The world can be a very ugly place.
I often get so frustrated about inhuman things that are happening all over our Earth that is easier to close myself in my little bubble, instead of going try and fight those inequalities and cruel acts. I know that is very selfish of me but use it as a shell so I don’t live as a frustrated and negative human since I have always been an activist at heart.
Traveling shows me that side too, the side that I often try to avoid, the side that shows the human savagery.
When I visited Cambodia for the first time in 2010, I was slapped with a terrible reality that was unknown to me previously.
I learned about the dark and bloody past that Cambodia and Cambodians had to go through, I learn about Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge.
As you might not be aware yourself, I will quickly share with you a tiny bit of a history chapter of my favourite country.
Pol Pot (1925/1998) and his communist movement named Khmer Rouge, led Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. During this 4 years, roughly 2 million of Cambodians (25% of a population of 8 million) died of execution, disease, overwork and starvation.
The Khmer Rouge arrested and killed thousands of members of previous regimes and governments because they considerate them not to be “pure people”. Then, other hundreds of thousands of professionals, intellectuals, professors and ordinary citizens who were deemed not to conform were also killed in a systematic campaign to eliminate those deemed to be “impure”.
Many were held in prisons where they were interrogated, tortured and executed. The most famous of these prisons, S-21, was so notorious that only 7 of the roughly 20,000 people imprisoned there are know to have survived.
7 survivors in 20,000 people
So today want to share something extremely special that happened to me, while in Cambodia in 2010 and in 2014.
I believe everything happens for a reason and I am so grateful I have met Chum Mey. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chum_Mey
The moment I met Chum Mey in 2010
Me next to Chum Mey picture in 2014
Chum Mey and Emma – 2010 and 2014
Rules at the prison – S21
I felt inspired by his resilient and still wonderful attitude. This is a men that has been through the most horrific and cruel things that a person can go through. His book, “Survivor”, is absolutely shocking and couldn’t stop crying while reading it and the minimum I can do is to share his story, bring awareness to Cambodia past! Also want to share what happened so grand, on my both trips to Cambodia, because they are the true example of being on the right place at the right time – I also call it MAGIC!
Listen to my Vlog and find the story how I met one of the 7 survivors on the most crazy circumstances, TWICE.
Don’t take things for granted in your life. =)
Much love – always
Emma
This is a powerful message and needs to be heard so it never happens again. As a teenager I read much about the Khmer Roughe, horrific time for humanity.
Agree never take life for granted ?️xx