Darkness

The supply of electricity in Cambodia is a little bit of a hit and miss affair.There are plenty of street lights with lots of cables slung between them and running to the houses and shops. I guess the supply isn't enough to match demand as there are often power cuts. When this happens people climb the street lights and carry out DIY style of maintenance and the electricity is almost always restored .One of the great pleasures of living in a hot country is sitting out on the balcony in the evening having a drink and a chat . The street lights here provide an unobtrusive low light and even though we are in a city the stars are clear and bright.I was rather fed up this week to read in the paper that the French Government plan to donate a lot of money to upgrade the public lighting in Phnom Penh in order to make it more attractive.Two very attractive commodities, darkness and silence are rapidly becoming extinct in this world and should be preserved. For once I am hoping that the well developed system of informal payment in this country will ensure that not enough of the allotted funding will reach the project it is supposed to be supporting.