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Phnom
Penh (Ah!)
MAX - ELIZABETH
BECKER LAUNCHES NEW BOOK BOPHANA
D. J. Ken - National Radio Text Service
Famed journalist author Elizabeth Becker launched the release of her new book Bophana at Monument Books in Phnom Penh, Cambodia Saturday April 24th, 2010 - TOP 3 NR Phnom Penh stories.
Phnom Penh, Cambodia Sunday April 25, 2010 BOPHANA - BECKER'S LOVE STORY DURING KHMER ROUGE ERA An overflow crowd attended famed journalist/author Elizabeth Becker at Monument Books Saturday April 24th in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Several journalists who covered the Vietnam American War and Khmer Rouge conflict were in attendance. Becker is a journalist and author who specializes in trade, development, and Asian affairs. She began her career as a war correspondent for The Washington Post covering Cambodia. She left Cambodia when the Khmer Rouge expelled all foreigners from the country in April 1975. She was one of two American journalists allowed by the Khmer Rouge to return to Democratic Kampuchea briefly in 1978. Just weeks after her visit, the Vietnamese army attacked and overthrew the Khmer Rouge. She is the author of When the War Was Over, a modern history of Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge. She covers foreign and domestic issues, especially those relating to agriculture, international relief and development, and homeland security for The New York Times. Previously she was the Senior Foreign Editor for National Public Radio. Becker's Bophana book tells the story of a Cambodian couple who were in love and planned to marry but pretended to be married. During the Khmer Rouge conflict they were apart but sent love letters to each other. The Khmer Rouge discovered the letters written in a mix of the Khmer, French and English languages revealing that they were educated people and that led to their doom. Her boyfriend Sitha was the first to be executed. The attractive Bophana was repeatedly tortured at the Toul Sleng torture center also known as S-21 by its director Duch. She eventually was killed at the age of 25. Becker said she became interested in Bophana's story while researching the museum's archives in 1982. She was looking for a subject around her age so that she could relate to it thus Bophana's story came to her attention. She had the Khmer language documents translated into English. "That murder didn't make sense any more than any of the other murders here," Becker noted. Becker said that prior to coming to Cambodia she was in love with India and felt that that was where she would like to live. She said of her attraction to Cambodia, "It seemed so colonial. There was some magic to it. There also was some nervousness to it." Becker who currently lives in the USA in Washington D.C. noted that the biggest change that she has noticed in Cambodia since her departure is the amount of money that is coming into the country. That statement echoed her views when she spoke at Pannasastra University of Cambodia April 18th, 2005. Becker holds a degree in South Asian studies from the University of Washington and did language studies at the Kendriya Hindi Sansthaan in Agra, India. She is on the board of directors of the Arthur F. Burns Foundation and the Pearl S. Buck Foundation. TOP 3 NR PHNOM PENH STORIES What goes around comes around and this months Top 3 NR Phnom Penh stories include one of our first on this rating Phnom Penh stories category from March 2008. The piece also covers former Cambodian National team football coach Joachim Fickert returned to visit friends and former players and shares his point of view of the lack of athletic facilities in the nation which partially helps explain why Cambodian athletes are poor competitors. The second spot went to US AMBASSADOR TO CAMBODIA MUSSOMELI DEPARTS from August 2008. Intellectual property rights are noted as we have experienced finding a well respected individual in the academic field guilty of just that which we will cover later. From July 2008 Dr. Beat Richner took the third spot as he continues to give free health care to children picking up the slack left by the Cambodian government. This story focuses on an Australian television documentary about his work.
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