Nothing and Some More

But for me, the creativity of the moment is exactly announced by the woman who writes to me and tells me that she is the daughter of a New York Jew and an Iranian Muslim. That there are Jewish Muslims in America strikes me as a very interesting thing and potentially very creative. We're already tasting that on our plate -- Chinese Italian food at some chic SoHo restaurant. But what we are only tasting, we have yet to announce in any formulated way. A woman tells me that she's Korean-African, and then she tells me that's not even the half of it, she's a Baptist Buddhist. I tell that to a theologian friend of mine in Seattle and he says that's impossible. And I said, But she walks, she exists, and somehow we have yet to hear from her.[...]
For example, in Los Angeles, these demographic changes have created enormous dislocation for African-Americans. All the black neighborhoods in Los Angeles -- Watts, South Central -- these are all suddenly becoming Spanish-speaking and Hispanic. You saw in the recent election in Los Angeles a very reputable Mexican-American candidate who was just narrowly defeated, largely because the African-American population voted against him. And they voted against him, in part, because there was all this drumbeat in Los Angeles about how Latinos are the sleeping giant, waking up and taking over the city. It was incumbent on African-Americans to say, you know, we are still here. We matter. We are not being replaced. There's a lot of tension of that sort in this country. Liberals don't like to talk about it because it doesn't fit into their notion of the happy rainbow.

Chy Sila started in 1998 with five titles and a CD copying machine. Today, he has 5,000 master titles -- all copies -- ranging from classical to African, Indian, pop, jazz and fusion.
He sees his business as part moneymaking and part social service in a country that has only one movie theater. OK, maybe what I am doing is wrong, but I am helping my people by giving them something cheap,he said.
An average Cambodian earns $20 a month. How can he buy an original for $16? asked Chy Sila, who sells copies for $3 each.[...]
Copyright violations don't hit Westerners alone. Also suffering are Cambodian artists such as Sous Somaly, a leading flutist who was recently diagnosed with a lung ailment that causes her to cough blood.
A government employee, she hoped to supplement her $12 monthly salary by the sale of her $10 albums of Khmer music. But within days of their release, bootleg copies were available.It hurts me to see them making a profit over my blood and sweat, she said with tears in her eyes

NGO in Cambodia
Child sex flourishes in Cambodia despite crackdown

Similar brothel villages can be found all over Cambodia. Many prostitutes are trafficked from Vietnam, but most are ethnic Khmers, the majority race in Cambodia.
Recent surveys have estimated more than a third are under 18.
Many thousands of children are still being abused in Cambodia's sex industry, said Laurence Gray, regional co-ordinator for development agency World Vision's programme for children at risk.