CAMBODIA (2011): HOUSING DEVELOPMENT-LAND

During the month of December 2011, I was on a Fulbright fellowship at the Royal University in Phnom Penh. After my first week in country, I discovered a huge tract of land being developed into subdivisions on the outskirts of town. The complex was called New World and it reminded me of Southern California. For the next two weeks I returned to the New World every day and also explored other newly developed housing communities throughout the city, both those under construction and newly developed. Places with names such as Elite Town, Mekong Condo, CamKo, and Grand Phnom Penh. I was struck by dramatic changes to this once pristine landscape. Most of these places were recently farm land, rice fields and lotus ponds. Both men and woman as well as entire families from rural parts of the country have flocked to the city and are housed in temporary encampments close to where they work. These former peasants were once rooted in the earth but now punch into a time clock from 8 am to 5 pm, six days a week.