on the streets where we live

“I need an update on the state of the crèche.” I make this request when I spot Ian peering into the street below from the terrace. We now know the 4WD ute, parked in the street just below our place every evening, operates as a child minding service. The children who often occupy it happily skylark, shout, play and eat instead of being on the road. I was sorry to know clamps were being removed from it by the police early one morning but glad that this run of local businesses with young, working women have a small, safe urban playground for their children and a grannie who oversees and engages those children, at least until their own grannies arrive to take them home. That’s the primary use for the back of the ute. There are always at least three and sometimes many more kids so while it might not be ideal it’s better than nothing and certainly an ingenious solution to a problem that is not going anywhere anytime soon.

There is a foreigner who walks these streets daily: something we also do but with very different intent. We have spotted him while returning home from the market in the early morning, wandering back from a riverside stroll and on our way to and from many local places we frequent. He looks clean and pretty well dressed and often has one arm in a makeshift sling, created from a krama. Several times in the late afternoon we have noticed him quickly scoop something up and stash it in the sling. Finally we realized he was taking the offerings made at the temporary, street side altars many local businesses set up on the footpath, at the entrance or on a table nearby, for their businesses. It’s a daily practice and no one really seems to react or mind that he does this. “Is he really destitute?” I hear the naysayer in me ask. Some mornings he is out wandering without his sling and at least a couple of times we have seen him quietly sharing a beer with a mate in one of the many bars nearby, as we ourselves have been known to do. I’m not judging. It’s just an enigma. 

Recently a friend enlightened us about the wobbly financial scenarios many young Khmer are entangled in. There are tales of exploitation by loan sharks, accountants taking advantage of the loop holes and minimum transparency in the banking system and dubious community based financial arrangements between locals. In a society where so many are financially vulnerable or locked into generational poverty, this kind of predator behaviour sickens me. Financial literacy which might help avoid those kinds of traps and help people see the inherent danger in over burdening themselves with loan repayments, isn’t easily accessed and no doubt costs money those who need it most can’t afford. I’m no wiz kid on the financial management front myself and tend to oscillate between absolute frugality and unnecessary indulgence. However I do realize one can get into very difficult financial situations by refusing to compromise about what is actually affordable. Realistically the micro finance business is unscrupulous and leaves people with debts they might not be able to pay off before the next financial crisis hits.  That situation won’t negate the debt and so the spiral begins.