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After School Thmore band

Concert for Cambodia heightens awareness about the problem of human trafficking in the region

28/12/2011
Yanapon Musiket
Bangkok Post

The capital city of neighbouring Cambodia, Phnom Penh, recently hosted a concert with the aim to raise awareness about a problem that’s long afflicted our region – human exploitation and trafficking.

The concert, MTV Exit, where Exit is the acronym for End Exploitation and Trafficking, was staged on December 17 to a full house at Phnom Penh’s Olympic Stadium.

The MTV Exit movement began in Europe, but its roots have spread to Asia which has played host to 28 such concerts the past three years, including in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Nepal, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Timor-Leste. It uses music to communicate to young peers the world’s single most important message, respect for human rights, and has long waged a crusade against human trafficking and exploitation.

Taking to the stage were local and international artists, rising and established stars, and the concert was a resounding success as over 40,000 fans packed every inch of the stadium’s parking space, where the stage was set to offer fans a chance to feel close to their idols, according to the organisers, while for foreign visitors, it was an eye-opener to Cambodia’s up and coming music scene.

The opening act was performed by Ekhlectic, an emerging Cambodian hip hop crew whose members include US-born rappers and local B-Boy dancers. Ekhlectic created eccentric sounds that combined old-school Khmer rock to classic American music. After sunset Cartoon Emo took to the stage with their high-pitch emo-rock numbers, when its skinny lead singer wowed every spectator with his powerful screams.

Thmore showcased their rockstar attitude with heart-breaking Khmer tunes and a surprise act from Michael Jackson’s cover of Black or White. Known as Cambodia’s top female artist, Sok Pisey crooned sweet songs and spoke about human trafficking, which won her cheers from the audience. After some mellow tunes, the crowd seemed full of energy as Preab Sovath, the last local performer went on stage. When asked about the degree of Sovath’s popularity, one of the locals said he was a Cambodian superstar and compared him to our Thai legend Thongchai “Byrd” McIntyre.

After their first performance in 2008, American power pop band The Click Five was back to entertain their Cambodian fans with their popular tunes, including Good Day, Happy Birthday, I Quit, Just the Girl, Jenny, and Headlight Disco. The unforgettable moment was when the band performed the acoustic version of Don’t Let Me Go, produced in collaboration with MTV Exit to communicate key anti-trafficking messages through a specially produced music video that has now reached over a million views online.

Before rocking the stage that night, as spokespersons of the MTV Exit campaign, members of The Click Five visited survivours of human trafficking at their shelters.

“Even though we only spent a short time playing music for them, we were happy to be able to help them forget their bad memories and just enjoy the music,” said its lead singer Kyle Patrick during an interview.

The most-awaited performance of the night was a spectacular show by the Korean girl group After School. The Korean wave hit feverish heights as many fans present that night were there especially to support this group, evident from the colourful signs in Korean they were waving. Performing for the first at an MTV Exit concert, members of After School revealed that each of them were pleased to be part of the campaign and said that they have learned more about the problem of human trafficking after collaborating with this project.

Prior to the concert, MTV Exit also organised a four-day forum for Cambodian youths to sharpen their creative skill, where they were challenged to produce a campaign plan to tackle human trafficking to their communities. Selected videos from the forum were also shown during the concert.

Human trafficking is a crime that affects 2.5 million people worldwide. Of those, more than half are living in or are from Asia and the Pacific. Often, the victims are young people who are guilty of nothing more than wanting a better life for themselves.

“We are excited to be back in Cambodia after three years. This is a new beginning to something greater as we bring together international and local artists in solidarity with over 40,000 youth who attended this concert _ to make a statement that we all have to join together to end this modern day slavery,” said Matt Love, MTV Exit’s campaign director.

With strong support from USAid, the US Agency for International Development, and AusAid, the Australian aid programme, the concert marked the celebration of the new partnership with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) announced earlier this year.

“Asean is very delighted to be partnering with MTV Exit in the campaign to eradicate human trafficking. I am even more delighted to see Asean youth so engaged in an issue of concern not only to Cambodia but the entire region,” said Dr Surin Pitsuwan, Asean secretary-general in his taped video message aired at the concert.

The five-hour music experience ended with unforgettable joy, and as the audience learned together that the power of their voices can make a difference, let us hope that the music could inspire our young generation and ignite them to stand up against human trafficking and exploitation, or at least prevent them or their loved one to become a victim.