TRUMP’S T.I.A.?

I’m not hearing the expression TIA on TV, probably because most people have never heard of it. My uneducated opinion is that TIA could be Trump’s problem.

TIA stands for transient ischemic attack. It is often called a ‘mini-stroke’, as it displays stroke-like symptoms for a temporary (transient) period. An ischemic stroke is a blockage of blood vessels in the brain, as is a TIA, only the TIA is only temporary.

Trump’s drooping face, a typical stroke symptom, is now familiar to most people, but it was only temporary. His face is now more or less back to normal.

The bruises on his right hand were originally described, ridiculously, as caused by too much hand-shaking. The administration then retracted its obvious lie, and said it was a result of a lot of aspirin. Aspirin is a blood-thinner, so aspirin, or some other thinner, could be being administered to Trump as a prevention of stroke.

Bruised hand. From shaking hands? Or administration of a blood thinner?

Why did they call for a special, semi-secret physical check-up and try to disguise it as ‘routine’? Perhaps the face-droop tipped them off. They gave him a cognitive test to see whether his brain was functioning. Maybe they suspected that a TIA could have caused a malfunction. By the way, the most common cognitive test – probably the one given to Trump – is the MoCA. The MoCA is not just a general test of cognitive function; it tests quite specific functions, such as memory, attention, language, and executive skills. Thus, Trump might have scored 100% on most sections of the test, but failed one or two specific functions.

MoCA questions are considered easy for normal brains, like drawing a clock. Trump said that some questions were difficult. They shouldn’t have been. Maybe those ‘difficult’ questions tipped the doctors off to an area of possible malfunction.

The impairment of one function, say, memory, might prompt the medical team to suspect brain impairment in the memory sections of the brain. They could then go in with an MRI to see whether there was any blockage there. It might even pick up a brain tumor, or a clot. This could be the reason for the extraordinary call for an MRI, which is never part of a ‘routine’ physical examination, as Trump has claimed.

Since a TIA is only temporary, it is possible that the MRI didn’t pick up any ischemia, and so Trump could claim that it was ‘perfect’. (Or maybe they did find something, but Trump just lied about it.) Maybe he has actually had a real stroke.

Assuming that TIA is the problem, or at least that Trump is at risk of a stroke, what is the prognosis? The Mayo Clinic estimates that 1 in 3 people who experience a TIA will eventually have a stroke. I think that stroke prevention will be the doctors’ number one concern for Trump.

There are, of course, many alternative possible explanations for Trump’s physical and mental problems. My TIA explanation ties together many of the threads: 

  • Bruised hand (aspirin?)
  • Need for cognitive test
  • Difficulty of cognitive test

  • Call for secret MRI
  • Droopy face (temporary)

The more the White House tries to hide Trump’s condition with ridiculous lies, such as shaking hands too much, the less anyone will believe anything they say, and the more people (like me) will speculate as to what serious condition is being hidden.

MAGA and the Psychology of Spite

You don’t hear the word ‘spite’ much in the media these days. But I think it might be the most important descriptor of the mood of the MAGA cultists.

I’m taking a lot of this material from Neurolink.com. Spiteful Behavior: Causes, Consequences, and Coping Strategies

 It’s a unique beast that sets itself apart from other negative emotions like anger or jealousy. While anger might lead to an outburst in the heat of the moment, spite is often more calculated and persistent. And unlike jealousy, which stems from wanting what others have, spite is fueled by a desire to see others suffer or fail.

The MAGA cultists want to see the elite and ‘woke’ elements of society suffer. They want Trump to attack the elite Ivy League universities, while not caring about East Podunk State College. They want to take down medical research; those arrogant scientists should not be allowed to find a cure for cancer. And of course, there’s ICE. MAGA gets a thrill of vengeance from seeing hard-working immigrants dragged from their beds, beaten, detained without due process, and secretly shipped off to some foreign hellhole, because it somehow ‘owns the libs’.

At its core, spite often stems from a deep-seated sense of injustice or a perceived slight. It’s the brain’s way of trying to even the score, even if that means cutting off its nose to spite its face (pun absolutely intended). [In the semi-desert Sahel in Africa, they have an equivalent expression: “Shit in the shade”. Think about that.]

Low self-esteem and insecurity can be major drivers of spiteful behavior. When someone feels inadequate or threatened, they might lash out spitefully as a way to boost their own sense of power or worth. It’s like trying to build yourself up by tearing others down –

The desire for control and power is another key factor. Some people use spite as a way to manipulate others or assert dominance. 

The above sounds a lot like the typical MAGA voter.

Here’s a twist that might surprise you: the person who suffers most from spiteful behavior is often the spiteful individual themselves. It’s a classic case of the punishment not fitting the crime – or rather, the punisher becoming the punished. Carrying around all that negativity takes a serious toll on mental and emotional well-being. It’s like drinking poison and expecting the other person to get sick.

Let’s apply this to MAGA behavior. “Smug Hillary looked down on us and called us ‘deplorables’. We’ll show her, and vote against her and her fellow libtards no matter what Trump may do to us.” You can say they got what they voted for, but it was more what they voted against, regardless of the consequences, of which they were fully aware.

I read a great book some years ago, called What’s the Matter with Kansas?, by Thomas Frank.  He examines the phenomenon of people voting against their own interests. They vote to spite some elite group, at their own expense.

Frank posits that the political discourse has shifted from addressing economic inequality, to focusing on cultural issues such as abortion and gay marriage. This shift has allowed conservative leaders to redirect public anger away from economic hardships and towards cultural battles, effectively consolidating their power . [Wikipedia]

Today we see MAGA supporting the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ which will deprive them of their health benefits, but that’s acceptable to them, as long as the GOP doesn’t allow a handful of transgenders to play women’s sports. Trump just refused to release money to provide food assistance to some 42 million poor people, but MAGA says that’s OK, as long as Trump continues to build concentration camps for those raping and murdering immigrants.

Almost every day I hear pundits ask, “How can MAGA vote against their own interests?” When asking the question, keep in mind the spite angle, as voting against your own interests is secondary to spiting the elite and the ‘woke’.

HOW WILL CAMBODIA HANDLE THE CYBERSLAVERY SCANDAL?

Recent events have beamed the spotlight on Cambodia’s massive ‘pig-butchering’ scams. Cambodia is in the international news, especially in Korea (a Korean student was tortured to death) and the United States (the leader of Prince Group had 15 billion dollars in illegal money confiscated).

Prince Bank is undergoing a huge bank run, as investors try to withdraw their money.

Anyone reading the news about this scandal will raise some questions and draw logical conclusions:

1. Chen Zhi, the indicted kingpin of the Prince Group, reportedly owned 10 crime centers, raking in, as he boasted, some $30 million dollars per day. The United Nations and other agencies have identified some 53 crime centers. Who owns the other 43, and what is being done about them?

    2. On such a huge scale, amounting to billions and billions of illegal dollars (an estimated 60% of Cambodia’s GDP), as well as some 100-120,000 slaves working under threat of torture and electrocution, there must be massive corruption in the Cambodian government, as high-ranking officials are looking the other way and protecting the cyber criminals.

    3. Cambodia has a surfeit of banks, casinos, and real estate companies. How is an investor to know which ones are legitimate, and which ones are conduits for laundering the billions of illegal dollars from the cyberslave centers?

    Any investor who pursues these questions is bound to swear never to invest a cent in Cambodia. Even invested money already in Cambodia is already being pulled out. Cambodian investment is about to take a huge hit. Tourism is affected, as Korea (and probably soon to be others) is warning tourists of the dangers of Cambodia, and actually banning Koreans from visiting cities with known cybercrime centers.

    The Cambodian government, faced with this damaging reputation, can turn in either of two directions. On one hand, it can address the issue head-on and clamp down on the corruption. The 53 crime centers, and their kingpins, are well known, as reported and even photographed in the international press. The Government could go after the criminals and shut down the crime centers.

    On the other hand, there are too many influential and powerful people feeding at the trough, raking off billions of dollars. They may not be willing to get off the gravy train. If they insist on maintaining the status quo, the problem of corruption and pig-butchering will persist. Investors will stay away from Cambodia and the economy will suffer.

    Which option will Cambodia choose? It may depend on the severity of sanctions applied by foreign countries, to finally force the government into action.

    COULD PIG-BUTCHERING HAPPEN IN AMERICA?

    I’ve been watching events unfold in Trump’s America – rampant corruption, cruelty, disregard for the rule of law, etc. However, I live in Cambodia, reputed for years to be one of the most corrupt nations on the planet. In recent weeks, the ‘pig-butchering’ scandal has emerged. (look it up for details, or read my previous blog), with hundreds of thousands of ruined lives, kidnapped slaves, trafficking, torture, electrocution, extortion, fraud, billions and billions of illegal dollars scammed and laundered, etc. This is one of the most gruesome violations of human rights this century.

    So when I look at Trump’s corruption, my first thought is that surely Cambodia is much worse. Pig-butchering on such a massive scale could never happen in America.

    Or could it?

    How might a huge scam like pig-butchering ever happen in the USA? Here are some tips from Cambodia that could help Trump pull it off.

    1. Naturally, the highest public officials must be bribed (or threatened) to turn a blind eye to torture and extortion. Just a few bribes to Trump and his rich friends, and you’re home free.
    2. Disable the financial regulation and justice systems so that criminals will not be investigated or caught. Or if somehow caught, then pardoned. Looks like this has happened in the USA already. The politician who accepted a $50,000 bribe on camera has had charges dropped by the Department of Justice.
    3. Build your cyberslave centers in remote areas, or else disguise them or attach them to casinos, so that ordinary Americans don’t see anything. I was quite surprised that educated Cambodians had not even heard of the massive pig-butchering scandal, amounting to an estimated 50-60% of the entire country’s GDP.
    4. Kidnap only foreigners into slavery. No Americans would disappear that way. Who cares about a bunch of unknown foreigners? But don’t make the mistake of actually torturing a slave to death. That happened to a Korean in Cambodia, and the international community, especially Korea, has jumped all over the Cambodian government and exposed the corruption.
    5. Intimidate the media into turning a blind eye. Let it be known that any investigation or reporting will be met with a Trump lawsuit for billions of dollars.

    Now that Trump controls the media, the Supreme Court, the Department of Justice, and the financial system, he could actually get away with a huge pig butchering scam. Just wave some money in front of his eyes. The ringleader of just one of the many operations — the Prince Group scam — has had 15 billion dollars in illegal profits confiscated. That guy once bragged that his pig butchering brought in 30 million dollars per day. Could Trump resist that?

    Finally, just for comparison, the US was the center of the Epstein operations, the biggest child-rape, sex-trafficking scandal in history, and Trump and his cronies have — so far – managed to cover it up. If Trump can cover up such a massive scandal, surely he could cover up any pig-butchering operation in the USA.

    CAMBODIAN PIG- BUTCHERING IS A REALLY BIG DEAL

    “Pig-butchering” is cruel cyber-slavery.

    Cyberslavery, or “pig-butchering”, as it is known colloquially, has become really big business in Cambodia, although most Cambodians are unaware of its existence or influence.

    The criminal industry kidnaps and forces into slavery as many as 100,000-200,000 individuals from various countries. According to Business & Human Rights Resource Center,

     “scamming has become an enormously profitable domestic industry in Cambodia, with formal estimates of the scamming industry bringing in between $12.5 billion to $19 billion per year, equivalent to as much as 60% of the country’s formal gross domestic profit.“

    Let’s repeat that: 60% of the country’s GDP.

    Briefly, here’s how pig-butchering works: Nationals from many countries are lured to Cambodia by ads, promising high wages for work in casinos. When the applicants arrive in Cambodia, they are bundled off into slave labor centers, where they are forced to attract foreigners, either through romantic relationships or through financial scams, to part with their money. The slaves are threatened with torture and harsh treatment. They describe their treatment as “living hell.”

    Recently, this Cambodian corruption has drawn international attention, especially after a Korean was found tortured to death, and another was found in a coma. The Korean publication Chosunilbo has been publishing article after article exposing this fraud, and the Korean government has announced an outright ban on Korean tourists visiting certain areas of Cambodia (Bokor, Poipet), and strong recommendations to avoid travel in Cambodia in general.

    Chosunilbo has been explicit in naming names and organizations, and even includes photos of locations where cyberslavery is alleged to exist.

    The United States has joined the chorus. They have just indicted Chen Zhi, head of the Prince Group (including Prince Bank) and seized $15 billion in assets. Let’s repeat that: $15 billion. The following is a photo of a cyberslavery center published in the New York Times. Note the barbed wire and barred windows.

    The United States is also sanctioning the Huione Group for ‘malicious cyber actors’.  The group is alleged to have laundered some $4 billion in illegal profits.

    Now if all these names, organizations, and locations are well-known to the international press, how can they continue to operate with impunity within Cambodia, in plain sight? I guess I don’t have to spell it out.

    I feel that, with the increased international pressure, and bans on tourism and other commerce, the shit is about to hit the fan. In what form, it is hard to predict. Here are some possibilities:

    In history, whenever a lucrative form of crime (think, Prohibition) gets very large, the various kingpins begin to fight among themselves in turf wars. This could well happen in Cambodia, and as the Cambodian proverb goes, “When elephants fight, ants get trampled.”

    Even worse, suppose syndicate X is supported by government minister A, and syndicate Y is supported by minister B. We then have a civil war between government factions.

    Another scenario is that foreign governments will apply sanctions against Cambodia, in an effort to force the government to act against the criminals. In other countries, as well as in recent Cambodian history, this results in token raids and arrests, made highly visible on international TV, but in fact not much is done.

    Still, if more slaves from various countries are found dead of torture, the outrage might be so tumultuous that harsh sanctions may be applied to Cambodia, thereby forcing the government to act more forcefully.

    With a significant portion of Cambodia’s GDP coming from pig butchering, the trickle-down effects will permeate every aspect of Cambodian society. For one thing, much of this illegal money has to be laundered, which is done through real estate fraud, or bank fraud. Every time you deal with a bank, you should be aware that your money may be somehow connected to the cyberscam industry. Secondly, the perpetrators of these scams have lots of money to spend on luxury items. This may drive up the price of property, houses, cars, etc.

    On the other hand, many of the cyberslavery centers are hidden, out of the eyes of ordinary Cambodians. Remote border crossings like Thmar Da – in the middle of nowhere — now have slave centers. Also, the centers are attached to, or disguised as, gambling casinos, so they look legitimate. Cambodians themselves are not enslaved, and the owners are mostly Chinese, so Cambodians do not appear to be affected. The trouble is, as stated earlier, Cambodians are greatly affected indirectly without realizing it. The government-controlled Cambodian press is not likely to inform them.

    TRUMP’S AMERICA AND THE KHMER ROUGE

    A lot of media sources are pointing to similarities between Trump’s America and Hitler’s Germany. Here’s a different take: compare Trump’s America to Cambodia’s Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge auto-genocide.

    Victims of the ‘Killing Fields’. Coming to America?

    Most historians agree that the horrendous Khmer Rouge phenomenon was caused by resentment of rural people towards city folk. Their anger grew so huge that they declared war on the city dwellers. Recall that the KR drove all the inhabitants of Phnom Penh into the countryside, where they were slaughtered mercilessly. About 2 million deaths, at best estimates.

    The cities had been receiving all the foreign aid; education was found in cities only; the government in PP was seen as impossibly corrupt. The rage of the neglected rural population led to the widespread massacre of the elite. The ‘libs’ you might call them. Or maybe ‘woke’.

    Look at recent elections in the US: it’s mostly rural versus urban. Even in solidly red states, the cities vote Democratic. The small villagers in rural US see the elite libs in the cities as taking all the benefits, including education and the spoils of corruption. They are mad as hell, and they elected Donald Trump to give the middle finger to the city elites (even though he is one of them). And by the way, Saloth Sar – alias Pol Pot – also belonged to the elite and studied in Paris.

    The Trumpies therefore love to see cruelty, as a way to vent their own anger. They get a vicarious kick out of seeing masked ICE thugs dragging mothers and children out of apartments in the middle of the night. They love torture in concentration camps with inhumane conditions like Alligator Auschwitz.

    The KR hated education. Anyone who could read, or even anyone wearing eyeglasses, was summarily executed. The US is going down the anti-education, anti-intellectual road. Elite universities are targeted; medical research is curtailed; and incompetent White House appointees are selected with the lowest possible qualifications. Trump is dismantling the Department of Education. His rural backers will love that. Where is this leading?

    Even the slogan MAGA hearkens back to the KR’s vision of re-creating the glories of the ancient Angkorian empire. Pol Pot’s slogan could easily have been “Make Cambodia Great Again.”

    But watch out! Rural anger could get so out of control, there could be civil war between the cities and countryside. Maybe Trump has already started that war with his military takeover of cities. It could get really ugly and nasty. Trump is promoting violence, to the extent that his critics are receiving death threats and some, like Nancy Pelosi’s husband, have actually been attacked. Attackers are either not prosecuted or else pardoned, so they know they can get away with all sorts of violent acts. I can only see this trend as increasing. Rural rage is not rational or logical; strong emotions can lead to unpredictable behavior. Who could have predicted what happened in Cambodia?

    A US Govt Website? Unsafe?

    A couple of months ago, I wrote in this blog about how the U.S. Embassy in Cambodia had insidiously blocked me from registering my 1-year-old son as an American Citizen.

    Their website, mytravelgov.org, would not allow me to enter because I hadn’t linked to an Authenticator app. So I set up the authenticator, which gave instructions as to how link to a website. It said to go into the website and look for the security settings. This turned out to be a perfect Catch-22. I needed to go into the website to set up the authenticator, but I needed to set up the authenticator in order to enter the website.

    I was temporarily defeated, but had some other ideas as to how to enter the website and set up a new account. I started to do this on Monday, but when I clicked on Citizen’s Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA), the screen went bright red with a warning from Microsoft that the site was unsafe, so please go back. Similar to the image below:

    A US Govt website? Unsafe?

    What’s that? A US Government website hacked or otherwise compromised with a warning not to use it? I suspected Elon Musk and DOGE, who somehow compromised hundreds of government websites in order to extract information, especially about foreigners or immigrants.

    I was so amazed by this outcome, that I wanted to send a screen shot of that red warning page to a friend. Today, however, the site had been changed — the CRBA option had been completely removed. Vanished.

    It appears that it is now completely impossible for American citizens living in Cambodia to register their children as American citizens. What is going on?

    Is this all Trump’s doing? Or Elon’s?

    HEALTHCARE FOR ILLEGALS? — A FALSE RED HERRING

    In a word: “No!” They’re not eligible.

    The US Government shutdown has produced a lot of misinformation about healthcare for illegal immigrants. That seems to be taking on the role of the central issue of debate.

    First, the very term used usually indicates which side you are on. Republicans will say ‘illegal aliens’, while Democrats will say ‘undocumented immigrants.’ If I use the term ‘illegal’, rest assured that I am not taking sides; it’s just easier to type.

    So what are the facts? If you are in the US legally, such as a Green Card holder, you can pay into social security and receive ‘free’ benefits of Medicare, Medicaid, etc. If you are an illegal, you cannot, so you are ineligible to receive ‘free’ treatment. Therefore, any discussion about healthcare must include whether you mean legal or illegal.

    A recent poll on Yahoo! conflates illegals with legals, simply asking whether ‘non-citizens’ should receive healthcare benefits. It is impossible to answer such a question fairly, if you don’t know whether they are talking about legals or illegals. Many of the answers to the poll show precisely that confusion, and show that many people think of ‘non-citizens’ as illegals. Yahoo should be harshly called out for asking such deceptive, biased questions.

    The second confusion lies in the fact that ANYONE (legal or illegal) with an emergency condition must be accepted by hospitals. If a person arrives at the hospital in a coma and a pool of blood, the hospital must admit them, no questions asked about legal status. In this sense, an illegal could receive free treatment. But that rule is not at issue in the shutdown argument. It’s not in the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’, and will continue to be the case, whatever the outcome of the shutdown. It’s a red herring.

    Therefore, Trump’s ad nauseum repetition of the slogan that Dems want illegals to receive free healthcare is bogus on two counts: the fact that illegals are ineligible for Medicare, etc. and cannot just blithely go in for free treatment, as well as the fact that the rule of emergency treatment is sacrosanct precludes its inclusion in shutdown discussions.

    Johnson, JD, and Trump himself all seem to think that by repeating the ‘free healthcare for illegals’ mantra, people will believe it and will heap scorn on Democrats.

    I think this misleading strategy may backfire. It is to the Dems’ advantage to make healthcare the central issue.  If people see the facts, they will realize that the Repubs are trying to cut (Johnson insists on the word  ‘reform’) THEIR healthcare, including Medicare and Medicaid. Trying to spin the argument to being about illegals will show that the shutdown has absolutely nothing to do with illegals. It is all about cutting Medicare, Obamacare, and Medicaid (MOM) for EVERYONE, including white, Christian, middle-class American-born citizens. People of both parties will not like that.

    GAZA — YAWN!

    I haven’t written about Gaza and Hamas for quite a while, mostly because I am pretty bored with the same killings day after day. I think a lot of people, like myself, are just tired of seeing Gaza in the news every day. The media report that Israel has just bombed a high-rise building, but then there are photos that show vast areas of rubble. It looks as though there ARE no high-rises left.

    Gaza – is there anything left?

    There have been, however, some recent developments. For one thing, several countries are now recognizing Palestine as a country. What I find bizarre about this, is that there are two ‘countries’, Gaza and the West Bank. They have different governments – Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, who hate each other and have even fought each other. Which government is being recognized by France and other nations? Oddly, it appears that it is the PA that is being recognized, as a political statement about what is happening in Gaza, not the West Bank.

    Part of my boredom with the situation is the realization that Jews and Arabs have hated each other and killed each other for centuries, and this trend is likely to continue for more centuries. Normally, I would just say, “Let them fight it out.” The trouble with that attitude is that Israel is receiving billions of dollars in military aid from the West, and in fact, Hamas is receiving support from Qatar and the Arab world. It’s a sort of proxy war.  If the US and Qatar would stop supplying arms, I’d guess the conflict would end PDQ.

    Unfortunately, as in all wars, there are rich people profiting from those arms sales. It is in their interest to prolong the war. I’d even like to compare the situation with the Epstein files. The rich and powerful can act behind the scenes with impunity, either in sex trafficking or arms trafficking. I have to wonder how much Trump himself, along with his family, is enriching himself from the war.

    Also contributing to my boredom is the fact that siege warfare has been the norm around the world for thousands of years. One side surrounds the walled city and starves the people out – women and children. Meanwhile they catapult in some fireballs to kill more civilians.  So Gaza is nothing new. Civilian casualties? It’s always been that way. Even in the past century, the US fired-bombed Dresden and killed some 25,000 people in a day or two. Not to forget Japan, where hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed (either immediately or long-term) by the A-bombs. Even before that, the US carpet-bombed Tokyo, killing an estimated 100,000 civilians, and leaving a million homeless. Then there’s the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. The US shouldn’t be lecturing other countries about civilian casualties.

    ‘Disproportionate response’ is another over-used phrase. I guarantee you that if Cuba sent just one rocket into downtown Miami, Havana would instantly be reduced to rubble.

    So now there’s yet another peace proposal on the table. Yawn! Trump’s “20 point proposal” to Hamas could be reduced to one point, nay, one word: “Surrender”. Hamas may be pretty well defeated on the battlefield, but I doubt they will outright surrender. And the fighting will continue.

    In summary, I can’t see how the Gaza story will, or even WHETHER it will end. For Hamas, ‘winning’ means simply surviving, so they will fight to the last Gazan. And Israel claims they must eliminate Hamas, which is impossible. And the rich and powerful will continue to make their millions in profits. I can’t see this ending any time soon.

    PCHUM BEN AND SOCIAL SOLIDARITY

    From time to time, my wife takes me on deep dives into Khmer culture. Every September we travel to her native village to celebrate Pchum Ben, the highest religious holiday in Cambodia.

    Very briefly, Pchum Ben is the festival of offering food to the ghosts of ancestors who leave hell for a fortnight. Indeed, when we went to the pagoda, people were either contributing sticky-rice cakes or else cash to the monks.

    Pretty much the scene I witnessed. The head monk blesses the kneeling gatherers, who then give offerings of food or cash to the monks seated alongside.

    However, what I saw at the pagoda was not people undergoing a personal religious experience from offering food to the ancestors. Rather they were just mindlessly going through the motions of what one is supposed to do on Pchum Ben.

    I do not wish to take this observation as a condemnation or negative comment. Rather, this repetitive act, performed collectively by hundreds of other worshippers, brings them into contact with the deep roots of their traditions. I saw the entire pagoda experience of these throngs of local people as immersing themselves in a tradition of community solidarity.

    Western religions stress individual communication with God through prayer, meditation, and self-reflection. I saw none of this at the pagoda. It was a group exercise, with hundreds of Cambodians reaffirming their connections to their culture and traditions. If anything, they were losing their individual identities by submerging their psyches into the collective consciousness.

    Related to this feeling of solidarity is a feeling of continuity. Cambodians can feel the flow of tradition through generations. This is why the family is so important at Pchum Ben. I could feel that sense of cohesion among the members of my wife’s extended family – infants, parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents together, not to mention the myriad aunts, uncles, cousins, niblings, of all ages. This is not just family solidarity, but the flow of family through the generations.

    The afternoon after our visit to the pagoda, a monk was invited to the family homestead to offer blessings. He chanted (in Pali, unintelligible to the thirty or forty family members kneeling at his feet) and sprinkled holy water on us. Again, this was no individual meditative experience, but rather approval from on high of the family values and traditions. In the tradition of Pchum Ben, food and cash were offered as symbolic gifts to the ancestors for the monks to distribute.

    The evening after the Pchum Ben gathering (and I was told that ‘Pchum’ actually means ‘gathering’), the extended family came to our family house to party. And Wow! Did they ever party! Dancing, singing, and drinking beer for hours and hours into the night. I have to add that it seemed like good, clean exuberance. I saw no evidence of hard alcohol, drugs or sexual misbehavior. The party was all part of the family solidarity, and should be considered an integral part of the Pchum Ben ceremony.

    I want to close with the observations of my wife. She is so happy when visiting her native village – even staying in the house she was born in. She is really ‘in her element’, ‘like a fish in water’, in the bosom of her extended family and all the cultural memes with which she is so familiar. She danced, sang karaoke of her childhood songs, prepared some deliciousl traditional meals, and visited old friends and relatives. Multiply this beaming happiness by the hundreds of people celebrating together in the same way, and you get a feeling for the clan happiness and reaffirmation of family values and traditions.

    I said that Pchum Ben was not so much a personal religious experience but a ‘gathering’ of the clan to reaffirm its traditions. However, the transformation I saw in my wife indicates a profound personal experience, as she connected to all the clan members present.

    As a post script, I want to refer you to the work of the sociologist Émile Durkheim, who in the early 1900’s outlined a sociological theory of religion. A brief summary of his ideas follows:

    Collective consciousness, representing shared beliefs and moral attitudes, emerges through religious practices…..  religion is less about your private thoughts and more about the shared experience of being part of something bigger than yourself.  Religion isn’t some random set of ideas that people just made up. Instead, it mirrors and strengthens what society already values.

    Durkheim’s observations are exactly what I observed in the Cambodian countryside over this Pchum Ben holiday.