Impressions of Cambodia

We left Cambodia 6 days ago, but am catching up on old posts...

Cambodians have been through a lot:
- Colonized by France and Thai in the late 1800s;
- Invaded by Japan from 1941-1945;
- Fought for independence from the French in the 1950s (receiving it in 1954);
- Civil War / pulled into the Vietnam war in the 1960s and early 1970s;
- Lived under the tyranny of Pol Pot's regime from the mid 70s through the mid-late 80s;
- Invaded by Vietnam in the 80s;
- Finally all the wars stopped in the mid 90s.

Pol Pot was a bastard:
- Ordered the death of over 2 million Cambodians (primarily educated ones; he wanted Cambodia to be a farming country)
- Anyone who disagreed with him was killed, or their limbs cut off.
- Arranged "marriages" amongst the people by lining up hundreds of men and women, then pairing them up "1-2" style.
- It took Western governments 12 years to accept that he was committing genocide against the Cambodian people (most supported Pol Pot because they did not want Cambodia to fall to the Vietnamese)
- Was never brought to justice, as he died of natural causes before his trial.

There is a tremendous amount of corruption in Cambodia:
- While tourism dollars are pouring in, the government has sold much of the rights to the sites/infrastructure (e.g, hotels, restaurants, travel companies, Angkor Wat) to foreign companies (mostly Vietnamese, South Korean and Japanese). Therefore, the only $$$ the locals receive is a salary by working at the facilities; but the big bucks leave the country.
- The government pays school teachers a mere $70/month. Since that isn't enough to live on, teachers will often ask students for extra money. Thus, a whole new generation is introduced to begging/bribery; except its far worse, because they never learned that its a bad thing; they learn this is how things get done.
- Its not unusual for children (often aged 5-12) to be the breadwinners of the family, doing so by selling goods, such as books, silks, wood carvings, etc. to tourists.
- It doesn't help that Pol Pot killed most of the educated people in the country.

Despite all these troubles, Cambodians people are happy to simply have peace:
- The Cambodian people we've spoke to have been the friendliest we've met on the trip.
- They aren't nearly as aggressive or pushy as in Bangkok or Hanoi (although not as laid back as Laos, either)
- Cambodians seem genuinely happy to have tourists visit their country (almost as if the money is secondary, which may be the case since they aren't getting the lion's share of it).