Grab a Backpack

The American filmmaker, Oliver Stone came to Cambodia.

As part of the Building Bridges for Peace lecture series, Mr. Stone's visit would engage his audience in a dialogue for "peace" (though not for the halt in purchases of pirated films). After receiving an honorary academic degree and adjusting his glasses. He spoke on nothing and everything. Saving the whales was never mentioned (as did Rick Steves when he spoke at Notre Dame), but neither was the role of media in the developing world. Numerous American institutions and political figures were criticized and parallels were drawn to the Vietnam War.

As I leaned forward in my chair and the slow hum of Cambodian chatter grew louder, it became clear: Mr. Stone had missed the whole point of the lecture series-- to engage Cambodian students. As an academic lecture-starved foreigner, I learned more about the need to bridge communication gaps than I did about American conspiracy theories.

Perhaps this lecture was better than the last one though. A couple of weeks ago, as part of the same lecture series, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate for Economics, Professor Eric Maskin had spoken on globalization and the growth of income and poverty gaps in the developing world. His lecture had managed to do one thing: make evident the gap within the audience. Academic lecture-starved foreigners, mostly working for prominent international organizations, left unsatisfied by a simplified lecture failing to address underlying factors such as gender, structural violence, history, public health, you name it. On the other hand, Cambodian students stood up at Q&A and asked for a definition of globalization.

Building bridges for peace? Perhaps a series on communicating clearly with Asia would be more appropriate. Mr. Stone did hit on one or two good points:

1. Grab a backpack and see the world.

2. Enjoy life and take one thing at a time at time. Don't multi-task.

Finding myself stuck in Cambodia, I guess I can check off at least point number one. I grab my worn, green and black backpack and head out the doors of PUC university. I've had the same backpack since high school, and with its country-patches I've haphazardly sewn on over the years, it is a testament that I've seen at least some of the world. Although, looking closely at my bag, I think there are still enough spaces left to patch over with world travels...