"Cambodia used to be beautiful"

"Cambodia used to be beautiful. It used to be a nice place to live. But not anymore."

These words, uttered by my language tutor, Sovanakh, during the middle of our language lesson today, stuck me as quite stark. I decided to probe more and ask him exactly what he meant. This is what he said:

"Cambodia is changing and losing what makes it different from other countries. The people here have become so used to seeing western clothing and western behaviour that they now think this is the way they have to be too. Everyone owns a TV and many people now watch Cable TV, where they can find out all about life in America and other places."

"Globalisation is making Cambodia more like the rest of the world and less like Cambodia. Look around the city and you will see young people dressing differently and acting differently to their parents and grandparents. This is not all bad, but they no longer know what is Cambodian and what is not Cambodian. This means that they are forgetting the things that are Cambodian."

"It is not just Globalisation that has done this. The UN and the other NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) have brought with them their culture, their dress, their lifestyles. When other people see them here in Cambodia, they want to be like them because they think these people are wealthy and happy with their lives. We have adopted their clothes, their cars, their food, their legal systems, their economic systems. What is there left?"

"The NGOs will even give out clothing to rural Cambodians and people from the tribes, without realising that they are killing their culture. Soon there will be no tribe culture left, because they will be wearing clothes just like the foreigners wear."

"Not all of this development is bad, but it is happening so fast sometimes it's hard to know what is good and what is bad. In the future, I think Cambodia will look more like America or Europe and less like Cambodia."

Sovankakh's verbal outburst left me with many unanswered questions. Someone recently told me that before 1975, (when the Khmer Rouge took over and tried to undo all modern development) Cambodia was actually more 'developed' and more 'modern' in many ways than its neighbours. Now it seems that it has fallen behind in essential areas such as education, healthcare, sanitation and public freedoms but raced ahead in adopting western culture, customs and lifestyles.

The challenge of retaining a distinct national identity while moving forward in a fast-changing world is not unique to Cambodia. But as this country tries to play 'catch up' after years of civil war, the question of what makes Cambodia actually Cambodian has never seemed more urgent.