Podcast producer Ben Beck interviews Cambodian citizen and student, Chhour Kim. Chhour shares the best and worst parts of living in Cambodia. He compares life in the United States with life abroad. Later, they discuss some of the reasons why gender-based violence still exists in Southeast Asia, as well as how to address it effectively. Finally, Ben invites Chhour to share his favorite feature of his home country.
Inside the Cambodia Project Episode 20: Gender-based Violence
with Mr. Chhour Kim
[00:00:00.310] – Ben
Hello, I’m Ben Beck, and you’re listening to Inside the Cambodia Project. I’m normally working behind the scenes as this podcast’s producer, but today I am filling in for Christian, who couldn’t make it. In a recent podcast, I interviewed Sam Christensen, a business professional who hosts his own podcast, The Best Two. In his podcast, they talk about how serving an 18 to 24-month mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints Can Change Lives. Outside of that podcast, Sam let me know that I should talk to Chur Kim, a friend of his from Cambodia. And so today I have the special treat of talking with Chur, Kambodian, who is a Cambodian expert. He’s an expert in Cambodian, in Cambodia, because he lived there for most of his life. He now lives in the United States and is pursuing an education. He’s doing an English learning program. If he does well in that enough and tests well, then he will do a professional selling program, which will greatly help his future career.
[00:01:26.520] – Ben
He was born in 1995 in Cambodia in the Kampong Cham province, which is a countryside about 130 kilometers outside of Phnom Penh. He is a father of three children, and he is the youngest son in his family. In 2003, he moved to live in Phnom Penh with his family. He’s been living in the United States for a little under a year now. Before he came to the United States, he served as as a full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ. Aside from that, in his professional career, he already has some great experience with sales, with banking. He worked a lot in professional business fields before coming to the United States. Here in the United States, he’s pursuing his dream to become a professional salesperson, and he’s trying to prove that if you put in a good effort and take action, you can realize those dreams. With that, Chaur, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast. It’s great to have you here. Chaur, normally, we start with a quote where I would tell you the quote and then have you tell me what you think about it. However, I would really like if you could share a mantra or quote, some saying from Cambodia.
[00:03:00.710] – Ben
Feel free to say it in the Kamaia language. That would be wonderful if you would actually. Is there a quote or a mantra, something that you could share with us?
[00:03:09.640] – Chhour Kim
Yeah, for sure. But in the beginning, I’m going to speak in my own language a couple. Is it okay? Yeah.
[00:03:18.020] – Ben
Please do.
[00:03:19.840] – Chhour Kim
Okay.. Here’s the quote in English, If your life is hard or poor, and then you give up on education, your life will be forever still hard and poor. So I I truly like it because it has shown me that education is the most important in your life. No matter you are poor or you have a hard time, don’t give up on education. I can see that through my life that when I was young, I lived in the countryside, I did not have a chance to go to the good schools to study English. But my mom have made the right decision forever. She brought me to the city. So the place can get the good education as I can. Then I can see myself right now is a better person than I was without her decision that time. Maybe I still like a farmer in my country or in my province. But right now, I can come to United States through the educations.
[00:04:52.760] – Ben
That is inspiring. I love to hear that. That’s such a good quote. If our life is hard and we When we stop getting education and stop learning and growing and improving ourselves, life will be eternally hard. That’s a wonderful quote. Thank you for sharing that. Yes. You are a very good example of someone that has sought out education. I love that you shared that your mom thought that was important, and so she took you to the city. Did your whole family move to the city?
[00:05:25.130] – Chhour Kim
Yes. Actually, in 2003, my mom decided to move to the Our whole family, my brother and my sister, all come to the city.
[00:05:35.110] – Ben
That’s great. Were all of your siblings able to get an education, too, then?
[00:05:44.420] – Chhour Kim
Yes, all of us get education. My sister graduated, I graduated.
[00:05:50.440] – Ben
That’s wonderful. You know I’m a professor at a university. Education is very important to me, but it’s good to hear from I’m from you two that education is beneficial. I know most of our listening audience is they would agree that education is wonderful. Hopefully, we can discuss that a little bit more in this podcast, the importance of education. But before we get into that, I was hoping we could talk a little bit about the rich history of Cambodia. I’ve been to Cambodia several times now, and it’s a beautiful country. The people are amazing, just so friendly and good. I feel like a lot of that is shaped by the history. How do you feel like the history of Cambodia has shaped how you are today?
[00:06:45.040] – Chhour Kim
Yeah, that’s such a great question. When you visit Cambodia, remind me the country, my home country that I miss every day. Growth in Cambodia has to a farm and serve who I am today, installing me in a value of respect and gratitude and sharing. In Cambodia, our culture is respect, gratitude, and sharing. We can see that the young people respect the old and community is the paramount teaching me to honor and listen to those who more experience and wisdom. Gratitude is a deeply root in our tradition where everyone act of kindness in acknowledge and appreciate, fostering a humble and thankful heart. Additionally, the spirit of sharing, whether through the communal, meal, or supporting neighbor, has ingrained in me and seen generosity and in the importance of contributing to the well-being of other. This cultural value has more become the foundation of my character, guiding my action and interaction throughout my life.
[00:08:10.710] – Ben
That is wonderful. That’s one of the big differences between America, the United States, and parts of Europe that I visited, and then Cambodia, is what you talked about. You have a feeling of community there where it seems like if a neighbor is ever struggling, you are going to take care of that neighbor. You’re going to help and lift them up. Sometimes in the United States, it’s really easy to just stay inside our homes. We don’t get outside our homes. We don’t engage in the community as much. We might not have that. If you have a church group that you attend or if you have some regular service you participate in, I think then the United States, we have that feeling of community a lot more, but oftentimes not like what you have in Cambodia. Thank you for sharing that. It’s a beautiful example of how your culture and how you’ve been changed by your history. Let’s talk a little bit more about you living in Cambodia. I would love to hear what some of your highs and lows were living in Cambodia. First, let’s talk about the highs. What are some things that you really liked in Cambodia that you felt like were beneficial to you?
[00:09:29.630] – Chhour Kim
In Cambodia, I like almost everything there. First, I love the kindness of people there. My people, they love to share and they smile to me all the time. You had an experience there, right? Even though you ride a bike on the street, they didn’t even know you, but they still smile and wave at you and say, Hi, kind and support. So if you need something, you can go and ask anyone around you. Even though the meal, even though you don’t know someone, but you need a meal, need a food, you can go and ask them. You just show your respect to them. Totally, they will give the food or what you need and have. And I love the weather and the view there, the landscape. I have the mountain, what the ocean in We have one land that have everything, especially we have the big like in the middle of the country we call it Bung T’Nesab, where you can see the sunset and you can visit and relax and have a lot of fresh food over there. Every day, you can go to the market and get your food. But in United States, you have to go to supermarket only one time a week.
[00:10:55.090] – Chhour Kim
But in Cambodia, you can go every time you want because the shore or the market is your house, maybe two or three minutes only.
[00:11:04.240] – Ben
Those are great. When I was in Cambodia last time, we had the chance to go to the Thongle Sap Lake, a big lake in the middle of Cambodia, and it was beautiful. There were water Buffalo that were right along the shore that were grazing on the grass. Then we went out to the floating village, and that was really neat to see people living on homes that were on top of barrels. They were just floating on these large large drums that were just flotation devices for their homes. It was really cool.
[00:11:36.840] – Chhour Kim
Yeah.
[00:11:38.180] – Ben
What are some of the lows of living in Canada, in Cambodia? What were some of the hard things for you?
[00:11:49.610] – Chhour Kim
The hard thing.
[00:11:51.550] – Ben
Were there hard things or things that you didn’t like about living in Cambodia?
[00:11:58.880] – Chhour Kim
Okay. There are three things that I don’t like in Cambodia. Not I don’t like, but I can see it’s not really good progress. First is education system. I think that in Cambodia, they have the good A lot of good school in Cambodia, but the price is really, really high. That is hard for the full people to go. The good school is only private school, not a public English school. And especially if you live in the province, it’s hard for you to learn the English. There is no English school or English program for the public school. So this is hard for the people that doesn’t have ability or cannot afford to get a good education in Cambodia. So this is the hard thing, but it’s the low that we can see. And for sure that I believe in the near near future, we will get up to the point, the better point. The second point is about the healthcare in Cambodia, in the province, it’s hard for you to see the doctor. In one village, there is only one hospital only. And there are a little bit of equipment to support the health of the people who are living there.
[00:13:25.590] – Chhour Kim
I can see that. So when you have a problem, you have to come to the city, which It costs a lot of money to the people who live there. And the third point is about the justice system. So we have the law, we have the rule, but sometimes because of people who have money, they are too powerful, so they can jump over the law, which is not good. But the government have worked so hard on that part recently to make all everyone under the law if they commit crime or they have something bad. They have to be put in the jail. They cannot escape at all.
[00:14:09.210] – Ben
That’s good. Those are three things I think that you see in a lot of countries that are like Cambodia. Cambodia is growing very quickly and doing well, but it’s still a rather young country as far as the recent government. There’s still some growth that it needs to go through. I see that a lot in other countries like Cambodia. So thank you for sharing that. I would love to know, what are some of the biggest differences that you’ve seen between life in Cambodia and in the United States? You mentioned a few things, like grocery shopping is very different. In the US, we shop once a week. In Cambodia, you go a lot of times, maybe every day to the market, right? Other than that shopping difference, what are some other big differences you might notice between Cambodia and the United States?
[00:14:58.600] – Chhour Kim
Yeah, in Cambodia, is deeply rooted in community and family. People often live in multi-generation household and they have strong emphasis on the communal activity and support system. Another point is the peace of life in Cambodia, especially in rural, tend to be slower and more relaxed. Daily activity are often centered around agriculture, local market, and traditional practice. Cambodia is still developing economics, which many areas lacking a modern infrastructure, access to health care, education, and other services can be limited, particularly in rural region. Another point in United States is individualistic lifestyle. In contrast, United States has more individualistic culture, where in person, independence and self-reliant are highly valued. People often prioritize personal goal and career achievement. The peace of life in United States is generally faster and more hectic. With a strong focus on work, efficiency, and productivity, urban area are practically busy with a high level of daily activity and commutes. The United States have highly developed infrastructure and widespread access to advanced healthcare, education, and technologies. This contributes to a higher standard of living and more opportunity for personal and professional growth.
[00:16:49.810] – Ben
Yeah. No, that’s a very good explanation of some of the differences. I’ve seen those, too. One thing that was really nice was the change the difference in the pace of life. In Cambodia, things are a little bit more relaxed, and people seem to just be enjoying their life more. Whereas in the United States, people are busy. There’s more Yeah, there’s more opportunities here, but the busyness can sometimes lead to stress and/or depression, which we don’t want to see.
[00:17:26.730] – Chhour Kim
In United States, they live in the private life. People just go to work, come back to their home, and stay inside their house. But actually in Cambodia, you go to work, and after a while, you come home and you can visit your neighbor, your relative, where they live close to your house. You can go and say hi, especially when I live here. Almost a year, but I don’t know what is my neighbor’s name in the left, in the right, in I don’t know who are they. They focus in their own goal. But in Cambodia, like I said in previous sentences that we like to share and we care on each other.
[00:18:14.210] – Ben
Yeah, I love that. I wish we could do that more in America. It’s hard that we don’t do that. This morning, I was going for a run with my 13-year-old son. We’re training to run We want to run a half marathon in August. We’re training for that. We’re running up the Provo Canyon this morning, and we ran past probably 25 to 30 individuals, maybe more. I always try to wave at the people as I go past them. If they don’t have ear buds in, then I’ll call out. I’ll say, Good morning. Most Most of the time, people are surprised because that’s not the normal thing to do. People just go out and they run by themselves and they don’t say hi, they don’t wave, which is really sad because you’re right. Then we go back to our homes and we’re in our comfortable homes and we go to work and we come home and we’re not getting a lot of interaction with other people. That is something that I loved about Cambodia.
[00:19:21.600] – Chhour Kim
Yeah, you’re right.
[00:19:23.100] – Ben
What are your future plans in Cambodia? Do you plan to return there after your education? If so, what would you do in Cambodia for work?
[00:19:36.810] – Chhour Kim
That’s a really good question that I’ve been thinking all the time. But I will go back to Cambodia in the future someday. Nearly future, I wish. But before I go back, I have to make sure that I have strong abilities and good enough to have my country or my society. Before I came to United States, I already have a job. I was a banker. To go back, main goal is make sure that I have a better income than I was, a better knowledge than I was, a better language that I was. So all the things that I can go back. But my main plan in Cambodia is to inspire the the young generation to pursue education by empathizing a transformative power and long-term benefit and let them know that education is the key to unlock opportunity, fostering critical thinking and drive the social and economic progress by sharing my own experience that I have had in United States and my previous work and the success of other who have embarrassed learning. I aim to show the young people that education is not just about acquiring knowledge, but also about building a better future for themselves and their community.
[00:21:13.070] – Chhour Kim
Through the mentorship, workshop, and community engagement. I will engage them to the value education as we talk to for people and collective growth, ultimately empowering them to make informed decision and contribute to society. That’s my goal is to become a better person and have the young generation to understand more about how important are the educations.
[00:21:41.850] – Ben
That’s wonderful to hear. The nice thing is if you get an education here, and who knows, maybe you can even work here for a few years and then go back to Cambodia and work and make more money. Simply having that extra money will open opportunities where the Cambodians might look up and look you and you can teach the younger people the value of education. I think that’s a wonderful goal of yours.
[00:22:07.930] – Chhour Kim
Yes. I can see that when before I got into United States, most of people think that money can make the life happy. If you have money, you can have everything. But for true, when you have a lot of money, sometimes money is not really make you happy. The true happiness is when you can change someone’s life from the bad to be a good and become a It’s always in my heart that I’d be able to have people become a better person than they were. So, yeah, can change, can do it.
[00:22:44.410] – Ben
Great. One of the things I really like about being a professor at Brigham Young University, and in particular in the Marriott School of Business, is that that they highly prioritize research and teaching that is going to help make the world a better place. I know that sounds very cliché. Everyone uses that phrase. But in our teaching, we really put the students first. We have a principle in the Marriott School of Business, we call it. We say that we are centered on students. We try to make everything so that the students that are here, they don’t just learn They learn knowledge that can help them make more money, but they learn knowledge that will make them better people, that will make them more like Jesus Christ, more giving, and more thoughtful of others. We do that with our teaching But then in our research, we do try to do research that’s high impact and that’s going to help businesses or help people to have better balances in life. Or in the case of my research in Cambodia, try to help husbands and wives to have more unity in their home. I want to shift gears a little bit and talk about some of that humanitarian research project that I’m working on in Cambodia.
[00:24:18.650] – Ben
From what I’ve heard, gender-based violence, that’s usually husbands hitting their wives, is quite common in Cambodia. It’s more common in all of Southeast Asia. It’s just a somewhat tradition-based element of the culture. But the United Nations Population Fund, they reported that 36% of women in Cambodia say that they have been abused by their current or previous partner. That’s women that are willing to admit that. A lot of women might not want to even share that. The number is probably higher than that. I wanted to ask you, this is a really sensitive subject, but I think it’s important to ask since you are from Cambodia and you probably have some good insights, why do you think that gender-based violence is as common as it is in Cambodia?
[00:25:18.050] – Chhour Kim
Yeah, that’s such a good question. Sometimes it’s also hard for me to share.
[00:25:24.420] – Ben
I’m sure.
[00:25:25.270] – Chhour Kim
But I’m happy, more than happy to share. Because Because a lot of people, especially for the women in Cambodia, most of them, she care a lot about the first value for the family. Even though she happened to her own life, she’s still not willing to share to other people because they’re scared that they’re going to look down at the family and something like that. I think it’s a lot of point that can make this This ratio is a bit high than other country because in Cambodia, there was a Khmer Ruf in 1974 to 1979. During that time, People can see a lot of violence, something in their mind keep that. Let’s say if the kid can see their father do that to their mother, for sure in the near-learned future does a figure of sense going to repeat the same thing to him. Then another thing is a lack of education. After the war, our country still keep fighting fighting civil war until 1993. During the war, during the time from 1979 to 1993, we still under the war, like civil war. People not have a chance to go to school, get education, learn how to control their madness.
[00:27:07.330] – Chhour Kim
So they just need to hit or fight their wife or their children if they want. So I think it’s lack of education and due to the war, make Cambodia, like gender-based violation, goes so high than normal. So it’s really affect to myself as well. So when I was young, I can I see a lot of that situation, like my neighbor, sometimes it’s happened to my family, my relatives, so I can see. So it’s really affect to me. But actually, through the gospel that I know and I’m grateful, I learned how to control it. And I can do it, can control it. I won’t do the gender-based violence on my family at all. Because I see that picture, I feel bad about it. I don’t want my family or my wife, my kid feel the same thing, feel punishment or feel hurt like what I have. I feel it. I don’t want people feel exactly the same that I have. The point is lack of legal protection on enforcement. Although, Cambodia has to lower again the gender-based violence, can be in consultant limited legal protection. In the support service and weak enforcement mechanism can leave survivor without the power or recourse.
[00:28:40.450] – Chhour Kim
Another point, when the guy who commit to commit to gender-based violence, and they put them like the police caught them and the guy say, Apologize to the family, to the wife, and then they got to forgiveness easily because our Cambodia heart is mixed next. If someone say, apologize, and someone make a mistake and they say, sorry, something like that, we will forgive them. So it also the good point and also the bad point.
[00:29:11.980] – Ben
Forgiveness is so important and something that we in our Western cultures might not do as well. But it’s hard if there’s gender-based violence happening, the wives might be willing to forgive or the police might be willing to forgive. But then it’s really easy for the husband to do it again in the future.
[00:29:33.360] – Chhour Kim
Yeah. In United States, I can see that if you commit gender-based violence, you’re going to go to the jail, right? The police are going to come in less than once One hour, less than 10 minutes, police are going to be arrive your home and caught you. If the viral kid call the police. But in Cambodia, even though the police come and caught the husband, the vice and the kids still cry because they don’t want to lose their beloved one. They don’t want their loved one to put in a jail. Western culture is so much different.
[00:30:09.750] – Ben
I’m glad that you brought up the Kamai Rouge, that history there as being one of the main causes of it. I’ve read that not only is gender-based violence a little bit higher in Cambodia, but so is PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder. That’s when if someone’s been through war or been through abuse or something traumatic, then they might lose their anger more, or they might have a hot temper, or they might be more likely to hit other people because of the bad experiences that they’ve gone through. I think that that is part of Cambodia. It’s very sad, but a lot of people that live in Cambodia today, they went through the Kamai Rouge, and they saw that violence They had to participate in the violence. Sometimes they even had to turn in their neighbors. I know talking to another Cambodian that lived through the Kamai Rouge, he told me that he would have to tell on his parents or his siblings if his parents or siblings were stealing rice or doing something wrong. It was just a bad environment that the Kamai Rouge government at that time was making a more of a commonality in Cambodia.
[00:31:36.300] – Ben
I want to ask you a hypothetical question. If you were running a nonprofit organization in Cambodia that was focused on eliminating gender-based violence, how would you go about doing that?
[00:31:51.910] – Chhour Kim
Oh, really cool. There are certain point that I’m going to do here. I’m trying to do that is first is support service, establish, assess support service for survival, including consultant, legal assistance, and safe shelter. Create a network of resource to provide immediate help and long-term recovery operation for those affixed by gender-based violence. Community engagement. I’m going to involve the community leader and local organization in the effort to address violence, build a partner to promote community lead solution and create supportive environment for the survivors. The last thing is data collection and research, conduct and research to better understand of the prevalence cases and impact of gender-based violence in different community. Use the data to inform and strategize major progress and advocate for necessary change.
[00:32:59.750] – Ben
It’s Great. I love that you’ve thought through and have a plan for that. I know that some organizations are already doing that in Cambodia, where they’ve got a support system for survivors, and they might have a shelter where survivors can go to. One of the organizations that’s fighting against gender-based violence that’s helping to decrease gender-based violence is the United Nations. When I was there two times ago, I think it was in February 2024, I had the opportunity to go and meet with someone at the UN that has worked with some gender-based violence. She told me about a program at the United Nations and Oxfam. Oxfam is a group that is associated with the United Nations. Oxfam created a program called GALS. Gals, I believe it’s, I think stands for Gender Action Learning System, if I remember correctly. Gals is a program where community members are brought in and they’re taught in a series of workshops. There’s six different workshops, and these workshops are about an hour to two hours in length. In the workshops, they’re taught how to set goals. We are doing something like that in Cambodia in our project right now, where we’re bringing in 240 small business owners.
[00:34:34.720] – Ben
Of these small business owners, between 70 and 80% of them are female. And that’s just because the actual number of small businesses are owned, about 70 to 80% are owned by females. We’ve taken a random sample. These businesses are largely owned by females, but some of them are owned by men, too. And we’re We’re inviting these people into our workshops, and we’re going to train them on goal setting. But a big part of the goal setting is talking about gender problems in their home and their community. For example, maybe they bring money home from the business, and then the husband takes the money and goes and spends it on alcohol or on gambling or on other women. If that’s happening, then the wife and the family, they can’t achieve their goals. We’re going to give training that helps them work through those gender problems in the home and helps them to better achieve their goals. Oxfam Gals is already structured that way, and we’re just changing it a little bit to make it more of a business-focused training. Because I’m very passionate about this topic, and I love what We’ve already seen in Cambodia, and the people that we have working there for us are such good people, so I’m very excited about doing this Oxfam Gals program.
[00:36:12.330] – Ben
I was wondering, what are some tips that you have for engaging local partners and citizens of your country? How can I get people in your country to help us with our change initiatives?
[00:36:30.970] – Chhour Kim
That is such a cool question. I think that first, you need to understand the need of the perspective. So make people understand is the most important, in Obviously, we understand them, what is the need, what we can do to help them to achieve better. According to your point, I think is first, you need to have them to understand what is your main purpose of them. If they understand, I’m sure that they’re willing to work with you and they know it’s good. But more than that, make them excited, can help them draw the dream. I can see that when I was a sales guy, we can sell the product with the life insurance. I can make the people buy it without know what is happening in the future. They get money if they are in trouble in the future, but it’s the future thing that people cannot predict, people cannot know. It is the same thing, project, if we can make the people more excited about it, to join, willing to join. It will help them how to change their life, change their family, and change their lifestyle, have them become better and more happiness in their family.
[00:37:46.150] – Chhour Kim
I’m sure that it will work pretty well. Especially what you mentioned, really, really true. The woman have worked so hard to earn money. When the money comes in, the In the house, the guy spend it all. At the point, we have to all the family, we don’t have to train just a female or male, but train the family that each person can have their own responsibility, like husband and wife and kid, they all have their responsibility to build a happiness in their family. More than that, we need to build a strong relationship with the local leader. In Cambodia, we call mepum is a or governor. If the governor or the local leader have more influence to each family in the commute, if we work through who is the key person in the communute in the village. We train and we have the people and can see the change of the role model of the people in the village. I’m sure that another family in the village, they’re willing to follow our strategy or our strength or our program well. Another thing is help them to understand and try to see that what we do is because we love them.
[00:39:13.940] – Chhour Kim
We love Cambodia. Try to get the benefit is the most important.
[00:39:23.520] – Ben
Those are great. So love them. I like that you said it’s not just about engaging Like local partners. But the citizens in the family, that’s fascinating that you said, even the children. I agree with that. We’re planning on, we’re going to encourage, if it’s a woman that owns the business, we’re going to encourage her to bring her husband to the trainings. If it’s a husband that owns the business, we’re going to encourage him to bring his wife so that the couples are taking the trainings together. But if they go home and the children aren’t supportive, or if they have teenagers that are fighting and pushing back and trying to get mom and dad to spend money and do things, it could hurt their plans. I really appreciate your insight that it’s important that we have the family, train the whole family, have everyone on board, even including the commune leaders and the local government leaders. That’s a fascinating… It’s a wonderful advice. Yes.
[00:40:30.820] – Chhour Kim
In another point, there’s also a good trainer. A good program is program is just a program, right? It’s just a paper and the plan. But the important is the people who transform it, the person who is trainer. The trainer, I think, is also part of effective. The person can have the gift of tongue that can pursue people and help them up and down the feeling, motivate them can touch their feeling. Also good to make the change on that. We cannot just pick up the random people, Okay, let’s go to train the family. Those family cannot be like that. We have to train a good trainer, and then we make the fans warm more quality.
[00:41:19.250] – Ben
That’s a really good point. Thank you for sharing that. Thankfully, we have six trainers in CM Reep who are fantastic. We went and spent a week with them, and I’m very confident that they’re going to be good trainers because they’re passionate, they’re excited, and I think they love their neighbors in Cambodia. I’m hopeful that the training will go well. We’re at time. I don’t want to keep you too long, but I did want to ask you one last question before we go. I’ve been to Cambodia a number of times, and Cambodia has a certain charm when you go there. You just can’t help but fall in love with Cambodia. So I was wondering, before we close, if you could share perhaps your favorite part about Cambodia, or maybe your favorite memory or story that can help illustrate the beauty and wonder of your country.
[00:42:27.170] – Chhour Kim
For me, Actually, Cambodia is the best, the best of the best country ever because it’s not my home country, but it is my observation. I have visited many countries In the Southeast Asia, include United States by now. But I can see that Cambodia is so much different from all this country. Even though we have previous, but our people still have a great heart. What I like is about the people heart in Cambodia. Our heart is pure and we are the honest people and the kindness and hospitality making a visitor feel welcome and value. The genesis of warm and low cold at a personal touch and travel experience, enhance interaction and making the journeys admirable. So everyone visit the Cambodia. I’m sure they like the most about the people there.
[00:43:32.480] – Ben
Yeah, I love that, Chaur. Thank you. When I first fell in love with Cambodia, it was probably about eight years ago now, I I think I traveled to six or seven other countries in Southeast Asia at the time, and all of them were wonderful in their own ways. But what made Cambodia stand out the most and what I fell in love with in Cambodia, was the people like you’re talking about. Just good, kind, very thoughtful, very community-focused people. I think that is the magic of Cambodia. Chaur, thank you so much for being on the podcast today. It was wonderful to have you on the podcast. It was great to hear about your desires to gain more education and how you want to help take that back to Cambodia and help other people get education. I really appreciate how you were willing to talk about gender-based violence. I know that’s a very difficult topic, but the four or five points that you brought up that might be some of the reasons why gender-based violence is more common in Cambodia. That was really helpful to me in my research, and I think to our listeners. I thank you for all of that, Chou.
[00:44:57.090] – Chhour Kim
Thank you so much, Professor Ben, for giving me a chance to share what I know. I’m more than happy to do it.
[00:45:04.660] – Ben
Thank you. To all of our listeners, I hope you can take something away from what Chou shared today. If you’re listening in from a Western culture-based country like the United States or somewhere in Europe, or if you’re listening in Asia, there’s things that we can learn from what was discussed today. One of the most important things, I think, is that we be good to our neighbors and that we try to love each other and try to get outside of our homes, go out, talk to people, create a feeling of community. But no matter where you live and no matter how you do it, I encourage you to lift where you stand.