were still working in the rubbish dump.
The family was not living a new life
back in their homeland thanks to the Cambodian Children’s Fund. Sokheng (I
spell her name phonetically as Sokayn) and her sister Sokourn were living in a
CCF institution whilst their parents lived in a squalid box that does qualify
for the word ‘home’ and earning, between them, $1,000 a year working in the
dump.
 |
| Sokayn at work in the Phnom Penh dump |
In the interests of transparency
and in order to allow interested readers to make their own minds up I will
publish, in installments, all the correspondence between myself and the
Cambodian Children’s fund with the most minimal of editing. This will place
Scott’s observation about my being a voyeur in context. And it will reveal, in
his assertion that CCF had “provided the parents with a new life back
in their homeland”, that Scott was being economical with the truth.
From this one demonstrably untrue
statement a whole host of questions arise about the Cambodian Children’s Fund
but first, the record how a simple request on my part led to Scott’s calling me
a ‘voyeur’ and his playing fast and loose with the truth about providing a ‘new
life back in their homeland’ to this exceedingly poor family:
 |
| The family's work environment |
10th Sept 2011
EMAIL TO PATRICK MC KINLAY
Dear Patrick
In 2007 I met and became
friends with a small family living in the Phnom Penh rubbish tip. I was, a the
time, shooting a film about Cambodia. In each of my subsequent visits to Phnom
Penh I went to the dump with food and a small amount of money to give to the
family. And, when Sokayn went to live at Steung Mean Chey with the Cambodian
Children's Fund, I visited her there on a few occasions with small presents.
This morning, when I went to Steung Mean Chey to give Sokayn some photos that I
took four years ago and to find out how I cold contact her parents I was told
that I could not say hello to Sokayn and that I could not be told an address
where I can contact her parents without your permission. So here I am, on a steamy
Phnom Penh morning, requesting your permission to give the photos to Sokayn and
to let me know how I can make contact with her parents.
cheers
 |
| Sokayn collects plastic bags in the dump for recycling |
15th Sept 2011
EMAIL FROM PATRICK MC KINLAY
Hello James,
I’m sorry you've had
problems but I hope you appreciate that we just cannot give access to the
kids to people we don't know and who arrive without any prior contact
or chance for us to be confident about them. It can cause problems…If you've
been reading the local English language press recently you'll have seen that
more accessible children's organisations are in the news for all the wrong
reasons. You mention that it's 4 years since you were in touch. We'll be happy
to pass on the photos to Sokourn and the gift to her parents if you would like us
too and we'll make sure too that we get and send you the evidence of this
having happened.
All the best,
Patrick
 |
| Smoke from burning rubbish, including rubber, fills the air all day, every day. Respiratory illnesses are common amongst the 300 or so who work in the dump. |
15th Sept 2011
EMAIL TO PATRICK MC KINLAY
Dear Patrick
It is not 4 years since I
saw Sokayn and her family. It is 20 months. And on each occasion I both visited
them at the rubbish dump and visited Sokayn at the centre for five minutes or
so. This was in the courtyard with dozens of people around. Exactly how I could
possibly be a threat to Sokayn under these circumstances is a mystery to me.
Clearly, all the staff at the Cambodian Children's fund centre must be new
since none of them recognized me. Sokayn will be 11 years old now and the woman
who told me that I could not say hello to her (having told me that Sokayn was
there) could easily have asked Sokayn if she knew me and if she'd like to say
hello and receive the photos from me. If Sokayn had said no or given any
indication at all that I was not the sort of person who should be visiting her,
fair enough. However, I think if you asked Sokayn you would discover that I am
not a pedophile, mean no harm and that I am a friend of the family.
I have not read the English
press in Phnom Penh lately but I can imagine the problems you are referring to.
They are real and need to be combatted. However, what you are essentially
telling me in this email is that I cannot see Sokayn and that you will not help
me make contact with her family - a relationship I formed that had nothing
whatsoever to do with the Cambodian Children's Fund.
I can, of course, find
Sokayn's mum and dad in another way - presuming that they still work at the new
dump. No, I cannot get into the dump myself but I can get a message to them
and, perhaps, meet up with them if they so wish. And if they don't, that's OK
too - as long as it is their decision and not one made by the Cambodian
Children's Fund.
Whilst it is appropriate
that the Children's Fund be very careful, such care can tip over all too easily
into paternalism. Unless I am reading the subtext of your email incorrectly, it
seems that the Cambodian Children's Fund now considers itself to be the
guardians not only of Sokayn and Sokourn but of their adult parents as well.
This is paternalism, Patrick.
So, I will find Sokayn and
Sokourn's mum and dad in another way. A bit more time consuming and complicated
but not impossible.
cheers
 |
| The plastic bags that Sokayn collects are usually filled with putrid smelling organic rubbish |
15th Sept 2011
EMAIL FROM PATRICK MC KINLAY
Hello James,
CCF does take its protection
duties seriously and it does look after the children as carefully as it can.
Even sponsors that the staff know don't get access if
they arrive unannounced and alone. Likewise with information we might have
about parents - their address and so forth - that sort of information is not
freely distributed to anyone who asks for it. That is not unusual. We wont give
out information about anyone we know or deal with without their say so.
All the best,
Patrick
 |
| The family income is $1,000 a year |
15th Sept 2011
EMAIL TO PATRICK MC KINLAY
Patrick
It would be easy for you to
ask Sokayn's mum and dad if they would like me to visit them. It is not for you
and the Cambodian Chilren's Fund to take complete and total control of this.
You could ask them also (along with Sokayn) if it would be OK for me to visit
Sokayn. If they say no, so be it. That is their right. It is not your right to
make such unilateral decisions. I am not a sponsor. I am a friend of the
family. I met them whilst filming in the dump. I have been filming here for 16
years and I know paternalism when I see it. The family comprises only a very
small part of my 16 year record of Cambodia but I had hoped, on this trip to
tie up loose ends, to be able to finish this little story within a story on a
positive note as it seems to me that the work that the CCF is doing is
terrific. Instead, this story must by definition end with my being refused to
see Sokayn and the CCF refusing to put me in contact with her family. As I have
mentioned, I do have another way of contacting them but will have to do so on
my next trip to Cambodia…
Cheers
James
…to be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment