asian predators

When a local restaurateur in Phnom Penh first invited me to a "water" conference at the Chinese-Khmer boutique hotel, The Almond Hotel, I got really excited. With my boss's approval, I would spend most of Thursday at this conference, hopefully making some good contacts for a future health documentary episode for the Cambodian public on water and finally taking part is some quality academic development discussions on the importance of clean water (or so I thought).

Five minutes into the conference, after the Taiwanese guys passed out PowerPoint packets of information on diabetes (one slide on Cambodia) and the Japanese passed out out promotional brochures for their Kungen "miracle water" machine, I probably should have left. 

Except lunch was included.  At least I learned that 255,000 people in Cambodia have Diabetes, according to the World Diabetes Center that published the 2005 study in the scientific journal, The Lancet. That was it though. That was my one piece of academic learning for the day. Why do these things happen to me? 

If anything, the rest of the conference was a GREAT insight into how not to market a product, how to find a target audience before getting on a plane and trying to sell rich Cambodians a USD$4000 non-toxic water machine, and the importance of presentation skills.  Aside from that, I made some nice Malaysian friends. Three housewives-- one whose husband works for Tiger Beer, one who from what I gathered did nothing but was disappointed that her children preferred to learn English instead of Chinese because English is easier, and one whose husband runs Agape-Shalom, one of those NGOs here that teach English but "don't require" Cambodians to become Christian, in the meantime forcing them to take part in at least a bible class or church, and one finance guy working for a Chinese mining company (i.e. the bad guys when it comes to environmental protection of Cambodia's forests).  They were all nice people with good intentions. At least we were all at the same table that found it hilarious when the sound system didn't work and when the Japanese water guys made volunteers pee in cups so we could all see the acidity level in their bodies.   

After drinking about 3 glasses of the "miracle water", I left before the second round of tea and dim sum were served. 

Cambodia is developing fast.  Somehow, I don't think throwing a little Japanese miracle water is going to help a defenseless majority of the population. Indeed, it is " a country for sale."

http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/713/en/country_for_sale