Ratanakiri is a province in northeastern Cambodia that borders Laos to the north, Vietnam to the east, Mondulkiri Province to the south, and Stung Treng Province to the west. The province extends from the mountains of the Annamite Range in the north, across a hilly plateau between the Tonle San and Tonle Srepok rivers, to tropical deciduous forests in the south. In recent years, logging and mining have scarred Ratanakiri's environment, long known for its beauty. For over a millennium, Ratanakiri has been occupied by the highland Khmer Loeu, who are a minority elsewhere in Cambodia. During the region's early history, its Khmer Loeu inhabitants were exploited as slaves by neighboring empires. The slave trade economy ended during the French colonial era, but a harsh Khmerization campaign after Cambodia's independence again threatened Khmer Loeu ways of life. The Khmer Rouge built its headquarters in the province in the 1960s, and bombing during the Vietnam War devastated the region. Today, rapid development in the province is altering traditional ways of life. Ratanakiri is sparsely populated; its 150,000 residents make up just over 1% of the country's total population. Residents generally live in villages of 20 to 60 families and engage in subsistence shifting agriculture. Ratanakiri is among the least developed provinces of Cambodia. Its infrastructure is poor, and the local government is weak. Health indicators in Ratanakiri are extremely poor, and almost one in four children die before reaching the age of five. Education levels are also low; three quarters of the population is illiterate.
Read the rest of this article: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratanakiri_Province> _______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries: 1204: Fourth Crusade: Count Baldwin IX of Flanders was crowned the first Latin Emperor in Constantinople. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_I_of_Constantinople> 1877: President Patrice de Mac-Mahon dismissed Jules Simon and installed Albert, Duc de Broglie as Prime Minister, triggering a political crisis in the French Third Republic. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_May_1877_crisis> 1918: The Sedition Act was passed in United States, forbidding Americans from using "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the United States government, flag, or armed forces during the ongoing World War I. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918> 1929: The first ceremony of the Academy Awards was held at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Los Angeles. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award> 1975: Based on the results of a referendum held about one month earlier, Sikkim abolished its monarchy and was annexed by India, becoming its 22nd state. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkim> _____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day: insofar as (conj): To the extent that <http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/insofar_as> ___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day: The slave system is one of constant danger, distrust, suspicion, and watchfulness. It debases those whose toil alone can produce wealth and resources for defence, to the lowest degree of which human nature is capable, to guard against mutiny and insurrection, and thus wastes energies which otherwise might be employed in national development and aggrandizement. The free-labor system educates all alike, and by opening all the fields of industrial employment and all the departments of authority, to the unchecked and equal rivalry of all classes of men, at once secures universal contentment, and brings into the highest possible activity all the physical, moral, and social energies of the whole state. --William H. Seward <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_H._Seward> _______________________________________________ Wikipedia Daily Article mailing list. To unsubscribe, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/daily-article-l Questions or comments? Contact [email protected]
