Cambodia Sugar Cane Conflict Over Trade and Land
In Cambodia sugar cane fields are becoming an issue for the
people living there and various other groups. Better technology is being brougt into Cambodia and allowing for a mass number of fields to be created for sugar cane. New sugar plantations are
creating jobs for a range of skills from farmers to migrant workers, and even
provide jobs for skilled factory workers. The money made from trade and export
has helped to create small schools, water treatment plant, and build roads. But
the incompatibility comes into play when Cambodia continues to buy thousands of
acres of land and pushes the farmers off the land with little compensation. The
compensation is a lot less than what the land that they already own is worth.
The export of sugar is being protested by the farmers, and other small groups,
such as the non-profit Community Legal Education Center in Phnom Penh, because
the trade that is supposed to help this poor country is displacing the very
people (farmers) that are supposed to be on the receiving end of the help. The
head of the European Union’s Delegation to Cambodia counteracted these concerns
by pointing out that the rise in exports and trade has helped Cambodia “triple
the average income per person and reduced poverty to a 5th of the
population”. The Ambassador, Jean Francois Cautain feels that if the export and
trade cease to exist the country will suffer a huge loss.
After reading the article I noticed that even though there
was displaced workers who were unsatisfied with the amount of compensation
given to them for their land, the government still continued to look at the
situation as more people have benefited from the trade and export than have
been harmed in the process. Although the export and trade of sugar has helped
to bring in more money for schools, water treatment plant, and new roads, the
people that are benefiting from these luxuries are not the displaced workers who
have been uprooted from their land. In the article a displaced worker stated
that even though there was an adequate water supply he was relocated in an area
where he has to rely on water form newly dug wells near the edge of a valley. This
shows that the displaced workers are alienated from the things that they had a
hand in establishing. If the displaced workers are compensated fairly and included
in the new luxuries the trade and relocation will not be as big of an issue. With that being said the more developed technology is the more it effects people around the world in both small and big ways.
Cynthia Brooks
10-4-13
10:00 am
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