My recent trip to Asia - February 2005

Don't take my earlier comment the wrong way, these are great c.i., keep them coming! I just had to laugh at that raised freeway running in front of all the buildings.

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thanks, ci, for the pictures and the narrative. rjb-

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CONTINUED:

The following morning, we caught our bus to the airport for our 11:40AM flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was only a one hour flight, so we were able to visit Angkor Wat for a couple of hours after our check in to Raffle's Grand Hotel d'Angkor, the best hotel in Siem Reap as of this month.

They are building some five star hotels in Siem Reap that should be completed before year end. The one advantage of Raffle's Grand Hotel d'Angkor is the ambiance; the old-world charm of staying at a hotel that has some history with great service and food. However, there is a dreary side to the smiles and great service provided to it's customers at this hotel which we learned after we were ready to leave for home. *Sorry for it's length, but I thought it important enough to share with future travelers.

"The Grand Hotel D'Angkor, in the shadow of the ancient Angkor ruins in Siem Reap, Cambodia, stands as one of the crown jewels of the Singapore- based Raffles chain, owners of Swisshotel and of some of the most renowned hotels in Asia. On my stay there earlier this year I mused that the company must have trained the staff to project the beaming smiles with which they invariably greeted me.
As I later discovered, the warmth of the Cambodian people is genuine. But at this hotel the workers were making a special effort. Working at the Grand brought them a chance of lifetime to escape grinding poverty and reap the benefits of an economy now open to tourism, investment and capitalism. But the promise, it turns out, was something of a mirage.
The experience of these workers points to one of the crucial weaknesses of the efforts to bring progress to the poor by opening free markets around the world.
The Grand Hotel, a 1927 art deco treasure, now stands at the center of a brazen act of exploitation, marring its tradition of excellence and threatening to undo a distinguished legacy in the annals of Asian hospitality.
Cynicism melted for me over the weeks as I spent time talking to the waiters and waitresses who started recognizing me at breakfast every morning. I got to know the always-dapper concierge who flashed a wide smile every time I walked by his desk. I learned the life stories and hopes of many people in and out of the fabled Grand.
Their families had lived through the horrors of Cambodia's genocide, its drawn out civil war and a twisted and disastrous experiment with communism. And yet, like many in the new Cambodia, they were remarkably kind and open. They were committed to excelling in their jobs and trying to make their way out of poverty in a country where the average income is less than one dollar a day.
Today, most of the people I met at the Grand stand without work, fired by the management of a hotel chain whose motto describes it as a "Creator of Lifestyles."
The dapper concierge was Pat Sambo. He was also the president of the hotel union while I was there. Under the deceptively soothing sounds of piano notes in the laid-back bar, behind the serving of tiny fruit kebabs by the pool, workers' representatives like Pat Sambo, as well as those of several other luxury hotels in Cambodia, were already in crisis mode.
The workers wanted the hotel to give its employees the proceeds from a 10 percent service charge it added to guests' restaurant bills. The hotel refused.
Pat Sambo was one of the highest-paid staff members. "I make $100 a month, " he told me proudly. Most others made much less. His entire monthly salary would not have covered one night in the cheapest room in the hotel. A stay at the Grand ranges from $250 to more than $2,000 per night.
The workers said the service charge belonged to them according to the law. Hotel management claimed it was already giving the workers the money in the form of training, uniforms and assorted benefits.
Does Raffles handle the service charge this way at any of its other properties? Raffles' spokesperson Judith Tan said, "I cannot comment on that."
A Cambodian government arbitrator ruled in favor of the workers, so the hotel simply stopped levying the service charge.
The workers went on strike on April 8 and the hotel was forced to close. Raffles fired Pat Sambo and more than 200 of his colleagues, along with another 100 at the Phnom Penh Raffles.
A few weeks later, the hotel reopened with new employees. On April 30, according to Raffles', the workers elected new union representatives. One week later, the corporation issued an upbeat press release announcing the strike was over and the labor dispute resolved. Manager Riaz Mahmood declared himself delighted and looking forward to a successful future with a deal that "reinforces the positive working relationship between the two parties."
And the fired workers? Tan tells me quite simply, "They are no longer our employees."
Pat Sambo says the strike is still on. He claims the workers will succeed, but it is hard to see how. His hopes that the government would mediate an acceptable solution have dissolved in Cambodia's chaotic politics.
The international community -- which has persuaded poor countries like Cambodia to open its doors -- has done little to ensure that foreign investors treat Cambodian workers with anything resembling the rules that apply in the rest of the world. This is the kind of practice that gives globalization a bad name.
The union has been reduced to asking for donations at the gate of the ancient Angkor temples -- begging, really, like much of Cambodia's population.
Calls for a boycott of Raffles are making their way through Cambodia's expatriate community, but the hotel rooms are beginning to fill up with wealthy tourists from the United States and other countries.
Despite the encouragement of European and U.S. union activists, the incipient labor movement of the new Cambodia, looks broken. Enormous corporations wield great power there. Workers are caught between the unrealistic encouragement of foreign labor activists and the reality of their powerlessness.
Source: Frida Ghitis, "Labor movement for Cambodians is hardly working," San Francsico Chronicle, 20 June 2004."