When the land is stolen from under your feet | Cambodia News | Khmer News

From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge regime massacred, starved to death or displaced millions of Cambodian families. Filmmaker Kalyanee Mam’s family was among those forced to leave their homes. Recently, Mam returned to the country her family fled. “What I found there shocked me to the core,” she told me.

Decades after the regime collapsed, thousands of Cambodian families are experiencing a new wave of displacement. By talking to locals on Slalau Island, Mam discovered that since 2007, the Cambodian government has granted concessions to several private companies to exploit the country’s coastal mangroves. Millions of tons of Cambodian sand are shipped to Singapore every year to expand the island nation’s landmass; Singapore has imported more than 80 million There are tons of sand so far. According to Mama, “People and all the creatures that depend on these forests for survival are being forced to cope with this huge loss.” In addition to displacing the people who lived and worked on the land, Cambodia has destroyed its only natural barrier against erosion, rising sea levels, tsunamis and hurricanes..

A young Cambodian islander, Phalla Vy works to monitor and speak out against sand dredging. Beautiful short film from Mom, lost worldco-produced by Emerging Magazine and Go to project moviesdepicts the pain of losing land and way of life through Vy’s eyes.

“I’ve never witnessed the land itself being uprooted and displaced before,” Mom said. She wanted to understand where all that sand was going, and how a country considered one of the richest in the world could destroy other people’s homes to build its own. “Being removed from your own land is enough,” Mom said. “Being dispossessed of your land is something else entirely.”

lost world Shots of Cambodia’s vast mangroves are juxtaposed with Singapore’s sand accumulations. At the end of the film, Vy visits Singapore for the first time and sees the people of Singapore building a brand new theme park on their own land and enjoying it. Her indignation is palpable.

“I saw firsthand what happens when the foundation of a community crumbles,” Mom said. “First the land gave way; then the people; and soon the entire fabric of a culture and identity disappeared.”

After Mama and Wei visited Singapore, the filmmakers were struck by the irony of the situation: Singapore’s commitment to becoming one of the greenest cities in the world had led the country to commit what Mama calls “ecological genocide.”

“Many Singaporeans don’t realize this,” Mom said, “just like many Americans don’t know the land we stand on, how much blood has been shed on this land, and how many lives have been taken for our success. .to here.”