Playing Catch-up

Well, I think I must have been busy because I haven't posted anything for a couple of days. On Sunday I started out taking a walk down the road. I was supposed to meet someone for lunch and wanted to know if it was in walking distance. In any other climate it would not have been a problem, but noon in Phnom Penh is pretty hot. On the way I was stopped by at least two tuk-tuk drivers with the proverbial "Tuk-tuk madame?" call from the street. Struck up a brief conversation with one of the drivers. He was an English student and quite articulate, but I didn't really want a ride. At 9:00 on a Sunday morning there was a great deal of hustle and bustle going on already. The fruit stands were set up, as well as various stands outside of the back of the park leading to the Palace. The road I was walking on runs along the riverfront and is popular with tourists. Walked past the Foreign Correspondents Club made famous in the movie "The Killing Fields" but I had been there last August so had no driving need to go back on this trip. Stores and most businesses here open about 8:00 or 8:30 in the morning - nobody can truly handle the heat. By the time I had found the eatery and dragged myself back to the hotel I had decided the tuk-tuk would be the means of transportation for lunch.

My lunch companion was a student at a university in the States, and a truly delightful young man to talk to. Strangely(!) the conversation turned to development and libraries. The city of Phnom Penh was designed during the French colonial period. The plan envisioned a population of 50,000. Today's population was well over 1 million in 2003 according to the UN estimates. No wonder it floods when it rains and garbage is occasionally strewn about. The traffic reflects the huge growth in population as well. More and more cars are taking to the road, but there are still other means of transport that predominate including cyclos, motos, and tuk-tuks. Last year someone described traffic as a river flowing in a couple of different directions. One part of the stream flows along until it hits a rock and then flows around it. No one seems too concerned about getting quickly from point to point and there are more examples of extreme patience than road rage. Another item of note is that emergency vehicles don't get the same kind of right-of-way you see in the States. The roads are too packed to pull over to the side.

The discussion about libraries included observations about the importance of information in economic and political development. Very few libraries exist and most of the do not have the types of electronic access we enjoy in the States. It would be nice if the same kinds of deals that are available in other developing parts of the world for electronic, full-text databases were available here. Good, a new project for when I get back home!