Time For Donors To Stand Up To Cambodian Government

In a Washington Post opinion piece, Joel Brinkley, a professor of journalism at Stanford University who authored a book about Cambodia, writes about a donor-pledge meeting in Cambodia scheduled for Wednesday and discusses a potential law that would require NGOs to register with the government. "This is a government that stands by and watches as 75 percent of its citizens contract dysentery each year, and 10,000 die - largely because only 16 percent of Cambodians have access to a toilet. ... You wouldn't know any of that from the donors' behavior. You see, for foreigners Phnom Penh is a relatively pleasant place to live. Rents are cheap and household help is even cheaper. Espresso bars and stylish restaurants dot the river front - primarily for diplomats and aid workers," according to Brinkley. "Isn't it time, then, for all those donors to make a statement? On Wednesday stand up and tell the government: I am withholding my aid," he concludes (4/17).