Feeding all the children in Cambodia

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Yesterday, I had to meet with the partner in Kampong Cham which was a really beautiful town along the Mekong River. All the French colonial architecture, wide boulevards, and pleasantly calm streets somehow free of the millions of mopeds that every other city seems to have. The drive there was out of some National Geographic show with water buffalo and cows working the fields, farmers hunched over rice paddies, and low flat lands of rice paddies extending onto the horizon with only a few palm trees to dot the landscape. But after the meetings, I went to visit two of the schools and it was just the often repeated scene of development tourism.

All the Cambodian school children came running into the school yard when the big car with the foreign guy pulled up. So of course, it caused a big stir. The poor man who ran the school came out to greet us and timidly showed us where they cook the school breakfast and keep the food. They always have this worried look on their face because they know that they are being judged by someone infinitely richer than they. And then they shook my hand to say goodbye and said Thank You. I felt so ashamed and embarassed, as if I was just another in a long line of foreigners who came to see their poverty and how well they manage the American-grown food given to them. And who would never eat the same food. And who will fly home on a big airplane, drinking wine through the sky. And having done very little all the while.

Essentially, the US Department of Agriculture gives away huge quantities of food to these countries after passing some very loose analysis to ensure that it is not disrupting locally-grown food supplies and markets. This agriculture is bought up by the Department in order to keep prices high for American farmers-and which has the effect of keeping out foreign foods from US markets. Essentially, 3rd World economies are not stimulated by what would be a huge market for them and in return, their children get a few rations and breakfast cereals. And when the "program" ends, stomachs get hungry again. All the while, we in development work crazy hours to design these projects, but once the food is on a ship and sent on its way, the USDA really doesn't care that much. It's already done its work.

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Comments

[Dara]

Kampong Cham
Thanks for visiting Kampong Cham and Cambodia!