Traveling to Addis Abeba in Ethiopia and to Phnom Penh in Cambodia

 

From May 5th until June 11th, I was travelling with two different politicians to Ethiopia and Cambodia, taking part in their meetings and taking pictures inside and outside the meeting rooms. The trip to Cambodia was almost entirely financed by my pictures.

Both trips deeply impressed me. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world, struggling to win the race for food against population growth. The influence and presence of China is gigantic. While rich families invite 1700 guests to their wedding at the Hilton Hotel, others in the western part of the country are starving due to a three years lasting drought. Their women are beautiful and so is the Ethio-Jazz Fusion. Cambodia is a raped and violated country. It was abused during the French occupation of Indochina, violated by US Bombing in the seventies, lacerated by Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge regime and today their children are raped by Western Sex Tourists. All those wounds are still visible. You can see them in their faces, in the way they (don’t) talk to you and to each other. I am still puzzled about these learnings. I am still hurt about the injustice I saw and it is taking time until I can put what I saw in words.

Detailed reports in German language can be found herehttp://andrea-moerike.de/
I will add bits and pieces step by step. Less detailed summaries in English language will be posted in this blog over the next weeks.