Zack Furness Ph.D.
Postmodern Cultural Tourism
In Modern Film: Eat Pray Love (2010)
In this paper I will explore the consequences of western film’s portrayal of the spiritual journey via cultural tourism in terms of postmodernism, postcolonial theory, and ethnic construction. Western narrative film, as a result of the postmodern condition, ethnographic filmmaking, and globalization, has perpetuated cultural tourism, cultural misrepresentation, and “voluntourism.” My paper aims to provide examples of where these things occur in the film and how they translate into reality by making use of Post-Colonial Theory and Postmodernism.
By exploring Italy, India, and Bali in a postmodern narrative, Julia Roberts’ character (Elizabeth Gilbert) tries to find herself and bury the pain from her divorce by traveling the world – experiencing culture. By postmodern I am referring to the many surfaces she is concerned with, the fragmentation of, and trying on of, different cultural characteristics (such as attending meditation at a “guru’s compound” where there aren’t even any gurus for that matter), as well as endless self-inscription. She is so self-aware that the journey about her finding herself by focusing on these other places and people (who don’t really exist in some cases, or are represented in a authoritative western way) becomes only about her, and many of the culturally diverse people she is trying to meet fade away to the background.
Taking into account that the film is, more than ever, trying to imitate a real life (Trinh, page 1), the film maker, a westerner making a film for a western audience, puts a very western lens on all of the cultures that we see interacting with Roberts. Javier Bardem’s character, for example, is supposed to be a Brazilian (as he is in Gilbert’s real life), but Bardem is a native Spanish speaker, not a Portuguese speaker. Ethnography has set a trend for many years that has affected popular culture very clearly – that white people can claim some authority on other cultures or indigenous people when describing or portraying them. This stems from the desire to “preserve” that which has been or is untainted by our Western influence, which is not only ethnocentric, but quite redundant when making the ethnographic film in the first place does exactly what it purports to be preventing – tainting or affecting the culture
Post-Colonial Theory and Cultural Tourism in Film
There is a portion of the film where Julia Roberts’ character, Elizabeth, arrives in India for a stay at her guru’s ashram. After she has spent a few days sweating, meditating, and performing “selfless devotion work,” it becomes apparent that Elizabeth is absorbing many Indian appearances and activities into herself – trying on another culture essentially. She attends the wedding of an Indian couple and is dressed in full Indian cloth and jewelry – including a bindi on her forehead. The reason she has come to India, or to any of the places in the film, is cultural tourism, masked under a veil of self-discovery. This becomes clear about half way through the film, when cultural practices and philosophies start to take center stage in her quest to become whole.
Elizabeth Gilbert is an author in reality as well as the film (which is based on her autobiographical book Eat, Pray, Love), who writes travel articles amongst other genres of work, so she’s used to travelling. She has dreams of returning to Bali. Locked away in her chest of secret desires and memorabilia are travel guides and brochures on Bali and several other locales, so the solution to her marital problems becomes clear early on in the film – travel. The fact that she is white, upper middle class, and straight all seems to play into the film’s theme – the wisdom of any culture but your own is valid. And that’s just the thing, to be American and in her position, she has the ability to simply opt out of heritage and act as a blank slate (Waters, 198) because she is privileged. Since Elizabeth is a blank slate, she is free and available to “take in” the wisdom, the customs, and the ultimately “more authentic” aspects of the Italian, Indian, and Balinese peoples; however, the main characters she interacts with are expats (or natives that speak excellent English), and a few oversimplified caricatures of nationals. The reason she has chosen these places is most likely the snippets and photos that have accumulated a created a culminating image in her head – much like the film does for an audience’s perception of the indigenous peoples in the film. Allowing the indigenous or national characters to become essentialist portrayals works against the goals that ethnography tries to reach now – awareness, reflexivity, and in some cases, a specific message (hooks, 392).
Ethnographic film over the past few decades has aimed to provide people with a clear, objective understanding of many non-western, “foreign” cultures that are deemed worthy of study and exploration by anthropologists. As valuable as Ethnographic film has been to anthropology and academia (among other fields), it is not perfect. Of course by picking up a camera and being a citizen of the western world, one is immediately making something somewhat subjective – and that’s okay, but the point is that a non-indigenous person can not “become native” and renounce tourism, even as a filmmaker, or author, with ample travel experience and research in tow. How can authority be assumed by a western filmmaker, through the writing of a western author who cannot possibly be educated enough about reflexivity and responsible representation at the same time as being fluent in the cultural nuances of each country in the film. I am not saying that Gilbert or any other author should not write about their experiences overseas, but this film in particular does a poor job of representing the indigenous populations and cultural norms, often turning them into a travesty, and into props for Gilbert’s “journey.”
In the opening of the film, she takes her first trip to Bali, where she seeks out Ketut Lier, the 9th generation healer (and clairvoyant). He tells her about her future, her impending divorce and life changes, and a return to Bali. She finally reaches Bali again after one of the climaxes of the film (in India) and comes back to see Ketut. He does not recognize her, and seems totally ignorant of the special bond they had shared in her mind a year before. At this point the film exudes an air of speculation about the sincerity of Ketut’s talent as a healer
There is a scene toward the end of the film that involves donations - coordinated by Elizabeth’s emails to her friends in various places in the world - that are going to pay for a Balinese healer’s new home – Wayan, one of the only Balinese characters that has a vital chunk of on screen dialogue with Roberts. Wayan is a divorcee with a daughter, struggling to keep her business going, and full of typical “foreign wisdom.” By foreign wisdom I mean dramatic on screen dialogue where a person of non-western descent tells a person of western descent something deep about their life or their future - a fortune cookie of sorts, to analogize it.
As a filmmaker, I know how the process of transformation can go between a true story and a film that is based on a true story or autobiographical piece – changes must be made, story arcs rearranged, quotations that never happened may even appear, all in the name of good storytelling. This makes it difficult to really judge a film for its right and wrongs, but that’s what makes it easy – the part that must be judged is what happens as a result of the film, what the public sees, how it comes across, what changes. In the case of Eat, Pray, Love, a film that is so reminiscent of ethnographic film in its effort to preserve the culture (ultimately resulting in change), cultural tourism is a direct by-product of the film. This is not to say the book did not have this effect, but a visual account of what Bali is like paired with cinematic narration similar to the book itself has a broader reach to the masses. After the huge success in the box office and on the shelves, Eat, Pray, Love tours are now offered by many travel agencies, tourists can now have their very own soul searching journey from Italy to India, ending in Bali (Brenhouse).
Postmodernism and Globalization
I would now like to revisit the idea of “trying on” a culture in relation to postmodernism. Postmodernism is a culmination of many things, but specifically (and relevant to this discussion) it is a fascination with surfaces, with self-inscription and self-awareness, with simulation and simulacra. I will start with surfaces – the cultural clothing, the Italian phrases, the meditation in India, the Indian wedding – all of these are bits and piece of cultures that Gilbert “tries on” (as we discussed earlier) because they are what makes a person “ethnic” on the surface (the things they do and wear). But she is not interested in getting any deeper than that other than to find herself, and her own psychological identity, not to join another culture’s identity. The second piece about self-inscription and formal self-consciousness is written all over the film. She narrates her every thought, movement, and newfound philosophy or bit of wisdom.
The most important part, however, is the simulacra, the hyper real (Baudrillard, 409, 413). The film itself is trying to recreate a true story that was never recorded on any thing but paper. And in turn, the tours that are given to Italy, India, and Bali, are trying to mimic a filmic experience that is, for all intensive purposes, fiction. “To simulate is to feign to have what one hasn’t.” (Baudrillard, 410) This breed of cultural tour is similar to a ride at Disneyland based on a story that was based on a true story.
People just like Julia Roberts everywhere can take these tours, due in part to globalization. Globalization, being that the film and the book have reached a wider audience as a result of it, can be named as a contributing factor because the tours are accessible (to people with money) who may have heard about the tours or had access to the tour through growing sources of media and communication exchange (i.e. the Internet). As a result of all the tourism, specifically in Bali, characters from the real-life story-turned-book have grown much wealthier. The medicine man, Ketut Lier, is said to be making in one day what most Balinese make in one week (Brenhouse). Another result of the growing cross cultural knowledge and awareness that comes from media like this is voluntourism. There is one website in particular, VolunTourism.org, that has a page advertising an experience that rivals the enlightenment that Eat Pray Love purports to house. You can basically sign up to travel parts of the world that most tourists don’t usually visit, on the condition that you volunteer simultaneously with their programs offered. This phenomenon is not only unique, but strikes me as odd. It definitely puts one group above another in terms of class mobility in much the same way that any philanthropy would. They even warn about destitute poverty conditions coming as a shock to many Americans, while many Americans even live in serious poverty. There is a lot of suggestion about what constitutes the most dire poverty and lack of infrastructure. The bottom line is the trip – a tourist experience that represents indigenous cultures without necessarily letting them represent themselves at all.
On the flip side, cultural tourism is not necessarily an afterthought or a by-product of a piece of media. It can be planned for, desired, and constructed, much like it was for a Top Chef season two finale in Hawai’i. “While the luau theme may appear to be simply the result of the producers’ desire for a dramatic destination for the series finale, the setting in Hawai‘i was actually the result of a carefully orchestrated campaign by the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau and its public relations firm, McNeil Wilson Communications. For several months, McNeil Wilson courted Bravo producers and arranged secret scouting trips to Hawai‘i for local tastings and meetings with culinary notables. The tourist bureau ultimately contributed $60,000 to the show, and the Hawai‘i State Department of Agriculture and Hilton Hotels also provided in-kind assistance in hopes of wooing two million “outgoing” and upscale Top Chef viewers to the Islands (Adams 2007). “ (Imada, 1)
It is unclear what the solution for misrepresentation is in the Hollywood film industry, especially when the story and casting stems what “real life” autobiography, but it is interesting to dissect things that involve a bit of media literacy. Maybe media literacy is simply the solution in the first place. On the other hand, a lot of good comes from these representations whether they are positive or negative, depending on the situation. Maybe James Clifford is right, and new anthropological language is not the key, while producing new ethnographic work is the solution (Clifford, 119). The idea that a western film should shy away from changing or affecting the economy of a Southeast Asian country would only take us right back to colonial authority and the idea of “preserving” what needs to be preserved, while the truth is, cultures and nations are changing and receiving new influences with open arms constantly, as well as dropping old ones.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Baudrillard, Jean. The Precession of Simulacra. 1983. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: a Reader. Comp. John Storey. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2009. 409-13. Print.
Brenhouse, Hillary. "Bali’s Travel Boom: Eat, Pray, Love Tourism » Bali Hotel Villa Blog Culture Travel Guide Indonesia – BALIwww.COM." Bali Hotel Villa Blog Culture Travel Guide Indonesia – BALIwww.COM. 7 Aug. 2010. Web. 26 Apr. 2011. <http://blog.baliwww.com/entertainmernt/10727>.
Clifford, James. On Ethnographic Authority. 1998. Print.
Eat Pray Love. Dir. Ryan Murphy. Perf. Julia Roberts, Javier Bardem, James Franco. Sony Pictures, 2010. Film.
Hooks, Bell. Postmodern Blackness. 1990. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: a Reader. Comp. John Storey. Harlow, England: Pearson Longman, 2009. 392. Print.
Maira, Sunaina. Belly Dancing: Arab-Face, Orientalist Feminism, and U.S. Empire. Print.
"Processing Experiences." VolunTourism.org Travel and Volunteer Opportunities. Web. 10 May 2011. <http://www.voluntourism.org/traveler-process.html>.
Trinh, T. Minh-ha. "Mechanical eye, electronic ear and the lure of authenticity."
Wide Angle; Vol.VI nr.2 (1984); p.58-63
US FOREIGN POLICY WRITING SAMPLE
Genocide in Cambodia
Patricia Walker, Ph.D.
Patricia Walker, Ph.D.
Genocide is the deliberate
and systematic destruction of
a racial, political, or cultural group
The Genocide in Cambodia took place in the 1970’s, right after the bulk of our “war” with Vietnam had passed its heaviest media coverage, and though the events of the Khmer Rouge’s dreadful reconstruction of Cambodia remain a mystery to many in the American and Global public, the prevention of this genocide was not in the forefront of the United States’ agenda.
CAMBODIA
Cambodia is rich in culture, but by no means rich on any scale comparable to the US or any other well-developed and industrialized nations. It is considered to be the least developed nation in Southeast Asia (Cambcomm.org) and still suffers from the damage done by war, the Khmer Rouge, and the United States nearly 3 decades ago. Tourism has declined, and there was little tourism to begin with outside the Angkor Wat Empire, which generates little money for the country (Cambcomm.org).
Cambodia was under French rule from the 1860’s until 1953, when they finally gained independence. The French urged the king at the time, the first King Norodom, to accept a protectorate and agree to French rule in 1863 (Wright, p11), and immediately there was tension in the country about being under such rule. When independence was gained, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, not to be confused with King Norodom whom acceded in 1860, had control of Cambodia as the last monarch that the country would see for a long period.
Cambodia is situated at the southeastern border of Vietnam, an important factor in much of its history and future. The reasons for war and for genocide are not simple, or connected even, and not, by any means, sensible. In the most basic way possible, I can say that the genocide in Cambodia was the result of a country struggling for years with war caused by many different and opposing regimes, all leading up to one communistic regime that brought genocide to the people – The Khmer Rouge, lead by Pol Pot.
Before the immediate conflict between the Khmer Rouge, Lon Nol, and Vietnam, Cambodia remained neutral (thanks to Sihanouk), and the Khmer Rouge movement was small. Though they operated in the countryside, and were steadily growing. The Chinese backed the Khmer Rouge, and they received training from Vietnam as well, making them out to be an enemy to the US – at least that would have made sense.
CIVIL WAR
Cambodia became independent from the French in 1953, after years of oppressed uprising and attempts to gain freedom, and was then lead by Prince Sihanouk until 1970, when Lon Nol took control and established the Khmer Republic. Sihanouk had his rule taken from him, in a coup of sorts while he was out of the country (ppu.org). The United States recognized the new regime under Lon Nol, and despite Sihanouk’s efforts to regain power, the new Republic’s army suppressed riots and hundreds of peasants were killed, thousands were arrested (Wright, p21).
Khmer Rouge
Sihanouk did not give up, and was fervently trying to convince the people that the new republic was imperialistic and capitalist and evil, essentially. In short, Sihanouk plotted with Pol Pot, who was also in Beijing at the time (Sihanouk was in Beijing when he learned of his deposition as monarch) to establish the Khmer Rouge, and eventually impose themselves as the governing forces once again. Lon Nol had the support of the United States, and of many right wing party officials that were highly upset with Sihanouk’s new policies after independence from the French had been established.
This new conflict caused civil war to break out between Lon Nol and his fresh government, and the angry and motivated Khmer Rouge officially lead by Pol Pot. 156,000 died during the war within Cambodia (ppu.org).
No only was Lon Nol trying to protect his Cambodia from the Vietcong forces, after clearly declaring US alliances, but now he had to deal with communism from his own population - the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot.
VIETNAM, CAMBODIA, AND US
Across the pacific, in our United States of America, the war in Vietnam seemed like another feat that could be achieved simply by the “same ‘ol American spirit” that we had become accustomed to coming across in our national attitude of the time. Soldiers had no idea what they were agreeing to, what they were embarking upon – but they would never forget.
“The South Vietnamese had just asked the US for help, and we were helping. It was a little like the Peace Corps with rifles. The enemy, in any event, was often portrayed as little more than bandits, and if I wanted to go fight there, I had better go soon or it would be over. So I went. A lot of us did. More than one might think today.”
–John Young (Wiest, p60).
The Neighboring War
While Cambodia and Lon Nol struggled, there was a full-blown war going on next door in Vietnam. I’ve mentioned it briefly but I must stress how relevant the Vietnam–US war was to Cambodia’s state of affairs, and the problems and lack of support that followed. Earlier I touched on how Prince Sihanouk, though leaning more and more towards the United States prior to his deposition, has managed to keep both sides happy with Cambodia, and keep a neutral mask on. This is important, because when Lon Nol came into power, the mask of neutrality also came off, which led to even bigger problems - lethal problems for Cambodia.
After Lon Nol obliterated Sihanouk’s previous neutrality, the United States took full initiative to send troops into Cambodia to find and destroy the communist North Vietnamese forces and headquarter sanctuaries. Nixon decided this was the right decision, even though there was no way on earth that anyone would find and destroy the COSVN (Vietnamese Communist Headquarters) (Longman, p23). Instead, this operation just drove the Vietnamese forces further into Cambodia, destroying and killing off countless villages along the way.
Our President at the time, Richard Nixon, fumbled the “war” in Vietnam, and made things worse for Cambodia. Had he made an informed decision, things might have gone differently. Instead we invaded Cambodia in an attempt to find the NVA/VC that could never be found, causing Cambodian people to be slaughtered by the ever-receding North Vietnamese front lines, with the army receding further and further int the country.
In 1975, the Vietcong took hold of the Southern Vietnam Capital – Saigon. Saigon is famous for its involvement in the war, is the subject of many a film, and has since become a somewhat popular tourism capital for the once war-torn country. Around the same time that Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese, Lon Nol finally had to give in against the Khmer Rouge, who’s forces had increased since their modest start.
KAMPUCHEA: RECONSTRUCTION OR GENOCIDE?
Before everything turned upside down in Cambodia, the political situation was heating up, and cracking under pressure. Lon Nol had taken out Prince Sihanouk by force, and the countrymen were not satisfied with the ongoing civil war that ensued upon Lon Nol’s new Republic establishment. The problem, in short, was that the North Vietnamese Army AND the Viet Cong were infiltrating the new Republic, and fighting Lon Nol’s forces. While the United states tried to pry the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese (NVA/VC) out of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge, lead by Pol Pot, had been steadily developing in the countryside since the 1960’s. This new communist-inspired Group, translating to Red Khmer, were Paris-educated and an idealistic group of individuals (www.state.gov, background notes). The corruption in Lon Nol’s government was rampant and growing, and soon the Khmer Rouge began to gain little pieces of power throughout the country until finally Lon Nol was weak enough, and the people became so sick of the warring, that Pol Pot announced his takeover in Pnom Penh to everyone’s relief. And then he turned it upside down.
Pol Pot and his army of roughly 700,000 were modeling their new Kampuchea in a Maoist Chinese format, a place where everyone is equal, however they failed to see that they were also creating new corruption by eliminating this other “corrupt” system that Cambodia had somehow been destroyed by. Pol Pot made it his mission to obliterate ever literate, individual, or professional member of this corrupt society. This plan was so extreme to the point that this included anyone who wore glasses. It is widely known that one of the Khmer Rouge’s slogan was “To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss.” (Pran, p13 – ppu.org)
With the Khmer Rouge in power after a deadly civil war with Lon Nol’s Republic, Pol Pot announced the reconstruction of the country under its new name – Kampuchea. He arrived in Pnom Penh, Cambodia’s international capital, with his army of Khmer Rouge countrymen – many practically toddlers – and ordered that the city be evacuated. They were basically lied to, being told by Pol Pot that the capital needed to be cleared out in preparation for a US bombing or attack of mass murder. Really this was simply a ploy to disorient the people, and destroy any hope they would have of forming allegiances with one another – he took the most concentrated amount of assumed intellectuals possible, and dispersed them into the country where they could not fight as a whole, not even remotely fight back
The Details of the Genocide
As thousands of doctors, lawyers, teachers, students, psychologists, engineers, and all educated people were slaughtered systematically, the schools, the hospitals and the Buddhist temples were turned into prisons for torture, interrogation, and imprisonment. Families were separated, and often forced to boil each other’s organs after watching a loved one have something cut out of them whilst still breathing. Horrifying labor camps were set up and moved all over the countryside and deep into the forests. People would often be clubbed with blunt objects, suffocated with a bag over their heads, and then be pushed down into a ditch to rot with hundreds of other prisoners’ bodies. The fields of rice and wheat or what have you were turned into Killing Fields.
One famous instance of survival was documented within a narrative film entitled The Killing Fields (1984)[1], about Dith Pran, starring Dr. Haing Ngor, a non-actor and Cambodian refugee turned American Citizen just like Pran. The two men both learned early on in their lives as prisoners to their country, that if they wanted to survive, they would both start claiming to have been taxi drivers in their professional lives – not doctors or journalists like they were. If the Khmer Rouge found out that Pran and Ngor were both intellectuals, they would have been put to death.
Minority groups were also targeted, and pretty successfully destroyed. “These included ethnic Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai, and also Cambodians with Chinese, Vietnamese or Thai ancestry. Half the Cham Muslim population was murdered, and 8,000 Christians. (ppu.org)”
The total death toll was approximately 2 million.
VIETNAM STEPS IN
“In December 1978, Vietnam announced formation of the Kampuchean United Front for National Salvation (KUFNS) under Heng Samrin, a former DK [Democratic Kampuchea] division commander (www.state.gov, background notes).”
This was a familiar struggle for Cambodians, however, this time anything that would stop the killing was welcome. After 2 million died for no reason other than the crazed ideologies of Pol Pot, and his skewed communist vision of Cambodia, something needed to happen – something to save them from themselves.
Dith Pran, the subject of the narrative film aforementioned, and real life survivor of the event, compiled a book of eye-witness accounts that serve as a testimony to this much needed intervention:
“In January 1979, I was called to join a district meeting. The district leader told us it was time to get rid of ‘all the wheat that grows among the rice plants.’ The city people were the wheat. The city people were to be eliminated. My life was saved because the Vietnamese invasion came just two weeks later.”
Teeda Butt Mam (Mam, Pran, p15,16)
Even after Vietnam has stepped in to stop the massive genocide taking place within Cambodia, the UN still recognized the Khmer Rouge’s seat as representation of Cambodia, and the United States allegiances now fell with the horrible communist Khmer Rouge simply because the North Vietnamese were tying themselves with the Soviets and therefore were our enemies by Cold War default.
The US aided the Khmer Rouge refugees in Thailand with food-, and health –aid. They continued to “covertly” support the Khmer Rouge in fighting the Vietnamese (ppu.org) and therefore kept Cambodia weak, and in the midst of more killing.
The Cold War dictated the future for Cambodia – a war that had nothing to do with them, but so much to do with us. The Soviet Union had started to help Vietnam’s government, so as I stated earlier, Vietnam was automatically our enemy, and supporting them would be like deciding to “Free Tibet” today – a matter of image and allegiances. The US and other countries’ neglect to help Cambodia get rid of the Khmer Rouge regime delayed Cambodia’s recovery of economy and people for nearly a decade, but rather support the ongoing war.
Vietnam left Cambodia in 1989, a decade later, and the name became Cambodia once again. Roughly 70,000 were killed – 14,000 were civilians (ppu.org). A war torn Cambodia tried to pick up the pieces with a temporary government and peacekeeping groups to help them have successful elections. Prince Sihanouk returned as the governing figure.
In 1995, mass graves were uncovered and proper burials were attempted - many of the remains were used for memorial purposes. On July 4th, 2006, the war crimes tribunals were finally held after an unnecessarily long period of waiting. The people of Cambodia had been waiting for this to begin, and 70% of people, of some 90% whom had agreed with the trials, said they would even attend the trials (Kurlantzick). If they did not hurry, it might have been too late as the Khmer Rouge officials responsible for the genocide and massacre were nearly on their deathbeds.
TODAY
Cambodian refugees primarily fled to France, with many refugees making a new home for themselves in the United States. Commonly living in California and California’s Silicon Valley, the Cambodian population in America is successful, and great, with many stories of the events of the 1970’s having been written and passed on – educating Americans about something that we can only imagine, that we did not imagine at the time it was taking place, an event that we did not stop.
There are countless memorials in both Cambodia and the United States, specifically the capital, Pnom Penh, keeps the skulls found in the mass graves in one of their memorials – in Siem Reap similar memorials exist. In Tuol Seng, a suburb where a school, known as s-21, was turned into a prison and work camp, a killing field called Chung Ek nearby, there is a map of Cambodia assembled out of Tuol Seng victims’ skulls and bones, on display (Freeman, p139-149).
Cambodia struggled after the Khmer Rouge fell, for many years, to really establish the solid constitutional monarchy it has today. The King Rules as a head of states, while there are many ministers and prime ministers beneath him. Currently, after King Sihanouk abdicated the throne, Prince Norodom Sihamoni rules. The bulk of Khmer Rouge members had laid down their arms in 1997 (background notes) and were offered amnesty, and the UN went on to determine that the war criminals be tried (2004). This did not happen for a couple of years afterward.
Cambodia’s economy had been improving steadily until 2008, when the global recession hurt a lot of the world’s growing economies. Their garment and tourism sectors were leading the country’s improvement (Background Notes), and they belong to most major global unions and organizations such as the UN or the World Bank. The United States has been able to aid Cambodia more directly now after the ban on assisting their government directly has been lifted, and the dollar and the riel are used interchangeably as currencies (Background Notes).
Hopefully, after so many devastating genocides in Europe, Africa, Asia, and even our own country (yes Native Americans), we, as a global community, have learned what the price to pay for neglecting other countries’ in their struggles is – often genocide, often not broadcast clearly enough to get the rest of the world’s attention. The media, and the United Nations, are the most important forces in preventing genocide. There are many organizations dedicated to diplomacy specifically aimed towards genocide prevention, such as “StopGenocideNow.org” among many others easily found through a quick Google Search. This is important in addition to the ongoing and long term efforts of our State Department in keeping the Peace, along with the Peace Corps itself.
[1] A true story about a Cambodian journalist and translator, Dith Pran, and his escape from Cambodia. He was working as a translator for a New York Times Foreign Correspondent when the Khmer Rouge evacuated Pnom Penh, coming into the country to reconstruct it. He and his friend were separated, and Dith Pran had to survive in labor camps until he eventually escaped and reunited with his American journalist friend, played by Sam Waterston.
FRENCH IV WRITING SAMPLES
Ana Sekler
FRENCH IV WRITING SAMPLES
Ana Sekler
Character Journal Entry Exercise for La Promesse (film)
"Journal Intime d'Assita"
Je suis malade – très malade. Mon mari – je ne sais pas qu’est-ce qu’ils ont fait avec lui. J’espère qu’ils ne l’ont pas tué, mais j’ai un mauvais sentiment. Je ne l’aime pas la Belgique parce-que il est gris et triste ici –je me sens froid tous les temps. Burkina Faso me manque… J ‘ai peur. Mon bébé se sens de la même façon, je crois. ‘ai peur que je ne peux pas lui protège dont je dois.
Roger cache des choses autant. Roger me met en colère. Il leur met tout le monde de mauvaise humeur – il aime menacer. Et Igor ? Pauvre Igor ! Il n’a pas un père, il a un patron qui ne le protège pas. Roger est simplement un bâtard. Ou est’ce que son mère ? Igor l’a besoin d’une mère plus que jamais.
Mon mari me manque beaucoup, donc je ne peux pas dormir, et je ne peux pas me reposer. Je crois qu’il est près et je rêve de lui toute la journée. Je m’inquiète pendant toute la nuit dans mon lit, et j ‘essaie de cacher mes larmes ainsi mon bébé puisse dormir un peu.
Je me sens que les gens de la Belgique (comme Roger) one chassé le désire de la Terre Mère pour les protéger. Roger l’a volé probablement aussi…en plus toutes les autres choses il a volé. Je veux rentre au mon pays très beaucoup.
Je ne sais pas qu’est-ce que je dois faire maintenant. Roger tente de me faire quitter d’habiter ici – mais je n’ai pas de mon mari avec moi! Je ne connais pas la Belgique et je ne sais pas comment on voyage en Italie ou á Cologne en Allemagne. Comment est-ce que je vais trouver mon oncle ? Ma famille ? Et mon Mari ? Si seulement Igor pourrait m’aider…
