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The French Catholic priest, François Ponchaud, will give a serial conferences for the year 2011 in English language about the History of Cambodia, from the origins till current time. Ponchaud is an expert in Cambodia about culture and history. The author of ‘Cambodia Year Zero’ and ‘A brief History of Cambodia’, is a missionary priest living in Cambodia for about 45 years. The Conference will hold on every Wednesday at 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm, from March 30th to June 29th, 2011, at Catholic Social Communications Office(CSC) # 25 street 242, Boeung Prolit, 7 Makara, Phnom Penh, Cambodia. For more information contact csccambodia (gmail), Tel: 023 22 41 20 (English)/ 092 79 22 17 (French). The following is the general schedule of the conferences: 30 March: Cambodia from Origin to 1863; 27 Apr: French protectorate (1863-1953); 4 May: Sihanouk Regime (1953-1970); 11 May: Khmer Republic (Lon Nol Regime 1970-1975); 18 May: Democratic Kampuchea (1975-1979); 25 May: Popular Republic of Kampuchea (1979-1993); 1 June: Second Kingdom of Cambodia (1993 to Today); 8 June: History of the Church in Cambodia; 15 June: The traditional religion and Brahmanism; 22 June: Buddhism and 29 June: Approaches to the Khmer mentality.
2 comments:
As a young kid in the 1960,I remembered learning Khmer history mostly during the last 3 years of primary school. I was the tallest kid in the classroom then, my teachers assigned me to copy all of his lengthy lesson plans to the (up-high) black board so every other pupils could then recopy into their note books. There was neither explanation nor discussion whatsoever on each lessons.
In the secondary school every subject study (Maths,Physics,Chemistry,History etc..) were made in French language with the few exception of Khmer literature, Khmer dictation,redaction or dissertation etc.. Then there was so little of Cambodian history offered. I remembered instead reciting in french, the history of Indian Gupta dynasty,German Charlemagne,French revolution etc.
I had a chance of re-reading Khmer history into great detail when I started living in the US while formally studying the Engineering. I formed my own opinion since then without any help from scholars (lack of them so there are always many flaws in my opinion) that Khmer would not survive unless we have a Khmer semi dictator who could grab into his hand all the military power available to Khmer at any given point in time.(Sihanouk had popularity but Lon Nol then Pol Pot had military edges,yet the last two men's regime did not survive,that was my 1st flaw!). With a more powerful neighbors who still want our land and subvert us we must be very careful not to have our military split into many factions or allow many civilian factions to raise many military clandestine. Through out the demise of Khmer nation,our leaders split and fought each other endlessly.It is fortunate that now Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy so whenever there is great turmoil caused by politicians,the military had a clear choice to pick the only best, legitimate one to support and follow or if there still more complications the king could give his recommendation. To live in peace Khmer have to be ready at war (with our neighbors but never with ourself again) at all time.Since Khmer has small population,hi-tech weapon development is a must to undertake to ensure our peace,deter our enemies and it's never too early or too late to start one.
It was French Catholic priest Father Francois Ponchaud who first alerted the world to the atrocities perpetrated by Pol Pot's
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