Today I learned about a hero of the Cambodian Genocide.
6 years ago in #steemiteducation by hanshotfirst (76)
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We mice really liked this post friend Han. We learned about Van Chhuon and the Khmer Rouge and about Han the teacher. Incidentally, we are just simple mice. So we really don't understand why 'socialism / communism' appeals to so many. Every time it arises millions are masacred, then everyone starves. That's when we are really glad we are simple mice.
Don't sell yourselves short you little rascals, I think even simple little mice like do understand. If not, you can always talk to your animal friends (just avoid the pigs).
Ahhh yes George Orwell - if more students read Amimal Farm and 1984, maybe then they would realise that socialism should be feared, not craved.
Sure it might be fine and dandy for those aweful blue Smurfs and their leader who bears an uncanny resemblance to Karl Marx.
But for human kind, who are easily corrupted by power and don't generally find work appealing, the system can never work.
Right friend Han, nice chatting - better get back to curating now.
yes i absoultly thanks for sharing this posts
SPECIAL TO @Sniffnscurry
Thanks for sharing and for insuring generations learn form the mistakes of the past. This made me think of Fred Rogers- "look for the helpers" - can't wait to see more. All the best.
Awesome catch! I actually mentioned this to my students this year. I had written a post about Mr. Rogers a few months a go so I left that part out.
Can't wait for the Tom Hanks movie about him to be released!
I'm so pumped to see the Tom Hanks movie - big fan of Tom Junod - The Falling Man is an exceptional piece of writing.
Think you can find a link for the article about Fred - I'd love to read it!!
I can feel where you are coming from. These are such difficult and yet crucial parts of history to talk about and teach. The first things I talk about with my history students is “why” we study history and “historical significance”. They quickly get to the idea of not repeating the mistakes of the past.
Interestingly enough, during our human geography mybstidents get to learn a little bit about genocide and human atrocities. They have to research the UN’s lowest ranked countries according to GDP. The goal is to learn about natural growth rate, employment, health care and education rates. Through this investigation they see big dips in the population rates in countries like Rawanda and Cambodia. This leads to great discussions about the genocides that caused these fluctuations. It is an eye opening experience to say the least. I love that you let your kids see the real you. It build so much trust.
Btw, Schindler’s list was an amazing film!!! Everyone should watch it once.
Wow. Having them discover this dips and then be inspired to ask "why was there a drop in population" is a powerful way to introduce this. Fantastic!
Great words for me, ‘A hero is someone who does what they can’.
I completely agree that Paul Rusesabagina of Rwanda was a great hero. His story motivates me a lot.
Van Chhuon Is a great hero, he chose to prevent his people from starving when he could have left them. Great!
Thank you for sharing his own story. I have learned a deep lesson from his experience.
I surely will use his heroism as example for my students too. More of telling them to make a time paper about him.
That sounds like a great topic for a paper!
I know right. You gave me that clue. Thank you
This is really brutal.
The thing that they had to work 18 hours a day, without being paid, and also being underfed, makes me start losing faith in humanity.
Great thing is that you're looking for heroes in those bad events.
I know I'll definitely appreciate life more.
I'm feeling a little tired and I'm not in a good mood, because I've got so many obligations with college and other things, but I'll be more appreciative of what I have and what I'm doing.
He deserves to be talked about and remembered. He is a hero :)
Great history I must say, I was really carried away by your historical story, very interesting and educative with lots of lessons to be learnt and that is what history is all about, to learn lessons from passed individuals or events and to be very much aware that such things at one point or the other really happened or existed in the world during the ancient times. I love history and I blog a lot about it and today I have learnt something new from you. Thanks for educating me today @hanshotfirst.
My pleasure. This was new to be so I figured I'd share it.
It is true that A hero is a man who does what he can... it is also evident that a hero is compassionate. However a survivor is the one who remembers it forever.
Awesome lessons for your students, they must be glad learning from you
Nelson Mandela is another hero you can look into
Great call on Nelson Mandela.
People like Van Chhuon have a huge heart ❤️. I remember watching “Schindler's List” and I remember when he looked at his ring and emotionally said “this would save another lives”. It also reminds me movie based on true events “Hacksaw Ridge”. If you haven’t seen this movie, I highly recommend it. This guy, medic who refused to bear arms during World War II, but ended up saving 75 men during refused that one night, all thanks to his believes, faith and huge heart.
Great post with true and memorable events!
I loved Hacksaw Ridge! Incredible story.
We are all heroes in our own right, every day we fight for the right cause, everyday we strive to make the world a better place. I would say everyday a new hero is born! Winks!
You are 100% right we all should be heroes!
Thank you for nourishing the community with this information, great story of Van Chhuon, although many heroes are unknown by the masses, as you mention, there will always be survivors who remember them. Thanks for sharing!
These kind of genocides have occurred not one or two but thousands of times along the history, specially caused by communist governments.
This history keeps repeating, and for some reason, people keep falling in the same trap. For example, I'm from Venezuela and even though there are people starving here, an like you said the government trying to force people to turn into the "agrarian society", people from other countries still keep voting for communist leaders!
To put things into context, before we had a dictatorship, Cuban people told us not to vote for a communist leader, and most people voted for a communist leader. Then we tried to warn people from Nicaragua, and now they are being killed in protests, because they didn't pay attention to our warning. And despite all of this, people from Mexico want to vote for a communist leader too. I just don't understand what is happening and why it continue happening despite the problems it can cause.
I second what you say. Heroes have been there in every genocide along the history, for example Irena Sendler in the holocaust, who saved a lot of children's lives, Oscar Pérez, a man who died defending Venezuela this year, or those anonymous people who help families escape from Syria or African dictatorships.
I don't know many of them, but I'm sure they deserve to be named. They deserve admiration and respect. They could have decided to save their own lives, but they decided to save others instead.
Sadly, I had not heard of Oscar Pérez, I am going to be researching him today. I hope more heroes step up. Thank you!
@ralk98
Ya veo que es dificil para un Venezolano no sentirse impactado por esta clase de escritos, donde vemos como de cierta manera estamos viviendo cosas similares. A mi me pasó igual que a ti después de leer el post.
Creo que acá habemos muchos héroes, nos hemos tenido que obligar a tener valor y hacer sacrificios para no perecer. Los que se van, los que se quedan, todos somos héroes.
Growing up this topic was one of two I had a teacher that you could just tell wanted to break down in front of the class and just cry while they went over the course of the material for it. You could just tell he was so sick to his stomach about covering it but it was important to cover so he pressed on.
I had some teachers who would skip over things they were supposed to cover but did not because it made them feel unconfirmable talking about it. I’m glad unlike some of my friends who had a teacher who shorted the amount of time the class spent on it. That my teacher did not.
I doubt they ever talk about Van Chhuon or lest I don’t recall. I just recall some of the photos and a video that was shown. Some things you never forget and for good reason. We can do better as humanity than those times.
Hello dear @hanshotfirst, That little piece of Cambodia's history is horrible, knowing and transmitting it is already part of a certain change and learning. I have learned a lot in your class today. May God bless you and fill you with abundance.
Regards....
Incredibly inspirational, thank you for sharing this with us.
There's always more good than evil in this world and we need people like you to shine a light on them <3
What a story. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! I had never heard of Van Chhuon before. I came up with a little reading for my students based on some of those articles. They are doing it on Wednesday. I think they will be impressed with him.
I have heard of Pol Pot but am unaware of the atrocities he committed it's is funny how we only hear about certain genocides like that King Leopold he wiped out millions. I think i remember one of the Rothschild's saying that what Pol Pot did was one of the most important "social experiments" it is shocking that people look up to the man.
I would like to challenge the idea of "remembering means being able to not repeat" as it realy depends on what we remember, which again depends on the state of mind. If I want to remember that my parents where unfair to me in my childhood, I will remember it that way, make the past look like it was that, regardless of what actually happened. So the question then is, why did we end up wanting to believe that a certain past was the way it was? So remembering demands the understanding of our past and state of mind. And this is where I think we have a huge challenge. Do we realy know about the holocaust? Have we realy in detail, in depths understood the causes and mechanisms of that horrible part of humans? I dont think so. So simply remembering something will not prevent it from happening again, infact one could claim that remembering something could also be why it will happen again. I would also bring another example. Aparently the Egyptian kings had different strategies of dealing with their death. One strategy was hiding it in a super monstrously big monuments, the pyramids. Another strategy was to hide - in the valley of the kings. So the lets remember version are the pyramids. The lets forget version are the hidden graves in the valley. So the idea of remembering led to the stealing of all. The hidden graves are still not all revealed. In this comparison we could explore the question, if forgetting would actually liberate us from repeating it. So, in other words, how does remembering prevent anything?
Thanks for your share. I informed your way.
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A meaningful lesson about the heroes of Cambodian Genocide.
@hanshotfirst A very meaningful allusion to all societies on a journey of life
Speaking of a hero to a very long story with a history-filled struggle, sadness and happiness are the flower of life that everyone feels. Talking about human life will not be inexhaustible with all sorts of twists and turns of life.
Learning is very important everyone must know sejar, life without history as a tampa soul life is like a society that does not know the history of making the State without residents.
We can see a dashing brave hero who has transformed life from colonization into independence, speaking of Oscar Schindler's heroism in Poland during the Holocaust and Paul Rusesabagina's courage in Rawanda
One of the 20th century genocide we studied took place in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The genocide was carried out by communist leader Pol Pot and his followers in the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot wants to "restart history", turn away from modern technology, and return to pure agrarian society. He forced people to work in the fields for almost 18 hours every day. Because food is rationed, many people die from overwork and starvation. Others were executed for being enemies of the revolution. A common "crime" against the regime should be well educated. In the end, between 1.5 and 3 million people died as a result of Khmer Rouge policies and tactics.
As Chief of the tribe, Chhuon can convince himself and the safety of his family by handing his Communists to the regime. He can keep an eye on the villagers to make sure they do not eat too much or hide food. He can be sure there are no teachers among them who might do the unthinkable and educate the farmers. He can leave prisoners in prison. He could take the easy way out. In 1979, Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge.
This shows the most intense events of the time of the war and this must be a learning that means future generations.
A perfect post to become a valuable science.
Thanks @hanshotfirst
Best regards from aceh provinsi indonesia
There are lots of heroes, we do not know about. They sacrifice their lives, even sometime it got the effect on their family. But they did not stop. Because they beleive in humanity.
Rest in peace all the heroes of the world, we do not know or may don even heard of. Be happy in the after life and watch over us from their.
Definitely, history shows us the mistakes we once made, and teaches us not to commit them again. It also teaches us how we can overcome any adversity and how valuable we are. Good post, see you later my friend.
That's really a good history, also learning.
Thanks for your post.
The fact that about 25% of the population was killed or tortured says it all. Van Chhuon was one of the poorest men in Cambodia. He even stopped mass starvation by sneaking his charges extra rations—a crime punishable by death. When the militias turned up, looking for a known “enemy of the revolution,” Van Chhuon would tell them that another group of soldiers had already taken the target. He was one of the many heroes of the mass genocide. The past is important to mould the future into a better future.
So glad that some people realize there were five major holocausts of the 20th century, not just one, and that the one that gets all the credit was only the third-worst. This one and #5 (Armenia) get short shrift, and I thank you for bringing it to light.
(Three of the five-- and as many as 50 million deaths --came from the COMMUNIST PHILOSOPHY and from Communist governments.)
I remember the day the Holocaust was introduced to us in our History class so clearly, I couldn't believe the horrific tales that our teacher was telling us and I lost a whole lotta innocence that day! But I am glad it shocked me, and stuck with me, because hearing all the "bad", made me want to be extra "good", almost like I had to make up for the evil of the world. So please, keep doing what you are doing, you are not only discussing heroes, but you are potentially helping to create ones!
It is a big responsibility to share the events that happened in the past also to be able to bring it in the way so that young people so that they understand and take it as a lessons. Many people may just listen and try to forget thinking that it was in past and never comes back, but we are just human and it is known that we like to learn on our own mistakes. I like the why how you presented that topic and it is great to know that there is some change from the history classes how I learnt it in the past and now, hearing your way of teaching :)
Woooow! I wish my professors of universal history would have had the passion and you commitment for your students learn even the hardest lessons.
In my case, I remember that the teachers focused on the domain we had over the dates (without teaching us to understand why), but perhaps the children, youth and adults of my country (Venezuela), are learning and understanding more about history than what they explain in the classrooms.
I was very struck by what you write in your post:
This part moves the deepest part of me because in effect it is what the government regime that we have does:
-The food is suppressed (and a hungry child only thinks about eating and not about learning)
-They suppress medicines and a sick child only thinks about being healthy
I congratulate you, I admire the effort in your classes. Hopefully one day they can study the Venezuelan case, where many die of hunger, others for not having medicines to cure themselves and although there is no genocide many flee to other countries to find a way out.