The Daily Bell: Empowered Individuals: Genocide and Poverty Hasn’t Beat Cambodians

Man Kind is leading the way in modern education.

MD: Every time I see a statement like this I test it with “who’s the runner up?”. But then, what “kind” other than “man kind” is even in the running? What a great attention grabber that line is! But “modern” … that seals it.

No, that isn’t some lofty but empty phrase about humanity. This guy’s name is actually Man Kind. He runs a program in Cambodia that does more than educate.

MD: Caught me! Did you know if I tried to tell Facebook I was enrolling under the name Man Kind it would refuse me? It would refuse you too. But Facebook is a higher authority. I wonder if this guy is enrolled.

The schooling instills the drive to do something meaningful. The education empowers youth to take ownership of their life circumstances. If they don’t like the situation into which they were born, Man Kind will help them realize they can change it.

MD: All it should really do is teach the fundamentals necessary to learn.  Learn to read … then write and spell … to do math. In short … learn to learn and learn to want to learn. That’s it. Then sit down and read the encyclopedias. You’ll get 10x what public education will give you (except putting prophylactics on bananas) in 1/3rd of the time. Wikipedia is your friend.

In the rural communities of Cambodia, social mobility isn’t at the forefront of many people’s minds. There are few opportunities to seize, particularly without access to meaningful education.

MD: Why should social mobility be on anyone’s minds. Why should there be anywhere to mobile to? Because the money changers have dictated it. It’s part of their farming operation … their farm system.

More often than not, hardworking rural families are resigned to their socioeconomic foothold. Despite this sad reality, there are individuals hard at work to raise their communities beyond their modest means.

MD: And more often than not, those chasing the brass ring finally settle down to a rural setting … with no socioeconomic drive at all. Go figure!

As you read this, there works a small group of industrious Cambodians who are improving their community. The Human-Resource Development and Language Foundation (HDLF) is a local grassroots NGO. They teach English and IT classes while incorporating motivational and character-building exercises.

MD: Foundations and NGOs … contaminating a theater near you.

Man Kind is the local community member who leads the organization. Their methods educate the local community in a practical way. They also provide opportunities for higher learning and employment, all at a minimal cost to clients.

There is climbing demand for English classes, especially in these rural areas, but a severe lack of investment. As of 2014 the Cambodian government spends 1.9% of its GDP on education. There is a shortage of teachers, and most split their time between teaching at public institutions and private schools.

MD: Why English? The Brits are the most corrupt society the world has ever experienced (Israel being a close second). What if the NGO went to London and gave of themselves to teach the Brits Cambodian?

They can’t sustain themselves on a public teacher’s salary alone. Most rural areas can’t readily offer the opportunity for a secondary income. The result is that most teachers do not just prefer, but need to work in urban areas to continue providing their valuable service.

MD: History is replete with biographies of great men and women who grew up on the desolate Great Plains of the USA … and attended single room school houses with one teacher for all grades.

How Did We Get Here?

There are several reasons for Cambodia’s severe lack of development. It would be remiss not to mention the brutal communist rule of the Khmer Rouge during the mid to late seventies. Pol Pot, wanted to fundamentally restructure Cambodia. He ushered in a collectivized “utopian” agrarian society in the mid to late 1970s.

The Khmer Rouge deported all foreign nationals and ordered a mass exodus from all cities. They pushed the population into the countryside. They abolished money, private property, and executed anyone who was a perceived threat to the state.

MD: So how did they get the power and leverage to do that?

This largely included intellectuals, politicians, doctors, and teachers. The Khmer Rouge even considered eyeglasses a sign of former oppression.

The Khmer Rouge starved the population as they forced them to do laborious farm work under harsh conditions. Their utopian dream turned into a genocide. It wasn’t until the party collapsed, and the Vietnamese occupied Cambodia, that the madness subsided.

MD: Something has to be left out of this story. What attracted the Khmer Rouge to the Khmer Rouge in the first place? They must have had some competitive solution to a wide spread problem at the time to pull this off. What was it? Was capitalism and empire building stealing them blind? That is “usually” the case … and the writers of this kind of propaganda leave that part out.

Yet still, the atrocities continued well into Vietnam’s occupation. Between 1.7 and 2 million people died, roughly a quarter of the population at the time. Nearly an entire generation was eradicated, and the culture all but torn from its roots. Cambodia needed to begin its development efforts anew.

MD: Again, how do you get some people to turn on others like that. How do you completely eradicate the principle of the golden rule … and why would you want to do that?

A Reason To Move On

MD: Every time I read a phrase like that, it tells me it’s a time for “revenge”; that revenge is justified and imminent; and the perps are on the ropes.

This is where HDLF provides some genuine hope.

MD: Hope for whom? The perps?

The NGO incorporates Dr. Madenjit Singh’s internationally recognized ‘Science of Language’ holistic training program.

MD: Any time you see this kind of hyperbole, their credentials are shallow to non-existent. Educators use such rhetoric … because they have no basis in fact to fall back on. They are totally incestuous.

During the day, local teachers volunteer to teach basic English to primary school students. In the evening, they go over more advanced courses with teenage students, who attend these classes after their traditional education in a public school. These intermediate students learn by reading stories and speaking about motivational topics.

MD: What? After their public school education? Well then eliminate the public school education. Is this like the bible school I had to go to as a kid for indoctrination?

The main idea is to teach these kids how to identify their habits, goals, aspirations, and inspiration. They do this in English, and stand up to present their own understanding of these stories to the whole class. They focus on identifying negativity in their lives and how to overcome a fatalistic mindset.This improves their Englishs

MD: Again, why English. That makes as much sense as teaching them Yiddish!

This improves their English comprehension, but also shifts their fundamental view of the world. It may not sound conventional by western standards. But it can provide life changing empowerment to students who never understood the individual’s ability to improve their own life.

MD: Ah … “shifts their view of the world”. This is brainwashing … plain and simple … in the open as if it was respectable. By a people (these NGOs) who have never known what money is and to this very day think there is such a thing as democracy with more than 50 people involved. This is BS … Beyond Silly. Maybe these people need to go back and read the history of our indoctrination of the indigenous US people. It’s a pitiful piece of history it is … with an even more pitiful current result.

Students who are faithful to this program emit a palpable sense of confidence. Teachers, as well as the international volunteers, feel the change.

MD: Like Clinton “felt your pain”?

“The energy here is very powerful,” says Program Director Juan Antuna Ros. “The moment you enter the school, you’re surrounded by all this eagerness to learn. It’s infectious… new students see the older students speaking English comfortably with international volunteers and that motivates them to keep studying and build up their confidence.”

MD: What? Why? Why doesn’t that eagerness exist in the public schools? What kind of coolade are they giving these kids?

To break the cycle of poverty, the key is to make adults and children alike realize that the cycle does not have to apply to them. They harbor a powerful freedom that waits to be realized.

MD: If you want to break the cycle, break the reproductive cycle. I would like to break the reproductive cycle of the elite in the USA (and the tribe that predominates it). Maybe I can form an NGO to get that done. It’s easy to illustrate and document the un-level playing field they have forced the rest of us on to.

“Someone who’s not educated is basically limited. It’s almost as if they’re walking through life with a blindfold on. They’re easily led astray, used and manipulated for other people’s agenda, usually people with a better education and greater access to resources.”

MD: Tell that to Gene Amdahl, or Philo Farnsworth … or Ezra Pound!

The curriculum implements this holistic perspective shift by asking students very subjective questions about their personal mentalities. This model demands a reader’s interactivity. There is no memorizing vocabulary by rote repetition. The students here must be active in analyzing their own personal lives using English. In this way, their English lessons don’t just cover the basics of the language, but the framework for their own personal success.

MD: Brainwashing … 101. Same thing other practitioners engage in. Plus the others teach a skill … making bomb vests that fit properly and comfortably.

Consider the implications. Let’s imagine you spend your days helping your family on the farm. You do manual labor using the same age-old methods passed down through the generations. Your neighbors, friends, and community all do the same thing, all without any opportunity or reason to improve their situation.

MD: Right. Join our society and you could become part of an entire new generation with large thumbs … from playing games on their iPads; totally sexually confused; fearing global warming and their own shadows;  and incapable of changing a tire.

Then, all of a sudden, you begin to study a language, which helps you understand that you are the master of your own destiny. A door has been opened. To walk through, you must keep learning and engage in the principles you’re studying. Incorporating this life-changing and transmittable enthusiasm is what keeps this school running.

MD: And you no longer have a chance of being the master of the destiny you are leaving. And since there will be no-one there to protect a claim to that destiny, it will flow to these wonderful people teaching you this wonderful new language … the most clumsy language ever evolved by man … beginning with roots among the most treacherous empire builders ever experienced by mankind. What’s not to love here. If you want to gain some perspective, read the contemporaneous Anti-Federalist Papers (written by farmers who had a clue)  in lock step with your reading of the Federalist Papers (written by the money changers who now enslave you by taking 3/4ths of the fruits of your labor … you the most free of all the people ever on the globe.) I’d say “give me a break” … but I make my own breaks. You should try it.

Where The Road Leads

Education alone is not the answer to a region defined by poverty. The ultimate goal is being able to provide tangible opportunities to a better-educated community. HDLF has recently teamed up with the Malaysian government’s Volunteering for International Professionals (VIP) Fellowship Programme.

MD: What makes these people poor? At the beginning of the formation of the USA very few had education (and those that did created the mess we know as the United States and its unbelievably flawed Constitution … that doesn’t even include a buy/sell agreement). These people weren’t any poorer or richer than the Cambodians … but most of the educated ones sure are (more poor) … even those perpetually reaching for the brass rings. They are the most impoverished of all.

The partnership aims to provide a 4-month fellowship for international professionals to apply their expertise in a local context. The goal here is to create career pathways and provide support services that allow graduates to access relevant job opportunities and build a meaningful career with English as the foundation.

MD: Follow the money.

HDLF also has mechanisms for trainees to become teachers. In fact, one of its trainees actually taught English to his own childhood teacher. Students see the clear and evident trajectory that their studies materialize. The teachers are the perfect examples, as they seek more than just a paycheck. They realize that the path to a brighter future is a delicate opportunity. If they can provide the necessary skill set, these kids will excel in their higher learning and get a decent job to provide for themselves and their families.

Right now, HDLF is building a new school down the road from its current location. The classes are in such high demand that the students for the new school are already being instructed in a temporary learning center near the construction site. With 3 classrooms and an IT center underway, the future looks bright for this NGO.

This large undertaking has opened the door for international volunteers to come and be a part of this good cause. Their presence has helped expedite the construction while keeping costs low. It provides an opportunity for the students to learn and talk with native English speakers.

Each day that passes is another day closer to building Man Kind’s new facility for higher learning.

“My great grandparents, my grandparents, my parents, all of them were farmers. But now, I can start to change the story of my life. So I ask my students, if I can do it, why can’t you?”

MD: Is that an open insult to farmers? I guarantee you, if we ever manage iterative secession (and I certainly hope we do), I don’t want you in my space. I would much rather have these farmers in my space.

His students regularly attend his classes, so many that there is almost a lack of seats. Despite the sweltering heat or the torrential rain, they attend class and study with fervor and intention.

“I work long hours, but I never feel tired, because I can see the smiling faces of our kids. They begin to feel confidence. They tell themselves, ‘yes, I can do it, I can learn. I can be anybody I want.’ That’s the best feeling of my life.”

MD: What a pitiful life that must be for you.