Forgotten Cambodia

There has been a huge influx of bad news.

1. The New York Times, ChannelNewsAsia, the New Straits Times, and the Straits Times all raised the Korean crisis.

2. Three of these newspapers (The first two and the fourth) also mentioned the NZ mine blast that killed 29.

3. But only one (Straits Times) mentioned the horrifying stampede in Cambodia that killed 350+ people.

I understand that 1 is of utmost importance.
But after that I thought 3 had more importance than 2.

I remember a few New Year's Day celebrations. I remember going for New Year's Day in S'pore - the first time with relatives, the second time with good friends. I remember walking along the bridge - the one near the esplanade, the one where you can see the fireworks. The crowd slowly built up as 12am neared. People were everywhere around me. My friends and I were somewhere in the middle of the bridge. We couldn't see the end of the bridge. Then the fireworks started, then ended. Then the crowd subsided slowly as everyone left in a rather organized manner to the train stations/carparks to leave.

But in Cambodia, as they celebrated the water festival yesterday, it wasn't as peaceful or safe, or happy. The crowd built up to cross the river to get to the island where the main events were held. This crowd built up until everyone was like a huge hamburger that stuck very well together. And then suddenly everyone started pushing so hard, it was difficult to breathe. And people fell down, and people shoved and stepped on people. It was so bad that people at the edge of the bridge jumped off. People in the middle aren't as fortunate.

The result, 450 people dead, and this does not appear on the website frontpages of 3 of the major newspapers mentioned earlier. I was pretty shocked that such an incident happened. I was first hinted about it through someone's Facebook update. Then I checked the news - nothing and i wondered what they were talking about. Then I saw the news on the Straits Times paper the next day. Then I checked the news online again, still nothing there. I don't understand why it's not there.

I also don't understand how such a tragedy could have happened yesterday. It's said that a rumour on the overcrowded bridge caused mass panic that triggered the stampede that caused this.

I hope Malaysia, despite our lack of compliance with rules, would never experience such a thing. Heck, I hope this doesn't happen anywhere again. It's like the mass murders I read about in my Southeast Asia module readings (which btw, I was surprised to find out to have happened).



And remember to always calm down yourself and others when there's a panic.