1975.
For most of us this year represents Rock & Roll, Mullets, Jaws, Mood Rings,
and Paul McCartney. But in Cambodia it was Year Zero. It represented a cleanse,
a new beginning. Starting from scratch, it sounds like a nice idea. In Cambodia
it was not. April 17th 1975. That was the day when Pol Pot became
the leader of Cambodia. In 4 years he killed over 3 million people. During
those 4 years terror lived in the hearts of every Cambodian. Pol Pot desired an
uneducated society, a society that could be manipulated. If you had pale skin
you were rich. If you had smooth hands you weren’t a farmer. If you had glasses
you were educated. These people were undesirable, these people were the ones
who were immediately killed or tortured. Their fate was already decided for
them and there was nothing they could do to change it.
Toul
Svay Prey High School. It was an average high school; everyday students walked
in and out of its doors. August 1975. Toul Svay Prey High School wasn’t a high
school anymore. Not close. During the Khmer Rouge this school had been
transformed into a prison. The classrooms were divided and transformed into
small tight cells. The hallways were lined with barbwire. Swing sets were used
for hangings. The beds weren’t used for sleeping. If you were lying in a bed it
meant you were being tortured. You couldn’t cry, couldn’t laugh, you couldn’t
show any emotion. This was the Toul Sleng Prison. This prison was not
officially named this. It was called this in hushed voices of surrounding
locals who knew of the prisons existence. Toul Sleng literally translated means
“a ground from which flows bitterness, guilt, and death.” Toul Sleng: that name
that couldn’t be spoken a loud.
2015.
Lush bright green fields. In between the butterflies and flowers you see
something, something that doesn’t fit. Bones. Rewind 40 years. These are what
Cambodia’s Killing Fields are like today. For a place that has so much life,
you wouldn’t expect it to represent so much death. The Cheung Ek Killing Field
holds 8,985 bodies. This is one of many killing fields that are scattered
throughout Cambodia. Many people upon arriving in the Killing Fields thought
that they were finally free. For many of them this was the first time they had
been outside years. They took a breath of the wild fresh air, relieved. Then they
smelled that terrible smell, the smell of death, the smell of rancid meat, not
of pig or cow, but of human flesh. Dread consumed them. They weren’t free. A
blunt force to the head, falling into a pit; that was how their life ended.
They didn’t deserve that ending, they deserved something better. They deserved more than being thrown in a pit
along with thousands of other people. That wasn’t supposed to be how their
story ended. But it was.
Strength.
This what Cambodians embody. They endured a terrible event. But they came out on
the other side. Every day brave individuals enter a place where they were
tortured and imprisoned. They tell their story. Every day. I can’t begin to
imagine how hard that would be. This is strength. Strength is facing your
fears. These people inspire me.
“Tough
times never last. But tough people do.” Robert H. Schuller
