Attack spurs call for acid laws

Phnom Penh Post 20/01/2010

LOCAL rights groups are renewing calls for authorities to regulate the sale of acid in the Kingdom, in the wake of another violent attack that has left a man with serious injuries to his face.

Police have identified the most recent victim as Yun Sarun, 33, who was doused with acid on Monday as he was sleeping. Investigators have accused the victim’s wife of pouring the corrosive liquid over her husband’s face in a fit of jealous rage.

“His wife was very angry with her husband because he loved another woman,” said Khat Khuntith, an officer with the Boeung Kak II commune police.

Yun Sarun was being treated for serious injuries to his face and upper body at Preah Kossamak hospital Tuesday.

“The acid was poured onto his face, and it flowed until it reached his waist. It looks like a burn from a fire,” Khat Khuntith said. “Both his eyes and his mouth are swollen … but he can open his eyes and see everyone around him.”

The policeman questioned how the victim’s attacker was able to buy so much acid, which, in concentrated form, can eat through human skin, muscle and bones.

“I wonder why the acid-seller sold acid to the buyer without asking what she planned to use that acid for,” Khat Khuntith said. “I have often seen people buying acid, but not for their motors or machinery.”

Regulate acid: groups

This week’s attack prompted further outcry from rights groups that have long decried the ease with which people are able to purchase acid in the Kingdom.

“Cambodia has to create a law to control the use of acid,” said Am Sam Ath, senior monitor with the rights group Licadho, who warned that incidences of acid attacks will only increase in the absence of policy changes.

But Khieu Sopheak, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said the importance of acid in people’s daily lives – for use in car or motorcycle batteries, for example – makes it difficult to manage.

“It is difficult to create a law to control the use of acid,” he said. “We cannot ask buyers what they are buying the acid for.”

The attack on Yun Sarun added to the recent spate of reported acid attacks, which appear to have increased dramatically in recent months.

The Cambodian Acid Survivor’s Charity counted at least five such attacks nationwide in December alone – a figure that represents roughly half of the attacks the group had tallied for the entire year up until that point.

Chinese Astrology - The Tiger

Source

Brief Description

Tigers are strong but very emotional and sensitive. They can get stubborn over things that they believe to be right or true.

Positive Traits:

Lovable, alluring, warm-hearted, altruistic, honourable, hard-working, pleasant, independent, engaging, dynamic and idealist sweetie pies

Negative Traits:

Rash, hot-headed, reckless, infatuated, quarrelsome, caustic, moody, predatory, rebellious, disobedient and irreverent rascals.

Chinese Symbols

Tigers do not find worth in power or money. They will be completely honest about how they feel and expect the same of you. On the other hand, they seek approval from peers and family. Generally, because of their charming personalities Tigers are well liked. Often, failing at a given task or being unproductive in his personal or professional life can cause a Tiger to experience a depression. Criticism from loved ones can also generate this type of Tiger reaction. Still, like all felines, Tigers always land on their feet, ready for their next act in life, pursuing it with unyielding energy and hunting it infallibly.

Tigers are also incorrigibly competitive - they simply cannot pass up a challenge, especially when honor is at stake, or they are protecting those they love. Tigers are unpredictable and it would be unwise to underestimate their reactions. They may appear cool, but they have the Big Cat's instincts to pounce at a moment's warning. Natural leaders, they have a strong sense of their own dignity, and if they find themselves in the ranks, they can be stubborn and obstinate. In positions of power they can be difficult though stimulating bosses. Tigers are intelligent, alert, and farsighted. They have their fingers on the pulse. Good strategists and tacticians, they often have a hidden agenda. As long as they do not risk their luck too often, and keep their restless nature under control, their tactics usually pay off in life.

Pous Keng Korng ពស់កេងកង

Bangkok Post បាងកកប៉ុស្តិ
The girl with a head full of baby-snakes wasn't the only screen celeb of the pre-Khmer Rouge Cambodian cinema.

To follow up on my piece in the Post about Khmer films ("A Bridge Over Troubled Waters" http://bit.ly/2kjOGn), which was naturally hampered by limited space and the inherently two-dimensional quality of the print media, I have posted the links to YouTube clips of Cambodian movies during the country's "Golden Age" of the 1960s and 1970s in this article, for your viewing experience.

Like I wrote in the previous column, the most internationally famous Khmer film, still remembered by many Thais (above 40), was Puos Keng Korng, a 1970 folkloric supernatural romance about Soraya, a half-human, half-snake girl whose mother had sex with a giant snake, and thus she was born with a head full of crawling vipers.

The film was released in Thai theatres -- and became a phenomenon in many countries around Asia. Its lead actress Dy Saveth was later cast to star in a number of Thai films opposite big-name Siamese actors in those days. (Too bad I couldn't find her picture with the legendary snake-head). For a short video clip of Pous Keng Korng, see below. There are no subtitles, but it's actually a music video with a song sung by the famous Sinn Sisamouth, and you'll get the idea.

Dy Saveth survived the Khmer Rouge reign, but the film's lead actor, Chea Yuthorn, was believed to be killed during the war.The film's director, Tar Lym Kun, fled to Canada and is believed to still be alive.

Pous Keng Korng was remade in 2001, with a Thai actor, Vinai Kraibutr, starring opposite Khmer beauty Pik Chanboramai (see trailer below). Strangely, the Thai title of the film, Ngu Keng Kong, spawned a number of B-grade copycat movies, usually with soft-core nature. Inter-species erotica has a strange pul.

But the serpent-headed beauty wasn't the only screen celeb back then before Pol Pot arrived. It's reported that around 33 out of nearly 400 films made during the pre-Khmer Rouge decade survived -- recently there was a screening event of those titles in Phnom Penh, called The Golden Reawakening. Here, check out the clip of Puthisen Neang Kong Ray (see clip below), or 12 Sisters, a Khmer tale that has an exactly similar Siamese version, called Nang Sib Song (it's often made into TV series).

The story is truly bizarre, with a touch of the exotic grotesquerie typical of our supernatural Souteast Asia: A wonderfully virile king impregnates 12 sisters, all of them his wives. But an ogress seduces the king (an ogress!) and convinces him to gouge out the eyes of the 12 sisters and banish them to a cave -- which the king duly does. Later, the sisters give birth to their babies, and all but one of them decide to eat their own children. So one boy survives, and when he becomes a young man he reveals the truth to his father, much to the hysterical thrashing-about of the wicked ogress.

Finally let's hear a song from the film Thansua Soben, which was released in a Thai theatre in 1971 (see clip below). The influence of Chinese opeara is all over, and the music is really sweet. The film tells the story of a girl who disguises herself as boy and later falls in love with a male student.

It's believed that the film's cast perished during the Khmer Rouge war.

(Thanks to Donsaron Kovitvanicha)