The White Building is one of Phnom Penh’s most notorious apartment buildings, one that many locals consider a slum. It’s crumbling, it’s rundown and it’s facing demolition – and its home to 2500 tenants – who mostly pay rent and love to live there.
The following are my on-location field notes from December 2015. I travelled with a Krung guide into the forest, he introduced me to the highlanders and translated all interviews.
The highlander tribes in the northeast of Cambodia have lost their battle – even though there are Highlander Associations and diverse NGOs trying to do their best to protect them from land-grabbing. “First comes the road, then goes the trees” – and if the trees go their time has come as well.
The Gold Forest is an area off limits to everyone not into the gold business.
It is a remote stretch of land with its own rules of law. People working here don’t want to hear their names being called.
Siem Reap, Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Phnom Penh
Peace is all people want – and businesses, foreign and local, take advantage of it, exploiting the country and their people to a point of no return.
