Cambodia is a smallcountry located in Southeast Asia bordering the Gulf of Thailand.
Cambodia lies between Thailand and Vietnam. It occupies a total areaof 181,040 square kilometers, and out of all of this, only 176,520 squarekilometers are on land. Cambodia has a 2,572-kilometer long landboundary and 443 kilometer coastline. Cambodia has a tropical climate like mostcountries in Southeast Asia. In this tropical climate, there is arainy, monsoon season from May to October.
The dry season lasts fromDecember to March. The land terrain in Cambodia is mostly made upof low lands, flat plains, with mountains in the Southwest and north. There is a wide amount of natural resources in Cambodia. The naturalresources include, timber, gemstones, manganese, phosphates, and hydropowerpotential. The main kind of agriculture in Cambodiais subsistence farming.
This is where the food you grow on your farmis for your own good. The opposite of subsistence farming is commercialfarming where big industries farm for commercial profit. The Mekongriver floods the fields in the wet season, making the land perfect forgrowing rice, which is their main cash crop. Even though they growa lot of rice, their main export is rubber, and their man import is machinery. Cambodia has a small population comparedto the many states of the United States of America.
As of July 1993,Cambodia had a total population of 9,898,900. The nationality, orthe names of the people who live in Cambodia are Cambodian(s). Theprimary ethnic group that makes up 90% of the total population is Khmer. The major religion in Cambodia is Theravada Buddhism. About 95% ofthe people in Cambodia follow this religion.
The official languageis Khmer, and French is the second most common language. The French colonized Cambodia for 83 years. Cambodia became independent in November 1953. This was because NorodomSihanuk led a peaceful independence movement against the French.
Norodom Sihanuk was the current Prince of Cambodia at that time. Soon after this, a communist group calledthe Khmer Rouge, which was lead by Pol Pot and backed up by the Chinesestepped in. They were in charge of Cambodia for eight years. Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge murder millions of innocent Cambodians. Their rule ended when the Vietnamese took control. The Royal Government of Cambodia administersthe government in Cambodia.
There are currently two Prime Ministers,who are Hun Sen, and Ran Narit. This was because after Pol Pot wasover thrown, there was one Prime Minister, but they had conflicts overwho it was supposed to be. The UN later came in and made the twoopposing people both prime Ministers so that there would be no conflict. This started on an internationally supervisedelection in 1993. Cambodia gained its independence on November 1953. This day is its national holiday.
The capital of country capitalof Cambodia is Phnom Penh. The national flag has a blue backgroundwith a temple in the middle. A picture of it is on the poster display. The economy in Cambodia is certainly notthe best in the world.
It is in fact a very poor country. Cambodiaseconomy is still recovering from a sudden switch to a free-trade marketin 1990, and a cutoff in aid from former Soviet countries. The countrydoes not have that many roads bridges or powerhouses. The countryis not heavily populated within cities.
About 90% of all the peoplewho live in Cambodia live on the countryside. These people are highlydependent on subsistence agriculture. The GDP per capita was $289US dollars. The main currency in Cambodia is the reil.
The value of the real has been going down for a long time and is very unstable. For example, in 1996, 2620 real equaled one US dollar. The life expectancy of many people in Cambodiais not that high. The reason is because of many diseases, and conflicts,which lead to early deaths. In 1990 the percentage of al the peoplein Cambodia that were older than 15 was 53%. The life expectancyat Birth in 1995 was 51 years of age.
Of the 9,898,900 people inCambodia, the adult literacy rate was 65. 3%. Communication in Cambodia is not goodat all. There are hardly any telecommunication companies available,and international services are limited to Vietnam and other few countriesonly.
Now, commuting from place to place is not as bad. Cambodiahas 612 kilometers of railroads, and 13,351 kilometers of highways. There are also 3,700 kilometers of inland waterways, and ports are availablein Phnom Penh, and Kampong Saom. Cambodia only has nine useable airports.
The situation in Cambodia now is not thatgood, but a lot better than how it used to be. It has been over 20years since Vietnam soldiers ended the bloodshed caused by the Khmer Rouge. There are still many killings, which have been caused by grenades or shootingsduring public demonstrations. Recently on Easter Sunday of March30, 1997 in Phnom Penh, there were grenades thrown at a crowd during apublic demonstration, which was supposed to be headed toward Sam Rainsy. Sam Rainsy was the most visible and vocal Human Rights advocate in Cambodia.
In this, Easter Sunday Massacre, there were 19 innocent people killed,and over a 100 people injured. The attempt to get Sam Rainsy failed,and all the people in Cambodia waited for the International public to helpout. There has not been much International helpin Cambodia and still the violence and economic problems continue. I seriously think that people should help more than they are doing now,and make this a big situation because many lives are at stake.
Myproposal to the United Nations Economic Council is that they start donatingsome money to Cambodia to help out their economy. By building uptheir economy they can use their money to build schools, hospitals, andmore roads. By having educated people, more people could go and getjobs and strengthen the economy even more. My second proposal is towards the HumanRights Council of the United Nations. The Human Rights Council shouldsend food and medical aid to Cambodia.
They should and could do thisuntil the economy of Cambodia gets better and good enough to support itsown people. My third proposal to the United Nationsis towards the Security Council. With a lot of violence going onin Cambodia, there needs to be some authority that can take control. The Security Council should send down troops to stop the violence and keepa sort of peace in Cambodia.
Truly I think that Cambodia is a nice country,but a nice country with many problems. These problems can of coursebe fixed with a lot of help, which the United Nations can help them with. We will just have to wait and see how Cambodia shapes up.
