The Weekend News

Each Monday on my way home from doing the weekly shopping, I buy the weekend paper (confusing the newsstands with why I want old news). It’s actually the colour insert of the Cambodian Weekend that I enjoy flicking through while trying to get two and a half year old Mr Happy to take a nap. Articles range from sneak peaks into the workings of a local factory specialising in “stressing” jeans to a report on a rock concert by a peace activist in Cuba.

This Monday I didn’t even make it to the coloured insert (with an extra few pages commemorating the old King’s birthday). The front page held me.

“Father, Four Sons Electrocuted in Floodwaters” by Phann Ana

A father and his four sons were electrocuted and two others were injured in Phnom Penh’s Russei Keo district when an electric cable fell into knee-high floodwaters inside their home, authorities and witnesses said.

The father, Mak En, 65, and his sons Mak Phea, 30, Mak Livon, 28, Mak Livin, 26 and Mak Livan, 23 were all killed when Mr En was electrocuted and his four sons came to his rescue.

“They are all gone!” cried Khin Khon, 58, wife and mother to the five deceased men, at a funeral ceremony held at Wat Uttarawattey in Russei Keo district on Friday. “In just 15 seconds, my husband and four sons… all disappeared.”

Ms Khon and her youngest daughter Mak Dina, 19, suffered electrical shocks and narrowly avoided the same fate when attempting to rescue their five family members who lay motionless in the floodwaters.

Flooding that has plagued Russei Keo district since last year was largely responsible for the deaths, relatives said.

Residents in Russei Keo and other northern parts of the city have said in recent months that the government’s decision to allow real estate developers to fill in natural lakes in the district has lead to severe flooding.

It’s a tragedy on so many levels. In responding to it, my tendency is to despise this country and its leaders that would take $79million to allow the developers to fill the lakes and flood the surrounding suburbs without recourse.

But as Steve reminds me, it’s because of the darkness that we’re here and the hope that it can change that sustains us. Hate momentarily energises us, but will eventually only drain us.

I just pray that I can gain some clear direction over the next year to know where to invest my heart and skills, and gratefully give up my treasured Monday rest-time with the coloured lift-out.