Now that I am back home and fully recovered from jet lag, I can post with photos and a more complete picture of the Genocide Education Project. First, I will offer some commentary about the controversy concerning the use of the word genocide to describe what happened in Cambodia. Most of the professors who attended the program do not think that the murder of close to 2 million Cambodians from 1975 to 1979 was genocide according to the current and legal definition of the word. They call what happened a mass atrocity or mass political killings. Professor Frank Chalk devoted his lecture to the topic; although his thesis was that it shouldn’t matter whether it is a genocide, it was still a crime against humanity, and worthy of attention and justice.
Professor Frank Chalk of Concordia University in Montreal
The genocide education project (GEP) was developed by the DC-CAM to train all secondary school history teachers how to teach about the Khmer Rouge Period. The initial training was for members of the Ministry of Education and the Pedagogical Training Unit. Starting in September, these trainers will then go out to all of the provinces in Cambodia to train 1800 teachers in method and content. The DC-CAM invited a team of international scholars to the initial training, and also 4 facilitators (I was a facilitator).
Every morning, I would wake up, have breakfast in the hotel, and get in the tuk-tuk which took us to the DC-CAM.
Phala and I on our way to work.
There is always plenty to look at as you ride in the tuk-tuk
We would arrive at the Senate Library, where the training was held, by 8 in the morning.
The Senate Library
The training sessions were rather formal affairs. All of the Cambodian trainees sat in the first rows, while the foreigners and the interpreters sat behind them. The lecturers and guest speakers sat at the front table.
Some of the trainees
The mornings always had a history session in which Khamboly Dy, who wrote the textbook for the course, and Professor David Chandler went over 2 chapters of the book, A History of Democratic Kampuchea. Boly is a doctoral student at Rutgers in Newark, New Jersey.
Professor Chandler and Boly Dy (sorry - a terrible picture!)
After the morning session, we would have a very nice luncheon outside the Senate Library. The lunches were 1 and a half hours long! After the first day or so, I discovered a lovely orchid garden outside the library where I would spend a good part of my lunch. The orchid garden was very beautiful and soothing. I noticed I often felt restless during the training sessions, and so the garden was a good antidote to my restlessness.
I needed time to clear my head in the garden
In the afternoon, we would conduct our small group sessions. In these sessions, teachers would deliver lesson plans based on the guidebook and the textbook. I also modeled lessons for my small group. After the small group sessions, we would go back to the big group and listen to another guest lecturer.
Phala with one of the members of my small group and a member of the Minstry of Education. She will also attend a Facing History seminar in London next month. You can tell she is important because she has two cell phones!
The end of the day would come at 5:00. All of the visitors would go back to the hotel and out for dinner. I ate at the same restaurant about four times. It was so lovely that I didn’t mind at all.
This picture was taken from my table at the restaurant.
This was a typical day working in Phnom Penh. Although I did get tired from working and frustrated by the pace of the training, I never got tired of sitting in the garden during lunch or watching the action in the streets of the city.
The END!
