Media Missionary Focus

Angelina Jolie; Cambodia’s Newest Citizen (or Where Does The Buck Stop?)

Today I pulled up the news on the Fox News website and found a picture of Angelina Jolie on their frontpage with the headline “Angelina Jolie Awarded Cambodian Citizenship”.

Let me say that Angelina Jolie has had a bit of history here in Cambodia over the last few years. A few years ago, she filmed a part of here “Tomb Raider” movie here at Angkor Wat. While she was here, she was touched by the Cambodian people and their situation. So, she set about trying to help in some way. She gave a $1.5 million dollar donation to a local community development organization to help preserve Cambodia’s environment and also adopted a young child. So because of all this, the Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, told her he would get her Cambodian citizenship, and now the king has signed a royal decree officially granting her that citizenship.

Now, despite the title of this posting, I am not really trying to say anything, or make any judgments about Angelina Jolie; I think she was acting in a way that she felt would best help the Cambodian people, and I’m glad that she has at least tried to do something (she isn’t the first major Hollywood star who has filmed in Cambodia, but most of them have portrayed in a negative way, and none of them (as far as I know) have done anything to help the country long term). I am more bothered by the system that allows these kind of things to go on.

What am I talking about? Well, for example, international adoptions to the USA are still pretty much illegal. But, like many things here, if you have enough money you can pretty much do whatever you want. International adoptions here are big money makers. Groups will pretty much buy children from their parents and essentially sell them to families overseas at a huge profit. How do they get around the legal issues? Typically, various amounts are paid to the right people, and the right papers get signed. Is this what happened with Angelina Jolie and here adopted Cambodian child? I have no idea; I am just telling you about a common problem here.

Another angle of the whole thing is something typified by this granting of citizenship. Things here just sort of work like that; if you know the right people, have enough money and have good connections, you can pretty much do anything and get anything you want. And I admit, that’s not all that different from anywhere else in the world, but it is still frustrating to see everyday people ignored and mistreated and unable to get some of their simplest rights respected while people who are “connected” operate above the law.

It’s no different from anyplace else, or any other time. Jesus dealt with the same thing when he was on Earth. And He addressed it directly in telling us that the Kingdom of Heaven wasn’t like that and that we should be no “respecter of persons”. Instead, we should be elevating those who are the least of society and reaching out to them with the love, compassion and respect that Jesus showed them.

Yet I find myself constantly struggling with this same issue. I tend to give preference to those who are “somebody”, and ignore those who are “nobody”. And maybe that’s what really bothers me about the whole Angelina Jolie situation here; it reminds me that not only does this system of special treatment exist, but I benefit regularly from it, and in some ways even help perpetuate it. I guess it hits a bit close to home.

So have I been granted citizenship and various special privileges for giving $1.5 million to some local development group. My knee jerk answer is “of course not.” But I do get special treatment because I work for a recognized “relief” agency that over the last 13 years has probably given close to that amount. It’s not something I actively pursue, But I still know it’s true. Just the simple fact of my skin color opens doors that elevate my treatment above everyday people in an unfair way. Let me give you a simple example. Three days ago I went to pay our electric bill. You can’t mail it in here, so everyone takes cash to the company office to pay. So at the office there is a large room with a long counter where you pay, and it is always jammed with a big crowd of pushing and shoving people trying to force their way to the front (people don’t get in orderly lines here to wait for their turn, it’s just a free for all mob kind of thing). But when I walk in, one of the employees will quickly see me and wave me to the front and skip everyone else, just because my skin color says “I’m a foreigner who has money or connections or both.” Do I say “no, I’ll wait my turn”? No, I go right up and pay. So yes, in some ways I am part of the problem.

I don’t know that some of those things will ever change, but our challenge is to live as a part of the solution; the Kingdom of God on Earth. So I guess the buck stops here, with me.

posted by Troy In Cambodia @ 9:01 AM