Cambodia

October 20, 2008

John Vink sees America losing influence.

America is not having the influence on the world anymore that it thinks it has. The decline in influence of the U.S. is a matter of absence. Absence is hard to picture. But when influence by one part dwindles, the void is filled by others. In this case China, South Korea and Japan are replacing the U.S. here in Cambodia.

These are garment factory workers returning home after their shift. They work for $50 per month, share $25 rooms with three or four other co-workers and manage to send home some money to their family even after having been hit by a 20% to 25% inflation in the last year (the price of rice has nearly doubled). They work for Chinese or South Korean companies, which make clothes for American brands they will never wear, unless they are fake.

Just a few days ago, your Deputy Secretary of State, Mr. J. Negroponte, promised a first contribution of $1.8 million to the Khmer Rouge Tribunal. Thanks, but Japan has contributed over $50 million over the past years.

The U.S. Department of State will give some $55 million in aid in 2008 to Cambodia, half of which is meant to strengthen its economy. Great, but China is giving $600 million, is doing a lot more business and is not asking questions. (The U.S. is not asking that many questions either, mind you.)

America is not really part of the conversation over here.

And yet, America’s ghost is felt in the English that is often the common language of these energized trading partners. So factory workers still manage to spend a few hours each week learning the modern lingua franca.