In October, while Jon was teaching a day-long seminar at the Royal Academy for Judicial Professions, I had an opportunity tour Tuol Sleng Prison, the site where the Khmer Rouge regime killed most of the intelligentsia of this beautiful country.   Genocide, as described on the printed page or portrayed in a screenplay, can be moving.  It’s disconcerting sometimes to confront the banal settings in which these events occurred.

On the second day, we visited the Royal University of Law and Economics and Pannasastra University of Cambodia Law School.  We talked to the deans about what assistance would be most helpful, what are they not getting.  Cambodia continues to struggle to rebuild the intellectual and educational capacity of their country.   The responses were intriguing and, frankly, illustrated the fact that technology is changing faster than we can accommodate it.  Our aid work doesn’t yet fully embrace that potential.

As a complete aside, Phnom Penh is delightful, with a lingering French influence and local and expat food that was just wow.  Yes, I could live here.  I won’t, but I could.