Reams can come true

Neither Ruby or I have been to Ream National Park. So here we are for the next leg of the holiday. Ream is on one of the Cambodia coastline's peninsulas, in the same province as the den of iniquity Sihanoukville. On very brief occasions I've entered into the den.

The afternoon was spent mega chilling, making edits to the book Ruby has been working on all year. It explores family dynamics, societies and cultures across different geographies - India, Australia and several others.

Ruby's parents live in Delhi. One recurring theme we discussed is the confronting nature of Indian society. The caste system that perpetuates suffering and misery should be a reason to protest against a government that would claim to be working for all Indians.

In other confronting areas of life in a metropolis such as Delhi, rich motorists block roads as they're too occupied chatting on their smartphones or people use others' parking spaces while they pamper their pooch at the vets. These are more like inconvenient behaviours largely accepted (or tolerated) by many Indians, but that appear more aggressive because of the seething mass of humanity crammed into a small area. Someone doing the same on the streets of Canberra or Manchester would be labelled outright rude by most people around them.

I don't think we have the right to label these behaviours as wrong, as the labelling is done under the lens of whatever cultural standards of decorum exist wherever we're from. We can observe differences, realise they clash with the behaviours more familiar to us, think about how they affect a society and wonder whether accepted practices change over time. But to label something based on our own experiences does a disservice to the intricacies of a culture.