In todayˇ¦s heavily skewed global economy, it is only in the history to remind us that many impoverished countries of today have had colorful, often glorious, pasts. China had its Great Wall, Greece its temples, and Cambodia had its Angkor Wats. These are all significant architectural landmarks remnant of the ancient rule, each signifying the ˇ§national prideˇ¨.

Over fifteen centuries ago the Kingdom of Cambodia, which embodied the Thailand and Vietnam we know of today, was a self-sufficient nation so dazzling that each of its Kings constructed a Wat (which means temple), concentrated in Angkor, during his reign. The Wats indicated the countryˇ¦s most glamorous chapter in history and, perhaps, are the one of the few that can still be a source of pride for Cambodians. Today these historical ruins emanate a different kind of sensation, though it is not difficult to imagine their flamboyance when first built during Cambodiaˇ¦s heydays.

ˇ§Chinaˇ¨ means ˇ§the country at the center of the worldˇ¨, and it is believed that many countries also considered the world under their feet at one point of time. Cambodia was one of them. During his horrific regime during the late 1970s, Pol Pot, the leading figure of Khmer Rouge, reflected from the past agricultural success and the magnificent gigantic Wats and concluded that the Khmers were capable of reproducing the vast empire that Cambodia once was. That led him to make the decision to lead the country down the road of intensive rice growing which later proved to be a devastating misjudgment. Thus, the glory of the past did not resurface.

In fact, Pol Pot wrote one of the most brutal chapters in Cambodian history. During the four years under the Khmer Rouge government from 1975-1979, hundreds of thousands, including the vast majority of the countryˇ¦s educated individuals, were relocated into the countryside, tortured to death or executed. Hundreds of thousands more died of mistreatment, malnutrition and disease. The goal of Pol Pot was to bring about a social restructuring to transform Cambodia into a Maoist, peasant-dominated, agrarian cooperative. At least one million, even two million, Cambodians died as a result of this policy.

Today Cambodia is one of the most war-torn countries on earth. Its current status is not only imperiled by its poverty, but is also affected by the active landmines and widespread AIDS in the aftermath of the holocaust. The suffering from the bloodshed history among the Cambodians is observed in all parts of the country, despite the fact that Cambodia has become more touristy and commercial following economic liberalization in 1999.

In the city of Phnom Penh, motor-drivers on the street seize every chance to bring tourists to the ˇ§Killing Fieldˇ¨ as tourist attraction for US$5, round trip. The ˇ§Killing Fieldˇ¨, forty-five minutes away from Phnom Penh, is one of the many memorials to commemorate the genocidal Khmer Rouge under the Pol Pot regime. A stupa storing thousands of skulls is erected among the many burial grounds in the field. When the drivers mention the name, their voices are unremarkable, as if the incident were ever so distant to them. Emotionless. A place for a few bucks to make a living. Have they really forgotten the miserable past?

At the entrance of the monument there are a few handicaps injured from mine-explosions begging for money. Next to them are some kids playing cheerfully while trying to get some change from tourists. These children were born in the post-Khmer Rough era; they do not deserve socio-economically deprived lives as their previous generation had gone through.

For the Cambodians, many say, though the memory is sober, they cannot hold on to this historical burden while having to move on with their living. After all, starvelings cannot afford to have dreams.

Pol Pot was put on trail in 1997 and died in 1998. Before that in 1993 an UN-administered election took place in Cambodia and this democratic process came to witness the slow death of the Khmer Rouge. Although the current Cambodian government is still lacking the political will to reopen the wound for a posthumous trail to put other figures of the Khmer Rouge in front of the international tribunal, under the new constitutional regime, the people expect a better quality of life. Their main concern is fundamental: how long will it take the new leadership to lead the country to deal with the remaining unsolved tasks and attain stability?