Cambodia: Nice Sphere If You Can...Influence It

The descendants of the Khmer Empire finally find itself in a state of growth, albeit at stronger powers' beckoning

Look at All That Glitz: you're not gonna believe it, but that growth isn't exactly equal...

Why is Phnom Penh?

Cambodia's capital city is weird. It's part administrative capital, part royal revelry (NO that's not Queen Elizabeth), part Chinese Casino, part tourist haven, and part poverty (obviously). That it can be all of this at around 2.4 million people is all the more startling. Of course, for the overwhelmingly rural country of 14 million, this city should feel worlds away from the rest of the country. Yet all it takes is a trek the central corridor to understand that even the upper echelons of wealth in the capital don't feel particularly Cambodian.

Foreign influence has, of course, transformed the capital as the influx of Chinese tourists, Russian exiles, curious Singaporeans, and other interested internationals has built out a rather curious community of expats and long-stay tourism. After all, how could a country only about 2/3 as wealthy as its eastern neighbor, Vietnam, boast service and goods prices comparable, if not higher? That is because much of its development and investment attraction is targeting an external audience, but feel free to blame its poor currency history as well.

Concentration Camps in the Capital: yum

That monetary reckoning is but a lick of the destruction this small country has endured until even recently. The brutality of the Khmer Rouge speaks for itself - banned currencies, forced relocations, forced - and failed- collectivist farms, and slaughter of suspected dissidents and their accompanying families to the degree of 20% of the population at the time. These executions often took place at notorious prison camps or killing fields with simple tools of machete to the neck, rocks to the head, or babies to the trees (bullets were considered a luxury not befitting the death of dissidents). That this narrative is so uniformly discussed, if not encouraged, is refreshing yet familiar for a region honest in its history but perhaps not in its present representation. Alas, so too is the emphasis on tourism for its continued economic largess, though its powerful demographic growth presents an opportunity that, say, Vietnam, lacks.

This same equation applies likely to a stronger degree in the country's second city. I also took a bus to the (somehow) more expensive cultural scion - Siam Reap. This semi-glitzy, semi-baron spot would be perfect for the next season of the White Lotus, boasting numerous temples and historic landmarks from Khmer reign long ago as well as numerous Buddhist temples and configurations that almost tricks you into thinking the local poverty is on purpose.

Angkor Wat: Dare I say a Reap-off??

Yet what is undoubtedly desired is the empiric grandeur of thousands of years (with stunningly expensive price tags to keep up its maintenance). This proud history boasts generations of Khmer as invaders into other kingdoms - a sharp contrasts to recent centuries of relative influence jockeying. In semi-recent history - after the empire but before the French - the Cambodian region has frequently been ruled and colonized by Thailand and Vietnam. That subjugation, invasion by Japan, and later coup-by-invasion via Vietnamese communists cement a colonial reality that is a lot more nuanced than progressive scholarship suggests. Most curiously, the protectorate techniques of French colonialism in Indochina gave sovereignty to region that could have been more provincial otherwise (same goes with Laos).

Cambodian Wet Markets: not where the souffles are made

That Cambodia still stands and develops (one of the only Southeast Asian countries with above-replacement birth rates) is perhaps testament to Khmer resilience but certainly to its need to catch-up. Out of any country in mainland or surrounding Southeast Asia, Cambodia is undoubtedly the poorest, even as urban prices suggest otherwise. I do worry that this country will nonetheless become older and too service-oriented before it has time to industrialize, let alone urbanize, as has most of its wealthier neighbors. But considering the politic and economic systems are as controlled as they are by the ruling Hun Family and Cambodia's royalty line it touts around for legitimacy, the wealth accrual pattern in this nation could result in it remaining very third world. Alas, so destitute did the Khmer Rouge leave the country that even a growing abundance amongst the elites be considered progress!

Presently, Cambodia's influence is most vexed by its longtime bully Thailand (see the superfluous border crisis) and the Chinese as they makes further economic inroads internally and via the Belt and Road Initiative. Though its debt diplomacy with the latter has yet to prove disastrous, there is little doubt on the uneven power dynamics moving forward. As Cambodia binds itself deeply to Chinese development it could find itself one of the biggest winners or losers of ongoing trade disputes with the US.

The grand palaces and temples of Cambodia: at least someone's got it good...

My biggest takeaway from Cambodia was what I didn't see. Despite stops that took me along urban development routes, the vast majority of development in the country, I barely touched the nearly 75% of the populace which still resides in rural areas. That is an astoundingly old world statistic yet to prove advantageous for any poor country beyond tourism. As the world further urbanizes, Cambodia is certainly behind this curve, and I expect its urban-rural spread to change dramatically in short time. But even then, it remains poorer than less-populated Laos, and despite a similarly large rural population.

The best news for the Kingdom of Wonder is that smaller more homogeneous states tend to develop ambitiously and negotiate their resource strategically. At the same time, it could continue to be be an area of influence too often coopted by larger powers or foreign tourists looking for an exciting experience but not necessarily a new state to build. Compared even to its counterparts, Cambodia feels unfinished, trapped in disparate figments of time that seem unable to connect and build towards something bigger. But never count out any young, proud Asian country with developmental ambition. I remain excited as anyone to see it develop further.

It's a monkey! yes this was the most exciting part