Fire in Phnom Penh

When I settled in for dinner last night I could see a dark cloud of smoke rolling up into the evening sky. I knew from the dark gray color and intensity of the billows that it must be a business or residence fire. This morning at the gym I spoke with Richard, the owner of the AusFit gym, who said that there was huge fire at a popular downtown restaurant named Juliana’s – Khmer owned and one of the first successful restaurants in Phnom Penh. He said that the restaurant is located in a hotel and that 3 staff died in the gas explosion (in an online news story, however, I read that there was only one minor injury). Portable gas tanks are used in many businesses and residences here (in fact I have one in my kitchen) and this fire was caused by a chain reaction of multiple exploding gas tanks. Richard said it is sad that the fire department here has such poor equipment, “what the Japanese have thrown in the bin [garbage] and see no longer fit for use”.  He also said that you can watch the firemen in Phnom Penh just stand by and watch the fire, refusing to do anything until the owner of the building pays them. In the online article that I read it stated that the restaurant is a total loss – having taken two hours to extinguish. The article also stated that 44 fire trucks were called and that when the fire first broke out guests at the restaurant were asked by staff to leave, but ignored they ignored the staff until the initial fire caused a chain reaction of exploding gas tanks.  

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post about the shacks located next to the train tracks: Richard said that area is known as the “ghetto” and that the reason why people tolerate living there is because they hope to make a claim to the land against the government (similar to an “adverse possession” claim). The government will never give the land to these people, Richard said, because the train tracks are there and so the alternative is to relocate these families to other government owned property (usually rice fields) where the government will also have to build a residence for the families. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this; it is just what Richard told me. Richard is an interesting man. He is a former model and body builder. He has modeled in Cambodia and Australia. He has a scar on one of his legs and I asked him if it was from a burn. He said that it was actually from an infection that developed due to malnutrition during the Khmer Rouge. He asked me if I have ever suffered malnutrition and said that it is the worst experience he has ever had. Before being located at De Castle Diamond, Ausfit gym was located on the 9^th story of a building overlooking the Prime Minister’s home and was ordered by Cambodian authorities to terminate the lease less than one year into the 5 year contract. The authorities said that due to the location of the gym it posed a national security threat and would be held accountable for any safety incidents at the Prime Minister’s residence; and that the gym was a “breeding ground for terrorists”.  

This morning I had the honor of meeting with the staff at the Cambodian office of International Justice Mission. IJM was started in in the late 1990’s and is a faith-based human rights organization. Something like 95% of IJM staff are foreign nationals from the countries in which IJM operates. One of the many things that I admire about IJM is that every day all IJM staff around the world set aside time to pray together. This morning I had the honor to join the Cambodian IJM staff in their prayer time. During this time I shared a passage at the end of Psalm 85 that I have read and re-read many times the last two days. To me this passage is like a prayer and it reminds me of IJM’s work. “Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from Heaven. The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.”