[deerpig]

US$1500 for something that we cobble together here in Cambodia from rubbish because we don't have any money?

You have rubbish from an industrial collapse? We have rubbish from a fucking genocide! Now THAT is furniture with a story!

We are happy to sell you standup desks built from wood from french colonial Indochina for US$1500. Our new office is being renovated from such a building.

But if you want a REAL story, we have a premium standup desk made from reclaimed wood from work camps run by the Khmer Rouge for US$3000.

For US$5000 you get bullet holes.

[chaostheory]

I know you're being sarcastic, but it's viable if you have the right marketing.

> But if you want a REAL story, we have a premium standup desk made from reclaimed wood from work camps run by the Khmer Rouge for US$3000.

Yes it's a joke but from a non-Cambodian's point of view, this is like selling memorabilia from the 3rd Reich or Imperial Japan ala WWII.

After reading your comment and seeing stuff like Swatzikas (the day version) being displayed in mainstream department stores, or pictures from concentration camps being displayed in restaurants; I often wonder why people in Asia seem so ignorant or insensitive to historical atrocities. Is it because history education over there is near non-existent or do they just suck? Or is it because most people are just indifferent to history?

[deerpig]

>I know you're being sarcastic

So you say, but then you go on as if it had been serious. The comment was meant to be more satirical than sarcastic.

The point being, that trying to cash in on the collapse of a city that had been one of the great industrial centers of the world is being insensitive to the people whose lives have been destroyed by the collapse. Just as it would be insensitive to do so by cashing in on the Cambodian genocide.

As for Asian insensitivity, yes there is some of that here and a lot of it is because western history is taught in about as much detail here as eastern history is taught in the west.

Many people here don't understand the tie between the swastika and nazis because it is an ancient Buddhist and Hindu auspicious symbol.

There is plenty of insensitivity about this part of the world in the west as well. How many people in America believe that Cambodia is little more than a hive of prostitutes and pedophiles? How many tourists come to Phnom Penh or Siem Reap each year not only to see Khmer ruins, but to take tours of orphanages?

There is plenty of ignorance and insensitivity to go around.

I'd love to see you review Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' on Amazon :)

[chaostheory]

> So you say, but then you go on as if it had been serious.

Because it is serious. From our point of view, making a joke about a death camp is poor taste. I was just trying to be nicer in my criticism because I'm less familiar with Cambodian culture than I am with East Asian culture(s).

> How many people in America believe that Cambodia is little more than a hive of prostitutes and pedophiles?

I hate to say this, but Cambodia doesn't even register with most people here beyond being an Asian jungle and the Khmer Rouge, if even that since there are so few Cambodians here compared to other Asians. I would imagine the most exposure people in the US have had to Cambodia is through a cartoon show. We're a lot more aware of Thailand and Vietnam.

> Siem Reap each year not only to see Khmer ruins, but to take tours of orphanages?

Are they not there to adopt or it something else? If they're there to adopt, what's the problem from your point of view?

> I'd love to see you review Swift's 'A Modest Proposal' on Amazon

I'll check it out

[mhurron]

Now this is funny, mainly because $1500 for the simplest of desks made from garbage! What on earth is in the water in Detroit?

> wood from french colonial Indochina

This sounds very nice.