It's a blog thing...

Haven’t posted on here in ages so here is a photo from a...

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 12:14:33 +0000

Haven’t posted on here in ages so here is a photo from a few weeks ago

Photos of the dog who attends mass every day where his owner...

Sat, 19 Jan 2013 17:04:09 +0000

Photos of the dog who attends mass every day where his owner used to go . Loyalty and love <3

New Rule

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 15:01:44 +0000

Here it is the obligatory post about welcoming a new year and saying goodbye to an old one.

This year a lot has happened. I quit one job and got another that I both love and hate at the same time but I find that love is always stronger than hate.

I learned that by the smallest action you can help someone greatly.

I have also learned that people can be hurt by the smallest action, a hurt which they can carry with them for far longer than they should.

I have had the chance to look back at sad times with a smile as I can see where I have grown and where I still have to.

I have seen the pain of loss, I have felt the pain of loss but I have also felt the joy of kindness and friendship.

I have also learned how to love someone can hurt so much that it can leave you wondering why you love but then with a small smile you remember why.

Every year I make the same old resolutions, to loose weight, exercise more, work harder and build on relationships old and new. This year I will be happy to achieve any of those things and I wont stop striving but I have made a new rule.

This year whenever I think or say something negative I have to counteract it with something positive. Even if the only positive thing I can think of is that I am alive or my lungs work or that the sun shines.

So in short, I hope you all have a great year but mainly I hope you can focus on the positives of this year and the last even when you have to try very hard to find something positive dont stop until you do.

This year I’m learning to see the beauty in things and I hope you will too.

~Grá~

To me Christmas is all about family, friends, old memories and...

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 21:03:53 +0000

To me Christmas is all about family, friends, old
memories and making new ones.
In our house Christmas is never the same year to year. We used to spend Christmas in my aunties house in limerick, sometimes in cork with my grandparents, with or without guests and one year we even spent it visiting my mum in hospital.
No matter what though we always spend time together. One of my brothers and my sister have missed Christmas once or twice but this year my parents were at home with my eldest brother and his girlfriend. I was the other side of the country with one of my housemates attempting our first Christmas dinner!
I know I missed my family and they missed me but I made some new memories and really enjoyed the day.
I think the cat is the only one who doesn’t really enjoy Christmas time, too many people and too much noise!

Dun Laoghaire shopping centre in the early morning. I love...

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 10:43:31 +0000

Dun Laoghaire shopping centre in the early morning.
I love seeing places like this. It’s the opposite of what you expect, I love walking around during the early mornings enjoying the quiet. There is something haunting yet beautiful about it I think. :)

#dunlaoghaire #dublin #ireland #christmas #alone #haunting #shopping #christmas

“All In all you’re just another brick in the wall” #pinkfloyd...

Sat, 22 Dec 2012 06:43:03 +0000

“All In all you’re just another brick in the wall” #pinkfloyd #wall #standout #bedifferent #brick #accidentalart #dublin #ireland

This was on the wall next to my bus stop. It is literally no...

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 19:43:10 +0000

This was on the wall next to my bus stop. It is literally no bigger than 2inches! I thought it was a very big bit of gum at first! I walked past it at least twice before I saw it, amazing what you see when you look around
#streetart #art #wall #women #sculpture #dublin #ireland #miniart #stonewall #looktwice #amazing

I don’t think I have ever seen #sunbeams going up before...

Mon, 10 Dec 2012 15:12:21 +0000

I don’t think I have ever seen #sunbeams going up before
#clouds #earlymorning #sky #trees #dublin #ireland #pretty #skyscape

I took this early this morning in Dun Laoghaire I feel weird...

Sat, 08 Dec 2012 14:52:43 +0000

I took this early this morning in Dun Laoghaire I feel weird that I won’t be at home for Christmas… It’s going to be just another working day but I am glad I an doing worth wile work :)
#christmas #decorations #sunrise #dunlaoghaire #dublin #ireland #clouds #sky #christmaslights

This is just around the corner from my house that I’m...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:56:48 +0000

This is just around the corner from my house that I’m renting… My dad lived in this estate when he was in national school. He only told me that he used to live neat here after I moved in during summer. It’s weird how lives are connected.
#family #history #forgottenpast #dublin #ireland

I wonder if M. W. +T. N. are still together. I guess the mark we...

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 14:52:56 +0000

I wonder if M. W. +T. N. are still together. I guess the mark we leave on the people we meet will never leave them even long after we have…
#couples #history #past #questions #tree #bark #ireland #love

Good morning :) this mornings beautiful morning sky

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 09:19:36 +0000

Good morning :) this mornings beautiful morning sky

Love these days #nofilters #blue #sky #greengrass #trees #sunny...

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 14:18:44 +0000

Love these days #nofilters #blue #sky #greengrass #trees #sunny #winter #dublin #ireland

ellceedistractions: buzzfeed: Surprised Red Panda! Its the...

Thu, 22 Nov 2012 20:20:40 +0000

ellceedistractions:

buzzfeed:

Surprised Red Panda!

Its the red panda version of me….

This makes me happy

So today started off really badly. I skipped breakfast because...

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 22:34:36 +0000

So today started off really badly.
I skipped breakfast because I was late and still managed to miss my bus. I managed to leave my camera and most prized lens in a coffee shop and by the time I realise I was just after catching the bus to the office where I was going to get my evaluation and I was running late.
Thank God it all worked out ok. I phoned the coffee shop and after a few calls back and forth they found my camera.
My evaluation went really well and I’m quite happy about that.
Got to meet an old friend for lunch and a drink.
Bumped into two different old friends.
Got to walk around the city and take my time as I looked at the Christmas lights and the sunshine and finished it all off with some laughs and songs with friends.
Also my new rule, if I say something negative I have to say something positive too even if its that my jacket is warm when the breeze is so cold

It is so cold! One of my housemates turned off the timer on the...

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 08:00:08 +0000

It is so cold! One of my housemates turned off the timer on the heating so this morning when I woke up at 6am the house was freezing! But it’s a beautiful morning :) #pretty #clouds #morning #sky #colours #dublin #ireland #cold

Waited for over 40minutes in the windy cold for my bus and even...

Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:01:07 +0000

Waited for over 40minutes in the windy cold for my bus and even got to watch three going in the other direction! On the plus side it didn’t rain :) #condensation #cold #night #dublin #ireland #lights

Amazing what you see when you open your eyes! On the road to...

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:28:52 +0000

Amazing what you see when you open your eyes! On the road to Dalkey #streetart #footpath #dragonfly #insect #art #pretty #dublin #ireland

This is where I sat and had my breakfast earlier, start to a...

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 10:23:55 +0000

This is where I sat and had my breakfast earlier, start to a hopefully lovely day! #breakfast #bluesky #clouds #sunshine #sea #ducks #peaceful #grass #bench #morning #dublin #ireland

sometimesmysockshurtmyfeet: Farming the Killing Fields “I came...

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:47:33 +0000

sometimesmysockshurtmyfeet:

Farming the Killing Fields

“I came to join the revolution, not to kill the Cambodian people. Look at me now. Am I a violent person? No. So, as far as my conscience and my mission were concerned, there was no problem.” – Pol Pott, 1997.

On April 17^th 1975 Saloth Sar, under his ‘revolutionary name’ of Pol Pot, and the Khmer Rouge stormed the city of Phnom Penn and seized control of Cambodia. The Red Khmer were famously brutal in their determination to enforce a policy that had been conceived completely in the abstract with absolutely no regard for its potential consequences and the certain loss of human life in its implementation. The forced evacuation of the city that day alone killed 100,000 people. Everyone, including the sick, elderly, handicapped and pregnant, was forced to leave. Many died while marching to the fields in which they were expected to aspire to be akin to a ‘revolutionary man’ and embrace a life of hard work and toil in their new utopian communist state. Those who resisted Pol Pott’s generous offer of a new life had theirs taken from them.

Most everyone would be appalled at the notion of the victims of Nazi Germany being forced to live in abject poverty next to a concentration camp, a site in which their family and friends were systematically slaughtered. It’s unthinkable. Yet, this has happened. The names and locations are different, but it has happened, and is still happening at this very moment. The old maxim; ‘change only the name and the story is about you’ is proven through the parallelism of the suffering of innocent people yet again.

Anyone deemed a threat to the revolution was killed. Most historians agree that roughly one third of the population of Cambodia was murdered by the sinister Saloth Sar and his army of brainwashed youths from the Cambodian countryside. There is a dispute as to whether 1, 2, or 3 million people were killed, as in many cases; there is simply no record of the victims’ lives left. The worst crime that the Khmer Rouge committed against hundreds of thousands of their own people is that now it is as though they never existed at all. One of the often unspoken horrors of genocide is the deletion of people’s stories from history. Not only are people killed, they’re erased.

Today the Phnom Penn genocide museum stands as a memorial not only to those who were systematically murdered at that very location, but also to all of those who suffered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. Thousands of tourists a year come to pay their respects and to learn of the horrors of ‘the killing fields’. When walking around the genocide museum, while strolling from landmark to landmark listening to the audio tour on rented headphones and hearing the intricate details of the methods of murder utilized here a very short time ago (which included a ‘baby killing tree’, I shall leave the rest to your imagination, dear reader), one will more than likely be greeted by a hand or two protruding through the fence that surrounds the entire field. The sad reality of travelling in a poor country such as Cambodia is that money simply cannot be given to every person that asks for it, and often these hands are left empty. The irony that haunts the Phnom Penh genocide museum; the very people who discovered the mass graves in 1979 have been left in horrendous, poverty stricken living conditions next to the very place meant to be a commemoration to their suffering.

There are still an estimated 20 undiscovered mass graves in the area surrounding the genocide museum. Upon the resting places of an unknown amount of people sit the homes of around 200 families. Nearby, inside the museum, the horrifying constructions that housed those waiting to be killed are no longer there. This is because they were destroyed by those who first encountered them, and the remnants of them used to build many of the houses that still stand in this small village today. The contentment of these families presents one with a startling realisation; every moment of happiness that these people feel is literally surrounded by death.

The first families that arrived had no notion of the extent of the crimes that were committed in the area in which they were to make their homes, ‘When we first came here, the smell was terrible; we thought it was a landfill’. Originally from the Takéo province, an area notorious for torture under Pol Pott; Mambon is a seventy year old woman and a survivor of the Khmer Rouge’s Cambodia. She walks quite slowly, and is facing health problems, however cannot afford to see a doctor. For a woman that is quite ill and for whom medical treatment is not an option, her temperament is surprisingly robust, and she laughs as we tell her that her appearance is not indicative of her years. Her family farm rice and other vegetables, keep what they need for themselves to eat, and sell the rest in a local market; this is their livelihood. It is a very difficult life, but much improved from existence under the Khmer Rouge, ‘It was very bad working during the Khmer Rouge period. Everyone had to do very long hours of manual labour, and we were all so tired because we were hardly fed at all. Once I ate a live crab that happened to cross my path, because I was so hungry. Many people did this. We had to be careful though, because the Khmer Rouge would beat you or kill you if you were caught.’ Those that didn’t live up to the Stakhanovite standards set were punished severely ‘often when it rained and the fields flooded I saw the blood of other people.’ Although the Cambodian people are no longer at the barrel of a gun, when presented with conditions such as this, one must wonder to what degree the threat of death and starvation has been reduced.

Her home is a small one room shack which is house to all of the possessions she has acquired in her lifetime; her life’s wealth in a room. A large hard surfaced bed takes up the majority of the house. Upon first viewing, it becomes glaringly apparent that feng sui and the pursuit of the perfect IKEA kitchen are concepts that these people will never grapple with. Farming tools, eating utensils and items of clothing are indifferent to prioritization; whatever can find space in between her 4 walls and roof is protected from the elements. Poverty renders presentation redundant.

Bonry and Paea’s house is observable through the fence from inside the genocide museum. They are also farmers, and are of the few in the village fortunate enough to have livestock, although quite often when they leave, their animals are stolen by other villagers. Their son runs around, unaware of the area’s sinister history, as I speak with them. The one thing that everyone remembers upon first coming here is the smell, ‘we discovered this wasn’t a landfill when my cattle began grazing. A cow’s hoof became lodged in the ground, maybe a foot down, and when we finally pulled it out, that’s when we discovered the bodies’. Patrons of the museum glance at the squalor in which this family live as they visit the allocated spots on their tour. The thin line that exists between a public memorial and the commodification of a national tragedy becomes all the more apparent when one witnesses the treatment of its victims by those that profess to be honouring them.

Nearby begging by the fence is a man named Dol. Dol is one of the countries innumerable landmine victims. As a result of its incredibly violent history, Cambodia has more active landmines than any other country in the world. Unable to work, Dol makes his living and supports his 5 children through begging. Two of his children, far too young to ask strangers for money, run around the vicinity of their father playing games and laughing, indifferent to their Father’s daily humiliation.

Although they have been living in the same location for over 30 years, these families still do not own their land. They have no property rights. The Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), the current government in Cambodia, (which is currently led by a man named Hun Sen, an at best shady character that obtained his position as Prime Minister in an incredibly dubious election) is currently in the process of evicting them. Within the next 12 – 24 months, the small village inhabited by those that discovered ‘the killing fields’ will be demolished by a government that is increasingly participating in audacious and shameless acts of land theft from its own people. The location to which these people will be moved has yet to be disclosed; although the villagers have been assured that conditions will be wonderful. Like homosexuality in Western civilisation during the first half of the 20^th century, corruption in Asian politics is best described as an ‘open secret’. Present in Cambodian political life is a pretence of honesty and transparency, which is puzzlingly perpetuated by both the Rulers and the ruled. However, once prodded even slightly, this facile facade crumbles like all other feeble untruths in public discourse.

Most haunting of all are the smiles of the people I speak to. History has branded the people of this small village with an inferiority complex that is both nauseating and endearing; while tragically they have accepted the horrendous oppression and exploitation at the hands of the CPP, their prostration has enabled them to truly enjoy the few pleasures of life available to them. We gather our things and leave the village in possession of an invitation to come back and visit when we return to Cambodia in the future. Hopefully we’ll be visiting the same friendly faces.

Text by Paul Doyle with photographs by David Greene.

It’s amazing to think about all the suffering that goes on worldwide constantly that goes unnoticed and unreported. The world is bigger than our towns and countries.