“The government talks about poverty reduction, but what they are really trying to do is to get rid of the poor. They destroy us by taking our forested land…
Under Pol Pot we died quickly, but we kept our forests. Under the democratic system it is a slow death. There will be violence, because we do not want to die.” – A Cambodian villager affected by an economic land concession. From the report “Land Concessions for Economic Purposes in Cambodia: A Human Rights Perspective”, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Human Rights in Cambodia, November 2004
Source: http://forwardthinkingmuseum.com/exh_grp_fringe_dweller_00.php
It is a nation of wanderers. From rural villagers, evicted by government land grabs, to those migrating to the city in the fragile hopes for a better life, Cambodia is a poignant example of a global phenomenon of displacement, which has complex causes with a common theme: leaving and arriving, putting down tenuous roots, only to be uprooted again. Rural migrants becoming the urban poor, living in makeshift squatter communities, are an increasing part of the global population, now numbering over one billion, according to recent United Nations estimates. War, genocide and the current climate of government corruption have displaced much of Cambodia’s people, a population of “fringe dwellers” perpetually on the move.
While some of the photographs, (taken from 2005-10,) document a harsh and precarious life, many of the pictures also depict the pride in ownership and extraordinary enterprise which signify hope and the will to thrive, despite extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
– Eva Sutton
Some of the pictures from the exhibit:
To view the entire exhibit, click here
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