Cambodia Calling: July 2008

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Menu at this year's G8 summit in Hokkaido, Japan

If you have any doubt how money is wasted at these summits, take a look at the menu. And they are supposed to be discussing solving world hunger and third world debt. Disgusting - these people should be ashamed of themselves. Nod to Pauline for pointing this out to me.

Source: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/food/2008/07/g8_japan_food_menu.html

Dinner

Corn-stuffed caviar
Smoked salmon and sea urching "pain surprise" style
Winter lily bulb and summer savoury
Kelp-flavoured cold kyoto beef shabu-shabu, asparagus dressed with sesame cream
Diced fatty fles of tuna fish, avocado and jellied soy sauce and Japanese herb "shiso"
Boiled clam, tomato, Japanese herb "shiso" in jellied clear soup of clam
Water shield and pickled conger dressed with vinegar soy sauce
Boiled prawn with jellied tosazu-vinegar
Grilled eel rolled around burdock strip
Sweet potato
Fried and seasoned Goby with soy sauce and sugar
Hairy Crab "Kegani" bisque soup
Salt-grilled bighand thornyhead with vinegary water pepper sauce
Milk fed lamb from "shiranuka" flavoured with aromatic herbs and mustard
Roasted lamb and cepes and black truffle with emulsion sauce of lamb's stock and pine seed oil
Special cheese selection, lavender honey and caramelised nuts
G8 fantasy dessert

Wine list

Le Reve grand cru champagne
Japanese saki
Corton Charlemagne 2005
Chateau Latour burgundy
Ridge California Monte Bello 1997
Tokaji Essencia 1999 from Hungary

Thursday, July 03, 2008

New Blogger Template

I screwed up my old blog when farting about with trying on a new template last night. The BLOOM FAQs are gone so have to add that in again. The blog is now black to suit my current dark mood --also the V for Vendetta quote looks better black, no? Anyway am trying to have 3 column blog so will try again. Update: stupid blogger is not compatible with safari or firefox, so i can't just cut and paste. Grrr!

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Snake vs Gecko Part 1!

A couple of weeks ago the dogs barking brought to my attention this snake trying to swallow a beautiful spotted gecko. The gecko was green with red spots. You can see how large the gecko's head is compared with the snake's in the second photo. I'll upload this first and the next pics to follow. Poor gecko: looks like he'll lose this battle!

Snake vs Gecko part 2!

If you look closely, there are some twigs in the gecko's mouth. Dad said maybe it was the gecko's way of saving itself from being swallowed. The snake wound itself around the gecko to suffocate it first. The third photo is awesome: nature at work. The whole process took a long time, almost an hour. Did it succeed in swallowing its prey? Stay tuned!

Snake vs Gecko Final Episode!

Austin was none too happy with the snake. He kept barking at it and the snake struck out once at him and once at Nessie. The dogs were so jumpy. It was quite funny to see them so nervous. Dad the hero -- he saved the gecko when he saw what was going on after he returned from a walk. He had used a stick, the one holding up the gecko, to prod the snake and it panicked and slithered away on a tree. The dogs got all excited chasing the snake. It didn't even occur to me to save the lizard. Actually, its cloudy eyes made me think it was already dead, suffocated by the snake. I just kept on taking photos and some short videos with my camera. Actually I felt a bit sorry for the snake. It was trying to have a meal for almost an hour, patiently trying to swallow the gecko, but in the end it had to give up. Dad then placed the gecko on a tree and we believe it survived, because it was nowhere to be found after a while. So Snake vs Gecko - Gecko wins! ... or at least didn't lose (its life).

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Some argue that "Shopping is more important than voting", and that the disposition of money is the most basic role we play in any system of economics. Some theorists believe that it is the clearest way that we express our actual moral choices, i.e., if we say we care about something but continue to buy from parties that have a high probability of risk of harm or destruction of that thing, we really don't care about it; we are practicing a form of simple hypocrisy." - Ethical Consumerism, Wikipedia

THE BLOOM MANIFESTO

1. We believe in the right of all people to a decent life, free of poverty and with access to education

2. We believe you will be enriched helping the poor

3. We believe women hold up half the sky

4. We believe workers should always be paid a fair wage

5. We believe if you knew the truth, you would not be an accessory to the exploitation of workers

6. We believe exploitation is evil

7. We believe in the power of good over evil

8. We believe in the power of the individual to bring about change

9. We believe your bag is a reflection of you - are you really a sheep?

10. We believe quality is worth paying for

11. We believe in love at first sight - at least where our bags are concerned!

12. We believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of handbags!

WHAT IS A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE?

A social enterprise has as its central objective, a social or environmental purpose, and not the obsession with profits. Yes, of course we want to be profitable, but it is so we can hire even more people in unfortunate circumstances, and offer them a shot at a better life, and not because we want to "increase shareholder value" or for the sake of lining our personal pockets. In fact, the only foreign staff (and founder/funder) does not get a salary from Bloom.

At Bloom, our mission is to alleviate poverty and save the environment at the same time, through our recycled bags.

As a social enterprise in Cambodia, we are competing with many NGOs on the one hand (which get donations) and for want of a better word, capitalistic businesses (which drive down costs in an effort to maximise profits). We recognise and accept the challenges that face all business, but are committed to principles of Fair Play, and will NEVER sacrifice those principles in order to be competitive. This means, for instance, we will never sacrifice workers' pay just so our bags will be cheaper. The average pay at Bloom today is 2.13 times the market rate.

So please, before you ask us to discount our bags, remember that we are not a minimum wage factory; we are a social enterprise. If you want a cheap factory-made bag, Bloom is not what you are looking for. If you agree that workers (where-ever they are--Singapore, Germany, France, the US) should always be paid fairly and are not here to produce goods and services at low wages for the profit of big business, then please consider Bloom. Bloom bags are all hand-made by our small team who spend our working hours dreaming up and making bags.

All Bloom profits go to our Khmer staff and to growing Bloom. Ultimately the aim is for Bloom to be a workers' cooperative, where workers own, manage, grow the business and share the profits.

WHO WE ARE

Bloom is a social enterprise established in Sept 2006 with the intention of providing fair-paying jobs to abandoned, widowed and divorced Cambodian women. Bloom is not a factory. We are a small workshop of nine people who work closely as a team to produce original, quality handmade bags made from recycled rice and fish feed bags.

Every Bloom Bag is meticulously designed, cut, glued and sewn by the Bloom team in our workshop in Phnom Penh. Each bag is handmade with love and attention to detail (the Bloom team really enjoys making bags!), resulting in beautiful, unique bags we are sure you will love and your friends will want!

All Bloom Bags are handmade by our team. We do not outsource to other sewers because we want to be in control of the supply chain, to ensure that everyone involved in making a Bloom Bag is paid fairly. There is no middleman taking a cut and passing on the work to another.

Please Visit Bloom's new workshop off Norodom Boulevard in Phnom Penh and our retail outlets. Bloom is next to Warehouse Pub in the Old Market Area in Siem Reap and at No.808 Russian Market, Phnom Penh.