After the rains

The late rainy season paddies looked inviting as I touched down in Cambodia as the first stop on the latest Asia trip. I had some excited feelings about seeing my old friends and colleagues and tackling some interesting work stuff.

I also had the same feeling I always have when descending to Phnom Penh - feelings I can never shake about the corruption that underpins all aspects of life here. As I look at factories and new apartment complexes springing up on the outskirts of the city, I wonder how many are financed by clean money and my guess is very few and therefore whether these can at all be used as a reliable measure of 'development'. In the coming years Cambodia will be classified as a lower middle income country (from a least developed country) but it'll be Phnom Penh's dubious wealth that skews this as much of the country's health and education infrastructure just inches along as the decades pass. Externally the world will label Cambodia as having a stronger economy. Internally the vast majority do not benefit at all.