Why I Write: Verses in Exile #1 with Kosal Khiev from Studio Revolt on Vimeo.
“Kosal’s poetry is ripped from his guts, excavated from a place between confinement and freedom. Raw and unassuming, his performance makes walls disappear leaving room only for emotions.” — Anida Yoeu AliUpdated November 25, 2011
Tens of thousands of Cambodians fled the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s and ended up in refugee camps on the Thai border.
Some of those families were resettled in the United States and their children raised as Americans, often with little connection to their homeland.
A small number of young Cambodian-Americans find themselves in trouble with the law, drugs and gang violence mostly and their convictions earn them a one-way ticket to a country many have never known.
For many, it's the first time they realise they're not full citizens despite their parents being granted asylum and permanent residency.
More than 200 people have been deported to Cambodia under this scheme since it began in 2003 and an estimated 2,000 more await a similar fate.
In Phnom Penh, Radio Australia's Liam Cochrane met with one of these deportees, Kosal Khiev and spoke to him about his childhood alienation, his long stretch in tough US prisons, where he discovered the spoken word poetry that's helped him turn his life around.
Presenter:Liam Cochrane
Speaker: Kosal Khiev, Cambodian-American deportee and spoken word artist. To watch the video of Kosal performing, visit http://studio-revolt.com
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2 comments:
This issue is heart broken. It destabilize the strength of Cambodian American abroad. Cambodian government found it ways to make profit out of the suffering of its own people by allowing them to return home. It sounds like a noble thing to do because no country will accept them. The reality is this; US government cannot detain them indefinately if Cambodia didn't accept them. It would be violation of the constitutional rights. If a man/woman paid for his/her crime, she/he should be set free. Deportation allow the government to hold them temporary basis until some government official issued visa to allow to go into their country. Vietnam for example, will only take deportee that came to the US after after 1995. Which means that these individual most likely will not get into trouble because most of them are business owner. Unlike Cambodia government, they accept everybody that has Cambodia blood related and it doesn't matter when they arrived in the US. The sad part, immigration law continues to squeeze harder and harder toward innocent Cambodian who made minor infraction. Imagine seeing mother separate for her children for shop lifting, writing bad check, drunk driving etc. Some might said, well they should not violate the law. There many nationality that violated the law but why punish them twice? I am not saying Cambodia is a bad country but how many job available? How the leader view democracy? These young Cambodian doesn't know anything about Cambodia and many of them borned along the refugee camp in Thailand. Do you think the government taking deportees without a fee?
Its sad to see my people suffering at their own home...Our government sucking their bloods..?
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