Satrey Khmer Online

Mr.Dith Pran the author and a survivor of Killing Field  died today Sunday morning of pancreatic cancer at the age of 65 at a New Jersey hospital. My thoughts and condolences to mr. Pran and all his families. I am already missing him… so sad to see him leaving. I grew up hearing many great things about him and he was the man whom I looked up when I was in college, his ambition inspired me in many ways. He contributed his life for the Khmer community and educated people around the globe about the suffering of Cambodian. This man will always be remembered. May you rest in peace….
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Details of mr.Dith Pran’s life: NEW YORK - Dith Pran, the Cambodian-born journalist whose harrowing tale of enslavement and eventual escape from that country’s murderous Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in 1979 became the subject of the award-winning film “The Killing Fields,” died Sunday, his former colleague said.
Dith, 65, died at a New Jersey hospital Sunday morning of pancreatic cancer, according to Sydney Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times. Dith had been diagnosed almost three months ago.

Excerpt from http://www.upiasiaonline.com/
Written by Dr.LAO MONG HAY

Column: Rule by Fear
Published: March 26, 2008 

Cambodia is bound to a set of obligations under the international agreements that were concluded in 1991 to end the war in the country. Cambodia has undertaken, among other things, to adopt democracy, to observe and respect human rights and to be governed by the rule of law.
The country’s Constitution, which emanates from a U.N.-organized constituent election in 1993, incorporates all of its international obligations and provides for all basic institutions for a parliamentary democracy and the rule of law. It is a constitutional monarchy with a separation of powers. It has an independent and impartial judiciary whose duty is to protect the rights and freedoms of its citizens.

Cambodia has since then abandoned communism, embraced a market economy and become a more open society. However, communist legacies have stalled the creation of institutions for parliamentary democracy and the rule of law worthy of their names and their functioning. The government is not accountable to the National Assembly, for example, when the prime minister and other government ministers flout their constitutional duties and spurn the assembly’s summons to answer its questions.

Doesn’t this  look inviting? As much as American love their potato chips, this is what we devour for snack. Cambodian green mango delight with fermented fish dipping sauce! Anyone?

Svay Tirk Prohok:

-Svay kchei, lmoutt (option-la`hong, jayk kchei koh bahn)

Dipping sauce:
-Tirk trey
-Skor sor
-prohok
-ongkaw leenh
-mtess sross 

I wanted to do something different with the photos, so I decided to use Adobe Photoshop software to do photo editing. I stumbled on instruction from various sites. They weren’t clear and too long to follow. Therefore, I gathered all the information and simplified into my own. Here is my instruction. I hope this will help you beginners out there.

Adobe Photoshop 101: VIGNETTE style (softening the edge of the photo).  According to webster online, “a photograph whose edges shade off gradually.”

Original photo: before

After

Instruction: 
 
1>Create a layer from  layer pallet.
Click on ‘create new layer’ icon
as shown on the red arrow.

2>Click on paint bucket tool.
Then fill the new layer with white paint.
(Notice the white screen).

 
3>Decrease the layer opacity around 80 or 85 percent(or as desire).
Now, background picture starts to appear in faded white.

 
4>Click on Elliptical Marquee tool
and drag from top left to bottom right
of the back ground picture.

                 
5>Go to Select>> then click on Feather botton as shown above. Enter a value of 50 (depends on the size of your photo). Then click OK.
>>Next go to Edit>> then click on Clear (to get rid of the elliptical).

Cambodia, the golden land (Sovanaphoum) stretched from present-day Thailand to the northern present-day Laos, to southern present-day south Vietnam. The Khmer Angkorians have left traces of culture, styles, tradition, architects throughout these countries. Khmer land have been stolen and invade endlessly, Khmer blood have been slaughtered by land mongers, what is left now is the memories and heritage of our ancestors, Angkor wat still erects to stand the Khmer pride. It was built by the blood and sweat of these great men.  We are the children of these great men, we must survive. Although we lost our land, we shall not loose our spirit. Our king father said, Cambodia soon will become a tiny country like Monaco. We shall never let this happen, it’s our land, our right to live. Khmer must unite with heart, mind and soul and strength, otherwise, Cambodia will be wiped from the face of this earth.

Moatanak Pheap Chea Khmer! Moatanak Pheap Chea Khmer! Moatanak Pheap Chea Khmer!

(post by sourmangos)

Look what I saw when I woke up?  Two special guests were at my yard early in the morning, Mr. and Mrs. Goose. Aren’t they cute?

This photograph was taken at a Japanese market but the produce is sold by Chinese. I found it unusual fruit(?). I am not quite sure what it is, it belongs to the citrus family. It looks like lemon with fingers. The Chinese called it Buddhas hand. I was going to buy it but the price was too much for just trying. $10.00 for five-six fingers is pretty expensive.

Dear visitor loyalties,
I have a few announcement to report. I created sub-pages for:

Khmer Bistro
-Herbs and Spices
-Fruits and Vegetables

Music: song
-music videos

The reason behind it is that by putting too many images or videos on the same page, it gets very heavy. I noticed some of my viewers have dial-up internet connection. This can cause lots frustration to view the page, it can be very slow.  My apologies!

*Satrey Khmer Online is over four months old, I am still working on my site. Occasionally, you may see changes in layout, themes, words editing after each post.  Pardon me for the inconvenient. IT is a ballpark, I am still learning and developing my site. 

Your input is important, I would greatly appreciate any advice or ideas.

~aw kun~
Thank you very much!

Respectfully,
SKO

Cambodian ancient stone inscription under the reign of HM King Udayaditiyavarman II  “Udaya Aditiya = the Rising Sun” (circa A.D 11th century), found at an ancient Khmer temple in Nokor Reachak Seima “Nakhon Ratchasima, present-day Thailand.”

The inscription said “If I will be rewarded for my meritorious acts, I wish to be reborn in Kampuja  [again].”
If one studies the culture and tradition of Khmer people in depth, one will understand why Khmer people those days were very proud race and “loved their nation.”  It is a history of an ancient extravaganza. The culture that spread throughout Thailand, Laos and most southeast Asia.

Kom tah lery Khmer boran, kyom koh pratna kert jea Khmer mdong thiet. Pruos Khmer jea neak mean pooch omboh la`aw nas. Khmer jea monus chet borisot. Khmer chlas vei, somboh kbach rachana…

Mr. Khem Chantha, a Khmer artist who won first prize in the Cambodia National Artist contest in 2000. Mr. Khem Chantha art work depicts the beauty and the darkness of Cambodia’s daily life. His skill is a masterpiece! I’ve never seen anything like this, his arts look so real. I used to learn about world art when I was in college, I can say he’s better than Monet, Pablo, Vincent van Gogh… they cannot beat Mr. Khem Chantha’s talent! As soon as I saw his paintings, I am deeply in love with them. I cannot help looking at them over and over again…. breathless and priceless. It seriously gives me goose bump. All I can say is…. WOW!  How did he do that?  Some people are born with special talent indeed.  I’d like readers to visit his site to see why I am confident to say that his works exceed some of the western artists.