Thursday, May 10, 2012

The yearly cycle of inefficiency & ineffectiveness

Apparently the Royal Ploughing ceremony (May 9th) heralds the end of the hot season in Cambodia & the start of the Rainy season.  Which is good because it has been really quite hot here - if sweating was an olympic sport I would be sure of a place on the podium.

The hot season is littered with various public holidays - cynically I believe they have been created because it is simply too hot to do anything else but sit in a hammock. We have Khmer New Year which on paper is a 3 day holiday invariably making a 5 day weekend, but in reality means people (by this I mean doctors, nurses, teachers etc. - you know the non-essential people in society) are all away for weeks & I really do mean weeks. Also the over charging on public transport occurs for a good week beforehand & at least two weeks after the holiday.

Other holidays in the hot season include - International Women's day, International Labour day, Visak Bochea day & 3 days for the Kings birthday - another exceptionally long weekend. All in all, productivity is significantly reduced for the 3 months of the hot season. It is too hot, it is too humid, people are too hot, people are too sweaty, people can not sleep too well so get tired & irritable (or go troppo) - so what with the numerous public holidays & general lassitude it is not the best time to get things done here in Cambodia. Unless you want to get married - then this is the perfect time to do a wedding, lots of guests will come, the rain won't keep those envelopes stuffed with $$$ away. Yep, the only thing that does happen in the hot season is weddings (& funerals), pretty sure there must be a dip in birth rate in December to February though - it is far too hot for any of that funny business currently.

Then it starts to rain - roads become treacherous, things go mouldy, dust turns to mud, things generally leak. Getting around can be difficult in the rainy season, plans can be disrupted by an unplanned violent tropical storm, roads become unpassable - its all very wet (but verdant & beautiful and there are less bloody weddings). Last year a large area of Cambodia was under flood water, this made anything other than surviving quite challenging for the thousands of Cambodians who lost there homes & rice crops.

The Rainy season has its own fair share of public holidays - two less than the hot season but over a longer period of time. International Children's day, Queen's Birthday, Constitution day, King's Birthday (father & son both get a public holiday), Coronation day & the the pinnacle of the rainy season public holiday - like our August bank holiday - guaranteed to be the wettest days of the entire year we have Phchum Bank, 3 days holiday, in reality a fortnight of rice balls being thrown in Pagados at the ancestors & a hell of a lot of drum banging for the 3 month run up. Wet & noisy - my favourite combination.

What with the flooding & the mud & the drum-induced lack of sleep the Rainy season also poses quite an obstacle to achieving anything.

Then the rain stops, it is cooler & then the rice harvest begins. People can't work because they need to be on their land getting the rice crop in, food/money for the coming year. So it cool, not so muddy, not so dusty, one can sleep at night (with out a fan & sometimes with a blanket), one can get around on the roads BUT ABSOLUTELY NO ONE is actually in their workplace or school. Of course I exaggerate some people show up - maybe the same as when it is incredibly hot or when it is dangerously wet.

During this mass country-wide rice harvest there are several more public holidays. Independence day, International Human Rights day (*cough*), International New Year day, Victory over Genocide, Meak Bochea day & another 3 day (i.e. 2 week) extravaganza - Water Festival Ceremony.

Then end of February, beginning of March it begins to hot up again, on go the air fans, here come the power cuts & the yearly cycle of inefficiency & ineffectiveness continues.

And I wonder if this is why most of the high income countries are in the temperate zone & most of the low/middle income countries are in the tropics?

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