Nanami Aono (18), a Children’s Express Japan youth reporter, interviewed Bernard Krisher (80) on February 21st, 2012.
Bernard Krisher, a journalist working as Newsweek’s Asia Bureau Chief until 1980, founded American Assistance for Cambodia in the US and Japan Relief for Cambodia in Japan and the independent newspaper, the Cambodia Daily, in 1993. He launched the Sihanouk Hospital Center for the American charity HOPE in 1996. He has built more than 500 schools for the rural poor in Cambodia.
Nanami visited Phnom Penh in March 2011 with four other CE youth reporters and carried out interviews with local NGOs and the Cambodia Daily. She began to think about need income-generating projects that offer poor children the skills necessary to earn their own living. To learn more about how to develop such projects in Cambodia and what she should study during college, she met with Bernard Krisher.
Q. Why did you decide to help girls go to school?
A. I have to tell you about Nicholas Kristof, a writer for the New York Times. When he visited Poipet, he went to a brothel and talked to one of the working girls asking, “How did you get here?” The girl replied, “I was trafficked.” She wanted to quit prostitution and so we paid her money to open a shop, but she disappeared. Another girl, rescued by Nicholas, ran off with her boyfriend. I realized that I was not able to help these girls. So I decided to start to help girls go to school. I think education is the best way to help the poor children in Cambodia.
Q. What do you emphasize in your projects?
A. Our projects aim not to rescue children but to prevent them from straying to the wrong way of life. We encourage them to go to school, to have peers, and to connect with other people. Once they leave school, it is hard to return. School means a better job, a chance to go to university, and to become a homemaker. We are also educating girls about healthcare including HIV and parents too because we need their support. Our project is called “Girls be Ambitious” giving poor families $10 a month to prevent girls from child trafficking by going to school every day. We stop giving $10 if the girls stop going to school.
Q. Have you had any difficulties working with Cambodians?
A. Not really, but the language can be a problem. People inPhnom Penh might be able to speak English but people in the villages cannot. So, foreigners can’t work in the villages without interpreters.
Q. How have you found reliable staff inCambodia?
A. My staff is very loyal to me, because they appreciate what I am doing and how I treat them. However, one problem in Cambodia is Cambodians do not truly understand loyalty. The culture has a sense of cruelty as you see in the fresco paintings in Angkor Watt, which describe many cruelties. Also, you have heard about Pol Pot’s genocide. Cambodians have experienced too much jealousy, criticism, and fighting amongst themselves mainly due to the lack of education. So, trivial matters become quite important to them. We try to teach the importance of distinguishing between trivial and important matters in their lives.
Q. How did you find your staff when you first began in Cambodia?
A. When Prince Norodom Sihanouk returned to Cambodia in 1991 after the Paris Peace Accords, and Hun Sen established a monarchy again, I had dinner with Prince Sihanouk and he asked me to help with the restoration and the reconstruction of Cambodia.
I met Mrs. Nuon Phaly, President of the Future Light Orphanage through Prince Sihanouk and she asked me to hire her nephew Thero. He is polite and intelligent, and became my assistant. Thero is very honest, and so I could hire reliable staff through him.
Q. How did you meet Prince Sihanouk?
A. I interviewed President Sukarno of Indonesia for Newsweek and he liked me. When I went to Jakarta again, President Sukarno introduced me to Prince Sihanouk.
Q. I understand that bribes need to be paid when dealing with the Cambodian government. What percentage of your project’s total budget is spent on bribes?
A. We have never paid a bribe. I just said, “I don’t pay bribes because I’m helping your country.” In addition, I am not asked for bribes because I am a friend of the king. Furthermore, if you pay once, you have to pay forever.
Q. What is the main reason you could succeed with your business development?
A. Success is my personality as I never give up. I believe nothing is impossible, and everything is possible. My friends call me “a pusher.” Anything I want to do, I keep pursuing. That is why I could have a private interview with Emperor Hirohito as the first foreign correspondent in Japan.
Q. Have you laid off staff?
A. I never lay off staff unless they are disloyal or dishonest. Teachers in our school including computer teachers are an exception. As donors pay their salaries, if we don’t receive donations they have to be let go. However, we usually assign the teachers to another school. We give them one-months notice. Sometimes, we give staff who served for a long time some kind of compensation as they don’t have unemployment insurance inCambodia.
Q. I really want to stop child prostitution. What do you think I should study in college?
A. Psychology, counseling, and sociology. In addition, you should get experience working in some organizations. There is trafficking in Japan, too. People from Vietnam and other countries are also in trouble. You should find an organization helping them, work for that organization, talk to the people involved, and ask what the problems are. Then you could work in the developing countries. Practical experience is important. It is not possible to understand only by learning at school.
Q. Did your organization received grants from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank?
A. I used to receive matching funds, that is, they gave half of the money to build the schools. However, due to the recession the amount of funds is quite limited now. However, we have received grants from Keidanren CBCC (Council for Better Corporate Citizenship) for hospital and school projects inCambodia.
クリッシャー氏の数々の事業の一つに「Girls be Ambitious(少女よ、大志を抱け)」がある。途上国の貧しい少女を児童買春の被害者にさせないために最も効果的なアプローチは、そもそも児童買春されないようにすること。つまり、学校に通い続けられるようにし、教育を受けること。この事業は、そのような女子の就学率を高めるため、一ヶ月間毎日学校に通うことができたら、その家庭に毎月10米ドルを提供するというものだ。この方法は効果をあげ、メキシコなどでも似たような方法が始まったという。
Mayu Nagumo (16) and Sara Tomizawa (16), CE youth journalists, interviewed nearly 30 people from around the world during the 6th International Youth Media Summit held in Belgrade from August 1-12, 2011 in regard to The Great East Japan Earthquake. Both youth journalists experienced first hand the impact in Japan and were interested to find out the reactions of those from other countries. The majority interviewed was youth participants in the Summit and came from a variety of countries including America, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Macedonia, Nigeria, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, and Turkey. A summary of the interviews follows the questions below.
How did you first hear about the earthquake? Through what media?
Nearly all the interviewees stated the internet followed by television. Many used social network sites to follow the news once hearing about the earthquake and tsunami. Basically multiple forms of media were involved.
How did your country report the news?
Once again nearly all the respondents used terminology such as disaster, devastating, catastrophic event followed by dangers and risks.
When did you talk about the news with your family and friends?
All the interviewees except one discussed it immediately with their families whether in-person or via telephone or computer. Many families were concerned about the Japanese and also their own families that lived near nuclear power plants in other countries.
What do you know about the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident?
Many realized how serious the situation was, that the Japanese government did not seem to be releasing all available information, and that the situation was still not stable at the time of our interviews.
Do you think that nuclear power plants should be abolished?
Although many respondents answered a resounding yes, quite a few people felt it was a difficult question to answer. The general belief was that although nuclear power plants are a danger to the environment, they are an important source of power. Until viable alternative sources are available, nuclear power plants are inevitable.
What new energy sources will we see in the future?
Mainly people mentioned existing energy sources that are not used today such as wind, solar, biomass, and hydro-power rather than new types of energy.
2011年8月1日から12日まで、南東ヨーロッパのバルカン半島にあるセルビア共和国の首都ベオグラードで、第6回国際青少年メディア・サミットが開催された。サミットのテーマは、世界の若者たちが映像作品を通して未来を形作る(Shape the future)。環境、貧困、差別、暴力、健康、女性の権利、若者の地位向上の課題別に、世界16カ国の若者が50名ほど集まり、1分間のビデオを作った。