Intercultural Experience in Ang Kor Wat

During the holiday in July, I went to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand for a 2-weeks trip. As part of the trip, I visited Ang Kor Wat (Siem Reap, Cambodia). As it is one of the world’s Seven Wonders, there were many tourists and, of course, many Cambodians who were trying to make a living. There were many little Cambodian kids who were trying to sell their handmade jewelleries and tourist guidebooks to the tourists. Over there, I met a very interesting little girl.

While my friend and I were resting at a drink stall, this little Cambodian girl approached us with a small pile of tourist guidebooks. She suggested us to buy a few guidebooks about Cambodia and Ang Kor Wat. (She could speak quite fluent English. In fact, the Cambodian kids that we had encountered were very capable and some could even speak a few languages so as to communicate with tourists of different nationalities.) However, we already had a guidebook (lonely planet!). My friend showed our book to her to indicate that we need not buy from her. She did not give up, and went on promoting other guidebooks to us. We insisted that we did not wish to buy and she started to question us. The little girl said demandingly, “Do you know the capital of Madagascar? If you don’t know, you must buy from me.” My friend replied, “Sorry, but we don’t need the books. We already have one.” The little girl showed anger and frustration, and said haughtily, “So you don’t know!” And, she stumped off. The truth was we really did not know the capital of Madagascar (Antananarivo, found using Google.), and we did not wish to buy any guidebooks in the first place.

It is a very common cultural norm for the children in Cambodia to sell things to tourists in order to make a living. I believe most of them are instructed to do so by the adults in their families as I had seen a mother pushing her child forward to speak to the tourist and promote the things that the child was carrying in her basket. This is their means of survival, and maybe also a form of burden on them.

However, I was kind of shocked when the little girl, that I met, reacted in the way that she had. I would not consider the above scenario as a conflict since my friend and I did not feel any displeasure. I felt that communication-wise, it was the best that we could have dealt it with. Observing the little girl showed her anger and frustration, I could guess that she was very anxious to get the business; either because she needed to account to her family or she had not managed to get any deal for a long period of time. It was a situation that, most likely, would not happen to any child in Singapore. In comparison, children in Singapore are fortunate enough to be able to live life without worrying about the money needed to survive. It is a fact that we should be appreciative of but I feel it is also a fact that many people take for granted. This could possibly be one of the greatest differences between the two cultures.

Is our Earth DYING?

Background Information

In this warm island of Singapore, many people have the habit of having the air-conditioners in their homes switched on for the whole day. However, they might not have realised that they are actually making the Earth even warmer as it is a vicious cycle. Waste of energy consumes more fossil fuels and leads to an increase of carbon dioxide emission which eventually enhances greenhouse effect and increases the temperature of the Earth.

Global climate change has become one of the most popular among the many environmental topics in recent years. It has even won the film “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore the award of Oscar’s best documentary film.

To account for the global climate change, there are quite a few indirect and observational evidences. Using the Antarctic ice core data, it reflects temperature condition through inclusion of air bubble in the ice when it is formed. The current data shows that the earth is now most likely in the interglacial warm period which happen about once every 100 000 years. The temperature trend for the last millennium and century shows that the current climate is probably the warmest that it has been for at least 1 000 years and temperature has been increasing in an accelerating rate respectively. Other indicators of climate change include the rise of sea level by about 200 mm since 1880 and the decrease in Artic sea ice by 2.7% per decade.

The reasons behind climate change can be based on both natural and man-made phenomena. Several suggested natural causes of climate change include the influence of plate tectonics, orbital variability, solar variability and the change in composition of the atmosphere. However the main cause of most of the warming in the past 50 years is highly attributable to human major activities, such as industrialization and deforestation, which greatly increase atmospheric carbon dioxide and enhance greenhouse effect.

Identification of Problem
The current warming of the globe is unusual as it has been shown that Earth’s major systems are changing more rapidly than at any time in the last half million years at least. Furthermore, if warming continues unabated, the resulting climate change within this century would be unusual in geological terms. Thus this topic should be of a major concern to all Earthlings. In Singapore, people still enjoy having air-conditioners switched on, travelling in private cars, consuming huge amount of paper and plastic. Are they aware that they are contributing to the problem of global warming?

Research Questions
Are students in local universities aware of the problem of global warming and how do they respond to it? Will it be effective to inculcate the values of saving the Earth in their everyday lives?

Problem Statement
The objectives of this study are to investigate the awareness of students in local universities toward the problem of global warming and what are their views and actions to it, and explore the effectiveness of inculcating the values of saving the Earth in their everyday lives?

Purpose Statement
The objectives of this report are to inform the relevant authorities (National Environment Agency and Singapore Environment Council) of the awareness of the problem of global warming among people and their responses to it, and the likely effectiveness of inculcating the values of saving the Earth in their everyday lives.

Reasons for conducting a survey
Through the survey, people's awareness and response to global warming can be observed. It will also find out how many people are willing to contribute to saving the Earth in their everyday lives, if a proper guideline is set out. Gaining these information will allow the authorities to take relevant actions towards climate change.

Edited on 7 September 2008.