Gym membership gets a lift
Two or three times per week Hong Chandara finds the time to unwind from work, family and social responsibilities by exercising at his gym. Meanwhile, entrepreneurs see potential in the fitness service sector, as gyms gain popularity in Cambodia. Meas Sok Dany, owner of the href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/gym-membership-gets-a-lift/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013052965900/Business/gym-membership-gets-a-lift.html
Playing with a bad hand
It’s been more than a year since union leader Sat Sep was fired from the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Poipet town, a dismissal that sparked strikes and ended in senior members of the Cambodian Tourism and Service Workers Federation being driven from the casino’s href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/playing-with-a-bad-hand/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013070166584/National/playing-with-a-bad-hand.html
Mfone workers paid, a little
After months of protests, more than 1,000 former Mfone employees yesterday received just 10 per cent of the $4.4 million they were demanding in compensation after the telecom company filed for bankruptcy in January. Court-appointed administrator Ouk Ry, entrusted with the sale of Mfone’s assets, href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/mfone-workers-paid-a-little/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/mfone-workers-paid-little
Fish tale: A million released
A million fish formed the front line of the conservation fight yesterday, when Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries officials released them in Kampong Thom provincial waters, celebrating the launching of a national aquaculture institute. Yesterday’s celebration of National Fish Day in Baray district marks the official start href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/fish-tale-a-million-released/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/2013070266609/National/fish-tale-a-million-released.html
Blueprint for a reformed NEC
In the week before the National Election Committee was formed in December 1997, Chheng Phon predicted he had a tough road ahead. “If you ask me personally, I must say I do not want this job,” the inaugural boss told the Post from the banks of a canal href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/blueprint-for-a-reformed-nec/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
Shane Worrell and Khouth Sophak Chakrya
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/blueprint-reformed-nec
Alcohol a concern, say children
Though a bit young to be socio-political analysts, Cambodia’s children are major believers in the social value of education, are wary of the negative side effects of alcohol on their communities and place a high priority on honest government, a study released yesterday says. According href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/alcohol-a-concern-say-children/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
Stuart White
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/alcohol-concern-say-children
Canadia park, a ghost town
On most Sundays, the wide boulevard separating two rows of some 40 mustard-coloured factories in the Canadia Industrial Park is teeming with people. Garment workers who live on the premises stroll or bicycle along the road, stopping to eat at the same restaurants, patronizing the same href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/canadia-park-a-ghost-town/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
Joe Freeman and Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/canadia-park-ghost-town
Battling dengue on a shoestring
The man leading Cambodia’s seemingly Sisyphean attempt to combat dengue fever can be found most days in a weakly lit office inside the Communicable Disease Control Department, which is stacked wall to wall with drooping folders and medical texts. For more than 10 years, the soft-spoken href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/battling-dengue-on-a-shoestring/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
Amelia Woodside and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/battling-dengue-shoestring
A confronting force on streets
As protests against land grabbing have increased in Phnom Penh in the past five years, so too have violent crackdowns by the authorities. Police have been criticised for their treatment of protesters – which has included beatings with electric batons and kicks to the stomach of href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/a-confronting-force-on-streets/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
Shane Worrell and Chhay Channyda
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/confronting-force-streets
Memories of a land unspoiled
The constant hum of chainsaws almost drowned out Buddhist monk Sam Kim Sath, 65, as he stood this week in a wildlife sanctuary on Oral Mountain, Cambodia’s highest peak. Forest in the Phnom Oral Wildlife Sanctuary, in the eastern part of the Cardamoms, is being “obliterated” href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/memories-of-a-land-unspoiled/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/memories-land-unspoiled
‘Like animals in a cage’
A day after union leader Vorn Pov was violently arrested during garment strikes in early January, he was driven to an unknown location and told by armed officers to get out of the vehicle. The union leader said his group of co-accused share a cell href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/like-animals-in-a-cage/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/%E2%80%98-animals-cage%E2%80%99
Embracing a place called home
Before this past September, Nov Borom, a 52-year-old mother of five, lived with both a tenuous housing situation and HIV. But through a collaboration of several NGOs who sought to provide Cambodia’s most vulnerable people with housing able to withstand the region’s rainy season and floods, href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/embracing-a-place-called-home/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
Sean Teehan and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/embracing-place-called-home
Life as a brokered wife
Barely able to make enough money to survive in her hometown, Sok Chenda* picked up her passport and a few belongings last year and headed to the provincial capital of Kampong Cham. It was a journey she would regret. The eldest daughter among five siblings, Chenda, 28, href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/life-as-a-brokered-wife/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/life-brokered-wife
Agriculture insurance a hard sell
About a year after offering the country’s sole agriculture policy, Forte Insurance is struggling to sell coverage. “We still need time to get farmers to understand the benefits of agricultural insurance,” said Youk Chamroenrith, director and general manager of Forte. “We have four clients signed up href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/agriculture-insurance-a-hard-sell/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
Chan Muy Hong
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/agriculture-insurance-hard-sell
A logging free-for-all
The scale of mass logging in once-dense woodlands in Cambodia’s north now more closely resembles the free-for-all of a gold rush than the sustainable forestry more often associated with these communities. With the financial backing of powerful businessmen, villagers in three districts of Preah Vihear are href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/a-logging-free-for-all/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/logging-free-all
A factory or family dilemma
Being placed on consecutive short-term contracts in Cambodia’s predominantly female-staffed garment sector is forcing many women to choose between a family and a factory job, unionists and rights groups said yesterday. Ken Chenglang, acting president of the National Independent Federation Textile Union of Cambodia, said many href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/a-factory-or-family-dilemma/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
Amelia Woodside and Mom Kunthear
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/factory-or-family-dilemma
Living on a dwindling trade
In Samrong Leu village, a picturesque community nestled deep in the verdant fields of Kors Kralor district, the acrid smell of smoke fills the air. Outside almost every house in this community, billows of smoke continuously emerge from the domes of homemade mud kilns, drifting around href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/living-on-a-dwindling-trade/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
Kevin Ponniah and Phak Seangly
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/living-dwindling-trade
Wedding business a winning proposal
It’s no secret. Weddings in Cambodia are big, colourful and extravagant affairs. Guests drink and eat to their heart’s content, music draws revellers onto the dance floor and the party lasts for hours. But guests aren’t the only people having fun. Rising affluence paired with a href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/wedding-business-a-winning-proposal/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
Hor Kimsay
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/business/wedding-business-winning-proposal
Not going without a fight
Teng Khorn’s living room is under a tree, his bedroom in a boat hauled up on a slipway for caulking beside the mangroves that lead to his source of income: the sea. His choice of abode is also his act of defiance against the monolithic Chinese href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/not-going-without-a-fight/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
May Titthara and David Boyle
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/not-going-without-fight
A ride worth the weight
North of the Sesan River, in protected forests that stretch to the border with Laos and Vietnam, illegal timber traders describe a network of bribery that leaves them counting their riels, despite the multimillion-dollar nature of the industry. In contrast to the large flat-bed trucks owned href='https://opendevelopmentcambodia.net/news/a-ride-worth-the-weight/ ' class='cambodia-color'>...
May Titthara
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ride-worth-weight