Yesterday, Dith Pran died at age 65 of pancreatic cancer in a New Jersey hospital.
He is the Cambodian-born journalist who reported the happenings in his homeland with his partner, Sydney Schanberg, for The New York Times. They went over there in 1975, when the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Phen and started what later became known as "the Killing fields," s term coined by Pran and which became the title of the Oscar-winning film. It was called such because over an estimated 2.5 million people died during this terrifying campaign. People were rounded up and sent to the countryside to work as farm labourers. People died of starvation, disease and over-work; hence, the killing fields. Anyone who opposed the demands of the Khmer Rouge were executed or sent to prison. There, they were tortured. Pran was one of these unfortunate souls when the Khmer forces forbade him to return to the United States.
Four years later, he was able to escape to Thailand.
In recent years, survivors of the Khmer Rouge era who have emmigrated to western countries like the US have opened up about their experiences in prison. Paintings have been exhibited at galleries, and looking at these oil and canvas renditions would make your churning stomachs feel like an endless hollow pit.
How a person can survive such suffering and have their mental faculties intact is something of a mystery to me. I find it revolting because of the evil behind those acts of torture, but I also find the resilience and strength of the survivors to be mystifying.
I have often thought of what professions do I admire most, and undoubtably, journalism is close to number one. It's right up there with being a teacher :p
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