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Uyen and Kha were accused of distributing anti-government propaganda [AFP]
‘This year, at least 46 activists have been convicted and
three bloggers were detained in June for anti-state activity in Vietnam, where
the Communist Party forbids all political debate.’
Student activist freed while her co-defendant had his
sentence halved in rare show of leniency.
16 Aug 2013
Uyen and Kha were accused of distributing anti-government
propaganda [AFP]
A Vietnamese court has overturned a six-year jail term
handed to a student activist, freeing her on the spot in a rare show of
leniency by the authoritarian nation, while her co-defendant had his setence
halved.
Friday's verdict freeing 21-year-old Nguyen Phuong Uyen was
unexpected.
"She was freed at the court," lawyer Nguyen Thanh
Luong, who does not represent Uyen but attended the proceedings, told AFP news
agency, adding that Uyen was instead handed a three-year suspended sentence.
Vietnam's courts routinely reject pleas by anti-state
dissidents against their lengthy sentences, reports said.
Uyen was sentenced in May to six years in prison for
distributing anti-state propaganda, prompting an outcry from Vietnamese social
media users and international rights groups.
Uyen's co-defendant, 25-year-old computer technician Dinh
Nguyen Kha, who was jailed for eight years at their trial in the southern
province of Long An, had his sentence halved by the appeal court on Friday.
'Humiliating the administration'
Uyen and Kha were accused of distributing anti-government
leaflets which "humiliated the administration" and called for
demonstrations against the regime.
The charges, under Article 88 of the criminal code, carry a
maximum sentence of 20 years in jail and are routinely laid against dissidents.
Uyen, who refused legal representation for the appeal
hearing, reportedly told the court she was a patriot and not a criminal.
"Opposing the (ruling) Communist Party does not mean
opposing the country and the people," she said, according to an unofficial
transcript of proceedings posted online by activists.
Vietnamese dissidents and online activists welcomed the
unexpected verdict, but many voiced suspicions about the government's motives
in freeing the popular Uyen, whose plight has attracted strong support.
This year, at least 46 activists have been convicted and
three bloggers were detained in June for anti-state activity in Vietnam, where
the Communist Party forbids all political debate.
The
ruling Cambodian People’s Party has invited the opposition to meet and
discuss how the two parties could share power and form a government,
Cambodia National Rescue Party deputy president Kem Sokha said.
Speaking
to about 400 supporters at a voter forum at the party’s Tuol Kork
headquarters, Sokha said the CNRP, however, was not interested in a
coalition, and would not join a government until “justice is served”.
“The
ruling party has invited the [CNRP] to meet and share power in
parliament and in government. I would like to promise [voters] that the
CNRP will not join with the ruling party. If we join, we would have the
same fate as [former CPP coalition partner] Funcinpec,” he said.
“We must find justice for voters first, and only then will we take [our seats] in parliament and form a government.”
CPP spokesman and lawmaker Cheam Yeap rejected Sokha’s claim yesterday evening.
“My
party has not sent a message to the [CNRP]. If that party will not join
my party [in government], my party will do it alone. The CNRP does not
agree with the will of the people who voted for 55 seats for them in
parliament,” he said.
Yeap pointed to a 2006 constitutional
amendment that stipulates only a 50 per cent-plus-one majority in the
National Assembly is needed to form a government.
“You need only 63 seats, and [we] have 68 seats, so there is no problem. There is no political deadlock.”
In
his speech yesterday, Sokha emphasised that along with a thorough
investigation into election irregularities, the CNRP was requesting that
certain political concessions and institutional reforms be made if they
are to take their parliamentary seats.
“Promises that [say], come and join first and then [we] will change this and change that, we don’t believe [in such promises].”
He
maintained that mass demonstrations were a “last resort”, but added
that if forces loyal to the government attacked or shot unarmed
supporters in the event of a protest, the International Criminal Court
would “take action”.
NEARLY three weeksafter
Cambodia’s general election, which both the ruling Cambodian People’s
Party (CPP) and the opposition claim to have won, life in Phnom Penh
remains tense. Tanks have been deployed, although only on the
outskirts, and queues have formed at banks and supermarkets as rumours
of hoarding become self-fulfilling. Meanwhile, the National Election
Committee remains coy about releasing the final results of the poll. It
claims that holding off will reduce the risk of violence from protests
called by the opposition.
Still,
the election committee has at least now released details of the popular
vote, if not the final seat-count. It says that some 3.2m Cambodians
voted for the CPP and its strongman prime minister, Hun Sen, and that
2.9m voted for the opposition Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP),
led by Sam Rainsy, recently returned from exile. The CPP
also carried most of the provinces. If accurate, these figures seem to
back the preliminary count, which handed the CPP 68 seats in the
123-seat National Assembly, against 55 for the CNRP.
This is a solid margin, helped by blatant gerrymandering of districts. But it is a sharply reduced majority for Mr Hun Sen.
Compared with last time round, in 2008, the CPP lost hundreds of
thousands of votes and over a quarter of its seats. The CNRP alleges
that the real setback was far worse, and that the election was grossly
rigged in favour of the governing party. Mr Sam Rainsy hotly contests
the result.
Mr Hun Sen is an authoritarian who has ruled Cambodia in one form or
another for 28 years. He is unaccustomed to impudent displays of mass
dissent, which the election on July 28th represents, rigged or not. His
government has since oscillated between angry bluster and adopting a
conciliatory tone towards his opponents.
On the one hand, quantities of razor wire
have arrived in the capital, ready for deployment. Government ministers
have threatened a hard line should the opposition come out in force (to
date, demonstrations have been small and few). One veteran
opposition politician, Pen Sovann, a former prime minister who returned
from obscurity (and a decade in Vietnamese jails) to win a seat for the
CNRP, predicts that “trouble will happen with the people who could not
vote. There will be protests from them, and the government will see them
as a threat.”
At the same time, the prime minister has bowed to CNRP demands for an
inquiry into the election committee’s conduct, with the UN acting as an
independent observer. Allegations are legion of CPP supporters voting
early and often. Voters complain of turning up to find that somebody
else had already voted under their name or that their name was missing
altogether. Since the election, Mr Hun Sen has also been unusually
respectful towards Mr Sam Rainsy, whom he loathes. Some even speculate
that he will somehow try to tempt Mr Sam Rainsy and his party into the
government.
Quite apart from facing a newly invigorated opposition, Mr Hun Sen also has to shore up his more traditional support.
It is clear that the renowned grassroots organisation of the CPP is not
what it was. Of 5.7m CPP members out of a population of 15m, nearly
half failed to vote for their party. A 40% pay increase has hurriedly
been approved for the poorest civil servants, taking their wages to $80 a
month, but this looks like a case of too little, too late. Meanwhile,
speculation is growing about tensions within the CPP’s senior ranks over
Mr Hun Sen’s handling of the election, including his attempts to bypass
party protocol and have the children of senior CPP officials installed
in parliament.
Even so, given the opposition’s ability to take the wind out of its own
sails, this may not matter much to Mr Hun Sen. In particular, on August
6th Mr Sam Rainsy chose to leave the country at its most critical moment
in years in order to attend his daughter’s wedding in America. It is
not clear when he intends to return. He has been roundly criticised for
deserting his party. The high regard in which Mr Sam Rainsy holds
himself is not in doubt. But colleagues wonder whether he has the
single-mindedness, still less the ruthlessness, to prise power from one
of Asia’s toughest leaders. After a shocking election tally, Mr Hun Sen
may feel the advantage flowing his way again.
Cambodia has postponed two military
cooperation programs with Australia, following the country's disputed
election and growing political tension.
Cambodia's Prime
Minister Hun Sen speaks to journalists after casting his vote at a
polling station during the communal elections in Kandal province on June
3, 2012. (Credit: AFP)
Liam Cochrane and staff 15 August 2013
Cambodia has postponed two military
cooperation programs with Australia, following the country's disputed
election and growing political tension.
The ABC has confirmed the two programs are in counter-terrorism and maritime security.
An Australian Defence Force spokesperson says no reason was given for
the postponement and that other programs continue as normal.
It follows revelations from the US State
Department earlier in the week that Cambodia had suspended some of its
military cooperation programs.
Spokeswoman Marie Harf said that the decision was made unilaterally by Cambodia.
However Cambodia's defence ministry denied that it had suspended or
cancelled the programs, stating they have merely been postponed until a
new government is formed.
But some analysts believe it's a pre-emptive
move by Cambodia, should the US and other foreign governments decide to
cut aid assistance if the July 28 election is found to be flawed.
Some US lawmakers have called for aid to Cambodia to be cut, after the elections were allegedly marred by widespread cheating.
Cambodian
National Election Committee officers and representatives from political
parties and non government organisations verify election results in
Phnom Penh on August 3, 2013. Cambodia's opposition party on Wednesday
appealed against preliminary official election results that handed a
narrow victory to strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen despite allegations
of widespread fraud. (AFP/File)
AFP News – August 14 ,2013
Cambodia's opposition party on Wednesday appealed against preliminary official election results that handed a narrow victory to strongman Prime Minister Hun Sen despite allegations of widespread fraud.
The results, released Monday by the National Election Committee (NEC), found
the incumbent premier's long-ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) had
edged the hotly disputed election, taking 3.2 million votes to the
opposition's 2.9 million.
The Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) has rejected the results, demanding an independent probe into its allegation that the election was tarnished by massive vote-rigging.
Party officials lodged a complaint with the NEC on Wednesday.
"We are demanding that the NEC reviews its mechanisms and processes," senior opposition official Kuy Bunroeun told reporters.
"The CNRP cannot accept the results," he said, adding they were "far
different" from his party's tally that shows it won the election with an
estimate of 63 seats in parliament.
Cambodia has been stuck in a political impasse since the CPP claimed
victory in the July 28 vote, with the military deployed in the capital
Phnom Penh last week after the opposition threatened mass
demonstrations.
The final results giving the number of seats won should have been
released later this week, but the NEC said the political deadlock means
they will now be announced by September 8.
"Due
to the complaints (from CNRP), the release of the final results will be
delayed," NEC's secretary-general Tep Nytha told AFP.
The CPP claims it secured an
estimated 68 of the 123 lower house seats available, losing 22 seats
since the last polls. The CNRP was said to have won 55.
If confirmed, it would be the ruling party's worst election result since 1998.
The opposition, which has threatened to
boycott parliament, last week called on the UN to help resolve the
dispute to protect "the victory" of the people.
While an inquiry into the election has been broadly accepted by all
involved, the parties have failed to agree on the terms, particularly
over a mooted role for the United Nations.
Hun Sen -- who has been in power for 28 years -- has vowed to establish a
government under his leadership despite the opposition's allegations.
The premier, 61, a former Khmer Rouge cadre who defected from the murderous regime, has vowed to rule until he is 74.
Children sit on motorbikes near armored personnel carriers parked in the outskirts of Phnom Penh, Aug. 8, 2013. AFP
In 1968, Czechoslovakia, part of the
Soviet bloc in 1948, is entering a period of liberalization. The leader
of the Czechoslovak Communist Party intends to give socialism "a human
face". Abolish censorship, restore civil liberties ... This is the
program of Alexander Dubcek enthusiastically taken up by students and
intellectuals.
For socialism with a human face
Since the mid-1960s, students appear sporadically against censorship.
Modest events however can give an impetus to the process of
liberalization, called "Prague Spring", which begins in January 1968.
Dubcek's reformist commitment is reflected in the population. Reflected
in the "Manifesto of 2000 words", in June 1968, signed by 70 people who
demand the liquidation of the old regime.
The Kremlin fears meanwhile the Czech adventure of "socialism with a
human face" gives ideas to other democratic republics of the Soviet
bloc. From July, Brezhnev requires the restoration of order and
especially the abolition of political pluralism just restored. To show
its determination and make an impression, it sends the troops of the
Warsaw Pact during the night of August 20 to 21 in order to crush the
Czechoslovak movement. Alexander Dubcek was arrested and transferred to
Moscow.
Bloody repression
The first day, people decided to peacefully resist the Soviet
intervention. The events are numerous, especially in Prague. The
demonstrators, mostly students, besiege tanks. The forces of the Warsaw
Pact order to suppress dissent. Therefore, in a few days, clashes are a
little more than a hundred dead and thousands injured across the
country. In autumn, it is the workers who are mobilizing. However, the
crackdown weaken the movement until its exhaustion in January 1969.
Desperate, a student, Jan Palach set himself on fire January 16, 1969.
Hundreds of thousands of people attend the funeral of the man who became
the legendary figure of the student protests in Czechoslovakia.
Residents of two
Ratanakkiri villages have accused local authorities of monitoring their
movements out of fear that they would travel to Phnom Penh to
participate in pro-opposition demonstrations, rights group Adhoc said.
According
to Adhoc provincial coordinator Chhay Thy, ethnic Jarai villagers in
Andong Meas district’s Dal village and in O’Yadav district’s Lom village
had reported that authorities in their areas were observing their
activities, and had asked to inform them before leaving.
“The
authorities are worried that the villagers, especially CNRP members and
Christians, will go to Phnom Penh to protest,” he said.
A Dal village security guard had also threatened to shoot villagers over perceived ties to the opposition, Thy alleged.
Lom
villager Romas Svat said five Christian youths had left the village for
a camping trip in Preah Sihanouk province last week, prompting
questions from authorities.
“Our authorities thought that the five youths went to Phnom Penh to protest, but … they went to go camping,” Svat said.
Lom village chief Sev Fin, however, rejected the allegations.
“Although the villagers want to attend the demonstrations, they do not have money to travel,” he said.
A
group of 15 Christian teens who had asked him to sign a permission
letter before they left for a meeting in Battambang did so on their own,
he added.
The
Cambodian Democratic Student Intellectual Federation, a self-described
“non-governmental and politically impartial organisation”, has declared
the elections an unqualified success.
“Having directly observed
the electoral process in all 24 municipality [sic] and provinces, CDSIF …
affirms that this general election was smoothly, properly,
transparently, freely and fairly organised,” it said in a widely
disseminated statement.
However, CDSIF – which was officially
registered as an observer with the National Election Committee – is a
self-professed member of the umbrella group Justice Eyes. In 2003, that
group was implicated in a government plan to seed the field of monitors
with pro-CPP lackeys whose express purpose was to undermine assessments
by other observers deemed unfriendly to the government.
According
to a set of handwritten notes taken by an attendee of a meeting at Hun
Sen’s Takhmao residence and obtained by the Post in 2003, some 76
Justice Eyes NGOs were told by Prime Minister Hun Sen himself that
“everyone needs to accept the results of the election”.
One
source, who declined to be named for fear of being targeted, reported
being told at the time by three different attendees that the CPP had
said: “If we win by the law, then we win. If we lose by the law, we must
still win.”
The NEC’s deputy director of the Legal Services and
Dispute Department, Ker Rith, said yesterday that the election body
hadn’t explored CDSIF’s affiliations, and went so far as to say that
many biased groups had been registered as observers.
“We did not
concentrate on whether this group of NGOs has any political affiliation
with any party,” he said. “Based on my observation, there are many NGOs
registered as observers but who have political ties with political
parties.”
However, Koul Panha, executive director of the election
watchdog Comfrel, said yesterday that such partiality was counter to the
NEC’s own guidelines.
“According to the [NEC] code of conduct, they should be non-partisan, non-affiliated. But this was not implemented,” he said.
Dear Editor,
Cambodia
is undergoing a phenomenon, the beginning of “Cambodia flourishing”, if
you will. Even amidst the high-tension political brinkmanship, Cambodia
has reached the tipping point, that is slowly but surely ushering in
the Cambodia Spring.
However, the season of spring flourishing must first be preceded by the season of discontent, the period we are in now.
Recently,
I witnessed first-hand this season of flourishing when I rode in the
back of the pick-up truck carrying Sam Rainsy from the airport to
Democracy Square upon his return from exile on July 19, 2013, and again
at Democracy Square the day he left for the United States for his
daughter’s wedding on August 6, 2013.
On both occasions, crowds
in the hundreds of thousands openly, fearlessly convulsed onto the truck
and stage demanding change. Their passion, palpably pulsating and
electrifying the Cambodian air, acts to diminish the prior existing
fear.
This season of discontent will be here to stay for some
time, snowballing into a monsoonal downpour of discontent, until there
is a complete change of leadership. The people demand a surgical
reformation in the formation of a government led by the CNRP’s Sam
Rainsy, and not Band-Aid changes the CPP will need to and has started to
undergo in the inserting of a newer crop of parliamentarian sons. 1. The voters who have no direct experience of the Khmer Rouge. Three
and a half million of the country’s 9.5 million registered voters are
between the ages of 18 and 30. Of these 3.5 million young registered
voters, 1.5 million, or 15 per cent, are first time voters. What do
these numbers tell us?
One, these 3.5 million registered voters
below the age of 30 are not directly traumatised by the Khmer Rouge.
Moreover, many of them were children during the turbulent years of the
1990s, with some only coming of age in the last election five years ago.
They, unlike their elders, have not accumulated the fear and
trauma of having lived through the Khmer Rouge and having witnessed
election violence and murders confronting the voters in living colours
of prior elections.
I returned to Cambodia in September 1995, less
than two years after the United Nations-organised elections. I joined
the campaign trails of the Khmer Nation Party in 1998, when travelling
to each province took an average of a day through yawning gulfs of
crater-sized potholes every few yards on the national roads and each
village is its own remote, isolated universe.
In 2002 I traveled
the provinces as an international consultant of the US International
Republican Institute to train political party agents on the first
commune elections, and once again joined the campaign trails of the Sam
Rainsy Party (SRP, formerly the Khmer Nation Party, changed to keep the
CPP from appropriating the name by splitting the party) for this commune
election as well as the national elections the following year in 2003.
The roads were semi-improved, but each village was still its own remote, isolated universe.
Once again in 2007 and 2008, for the commune and national elections respectively, I joined SRP on the campaign trails.
In
between these elections, I travelled to the provinces for my work,
first in 1997 to each provincial prison to assess the state of juveniles
detained in these prisons.
And since, I've travelled to each
province on numerous occasions in my capacity as the head of the NGO
Center for Social Development, known for its justice and reconciliation
forums, and most recently as the founding president of CIVICUS Cambodia
to conduct the Speak Truth To Power (or, in Khmer, Courage Without
Borders) curriculum for teachers, monks and other educational and
provincial leaders.
All to say, I have witnessed first-hand the
conditions across Cambodia through these 18 years and have paid acute
attention (for personal and professional reasons) to the voices and
yearnings of the people in trying to understand for myself and for my
work these seemingly intractable problems in search of solutions.
And
one of my strong beliefs in light of what is happening now during this
2013 election season is this: We are witnessing a new phenomenon – the
blooming of a Cambodia Spring, with angst of discontent as the
inevitable precedent to the flourishing which will inevitably follow.
The manifestation and timing of it could not have been perceived till it is actually happening, as it is now.
But this phenomenon did not happen out of the blue, magically; it grew organically and was nurtured along the way.
It
is part and parcel of all the educational efforts and advocacy and
challenging of the status quo and the demanding of each dollar raised to
the wage of workers and hotel staff, of each improper land concession.
Then
we are given the tools of social media and smartphones and Unicode and
English, etc, to set it off, fueled by the energy of the youth coming of
age. 2. Social media + smartphones + Khmer Unicode + rising English usage.
The
previous elections did not have a public venue where Cambodians,
particularly young people, could exchange information and be part of
something larger than themselves.
This public venue is closely
connected to the growing comfort level and increasing number of
Cambodians proficient in English, not only to be on Facebook, but also
to have access to a broader array of information (which are mainly in
English).
Even if English is the still the dominant language of
social media, the comfort level and increased quality of the Khmer
Unicode also facilitated the growing use of social media. As recently as
five years ago (the last national elections), Cambodians were mired in
the pictorial typing system symbolised by the Limon font.
Typing
Khmer was basically inhibited to drawing a letter in order to compose
each word. For anyone to access a Khmer-language document on the
internet meant that that document had been uploaded as a JPG or a PDF.
All
to say, as recently as five years ago, Cambodians could not search the
internet in the Khmer language, nor write posts or comments on Facebook
in the Khmer language, as the pictorial Limon typing system could not
facilitate such endeavours.
A few years ago, the posts and
comments on Facebook were written in broken English by the Facebook
users; now the majority of posts by Khmer users are in the Khmer
language.
The ease of language capability in both Khmer and
English is greatly inter-linked with smartphones, which allow for
instant, engaging sharing of images along with a narrative in the Khmer
Unicode with an exponential multiplying impact.
We are right to
worry about the vulgar, violent, crude or empty content and posts on
social media, particularly on Facebook – from soft to hard pornography,
from foodstuff to graphic traffic deaths of mangled bodies and bloodied,
cracked skulls – that were initially sent en masse and continue to
exist to a horrifying extent, despite social media’s attempts to curb
such vulgarity, violence and lewdness.
And the fear of
information overload is a real concern. However, in a place like
Cambodia during this time, social media, as everyone has acknowledged,
has been a major factor in ushering in the Cambodia Spring. 3. The Arab Spring and other mass protests around the world. We
are all copycats, particularly us Cambodians. We witnessed the mass
protests elsewhere around the world and they capture our own
imagination. It was only an issue of time; July 2013 gave us the
opportunity to usher in our own Cambodia Spring. 4. Father-figure vacuum. The
massive outpouring during the passing of King Father Sihanouk Norodom
took everyone by surprise, even if some of it was exaggerated high
emotions. It brought to consciousness of both Cambodians and the
Cambodia watchers of how much King Sihanouk’s rhetoric and treatment of
Cambodians over the years as his “children” have shaped our identity as
exactly that, oftentimes to our peril in stunting our social and
political developmental maturity.
Hun Sen tried excruciatingly
hard in filling that void by giving himself grandiose, lengthy titles
and naming educational institutions after himself – but basically to no
avail, as reflected by the humiliating rejection by the people of him
during this July 2013 election.
I’ve stated oftentimes that
Cambodia is a land of orphans – literal and emotional ones. We do have a
high rate of individuals who do not have a mother, father or both. But
even ones who do have a parent, the parent is not parenting, as they
themselves are adult infants unconsciously grieving the loss of any
parenting figure in their own lives.
Then came Sam Rainsy back
from four years of self-imposed exile. Here is a father figure orphaned
Cambodians could be proud of to have as their ideal father –
intelligent, courageous, dignified, non-violent, nationalist.
Sam
Rainsy returned on the heels of the passing of the King Father, who had
left a father-figure vacuum. He naturally, unconsciously filled this
vacuum in the psychology of needy Cambodians. 5. Tourism and urbanisation of garment workers from the provinces. The
exchange between Cambodians and tourists as well as between the
urbanised garment workers with their provincial relatives over the years
chipped away at the remote village-urban centre divide of information.
The 600,000-strong garment workers have acted as the powerful links
between the provinces and the urban centers. 6. Accumulation of human rights abuses. Cambodia
is a sea of human rights abuses. Everyone is impacted by at least one
abuse or another. The accumulation of these rights abuses found
expression, assisted by the other mentioned factors.
Moreover,
the pervasiveness and prevalence of land concessions resulting in
violent evictions touched directly most Cambodians, having had 73 per
cent of arable land leased to foreign companies by the end of 2012.
On
the one rights abuse of land issues alone, the impact was no longer one
of hearsay, but each Cambodian knows personally or of a family or close
friend who fell victim to the eviction. 7. The knowledge stored in the heart and mind now finds expression. The
other side of the coin of the accumulation of rights abuses is the
accumulation of rights knowledge learned and stored over the years in
the hearts and minds of the Cambodian people. The Cambodian people gave
expression to this accumulated knowledge in this July 2013 elections. 8. The admixture of the above. Each
above-mentioned factor has its own importance, but is limited in
pushing the point to tip. The tipping point occurs when these factors
come together.
We are now experiencing the Cambodia Spring
(preceded by discontent before flourishing) because of the admixture of
the above factors.
Theary C Seng is the founding president of CIVICUS, the Center for Cambodian Civic Education.
Since rising to fame in Celebrity Big
Brother seven years ago, Chantelle Houghton has flitted between being a
blonde and brunette. And after three years as a blonde, the glamour model has decided to become a brunette again. The single mother, 29, was spotted leaving a salon with hairdresser Shane O'Sullivan on Monday after having her hair dyed.
Going to the dark side: Chantelle Houghton shows off her new brunette locks as she leaves a hair salon on Monday
Time for a change: The 29-year-old had decided she didn't want to be a blonde (pictured right last week)
As well a change of colour, Chantelle also had new Easilocks hair extensions added to give her a long glossy mane. Despite
admitting she had gained a few pounds in recent months, Chantelle
clearly has retained her body confidence as she stepped out in a floral
mini dress. Meanwhile, Chantelle admitted this week that she needs to 'rein it in a bit' after feasting on her favourite foods.
Embracing her curves: Chantelle insisted she wasn't bothered by her new size 14 frame
The man responsible... Chantelle chats to her hairdresser Shane O'Sullivan
Difference: Chantelle was previously a brunette in 2010
The model was spotted visiting a
Nando's in Essex last week and admitted the chicken meal was just one of
many takeaways she enjoyed. She
wrote in her new! magazine column: 'I've been on diets all my life and
it's so boring. When I get a moment to myself, I just want to sit down
and have a treat. 'I'll
have to rein it in a bit though - the nice comments (about my weight)
have made me eat more. I've had a Chinese meal, an Indian takeaway and a
Nando's this week.' Earlier this month, Chantelle admitted she had gone up two dress sizes and blamed her weight gain on her love of takeaways. As
a single mother to Dolly, from her 17 month romance with ex-fiance Alex
Reid, Chantelle admits hitting the gym is the least of her priorities. She said: 'I went to buy a new dress last week and was shocked to discover I'd gone from a size 10 to a size 14. ''I think most Mums will agree that it's a struggle to keep in shape when you've got a baby.'
How does it feel? Chantelle touches her new hairdo
Where's Dolly? Although Chantelle's daughter was nowhere to be seen, the tot's pushchair was in the car boot
She has recently been seen frolicking in her bikini every chance she gets with new husband Roamin Zago.
But Joanna Krupa opted for a decidedly more elegant look for a television appearance on Tuesday.
The 34-year-old dazzled in a midnight blue gown while promoting the new season of Real Housewives Of Miami on NBC's New York Live in Manhattan.
Real life Barbie doll: Joanna Krupa dazzled in a
blue gown while promoting Real Housewives Of Miami at NBC's New York
Live on Tuesday
The reality star looked gorgeous in the frock, which she paired with strappy white heels.
The brightly hued material perfectly complemented her Miami girl tan, enhancing her glow.
Joanna
wore her blonde hair loose and straight over her shoulders and kept her
makeup natural, opting for icy pink lips and subtle brown eyeshadow.
Ethereal beauty: The 34-year-old looked elegant
in the asymmetrical frock, which she paired with strappy white heels and
a beige handbag
Keeping it fresh: Joanna wore her blonde hair
loose and straight over her shoulders and opted for icy pink lipstick
and subtle brown eyeshadow
Drama
continues: Joanna is seen getting married in the new season of the
popular reality show, but not without a few hitches along the way
Viewers will most likely get
to see her and nightclub owner Romain's June nuptials in the current
season, which premiered on Monday.
The couple exchanged vows in front of 150 guests at the exclusive Park Hyatt Aviara Resort in Carlsbad, California.
The model-turned-reality star's wedding gown featured a leg-baring high-low skirt with a train of cascading ruffles.
She's no shrinking violet: The
model-turned-reality star's wedding gown featured a leg-baring high-low
skirt with a train of cascading ruffles
Newlyweds: Joanna and husband Romain Zago
exchanged vows in front of 150 guests at the exclusive Park Hyatt Aviara
Resort in Carlsbad, California
In a preview for the new
season of the show, Joanna is seen discussing a pre-nup with Romain,
furiously suggesting he is already preparing for divorce.
The
new season will also feature her costar Adriana De Moura's wedding, and
both women slip into full bridezilla mode and argue over competing
guest lists, bridal parties and bachelorette festivities
Joanna
meanwhile has other things cooking in the fire including a new DVD
workout series with fitness expert Philip Gray due for release this
autumn.
Feels most at home: Joanna is often snapped wearing a skimpy bikini, pictured in Miami
These guys obviously aren't your average One Direction fans.
ViceWest
Coast editor Jamie Taete photographed bored and bewildered dads
reading, checking emails and even falling asleep in their seats at the
boy band's Staples Center show in Los Angeles.
The expressions on the older mens' faces ranged from blank stares to annoyance and total confusion,The Daily Beastreports.
Falling asleep: Vice photo editor Jamie Taete
took pictures of bewildered fathers at a recent One Direction concert in
Los Angeles
The chaperones looked especially out of
place next to the tween audience, who were getting worked up into a
hysterical frenzy over the boy band's performance. Heartthrobs
Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles, and Louis Tomlinson
rose to fame after competing on the UK reality competition show The X
Factor. Since then the band has sold more than 19 million singles and 10 million albums.
One Direction's fans are
famously devoted to the boy band. They declare Twitter fatwas against
those they perceive as having wronged their icons, and fill arenas
around the world to hear them perform. Many
of the dads were wearing earpieces, which makes sense as decibel levels
at a One Direction concert have reportedly gone as high as 122 –
considerably more than the maximum safe level of 85. ‘The capacity crowd’s screaming spiked to surreal volumes,' the Washington Post wrote after a recent show where the sound was measured. 'That's
louder than the roar at Verizon Center after a Caps goal, louder than a
heavy-metal concert, louder than an ambulance driving past a lawn mower
in a thunderstorm.’
Open book: This gentleman sat down to read among thousands of screaming fans
Out of place: It was easy to spot the parents who were wearing earpieces and checking work emails
Nodding off: This-tired looking man appears to be falling asleep during the show
Fanatical followers: One Direction's fans are incredibly devoted to the boy band
Opposition
leader Sam Rainsy returns from self-imposed exile to a crowd of an
estimated 100,000 CNRP supporters in Phnom Penh last month. VIREAK MAI
Cambodia’s tipping point
The Phnom Penh Post | Fri, 16 August 2013 | Theary Seng
Dear Editor,
Cambodia
is undergoing a phenomenon, the beginning of “Cambodia flourishing”, if
you will. Even amidst the high-tension political brinkmanship, Cambodia
has reached the tipping point, that is slowly but surely ushering in
the Cambodia Spring.
However, the season of spring flourishing must first be preceded by the season of discontent, the period we are in now.
[...]
2. Social media + smartphones + Khmer Unicode + rising English usage.
The
previous elections did not have a public venue where Cambodians,
particularly young people, could exchange information and be part of
something larger than themselves.
This public venue is closely
connected to the growing comfort level and increasing number of
Cambodians proficient in English, not only to be on Facebook, but also
to have access to a broader array of information (which are mainly in
English).
Even if English is the still the dominant language of
social media, the comfort level and increased quality of the Khmer
Unicode also facilitated the growing use of social media. As recently as
five years ago (the last national elections), Cambodians were mired in
the pictorial typing system symbolised by the Limon font.
Typing
Khmer was basically inhibited to drawing a letter in order to compose
each word. For anyone to access a Khmer-language document on the
internet meant that that document had been uploaded as a JPG or a PDF.
All
to say, as recently as five years ago, Cambodians could not search the
internet in the Khmer language, nor write posts or comments on Facebook
in the Khmer language, as the pictorial Limon typing system could not
facilitate such endeavours.
A few years ago, the posts and
comments on Facebook were written in broken English by the Facebook
users; now the majority of posts by Khmer users are in the Khmer
language.
The ease of language capability in both Khmer and
English is greatly inter-linked with smartphones, which allow for
instant, engaging sharing of images along with a narrative in the Khmer
Unicode with an exponential multiplying impact.
[...]
4. Father-figure vacuum. The
massive outpouring during the passing of King Father Sihanouk Norodom
took everyone by surprise, even if some of it was exaggerated high
emotions. It brought to consciousness of both Cambodians and the
Cambodia watchers of how much King Sihanouk’s rhetoric and treatment of
Cambodians over the years as his “children” have shaped our identity as
exactly that, oftentimes to our peril in stunting our social and
political developmental maturity.
Hun Sen tried excruciatingly
hard in filling that void by giving himself grandiose, lengthy titles
and naming educational institutions after himself – but basically to no
avail, as reflected by the humiliating rejection by the people of him
during this July 2013 election.
I’ve stated oftentimes that
Cambodia is a land of orphans – literal and emotional ones. We do have a
high rate of individuals who do not have a mother, father or both. But
even ones who do have a parent, the parent is not parenting, as they
themselves are adult infants unconsciously grieving the loss of any
parenting figure in their own lives.
Then came Sam Rainsy back
from four years of self-imposed exile. Here is a father figure orphaned
Cambodians could be proud of to have as their ideal father –
intelligent, courageous, dignified, non-violent, nationalist. Sam
Rainsy returned on the heels of the passing of the King Father, who had
left a father-figure vacuum. He naturally, unconsciously filled this
vacuum in the psychology of needy Cambodians.
[...]
Theary C Seng is the founding president of CIVICUS, the Center for Cambodian Civic Education.
[An edited version of
this Commentary was published in The Phnom Penh Post, 14 August 2013]
Theary C. Seng at her Phnom Penh home, 2013
Cambodia is
undergoing a phenomenon, the beginning of “Cambodia flourishing”, if you
will.
Even amidst the
current high-tension of political brinkmanship, Cambodia has reached the
tipping point that is slowly but surely ushering in the Cambodia Spring. However, the season of spring of flourishing
must first be preceded by the season of discontent, the period we are in now.
Recently, I
witnessed first-hand this season of flourishing when I rode in the back of the
pick-up truck carrying Sam Rainsy from the airport to Democracy Square upon his
return from exile on 19 July 2013, and again at Democracy Square the day he
left for the United States for his daughter’s wedding of 6 August 2013. On both occasions, crowds in the hundreds of
thousands openly, fearless convulsed onto the truck and stage demanding change. Their passion, palpably pulsating and
electrifying the Cambodia air, acts to diminish the prior existing fear.
This season of
discontent will be here to stay for some time, and will likely snowball into a
monsoonal downpour of discontents, until there is a complete change of
leadership. The people demand a surgical
reformation in the formation of a government led by CNRP Sam Rainsy, and not
band-aid changes the CPP will need to and has started to undergo in the
inserting of a newer crop of parliamentarian sons.
Here are the
factors and their admixture ushering in the Cambodia Spring.
1. The
Voters who have no direct experience of the Khmer Rouge
Three and one-half million
of the country's 9.5 million registered voters are between the ages of 18 and
30. Of these 3.5 million young
registered voters, 1.5 million or fifteen percent are first time voters.
What do these
numbers tell us?
One, these 3.5 million
registered voters below age 30 are not directly traumatized by the Khmer
Rouge. Moreover, many of them were children during the turbulent years of
the 1990s, with some only coming of age in the last election 5 years ago.
They, unlike their elders, have not accumulated the fear and trauma of having
lived through the Khmer Rouge and having witnessed election violence and
murders confronting the voters in living colors of prior elections.
I returned to Cambodia
in September 1995, less than two years after the United Nations-organized
elections. I joined the campaign trails of the Khmer Nation Party in
1998, when traveling to each province took an average of a day through yawning
gulfs of crater-sized potholes every few yards on the national roads and each
village is its own remote, isolated universe.
In 2002 I traveled the
provinces as an international consultant of the US-International Republican
Institute to train political party agents on the first commune elections, and
once again joined the campaign trails of the Sam Rainsy Party (SRP, formerly
the Khmer Nation Party, changed to keep the CPP from appropriating the name by
splitting the party) for this commune elections as well as the national
elections the following year in 2003. The roads were semi-improved but
each village was still its own remote, isolated universe.
Once again in 2007 and
2008, for the commune and national elections respectively, I joined SRP on the
campaign trails.
In between these
elections, I traveled the provinces for my work, first in 1997 to each
provincial prison to assess the state of juveniles detained there. And
since, I traveled each province on numerous occasions in my capacity as the
head of the NGO Center for Social Development known for its justice and
reconciliation forums, and most recently as the founding president of CIVICUS
Cambodia to conduct the Speak Truth To Power (or, in Khmer, Courage
Without Borders) curriculum for teachers, monks and other educational and
provincial leaders.
All to say, I have
witnessed first-hand the conditions across Cambodia through these eighteen
years and have paid acute attention (for personal and professional reasons) to
the voices and yearnings of the people in trying to understand for myself and
for my work these seemingly intractable problems in search of solutions.
And one of my strong
beliefs in light of what is happening now during this 2013 election season is
this: we are witnessing a new phenomenon – the blooming of a Cambodia
Spring, with angst of discontents as the inevitable precedent to the
flourishing which will inevitably follow.
The manifestation and timing of it could not have been perceived till it
is actually happening, as it is now.
BUT this phenomenon did
not happen out of the blue, magically; it grew organically and was nurtured
along the way.
It is part and parcel
of all the educational efforts and advocacy and challenging of the status quo
and the demanding of each dollar raised to the wage of workers and hotel staff,
of each improper land concession.
Then we are given the
tools of social media and Smart phones and Unicode and English, etc. to set it
off, fueled by the energy of the youth coming of age.
2.
Social Media + Smart-phones + Khmer Unicode + Rising English Usage
The previous elections
did not have a public venue where Cambodians, particularly young people, could
exchange information and be part of something larger than themselves.
This public venue is closely
connected to the growing comfort level and increasing number of Cambodians
proficient in English, not only to be on Facebook, but also to have access to a
broader array of information (which are mainly in English).
Even if English is the
still dominant language of social media, the comfort level and increase quality
of the Khmer Unicode also facilitated the growing use of Social Media.
As recent as five years
ago (the last national elections), Cambodians were mired in the pictorial
typing system symbolized by the Limon font.
Typing Khmer was basically inhibited to drawing a letter in order to
compose each word. For anyone to access
a Khmer language document on the internet meant that that document had been
uploaded as a JPG or a PDF.
All to say, as recent
as five years ago, Cambodians could not search the internet in the Khmer
language nor write posts or comments on Facebook in the Khmer language, as the
pictorial Limon typing system could not facilitate such endeavors.
A few years ago, the
posts and comments on Facebook were written in broken English by the Khmer Facebook
users; now the majority of posts by Khmer users are in the Khmer language.
The ease of language
capability in both Khmer and English is greatly inter-linked with Smart-phones
which allow for instant, engaging sharing of images along with a narrative in
the Khmer Unicode with an exponential multiplying impact.
We are right to worry
about the vulgar, violent, crude or empty content and posts on social media,
particularly on Facebook -- from soft to hard pornography, from foodstuff to
graphic traffic deaths of mangled bodies and bloodied, cracked skulls -- that
were initially sent en masse and continue to exist to a horrifying extent,
despite social media’s attempts to curb such vulgarity, violence and lewdness.
And the fear of
information overload is a real concern.
However, in a place
like Cambodia during this time, social media, as everyone has acknowledged, has
been a major factor in ushering the Cambodia Spring.
3. The
Arab Spring and other Mass Protests around the World
Freedom is an
innate aspiration, but also we are all copycats, particular us Cambodians. We witnessed the mass protests elsewhere
around the world and they capture our own imagination. It was only an issue of time; the July 2013
gave us the opportunity to usher in our own Cambodia Spring. 4. Father-figure Vacuum
The massive
outpouring of public grief during the passing of King Father Sihanouk Norodom
took everyone by surprise, even if some of it was exaggerated high
emotions. It brought to consciousness of
both Cambodians and the Cambodian watchers of how much King Sihanouk’s rhetoric
and treatment of Cambodians over the years as his “children” have shaped our
identity as exactly that, oftentimes to our peril in stunting our social and
political development and maturity.
Hun Sen tried
excruciatingly hard in filling that void by giving himself grandiose, lengthy
titles and naming educational institutions after himself – but basically to no
avail as reflected by the humiliating rejection by the people of him during the
July 2013 elections.
I’ve stated
oftentimes that Cambodia is a land of orphans – literal and emotional
ones. We do have a high rate of
individuals who do not have a mother, father or both. But even ones who do have a parent, the
parents are not parenting as they themselves are adult infants unconsciously
grieving the loss of any parenting figure in their own lives.
Then, came Sam
Rainsy back from four years of self-imposed exile. Here is a father figure orphaned Cambodians
could be proud of to have as their ideal father – intelligent, courageous,
dignified, non-violent, nationalistic.
Sam Rainsy returned on the heels of the passing of the King Father who
had left a father-figure vacuum. He
naturally, unconsciously filled this vacuum in the psychology of the needy
Cambodians.
5. Tourism
and Urbanization of Garment Workers from the Provinces
The exchange
between Cambodians and tourists as well as between the urbanized garment
workers with their provincial relatives over the years chipped away at the
remote village-urban center divide of information. The presence of tourists has raised the comfort
level of speaking freely and the 600,000-strong garment workers have acted as
the powerful links between the provinces and the urban centers.
6.
Accumulation of Human Rights Abuses
Cambodia is a sea of human rights abuses. Everyone is impacted by at least one abuse or
another. The accumulation of these
rights abuses finally found expression, assisted by the other mentioned
factors.
Moreover, the pervasiveness and prevalence of
land concessions resulting in violent evictions touched directly most Cambodians,
where 73 percent of arable land have been leased to foreign companies by the
end of 2012.
On the one rights abuse of land issue alone, the
impact was no longer one of hearsay, but each Cambodian knows personally or of
a family or close friend who fell victim to an eviction.
7. The
Knowledge stored in the Heart and Mind now Finds Expression
The other side of the coin of the accumulation of
rights abuses is the accumulation of rights knowledge learned and stored over
the years in the hearts and minds of the Cambodian people. The Cambodian people gave expression to this
accumulated knowledge in this July 2013 elections.
8. The
Admixture of the Above
Each above-mentioned factor has its own importance,
but is limited in pushing the point to tip.
The tipping point occurs when these factors come together. We are now experiencing the Cambodia Spring
(a season of discontents before flourishing) because of the admixture of the
above factors.
___________________________ Theary C. Seng Founding President
CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education
Phnom Penh, 13 August 2013
5:15 PM
Unknown
Drama
continues: Joanna is seen getting married in the new season of the
popular reality show, but not without a few hitches along the way 
