Talk Is Cheap Most of the Time

If you're like me, and I suspect that most of you are (legs, eyes, internal organs, etc.) you have a feeling of impending nausea concerning the remainder of this election cycle. This feeling is not brought about by arguments between family members or neighbors about which candidate is honest, more "American" or which one will represent the "us" (whoever that is) more effectively or how many yard signs one is allowed by code. The Tums-inducing feeling arises from the fact that we will hear little else over the next 75 days or so from candidates for all sorts of offices, PACs disguised as voters groups and television talking heads espousing the candidates' qualities while offering snide disparagement concerning the opponent, no matter which side is doing the representing. This non-stop, relentless brain-banging gets to be too much. I have taken steps: I mute the television (or watch Tosh.0) at the first sign of a candidate, and I unsubscribe from anyone on my social media networks who begins to wax eloquent on the subject of politics. I get it. I can read. I can reason. I read seven newspapers a day. I don't want to hear from you.

That's why I pity the poor people of Cambodia. Up for re-election (if an honest one can be found there) in 2013 is Hun Sen, a former member of Pol Pot's group (reformed, he says) who has led Cambodia for 27 years. Recently, Hun Sen broadcast something of a political "vote-for-me" statement over national television and spoke without interruption (and without taking questions from reporters from the Cambodia Daily FOR FIVE HOURS! 

The majority of his address dealt with the border dispute with Viet Nam that has been ongoing since the French left Southeast Asia decades ago. Apparently, this is a hot-button item with the voters, and Hun Sen wanted to make sure the blame was not placed on his benevolent leadership but on those nasty French folks for not drawing the border in indelible ink.

So, you're wondering, "Darrell, why should I care about this? So what? Fidel Castro was famous for five-hour diatribes, and just recently, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela gave a nine-hour State of the Union address. Hun Sen is a piker!" 

All of this is true, and I cannot speak to or about the audiences gathered by Castro or Chavez, but EVERY  civil servant in Cambodia was required by law to watch the speech. I have no doubt there was a test and proctors monitoring the situation...and we think civil servants in this country have it tough?

Wow! I'm going to read about it in the Daily.