WINTER'S JOURNEY 5

PART V: EPILOGUE – WHERE TO GO FROM HERE?

When the modern Europeans first came on the global scene about six hundred years ago, they were looking for goods and money. They searched for sources to provide them with seemingly inexhaustible supplies that would enrich their lives at home in ways that were taken to be progressive and desirable. Over the course of a few centuries, what the Europeans (bear with me, the Europeans are not the only ones this is applicable to, but they are convenient for the time being) realized was that the people living in the places they came to often made trade difficult, imposing their own demands that the Europeans did not want to meet. And so, because they possessed superior military technology, the Europeans found it more efficient to invade, destroy the will to resist, and set up their own governments and administrations that would make the rivers of commerce flow more freely. Naturally there was opposition but just as naturally, the Europeans, armed with not only weapons but also a firm belief that they were God’s gift to all mankind, steamrolled over it. Exploration turned into Conquest turned into Colonization. Of course the different varieties of colonies had vastly different destinies. The earliest ones, of the Spanish and British, gradually won their independence and could once again start on their own independent journeys toward the catchphrase that has defined the last five hundred years, modernity. But the others, the ones that came later, during the Age of Imperialism, when the might of the Europeans was at its height, faced a grimly different fate, which continues to this very day. In that time, as well as now, the Europeans had their justifications and perhaps some misgivings, but the course of history was laid down. What has happened cannot be changed, but it can be understood. And if it is understood, the chances of modernity becoming truly global may become a reality.

The French, facing stiff competition from the British, the Spanish, the Dutch, and Portuguese, and eventually the Germans, sought their own overseas empire. Not as vast as the British, but still remarkably big, it gradually came to span the world, from large territories in Canada, to islands in the Caribbean, to several African holdings, all the way across Asia to considerable territories in the South east. Almost in their entirety, the modern day nations of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam once formed the vast bulk of French Indochina, which for over one hundred years served as a formidable French presence in Asia. Along with their neighbors in Europe, the French took it as their inalienable right to colonize, or in their contemporary lexicon, modernize the “heathens,” to bring them in line with God’s plan for humanity. And in the process, why not strengthen the glory of France. So they all thought and so they all exploited, importing their own infrastructure and relying on a cheap work force in order to export almost all the fruits of its labor.

When, in the beginning of the last century, the competition between the Europeans reached a breaking point and, combined with numerous other factors, tore the continent and to some degree the world, apart with two wars of an unprecedented scale, enough people woke up to the reality of what they had done to realize major changes had to be made. It took literally millions of deaths for the dominant nations to begin to reshape the dynamics of international relations, to institute a body committed to a peaceful resolution of conflict, and to finally pave the way for the liberation of enslav….ahem colonized people. The post-World War II decolonization movements brought an alleged freedom to millions of people who had, at times for centuries, toiled under the flags of their European overlords. On paper, in theory, it was a beautiful moment in human history. Indeed, at times even the reality reflected this joy. But on the whole, the situation on the ground was far more grim.

After a capitulation to Hitler in the early months of World War II but holding on to eventually be on the victorious side, for a while, the French were determined to retain their colonies. As the world shook with liberation movements, French armies were deployed to numerous parts of the world to maintain the country’s foothold. Not surprisingly, Indochina was a primary spot. All the way until 1954 the French struggled against the tidal wave of freedom, and although supported by the U.S., they finally gave up and went home. For a moment, it seemed as if a great victory had been achieved, as if the tables were finally turning and the playing field was once again headed toward equality. But that, as history shows, was far from the truth. For the French departure left a huge void in a place that had for many years functioned under the rules and logic of colonization. Suddenly left on their own, the peoples of Indochina found themselves roughly like schoolchildren whose idyllic dreams of headmasters and teachers disappearing had come true. For all the evils that colonization carried with it, it also ensured a degree of stability and certainty, both elements which disappeared after decolonization. Who would rule? What kind of government would it be? How would the people be organized?

All were questions requiring answers and, at the time, there were two predominant schools, which, incidentally, were at the center of another great war of the 20th century, the Cold War.

All the nations of Indochina had sizable Communist parties and although they varied significantly in name, ideology, and structure, to a nation such as the United States, they were simplistically seen as members of the enemy camp. Waging a global campaign against the Red Terror, the U.S. gradually escalated its activities in Southeast Asia, eventually fighting and, according to many, losing the Vietnam War. Cambodia, too, like its neighbors, sought alternatives. From the bounds of colonization, it entered the throes of civil war. It continued almost unabated for many years and when fighting from next-door Vietnam spilled over to Cambodia, the situation became especially tense. Fight long enough and any spirit is broken. And in Cambodia, the people’s spirit was so damaged that it created an opportunity for a radical monster to emerge. When the U.S. left Vietnam in 1975, taking with it many promised hopes and dreams, it left behind a nation in tatters, a region ripe for extremist takeover. And in Cambodia, whose destiny was also intertwined with that of Vietnam, 1975 saw the victory of the Khmer Rouge and the beginning of the dictatorship of one Pol Pot.

Envisioning a glorious Cambodia, populated by pure-blooded ethnic Khmers living and working together in a national commune, Pot Pot instituted one of the most brutal collectivization and cleansing programs known to history. In the four years of his rule, fully one sixth of the country’s entire population vanished, annihilated in pursuit of a terrible vision, born out of years and years of servitude. The killing fields, which can be seen today outside of Phnom Penh, were awash with the blood of millions of innocents who happened to fall victim to a deranged mind bent on a full and complete make over of society. Who was Pol Pot? Where did he come from and what drove him and many under him to do what he did? And why did Cambodia have to suffer so?

During my time there, the Khmer Rouge genocide was always in the back of my mind. I was looking for signs of it, for manifestations of its memory in the everyday life of the people. I am surprised to say they did not stand out. Of course they were there. The killing fields are a main tourist attraction. At many temples, there were groups of men and women, maimed by land mines, playing musical instruments and trying to raise money for their cause. In many places still, the skull and bones signs marking land mine areas are ubiquitous, as these bombs were essential methods in almost forty continuous years of civil war. All the vendors trying to sell something offered bootleg copies of the Killing Fields movie and innumerable biographies, non-fiction accounts, and academic portrayals of what happened on that soil. And the general state of the country, still in poverty, still struggling to come to terms with its destiny. On more than one occasion I was overwhelmed with sadness, unable to wrap my mind around the grief that had once transpired here. I talked with Chenda about it, but he said he was just a small child then and, as he grew older, people did not talk about it. It was a grim dark memory that people wished would just go away. It all gave birth to a question, which stuck with me through out. A simple question, but carrying an immense complexity of an answer, WHY?

Well… I can spend a little while here, but I will not. I think people need to answer this question on their own. In us human beings, several interesting traits are combined. We are, by nature, insatiable. We are driven by desire, which in harsher language translates into greed. At the same time, I believe all of us have some sort of instinct to do good, however one chooses to define that. And so, from this clash between the need to satisfy our urges whatever they may be and the innate want to benefit humanity in some way, individual behavior can be modeled. Take that and multiply it by some billions and you have history. Depending on your basic world view, it is a dark, murky thing saturated mostly by incomprehensible events that are a true challenge for the mind to come to grips with. Or it is a beautiful story of humanity on a journey somewhere, toward a future in which our utopian fantasies may come true. Most likely, it is somewhere in between. But whatever it is, it cannot be ignored. The foundations of where we are today were laid in the past. Everything, and I mean everything that we see, experience, hear, and live through, is the way it is because of the past, because of our history. Trends, beliefs, superstitions, truths, lies, facts, fancies – all are but mere reflections. If we do not know our past we do not know who we are and if we do not know that, then life can hardly be lived with a purpose.

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In Cambodia, I met some wonderful people. I saw more smiles than in the supposed Land of Smiles. I sensed a joy of life that, despite the national history, demonstrated the resolve of the Cambodians to make the most of it. I am grateful for this trip. It opened my eyes, in some ways even sealed my fate. I have been on a journey for a long time, but before now, it had no clear goal in sight. I only hope all of us can someday experience such wonder…