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Phnom
Penh (Ah!)
Travel Tips
- Freshie Contest Is
On - What's
Going On In PP -
December 2006
DJ Ken - National Radio Text Service
CHANGES MADE IN THE FRESHIE CONTEST - The the Freshie Boy & Girl talent and beauty contest is on for its sixth season. It is recognized as Cambodian televisions biggest event particularly by Cambodian youth. - Internet THEFT warrants INTERNET OPTIONS
Thursday December 7, 2006 FRESHIE CONTEST Is On For Their Sixth Season After overcoming some adversity the Freshie Boy & Girl talent and beauty contest is on for its sixth season. It is recognized as Cambodian televisions biggest event particularly by Cambodian youth. Some changes have been made since the original primary sponsor Samart a cell phone service was sold and the new owners pulled out. Former Samart executive and one of the Freshie shows organizers Boonkerd Angamnuaysri moved on and secured Singha Light Beer as the main sponsor as well as becoming the Regional Director of the Singha's parent company Boonrawd Trading International, LTD. In association with fellow organizer Noy Rauv they have successfully secured sponsorship for the show to put on another competition. Over the past two years Rauv has spent much of her time in the USA dealing with health issues but the duo have worked together and organized another event that helps Cambodian youth to strive to succeed to have fruitful lives in the entertainment and business fields. A new sponsor is the cell phone company i-mobile. The company's General Manager Santad Meesri said of sponsoring the event that he, "Knew the contest was very popular. That's why we wanted to join the program." Meesri said that throughout the contest i-mobile would give all entrants two minutes call time a day to call wherever they wanted. This years contest drew over 1400 entrants from all over the country. From that 150 boys and 150 girls were chosen for interviews. From that group 20 boys and 20 girls were selected to be trained and groomed for a live telecast last Saturday December 2 at the Chaktomuk Theatre in Phnpm Penh. The contest rules specify that all of the entrants cannot have any previous professional experience. For many it was their first ever exposure on stage and being a part of a television show.
"They are brave," remarked Henry Siew of Evian water after the telecast. Evian has been one of the shows sponsors for three years. "We're looking for a person to be a success to represent the culture and tradition of Cambodia," said Dak Sarin the Director of Culture Development for the Ministry of Culture at the Freshie Press conference November 23. Awards are given for being most popular, personality, friendship, photogenic and the Rising Star Award for being the most talented singer. The top three boy and girl winners earn those six contracts to represent Freshie for one year. While under contarct they often do promotions and commercials for the sponsors. Kanika Cham was the Freshie Girl 2005 winner and is now an executive for the i-mobil cell phone company. During her year under contract with Freshie she was involved in sponsor ads and public appearances. Vanda Meas the 2005 runner-up to Cham did the same but since her years contract with Freshie expired she has become a major TV personality on three television shows Cyclo Phnom Penh, Women Talk and Living Beauty as well as has appearing as an actress in music videos. In many cases the top three are not the only ones that benefit from their Freshie experience. Now twenty-one-year-old Yim Nara finished out of the top three In the 2005 contest, finishing fourth. He compounded his Freshie exposure and signed a contract with Cambodia's TV 3 that resulted in him hosting several TV shows including KTV Music and TV 3 Kids Club. Yim said of his Freshie experience that it "Improved my life with experience in a social exposure and training in the arts to be an actor or MC." And that it did. Yim and Cham are the new Freshie contest MC's. They will host the telecasts on TV 3 for this year's event. They are replacing 2003 Freshie Boy winner Chea Vibol and 2004 Freshie Girl winner Tho Sor Malin. In addition to be the shows MC since winning her title Malin was hired as a customers relations representative with Samart. She was also featured in a television commercial for a hair product and is currently employed by i-mobil as a Marketing Manager. Regarding her stepping down as the shows MC, "I want to give the MC job to young people. Kanika can speak English." Vibol is considered one of Cambodia's major TV personalities hosting several TV shows including Fun Zone, 'Happy Teen' and 'Music World.' Vibol also ventured into the business world. He worked a half-year for Samart in corporate sales and with the PSI NGO in Phnom Penh with the MVU (Music Video Unit). The First Freshie Girl winner in 2002 Chan Thouen is also considered a major Cambodian TV star and hosts several television shows. She has also appeared in numerous music videos as an actress. As Evian's Siew said to the Freshie contest entrants at last years Freshie press conference, "There are no losers. If you are here you are a winner." The proof is in the pudding as they say and the Freshie contest is whipping up a new pudding of stars but most importantly preparing young people to be successful in life. NOTE: The show is scheduled to air on a delayed basis Saturday's at 5:00pm on TV 3 through December. EXTRA NOTE - At the last minute TV 3 changed the start time from 6:30 pm and moved it up to 5:30 pm. TIC TIC TIC... This Is Cambodia TOSHU FUKAMI LIBRARY For those that are visiting or living in Phnom Penh there is a library that has books and magazines in ENGLISH. The University of Cambodia offers such a facility that is open to the public seven days a week. During the week Monday through Friday the TOSHU FUKAMI library is open from 7:30am to noon. In the afternoon it is open from 2 to 8pm. Saturday and Sunday 7:30am to noon and 2-6:30pm. The university is located near the Independence monument at #143-145 Preah Norodom Boulevard. Tel: 023-993-276. VANN MOLYVANN SPEAKS Famed Cambodian architect Vann Molyvann designing credits include Olympic Stadium, Independence Monument, Chaktomuk Theater and the Bassac (National) Theater. SORYA SHOPPING CENTER For shopping in air-conditioned comfort the place to be is the Sorya Shopping Center. It has Cambodia's first escalator that serves as a thrill ride for some Khmers that come from the provinces that have never been on an escalator before. There are many shops and places to eat. Parking is available on premises. Located on Street 63 just one block south of the Central Market in downtown Phnom Penh. NOTE: French films some with English subtitles are shown at the French school theater every Friday and Saturday evening. The times and titles of the films are listed on the back page of the Friday edition of the Cambodia Daily newspaper. INTERNET THEFT WARRANTS CAUTION TIP… Internet theft is rampant in the region. The work you are doing at many of the Internet cafes can be accessed from within or outside the shop from another computer. Also many of the shops have the computers set to remember passwords and save forms and downloads. In some shops we have found that legal documents that were scanned were saved in files that remain in the system for a week or more. Use the Fire Fox browser whenever possible. After receiving too many requests from business to change passwords we decided to look at how the computers are set at Internet shops. In doing so we found that there was too much to think about and self-protection was in order. When using an Internet shop computer it is wise to go TOOLS on the computers tool bar and click on INTERNET OPTIONS. From there in general information click on open to BLANK PAGE. Delete links to other sites as well as the history. Go to PRIVACY and set remember history to 0 days. Also delete remember history, clear the cache, save NO passwords. Make sure the computer will not SAVE OR REMEMBER PASSWORDS or COPY FORMS. Close and then click REFRESH THREE TIMES then open the browser. Check history. If there is a history something is wrong. Repeat the process or change computers. After you finish your work repeat the process to make sure the person that uses the computer after you can't track your information and go to the sites you've visited. Also some employees have been seen going to a computer after a customer has left the shop and clicked on and went to every website the customer visited. We have pointed out to some shops the copying of passwords and forms in their computers in Internet Options. Some were very squeamish and others were attentive and tried to correct the problem. In some cases customers input the spy devices. Some shops have set their computers so that what they have set can't be changed. You then have the option to leave and go to another shop where you can repeat the process and have a clean computer to use. Some shops have a system that whatever they scan will be saved to a file. This may not solve all of the problems but it's a start. More suggestions are welcomed. © Copyright: National Radio. Any use of these materials, whole or in part, is prohibited unless authorized in writing by National Radio. Contact: nationalradio@yahoo.com All rights reserved
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