Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the New York City Hyperghetto, by Eric Tang

Book Review: Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the New York City HyperghettoBy Eric TangPhiladelphia: Temple University Press, 2015, 220 pp

Dry-Season Flood-Recession Rice in the Mekong Delta: Two Thousand Years of Sustainable Agriculture?

The Mekong Delta is famous as the hearth of one of the earliest civilizations in mainland Southeast Asia. Called "Funan" by visiting Chinese dignitaries, the lower Mekong Delta housed at least two urban centers by the third century A.D.: OC Eo in Viet Nam and Angkor Borei in Cambodia. Land-use practices found in and around Angkor Borei today are described and the relative antiquity of these practices is speculated upon. Dry-season flood-recession rice, the major land use in the area, is an ancient land-use system that, taking advantage of the fertile silt deposited by the annual floods, is both extremely productive and sustainable. Although we have no physical evidence of flood-recession rice in third-century Angkor Borei, there is no technical reason (soil fertility, water, technology, or labor) why it could not have formed the agricultural basis of this civilization. In fact, dry-season flood-recession rice not only may have formed the agricultural basis of Angkor Borei in the early historic period but also may have dictated the location of the city. Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the system of dry-season flood-recession agriculture was adopted elsewhere in the delta either in advance of or in congruence with other lower Mekong polities (e.g., Chenla and Angkor). If this hypothesis proves true, then dryseason flood-recession rice has played a much larger role in the early history and culture of the lower Mekong Delta than has been appreciated by students of the region. KEYWORDS: Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Mekong Delta, rice agriculture, floodrecession farming, Geographic Information Systems

UN peacekeeping missions : the lessons from Cambodia

For more about the East-West Center, see http://www.eastwestcenter.org/As the United Nations reevaluates peacekeeping operations following setbacks in Somalia and Bosnia, it can point to the overall success of its mission in Cambodia. The massive UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) helped to rebuild a country shattered by a brutal dictatorship and a dozen years of civil war. The UN force withdrew after organizing free elections that put a coalition government in place. "Something clearly went right in Cambodia," says Judy L. Ledgerwood, who served with UNTAC's information and education section. Ledgerwood gives an "on-the-ground" view of the mission's successes and shortcomings and provides advice for future peacekeeping missions. Most effective were the election operation and the radio station; least successful was an undisciplined civilian police force. The mission was also hampered by UN bureaucracy and staffing shortages as well as inattention to social problems such as prostitution and HIV/AIDS. The gains are now threatened by an unrepentant Khmer Rouge force still getting assistance from across the border in Thailand

The Royal University of Fine Arts, East-West Center, and University of Hawai'i Program in the Archaeology and Anthropology of the Kingdom of Cambodia, 1994-1998

The East-West Center and the University of Hawai'i in 1994 joined the Royal University of Fine Arts, a division of the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Kingdom of Cambodia, in a program to train graduates of the Royal University's Faculty of Archaeology. Three sets of students have spent an academic year in Hawai'i; two students are now classified graduate students at the University of Hawai'i. Training and research at the ancient city of Angkor Borei, in the upper Mekong Delta, have extended over three field seasons. The Ministry and the University of Hawai'i archaeological team continue training and research at Angkor Borei and at Neolithic sites in Kampong Cham Province. KEYWORDS: Southeast Asia, Cambodia, Angkor Borei, archaeology, field training