Stay Alive, My Son by Pin Yathay: book review

Stay Alive, My Son (1987) is an emotional, yet profound, true account of the authors struggle to stay alive during the Khmer Rouge rule of Cambodia.

Currently the general elections of July 28, 2013, have re-instated Prime Minister Hun Sen, for another five years, to extend his 28 year term. But before him was a reign of Khmer Rouge terror.

The novel commences in April 1975 with the fall of Phnom Penh, when Khmer Rouge guerrillas moved into Phnom Penh. In three years, more than two million people died and an ancient culture was stripped bare.

The author, Pin Yathay, has a wife and three sons. An engineer with a good education, he was reduced to a labourer in the fields and rice paddies of his district, to join the peasants, the ‘Ancients’. Moving as the Khmer Rouge dictated, he became one of the ‘New People,’ a deported person in the refugee camps of Cambodia—“a lower and despised order … no one complained. We were all paralysed by fear of the Khmer Rouge …” Banished from households was disharmony. Husbands were forbidden to beat wives. Insults were barred. Children were not meant to be scolded. But “tension emerged in other ways” as children were encouraged by the Khmer Rouge to denounce parents whose behaviour fell short of the ideal. “You had to be made of stone, to stay deaf and mute, and blindly obey orders if you wanted to survive.”

“It was not long before the dying started. Even in the first week …” First his youngest son, two years old, dies of fever. A month after the fall of Phnom Penh his oldest son, 9 years old, dies after fainting at work, his leg infected and infested. He plans his escape to Thailand.

Simple in his diction, but powerful in his story-telling, Yathay tells of life, struggle, loss and death, but also of freedom.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

2016 update on Rike Park, Tbilisi: from construction to busy park

From a flat patch of uninteresting dirt, Rike Park in Tbilisi, Georgia, has transformed in four years (from 2014-2016) into a busy park full of trees, flower beds, sculptures, fountains, and events. Rike (Rikhe) Park is on the left bank of the Mt’k’vari River (the Kura River) near the Old City of Tbilisi. The Peace Bridge links the right bank to Rike Park. Rike Park is below the hillside Presidential Palace and, via cable car, it is the starting point for the ride to Sololaki Ridge (with the Narikala Fortress and the Mother of Georgia statue). The glass box-shaped cable car terminus was opened on 23 June 2012, and since then the park has continually developed into a ‘people’s park’ where people can walk around, eat at the nearby restaurants, sit next to the statue of American president Ronald Reagan, climb the steps to Avlabari district, and access the sights of Meidan Square, the Peace Bridge, the Metekhi Church, the Old City, the waterfall, the sulphur baths, and t...

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Hop on hop off bus tourism comes to Tbilisi, Georgia

City Sightseeing buses have arrived in Tbilisi. The iconic red double-decker buses, a feature of many cities around the world since the company was established in Seville, Spain in 1999, is now in six continents and almost 100 cities. The company established its Tbilisi business in November 2013, with its operations commencing in February 2014. The 90-minute tour stops at 11 major locations in Tbilisi (with 2 to 5 minute waiting times at each location): the Old City (where it commences), Freedom Square, Rose Revolution Square, Marjanishvili Square, the Dry Bridge, Konka, Avlabari, Metekhi, Akhundov Museum, the Sulfur Baths, and European Square. Passengers can hop off at any stop and see the sights, hopping back onto the next bus at any time. Alternatively, passengers can remain on the bus for the whole tour and take photographs when the bus stops at each location. There are one day (24-hour) passes (for 35 lari – about $20) and 48-hour passes for 55 lari, with family d...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog