Cambodia Tomboy Party

Tonight I joined Cambodia Tomboy Party for their 1 year anniversary of creating their Facebook page.

Beautiful MC

PIKACY Band

To me, this is my leisure. My weekend activities. It's not about party, but it's about work. I and my short film crew (SFG) are going to shoot a short film about LGBT's rights in Cambodia. The purpose of these activities are to observe and learn about them. Of course, we are going to interview them as well. We want to make a film that really mean something for them. Of course, to do this I need to apply HCD to my work. We can't be success without knowing who/what they are or their needs. We decide to do a research and interview LGBT during our pre-production.

Here are some pictures I took this evening. It was such a fun party. One thing I recognize was that they made me felt like they are not women at all. Less femininity, transformation, fashion and style, make me forget about the origin of sex even though now they are still women.

Friendly Cafe

These party ends well with not many participants, but YES, it was fun. one sixth of the ticket fee will be given to Kontheak Bopha Hospital. They did it for something useful for our society. I would really like to learn more about them. Anyway, I still have more work to do with GBT. More desk research, design principles and guidelines need to be made. Hence, I'm learning about HCD with real life experience. I'm going to meet key people and experts about this as well.

To read about HCD spend less time and effort. To make what I read happen, really require a lot of works. So I'm doing what I love and what I need simultaneously. :D 

Cambodian Transgenders Face Risks

Faced with discrimination and a lack of resources, the Kingdom’s transgender community are taking matters into their own hands – often at great risk http://t.co/zlot5noKIQ

One of the other major problems affecting the community, local LGBT activists say, is the lack of access to information about how to safely transition to another gender. In many developed countries, transgender men and women are able to access medical professionals who can advise them about which hormones to take to minimize health risks, or else opt for surgery. But in the Kingdom a combination of discrimination and lack of surgical options means that transgender people have little choice but to resort to dosing themselves with over-the-counter birth control pills. Little research has been done into the long-term side effects of the misuse of birth control and other hormone pills on transgender women. Some of them practice breast binding that could lead to cysts. Other options that are currently unavailable is mastectomy that Cambodian doctors are able to do it, but it falls outside societal norms. 

Cambodia, where transgender women are relegated to the beauty and entertainment – including sex work – sectors and transgender men are relatively invisible, transgender people in Thailand work in many different industries.

European diplomats concerned by arrests

European diplomats called on Interior Minister Sar Kheng yesterday to express their concerns about the recent spate of activists' arrests, with the minister reportedly saying that he believed a one-year sentence speedily handed down to seven Boeung Kak lake protesters last week was rather “heavy”.

EU Ambassador Jean-François Cautain said that he and representatives of six European nations “raised our concerns to [Deputy Prime Minister] Sar Kheng on the slow pace of the negotiations on the electoral reform and the recent wave of arrests”.

Regarding the arrests, Cautain said that the ambassadors told Kheng they “shared the view” of UN rights envoy Surya Subedi, who on Tuesday said the courts were being used as “a tool of the executive”.

Interior Ministry Secretary of State Prum Sokha said Kheng told the diplomats that the arrests had “no link” to ongoing election reform negotiations and that separate cases involving land activists, monks and opposition officials “were not systematic or linked up to each other".

“To him, he thinks that it’s a little bit heavy for that case of the ladies that [were arrested].… He said the suspects should go ahead with the Appeal Court.”

Popular Business in Phnom Penh

Since Facebook has been widely used in Phnom Penh, many businesses has been increased according to the customers' interests which is mostly something that they can be shown off to their friends on Facebook and other social networks. Of course, social network does a great part in these changes in businesses now a day. 

Just because most businesses activities occurred in Phnom Penh, I wouldn't raise up examples from every provinces in Cambodia. Modern Phnom Penh people, which are mostly comes from medium income family, would love to go to places that they can meet their friends, chat, taking photos, and talking about businesses. Here is a list of common places that people would love to go to. 

1. Cafe and tea place: Brown Cafe, Artease, Gloria Jeans, Mo Mo, នស២រ, KOI, Gong Cha, Chatime, Sharetea, etc.
2. Western Fast food: Pizza and Burger places blah blah blah :)
3. Modern Cinema: Legend Cinema TK Avenue, Legend Cinema City mall, Major Cineplex, Platinum Cineplex. 
4. Shopping Mall: AEON mall, Sorya mall, Lucky supermarket, City Mall, Sovanna Shopping Center, etc. 
5. Online Shopping: this kind of business is now growing at a fast pace since people could just check something they want or need to buy online and purchase the items via phone, using their credit card or go to the shop to see the items by their own eyes. 
6. Cosmetic Shop
7. Phone shop
8. etc...

So these are some places that most people in Phnom Penh would love to go or visit during their free times or for business talk. Beside these money-to-pay places, some would prefer public places like riverside, Koh Pich, or some parks, etc. Anyway, without noticing, other big businesses are growing everyday in Phnom Penh. Though Cambodia is surely not ready for ASEAN [after economic integration], we are sure to see more businesses come to Cambodia this very soon. 

Popular Business in Phnom Penh

Since Facebook has been widely used in Phnom Penh, many businesses has been increased according to the customers' interests which is mostly something that they can be shown off to their friends on Facebook and other social networks. Of course, social network does a great part in these changes in businesses nowadays. 

Just because most businesses activities occurred in Phnom Penh, I wouldn't raise up examples from every provinces in Cambodia. Modern Phnom Penh people, which are mostly comes from medium income family, would love to go to places that they can meet their friends, chat, taking photos, and talking about businesses. Here is a list of common places that people would love to go to. 

1. Cafe and tea place: Brown Cafe, Artease, Gloria Jeans, Mo Mo, នស២រ, KOI, Gong Cha, Chatime, Sharetea, etc.
2. Western Fast food: Pizza and Burger places blah blah blah :)
3. Modern Cinema: Legend Cinema TK Avenue, Legend Cinema City mall, Major Cineplex, Platinum Cineplex. 
4. Shopping Mall: AEON mall, Sorya mall, Lucky supermarket, City Mall, Sovanna Shopping Center, etc. 
5. Online Shopping: this kind of business is now growing at a fast pace since people could just check something they want or need to buy online and purchase the items via phone, using their credit card or go to the shop to see the items by their own eyes. 
6. Cosmetic Shop
7. Phone shop
8. etc...

So these are some places that most people in Phnom Penh would love to go or visit during their free times or for business talk. Beside these money-to-pay places, some would prefer public places like riverside, Koh Pich, or some parks, etc. Anyway, without noticing, other big businesses are growing everyday in Phnom Penh. Though Cambodia is surely not ready for ASEAN [after economic integration], we are sure to see more businesses come to Cambodia this very soon. 

Phnom Penh Water Festival 2014

Khmer Water Festival is traditionally celebrated to remind all Cambodians about her splendid land that is greatly affected by Mekong River, the source of all life forms and hope of Cambodian. After 3 long years without this tradition, this year we had it. Anyway, many reasons are the barriers for many Cambodians come to celebrate it in Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia. 

The nation's politic instability and flood might not be the main reason for this but the accident that happened in November 22, 2010 caused 347 deaths and 755 injured. Followed by the death of former King Norodom Sihanouk in October 15, 2012. In 2007, an estimate four millions people came to visit Phnom Penh to watch 440 boats compete in the annual water festival. Unlike this year, only about one million people came to visit Phnom Penh on Water festival and the boat were less than any other years. 

Phnom Penh Water Festival 2014

Khmer Water Festival is traditionally celebrated to remind all Cambodians about her splendid land that is greatly affected by Mekong River, the source of all life forms and hope of Cambodian. After 3 long years without this tradition, this year we had it. Anyway, many reasons are the barriers for many Cambodians come to celebrate it in Phnom Penh, capital city of Cambodia. 

The nation's politic instability and flood might not be the main reason for this but the accident that happened in November 22, 2010 caused 347 deaths and 755 injured. Followed by the death of former King Norodom Sihanouk in October 15, 2012. In 2007, an estimate four millions people came to visit Phnom Penh to watch 440 boats compete in the annual water festival. Unlike this year, only about one million people came to visit Phnom Penh on Water festival and the boat were less than any other years.