MAY CAMBODIA BE BLESSED AND BE FREE FROM THE VIETNAMESE OCCUPATION ! Nurse volunteering in Cambodia
Josephine Gillespie | 28th December 2010 University of Queensland Ipswich nursing student Elissa Jackson will volunteer at a Cambodian military clinic at the foot of Phnom Bok Mountain from January 5. Sarah Harvey IT is a world away from the quiet streets of Flinders View, but for nursing student Elissa Jackson, spending her holiday volunteering in a Cambodian health clinic is a dream come true. The 23-year-old is among a group of 15 University of Queensland (UQ) students who, accompanied by three clinical lecturers, will depart on January 5 for a new military clinic at the foot of Phnom Bok Mountain, near Siem Reap in Cambodia’s north-west. For Elissa, the trip will be her first overseas. “I think it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Ms Jackson said. “Not everyone gets the chance to go to a developing country and help them in a medical way.” Ms Jackson, who hopes to work in paediatric or community health, said the placement would help her gain valuable skills. “It is all the basic skills nursing is about,” she said. “Generally in the clinic where we will work the equipment will be pretty basic. “We will be using basic equipment such as thermometer and stethoscopes to diagnose and treat.” Clinical lecturer Peta Crompton said the students would attend the official opening of the clinic by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen before beginning a four-week community health placement. “Given the history of the site as a military camp, the students are expecting to treat many returned soldiers, their wives and children as well as local villagers,” she said. “We envisage the most common health issues will include chronic pain and infections associated with older wounds such as amputations and landmine injuries as well as tropical illnesses.” In January this year, the first group of UQ nursing students volunteered at the New Hope Cambodia community centre and orphanage in one of Siem Reap’s poorest areas. ========== US-Cambodian Doctors Make Trip To Phnom Penh A group of US medical volunteers will travel to Cambodia next week to provide free medical care for Cambodians. Tan Song, a doctor and president of the Cambodian Health Professionals Association, based in Long Beach, said more than 50 medical doctors and assistants will be working from Jan. 3 to Jan. 7 at a health centre outside of Phnom Penh. “We will treat all Cambodians without discrimination,” Tan Song told VOA Khmer ahead of the trip. The service provided includes dental care and out-patient treatment. “For serious illnesses, we will have to refer them to the hospital,” he said. Tan Song, who survived the Khmer Rouge in Takeo province before moving to the US, said he wants to give something back to his native country. “I believe that both medical doctors and charitable contributors are showing their great affection toward their country,” Cambodia’s ambassador to the US, Hem Heng, said. “This is testimony to the solidarity between Cambodians overseas and in the country.” Source: VOA News: News | 24 Dec 2010 | 9:58 am Khmer Surin Get Support From US Group A group of US Cambodians has begun looking for ways to encourage an increase in interest of the Khmer language in the Thai province of Surin. That province was once part of a wider Khmer empire that encompassed parts of modern-day Thailand and Vietnam. On Saturday, the Supporting Khmer Surin Committee held its first meeting, after a visit by some of its member to the province earlier this year. Members discussed the need to promote Khmer language in the area and the challenges faced by the so-called Khmer Surin people. “There are many Cambodians doing business across the borders, so it will be easy for them to communicate,” said Srey Ayuthyia, the committee’s vice president, from Los Angeles. Srey Ayuthyia said he had met with a Buddhist monk who taught the Khmer language and a number of Khmer Surin who expressed their need for more support. While some Khmer Surin can speak Khmer, few can write it, but the there is a program that started four years ago that Srey Ayuthyia said he strongly supported. The Supporting Khmer Surin Committee was only recently created, but its founders say they have already raised some funds to help their cause. “We are not alone,” said Eang Bunthan, president of committee. “We are united around the world. All Khmer overseas have come together as one voice to support Khmer Surin in teaching Khmer language and safeguarding Khmer culture.” Source: VOA News: News | 23 Dec 2010 | 8:50 am Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 14:55:55 -0800 Subject: New Year's a time for resolutions From: [email protected] To: [email protected] From: Gaffar Peang-Meth <[email protected]> Date: Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 2:16 PM Subject: New Year's a time for resolutions To: PACIFIC DAILY NEWS December 29, 2010 New Year's a time for resolutions By A. Gaffar Peang-Meth In two days, the old year will cede its reign to the new one. The old is over, with its ups and downs, its glory and its pains. Nobody can change that. We can remember and draw lessons from the past. But the New Year that is arriving is full of opportunities and promise. We have our New Year's resolutions that are made for those next 365 days. It seems it is human nature to attach hopes and expectations to somewhat arbitrary milestones. Jan. 1 is, after all, just another day. Even knowing that, each year most of us affirm an intention to be kinder, eat less, exercise more, read more, spend less time online. ... It is our natural urge to improve, to restore, to progress that makes man different from other living beings. Whether our roots are in Eastern or Western cultures, this characteristic is one we share. I have a propensity to pepper my columns with the words of others. Some may find it "cheating" that I rely on third parties to fill this space, to some degree. I happily point out, however, that I believe in recycling even shop-worn truisms from time to time if I find them relevant and well-said. And so I will indulge that habit here. The upcoming new year prompts my own retrospective and anticipation of a year ahead that offers much promise. West meets East A Sanskrit (a South Asian language that dates back to 1,500 B.C.) poem reads: "Look to this day, for it is life, the very life of life. For yesterday is but a dream, and tomorrow is only a vision." It continues, "Today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore, to this day. Such is the salutation to the dawn." The West meets the East in thought. Spiritual programs in the United States emphasize not yesterday, which is gone, nor tomorrow, which has not arrived, but today, which is here and now. "This moment is the only moment you have. Respect its possibilities. ... Regardless of what this day brings, thank God. An untouched day awaits you tomorrow." American poet and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote: "Look not mournfully into the past. It comes not back again. Wisely improve the present. It is thine." "However good or bad a situation is, it will change," I referenced a powerpoint presentation in this space last week. And I often quote Lord Buddha's "Everything changes, nothing remains without change." Buddha taught us, "No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path." The serenity prayer, translated into many world languages, looks for "serenity to accept" the things that cannot be changed; "courage to change" the things that can; and "wisdom to know" the difference. Here and now A school of thought says the problem with the past is that people tend to ruminate and get stuck. This can render one dysfunctional. But by focusing on the future, we may miss an obvious choice point in the present. As Mother Theresa advised, do what is in front of you! The Christians' Golden Rule, dubbed by Wikepedia as "the most essential basis for the modern concept of human rights," has a corresponding measure in each of the world's great religions. The great Chinese philosopher, Confucius, preached, "Do not do to others that which we do not want them to do to us." This is a good place to start as we think of how to conduct ourselves in the new year. It has been posited: There are only two kinds of bad situations, those that can be solved and those that cannot. Thus, people can either "get busy" fixing the problems that can be solved or "get busy" accepting the predicaments they must live with -- using positive and interpretive thinking. Story for the New Year Last year, a friend e-mailed me the "Law of the Garbage Truck." What? I was glad my quick fingers didn't press the delete key. A passenger is riding in a taxicab to the airport when a car cuts in front of the cab, causing the cab driver to slam on the brakes. The taxi screeches to a halt only inches from the car ahead. Whipping his head out the window, the driver in the car ahead yells at the cabbie. The cab driver smiles and waves. The passenger asks the cab driver how he has managed to stay so calm. "Many people are like the garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger and disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they dump it on you," he explains. "Don't take it personally. ... Don't take their garbage and spread to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. Life is too short. Successful people don't let garbage trucks take over their day." Happy New Year 2011 to all! A. Gaffar Peang-Meth, Ph.D., is retired from the University of Guam. Write him at [email protected]. http://www.guampdn.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/201012290400/OPINION02/12290316 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org
