Satrey Khmer Online

My grandma said, “granddaughter, Cambodia is a country with great ancient civilization. Everybody knows about us. Tell our people not to worry. When strangers take away our land and copy our food that means they like it— they want to be Cambodian even if they change our names. They want what we eat and what we have. The more they take, the more they look like and speak like us. And that’s a beautiful thing! Don’t worry because those strangers help keeping Cambodian culture alive.”
                                                                     -ma yeay Rumm

photo from google

Talked to my grandma on the phone. I don’t get to see her much or talk to her that often but every time I hear her voice I feel so bless.  My grandma is 90 years old and has lived through happy time and sad time Cambodia. She had 12 children, lost 10 during the war and now only two left. Tragic war has left her heart wounded but for some reason, she refuses to talk about war, about her lost family, about sad Cambodia. She wants to share with me about the true HAPPY CAMBODIA because that how she grew up, it was a great country. She was one of the historic person who lived through the jewel Cambodia. Fun, rich, no crime, prosperous, homogeneous society, very modern and there so many intellectuals. There were high social status, high class and high moral. She said when westerners and foreign theories invaded Cambodia, everything torn apart and became a  senseless society. Cambodia lost so many lives and land. Greed and power over rule all mighty.

My grandma said to me “chao srey yeay, chao khom rean nah chao! kom plich jouy srok komnert robos kluan” (My granddaughter, study hard, do not forget to help your birthplace). Yes of course grandma, Kampuchea will always be in my heart. :)  

Photo from 123Greetings.com

Things you can do to make your mother happy:

-Ask her what you can do for her
-Take her out to restaurant
-Clean the house
-Laundry
-Buy her new cookware
-Wash dishes
-Gather all your siblings to cook and have a big meal with your mom. This really brighten up her day, usually mother like to see all her children together.

Khmer version
of O Sole Mio by
Mr. Sinn Sisamuoth- 1972
(post by DarrenKham)

Enjoy! Have a wonderful weekend!

Base ingredient for delicious Cambodian soup, Somlaw Kako. Try our native dish! Recipe will be posted shortly! Coming soon

Words from mr. Dith Pran, a former Khmer “hero” who has just passed away.
-“Part of my life is saving life. I don’t consider myself a politician or a hero. I’m a messenger. If Cambodia is to survive, she needs many voices.”
-“I’m a one-person crusade,” he added. “I must speak for those who did not survive and for those who still suffer.”

During Cambodian new year, traditionally we go to temple to offer food to the monks and pray for our ancestors. Unfortunately this year, I couldn’t make it.
We stayed home and I made food. I did a little praying  and offered my dear father some food. I also prayed for Cambodian who were killed and who are still suffering. I begged the angel of this new year to help bring peace to Cambodia, especially for the Khmer Krom.

I am back from my camping trip. I spent several days and nights with American school children. The trip made me realize and taught me many things. Children are great people, they live a simple life. All they want is love, fun and shelter. It was fun… As a child of war, I did not have my childhood like these children, during this trip I took the opportunity to be one of them, I pushed my adult life and pretended to be one of the little girl in the group. I played, sang and laughed with them to my wildest. It was very special, I cannot describe the feelings. When nights fell, the children came closer and circled my bed, they shared stories with me about their lives,  shockingly many of them broke into tears. These beautiful children have broken families, the majority of their parents are divorced or experienced domestic violence. Most of them live with single parent and some live with grand-parents. I was aware and have heard about the high divorce rate in America but never thought that these issue terribly affect children. They were traumatized! They told me that they are scarred their father might beat up the mother, or the step dad would rape them, or the mom have boyfriend and leave them alone. As I was listening to them, I got infuriated and so frustrated. WHY ADULTS can be so cruel? We have something in common, our experiences are different but these children and my war stories both were caused by the stupid adults. Adults should seriously reconsider peace and stop the violence.

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….
___________________
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.

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).

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

I spent my whole evening watching presidential debate between senator Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton in Ohio. The greatest presidential debate I’ve ever lived through my life. And it IS a record that never a woman nor strong African American candidate in the American history. This is an eye opening. The two were very intellectual and civil people. What was very interesting is how they handled some tough hypothetical questions and how each take criticism. This what I want to see in Cambodia. I’ve learned about professionalism and I truly think this is how leaders should be for the role model of the countries. NOT about power, angers and intimidation. In this sense, “Cambodia’s” current government leaders are very primitive and uncivilized.

Being a president is a  very tough position, one would have to be able to handle issue on all level and about anything both national and international, know how to be ready on tough issue which can be beyond comprehension. I like both candidates and I have great respect for the two, Hillary came from a very strong background years of experience in the office and has traveled to eighty countries, amazing lady! The woman whom I have always admired. There are some part which I disagree with her during the debate where she accused Obama on plagiarism to boost the votes, that was very very low-cheap approach, it changed a slight image of her. Obama  clashed Clinton over the war in Iraq,  Health Care and NAFTA which Hillary and her husband voted  and I am not too crazy about their support.

Between the two Ph.d’s. Watch and analyze!

Politics of:
-Hope
-Unity
-Prosperity
-FOR AND WITH THE PEOPLE
-Professionalism
-Intellectual
-”Yes We Can”
-We`ism
__________________________________

Politics of:
-Fear
-”Smear Attack”
-Division
-Twist, Bullets
- The I-ME-MINE and My buddies.
-”Strong among the weak”
-”Yes, I Can”
- FASCISM.

Pheasa Snaeha, Language Of Love by Yok Teth Rotha (post by khmrch1cc)

What is love? Why love hurts?  Is there such thing as true love? These are question that I kept asking myself.  Sure enough, the answer varies according to each individual. No one can answer it precisely and you will find the answers when time comes. But in all, I do believe in true love. True love co-exist by two NOT one. When both hearts joined voluntarily nothing can take away the love. It only grow stronger.  Love someone who loves you, not be with someone who you feel pity for because in the end this is not your true heart. Is love base on destiny? From my view, I’d like to believe that love is who you choose to be with and how you grow it, not by faith or time to allow you where it should start or end. Love DOES take time, one needs to know the person’s background. If you fall in love with love, then there will be many obstacles because it’s too soon. Ms. Yok Teth Rotha tells you in her song. A song of her true love. Love cannot change her heart.