{"id":523,"date":"2022-01-25T04:44:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-25T04:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/?p=523"},"modified":"2022-12-10T04:49:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T04:49:28","slug":"looking-back-on-15-years-supporting-cambodia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/news\/looking-back-on-15-years-supporting-cambodia\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back on 15 Years Supporting Cambodia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In December 2021, CLA Executive Director Phloeun PRIM<\/strong><\/a> sat down with CLA supporter Dana White for a recorded conversation during a recent trip to the US. Dana reflected on his longtime involvement with CLA and why his experience in Cambodia\u2014spanning five trips that date as far back as 2004\u2014has been so meaningful. Below are excerpts from their interview, lightly edited for clarity:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Phloeun:<\/strong> Hello Dana, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana:<\/strong> My pleasure, Phloeun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phloeun:<\/strong> My first question is: What brought you to Cambodia and Cambodian Living Arts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana:<\/strong> Well, thinking back\u2026my brother served on the board of CLA for many years before I was involved, and he invited me to join him in Cambodia in 2004 to see what it was all about. That was my first time in Cambodia, and certainly the first time I had been involved with CLA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cambodia fascinated me. At first it was very difficult for me traveling there. I\u2019m a spoiled Californian.  At first I had a hard time but then I visited some arts classes [organized by CLA] and suddenly it became more accessible to me, seeing young people learning how to dance, learning how to sing, how to play instruments. Since my whole career was as a teacher, I felt very comfortable with the young people I met. I became more interested in what Cambodian Living Arts was trying to accomplish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had read about Pol Pot and the horrors of what happened in Cambodia. I had a sense of guilt about what America had done in Cambodia with the bombings, and the confusion, the craziness of Vietnam in Cambodia. All of this sort of tied together: a fascination with the young people, what CLA was teaching them, and the need to resurrect Cambodia, especially after what America had done there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phloeun:<\/strong> It\u2019s been more than a decade\u2014maybe between 15-20 years since your first trip to Cambodia. What has kept you engaged and returning to Cambodia five times?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana:<\/strong> Why did I keep going back? I remained very interested in the mission of Cambodian Living Arts and the country\u2019s revival. I really loved Arn\u2019s<\/a> expression, \u201cCambodia will be a country known for its arts, not for the genocide,\u201d and there was a continuing sense that America owed Cambodia something, that I owed Cambodia something after what we did in Cambodia. I despised Nixon, so in a way I was thumbing my nose at Nixon: \u201cLook, you can bomb it, but we can rebuild it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then I got involved with teaching there. I taught English to Cambodian young people. I don\u2019t think I did much as a teacher, but I\u2019d be surprised every now and then at something the students would remember. Once I used a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. to bring an idea of what America is. My students were overwhelmed by the size of America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phloeun:<\/strong> Two years ago, Cambodian Living Arts turned 20. It\u2019s quite amazing for a small grassroots organization to keep going for 20 years. It\u2019s almost like the beginning of adulthood. What I keep telling people is, \u2018for us, for me, 20 years means a lot because it means that we\u2019ve nurtured a generation so that these people now\u2014when we started they were young, and some of them were teenagers\u2014and now they either lead their own organizations, lead their own projects, or teach.  So what I\u2019m looking at now is the next 20 or 50 years for CLA, where we can continue to learn from the past 20 years of practices that we\u2019ve done as a grassroots organization and growing as we are, and then keep being relevant. I like to use that term because it doesn\u2019t mean we have to do exactly the same as we did 20 years ago or 15 years ago, because I think as the context of the country is changing, our relevancy is even more important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I would say one of the most relevant issues that we\u2019ve seen came from a review of our scholarship program. We asked the students, \u201cwhich aspect of the program could be more beneficial for you?\u201d And they said \u201ctackling social issues within the country.\u201d 20 years ago it was about reviving traditional performing arts that were about to disappear. We built a whole new generation of artists, and not just artists but teachers also. So I think although that restoration still needs to continue, because there are some art forms that still need attention, we really shifted toward giving the tools for that young generation to be able to express and create something that is relevant to Cambodia today. And bringing up social issues, environmental issues through arts and culture is something we are really trying to encourage. It\u2019s not about\u2014in the Western world, they would use the term \u201carts activism\u201d\u2014we\u2019re not trying to create activists, but we are trying to get young people interested to be involved within their society to make a difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So if I asked you as a donor who has been supporting us for the last 10-15 years, is there a message you\u2019d like to give us as we are looking to the next 20, 30, 40 years?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana:<\/strong> Some of what you just said surprises me, but I think addressing climate change is one of the most important issues in our world. How can Cambodian Living Arts help with the issue of climate change? It\u2019s an enormous issue. Cambodia could just disappear if we don\u2019t take care of climate change. Before the arts, tackling climate change is probably more important.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Phloeun:<\/strong> We\u2019ve been doing a Cultural Season festival every year in Cambodia. The past three years have been around identity\u2014understanding Cambodian identity, creating Cambodian identity, and engaging with the diversity identities within the country. We give these themes to artists to inspire them and help them create work around those themes. But this year, we decided to shift the theme completely, [from identity] to \u201cAction Today, Consequences Tomorrow.\u201d So we gave that prompt to the artists and asked \u201cWhat are the actions that you are taking today, and what are the consequences for tomorrow?\u201d So we didn\u2019t say that the theme is specifically around sustainability and environmental issues, but that\u2019s our inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, around the development of the city [of Phnom Penh]\u2014lately [the government] has been pumping sand from the Mekong River to fill lakes within the city, and we think that will have environmental consequences for tomorrow. It could be around the Mekong River, the dams; it could be around cutting trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCLA is not just an impersonal organization. It\u2019s people. And that for me is the most important thing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana:<\/strong> How does action today work with climate change?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phloeun:<\/strong> That depends on the artists. If today we allow people to cut down trees, then tomorrow what will remain of our tropical forests? If we say that because we need energy, we need to build more dams, and we cut the flow of the Mekong River, where will the fish go?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We didn\u2019t want to tell the artists exactly what they would work on, but we wanted to inspire them to think about that theme as they create a dance piece, or a theater play, or lyrical songs\u2014it\u2019s all toward that theme and that reflection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana:<\/strong> That\u2019s excellent. I remember once several students saying to me as I put up a map of the world, that \u201cCambodia is so small\u201d and they\u2019d look at the map and feel insignificant. \u201cWho are we? We\u2019re a tiny little country in the middle of these world powers. We don\u2019t mean much.\u201d But if they have the goal that you can\u2019t cut down their forests, you can have an effect, and that\u2019s true with any of the countries surrounding Cambodia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cambodia has been in such a terrible situation for so many decades, and what I love is that you\u2019re now talking about the environmental threat of cutting down forests. When you go back to Pol Pot and the massacres, you\u2019ve come a long way from that\u2014a long, long way. One thing that really struck me driving around Cambodia were the glass enclosures with skulls in them. And you realize that\u2019s what people were dealing with: the killing of civilians, of people\u2014not soldiers; people. Cambodia may seem small and it is small on a larger scale, but it\u2019s very big, certainly in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I don\u2019t know if other countries have the same sort of program as Cambodian Living Arts, or can inspire young people to think, \u201cOK, we shouldn\u2019t keep cutting down the forest, we shouldn\u2019t be damming up the river, and I can create a dance around that, or I can create certain paintings around that, I can use the arts to impress upon people the idea that we may be small, but we do have significance.\u201d\u00a0 All of Southeast Asia is of huge importance to the world. If Cambodia can impress its neighbors, more power to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phloeun:<\/strong> Is there anything else you\u2019d like to share as a long term supporter and also friend of\u2014not just the organization, but also so many people\u2014as a friend of mine, and as you\u2019ve come to know many of these young people who I\u2019m sure, as you have the chance to go back to Cambodia, will all recognize you and say, \u201cDana!\u201d Is there anything else you want to add?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dana:<\/strong> I just look at the faces of all my friends in Cambodia and they flood me with memories, like one time I officiated a wedding\u2014that was a very personal thing. CLA is not just an impersonal organization. It\u2019s people. And that for me is the most important thing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Since his first trip to Cambodia in 2004, Dana White has made several transformational gifts to Cambodian Living Arts, supporting the Arn Chorn-Pond Living Arts Scholarship<\/a><\/strong>, Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia<\/strong><\/a>, general operating costs, and other special projects that have contributed to the growth and sustainability of CLA.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In December 2021, CLA Executive Director Phloeun PRIM sat down with CLA supporter Dana White for a recorded conversation during a recent trip to the US. Dana reflected on his longtime involvement with CLA and why his experience in Cambodia\u2014spanning five trips that date as far back as 2004\u2014has been so meaningful. Below are excerpts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":524,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-blank","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":530,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cambodianlivingarts.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}